Chi-town is my town!
This past weekend was quite the experience. We finally left Dallas three days later than we wanted to and made it to Chicago on Friday morning. Thanks to some great friends we had a place to park and stay for the weekend. The parking spot was very tight, but parking it three times without incident gave us a renewed confidence in our ability to maneuver the beast.
We enjoyed some great company and ate great Greek food on Friday night. Then the party moved to a few different bars. We had to make up for the lost time spent in Dallas and will did just that on Friday night. 7 am came too quickly on Saturday morning, but we eventually awoke and maneuvered the rolling palace to South Bend, Indiana. It was overcast and drizzling when we pulled up and the RV parking area was very adequate. We had a huge area to tailgate, and with the newly purchased customized beer pong table, we needed the entire space. The parents came out to visit for the weekend and rolled to Notre Dame with their friends and we had two other friends join us for the game time festivities. Notre Dame was pretty nice, although we did not get a chance to explore the entire area. We saw the famous “Touchdown Jesus” and the Golden Dome. The Stadium was rich with history and very vintage. Minus the press and suite boxes, it looked like it did many years ago. I would suspect that there is no bad seat in the stadium. We had great seats in the end zone, right behind the Washington band. We enjoyed heckling the band members even though we didn’t go to ND. The most exciting part of the game was when the ND defense stuffed Washington for seven plays inside the five yard line and only gave up a field goal. In my mind, that gave the Irish the strength to finish out the game with a win. Plus that happened in the end zone we were sitting in, so it made it that much more awesome. It was an incredible experience with the wood benches, troff-filled bathrooms, and impeccably-manicured field. You could smell the history as we watched the game.
We decided to take it easy Saturday and get some rest, so we would be refreshed Sunday for the Bears game. We rolled to the tailgate a little later than we wanted but it worked out almost better. The RV parking for the Bears is not ideal. They pack you in pretty tightly bumper to bumper and leave little room to tailgate. Very unfortunate since it was our biggest yet. The front and back rows are the lucky ones since they have a lot more room to tailgate. We were second in our row, so we barely missed out on the perfect spot. We didn’t let that stop us too much and broke out the TV, tables, and grill. Tom, one of the ideal people to have at your tailgate, stepped away for a while and cored twelve pineapples to use as cups for Pina Coladas. Genius! They were definitely a hit and were delicious. He also brought some great steaks and another friend brought some awesome sausages. All in all, I was pretty happy and proud of all the friends and family that made it and enjoyed the festivities. Next addition to the RV will probably have to be a roof-top deck. Great views of the stadium, city, and lake from up there.
As far as the game itself, we walked to will-call to pick up our tickets. We had no idea where we were sitting and when Nolan went to ask for our tickets, they did not have his name on them. So I got there and gave the ticket representative the name of the person we talked to, George McCaskey, and apparently that is a big name in the Bears organization and it never really clicked. Being in the first row in the end zone was pretty incredible. Soldier Field was pretty neat and it seemed that any seat would provide a good view. It was a bit cold when the sun was blocked but perfect with the sun shining. I couldn’t imagine the wind chill in December there with the lake being so close by. Great game and great to see a Bears win. Detroit just didn’t have a shot. Thanks to VetTix, George, and the Bears for giving us the opportunity to get to the game with great seats.
Good bye to Chicago for now. I’m pretty sure we will be back to partake in some more shenanigans in the near future. Thanks Jodi and Mikey!