The trip to San Diego would be my first away game with some fellow .NET members and I learned of Les' passing right before leaving for the airport. Suddenly the weekend's fun and festivities took a back seat to the heartache I felt and the emotional blow. I arrived and met up with Ross (Vetamur) and his friends and our resident road warrior himself, Dave and his buddy Greg.
We headed out to Thrusters on Saturday night. Many 12's had already been at or still at Whiskey Girl prefunking. Met Seahawkfan80 who generously was buying us drinks and the party was under way. The running joke was that it looked like we were in Seattle the entire weekend and when we spotted the occasional Chargers fan we would say "Well that's odd!" or something to that effect. 12's were EVERYWHERE.
Ross' friends were very kind enough to let us hitch a ride with them as they had an SUV rental for the weekend. Dave, being the skinniest of the bunch had the designation of riding in the very back/trunk area so we started calling him TrunkHawk, lol! Dave was his usual fun, free-spirited self.
We decided to drive and park at the stadium, so getting a little bit of a later start than anticipated, we stopped off and grabbed prefunking essentials and made our way to the stadium. We ended up parking about a half mile from P2, and made our way over to P2. It was around noon. Rob (Largent80), Bart (Barthawk) among others were texting/calling to try to meet up but we never did find them. It was a sea of 12's. Pretty amazing! We spent most of the tailgate party looking for shade, drinking a lot of water in between the libations. It wasn't hot, it was HOTTER THAN HELL!
It was crazy trying to get in to the stadium as it seemed to be a mob of hundreds trying to funnel down to one lane and the security were taking their time with their wands and checking fans. Our seats were in the nosebleeds and the only refuge from the blazing Sun and temps was the concourse or tunnels which I spent a lot of time in. It was quite literally almost unbearable. The sunscreen was melting off my face and stinging my eyes. I drank no less than 4 overpriced bottles of water during the game.
The stadium is a dump, holy cow. Really drives home the quality and beautiful stadium we 12's can be proud of to call home.
With Les firmly on my mind, with the ridiculous temperatures, a Seahawks team that simply did not resemble the Championship team we have grown accustomed to, it just had this weird, sad vibe.
One quick note about the temps. Anybody who wants to think the heat did not play a significant factor in how we performed is fooling only themselves. Having said that, the Chargers were the ones who Earned Everything and Always Competed for 60 minutes, controlling literally 40 of those minutes. Our players were not prepared for that kind of heat and it showed. Kudos to the Chargers who beat us fair and square.
Count me in the group who thinks this loss was a good thing. A little humility isn't a bad thing, especially early in the season. We are not invincible. We are going to get every opponent's best shot. For the Chargers, the played the game like this was their Super Bowl. It probably was.
The Broncos will be the first casualty of our loss. They will be pissed off, focused and determined not to have a back-to-back performance like that, especially at home.
After the game Dave, Greg and I ended up at Whiskey Girl for a bit drowning our sorrows and praying for a Bears win to spoil the 49ers new stadium opener. We were rewarded with a 4 turnover performance from Kaep. His facial expression was a healing elixir to our wounds.
My message to the group is that while we couldn't control the outcome of the game, we most certainly could control having a good time the rest of the trip, and that we did.
We toasted to Les, and to the bonds of friendship that have been forged through this site, that will last a lifetime. For it was Ross that even made this trip possible for me. Without him, I would not have been able to make it due to my wife's recent layoff at Microsoft. His generosity underscores the special community and bond that was such a big part of Les' life.
Win or lose, nothing can replace good memories, good friendships. These, like Les, will endure in our hearts and memories forever.
We headed out to Thrusters on Saturday night. Many 12's had already been at or still at Whiskey Girl prefunking. Met Seahawkfan80 who generously was buying us drinks and the party was under way. The running joke was that it looked like we were in Seattle the entire weekend and when we spotted the occasional Chargers fan we would say "Well that's odd!" or something to that effect. 12's were EVERYWHERE.
Ross' friends were very kind enough to let us hitch a ride with them as they had an SUV rental for the weekend. Dave, being the skinniest of the bunch had the designation of riding in the very back/trunk area so we started calling him TrunkHawk, lol! Dave was his usual fun, free-spirited self.
We decided to drive and park at the stadium, so getting a little bit of a later start than anticipated, we stopped off and grabbed prefunking essentials and made our way to the stadium. We ended up parking about a half mile from P2, and made our way over to P2. It was around noon. Rob (Largent80), Bart (Barthawk) among others were texting/calling to try to meet up but we never did find them. It was a sea of 12's. Pretty amazing! We spent most of the tailgate party looking for shade, drinking a lot of water in between the libations. It wasn't hot, it was HOTTER THAN HELL!
It was crazy trying to get in to the stadium as it seemed to be a mob of hundreds trying to funnel down to one lane and the security were taking their time with their wands and checking fans. Our seats were in the nosebleeds and the only refuge from the blazing Sun and temps was the concourse or tunnels which I spent a lot of time in. It was quite literally almost unbearable. The sunscreen was melting off my face and stinging my eyes. I drank no less than 4 overpriced bottles of water during the game.
The stadium is a dump, holy cow. Really drives home the quality and beautiful stadium we 12's can be proud of to call home.
With Les firmly on my mind, with the ridiculous temperatures, a Seahawks team that simply did not resemble the Championship team we have grown accustomed to, it just had this weird, sad vibe.
One quick note about the temps. Anybody who wants to think the heat did not play a significant factor in how we performed is fooling only themselves. Having said that, the Chargers were the ones who Earned Everything and Always Competed for 60 minutes, controlling literally 40 of those minutes. Our players were not prepared for that kind of heat and it showed. Kudos to the Chargers who beat us fair and square.
Count me in the group who thinks this loss was a good thing. A little humility isn't a bad thing, especially early in the season. We are not invincible. We are going to get every opponent's best shot. For the Chargers, the played the game like this was their Super Bowl. It probably was.
The Broncos will be the first casualty of our loss. They will be pissed off, focused and determined not to have a back-to-back performance like that, especially at home.
After the game Dave, Greg and I ended up at Whiskey Girl for a bit drowning our sorrows and praying for a Bears win to spoil the 49ers new stadium opener. We were rewarded with a 4 turnover performance from Kaep. His facial expression was a healing elixir to our wounds.
My message to the group is that while we couldn't control the outcome of the game, we most certainly could control having a good time the rest of the trip, and that we did.
We toasted to Les, and to the bonds of friendship that have been forged through this site, that will last a lifetime. For it was Ross that even made this trip possible for me. Without him, I would not have been able to make it due to my wife's recent layoff at Microsoft. His generosity underscores the special community and bond that was such a big part of Les' life.
Win or lose, nothing can replace good memories, good friendships. These, like Les, will endure in our hearts and memories forever.
