Flew into Chicago on Friday, called a friend of mine who was meeting us there from Atlanta. He's an old room mate of mine who I haven't seen in 11 years. So I call him and tell him to meet us at the Budget place where we had the rent a car. Well we're on the shuttle and someone starts banging on the window. I turn around and there's my friend. We get the car and pick up 3 more people so there are 6 in all. We set out for Notre Dame to get to the pep rally. Well freaking traffic killed us and we didn't get to ND until about 15 minutes before the pep rally started. Thank God one of the guys we were with knows the head of special events.
So we walk around the back of the Joyce Center and the people ask what we're doing. We said, we're with Cappy....damn you would have thought we were royalty. Right this way gentlemen, welcome to Notre Dame. Please right this way. We get in the arena and they escort us to our seats. The guy seating us says "Welcome to Notre Dame" to each of us and shakes our hands and asks us if we need anything. The pep rally was kind of weak because it was senior day. It was nice to see some college football players who can actually speak and be understood. We hung around after the pep rally hoping we could get a tour of the locker room from our buddy but they had a women's hoops game and he was working. Oh well.
Let's head out to eat...we went to Barnaby's which has to be known for very bad food, but they had beer. We started drinking right then. Well after some bad food and some beer we headed out to the liquor store. My buddy and I used to drink Bourbon and coke so we bought a big bottle. We also bought a bunch of beer. We head back to the hotel and take over the lobby. 6 guys just sitting around the table with a trash can full of ice, beers, vodka, bourbon etc....... Well we knew we needed to get an early start so around midnight and after about 5 beers we headed to bed.
Up early Saturday AM. Drive to the campus and start drinking. Finish the beer and fill up the flasks. Mix a couple of big liquor drinks and head to the stadium. Damn, they don't allow drinking on campus.....yeah right. PUt the open beer in the pocket and drink responsibly. We headed to the grotto and took some photos. What a beautiful place. It's 9:00 A.M. and I'm already feeling pretty good. Take the tour of the Basilica, church etc....I had to say a prayer and confess that I was walking through a church with a 16 oz cup of bourbon and coke. Next we headed outside to buy some Brats.....I had about 3 before walking into the game. See the players walk, the band play etc....A great atmosphere for college football.
One stop I had to make was the engineering building to see if Jimmy's name is really written on the walls. I entered the building and my IQ went up about 3,000 points. Looking at the classrooms and titles of classes it's impressive the classes some of these kids take. Didn't see any ballroom dancing labs though.
Found the can where Jimmy went and went myself. Took a couple of pics that I'll send to Greg who's going to post later because I don't know how. Game was great. We had a lot to drink and I ate some more Brats. I actually shit a brat and a bun later that night. It's great to be at Notre Dame because there are few rivals for atmosphere. The fans are great and the whole experience was awsome. After the game we hung out for a while then headed back to the hotel. We stopped somewhere to eat...yeah like I remember then we took our liquor back to the lobby and watched some more football. Damn that Reggie Bush is a freaking man. We were all pulling for Ga Tech to beat Miami and it was beautiful. Sleepy time. Head out for Chicago. Get to Chi town and start looking for tickets. First guy we see is some dude who looks like he's on crack trying to sell us 6 tickets for about 500 bucks. The other guys wanted to buy them but I told them to tell him to fuck off and we'd get some later. Well why the hell doesn't anyone in Chicago sell tickets? Anyway we found some dudes that had some extras. I'm used to walking around asking for extras and seeing people selling and buying. There were barely any people selling. We were hanging out and I asked this dude if he's selling any tickets and he says, "Man, I aint selling to no PO-lice." I said, dude, I'm not a cop I just want to get into the game. Well we found 3 tickets, then 2 tickets, then a single. I took the single and my bushmills into the stadium. Sat in the North endzone about 30 rows up. Beautiful seats, great people, drunk people. Nice stadium, horrible game. My friend called me in the 2nd half so I went up to sit with them almost at the top of the stadium. Drank a few more beers and had some more shots of bushmills. That stadium is nice in the inside but from the outside it looks like a space ship broke in half and landed inside. Whoever the architects were suck.
We take off from Chicago and go to get something to eat but it took so freaking long to get out that we had to drop off my buddy at the airport for a 7:00 flight. We then went to Giordanos....wow what great pizza. Eat and drink a lot more then take the other two back to the airport for 8:00 flights. We then found our hotel in downtown Chicago on the corner of Rush and Michigan, or right around there. Nice place, hit the jacuzzi because my back was fucking killing me. Drank some more and watched the late game.
Up and out early Monday morning heading to Green Bay. Nice drive, ominous looking clouds, looks like snow. It must be deer season because Bambi was tied down to some dudes roof with his guts gone. I had a feeling these people were serious when I saw a house off the freeway that was painted green and gold. Check into the hotel in Manitowak then head for Lambeau. We get there about 5 hours before game time but the parking lot is freaking full with motor homes and the fresh smell of bratwurst. We head over to the Packer store and buy some stuff. Damn, it's cold. Head back to check out the sites and hit up with some packer fans who invite us into their tailgate. More Bratwurst and beer. I feel like a sausage right now. Walk over to will call and see some of the coolest things. We talk to a bunch of people and this one dude has a small school bus that's all decked out in Packer stuff. His wife bought him the bus for his birthday. He then proceeds to dump a ton of money into it. More flat our crazy fans from both teams. Pick up the tickets from the will call. Got them from the brother in law of my brother in law who is the starting center for Minn. Walk into Lambeau field and got a chill. The history, the moments, the everything that has happened there and I sit down and take it all in. It's 90 minutes before game time but I don't care. Oh, it's cold. I had on 2 short sleeve t-shirts, 2 long sleeve t-shirts, two sweatshirts one with a hood, a parka, ski gloves, a beanie and scarf along with hand and foot warmers. Great game, God both teams suck. Being in Lambeau field is just awsome. There were a lot of Packer and Viking fans in our section and there is a mutual respect from both people. No fights, just mutual admiration. Some smack talking but when each team did something well there were high fives and a little good natured crap given back and forth. The Bushmills kept me nice and warm. Good game, came down to the last play. As I walked out I took one last glimpse of the most storied stadium in NFL history. Home yesterday and back to work today. A great weekend that the wife will make sure I hear about for the next 20 years....if I make it that long with her. This is something I'll never ever do again and it was a once in a lifetime thing. Great times, great food, great places......Happy Thanksgiving to all.
