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There's four of us; my parents, my girlfriend (GF) and myself. It's Saturday morning, and as we start out from Milwaukee, it begins to rain, and it's raining hard. Doesn't look good, but the satellite images and weather reports off the 'net look good for Green Bay, so we're not too worried.

We don't take the expressway, but instead, we move through the countryside. My parents are planning on retiring next year and are building a new home which overlooks a lake, located outside of BRILLION. Mom is excited about the whole project and loves to visit the property. So instead of the truck stops and fast food signs, the scenery plays out with fields of corn ready for harvest and lactating holsteins.

For lunch, we stop at the RIVERVIEW, a greasy spoon in the town of KIEL. No free toy comes with the hamburger, but the Mom and Pop and hired help give away smiles at no extra charge.

Outside of BRILLION we stop at the lake home. The frame, roof, and walls are up, but there's no siding and the inside is plywood and sheet rock. Mom spends two hours just wandering through the place, excited with her dream that is coming true. All she wants to do is sit on the deck and watch the lake in her golden years. The deck has yet to be built, but she can already see it.

I'm excited because the place is only 30 miles from Green Bay. For me and the GF, it's a private bed and breakfast, and a fine weekend retreat for game weekends. :-)

We hit Green Bay after 4:00 and the area around Lambeau Field is nuts. Traffic is stuck. It's not moving. Gridlock. Knowing the area well enough, I have Dad point the van through the neighborhood, bushwhacking along side streets in order to avoid the mess. We get right up to Lambeau, and we run out of options. We're stuck in traffic and we're right next to Lambeau Field, not moving an inch.

We're by a street entrance, and it's going on 4:30. From the way other people act and with parking attendants coming out, I realize why the traffic isn't moving; Lambeau hasn't opened yet! Duh!

The usual folks were trying to entice Packer-bound vehicles to park on their lawns for $10, but we wanted to be *AT* Lambeau Field and tailgate, soaking up as much Packer ambiance as possible. The scrimmage is the only time the four of us will be able to do this together and this was the first time my Dad had ever been to Lambeau Field so we wanted the whole
package.

The gates open at 4:30, we slip right in thanks to my navigation, and we quickly learn that parking is FREE! Because of the traffic we almost decided to pay the 10 bucks to park on someone's lawn. Ha! ;-)

The rain had stopped a while ago and as we set up to tailgate the sun starts breaking through the clouds. As the evening goes on the clouds will disappear and it will be clear. Yes, the sun definitely shines on the Packers and Green Bay. :-)

We tailgate, watching the people, the people watching us. A guy I know who is from Minneapolis once told me that Viking fans invented tailgating but Packer fans perfected it.

The entire parking area around Lambeau Field was perfection.

AT LAST! Lambeau Field itself! It was time. The *TIME* itself changes when you walk through that gate, you being transformed into an era of Vince Lombardi, Mike Holmgren, all the time in between, along with the present. Lambeau Field!

Our seats are section 19, row 10. That's the visitor's side and from where I sat, you could look straight down at the 48 yard line hash mark. Slide my butt along the bench over three seats and I'd be looking at the 50. Doesn't get much better than that.

But I realized something. From here, because of the angle, these would not be good seats if the action were in the end zones. I've been to games with end zone seats down in the first few rows and when the action is by you, you have the best seat in the house. If the action moves away it becomes one dimensional because you're too low. I've been up high in the end zone and you get a good three-dimensional view of the game, but you're not close.

Depending on where you sit, you get fantastic views of the action of the game, even better than television because you can see the whole "picture." But no matter where you sit, it's not the best place to be all the time. So like they say, there are no bad seats at Lambeau Field. *YOU* will *ALWAYS* be sitting in the *BEST* seat at some point in the game. Man, whatta joint to watch football. :-)

Warm-ups. Practice. Scrimmage. If you watched it on TV or read other accounts from the Sports-Geeks, you'll know who did well and who didn't. But you really missed it if you weren't there.

On TV you couldn't see the players up close and personal like we could. One guy in front of us yelled something to Santana Dotson and got his attention. Santana only heard his name and just looked up and smiled while than fan was all excited about his "personal moment." Brett Favre did his practice routines in front of our section and waved to us. You don't get that kind of interaction and fun on TV.

The wave was going around the stadium over and over, several times through the evening. There were some beach balls being batted around by the crowd. One flew out of the stands and brushed one of the police officers and the people in my section were all going "UH OH" but he just turned around and smiled. The cop picked it up and was about to throw it back but he looked over to one of the sheriffs who were in charge and he motioned to put the ball away so the crowd booed. Guess you had to be there. :-)

You missed the highlight video played on the scoreboard before the scrimmage if you weren't there. On TV they played commercials while the PA system played the usual tunes with people dancing on their benches.

At one point the crowd was asked how many were here for the first time and a significant number of people cheered. Even for my family, and many families, it was a chance to come together, as a group. Even for veteran season ticket holders, they still have to fight with the family over who gets to go to which game and they can never go together. A special night indeed for Packer fans.

Afterwards they gave away game jerseys to a few lucky fans, but as always, it's someone else who wins these things so no jersey for us. Some kids actually won so good for them. A fireworks show ended the evening, and towards the end it began to rain.

The clouds sneaked back in, but coming too late to spoil the evening.

As a team and organization, there may be many clouds sneaking in, raining down problems that we may not now notice, but it's quite obvious that the fans have been and always will be behind the Packers, no matter how dark the clouds will be.

There is no rain cloud that can wash away the Spirit of Packer Pride.

Good luck to everyone in the 1999 season.