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The Girlfriend (GF) and I have access to "Milwaukee" season tickets, but GF works every other weekend in a hospital, so guess which weekends the "Milwaukee" tickets were scheduled for this year. In fact, the Packers entire season, both home and away, pretty much keep the GF from being able to go to a Packer game. Not to worry. The Dolphins pre-season game at Lambeau is on a Thursday night and, being a pre-season game, the brokers aren't charging too much for tickets. We ordered a pair through PACKER FAN TOURS months ago for $55 each, so here we are, driving to Green Bay from Milwaukee on a beautiful early afternoon.

We hit Green Bay at about 3:30, with the game starting at 7:00. The drive up was uneventful, but the sweet corn has been harvested, though the field corn is still standing and being given time to dry out. The Fall leaves are just starting to twinge a bit, but they too are in pre-season, still warming up for the real burst of colors in a few weeks or so.

Our plan is to do a little bit of sightseeing first, and we head over to the ONEIDA NATION MUSEUM. The Oneida Indian Reservation is west of Green Bay, and GF has wanted to see their museum for a long time. It's small but interesting.

It's sort of becoming a tradition for us to eat at the OLD COUNTRY BUFFET, the one north of Lambeau on Mason St., and that's where we headed next. It's located in a strip mall, giving us time to browse for a while before settling in for dinner. The food is pretty good, but it's always the same, so maybe we'll try something different next time. This is the only game this year for GF so "next time" is going to be in a long time. :-)

It's getting closer to game time so we work our way to the south side of Lambeau and park on my COUSIN's lawn. He lives two streets south of Lambeau Field and makes pretty good money charging people to park their cars on his lawn during games. We chat for a while, GF and I helping to draw in customers, and we're having fun. It's really funny to drive down these side streets and watch all these people waving their arms in order to get you to park on their lawn, and now here we are, doing the same thing. :-)

Oh, if you ever park on a lawn, the joke about expecting to come back to your car and finding it washed and waxed gets really old. after the third time you hear it. ;-)

IT'S TIME! The first thing we do inside Lambeau Field is to sign up for the designated driver program. You get four coupons good for soda or non-alcoholic beer, and we're not talking tiny, dixie-cup sized drinks. I have 2 coupons from the last game so we have 10 drink coupons between us. I can't believe people are willing to pay what they charge for stadium drinks when you can have all you want for free! Well, unless you *HAVE* to drink beer...

We're in section 35 (south end zone), row 4, seats 13 and 14. I've been to Lmabeau before but it's always stuns me how close all the seats are to the field. You can watch other games on TV and see a jogging track around the field and such, which places the playing area that much farther away from the fans. It's no wonder Lambeau Field has an intimacy that no other stadium has.

The place is packed! I mean *PACKED*. This is pre-season? :-) Official attendance is 59,810 for a stadium that holds 60,790. For each row of seats, and there's 60 rows, that averages to about 16 no shows per row. Ain't much breathin' room tonight. :-)

A packed house always makes for a rock-n-roll good time, and the crowd rocked! The wave was going a few times, everyone was on their feet during the big plays, people dancing and carrying on so they could get on TV, and so on.

Some people may not think much of the end zone seats, but we're right down by the field being in row four. It's a great way to view the action, line against line. Isn't that how you really should see football? The sideline view on TV has a lot to be desired. After all, everyone has played football in the alley or park at some time in their life. When you played it was your guys against the other guys, you lining up against their line. You didn't stand on the side. That's what sitting in the end zone is like; you lining up against the other guys and you're practically in there on the field yourself.

If you're watching football on TV, you ain't watchin' football. Lambeau Field is *THAT* good. :-)

Where we're sitting it's apparent that most of the people around us are season ticket holders and regulars. They all know each other and are into the game. It's great to be here, but you're a little jealous too at not being part of the group. Oh, to be a regular season ticket holder...

If you saw the game on TV you'll recall the play where the Dolphins ran a kickoff back for a touchdown. I think the guys up in the booth were counting on the crowd to help out on this one because they quickly ran the instant replay on the viewscreen showing where the player stepped out of bounds and the entire stadium erupted. We're talking Mount St. Helens and spewing lava.

The whole stadium is on it's feet screaming so loud that the officials couldn't ignore the call. They look at the viewscreen too so they know what the situation is. The crowd then starts chanting REPLAY! REPLAY! REPLAY! REPLAY! It was so loud that you could scream at he top of your lungs but you wouldn't be able to hear yourself. Finally, after the refs checked out the play on new instant replay rules, the head Referee came out onto the field. It may be a cliche', but you could have heard a pin drop. You could have dropped a pin onto a bale of cotton and hear it, it was suddenly that quiet. The ref then calls back the touchdown and places the ball where the player went out of bounds and Mount St. Helens erupts again.

Let's see, what else? In the fourth quarter the grounds crew was caught sleeping. Miami kicked a field goal but the crew didn't get the net up in time so the ball went into the crowd. You don't see that everyday. Two rows behind us one guy was in pre-season form and threw up. Vomited. Puked. Disgusting in itself, but all these people knew each other so it was funny how everyone joked and carried on about it. Hey, we're all friends here, right? :-) After the game the high school band from Manitowoc gave a victory performance; they were just an average band but those kids were having the time of their life. Not too many schools get to do Lambeau.

We make our way back to COUSIN, talk with him for a while, and then head on back to Milwaukee down the interstate. I cross the line into Ozaukee County and a pair of headlights follow me for a while. I pretty much ignore them but after a while red and blue flashing lights appear above the headlights and a floodlight goes on and is beamed into the cab of my pick-up.

What th'...? I look at the speedometer. I've been doing 66-67 mph. Huh? Wha'd I do? Wha'd I do? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

The sheriff claims I've been weaving and asks me if I've had anything to drink. Oh, good grief. I signed up for the designated driver program, didn't I? *sigh* Well, I was up at 5:00AM to go to work for half a day, drive to Green Bay, and it was now almost 1:00AM. I'm tired and my old truck has a lot of play in the steering.

I may not be a model citizen, but for this place and time, I was more Holy than Mother Teresa. I knew it, but like an umpire or referee, a sheriff can make a bad call. I do *NOT* want to deal with a ticket, especially a drunk driving charge, that I do not deserve.

The sheriff has me get out of the truck and walk behind where I would be in the light and out of traffic. But, it's obvious that I'm not guilty of anything so the sheriff makes friendly talk with me but at the same time is doing his job. He's got his flashlight and eyes looking me and everything over. He goes to the cab and makes friendly talk with the GF, but that flashlight doesn't miss a thing. There's a cooler in the back and I offer for him to look in it, but he doesn't. He'd only find soda pop.

So, I get a warning for being tired and I'm on my way. As we go through Ozaukee county there are numerous cars pulled over and I suspect they're doing some kind of sweep. It is a weeknight and about the only reason to be out this late is to be coming home from the bars.

All in all, a great day to be at Lambeau Field with a little adventure thrown in for fun.