Patriots List Trip
Arizona, September 19, 2004

Friday, September 17, 2004
A much smaller party left my humble abode in Nashua, NH than has on prior occasions. Christianna and I were supposed to leave at 9:30 from Manchester, but were lucky enough to get a call at home prior to leaving that our flight was delayed 3 hours. We arrived in Arizona almost 6 hours late due to (obviously) missing the connection in Cincinnati. After visiting old family friends in Phoenix, we headed over to the Westin Kierland Resort and spa. Walking in, we immediately saw Bama and Karen, saying hi to both. We checked in, put our bags away, and headed back down to meet up with everyone who was there. They were hanging out in an open area out back, just feet from the entrance to the bar. Hey, no one said Pats fans were stupid. Cecil and Bama had already lit up their cigars, and I received my Cuban cigar from my favorite Nova Scotian. Got a great shot of Phil with his "redecorated" flag. It was a quiet night, and late by this point, and slowly one by one, people headed back to their own hotels (Steve) or to their rooms upstairs. As would become the norm on this trip, George and I sat around talking football till after 1 am, and easily closing the bar. Since it was now about 4:30am for me eastern time, we did call it a night and headed off to our respective rooms.

Saturday, September 18
After waking up rather lazily, Chris and I had breakfast and headed downstairs. It seemed like the group had just moved tables from last night, but was pretty much right back where they had started. After a few minutes, Karen came and joined us, telling us about some player she had just talked to. Cecil and I discussed the pathetic football level at Boston College, before I headed off to play some golf. Right behind where the tables were (surrounded by the back side of the hotel) the Resort had three nine-hole courses linked up, and paying $60 let you play 18 holes, including a cart and a cooler full of ice. Chris decided to come along and keep me company as I got paired up a with a couple from Illinois. Plus this way she got to drive the golf cart. While I didn't play well, at least I looked good (ha!) doing it. Surprisingly, even playing at 3 in the afternoon, it was just beautiful on the course. And the sites surrounding the course were just beautiful. Eventually the clouds came in, and as much as I hate a picture of just me ... it got pretty damn dark before it just came pouring down. We floored the golf cart and got back to the hotel in time for a shower and then heading to dinner at Morton's Steakhouse.

Our group got a room to ourselves thanks to Deborah. Beautiful women can just get whatever they want! And then in came the waitress with the menu tray, showing what you could choose. I wanted one of each! The look of hunger around the table is probably best spoken for by this trio. Deborah and Phil enjoyed the wine that we had ordered, while the rest of the list group wasn't exactly having a terrible time either. Then the food arrived ... and it was probably the only time the entire weekend that the entire group just shut up. Damn that meal was good. All $1500 of it, which for our group of 13 wasn't too bad. Then the old people (read Bama and Cecil) along with some others decided to wait for the hotel bus to come pick them up, while Deborah, Christianna, Phil, Dave and myself decided to walk the 4 blocks back to the hotel. And of course, we arrived first. On the way back, I asked Dave if he smoked cigars, and he said "Once a year." And so this was the perfect weekend to have the first of this year, so when we got back, we hooked up with Al, headed back to our favorite spot of the hotel, and lit 'em up! George and Steve joined up with us, as we hung around for a couple of hours just shooting the shit and enjoying a great night with great friends. George and I this time had a companion for a little bit after everyone else had left, as Bama kept us company for a bit. He was still recovering from the Cadillac Williams/Auburn arguement that he had with our neighbor from the north Cecil. This night will always be remembered for the shots going back and forth not only over the above arguement, but anything else we could come up with. Not to get too sentimental, but you could tell the level of friendship amongst everyone who had sat around and just laughed the night away as a group. The night once again ended just around 1, with George and I closing the bar.

Sunday, September 19 -- Game Day
We all had agreed to meet up in the hotel lobby at 8:30 in the morning so we could caravan over to the stadium, which was about 20-25 minutes away. We all wanted to get over to McDuffys and catch the first set of games, and more importantly Mike King. Of course, first we had to take a picture of our entire group which included the Paxtons (just left of the middle of the picture). Then we had to do a quick list picture, which as Karen reminded me ... is something that I'm always bugging people about. Everyone was there except for Miguel who, along with his wife Nancy, was staying with a friend and was going to meet us at the bar. Finally, we headed out to the famous McDuffys Pub. And then, being part of the King crew, we didn't have to pay the cover charge, and once we went into a sports fans heaven (tons of TVs and tons of cute women!) we met up with Mike King, who had set us up royally. We had a huge area set aside for our group of 30 I believe it was, including a sofa area. A lot of people were very happy to meet Mike and thank him for all he had done, including Dave and Karen, as well as George, Steve and Cecil. Finding a nice black leather love seat, Chris and I made ourselves comfortable. Phil was a star of the bar, putting his flag up in a nice spot, right next to the aforementioned sofa area. Our group was in a tight area, but we had enough space, and hell, we were pretty much just sharing the bar with mostly Pats fans anyway. Slowly our group started heading off towards the stadium, which was about a three or four block walk away. Chris, Phil and I were the last to leave, as we went to join our group in the stadium.

We arrived at our seats just in time to catch the opening of the pre-game honoring of Tillman. The Marine Silent were just incredible to watch, the precision, the skill ... hell, most of our group would have dropped their guns at least 10 times. Our seats were in the corner, hidden under an overhang keeping us out of the sun. We were on the side of the Patriots bench. Mike was the one who got to sit with Steve, as we tried our hardest to push him away from our group! We were able to get Bama to walk down three stairs to take a nice picture with Phil. It was then time for the National Anthem, as the US Flag that was brought out covered almost the entire field. The flyover by the F15s was pretty nice as well!

Game time! It was amazing to just look around the stadium and see the incredible number of Pats fans that were attending the game. The Pats attacked the endzone in front of us, scoring their first TD there. After the first half was over, the Cardinals and the NFL put on a great tribute to Pat Tillman. Having his wife, brother and other family members on the field was very touching and the huge Tillman jersey that was unfurled surely gave all those in attendance goosebumps. Once the game continued, the game was rather lackluster. The Pats playing blase, while the Cards just weren't good enough to make this too much of a game. Of course, our group didn't care in the least. As we settled in for the fourth quarter, Deborah, Steve and Mike still had smiles on their faces, as the Pats trudged along for win #17 in a row. With the game's outcome being set, it was once again very noticeable the number of Pats fans ... and the Cards fans. And then it was pretty much official ... Pats win! Pats win! We took one last picture before heading out of the stadium, and got a chance to take a picture of the banner that a few people in front of us had in the stadium. It still amazes me that Jimmy and Bitch, two friends I didn't even know were going to the game ... are in the background of that last picture (the two guys with sleeveless shirts). Anyway ... yep ... our Patriots had won 17 in a row. Wow!

We headed back to McDuffys slowly. George, Dave, Chris and I headed back as a group, as we knew everyone would make their way back on their own. Dave decided to have his second cigar of the year, as I gave him another good one, and we started the celebrations. We hung around waiting for people to come back, trying to figure out why it was taking so long. Then we remembered the pedicab service provided in the area, and we saw some poor guy having to bring these two back on his pedicab. We're not sure if the poor kid headed right to the hospital when he was done with this trip. Once everyone came back, we took another list picture, and once again Miguel wasn't around. I think he's camera shy ... as I don't remember why he didn't get in this picture. Wait ... no, caught him in a group picture so Miguel isn't camera shy after all! What was I thinking? We took a couple more pictures at the post-game party before heading out, including one more with just Chris and I.

We headed back to the hotel to continue our celebrations. Near the tables we had sat around each night, was a large outdoor fireplace, which is the best way to describe it. It had seats around it, and we decided to make that our spot to celebrate the win. Once again, a fresh batch of cigars was lit and the conversation turned to ... well football of course. Cecil and Steve sat on one bench, as we had to keep Bama away from Cecil and stop the Auburn talk. Bama and Phil kept up the chatter, while Karen, not Al, was a bit chilly in the Arizona dessert. We got one last picture of a group of us before everyone started heading out. Eventually it started getting late and people started heading out, first Phil, Karen and Al ... and then slowly everyone else. And for the last time, George and I closed the bar.

Monday, September 20
I took some random pictures from the room of the back patio (showing the table we sat at on Saturday), three different ones showing the beautiful lobby, the golf course, the front entrance to the hotel and finally the convertible we had rented.

Epilogue
Once again the list trip was just a tremendous time. It is such a great time to meet people that you unfortunately in some cases only get to meet once a year. Friendships have develeped from these trips that show it's not just about football, but football is what has brought all of us together. I'd highly recommend to anyone who might be interested to make this trip next year. I made the comment to the group there, and I'll say it again here ... the only thing I hate about these trips is the day after the game is over when everyone heads home, and I won't get to see some of those friends for another year. Thanks to Mike King for all the work he put into it ... and thanks to Rich (Bama) for his work with the tickets. Anyway ... let's go Pats ... and let's break the record.