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FREE BED AND BREAKFAST - Drove up to my parents' lake cottage Saturday night (I live in Milwaukee). It's outside of Brillion and an easy 30 miles from the driveway to Lambeau Field. Makes for a nice trip when you don't have to white-knuckle it there-and-back-all-in-one-day with the rest of the traffic. Girlfriend and I refer to the cottage as our "free bed and and breakfast" since Mom likes to spoil us. :-) But... girlfriend has to work this weekend so I'm running solo this time.

FREE PARKING - For those of you who saw my trip report for the Saints game, you'll know that there's plenty of street parking southwest of Lambeau Field. And it's only a few blocks away. In fact, some places where you pay to park are actually farther from Lambeau than over in here if you get a good spot.

And I do get a good spot because I'm a bit early. You see, I don't have a ticket for the game. I keep hearing how people get good deals for tickets so I thought I'd give it a try. But... I'm keeping an attitude of not caring if I get a ticket or not. Sure, tickets are easy to get if you want to pay big bucks, but I am *NOT* going to pay premium prices to the scalpers.

So there I am, walking up to Lambeau when I see my cousin. I have a cousin who just bought a house a few months ago that is directly south of Lambeau Field. I heard he was having people pay him to park their cars on his lawn, and that's what he was doing, so I stopped to talk with him for a while.

He makes almost $100/game for parking, but he was telling me about the guy up the street. His house has 2 adjacent empty lots and can get up to about 350 cars in there. And at $10/car, well... how does that old saying go? "Location, location, location."

THE PROMISED LAND -  It's 9:30 AM and the parking lot around Lambeau proper is virtually full. And I begin my hunt for a ticket. There's probably hundreds of other people going around with "Need Tix" signs so I'm not very encouraged by this. But I do ask around a bit and stop and talk to people. Some folks didn't want to be bothered but others were downright fun.

Then I see him. No, make that I see *HIM*. It's St. Vince! YES! St. Vince is here! I kneel down to his Holiness and he annointeth me with beer. I take a pocket knife, cut my finger, and it bleeds green. I am blessed.

Zoom! What the heck was that? There's only one person who can move that fast... it's... it's... Title Town Man! That superhero of superheroes and he's here in the crowd! I give him a steel rod and he bends it for me. Then with a hop he jumps into the air and flies over the wall into Lambeau Field. (Much quicker than going through the gate).

Then there's these girls with... um... what do you call them? Cheese cups? Another Foamation product that is designed to help women lift and seperate their bosom for a sleek look and comfortable fit. People stop them to take pictures.

MYSTERY OF LIFE SOLVED -  Like I said, girlfriend is back home at work so I'm free to "look" more intensely than I normally can get away with. There's all these beautiful women around all over the place and they are out with the ugliest, wimpiest, how-can-you-call-this-a-male boyfriends. Isn't that how it always seems to work? Then it dawns on me. These guys have Packer tickets and I don't. ;-)

It's now 11:00AM and I'm not doing very well working the crowd so I head over to the scalper pit. Cheapest ticket is $90. I mentally take the ticket and shove it into various body orafices but out loud I say "Thanks but that's more than I can pay. Good luck."

Scalpers are slime.

I wander around making a "one" with my finger and holding my hand up. I talk to a guy and someone sold him a ticket for face value. Thanks to that *REAL* Packer fan for doing that. (Just sell it to *ME* next time ;-)

It's noon. Game time. A lot of the scalpers are sold out. Those with tickets left have a big crowd of people around them. I've heard all these stories about how prices drop at kickoff time but this is a scenario that's been gone through a hundred times and the scalpers know the routine. And since there are plenty of people around, there's going to be no bargains today.

I'm not too worried though. If I really wanted a ticket I could have shelled out that 90 bucks. So I just watch some of the other people and it's no big deal. Couldn't score a ticket for a reasonable price? So what! They just start walking up to the STADIUM VIEW bar. If they don't get a ticket they're still going to have a good time.

Isn't that what it's all about?

Well, I can see that it's "no soup for you" so I start walking to the stadium; maybe I can catch someone who's late. And that's exactly what happens! I see this guy who has extra tickets, but he's running to the scalper area and he shouts over his shoulder "You have to sell them in the ticket area and they're $125 each!" Yeah, right. You don't have to sell them in the ticket area you. Can't you see the parking lot is empty? There's no Ticket Police around. And good luck getting $125/tix. It's 15 minutes after now. By the time you get in your seat it's going to be the start of the second quarter.

LAMBEAU MOMENT - During this time I saw this young mother several times with her little boy, who looked to be about 6-7 years old. Those two were all over the place with their "Need 2 Tix" sign so it was obvious Mom wanted to take her kid to a game.

The parking lot was a virtual ghost town now except for the few parties of tailgaters and late arrivals, but suddenly here is this lady with the kid. She's still waving her sign around though there's really no one around to see it. She's not giving up; yet, she knows she's not going to get any tickets, but she has an idea. I'm kind of following them and she takes her little boy up to one of the ticket gates and they stand right in the gate, looking into them hallowed halls of football, letting the boy soak up as much of Lambeau Field that without being able to get in.

And that kid was having a ball. He's too young to really understand, but being out with his Mom all morning and seeing the crowd, wow! For a little boy like that the whole day must have been an adventure doing what they did together, ticket or no ticket. This is Lambeau Field! The Packers are here!

For all the low-life scalpers and greedy fans and fistfulls of money across the way in the scalper area, here were two people who probably deserved a pair of tickets more than anyone. And come to think of it, they probably got more out of standing at the gate and looking in than that idiot fan I just saw who was willing to miss the first quarter, and for what? You sell $70 worth of tickets for $250. You gonna retire on that? Mom and kid shared something together that no price tag is big enough to hold.

THE GAME - As for me, I went back to my cousin's house. I really don't know him very well, our lives being on different paths, but we're not exactly strangers. So I watched the game with him, got the chance to get to know him better, and I had a great time.

Didn't most of you out there do that? Gather with friends and family to watch the game? Did you really need a ticket to do that? I know a Mom and a little boy who learned today what it's all about.

Life is good in Packerland.