BLACKSBURG -- Skyrocketing gas prices did not keep Virginia Tech fans from driving long distances to see their favorite football team last weekend.

Tech fans traveled from around the commonwealth and from other states to watch the Hokies beat Georgia Tech at Lane Stadium. Fans complained about price gouging at the pumps, but they weren't about to stay home no matter how much it cost them.

Dan Collins of Virginia Beach still intends to go to an occasional Tech game. He estimated it would wind up costing him about $140 to drive his sport utility vehicle to Blacksburg and back.

"It makes me grit my teeth," he said Saturday before Tech's second home game of the season.

But he considers gas just one part of a costly weekend, including the price of a ticket, meals and a hotel room.

"I just grin and bear it," he said.

Season ticket holder Leroy Houser, who drove his SUV from Richmond, is sticking with his plans to attend all the Tech home games and spend two nights in an area hotel each time.

"This is something you do every year, gas price, no gas price," he said. "After you pay all this money to get these seats and all the money to get the tickets, $4-a-gallon gas ain't going to stop you from coming here.

"I've worked too hard not to do it."

The capacity crowd of 66,233 fans included Rick and Dottie Wallace.

Rick Wallace paid $3.49 a gallon when he left home in Newport News. When he filled up the tank of his Honda hybrid in Crewe later Friday, it cost $4.20 a gallon.

Dottie Wallace drove their daughter's car so they could drop it off for her at Tech. She noticed a Roanoke gas station that was charging $5 a gallon.

But they will be back. They are not planning to sell their tickets to future games.

"Not right now," Rick Wallace said. "But it has changed some other thoughts about traveling a lot in a car."

Chris Good of Mathias, W.Va., is still attending games, but he has changed his routine.

He used to make the 2¹_2-hour drive with his brother. But this year, they are car pooling with two couples. They rode to Tech in a minivan, with everyone chipping in for gas.

Tech has sold out of season tickets every year this decade. The school sold 41,500 season tickets this year at the cost of $319 apiece. And that doesn't count the donations that fans made to the university's athletic booster club to lock up a good seat.

Jerry and Sally Brammer, former Montgomery County residents, drove all the way from their home in Wichita, Kan.

Once they got to Sally's mother's home in Salem, they filled up her car for her at $3.47 a gallon. After they returned from dinner later Friday night, the sign at that same station had changed to $4.93.

"Ridiculous," Sally Brammer said. "But we've invested in these tickets. We'll still come."

"It's entertainment," Jerry Brammer said.

Janis Waddell of the Tidewater town of Mathews drove down Friday with her husband in their Volvo. She said it cost them about $80 to get to Tech.

She will return for the next home game on Oct. 4.

"I've been coming for a very long time -- 30 years," she said. "We'll be coming regardless."