The official dsmith Superbowl Traveloge

Well folks, GIDForums has gone big time, as they are going to have an official representative at the superbowl this year. No, GIDForums did not send me to the Superbowl, but I am going to self-label myself as the official GIDForums Superbowl reporter.

How I got here
I have been unbelievably lucky this year when it comes to Steelers games. I had a client earlier take me to the Monday night Indianapolis game. I have never had something like this happen in my life.

On Wednesday of this week, I had another client tell me that he was going to get me tickets to the Superbowl. I didn't believe him at first, but he called me that night and said to make my travel arrangements because he had my tickets!

I have just been a big Steelers fan for so long, that people know how big of deal this is to me.

Why a travelogue here?
I know that the Superbowl is big, but I am probably going to be overwhelmed by it myself. I wanted to give some non-fans and non-usa'ers an idea of what this event is like. I am hoping to get some good pictures and try to give a first hand view of the insanity here.

Friday February 3, 2006
Basically a travel day. Getting a flight into Detroit with as short of notice as I had was not only difficult but pretty expensive as well. I live about 1600 miles from Detroit, so flying was the only real option.

The first shock of the day came in the early morning as I was browsing around the web. My wife is going to the game with me and we were planning on taking our 3-month old son. I stumbled across a line that said that all people entering the stadium must have a ticket, including childern.

Uh oh. Surely they don't mean infants? Well, we called just to make sure that they would allow infants. After several routings, we finally contacted someone that said absolutely not without a ticket. . No way are we going to be able to get another ticket and no way are we affording it.

So, we scramble to make arrangements to leave our 3-month old with family and friends that are already going to watch our other 3 kids. My wife was pretty distressed, because he is pretty young to leave. So, we are off to a rough start.

The next shocker comes when we look at our tickets and find out that we are coming home on Monday instead of Tuesday. In checking with the travel agent it seems that it is nearly impossible to get out of Detroit on Monday. So, we have to make last minute adjustments again. And my wife is getting more stressed by the minute.

So the flight itself was pretty uneventful. Walt if you are reading, I did have a lay over in your neck of the woods. It looks mighty frozen and cold

The Steelers fans seem to be everywhere in Detroit. A waiter told us they are expecting about 100,000 Steelers fans coming in to town. Quite a few are here just to be here. The overall feel here is unreal and I can't quite describe it. I have not even been downtown yet, but I can still feel the excitement.

Definitely more to come. I probably wont have any pictures for a few days until I get back. But I will try to do some updates every morning while I am here.

It appears that there is a winter storm moving in this afternoon that should be laying about 4-6" of snow in the area. Hopefully, it won't impact what we want to do much.

Here we go Steelers!

__________________
The best damn Sports Blog period.

Quick Update
Okay, it is Sunday Morning here and I am just doing a quick update as I don't have much time. I am going to be headed down to Detroit downtown in just a few minutes. I will come back and fill in the holes of Saturday when I have more time.

Everybody is here. ESPN Sports Center is being done live daily here. Steelers fans are overwhelmingly represented.

Some famous people we saw/talked to yesterday: Jim Mora (Ex-Saints coach, now a TV analyst), Ron Jaworski (ESPN Analyst), and Kurt Warner (Former Superbowl MVP/QB for the Cardinals).

Fun stuff, more coming including pictures. Today is the big day. I'm nervous - imagine what the players must be like?

__________________
The best damn Sports Blog period.