Tampa in the rear view mirror. Giants here we come.

We woke up this morning in a gray haze.  Unfortunately it turned out to be fog and not a bad dream that the Bears had played perhaps the worst game I have ever seen them play.  If you think about it, I don’t know that there were two passes all day that went where they absolutely should have.    When you add in the seemingly absolute lack of coverage of anyone that has a TE in the position title, it would seem that our Bears are on a swift slide to a good draft pick.  I am thinking QB? 

There were a few bright spots.  1. The weather was really nice for the game.  2. Because it was Eastern time and after Daylight savings time the sun had gone far enough so our seats were in the shadow of the upper stands.  So there was no bright sun or glare.  3. We can be absolutely certain that Jay is not going to work his way back to being QB for the Bears next year.

The Tampa stadium is a nice stadium.  Not the finest by any means, but it is easy to get to, there is plenty of close up parking available and the signage is great.  The club in the stadium is nice.  It has lots of seating, visiting cheerleaders, live bands for entertainment, free water dispensers with lemon and ice, and reasonable prices.   The food selections were fairly standard, but the pricing was great.  A soda was $4 or $6 with unlimited refills in a souvenir cup.   A burger with fries, and outstanding topping bar with everything from bacon, cheese, grilled onions and mushrooms to the standards of lettuce, tomato,  onion and pretty much anything else you might want on a burger.  The price - $10.  I think that is about ½ what they would charge at Soldier Field.

The biggest difference you notice from Soldier Field is how far away you are from the action.  Where at Soldier Field every tier is built on top of the lower tier.  In Tampa it just keeps going back and each level is behind the one before in on smooth set of tiers.  So big plus for SF.  Much better design.

We have left the wonderful Tampa Bay area and headed up to Colonial Williamsburg on the way to the Giants game.  You know how they say humility is good for the soul.  Well being a Bears fan in an away stadium is an exercise in extreme humility this year. 

After a couple of days enjoying the past we will dash up to the Liberty Harbor campground.  Now calling this a campground is being very, very generous.  It consists of a parking lot with electric posts.  Oh and lines on the ground so you know where to park.  But it does have the advantage of being just across the bridge from New York City, not far from the airports and fairly close to the stadium.  So that is where I stay when I visit New York in an RV.

I am of somewhat mixed feelings when it comes to the game.  I want the Bears to play well, but given that they have no shot at the playoffs, I don’t want them to blow their draft pick.  So maybe just a close game that they manage to lose at the last minute.  That might be best.

So far the journey has been truly epic.  I have been able to cross and recross the country east to west and north to south.  I have seen many places and enjoyed not just the locations I arrive at, but the journey to get there.  So let me close this by saying no matter what we Follow the Bears

GO BEARS.  – hey and wasn’t it great that at least the Packers and Vikings lost too.  Can we be looking at Detroit finally winning the division?

Back in the Saddle - Tampa Bay Eve

So we are back in the saddle again.   After a disastrous couple of games in Texas with an even worse game at home sandwiched between the coach and I were about ready to throw in the towel.  But an ok game against the lions followed by a reasonable game in Indianapolis and a win back at home against the Vikings have rejuvenated our adventuring spirit and given hope that perhaps our Bears will play well enough to be worth watching again.   So after a long bye week  spent trying to find some magic at either Disney World or Universal’s Harry Potter place we find ourselves in Tampa Florida awaiting yet another of our road games.

Tampa will make the 20^th stadium that we have visited (21 if you include Soldier Field) and after next week at the Giants we will have seen the Bears play 21 of the 31 opponents.   Actually if you include seeing them in London I will be able to claim seeing them play opponents in 23 stadiums.

We went out tonight in search of the Tampa signature dish, which depending on who you talk to is either the Cuban sandwich, just about any seafood dish, or smoked mullet.  We settled for just about every seafood dish.  Tomorrow I hope to get the smoked mullet.   We went to a Peruvian seafood restaurant and I think everyone had a good time.   After the meal we did our traditional pre-game trip to the stadium to get the lay of the land.

For this trip we have along with the Coach, my brother and a couple of nephews as well as some friends.  Tomorrow we will represent the true and loyal Bears fans and shout as loudly as possible.  Tomorrow we shall have victory!!!  Well to be honest I would settle for a really good game. 

A couple of side notes. 

1.  For those of you who are Harry Potter fans and have not had the opportunity to visit Universal’s Diagon Alley you are missing a fantastic experience.   I was far less enchanted with Hogsmead at Island of Adventure, but Diagon Alley is an experience not to be missed.

2. Epcot holds an annual International Food and Wine festival.   If you love long lines, fairly pretentious people and long lines, I strongly recommend you attend.  If on the other hand these do not have the appeal to you that apparently they did to the people attending the festival, stay away!!

3. If you ever get the chance to camp next door to a Lion Safari park I strongly recommend you take it.  There is something surreal about sitting at your camp and listening to a Lion roar.  It was quite the experience and I am glad the Coach and I were able to do so while on our sojourn to Tampa.

Not to turn this to politics - never gonna happen, but I did happen to see an incredibly funny post today.  

BREAKING NEWS:  Chicago Cubs are being forced to give up their World Series Title.

Cleveland Indians fans have rioted across the country in protest of the 2016 World Series.  Despite knowing the rules of the game prior to playing, they were unhappy they lost and demanded the outcome to be changed.  They could be heard chanting #NotOurWorldSeriesChampion all across America.

Even though the Cubs won 4 games and the Indians only won 3,  since both teams scored 27 total runs throughout all 7 games, they are being declared co-world champions.

When questioned, Commissioner Manfred stated, “We felt as though it was the right thing to do for the nation.  What kind of example would Major League Baseball be setting if we expected the adults who play this game, and their fans, to Gracefully accept defeat?  Instead of creating a bigger divide between the Cubs and the Indians, MLB is confident that the Cubs will gladly share their victory with the Indians”.

I hope you got as big a laugh out of that as I did.

Tomorrow is game.  The Bears are favored by most of the analysts so we have to cross our fingers and hope they have not been given the kiss of death.  Most of the team is back healthy(ish) and with luck we will see some calculated and precise passing from Jay and some outstanding defense.  I will report in tomorrow night with our impressions of the stadium and any interesting tidbits that turn up.

In the meantime – GO BEARS!!

GAME DAY Houston

I am going to write this as it happened.

Worry - what would the team do
HAPPY - they actually look like a football team
Second Half - why is it Bears coaches seem to give demotivation speeches at half time
Disappointment - they started out so good and raised my hopes only to have them dashed yet again.

We got to NRG park early.  This was in part because it was recommended that we get there early in order to get a parking space and in part due to the fact that there was no traffic and we were in our spot less than 30 minutes after we got into the car.  There were some outstanding tailgate setups there.  One group came in 5 large pickup trucks and set up by backing in to park in every other spot.  They then erected 5 popup shelters that covered the entire area in back of the trucks.  Music, smokers, bbq grills and great smells then emanated from the area for the next several hours.  They were not the most elaborate setup there by far.  But with the exception of the tailgaters we didn't see any other cars showing up for a couple of hours.  By 10:30 most of the lot we were in was still empty. 

We went into the Verizon club.  It is one of three different clubs they have at the stadium.  The club was nice, but nothing outstanding.  Good access, comfortable seats, open spaces and plenty of TVs and bars.  There was never much of a line anywhere.  Food choices were the stadium standards and also 4 specialty stands.  One was BBQ, one was tacos, one was make your own salads and the last one had Korean sloppy joes and some kind of a tater tot casserole.  The food was good.  Views from the seats were very good and they had a lot of leg room .  They provide beverage and food service by ordering from the app on your phone so there was much less getting up and letting people out than at most stadiums.   The scoreboards and video screens are large and easily seen from anywhere in the stadium.   And it was LOUD.  Even when the warmups were going on and the seats were less than 1/3 filled they were able to be extremely loud.  My one complaint was the bathrooms.  They only had two for the club and they were inadequate to handle the number of people there. 

The fans were mostly very nice as were the staff.  Everyone welcomed us to the stadium and there were only one or two people that were taunting or rude to the visiting fans.  Many people went out of their way to comment on how they thought it was a good game and how the Bears played well.  And they were not being sarcastic, just being nice.

Getting out of the stadium was incredibly easy and we were back at the RV in about 45 minutes.  The RV is about 25 miles from the stadium. 

I am not going to recap the game.  It would just be too painful.  But at least they stayed competitive into the fourth quarter.

Observations:
Stadium signage superb
Stadium staff incredibly friendly and helpful
Tailgate in full swing 4 hours before game time and quite elaborate
Cheerleaders - energetic
Chicago fans - present, but not abundent
Someone needs to teach White the plays - he looks totally lost out there





On to Dallas to position for the Cowboys game and then back to Chicago for the Eagles.

2016 - The journey continues HOUSTON

Well it is time for a new season and hope is blooming in our hearts.  We can assume the preseason was a fluke and we can count on all the new players to make a huge difference.  All of this is why in many ways this is the best part of the season.  We open our trip in Houston and then a quick trip back to Chicago to watch the Monday night game against the Eagles and then back to Texas to check out the Cowboys digs.


On the way down to Houston the trip was fairly uneventful.  Which is really how you want a road trip to be.  Almost invariably events = problems.   Fortunately we were able to arrive down in Houston with almost no problems other than my typical Texas problem of not ever being able to find the place I am looking for on the first attempt.  This has been an ongoing source of unhappiness with me for years.  And Houston did not disappoint.   We started by having the wrong address for the RV park.  Only a little wrong, but apparently 2800 on Sam Houston Parkway E and 2800 S Sam Houston Parkway E are some 25 miles apart.  So we got to the first location and then got to drive around all of Houston to arrive at the correct address.  There we  almost were run over by a dump truck who would not let us into his lane to make the right turn into the RV park so it was go around once more to the next exit and then back on the parkway in the other direction and try again to get off.  This time we were successful by coming to almost a stop in the road until someone was willing to let us in to make the right turn.  But all was good as we were guided to our spot and directed where to stop in the very long site they provided.  Where to stop was at the front of the site.  Where the hookups for water/sewer and electric was at the back of the site.  So it was go unhitch the car and back up so our hoses would reach.  That was when the monsoon decided to roll in.  For about 5 minutes, while we were going out to disconnect the car, it rained so hard you could not see your hand in front of your face.  But what the heck it stopped soon and returned to the high 90s and 80% humidity.  People pay a lot of money to sit in a hot sauna and we were being provided one by nature for free.

We eventually got all set up and everything was good so don't anyone worry.  We will be continuing to provide our observations on the NFL cities and the games as we travel around the country.

Houston does not have a signature dish.  One local paper tried to start a campaign to vote for one, but apparently there was not enough interest in the city to generate even meaningless results.  So we were forced to improvise.  We decided it was either BBQ as with most of Texas or some kind of Tex-? dish.  So we tried what was supposed to be the best BBQ in town at Killens and we went to BBs Diner, a Houston tradition for some huge number of years, for Tex-Cajun as that seemed to be a thing here.

Killens had a line outside that stretched down the sidewalk and around the corner.  Fortunately it moved very quickly and within 20 minutes we were inside being asked what kind of meat we want.  We decided that we needed to try most of them in order to judge the food fairly.  I will start by saying Killens is some of the best BBQ I have had.  Having said that here is our judging on the food:

Beef Brisket - A, Beef Ribs - A+, Pork Ribs (unusual in Texas) A, Smoked turkey A-, Pulled pork B, Bone in Pork Belly B-, Burnt Ends B-.  The sides were about as good:  Baked Beans B, Pinto Beans B, Mac and Cheese B and Creamed Corn an A++.  Unfortunately all this food was really good because when we got to desert we were only able to eat a bit of the A+++++ Bread Pudding.  All in all it was well worth the wait and the service was at least as good as the food.

BBs was not as disreputable as its reputation led me to believe.  The food was good, but not great.  Now to be totally honest we tried one of the suburban locations not their original location downtown.  Their house dish was something called Tex-Cajun Virgin.  It is shoestring fries topped with queso, gravy and roast beef debris.  While it was a heart attack on a plate, you would at least have a big smile on your face when you died.  The Po-Boys were not quite as good.  The bread was as good as anything I have had in New Orleans, but the sauce, shrimp and debris were not quite right.  The shrimp and grits were not bad, but again I have had better.  The grilled oysters were not a hit.  We had been hoping for a repeat of our first experience with them at Crawfish and Noodles (but I am getting ahead of myself).   For a diner in Houston it was darn good though.

Our first night in Houston we tried a very highly rated restaurant called Crawfish and Noodles.  It was a Korean-Cajun fusion seafood place.   Given that billing it was either going to be really good or really really bad.    Fortunately we got luck and it was really good.   We had grilled oysters, crawfish, Korean quail, some noodle dish and stir fried blue crab.  The oysters were very good.  The Coach needed to be shown how to properly eat a crawfish and the expression on her face as she sucked the head and got a mouthful of innards and juice was priceless.  But they were good and she was willing to try another.  The quail was outstanding and the noodles, while mild, provided a great counterpoint to some of the splicer dishes.  The crab as also very good.  I would strongly recommend you check this place out if you are ever in Houston.  

During the day we explored some of the sights in Houston.  We spent a full day at the space center and it was a great experience.  We saw the original control center where they ran the flights up through the Apollo missions.  It is amazing what they were able to accomplish without the computing power we have in a phone.  We also saw some great movies and presentations as well as a talk by a four time shuttle mission commander, Brian Duffy.  We also got to see the Orion capsule and the plans for the mission to Mars.  I hope I get to see it, it looks totally amazing.  

The next day was a mishmash of the unusual sites in Houston.  We saw a storage lot filled with huge heads of the presidents (15 feet tall and taller).  We drove by an art display run by a pipe company with some really unusual sculptures.  We saw a 15' tall silver armadillo with glowing red eyes, and mirrors on its back.  And some modern junk art work called tranquility park.  We also drove by the stadium to check it out and make sure we knew where we were going on game day.  
 

Tomorrow is game day and the day after we head for Dallas to get in place for the game in two weeks.  

I would like to close with a list of three observations about Houston.

1.  It is HOT - like really really hot
2.  It is humid - like in a sauna humid
3.  They have periodic monsoon periods - with no warning and often while the sun is still shinning
4.  Their highway signage sucks

Yes I know there are four items on my list of 3.  Everyone knows that things are bigger in Texas.