Just back from Tempe.....

[jtown777]

This could get breathy so bear with me.

Just got back from a long road trip from Riverside, Ca. to Tempe which is about 4 1/2 hours away. Left immediately following the decision on Sunday night to change the venue from SD to ASU. Lucked out and got a room at the Tempe Best Western (right next to the stadium). for both Sunday and Monday night. Got up at 6 a.m. and spent 10 1/2 hours on an abandoned railroad track which starts at the front entrance to the stadium and extends far far to the west. There were people already in line from the night before, about a hundred or so. So there we were, baking in the Arizona sun, 90 degrees. Every minute that goes by another group adds to the line of people on the tracks. By 4:00 it is about a mile long (a human train). And what was amazing is, if I didn't know I was in Arizona, I could have sworn I was at PPS in Miami. For every Charger fan ther was 100 Dolphin fans. Or at least that was my perception. It was one HUGE railway party. Ice chests everywhere. It was a really really great time considering all that had taken place just the day before. And then it happened...At 12:00 a man wearing a blue shirt and tie with his camera crew and sound man walk directly up to me and asked if I would do an interview. OUt of all these people he came to me. Asked where I came from and I told him Riverside, close to the fires in our area. Asked several other questions and I, with nervous excitement, answered. We talked for several minutes and we finally concluded. He asked for my name and correct spelling, so I obliged. Not knowing who he was or who he was with (no I.D. on his person or on the equipment) he smiled and said "my name is Bob and we're from ESPN, you'll be on SportsCenter and Monday Night Countdown". I was like..."DAMN", that is soooo cooool. I hope you all got to see me. I had on my '03 sideline hat,sunglasses, authentic Ricky jersey and my mardi gras Dolphin beads. I made SURE that I plugged FINHEAVEN.COM. If anyone saw please let me know.
At 4:30 after a long day they finally opened the gates and the stampede began. First come first serve. We got in and to my surprise, I sat in almost the identical spot I would have a Qualcomm. I was like YES!!! 3rd row twenty yard line. Got lots of pics, ALMOST got Ricky's auto. he had to go, and I was next, dang! there were a few streakers during the game, very stupid, but comical. One guy ran out and pulled his pants down. So of course everyone cracked up. And every time David Boston caught the ball or had his name called EVERYONE boo'ed him. It turned out to be an experience of a lifetime. And as for the game. 4 minutes in and we're up 10-0 and Griese looked great. Very confident and very good looking, sharp throws. Defense looked awesome as usual. Pat is the man. Well hope you like the read, if you have questions or comments, let 'em fly....


P.S. I'll post the pics as soon as I get them developed. I used my Cannon Rebel instead of the digital this time.


Peace

 

[DPlus47]

i'll look for you when i watch the tape. i got back at 5:00 this morning after driving straight from tempe and dropping off a friend at LAX. i'm at work and i'm in a daze. the entire experience was crazy, that's for sure. i was pretty upset when i heard it was a free-for-all (i had bought premium tix from a scalper) but then i found out they had a line for people holding tickets to get preferential seats. we ended up with slightly better seats than we would have had, although factoring in all the driving and confusion and sleep deprivation we definitely paid for the upgrade.

i hope they get all these fires under control. the view from the 10 was apocalyptic, and i know we have some members that live in those towns. right now the sky is filthy yellow here in LA (korea town, a coupla miles west of downtown). it was like this here friday only not as bad...

 

[1972]

good story. sounds like one for the books.

 

[dolfan87]

I know that Jeep, and 984 drove from San Diego to Tempe, and then drove home to San Fran today.

984 flew down to San Diego, and Jeep DROVE down. I skipped the game as I was not feeling well, and was really tired from driving ten hours straight the day before.

So Jeep drove from San Fran, to San Diego, to Tempe, back to San Fran all in about 48 hours!!

THAT is a fan huh?

Peace

87

 

[Chambers34Phins]

I didn't get to see you on sportscenter and I watched it twice today, however i was like falling asleep lol. Did they put you on?

 

[BigFinFan]

I wish that I could have made the game, but I had I was only allowed to return to my house on Monday at approx 4:00 p.m.

 

[Vegas_Phin]

I just got back to Vegas myself after a stressful trip.

First and foremost, I would like to say how bad I feel for the people of So. Cal. The devastion that was taking place there was unlike anything I could ever imagine. My thoughts and prayers go out to them.

My Trip
My wife and I left on Sunday morning from Vegas. We got diverted to LA, via Mojave, then to San Diego. Of course we didn't find out about the game being relocated until Sunday afternoon. By that time, we were stuck for the night as most of the freeways were closed. So we waited for the morning to decide what to do. We figured that we had gone that far and decided to go to Tempe. We headed on I-8, but got turned back. Our route was now up I-15 to Riverside to catch I-10 to Phoenix. We arrived in Tempe about an hour and a half before kickoff. I pulled into a parking area thinking that I would just pay. The "attendant" asked if I had a KUPD sticker/card or something. I told him my story about my trip and he told me to hold on. Well, it turned out it was a radio station promotion and they allowed me to park. We then got shuttled directly to the gate and were in the stadium one hour before kickoff.

The crazy thing is, we were meeting a couple of friends from Phoenix. Their flight was canceled on Sunday. So they proceded to go home for their car and drive. They were about 45 miles away from SD before getting turned back to AZ and finding out the game was going to be played in Tempe. What were the chances?

Also, I know the bus from Vegas was pretty much on the same route as me. Last time I talked to them they were approaching the Stadium about 45 minutes before kickoff.

Sorry for the long story.

 

[1972]

Now that is dedication. You left out one thing. How was the game? (granted, it is an obvious question) Did you end up with decent seats?

 

[Vegas_Phin]

Originally posted by 1972
Now that is dedication. You left out one thing. How was the game? (granted, it is an obvious question) Did you end up with decent seats?

The game was awesome. Especially coming out of that roady with a victory.

As for our seats, they were on the lower level of the north endzone. They were great considering the time we got there. I could have done without the fights and the drunk person puking off the upper deck onto some fans behind us. I guess that's what you get when you give tickets away.

Just happy to be back home.

 

[1334]

We flew in from sacramento to San Diego on Sunday. Headed straight over to Seau's Resaurant. The bus showed up and the players came in the front door. It was awesome. Got tons of autographs...Jason Taylor, Pat Surtain, to name a few. Most of them were pretty cool. They headed upstairs for the private party/food. Then came back down on the way out. Pretty cool. The next day we rented a car and drove to Tempe. Got there late and watched the second half from a bar about 2 miles from the stadium. Unbeleivable. What luck! Even though we missed the game, it was pretty cool meeting some of the guys.

 

[Phinfan31]

Hey guys I was also in Tempe. We flew into san diego from idaho and planned on spending the weekend there before the game. Once they announced it was being moved to Tempe we decided to leave early in the morning and drive there...until I-8 was closed due to fire which was going to make it about an 8 hour trip, so we decided to take our chances flying. We BARELY made it on the plane to portland with minutes before the scheduled takeoff and flying standby. We finally made it to Tempe around 5pm and went straight to the game. We were orginally very upset because we spent $500 on 2 50yd line PLAZA section row2 seats. You cant really ask for better seats than those were so when we heard it was all random we were scared wed get ****ty seats and all the people who came for free would take the seats we deserved. We found out there was a special line for people with original tickets and ended up on the 30 yardline 2 rows up from the bottom. They were great seats, Im just happy we managed to get to the game! We were on TV i believe but i havnt been able to check out the tape my friends recorded yet. Ill let you guys know if we were, the camera guy was stuck on us right at the beginning of the game for about 2 minutes so im sure they used some of that footage atleast. This was definately the craziest game ive been at though. 3 people ran out on the field, there were 5 fights that i got to see, those cardinel fans are crazy haha. The majority of the people were all in college it felt like a FSU miami game :) Well anyways I had a great time, Ive made a rule for myself that I see atleast one game every season, next year they play the 49ers and Seahawks, I think ill be going to both!! The only other NFL game ive been to was the dolphins, broncos game last year. So this was definately an experience for me.

 

[UT-Phinz]

Originally posted by dolfan87
I know that Jeep, and 984 drove from San Diego to Tempe, and then drove home to San Fran today.

984 flew down to San Diego, and Jeep DROVE down. I skipped the game as I was not feeling well, and was really tired from driving ten hours straight the day before.

So Jeep drove from San Fran, to San Diego, to Tempe, back to San Fran all in about 48 hours!!

THAT is a fan huh?

Peace

87

I have my own "THAT is a fan" experience from this weekend. I work the graveyard shift, but my girlfriend and I had taken Monday evening off so that we could go catch the game at Hooters. When I read that tickets were free, I immediately started planning.

Left work early at 4 am, ran home to grab the Phins gear, and hopped on the road. Drove for 12 hours from Salt Lake City straight to Tempe. Arrived at 4:30 pm just as they started letting people into the stadium.

Seats weren't bad, but neither were they great. Middle row of the upper level along the corner of one of the end zones. Tickets were free... I'm definitely not complaining.

So, I got up from my afternoon nap on Sunday at about 6:30 pm MST, got about 3 hours of sleep in my car under the lighted parking lot of a Chevron gas station about 50 miles north of Phoenix after the game, and arrived back home here in Utah at about 2:30 pm on Tuesday. Went pretty close to 48 hours on a total of 3 hours of sleep doing about 22 hours of drive time in that mix. MUAH!!!

 

[Jeep]

Well its Tuesday. morning... wait.. its Monday morn... no.. damn.. I missed my sleep..

Its Wednesday morning and I am home... yeeehaw.... :)

We left San Jose area at 9:00AM Sunday.. drove into LA area.. saw the fires there and listened to the radio.. They were talking about 2 fires.. one in San Diego County and the one I was looking at in northern LA..

I kinda laff'd at the San Diego fire because surely it wasnt nearly as bad as the one in LA..

So a few hours later, we were in San Diego.. as we were driving into the city, it was like driving into fog.. but its fog that smelled like a fire place... with ash floating around and everything..

Fighting with stop n go traffice, due to hiway closures, we found out our hotel was evacuated and we were stuck in SD and no place to stay... We pulled into the Mission Valley Marriotts, the place Gram was to stay at and we had to beg for a room because they were sold out...

I called Gram on the cell fone to only to find out he was at home because he couldnt get into SD because his freeway was closed and he decided to turn around and go home..

Gram told me 984 was stuck in SD with no transportation.. So I agree to give 984 and his girlfriend a ride to Pheonix... Because hiway 8 was closed.. we decided to drive south toward Mexico and detour on a hiway called 92 or 94 or something like that.. which made a 4 hour trip turn into a 6+ hour trip. we did pull over at a town called Tecate (no we didnt even get one to drink) and all 5 of us had to walk into Mexico and then back to the states just to say we were there..

984 got detained at the inspection station, strip searched and got an anal probe... oh wait.. I dont think he would appreciate me sharing this story.. so..

Once we got to Hiway 8, leading into Arizona, we were low on gas... VERY LOW... so we stopped at a gas station.. they were out of gas.. we went to the next gas stop and they had gas.. but no electricity.. we continued on.. running on fumes.. made it to the next place.. but they too was out of gas..

They next gas stop was 50 miles down the road and we would not make it.. period.. just as we loaded up and was ready to drive 35mph on the freeway, looking for 18 wheelers to draft a lady stopped us and said there was a Shell station on the other side of the freeway.. after a 30 wait in line, we got gas and was back on the road..


We pulled into Tempe and got decent tickets.. 25 yard line, Dolphins side, 1st row upper level.. not quite as good as I had at Qualcomm.. but they were nice..

It was a great game.. lots of fun.. good guys won.. and yes.. this was the best home game away from Miami..

There were tons of Dolfin jerseys in the stands..

After the game, we got an autograph by Obeewan Kanobe.. I mean #30 Obafemi Ayanbadejo...

We stayed after the game at a Motel 6.. ate a great breakfast and left Pheonix at 10AM our time.. got detoured in LA area because a 3rd fire closed our intended freeway and finally dropped off 984 and his girlfriend at 10:30pm in Tracy, California and we drove the last 40 miles to our house..

I got tons of work sitting in front of me, but I chose to write this up first.. over all it was a great vacation/road trip.. travelled over 1600-ish miles, and paid a ton of money because my truck only gets 11 mpg..

Would I do it again?? ask me tomorrow after a good night sleep..

 

[CarolinaFishFan]

sort of off topic but... my cousin and i went to the game at Jacksonville a couple weeks ago... drove from Charleston, SC. our first live (non sunday ticket) game in ten years. had a great time, saw a W... he was supposed to fly to SD for business monday and was going to get to see the game monday night. due to the fires his meeting was held in Phoenix instead. so of course he called me hammered monday night from the game. lucky guy!! red eye flight monday Am from the east coast, red eye flight from phoenix tuesday AM... lucky guy.