Despite both of my teams (and my bank account) losing, I had a great trip to Minnesota this past weekend to catch the Ravens play the Vikings. I haven’t been to many NFL games over the years, but the whole experience was definitely my best yet. Here is a recap of the trip:
We finally board the plane, have a successful takeoff, and anxiously await the in-flight beverage service, always a must when traveling on a weekend evening.
Saturday morning: we wake up early to pick Spitty up from the Airport and decide to head to the famous Mall of America. When pulling up to the mall, I was underwhelmed with the exterior size of the mall. I was expected a building I couldn’t see from end-to-end. But once I got inside and saw the rollercoasters and rides, along with all of the different levels with escalators and elevators everywhere, I appreciated it vastness. The highlight of this trip: cameo appearance by Sully Sullenberger. That’s right, the guy who had an emergency plane landing in the Hudson River. He was doing a book signing at the mall and Dave spotted him right away (from 5 stories by nonetheless). Tried to find some cool Ravens gear at the mall, but supplies were limited. Time to eat anyway.
We hopped in line at Hooters inside the mall. After checking out the waitresses (and a little future event planning) we decided to pass up Hooters and went for a local sports bar which was pretty solid. After lunch we hit a small hole-in-the-wall type bar called Jerseys to kill some time before our next stop. Here, we had a group debate over how hot the bartender was. I was giving her a 7-7.5, others in the group lobbied for as high as 9. Eventually, I talked a few of them down into the 7.5-8 range (counting this as a victory for myself and my flawless rating system). Next we visited an establishment known as the King of Diamonds (more fondly to the locals as “K.O.D.”). This establishment didn’t open until 3:30 PM and had a nice $1 beer happy hour until 5:30.
When we arrived at 3:28PM, there was literally a line of gentlemen waiting to get in. Our group decided that we had to wait in the car because waiting in a line to get into a place like that at 3 in the afternoon would have (hopefully) been a low point for all of us. We enjoyed our happy hour beers by the tableful (15 at a time for the group, which was growing at this point) and headed back to the Quick house for a family event. Nothing like a family cookout after an early afternoon drinking marathon. After some nice Minnesota home cooking (and some more adult beverages), we ended up hanging around and watching sports the rest of the night: Gators cheated and won, Auburn lost, Yanks won in extras- terrible sports evening for me. I was ready for some live NFL action.
Sunday, earrrrrrrrrrrrrrrly.- awake and ready for some tailgating. We load up the minivan and we’re at the Metrodome by 8A.M. Breaking news: it is cold in Minnesota in October at 8 A.M., really cold. Most of my initial thoughts when we started tailgating were about how cold I was and that I couldn’t wait to get inside that dome. After a few beers, a little more sunshine, and tossing the football around, my blood starting flowing and it was more bearable. But still cold! We had fresh hamburger meat with no preservatives or any of that junk in it- straight from a farm in South Dakota, courtesy of our weekend host’s family farm. Damn good hamburger. We ran into a few Ravens fans, but mostly just Viking after Viking after Viking. One guy had a nice 30 rant about me being a murderer for wearing a Ray Lewis jersey. That was awkward for everyone around for sure. But hey, someone has to be “that guy.”
The Game: I don’t want to talk about it, you know what happened. Stupid kickers! At least we had some good seats and saw a great comeback (even though it fell short). Quick notes: Ray Rice is nasty, AP is crazy fast in real life, Favre really is impressive (and yet so underrated- someone should really give him some credit every now and then), and the fans in Minnesota are, except for the idiots behind us, pretty nice. Here’s a look from our seats:
After the game we grabbed some dinner and a few more drinks and headed back to the house where we hatched a genius plot: going to the casino after drinking for 12 straight hours. This has to work out well, right? It actually did for everyone in our group, besides me.
Late Sunday night: The Casino
My blackjack experience paralleled that of the Ravens/Vikings game that I attended earlier in the day: got killed early on, had a huge comeback, but still came up short. The Karma never got off on the right foot in the early stages of the night for me. Karma is the most important thing going for you at blackjack table- it can affect your confidence which can affect the way you play the game. Its just a very powerful part of playing cards, and once someone messes it up, you need to walk away. But through my stubborn (read: intoxicated) state, I decided to ride it out. After all, 21 has its swings that you must endure too, even with good Karma. I got down to my last few chips, finally moved tables (way too late) and lost the rest of my chips. Not to be deterred by temporary setbacks such as this, I reclaimed additional chips and started over at a new table where I actually did pretty well.
Jon and I were playing two hands each and making some decent money, but we were both absolutely exhausted. I was ready to call it a night, but I knew that we couldn’t drag the other members of the group away from the table for at least another hour, so we had to suck it up. As the dealer finished the shoe for about the 15th time Jon gave me this look like Rudy to the sidelines, asking his coach “WHAT DO I DO?!?”, so I flashed back the inspiring nod/arm wave and give him the old “STAY ON” routine. And stay on we did, long enough for Jon to earn some big time interest on a few borrowed bucks from Spitty. I was still digging out of my original hole, but there was light at the end of the tunnel. That is until Karma killer sat at our table and insisted on playing on of the two hands that Jon had in front of him. I’m telling you, these things really do affect the flow of the game. The winning became less and less frequent until we decided to walk away, Jon up big and me down still from my earlier massacre. Still good solid 5 hour blackjack session that I’ve been needing for quite a while now (Vegas this spring/summer anyone?!)
Highlight of the night for me: I was playing slots with a few long singles that I had left over and I was down to my last pull. I bet my remaining balance (around 60 cents or so) and pull the trigger. Lights start flashing, the machine starts making this insanely loud noise (and keep in mind I’m the only one playing on any of the slots around and there are about 12 people playing blackjack nearby, including Dave and Spitty, so its pretty quiet in the room). Everyone looks over in excitement upon hearing the noise. I look down and notice that my big “winnings” were…… 25 cents. Still, I wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity with flashing lights, big sounds and everyone watching me; I stand up and yell “ I WON!” to which everyone of course asked how much. I yelled “I WON, I WON!” a few more times before finally revealing that it was only a quarter. Everyone got a kick out of that. What a tease that slot machine was. Overall, it was a fun casino outing.
After finally getting to bed after a 16 hour booze/football/gambling bender (and still feeling the effects, by the way) we headed home on Monday afternoon. My total damage for the weekend: 1 Auburn loss, 1 Ravens loss, Phils/Yanks (two teams I hate) closing in on the world series, lost money playing blackjack, extreme exhaustion, but tons of great memories and an overall awesome roadtrip (can you still call it that if you fly?). I love football season.
Like the Ravens, I’m taking a week off (from making picks). I hope you don’t squander your nest egg without my expert advice. At least you know the refs won’t let Florida lose, so go ahead and bet everything on the Gators moneyline this week. Until next time, happy watching.
1 comment:
That was fun to read. Great blog!
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