Minnesota 11.10.12

Solitude.....
Just a man and his thoughts.

For a while this Saturday, I was Creepy Old Guy in a short bus parked in a college stadium parking lot without a friend in the world.

But that changed:

 Tagged on the fraternity's Dad's Day tailgate 'till some pals from home showed up.  Turned out to be a pretty good sized little get-together.

 

 I take full credit for the turnout.

 

This was a nice touch.  Well done Paul.

 

Thanks to the House for making me (and all the real Dads) feel welcome.  Too bad that putrid team on the field can't have the same execution.  Looking forward to the last game of the year this weekend and the cold months of bitching before the eternal optimism sets in again next August.  Will we ever learn?

 



Homecoming 10.27.12

Homecoming ain't what it used to be. 

The tailgating scene was deader than our football team's chances of a bowl game.  Standard crew on a chilly day in late October.  Still wouldn't trade it for anything.

Chilly 2 year old in a Yak Hat.

Did have a gent stop by in the middle of reliving his glory years of playing trombone for the Marching Illini.  Ahhhh Homecoming.  He was kind enough to let the kids contaminate his horn. 

 

The product on the field is miserable.  Better writers than me have provided full autopsy of this team, so I'll just simply say that I miss the excitement, the buzz, the electricity of both the tailgating and the football when this team is good (or even mediocre).  For better or for worse, I am an absolute die hard and its tough to get up early and wrangle the family down there for these.  

Penn State 09.29.12

Big tailgate crowd today.  Great weather - lots of kids (and Sam) playing better football in the lot than we saw on the field - to be sure.

 Finally had a decent crowd.

 

 Chow time.

 

We don't do a whole lot, do we?

 

After that performance, gotta wonder 'bout the rest of this season.  And now, three crappy BigTen teams at home the rest of the year.  Hope the weather holds and we get some folks down for these games.  Plenty of good seats available.....



La Tech 09.22.12

Exciting night game in Champaign against a team we ought to beat with our dominant defense. 

Just Tam and I today. Rolling with the Reesers.
Smoked a turkey breast in my 7 hours of tailgaiting and had a ball.

Good looking tailgate decor.

 

 

Ouch.  Got drilled.  Don't like to leave early, but that was horrible and the incessant bitching by those old turds in our section drives me absolutely nuts.  I told Scotty "I can be home by midnight if we leave now".  I was right...  Well, I would've been had I not stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch real football.  I was home by 2.



Charleston Southern 09.15.12

Ah, got taken to the woodshed in Tempe, but hey - just a hiccup.  New coach, gonna take a little time to iron out the wrinkles.  Got some injuries, just need to get healthy.  Great time for Charleston Southern.  Crush them, and the season is back on track.....

Brought the whole clan on a beautiful day in Champaign.

 Chill'n at the tailgate.

 Morgan and Marty

Might not have the "spirit" thing down, quite yet.

Western Michigan 09.01.12

Optimism...

Had some brake work done on the 'ole shortbus over the summer.  Found a new mechanic that not only seems to know what he's doing, but with whom I can communicate sans translator.  Approaching the 2012 shortbus season with great optimism.

We've got a new coach with a plan.  Got some veteran talent on both sides of the ball.  Approaching the football season full of renewed optimism.

But then...

Got a call 44 hours before kickoff that the bus had a flat tire.  Oh, and we're supposed to get 5-6 inches of rain in Champaign on Saturday. 

The fellas at Goodyear on Neil St. in Champaign were a God-send.  Got me fixed up by 8:20 AM and I didn't miss a beat..... until about half way from the TI to the lot.  Had a gasoline smell and engine seems to need fuel.  Hmmmmmm

Bit of a leak.  Sorry for the stink nice family we pulled up next to.  And thank you for not smoking.

And my genius tent idea was, well, stupid.  Not a great start to the tailgating season.

But we won the game and ole' Jer fixed me up after the game.  $10 for a new fuel filter and we were back in the groove.  Bus fixed.  1-0.  Plenty of optimism.

Welcome Coach Beckman!

Ruh-ro!

2011 Season Re-cap

Well. 
I got busy and simply didn't post last season. 

I set this blog up for the sole purpose of sharing pictures of the bus project.  I can't believe that was four years ago.  That was interesting.  My thoughts on Illini football are not.  If you want to read about the Illini, go here:  www.alioneye.com.  That's really all ya need.  Atta boy Bobby!

But, Illini FB tailgating is my most favoritist hobby and I think I may feel bad if my stupid little blog ended with a silly picture of Zook.  Although that post was pretty prophetic, huh?    I just need to make sure the bar is set sufficiently low that I don't feel bad if it's 6 posts full of pictures of kids with grown men drinking in the background.  I guess it got me this far.

So let's re-cap last year with the help of the stat book:

• Arkansas State:  Had bus trouble all summer, but got it fixed up for the opener.  Our offense looked good - we have good receivers.  We might not suck.
• South Dakota State:  My son thought it was funny that we played the Jackrabbits.  We looked really good.  We don't suck.
• Arizona State - Top tailgate of the season - huge turnout.  Stuck around and pretended it was 1993 that night.  We didn't have Blue Guys in 1993.  I still have a headache. We won a game we normally lose.  We might be ok.
• Western Michigan - too close for comfort- a harbinger of things to come.
• Northwestern - this game was fun.  I share Robert's distaste for all thing's Fitzgerald and I enjoyed this.  Holy crap - we may be good.
• Ohio State - What's that noise?  Oh, I think a wheel fell off.
• Michigan - There went another.
• Wisconsin - Season in full free-fall, we had a very nice tailgate with some new friends from Madison.  In full disclosure, I also matriculated (they teach those words there) at UW, so I donned the red and white for this one, in protest.  2nd best tailgate of the season.  The UW shortbus parked next to us.  They outdrank us - to be sure.  But nobody from my tailgate passed out in his own vomit.  I'm not sure any of them didn't.

If I took any pictures, they aren't good enough to warrant me trying to find them and/or they could be used in a custody hearing, so this little recap will have to do.  I closed the book on the 2011 season a long time ago - we'll not dwell on it here.

For this season.  Hmmm.  Again, if you're looking for real analysis, go see Bobby's blog.  My gut says we go 6-6 and we have some great tailgates this year.  Please join us.

Hot Seat

Well, Coach Zook, all the pundits think the loss of three draft picks handicaps this team and puts us in the middle of the pack in the East/Plains/Grange/ -what? -Leaders division.  Yet, the locals are a'buzz with optimism.  You've got a new boss. The schedule is in our favor. Your recruiting class, to date, is less than mediocre.  What direction will this program go?    I'm going with early season success but guessing  that when the Big 10 season rolls around, the weaknesses are exposed and reality eventually knocks him out the door.  Hope I'm wrong.  I really hope I'm wrong.

Looking forward to kicking this thing off tomorrow.  Go Illini!

Northwestern 11.20.10

Funny how this novelty game turned out to actually mean something.  And the circus of the sandlot rules quickly became overshadowed by a phenomenal performance by our running game.  I didn't care much about the Wrigley thing, but it turned out to be really cool and I'm glad I had an opportunity to go. Someday it might be fun to hang out with all the Chicago contingent in Chicago (or Evanston) when it isn't freezing outside. 

Friggin circus in the streets.

At least they were running toward us.

We're going bowling! 

Impressive performance.  Wonder where it was when Minny was in town.  Oh well, probably saved Zook's job and gives us a chance at a bowl.  I just hope the word TicketCity is not in the title.  We shall see.  Week off and then a trip to get a little revenge on Fresno State for the egg the ILLINI laid last year. 



Minnesota 11.13.10

Final 2010 shortbus tailgate.  Weater started nice but got pretty damn cold and crappy the the afternoon.  Brought the buddies from home to the finale'.  Also had a nice showing from some of the Chicagoland regulars as well as a surprise guest.

Early in the day.  Having a Pabst with its namesake. 

Took me all day, but I was finally able to catch these guys with a beer in their hand :)

Brave souls.  And great friends.  You too, Brad, wherever you went during this shot.

Ladies love bus drivers.

Great end to a great season of shortbus tailgaiting.

Again, another successful year of getting up early to drive to Champaign and drink beer in a painted up shortbus, waiting for an improving, if not still mediocre, football team to win a few games.  This year, the highs were pretty high and the lows were pretty low - but once again, seeing old friends, making new ones and reliving some long gone glory was a lot of fun.  More posts on the Wrigley game and (hopefully) the bowl game to come.

Purdue 10.30.10

Brought the family for Halloween. Day started out cool, but got better.  Not a huge crowd, but did get to visit with some old friends and the kids had a ball.

Early start on a chilly morning. Gotta love those 11 am games.

 

Man that kid does love to play in the dirt.

Prolly gonna have to play JV for a while.

We're good parents - we kept the baby warm in chilly weather.  However, the State may be visiting soon because we did so with a giant pink bunny suit.  Looked like a pink nightmare.  C'mon it was Halloween!

Ahhh, bus drama.  Always something. 

Little vampire and dad. 

You gotta admit, that's funny.

Indiana 10.23.10

Homecoming shortbus tailgaters did not show up for this one, but I suppose you can't blame them.  Although, the weather was fantastic.  Had some new faces at the tailgate this day.  Some of them had a LOT of fun.  I won't post the proof.

Two handsome bus drivers.  Whatever the hell Megabus is, this is apparently the guy who drives it.

I'm not even gonna comment. 

Liquid courage.

A nice day and a good win, if not an otherwise pretty uneventful tailgate. 

Penn State 10.09.10

We've always talked about a trip to Happy Valley and this year made a lot of sense. 

HUGE shout-out to DB for his acceptance of the invitation, willingness to sacrifice his car for tailgating,  and for bringing that stupid little charcoal grill that, it turns out, is contraband in State College- but man were we glad to have it.  You rock - D!

First some scenery:

 Far cry from Central IL.

 
Mt. Nittnay

We didn't tailgate too far away.

It's like Disneyworld.

Joe-Pa.  Actually pretty cool.

The tailgating:



 That silly little grill couldn't have been more conspicuous in a giant lot that outlaws charcoal.  With our keen sense of thermodynamics, wind mechanics, and culinary heat transfer theory, we were able to cook, eat, and prevent the west half of Pennsylvania from burning to the ground.

Nothing says tailgaiting like Peach Schnapps.  Seriously, you can't buy a 12 pack at 8 am  on a Saturday morning in PA?  Never been so sad to see the last Natty Light come out of the cooler.  Oh, and I found it really hard to party sideways.  Hills suck.

The game:

 Pretty impressive.  Gotta give it to the Big House, though. 

I could get used to this.  Nice win, boys!

Gotta admit. I was pretty amped to see what I've been told repeatedly is the best tailgating in the Big 10.  Now, maybe we were in the turd lot, maybe there was a great party off-site that we weren't invited to, or maybe they were all hung over from a Friday night Mad-Dog bender.  But I was not impressed.  Huge crowd - but as has been said, "do not confuse activity with achievement".   Pretty subdued event, in my opinion.

However, the experience was awesome, the drive though the hills in October was cool, and meeting some east coast Phi's in the middle of nowhere was well worth the trip.  Being present at the first ever win in Beaver Stadium was pretty cool too.  We play there again next year - I know how to get there - who's in!

Ohio State 10.02.10

Apparently this was the weekend all the good dads, husbands, boyfriends and employees spent meeting those obligations. Thus, Scott and I were the only ones in attendance at a VERY small shortbus tailgate for what should have been the most raucous of the year. I haven't had time to post of late and now, after watching the fun in Madison last weekend, recognize that having a rabid fan base completely behind your team - playing a top 5 team in the country - sure makes for a fun atmosphere. That was not in Champaign this day. However, the team did show up and I'll go on record agreeing with Zook on the field goal late in the game. I don't have any pictures from this day, but there really wasn't much to take a picture of, so you all will just have to be satisfied with my witty, insightful prose.

Northern Illinois 09.18.10

Aside from the thieving little girl at the tailgate next to us, we had a nice, leisurely day in the sun with friends.  Game was pretty good too.

Got there early enough for the boy to play in the dirt.

Baby had fun too.

 

Kids playing before the little clepto next to us stole their stuff.

Boys talking 'bout work.  or superheroes.

Gotta love the band.  

 Gotta love the Reeser.

Yukni Rock.

We shanghai'd some good seats

His vast knowledge of the inter workings of the college football game comes from his refusal to conform to the masses and watch the action on the field.  Nay, his attention is focused elsewhere while he simply "absorbs" the game.  Simply amazing!

Next up.  Ohio State.  It was fun while it lasted.