Oklahoma and the PGA

We spent Thursday and Friday at the PGA Championship in Tulsa Oklahoma and watched Tiger Woods bitchslap the competition and the Southern Hills Course en route to a 63 and the lowest round ever in a major. The course is a monster, unlike any I have ever seen and the mere spectacle of the PGA Championship is truly staggering. 70,000+ fans on a golf course is a sight to see. Props to Rog for hooking up Wannamaker Club tickets, without the air conditioned refuge my Canadian ass would have been in the ER tent for sure. The shitty thing was no cameras or cell phones allowed so you will have to do with the pro photogs work.

You would expect that we were loaded the whole time but we actually were rather well behaved - the combination of a 110 degree humidex and where we stayed both conributed. We picked up Roger's old buddy Tony Roper at the airport Thursday after the golf and headed to his sister's place in Pryor Creek, OK, about 45 minutes from Tulsa. Leslie and Mike Considine and their kids were the most amazing hosts - we certainly got a taste of Southern hospitality and the best meals of the trip! Pryor is a town of about 10,000 in a rural area, a true small American town that lives and dies on their high school football team just like in Friday Night Lights (my favorite, and best show on TV by the way). Mike happens to be the coach of the local team, the Prior Tigers, who have a logo and uniforms exactly the same as the Dillon Panthers from FNL. It was like we were literally staying with Coach Taylor and his wife Connie(for you FNL fans). We actually got up early and took in a scrimmage Saturday morning before leaving. Thanks again for an amazing 2 days in Pryor with Mike, Leslie, Christian, Daniel, Katie and Will, Peter and of course the notorious Tony Roper who, to describe adequately, we would need an entire new blog. Oh yeah while we were there Tony also invented a new sport called Dockerball which combines soccer, barbequeing on a deck, and drinking. This might be my big chance. The time in Oklahoma including both the golf and our time in Pryor was a real twilight zone, but some of the best times on the tour. More stories to follow in the wrap up!

We're back in KC now and pregaming hard before Jays-Royals game tonight. Cookie Rojas Bobble night suckaz...wish you were here. Its also Roger's B-day, guaranteed we will be in fine form tonight after the game. If I can work a computer I will post an update. Don't hold your breath.

Home of the World Champions

We dragged ourselves onto the highway and headed to St. Louis. After a few pregamers at the bar former known as Lefty's Longneck Lounge, we headed into "Baseball Heaven". 24oz beers immediately in hand we headed to som egreat seats olang the right fiels line just past 1st base. Busch Stadium is absolutely beautiful - a must see for any baseball fan. It's very easy when watching the St. Louis Cardinals to forget they are the reigning World Series Champs. A terrible season has the locals thinking football but a 10-run 5th inning showed the Redbirds still have a little bite left in them. Speaking of bite, Busch has great ballpark food as well, Toth had what he described as "the best meal of his life" - nachos with cheese and beef, a jumbo brat and 24oz beer.

Roger's buddy Kevin had great seats for us but he had to leave the game early to hit Ozzfest. We stayed at kevin's place just outside St. Louis though and met up later that night. I might be going out on a limb here but I'm willing to bet Kevin has the nicest house of anyone on the floor at Ozzfest that night. Pretty much the nicest street and houses I have ever seen firsthand, how the hell do we end up in these places? (Pics will be loaded soon - check back)

Chicago - It's a Drinking Town

Part of the reason the posts have been fewer and farther in between is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to stay sober. Between our great hosts and the bar across the street and the craziness that is Wrigley and the Wrigleyville neighbourhood it's pretty much impossible to stay stright for any meaningful amount of time. Thus the delay in updates, then again I'm on vacation, is there any better time to be loaded 24-7?

Chicago is, as the locals call it, "A Drinkin' Town". Truer words have never been spoken. An unbelievable weekend - and thats just what I can remember! On to St Louis we go...Roger can you drive?

Note - I'm having some problems loading photos, I'll try to get a few more from Wrigley and St. Louis/KC loaded up later tonight

A few more Chicago pics

One of the highlights of the trip - god the female Cub fans are gorgeous especially Jaime.




Our home in Chicago

How about this 300lb+ dude ko'd at the bar.

My Liver Hates it When I Go To Chicago

Sorry about the lack of updates over the last couple of days, the Chicago leg of the trip has been one crazy bender from the minute we got here. Saturday we got in and hooked up with Mark & Amy, friends of Roger who were putting us up. They turned out to be a riot and have taken great care of us.

The three of us, still hurting in a big way from Friday's antics in Milwaukee headed down to Wrigley around 2ish. Tickets for the game were still astronomically priced so we decided to set up shop and watch the game at one of the bars outside the stadium instead of dropping huge coin on another game seeing as we already had tickets for the Sunday nighter with Tom Glavine going for win #300. Had a great time down at The Cubby Bear, John Barleycorn, Sluggers and then headed back to Mark's place. Had a bunch more drinks and a pizza then hit the bar at the end of the street, "The Four Treys" which is a funny little whole in the wall but is always packed. It's about 60 meters from where were staying. Gong Show there last night - after Rog Mark and Amy went to bed, headed to Four Treys and met a bunch of cool people durnig the debauch, when Jim went home after 2am I ended up rolling down the street to a party for a few more with the locals, great time. Stumbled in just after 5am, slept a few hours and then it was back on the horse for the big game at Wrigley. I'll do a post on Wrigley itself later but Sunday was more of the same, partying at a huge street festival just a couple of blocks over from Mark's in the afternoon and then to see the CUBBIES!

On thing I must mention is how much everybody drinks here. Neighbourhood bars were packed at 12:30 today with people inside from 21-65. What devotion to the craft. But then again, how can you drink all day if you don't start in the morning?

Here are some pics from the Chicago stop:

Doing What We Do Best

The Brewers game was a complete gong show with the home team winning 2-1 and all of us having way too much fun. We left our hotel around 3 and ran the gauntlet of bars on the street near the ballparkright down by Miller Park (Wong's had a freaking BOWLING ALLEY in it no shit!). The fact that I am even on this computer now tells you who is the last man standing. Miller Park was amazing as were the awesome little holes in the wall near the ballpark that assisted us in our quest earlier in the day. We did some how spend 6 of the 9 innings in the FRONT ROW behind 3rd base, when we finally got kicked out of the seats all the people around the area were bitching out the usher who wanted us out - we were fan favorites as you would expect lol. Spent a while at Kelly's Bleachers after the game, our new buddy Anthony the manager kept comping us very big Jager shots which I loved but ultimately probably cut the evening short. Way too drunk to expand on it all but let the pics tell the story...Tomorrow Chi-town!

They Take Their Beer Seriously In Milwaukee

So we're in Milwaukee now, have our tickets for tonights Brewers-Phillies game at Miller Park. We brought a couple of those Molson Canadian cooler backpacks (best beer promo item EVER) and will be welcomed like Nobel Prize winners when we show it off tailgating before the game. Beer is religion in this town, and for the first time in my life I feel quite spiritual.

After an afternoon tour of the Miller Brewing Co. we will be joining the locals for a few in the parking lot before the game and searching for these Milwaukee legends, who truly deserve a Nobel nomination.

Getting Down to Business

So after our excursion at Nike, we headed to Brooklyn Park to pick up Rog. Now that the full team was assembled, it was obvious we needed to get to work. Work on a nice afternoon buzz that is. We hit some cool spot close by (The Beach House), hit the wood at the outdoor patio and began to get to it.

Did I mention we're hitting the PGA Championship? Rog broke out the passes for our viewing pleaseure.


Later on we busted out of Minneapolis and cruised to Milwaukee so we could have a full day of pregaming before we hit up Miller Park. Got our tix online and hooked up at a hotel a few miles from downtown. The best feature of our suite ("The Conference Centre") undoubtedly is the 18 foot boardroom table you see in the pic. We are currently meeting in the boardroom over a case of Canadian discussing Cubs tickets, Jim's quest for leather chaps, and my crazy ping pong skillz which will be on display tomorrow after the game. Life is good.

The Search for the Gayest Shoes in America

We didn't have time to make it to Chiefs camp so we thought we'd kill a bit of time at some huge outlet mall. Jim was searching for buttless chaps (I didn't ask)which he told me of while walking around the Nike store, which inspired me to snap a few pics of probably the gaudiest kicks in the USA.

Your Winner: The Nike Air Zoom Butt Safari

The Day After

As Minneapolis deals with the collapse of the I35, people around here are really freaked out. 20-30 people are still missing. The Twins-Royals game is cancelled today so we are going to pick up Roger and head straight to Wisconsin and check out Chiefs training camp, thanks to a heads up audible from Rog. This pic is today's front cover of the Mpls-St Paul Pioneer Press.

Is this really happening?

Picked up JT, and hit the road this afternoon. After enduring a lengthy border delay we hit Gastrak (my all time favorite gas station and the official start to most trips) and were on the way to Minneapolis. My new ride has XM satellite radio so the long trip was perfect to check out the various channels the service provides. Shortly after 6 pm we were around Fargo and I discovered a series of channels that broadcast local traffic in the largest US cities.

After rolling through reports from LA, New York, Chicago etc we found a Minneapolis traffic station and turned it on. The girl doing the traffic cycled through a bunch of generic traffic info and then, almost as if normal mentioned "I35 is closed to traffic both ways due to a bridge collapse". This seemed pretty crazy but there was no further info and it seemed like just a really bad traffic situation for the locals. We moved on thru the dial not thinking much of it.

A little later we had the Twins-Royals game on the radio. Not long after we tuned in the Twins broadcaster announced the following: "The Twins PR staff has just informed us that tomorrows game (the one we were going to be at) has been postponed due to today's tragedy". WTF?? Obviously this was a very serious situation, much more than we could have imagined. By now I'm sure you have seen the pics and heard the details of the 7+ dead, many more injured and traffic chaos in the Twin Cities.

Listening to CNN the rest of the way the scope of the tragedy became apparent. Roger who we'll be picking up tomorrow, was in the parking lot of the Metrodome leaving his car to go into the game when the flurry of sirens and helicopters appeared on the scene. Our chat was brief but it was obviously a surreal scene - I'll update more on what it was like at the dome tomorrow when we pick him up and have a chance to get the full details.

So the game is off tomorrow and we'll probably head straight to Milwaukee and really get this trip started, far away from the I35 and the Metrodome. Thoughts right now are with the victims of the collapse. Hopefully tomorrow will be more about booze, baseball and gas station cuisine but right now we're just kinda watching CNN with our jaws on the floor.

OUT!

Just leavin to pick up JT and hit the road. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pics and some updates from the road. Minneapolis tomorrow, Milwaukee Friday. Pop back for updates through the week. HUS