Our buddy Rusty flew up from Flagler Beach, Florida to drive down to the Dolphins game with Red (Andy's Golden Retriever) and Andy. They drove straight through to Rusty's place in Flagler and hooked up with the rest of the guys in Ft. Lauderdale a few days later. The Miami crew consisted of Andy's lifelong friends from Ohio who had moved away over the years. They made the trip from all points on the compass. These guys remain close and get together somewhere a few times a year.

Rusty is as big of a Dolphins fan as we are Browns fans. He runs a Dolphins club, Fin Fans of Flagler, and he has a lot of connections within the Dolphins organization. He arranged a private stadium tour for our group on Saturday, a couple hours of beers and shots with Dolphins' legend Jim Kiick afterwards, and pre-game field passes for Sunday. Thanks to Rusty we really got the royal treatment. Meeting Jim Kiick was a blast. He had some really hilarious stories to tell about the good old days in the NFL!! Clck Red's photo to visit the Miami photo gallery.

 

 

The Cinci trip was great. Bengals fans love their tailgating as much as Browns fans. Jason (a.k.a. Mills), a good bud in Cinci, invited us to join him, his wife Katie and the rest of their Bengals group for the pregame tailgate. It rained like hell from the time we left Canton until the time we returned home, but thanks to Mills we tailgated under an overpass that kept the elements from dampening the party. We didn't even need to set up any camopies. Even better, this spot was mere steps from Paul Brown Stadium. If memory serves, the spot only cost $25-$30. Heck, even at $35 it would be worth every penny.

We whipped up a batch of Cincinnati Chili and served it 5-way to any takers. We had some of the local Cincinnatians tell us that it was as good as, if not better than, their local Skyline chili....a Cincinnati institution.

Let us know if you plan to travel to Cinci for a game, we can hook you up with a kick-ass tailgating spot right in front of the stadium.

We had a lot of good photos from this trip, but somehow they've gone missing

 

 

One thing that we can tell you for certain....... tailgating in Indy is nothing like tailgating in Cleveland. Nobody arrives much before 10am, even on an unbelievable indian summer day like we had. We had no locals to offer up any information ahead of time regarding parking or tailgating, so we were pretty much flying by the seat of our pants. We chose to tailgate in the "McCarty Lot" owned by Indianapolis Parking LLC. Their representitive, with whom we had the pleasure of dealing, didn't arrive until around 9:30am (about three hours after we had already set up). She was the nastiest, rudest, most unprofessional person you could ever imagine. She was dressed in rags and looked as if she had just come from an all night beer bender at the trailer park. She was unwilling to work with us on any level and she actually made us move our entire set up a total of about five feet, which meant moving our vehicle, the canopies and all of our chairs and our tables loaded with food....just because "she said so". After that she disappeared (probably back to bed or her beer).

Okay," lot nazi" aside, we had a great time tailgating and while inside Lucas Oil Stadium. There were lots of Browns fans around and the Colts fans treated us pretty well. So well, in fact, that we were embarrassed to tell them that they would probably not be as well received by many Browns fans if they found their way to Cleveland.

So, if you ever plan to head to Indy enjoy your time there, the fans are good folks. But, under NO circumstances use any lot owned by Indianapolis Parking LLC. That's their logo at the top of the panel. If you see it, save yourself the hassle and tailgate somewhere else. We would recommend going through Park Whiz or IWS Realty . Click the FansVan photo to the right to visit the Indy photo gallery.

 

Green Bay was a great choice for this year's roadie. The Lambeau experience was everything that we expected it to be and more.....or less if you take the game in to consideration. The drive from Canton took nearly 11 hours in the FansVan. It would have been much quicker, but at around 8 miles per gallon and with a less than reliable fuel gauge, we had to make three fuel stops just to play it safe. But the FansVan came through once again....running like a champ!

Game day in Green Bay is like nothing we've ever seen. There are event tents set up everywhere you turn, complete with live music and a cash bar. Thanks to Jon T, who is Cathy's college buddy from The Ohio State University and our local contact in Green Bay, our tailgate was epic. We set up around 9AM right in the thick of things on the corner of Potts Ave and Holmgren Way. It was the perfect spot in a highly visible / high traffic area just a couple of blocks from the stadium. Browns fans continuously wandered in as if being "drawn to the light". At one point we estimated our numbers to be between 50 and 60 tailgaters sporting both Browns and Packers gear! We had plenty of grub, including John's famous Bacon Explosion, which is basically bacon wrapped in sausage wrapped in a woven mat of bacon and smoked for 4-5 hours.

After an embarrassing loss to a banged-up Packers team, whose roster has more holes to fill than an orgy at the Kardashians, we left the stadium via the east exit. We found ourselves walking through a carnival-like midway complete with vendor booths, fan activities and, of course, the aforementioned beer tents. So, we thought out loud, "this is what it's like to have a winning team".....must be nice. We have the "Factory of Sadness" and they have the "Factory of Happiness". It was actually a pleasant distraction from the mess of a performance that we had just witnessed by our Browns. So, we made our way back to the FansVan for a little post game tailgate and to lick our wounds. We ended up closing the night at The Bar around 1:30AM, which made for some slow-moving, dragging-ass dudes the next day.

If you ever have the opportunity to go to a game in Green Bay....do it! Packer fans are a friendly bunch (as long as you're not sporting Bears gear) and are some of the best in the NFL. They treated us Browns fans really well. So well, in fact, that they spray painted a heart on the side of the FansVan to show their love. CLCIK HERE to see the photos of our trip.

One last note: There's a local beer up there called Spotted Cow. Look for this label wherever they sell beer. If you pick some up for your tailgate, be sure to leave extra room in your cooler....you'll be buying more to take home!

 

The trip to Nashville was a great time. Nashville's Broadway district was big fun, as was the Middle Tennessee Browns Backers party at the Dawg House Saloon on Friday night. The MTBB also hosted an awesome tailgate in Lot N of LP Field. There had to be 1000 or more Browns fans from all over who made their way to Lot N and The FansVan had a front row seat. We had all kinds of great folks drop in and spend the morning with us at our tailgate, as you'll see from the pictures.

Thinking ahead, we purchased two parking passes on StubHub so that we would be sure to have enough room for the FansVan and our normal tailgating setup. The parking folks in Nashville were great and didn't give us any hassle at all. Once they saw that we had paid for both spots that we occupied we never saw them again. Except to maybe give them a bottle of water or a stuffed jalapeño or two.

But the best part of the trip was being witness to the greatest road comeback by any team in NFL history. While being distressed by our 28-3 halftime deficit, we never gave up hope. Andy even commented that if we could hang 24 unanswered points on Pittsburgh in week 1, this should be easy....which didn't sit well with the Titans fans seated around us. Well, call it what you want....self-fulfilling prophecy, foreshadowing or whatever, the Browns dug deep, manned up and gutted out the seemingly impossible task by dropping 26 unanswered on the Titans to pull off the one point come from behind win.

So, if you ever find yourself looking for a great place to catch a Browns road game, give Nashville a thought. Just be sure to make an entire long weekend out of it. There's plenty to do while you're in town.

Click on the photo above to see the Titans photo gallery!

 

San Diego was chosen for this year's roadie bcause, well......it's San Diego. Also, Andy's "wife" Cathy's sister lives out there. She and her husband Erin have a spectacular home in El Cajon. It's a bit far for the FansVan to make it out to the left coast, so for this one our crew of two flew. It was a great time in San Diego. We hit Draft at Mission Beach, the OSU alimni bar, for the Buckeyes game on Saturday morning. Nothing like mamosas on the beach to get you started for a Bucks game! Saturday night we made our way to the Saturday Night Backers Bash just a few miles from Erin and Cheryl's. The party was organzed by our friend Kevin Hoyt of the Southern California Browns Backers Association. We actually met Kevin the first time by chance at our roadie in Green Bay back in 2013. Kevin did an amazing job of pulling together not only this evening, but also the tailgate party at QualCom Stadium the following day.

Getting to the stadium was easy. Since we were traveling light we opted to jump the trolley which is part of the San Diego Metro Transit System. The train station was just a few minutes from the house and it dropped us off right in front of QualComm Stadium. Now, QualComm Stadium isn't exactly what we expected. It was really dated and run down. Of all of the NFL stadiums that we've visited it is by far the most out dated of them all. The "jumbotron" was about the size of a garage door and the concrete stucture of the stadium was definitley showing signs of age. If any team is in desparate need of a new stadium it's the Chargers.

Outcome of the game aside, our trip to the Chargers' house was a really good time. We had a good time at the Browns Tailgate and the Charger fans were friendly and treated us with as much respect as one could expect from opposing fans.If you want to check out a Chargers game sometime you'd better do it soon. The way it's looking the Chargers aren't going to be in San Diego much longer. Clck here or on either of the photos to enter the San Diego photo gallery.