Day 10 – Milwaukee – Green Bay

I was up and on the road by 9.30 this morning, heading north out of Milwaukee and driving up to Green Bay for the next three nights. It is just over a two hour drive and I stopped at Walmart along the way to get a battery for my second camera. I also picked up a few different Pringles cans I did not have from the grocery section. Then I had to get a screwdriver to use to bottom open some cans from the bottom that I want to send home next week.

I arrived at the Clarion Hotel where I am staying tonight and arranged to get an early check in. I also arranged for a return ticket on their shuttle bus to the Green Bay vs. Arizona Cardinals NFL game. I went up to the room and had a few hours on the computer to check the Sydney newspapers and the sports results from Friday night at home.

The shuttle left the hotel at 5pm for the 7pm kickoff at Lambeau Field, the Packers home ground. On the way to the stadium the bus had an accident and the police stopped the driver from taking us the rest of the way. Everyone on the bus had to walk about one mile to get to the stadium.

Once there I had to get my ticket from the Will Call ticket window at the northern end of the stadium before heading around to the western side to enter the ground. Inside the stadium I went to the Packers Shop to get some merchandise and get a jersey for someone else that I was asked to get.

I then got some food to eat before heading up to my seat. I was lucky to get a seat on the 20 yard line in the 26th row which is about one third of the way up the grand stand. It was a very good seat to watch from. Before the game they introduced a couple of the former players to the crowd. Then the national anthem was sung followed by the National flag being raised for the first time this season, also before the game started there was a fly over by a two air force jets.

The seats were only a metal seat without any padding or back to them, you could hire a cushioned seat with back on it to sit over the metal or a lot of the regular supporters have their own seats they bring to every game.

The game then started and the Cardinals took the lead after a field goal and the Packers failed to do any good with their first set of plays. So the Cardinals took 3-0 lead at quarter time. The Cardinals then scored another field goal to take a six nil lead before the Packers finally got a set of good plays together and finished with a two touchdowns and kicked both goals to take a 14-6 lead at half time.

The third quarter was all Cardinals as they scored two touchdowns to take a 20 to 14 lead to three quarter time. Within thirty seconds of the final quarter Green Bay was able to score a touchdown with the Quarterback throwing a pass from play on their own three yard line and the receiver ran 97 yards to touchdown. The crowd went wild as the receiver ran down the field chased by a defender that could not quite catch up to him to bring him down. The conversion gave Green Bay a one point lead and another touchdown five minutes later extended this lead to 8 which was the last score of the game. The final score was 28 to 20 in favour of Green Bay with the crowd of just over 67,000 very happy with the result.

I left the stadium after taking a some photos and walked back to the area the bus was waiting for us to go back to the hotel. We had a wait of about 30 minutes till the bus left for the return trip and I once back at the hotel I went straight up to my room and it was not long before I was asleep.