The Stick

Note:  I wrote the following Rabble yesterday but seeing as computers suck ass I wasn't able to post it until now (and yes, I realize the irony of typing, 'computers suck ass' on a computer but if you're asking that question then this must be your first Rabble experience.  Sit down, enjoy.).  Rabble-B

Today I learned what it is to live in a true sports town.  It was exciting, amazing and terrifying all at once. It was pretty much the biggest game of the season, the Seahawks came to Candlestick Park, for the second to last game ever at the Stick.  This was my first game at the Stick and we went a tailgatin'.  The game started at 1:25pm so we figured getting there about 10:30am would give us and easy drive in with plenty of time to BBQ and drink.  WRONG!  People show up at like 8am and set up camp.  Literally camp.  Some people drive their RV's.  It was like driving into week long music festival put on by Mad Max. Smoke billowing everywhere, satellite dishes strapped to car roofs, whole stereo systems hooked up to generators, people in red & gold costume screaming and running between parked cars, planes flying, footballs flying, police riding atv's in a gravel and broken glass strewn wasteland all surrounded by the hood.  It was like if Ridley Scott filmed a documentary and we showed up way too late and way underprepared.  It was amateur hour with my little Go-Anywhere grill and 22's of beer. I was outgunned from the start. Some of these people had spent thousands of dollars on their tailgating setups, not including food and alcohol.  And the game was hours from kickoff.  Despite the mayhem I stayed the course and grilled brats and drank Pray for Snow winter ale and soaked in.  By the time the shock wore off it was game time and I was wanded with a metal detector and sent looking for my seat.  We had nosebleed seats in a endzone and it was epic.  Everyone, including myself, was out their minds the entire game, though judging by the amount of beer and liquor bottles smuggled in and discarded in the urinal trough, the wife and I were the only ones not blacked out. It certainly added to the frenzy that the game was amazing and close and the Niners pulled it out in the last minutes of the game.  And then it took over two hours to get home...  A drive that with no traffic (which is fiction in the Bay Area) takes 30 minutes or less.  It was totally worth it though and the wife was a good sport the whole day. Even driving my raving, drunk ass home.  This is what a game is in a true sports town-epic, jaw dropping, frightening and incredible all at once.  God forbid I ever go to a Raiders game.  Unrabble-B