What a Terribly Wonderful Trip

On Monday, this writer drove nine hours to watch his favorite football team get ripped apart in three hours.

Oh, the things people do for sports.

Yes, I made the trek to Green Bay, Wisc., to see the Minnesota Vikings take on the Packers. They were last-minute, free tickets, and considering I'd have probably sold my first born to go to such a game, I figured this was a pretty good deal.

I guess nothing good in life comes free.

Less than two minutes into the game, the Packers were already on the board, as their punt returner sprung free for a touchdown. The beating didn't stop until the backup quarterback ran in a garbage-time TD with a little more than four minutes left, putting the score at 45-7.

Personally, I'm not sure if the Vikings could score 45 points in 60 minutes against cardboard cutouts placed strategically on the field.

At least the National Anthem was pretty cool—you can check out a few of my pictures for evidence of that. And I met a really nice family who had seats in front of me. The four of them came from Chippewa Falls, Wisc.—dad and son were wearing purple, mom and daughter supported the Pack. Apparently, that whole city—which is nearly equidistant from the Twin Cities and Green Bay—shows this same 50/50 split.

Unfortunately, dad and son went home with nothing to cheer about, although junior did seem to have a blast.

And at least the people I went with had fun. I took my Packer fan dad from the Twin Cities, and he was like a kid in a candy shop. My fiance, her mom and a family friend all tagged along, too—wearing yellow and green.

In all, it was a frustrating, maddening, disappointing night—one that left every Vikings fan in the stadium staring blankly off into the night sky, wondering what went wrong.

So, naturally, I would do it all over in a heartbeat. Such is sports fandom.

Did you travel from the Twin Cities to watch the Vikings in enemy territory Monday night? You can submit your photos from the game by clicking the button below.