St. Louis: The Gateway to Greatness

The blinding realization that Nolan was talking about was quite surreal as it happened. He talked a little bit about the response we received from the FOX2 Saturday morning interview. I will provide a few more details.

It was hard to wrap our minds around waking up early on a Saturday morning for the interview. We were meeting a few people out at the local bars in downtown after driving several hours on Friday and settling at a interesting RV park near downtown. Each of us had a few friends in St. Louis so it was going to be a pretty fun weekend starting Friday night. It did not disappoint and we checked out a few bars on Washington Street finally calling it a night earlier than expected. That would not make the morning any easier, though.

We got up a few minutes late, but were on our way to the FOX building. It was a little further than we realized but we made it just in time to do a quick interview with Teresa Woodard. She told us that the St. Louis experience would be like non other. Little did we know at that point, how true her words would be. We talked for another half an hour and learned that she was also working at the Rams games doing quick stories on the Jumbo Tron during the game and that she might be able to get us on the Jumbo Tron. We definitely liked that idea since we haven’t been on one yet.

The day was beautiful on Saturday so we decided to spend some time outdoors and went to Forest Park for a paddle boat ride and some drinks on the lake with Nolan’s friends. We learned that the key to paddle boats is to paddle backwards. It is so much faster and easier. While we were out playing, the makings of a fabulous football Sunday were in motion. The owner of the Rams, Lucia Rodriguez, along with numerous St. Louians, saw our interview on FOX2 and wanted to meet us. We had several offers of places to stay and meals and were very grateful for those offers. We already had plans for hanging out with friends and the RV was only 2 miles from the Stadium, so we didn’t take anyone up on their offers unfortunately. We started to get some messages from the FOX2 crew that the Rams wanted to do something special for us. We could not imagine what they had in store for the three of us. Later that evening, we went out as a group, had some dinner, then danced the night away at a very interesting Karaoke bar that was not karaoking that night. It felt like a cross between a diner, strip club, and bar, but it was an absolute blast.

The next morning we rolled the two miles to the stadium. The streets were eerily quite, but it was nice for us trying to get to the game. I called a few days before, so the parking attendant knew we were coming and he escorted us to a spot about 100 yards from the stadium. As soon as we pulled up, we had numerous people come by and say they saw us on the news Saturday morning. Fire fighters, police, strangers, and even some of the Rams staff stopped by to talk about our adventure. We were talking nonstop and it was great. That is also when we were told what the Rams were treating us to that day. Fortunately for our game day experience and unfortunately for gathering more donations, we went inside the Stadium an hour early and went on the field. There we met Lucia Rodriguez, her husband, and a few other Rams staff. We talked for a few minutes and then she handed me a Rams jersey with CPT. Lusk printed on the back. I was stunned and taken-back by the extremely thoughtful gesture. It was purely awesome of her and the Rams to make those jerseys. (Nolan and Aaron also received one at halftime). Her husband also handed us a game ball used that day. We all were awestruck by that point. Our escort, Kyle, then took us up to a suite to get our grub on and we watched the first half up in the suite. At halftime, Kyle took us back on the field for a halftime interview with Teresa and we were featured on the Jumbo Tron. It was pretty cool to have some people we know in the stands and we were up on the Jumbo Tron while they were there. It was also a little weird to hear your voice echoing in the stadium as we were doing the interview. The coolness didn’t stop there. After the interview we stayed on the field in these seats that were literally ten feet from the end line of the endzone. What a gameday experience to be right in the corner of the endzone. We were hoping for a fade route to the back of the endzone, but we didn’t get that lucky. We watched from there for the third quarter, then headed back to the suite.

After the game, another news station, the local St. Louis CBS stopped by the RV and did a story on us. We definitely appreciated the media attention. It worked quite well in St. Louis and hopefully we can work it out in the cities up and coming to help promote our cause. If you are reading this, and know and media, pass our story along and help us get some additional coverage.