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FRIDAY - Drove up to my parents' lake cottage Friday night with GIRLFRIEND (GF), which is located outside of the town of Brillion. (We came from Milwaukee). So... on Saturday what did we do? Drive to GREEN BAY. :-) We headed on up to the Packer Pro Shop in the morning, and it was a zoo around Lambeau Field. There was some kind of truck and tractor show going on in the parking lot so there were people and cars all over and some of the streets were blocked off. We managed to pop in to this event in the past so it must be an annual thing, but we didn't walk through it this year. We have no need for a machine that's almost as big as an18-wheeler trailer and can cut a tree up into firewood. GF was on a mission; someone gave her money so that she could get a bobbing-head Packer doll and a Packer troll doll.  But... the Pro Shop didn't have those items. They did have the new Packer CD-ROM that's out ($25) and I thought long and hard about getting it but decided not to. I felt there really wasn't much on it overall other than 1997 season highlights. Not "robust" enough for me, anyway. So we went over to the Hall of Fame gift shop, but no bobbing heads. The gift shop is really much nicer and bigger than the Pro Shop. And the shirts! All kinds of great, stylish shirts and sweats here! But at $40 and up (usually more like $60) it's hard for me to justify spending that much for an article of clothing. Hey, I'm on a budget. :-) The staff told us that there was another store nearby that sold Packer items, so we headed south on Oneida street for Party Perfect and WOW! This place has a sign outside that says "Packer Headquarters" and it really is. Now I know where all them tailgaters get all their stuff. A Packer folding chair cost $55 so when you see a tailgater with a table and 6 chairs around it, you know they aren't fooling around.

No trolls or bobbing heads, so GF buys a little Packer bear as a consolation prize for her friend. For those who care, we drive up from Brillion on county road PP but on the way back we went down highway 57. There's an orchard that way called APPLE VALLEY. Apples are in season and you can pick your own apples there. It is such a treat to get *REAL* apples instead of the old and bruised ones the mega-markets dump out. For dinner my parents, GF and I ate in Brillion at MICHIEL'S, which is a pretty good restaurant. The salad bar is TO-DIE for. And they're in the Entertainment book. Good place to stop if you ever come through this way.

SUNDAY - GAME DAY Woo-hoo! Tampa Bay Buccaneers! One of the *BIG* games for early-season and we're going! :-) We go back up county PP and miss the mad rush from the interstate. We probably see 10 cars total before hiiting town. As I've said in previous posts, there's plenty of free parking on the side streets southwest of Lambeau, and you're only a 10 minute walk away. We easily find a spot. We stop at my cousin's house, and he's out parking cars. He lives a block from Lambeau and makes a little money charging people to park their cars on his lawn. Shucks, go one block over and it's free. Cousin has standing offer for me to park on his lawn, no charge, but why should I take up a spot from a paying customer? ;-)

LAMBEUAU FIELD - The crowd is LIVELY. I never felt so much energy before. I was here a week ago for the Detroit game (was unable to get a ticket then) and the crowd was no where like this. You just had to be there to FEEL it. There's St. Vince! He's letting people take pictures with him and having a good ol' time. ELVIS! It's ELVIS! He's here with St. Vince! His 1970's lounge-act suit is green, in full tradition of being a Packer fan. He looks pretty good for being dead 20 years now. :-)

It's getting to be time so we start heading into Football Mecca. The freebie-du-jour is a pennant made out of felt. Free stuff is always good, but a *felt* pennant? Many of them do not survive the afternoon. And what a great afternoon it is. Sunny, warm, HUMID. The frozen tundra is not so frozen but there won't be many days like this around here this time of year so we enjoy it while we can. We get to our seats, and we *LOVE* our seats. North end zone. On TV if you look at the end zone that has "GREEN BAY" in it, the outside arm of the "Y" points right at our seats. You're wondering why north end zone is so good? We're in the *SECOND* row. Right down on the field! The players are so close that you could have a conversation with them if it were possible. Many of the Packers do there warm-ups right over here so there's a lot of people who come down from the higher rows to watch and take pictures so it's a happenin' place to be. That's one thing that makes Lambeau Field such a great football stadium.*INTAMACY*. Even the high seats are close to the field compared to other stadiums. And down in the end zone it's even better. We're closer to the actual playing area than the sideline seats. More on this later

Couples hand their cameras to grounds-crew and security people on the field so they can take their picture. GF and I are sitting behind them and wave at the camera like we belong in the picture. :-) The other season ticket holders start showing up. There's DAD AND SON on our right. They're pretty quiet. That's good. They're not running up and down getting more beer all the time and such. Next to them on the right is THE CLAPPER. GF and I love this guy. He's the type who really gets into the game and is always standing up and yelling coaching instructions onto the field. He has this very animated way of flapping his arms while he's clapping his hands and it's funny, and hence, the nickname. :-) The SCREAMERS aren't here this time, which isn't surprising. The 4 seats behind us are shared by a family, so the "girls" usually go to the pre-season game while the "men" go to the regular season games. But these girls are in *LOVE* with Brett Favre and they swoon over him and when the crowd is yelling they SCREAM. They are hard on the ears. The 20-SOMETHING on our left is not here??!! Turns out the guy sold his tickets to these strangers who showed up. I'm in shock. He sold his tickets? Wow! The strangers bring a huge bag of peanuts so we end up with peanut shells all over the place after a while. The Goodyear Blimp is here! Well, this is one of the premier games on national television. GF waves because she's on TV. :-) GF thinks its neat the blimp is here.

THE GAME - One thing you didn't see on TV is players slipping on the grass. Not alot, but they were slipping. The field looked great but you have to wonder about how that new grass is really going to work out. CHEERLEADERS? You all know our "cheerleaders" are from a local college. While I've been known to drool over silicon-implanted mutant women, you have to remember that these kids are "real" people. Another example of how the Packers and community intertwine and why we're such a better football team regardless of the score or season record. REGGIE. What old man? :-) There was one time where the Bucs were backed up in the end zone and we're just sitting there while the TV was off in commercial. A few people start shouting REG-GIE! REG-GIE! and after a bit Reggie waves his arms in acknowledgement so then the crowd starts cheering, and then the ref signals for the play to start. By then the crowd was pretty whipped up and the whole end zone is on its feet yelling and cheering to where you could scream and not hear yourself. The 12th man was definitely a factor. There was that one punt where the receiver let it go but it bounced on the 3 yard line. Then 3rd down was the near-safety which put the ball on the 3-inch line. It was a great view to be right down there and watch that whole thing with the crowd on its feet yelling and cheering. We all wanted that safety but it did look like Dilfer managed to just barely squeak by. The 12th man was in there on that one, helping to create the confusion.

Remember at the end of the first half when the Bucs got called for delay of game because they sat on the ball? We're all yelling at the refs about it and we cheered when the Bucs got penalized. I don't know if they showed in on TV, but Coach Dungy then came running out onto the field to protest that, and then the crowd started yelling at Dungy, causing the refs to turn around and see that he was where he wasn't supposed to be, and he then was pretty much escorted back to the sideline by the nearest ref. :-)

The south end zone had their fun too. Another key series when the Bucs where down there you could see the whole end zone on its feet and yelling. Lots of fun. :-) Gilbert Brown was cheered by the crowd too if Reggie wasn't in; everyone would start going GIL-BERT! GIL-BERT! It was pretty much like that through the whole game, everyone getting into it, the defense waving their arms for the 12th man, and everyone having a good ol' time. Things got a little tense in the end when the Bucs started throwing points on the board, but the outcome is what counted the most. At half-time they have this contest where 2 people throw little footballs into the back of a truck for prizes, and if you get the ball in through a little hole in the window, you win the truck. One guy almost did it! Twice! Then there's another contest where they throw a 20 yard pass and then a 60 yard pass for a chance to win a snowmobile or ATV. One guy won one and had the crowd cheering for him. Every game someone wins a year supply of Johnsonville brats. So there's all kinds of things going on that you don't get to see on TV.

I went into the concourse at halftime and it was pretty bad. Nothing but solid people and long lines. I think it will be a definite plus if they follow through on improving the concourse in the next few years like they say they will. At the end of the game the Packers leave through the north end zone and many of the players take off their gloves and throw them into the crowd. I'm sure it really makes the day for some kids. ;-)

EPILOGUE - That's it. Just a few ramblings of sights and sounds of the game. I'm just one pair of eyes and there's so much going on that the TV will never show, and I know people would like to hear about it. If you're looking for any lessons in life or morals to the story from this game, there aren't any. It was just a great game, a great late-summer day to be in Green Bay, and just a lot of fun. They always say that the best way to watch a football game is on TV, but after this game, I'm not so sure. If you weren't there for this game, you just weren't there. It was that good. :-)