Sort of Brady Versus Rogers
The following are actual events from November 28th 2014 to December 2nd 2014. Names were changed but they shouldn’t mind anyways as few people will read this.
Your mid to late 20’s is a self serving time for many. From 25–29 we are still deemed young without being that young. It’s a time where many are starting to get a hold on their careers, likely something stable has started to fill the hours between morning and evening during the week. While many will say this is the beginning of a soul sucking journey I say as a mid 20 something it’s the start of having a little disposable income. It may actually be the only time in many persons life with disposable income.
A mid 20 something likely has a steady income without many of the same financial obligations of being an adult. For me I was single with no kids. Lived with roomates, drove a heavily used car I could buy in cash and overall didn’t have an expensive lifestyle. We drank cheaply yet often and enjoyed smaller simple pleasures in life.
The build up to the trip.
In November of 2014 life was beginning to feel more adult than ever. I was doing more adult things like buying a home, trying to advance in a career, and had a relationship with a woman that was spinning out of control and headed to a crashing halt.
I had been spending more time with two of my closest friends and we started planning a trip. Much needed for all of us. Something quick, affordable, and different.
We all grew up just south of Boston, Massachusetts in the backyard of where the NFL’s New England Patriots play football games. The Patriots were scheduled to play a game at the end of November against the Green Bay Packers. Future hall of fame quarterbacks Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers had not played against each other often in their careers and it was possible they wouldn’t again.
The game was going to be played in Green Bay, Wisconsin at the Packers home field; the historic Lambeau Field. Lambeau is to football what Wrigley field and Fenway Park are to baseball, it’s what Augusta is to golf, what the Grand Ole Opry is to country music.
Logistics
Getting to Green Bay Wisconsin from Boston isn’t complicated. We booked a flight from Boston to Chicago, got a ride from Chicago to Milwaukee, where we would stay for two night to party prior to the game.
The first thing I remember about the trip was the excitement of my two friends when we arrived to our ORD to Milwaukee transportation. On another recent trip I had the discovered the affordability and practicality of using a limo when traveling to and from airports. If split between more than two people the price becomes not much different than a cab fare.
Everyone gets excited about a limo, the older you get the more you hide it. We were all about 26 and had few drinks on the plane which turned us back to about 22 and thus very excited to ride the limo to Milwaukee.
Night One
There are two things I remember from the first night in Milwaukee. At the first bar we went my friend Ron took a photo of a group of dudes at the bar. Context, my friend Ron likes to take pictures of things that entertain him, he has a great sense of humor and it’s one of his ways to share it. For instance if he sees a car on the highway with three mattresses ratchet strapped to the roof he will find great comedy in this and opt for a photo. This group of dudes gave Ron the same form of entertainment as mattress car. They were a bit funny looking. All young white men looking like Eminem circa 2002. One of the men saw Ron take the photo and confronted him immediately. He demanded Ron delete the photo or he would take his phone and smash it. After a bit of debate and empty threats from the Eminem Ron lost interest in the game and conceited. I watched as he showed the man his phone while he quickly pressed a few buttons on his phone. The men left the bar shortly after and Ron burst into laughter as he showed us the picture and exclaimed he didn’t actually delete.
The second memory is of leaving the bar and heading to another. Ron and I were in conversation both being fast walkers we gained ground on our friend Mike. To catch up Mike went into a jog, seeing the cross signal on the street sign counting down 10,9,8,7… Mike picked up his pace. What happens next is the result of two things. One; we didn’t cross the street. We took a left turn, no cross required. Two; it’s late November in Wisconsin, it’s cold, snowy, and icey. We turned back to look for Mike at just the right time. We yelled and caught his attention before crossing, he heard us and immediately went to brake and turn left at the same time. When he went to plant his right foot for a solid left cut his foot was not met with the friction of bare concrete but rather that of black ice. Mike being an athlete for most of his life took the inevitable fall wonderfully, tucking his left leg under his right and proceeding to baseball slide until the ice turned back to concrete where he popped up as if stealing second base. His pants didn’t rip and he escaped with just a damp spot on his hip. Safe. One can only hope Ron has a picture of this.
The Brewery Tour
We’re onto shipping, said Mike clearly aspirated and understandably so. One of the largest breweries in the county is the MillerCoors brewery in Milwaukee. The Hoover Dam is one of the biggest dams in the country but if in the area one should likely stick to Vegas. Tours suck and if I had known this I would never have put us near this one. But we did and there are two bright sides from the tour.
First the tour kept us sober for roughly 2 and a half hours of which we likely would not have been. It delayed our drinking and in a trip where drinking is the main attraction it’s the amount of time you spend not drinking that makes the trip more enjoyable. It makes sense just go with that logic.
The tour we envisioned was filled with walking down the isles of life manufacturing plant with beers in our hands ended up being not that at all. It was Saturday and there was no weekend shift. So the plant was empty. We stopped at one point to watch a 32" TV monitor showing what the plant looks like when functional while standing in the plant. And this was a dry tour. No drinking. At the end of the tour we received one complimentary beer and a bag of chips. Well earned at that point.
The only other positive is the unintentional comedy involved. We found entertainment in the tour starting bad and moving to worse. Starting in a dark movie theater with a video of the history of MillerCoors. Something easily accessible on YouTube. Moving from there to empty floors filled with can, bottles, cardboard, and beer tanks. All still all quiet. Our sarcastic commentary throughout is what kept us going, drawing some snickers from another tour guests and ugly glances from others, we grew closer in the boringness and sobriety of the tour. Onto the night.
The Bucks Game
Have you ever had a night or an event where the expectations were so low that you were bound to have a good time? I guess with enough drinks and a positive attitude anything can be fun and this Milwaukee Bucks basketball game was no exception.
We bought 12 dollar nose bleed seats from a scalper ten minutes before tip off and walked right past our section to the lower section and sat center court. No one seemed to mind and everyone seemed to migrate lower and more center as the game progressed.
I remember nothing of the game besides more unintentional comedy including the best halftime show I have seen at a sporting event.
After the game we proceeded to linger near the court, watched the players vacate and then noticed an unguarded rack of balls next to us. There was only one logical thing to do.
The Ride to the Game
After plenty of time spent fooling around in Milwaukee it was time for the main event, the game. Lambeau field is about 120 miles from Milwaukee. Not walkable and not a cost effective limo ride. We found a shuttle service that took fans from the city to Lambeau on game day. On the morning we found the meet spot and saw the area loaded with Packers fans with us dressed at Patriots fans. A bit awkward from the get. When the bus arrived the driver checked out tickets and told us were at the wrong stop, this was a bus to Lambeau but not the one we had tickets for. Then he said he was kidding and we boarded. We sat far in the back, next to the bathroom. The bus was only 40% full and we stayed mellow not wanting to cause any altercations. In many major east coast city fans can be hostile toward visiting towns. If we had been on this bus in say Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, or Boston, things would not have been so calm. But the midwest politeness lived up to its reputation.
We had an uneventful two hour bus ride through nothing but cow fields. We brought plenty of beer for the ride and tailgate but drank few. Remember every hour you can spend not drinking on a drinking trip will serve you in the future.
The Tailgate
Upon walking out of the shuttle bus we were immediately slapped in the face with two feelings. One of sheer admiration. The tailgate was the size of a small town. Complete with campers, massive tents, and people. Much more people than would fit into the stadium fans came out that afternoon just to celebrate the fact that their team had a football game that day. Feeling two made this all the more impressive. Feeling two was cold. Lambeau is nicknamed The Frozen Tundra. No need to explain much further here but to concur that the nickname is fiting. Coming from Boston we are no strangers to winter, but this just felt different. Mike was excited, and cold, he went right to a souvenir tent and bought a packers scarf to go around his patriots jacket, no shame.
People of the Midwest continued to impress us. No one yelled swears at us or threw object at us. No one wanted to pick a fight. All traits of eastern sports fans. In fact these fans embraced us as one of their own. With a mutual respect for football, beer, and cheese we soon learned our only differences would be which team we wanted to win.
As we made our way from the back of the tailgate to the front the stadium become more visible. It was an experience seeing the stadium up close. It’s a piece of history and architecture on millions of bucket lists and it felt satisfying to be so close.
The Scalper
A little side story here is that we had with us an extra ticket to the game. When buying the tickets we needed to find the following; three tickets, all together, in a decent section, for a reasonable price. This proved to be challenging. In ticket sales you either want to buy early when tickets first come out or late when second hand sellers are getting nervous they are going to eat the cost of the tickets. We were somewhere in the middle when it’s a sellers market. Regardless we were able to find tickets that met our criteria. The only issue is that there were four tickets for sale not three. We needed to buy an extra. Everyone agreed to pitch in for the fourth ticket in hopes we could convince another friend to join us or be able to scalp it at the stadium. The fourth friend never arrived and there I was at the tailgate having an amazing time while also trying to get some money back for an extra ticket. Game time was nearing and I had just about given up on the ticket. Justifying the extra elbow room would be nice and a chair to hold the nachos. But then I saw a man who had scalper written all over him. Well that and he was yelling ‘tickets! buying selling! tickets!’ Okay good enough. After a quick negotiation he took my $120 ticket and gave me $80. Better than nothing.
The Game
Upon entering the stadium the feeling of euphoria and history remained. I actually remember little of the details of the game. I do remember waiting anxiously for the person to arrive to the seat next to mine. This person would have bought our ticket. Just before kickoff a Packers fan named Steve showed up and slid in front of the seat. He didn’t sit, neither did we, neither did 78,000 people for three hours. I introduced myself and asked how much he paid for the ticket. Said he bought from a scalper for $90. Meaning the scalper was only getting $10 profit on the tickets. I found this interesting.
We watched the game. We cheered. Our Patriots trailed early but stayed close throughout the game. It was a clean game, no turnovers with two great teams. In the end the Packers won but that was alright. It was still one of the greatest sporting events I have seen in person, and I believe the other members of our party would agree.
The Dinner
After the euphoria of the day, the loss, the two hour bus ride home, and now three days of drinking we were hanging by a thread. Lack of nutrition and sleep was taking its toll, the beer and cheese diet had to go. We agreed to take it easy that night and find a nice steak joint, and drink wine.
We were having a nice time and moving onto a second bottle of wine when I noticed the empty bar now contained one woman. She looked like Courtney Cox in the early years of Friends. Striking while smiling and laughing talking to the bartender. While not my 100% self I decided I needed to approach. It has been a guy’s trip to the max and if nothing else a conversation with this woman would satisfy something.
I approached the bar leaving my table with the excuse we were dry at the table and hadn’t seen the waiter in some time. I brought an empty glass for effect and the bartender filled it and said he would get the waiter. He did so with a strange warm and knowing smile. When he left I opened conversation with the woman. Having plenty to talk about I blabered on about our trip, she graciously laughed at the parts that were supposed to be funny and tried to seem interested. When I finally gave her a chance to talk I learned she was new to Milwaukee from Chicago having been sent here to another office within her company. She was enjoying this quiet city. When I asked why she picked this bar tonight she told me it was her favorite spot, and she comes often at closing time to have a drink with the bartender and walk with him home, her boyfriend. Shake hands, nice to meet you, have a nice night, big tip for the bartender.
The trip home
We did the limo thing again to get from Milwaukee to ORD. When the limo hit 20 minutes we become concerned. We called the company and they said the driver had been sitting out front for 30 minutes. As it turns out there are two Marriotts in downtown Milwaukee and I’ll let you guess which one the driver was at. It took him another 25 minutes to get to us this putting us 45 minutes late and about to hit Monday morning commuter traffic heading into Chicago.
We got the airport with 35 minutes to make it through security and get to our gate prior to boarding. The security line was long. Barely moving. We were done for. I was excited to book a hotel in Chicago and spend the night there but my compadres had real life things they needed to be home for the following day. So I played along and agreed to help get us on the plane in time. We saw a few people start to cut the security line shouting their flight was about to leave. People shook the their heads in agitations but again the no confrontation rule in the midwest stayed true.
Mike liked this idea of cutting the line and it was really our only chance. He turned to us and said follow me. We did and he proceeded to walk us to the security point while shouting sorry, our flight leaves in 20, our limo was late! He really said that, it was beautiful. We got through security and had about 5 minutes to spare. Our gate couldn’t have been farther from security, down a never ending terminal, we ran. Five minutes straight we ran. It was just us and another straggler boarding and the stewardess told us we just made it. Too out of breath to speak we forced smiles and shook our heads.
At our seats we tried to calm our breathing, huffing, puffing, and coughing, our run fueled by three days of cheese and beer. Coughing turned to laughing and Mike turned to a woman who was looking at us disprovingly and shared, we almost missed the flight, we had to run the entire terminal, to which she answered, I heard.
Touchdown Realty
These memories are found and I am glad we took this trip. Any memory you have is going to be of your younger self and often you’ll view the moment in time as simpler. Any negative emotions from a past period have likely worn off.
I came back to work on that Tuesday with a residual hangover. I’ll continue this story later. It involves personal relationship issue I had been ignoring crashing into my work life. Maybe that is why this trip stands out. Where in the past I could travel, act like a kid, and then come home and act like a kid. Now I had to come home and try to be an adult.
Thanks for reading, chapter 2 to follow soon. If liked this story considering giving it claps (that sounds weird) and following me here on Medium. Comments of all types always welcome.
