Still Have Not Recovered

Last weekend, I attended my first-ever professional sporting event that was played in an OUTDOOR stadium. Hard to believe? Well, try living in Minnesota where the Metrodome hosts the Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Vikings and that's basically the only professional entertainment we get!

I was lucky enough to go on this trip to Kansas City, where the Vikings were heading down to play the Kansas City Chiefs in their backyard. I played softball with a few guys this summer in P-Town and they had extra tickets, so I basically said, "fuckin'-A".

We left pretty early on our trip on Saturday morning, leaving the friendly confines of P-Town at 8:00 in the morning. We took a mini-bus, enough to hold around 15 people comfortably and it even included a nice table that ran down the middle of the seating area. We had to make a few stops on our way, but other than that, it should have been smooth sailing on I-29 to Kansas City.

We immediately began drinking in the morning, and while the mini-bus itself did not have a bathroom, we had to make several stops on the interstate for "potty breaks." Unfortunately, things seemed to be against us as the trip progressed. First, one of the guys who I played ball with, his wife was falling ill due to the flu. I'm already thinking, "great ... we're all going to get sick" and that'll put a damper on the weekend.

While we stopped in Omaha, Nebraska to eat lunch, I received a phone call from our other 8th grade football coach saying that we had won our first game. I was pretty upset that I wasn't there to see that, but also, I was fired up thinking that we can take this motivation into our next game. After we ate lunch, the word was that the sick woman didn't want to go any further on the trip. We all sat and mulled around about what our possibilities were, but we convinced the woman that we could continue on for another hour and see how things were at that point.

We made it to a truck stop on I-29 that was located just east of Nebraska City, Nebraska for another piss break. Just then, a turn for the worse: while we fired up the bus, the alternator belt shredded due to a locked up AC. We were stuck with nobody to fix it on a Saturday afternoon. For the next 6 hours, we were on cell phones, calling all major outlets of rental vehicles all up and down the interstate to find some suitable transportation. Meanwhile, I busted out my lawn chair and tailgated in the truck stop parking lot.

At least I had enough time to watch Michigan take down Penn State!

We finally got suitable transportation from the Kansas City airport, when a van travelled all the way up and picked us up at around 8:30 that evening. We all piled into the van, literally crammed from all the luggage and so forth, and hauled off to Kansas City. From that point on, we probably had the best road trip of all time, riding along with our Indian (dots, not feathers) driver "Nick". We had such a blast: drunk off our minds and hauling ass down the interstate. We finally didn't pull into Kansas City until 10:30 that evening, dead-ass tired and ready for a long day of tailgating the next day.

Again, waking up early on Sunday morning, it was a perfect day for football. Despite it being the first day of autumn, weather forecasters were predicting a warm day. We took the same van and drove to the stadium, probably seeing one of the most incredible sights that I've ever seen: Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium, both in one giant parking lot. It was literally tailgator's paradise, covered by a Sea of Red with small specks of Purple. It was truly surreal.

We drank all morning, eating brats off the grill and mixing it up with Chief and Viking fans alike. When gametime came around, there were about 78,000 people at Arrowhead to watch the Chiefs home-opener. Despite a lack-luster game between the two teams, it was extremely fun to watch. If you didn't know, the Vikings lost (or basically pissed it down their legs), 13-10.

But the tough part was walking out of the stadium. All the Chiefs' fans had to say was "that we kicked their asses!" was complete bullshit. Since I was dressed in Viking regalia, I was the main focus of a lot of hate, but I was tuned enough to throw it right back. It was an excellent time.

We returned to our hotel to pick our stuff up and got a new mini-bus to take us all back to Minnesota. We left K.C. at around 4:00 that afternoon and didn't get back home until 12:30 Monday morning, finally hitting the sack at 1:00 a.m. Still now, even though it's Thursday evening, I'm still feeling the effects of the lack of sleep and the general feeling of alcohol running its course through my body.

If you have the chance to attend a professional football game outdoors, I highly suggest it! Even though I'm a hurting unit, I would recommend doing what I just did!