| It is 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday, and Ed is jumping on the bed to wake me up. He has decided that we need to go to the Michigan game today. However, we have no tickets, and no real directions to get us to the stadium. Seeing the excitement on his face, I rolled out of bed and threw on some clothes. I had on my Michigan workout pants and Ed had on his Michigan hat and t-shirt that I got him for his birthday. We hopped in the car and headed to Ann Arbor. Once we started getting closer, we just had to follow the line of cars that had Michigan flags and/or Michigan stickers. We pulled into a parking garage, with no clue of how far we were from the stadium. There were plenty of other Michigan fans parking there, so we figured we were not too far. We started walking, and found a guy selling his two extra tickets...and we got them for less than face value!! I went into a store and got a Michigan football t-shirt and we preceded to the stadium. Of course, we first had to stop and ask directions to the Big House. It was not much further down, that we encountered the beginnings of the tailgating. We found that most of the fraternity houses are right there on State Street. The alcohol was flowing, and the music was blaring. We followed the crowd, and discovered a big field where there was a huge tailgate going on. Why??? We had managed to pick the homecoming game for our first experience. That made it all the more exciting, not to mention the fact that Minnesota was undefeated going into today's game. We continued to walk towards the stadium, and finally got our first glance of the Big House. Ed stopped to take a picture - and to compose himself. He was so excited to be here, and I was happy just seeing him happy. We made it through the ticket takers, and stopped to take a couple of other pictures. Ed in front of a sculpture of the "M", and another one of him with the stadium in the background. There was food everywhere, and I could not wait to taste it all. We found our seats - we were in Section 40, Row 70, Seats 17 & 18. They were perfect...we were up high enough to see everything, right by an exit, and right on the aisle. We could smell the food from our seats, so we ate a couple of hotdogs and then drank some coffee (Ed) and hot chocolate (Stacy). It was only 10:30, and the game did not kick off until 12 noon. It was windy and very cold, but once we had our hot beverages, we were ready for the game to start. The game was PHENOMENAL!!!! There was not a slow moment in the game. The energy of the crowd was intoxicating and infectious. We were yelling and jumping with everyone. The plays on both sides of the field were great, and it turned into a really tense moment near the end. With just 1:57 left to go, Michigan was trailing 24-21, and they got the ball back. What looked like a pass to just get yardage and a first down turned into the winning 31-yard touchdown by tight end Tyler Ecker. The stadium went nuts - everyone was screaming and jumping up and down, high fiving. It was an amazing feeling. When the clock wound down, Braylon Edwards did a back flip and the band started playing "The Victors" and the entire stadium broke into song. We stuck around for awhile afterwards so that we could avoid the crowd - hahahahaha. We learned that when the stadium sets a record for the most spectators at an NCAA Football game - over 111,000 - you can not avoid the crowds. We got a few pictures inside the stadium, and headed out into the crowd. We got some distance between us and the stadium, and all you could see in front of, and behind, us was a sea of fans. We took our time walking back to the car - which turned out to be quite a walk to the stadium. This was the best Saturday that we have spent in a long time. Ed and I were able to spend some time together and enjoy each other. Between both of us working (him 6 days a week) and me going to school, our time together is hard to come by. Being at the Big House is something that neither of us will ever forget. Now comes the hard part, keeping Ed from wanting to do this with every home game. Looks like Season Tickets will be on our list for next year!!
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Sunday, October 10, 2004
Go Blue!!
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