Go the Broncos

Peter read in the Australian news that Darius Boyd ruptured his Achilles in preseason training, not a good start for our local Broncos. However, and on the other side of the world the Denver Broncos are favourites for the super bowl again this season. We are off to see this big NFL game which starts at 2.05pm. We left at 11am after a yummy pancake breakfast in search of early and cheap (ha ha ha) parking.

It only took us 5 mins to find a $20 off-stadium car park. Yes $20, but it was the cheapest. We could have parked 20mts away for $40 or even $35, so in comparison it was the cheapest that we saw. We wondered down though the car parks to discover in the stadium car park, people with BBQ's out the back of their cars/vans and games. The best site were the multiple RV's set up with table and chairs and tv's set up. Peter had told us about this event being called a "tail-gate"; in my mind it was much smaller with only a few people. But no, like everything in America it is bigger. Imagine Di and Ian taking their caravan and opening their annex, setting up tables and chairs, pulling out their webber-Q and playing their rock & roll dance music ....... if you can picture that, you pretty we'll have an image of a tail-gate! An incredible idea to think that people go to that much trouble.

We, on the other hand did not have a BBQ stashed away in our hire car (which is disappointing considering we do have Matt Preston come Pitt Masters Chef travelling with us). Instead we wondered through the various and yummy smells to the entertainment section where Miranda and Hayley lined up to kick an NFL ball over the goals (mini versions) to win a t-shirt. While they missed they still received some orange sunglasses. However, it is lucky that we have Jaime Lyons travelling with us as he lined up and scored himself a free T-Shirt.

After collecting our free see-through bags, we headed to the gate where we had to dump all of our gear out to check for .... stuff and then we had to be scanned. The young man scanning Hayley made her put her hands up, spin around and jump on one leg which she enjoyed greatly. Once inside, the girls were each given a badge with the Denver Broncos on it to wear. Unlike Suncorp Stadium, there are more than a few levels, this stadium requires an elevator to get other seats we were in. However, every floor has food and drinks available; as Peter said "one thing that America is never short of and that's food".

We decided to get to our seats before having lunch to leave all of our gear. Yes I made us take our thermal pants/skins, beanies, gloves, and large coats "just in case" and guess what by quarter time we needed our thermal pants, so thank you mum!!! So to get to our seats far the very long escalator, we had to climb stairs ..... multiple stairs. I would have taken a photo if I wasn't scared of falling backwards ... I had to take a moment to catch my breath because of the sheer height of the stadium.

After my head spin, we went done the stairs to get lunch; the girls had a hot dog while Peter had a BBQ beef brisket while I had a BBQ pork sandwich. Then drinks, a freshly squeezed lemonade drink and for Peter, a 1lt refill soft drink !!!! Consequently there were many breaks to the toilet had by the girls .... Down and up the stairs. We can easily say that we have effectively conducted enough exercise during the day

NFL is an interesting game, it is a game that is made up of 4x15 min quarters which in my head means the game starts at 2.05pm, allow 15 mins for half time and we are out by 3.20pm or even 3.30. Well NO, that's not how it works at all - it is actually a 3hr tactical game. It's not free-flowing at all, it's stop start; however, there is so much entertainment on the screens and in the crowd (who dress up and heckle each other) that you really don't notice the length. Perhaps being a regular, I would be a tad bored per sae but today was very interesting and very entertaining. That's to superb ticket master Peter for organising its great event!!

So we left with 55secs to go (which took, I think 2 mins), back through the RV section and the car park, and onto battling the traffic which was bumper to bumper. But thanks to some backstreet driving Dick Johnson saved some time and allowed us to get to the freeway in less

time. It still took us 2hrs to get home, but that part of the story needs to be told by Michael Crichton himself.

Not much to say on my part other than the old adage of women being bad navigators came to fruition on the way home. Seeking dinner after the footy we wanted to grab some food and cook at home. Needless to say that Kaye 'Google maps' got us a little bit lost when searching for a supermarket. After being asked to use 'around me' or punch in the directions on google maps - neither if which happened - we ended up 10 kms from home. All the while poor Hayley has her back teeth floating. Needless to say, things got a bit tense but all worked out in the end.
The moral of the story is our Garmin has saved out marriage!!!!

PS hope you are all enjoying Kaye's stories as we trek across the USA.