Here We Go Steelers!!

August 18th turned turned out to be one crazy day. Not only was it our first Steelers game, our car broke down. At least the car broke down in Pittsburgh right as we got to our hotel. The sad part about the car is that we had just fixed it a month ago and here we were again getting it towed. I've been a member of AAA for years and never had a claim and now I've had two within two months. Anyone looking for a used VW Jetta Wagon??

Back to the good part...WE'RE GOING TO A STEELERS GAME!! They were playing the Eagles that night. GREAT because I am not an Eagles fan and even more I am not a Michael Vick fan! We have a friend that has season tickets so we met him and his wife for dinner at Jerome Bettis' grille 36 before the game. The food was amazing and my drink was even better! Who wouldn't like a liter of multiple rums with fruit juice?

After dinner we walked to Heinz Field which was only a block away from Bettis' place. You could feel the excitement in the air. Everywhere you looked it was a sea of black and gold. People we buying programs, buying t-shirts and getting their faces painted. We found our way to our seats. I have a problem that when I go to a concert or something like a Steelers game I want great seats close or I don't want to go. I found us seats online for a good chunk of money but still not badly priced for preseason tickets. We were in section 137, row C! Being 3 rows from the field was amazing!! It was thrilling be so close to the players to take pictures. Cassidy was in awe of Hines Ward. I think if she could have rushed the field to hug him she would've.

I won't go into details about the game other than we won and I got to see my man, Troy, get an interception. One thing we didn't realize since it was our first game was that during half time and at the end of the game the players go back into the locker through steps that happened to be in from of our section. This gave us the opportunity for some good photos. At the end of the game they will throw their towels and gloves up into the seats. Sadly we didn't get anything, but there is always next time.

The next morning we waited to hear from the garage about the car. Around noon they called to say that they couldn't fix it so I called mom and dad and they got a car dolly and headed to Pittsburgh to get us. Since we had 3 hours or so till they got there we decided to take the Heinz Field tour. The tour was better than I could have expected. We went to the club level, suites, press box and learned a lot of Steeler/Heinz Field history. The best part was that we got to go in the locker room.

In the locker room there are 2 huge logos on the floor. One says "Steelers" and the other is their logo. You are not permitted to step on them and even the players avoid them. We didn't have much time in the locker room but I did get my picture in Troy's locker and Cassidy got hers taken in Hines'. When we left the locker room our guide took us down the hall and out the chute where the players come out for a game. That was really neat! We got to be on the field but only the one corner of it. It was an amazing to look at the stadium from the field.

If you are ever in Pittsburgh or plan to be, visit www.steelers.com and see when they are offering tours. It is worth the time and money and it wasn't really that expensive. Plus it's right beside the Carnegie Science Center.

After our tour and lunch at the Tilted Kilt we grabbed a cab to the auto shop and waited for mom and dad there. Of course this was the day that it was storming off and on in Pittsburgh and right when they arrived it rained so bad that there was flash flooding in area. Thank the Lord above that we weren't in those areas. After we hooked up the car we started the long drive home. THANKS MOM AND DAD!! WE LOVE YOU!

I created a slideshow from our trip. I hope you enjoy it and GO STEELERS!!

This slideshow design generated with Smilebox

Don't always listen to Mom!

Mom is what I like to call my GPS. Why Mom, you ask? Well, it's because she likes to tell me what to do. Just kidding! Mom knows I like to kid her. Anyways, on a trip to Long Beach on Long Island several weeks ago I didn't print out directions and decided to follow what "mom" said to do. BIG MISTAKE!!

She took me thru the Holland Tunnel and into Manhattan! Funny thing is about an hour or so before that I was saying that I never wanted to drive to or in NYC. I think I jinxed myself! My "city driving" kicked in and I was cutting people off and turning on red with the best of them.

At one time we thought we were going to see an accident and all I did was cover my eyes and say "I didn't have time to witness anything today." Later we joked that covering your eyes was how you drive in the city.

About an hour or so later we finally arrived at our destination with the help from a new GPS called Pat! Cassidy had quite an experience that day but laughed all the way. Of course now she wants to stay in NYC someday and not drive through it.