Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Photo Wrap-Up

Here are all the photos and videos we took during the course of our trip:

Day 1: Getting There

Day 2: Semifinals, US vs Canada

Day 3: CDW Tour, Art Institute

Day 4: Planetarium, Untouchables Tour, Navy Pier

Day 5: Finals, US vs Mexico

Dave's Camera: Untouchables Tour, Finals

Nate's Camera: Semifinals

Nate's Camera: Finals

Video of Mexico Fans Throwing Beer Bombs and Trash

Landon Donovan's Equalizer PK Kick Against Mexico

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day 5, Post-Game Wrap-Up and the Drive Home

The walk out went much better than expected. Chesher and I gained immortality when two Mexico fans, who had traded jerseys with someone else, asked us to autograph them. Well sure!

Dave and Nate later did some flag-trading and are coming home with Mexico flags acquired at the Gold Cup. More picture trading as well. All in all, once we got out of the stadium the Mexico fans became quite friendly and everyone traded high-fives, handshakes, and cheers of "Good Game!"

This has definitely been the best road trip ever. Rock music blaring, high on the win, we start the long drive home.

Dave's Photos
Nate's Photos

(Somewhere in Iowa) Not much happening on the trip home, just mile after mile of road. DVDs sustain us, "Black Sheep" in Illinois, and right now we're burning pavement to "The Office, Season Two." Funny stuff, and, I look nothing like Dwight ;-)

(11:20PM) Looks like Des Moines is coming up!

(2:00AM) Entering the Kansas City area! Woohoo we made it!

(2:19AM) After exactly 1,301 miles of road travel, we arrive back in Parkville, MO. Welcome back, us!

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day 5, The Main Event

Wake up, pack up, hit the road! We're on our way to watch USA beat Mexico in the Gold Cup Finals, all decked out in our patriotic soccer gear once more. The weather is fine, the traffic isn't too bad yet, and we've left in plenty of time to find good parking. We've been invited to a tailgate with some other US fans, so won't have to be completely surrounded by Mexico fans as we approach the showdown.

We just passed a mini-van full of Mexico fans, so of course we had to pace alongside and wave our US flag at them ;-) This occurs several times more. Good fun. Go USA!

(Noon) We've met up with our fellow tail-gaters and begin the festivities. The game is 2 hours away, but there's plenty of food and fun to be had in the meantime. Nate and Tewany play bag toss, in the background the roaming US fan beer bongers continue to challenge Mexico fans to races (Mexico is winning that game at least), and the smell of grilling meat permeates the air. The Mexico fans definitely outnumber us, about 10 to 1, but the rivalry is genial thus far and they even loaned us some tortillas for our chicken bites. Still, gotta say, Go USA! :-)

(12:30PM) Nate and I decide to wander the lot and see all the different tailgates going on. It's amazing what wearing a flag, jersey, scarf, and top-hat will do for your charisma! We get our picture taken with just about everyone, and vice-versa. The crowd is definitely awesome, evident rivalry but everyone is friendly and offering us beers. I got handed some meat wrapped in a tortilla and informed that its donkey meat. Whatever it was, it wasn't half bad!

(1:45PM) 15 minutes to game time and we've secured a place in the section known as Sam's Army. We're viewing a sea of red, white, and blue. Nate and Dave shout, "1 2 3 **** the Mexicans!" secure in the knowledge they won't be mobbed by the surrounding fans. Cheer competitions between our section and the next start up. The stadium itself actually isn't quite as packed as I expected it to be, but that might change nearer to the start of the game...

(10 minutes later) OK... now its packed. I receive the dubious compliment of being called a look-alike for Dwight Schrute (a character from the TV series "The Office") by one of our fellow USA fans. Thanks. I think.

(Half-Time) After a long almost goal-less first half, Mexico unfortunately leads 1-0 and their fans are jubilant (often right in our faces). We're staying positive, but walking through the crowd is tough. It probably doesn't help that I have beer in my shoe...

(60th minute) A penalty kick by Donovan evens the score up. Life returns to the U.S. fans as we chant "U S A"!

(72nd minute) Feilhaber scores a second goal. We get doused in beer as the Mexico fans throw cups of it from the stands. Nice... this will be a pleasant addition to the 8 hour trip back to Kansas City tonight. A fight is apparently occurring in the section below us. On the upside, we're winning!

(85th minute) Beasley gets a bottle of water thrown at him from the stands. Thinking quick and cool, he picks it up, drinks it, and throws it to the sideline. This gets him a yellow card for delay of game, but what else is he going to do?

(88th minute) More beer rains from the heavens as Howard stops Mexico's last real chance for an equalizer. Chesher and I are unamused. The score is still 2-1 but it should be 4-1, USA had some really nice positions toward an open goal that instead shot into the crossbar... come on, guys.

(90th minute and stoppage) Mexico just can't get another ball past Howard, and USA wins 2-1!! The Mexico fans aren't happy and more beer bombs are thrown, but we don't care, we're ecstatic to have a successful Gold Cup final under our attendance record. The closing ceremony commences. Our walk out to the car will be jubilant, but wary.

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Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Four, Navy Pier Fireworks

Here we are at the end of the Navy Pier, waiting for the fireworks to start. This place is jumpin', probably everyone here for the fireworks show too. There's a live band playing, the weather is perfect, and now the fireworks are about to start. Drinks in hand, we weave through the crowd to find a good spot...

The Chicago skyline from this vantage point is truly stunning, the glow of the city bouncing off the clouds, tinting the sky soft purple and orange.

(10:26PM) Thus concludes the fireworks show, quite nice. I never get tired of fireworks. This one had sky flowers, heart shapes, smilies, swirling multi-color fountains, veils of shimmering silver, glowing swarms, and a grand finale that left the sky blanketed in irridescent motes of gold. All the while music lifts our spirits and makes our bodies groove in counter-point to the show. Awesome.

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I don't think we did half as much on our last trip as we have on this one. We weren't here for as long a stay either, but I think the months of planning ahead has helped us maximize our enjoyment on this trip. It certainly has been one of the more varied and interesting vacations I've been on since graduating from college. Even my recent jaunt to Florida, while beautifully sunny and full of tropical sights, didn't have the same sort of vibe to it as our adventures in Chicago.

Even the tense moments are all part of the overall good experience, since no plan is ever perfect and overcoming the odds leaves you feeling the better for facing them. Tension between true friends rarely lasts, anyways, and while we are all tired as we drive back to the hotel tonight, I think we're all in pretty good spirits again after the events of the day. Finally finding a decent radio station probably helps too.

(12:15PM) Apparently, Nate really really likes jumping on beds... or playing Superman... or both.

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Four, Untouchables Tour, Lou Malnatti's Pizza

Well we nearly had another mishap, when we bought tour tickets from a merchant standing right by the Untouchables bus, but wasn't actually associated with them at all and was only selling city tour bus tickets. Nice opportunism there, lady. We got our refunds at least, then narrowly missed not getting to tour at all since apparently you can do reservations with these fellows, but we were the lucky last four allowed on. Whew!

Now that our rollicking trivia-laden tour of gangland Chicago is over, we're starving for some deep dish pizza, and head to a place recommended by the CDW guys which happens to be a few blocks away. A place so great, there's a thirty minute wait. The samples they provided were good at least, and the dishes do look deep...

(7:45) Anna, our waitress, has a very nice accent. We asked, and she's from Poland. The pizza is nice too.

(8:35PM) Waddling back to Navy Pier for the firework show in an hour or so...

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Four, Planetarium

After missing our train (don't ask) and stumbling through Chicago traffic, we finally arrive at Adler Planetarium on the lakefront. The vista from here into the city is beautiful, as today's rainclouds have blanketed the city and hide its tallest towers with cloaks of mist. Nate says this is supposed to be the oldest planetarium in the U.S., or at least Chicago. It certainly looks it!

(3:50PM) Well, that was the most expensive movie we've ever seen, journey through a black hole notwithstanding (actually I think Disney made a movie of that already). Not many of the other exhibits were of interest to post-adolescent soccer fans, but we did our best to enjoy ourselves. Driving on our way out, we encountered an army of Segway tourists which, frankly, was the coolest thing we'd seen yet! We're driving back up Lake Shore Drive now to park at the Navy Pier and walk to the spot where our 2-hour Untouchables tour starts.

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Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Photo Interlude

Here are reposts and updates of the photo sets we've accumulated thus far:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Four, Sleeping In...

We are all finally awake (if not all dressed), now that Nate has executed a screaming death drop onto Tewaney's back for a wake-up call (ouch). Plans for today include the Untouchables Tour, the planetarium, fireworks at the Navy Pier, and eating some famous Chicago deep dish pizza somewhere in between. Star Wars is playing in high-def on our TV, though, so who knows when we'll get out of here... ;-)

(11:17AM) Star Wars wins, since our train to Chicago doesn't leave until after noon. Lunch is sandwiches, Cheetos, cheesecake, and mockery.

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Three, Museum or Planetarium?

Since we've been warned the Friday night life makes driving nearly impossible in Chicago, we are boarding a train into the city on our way to go to one of two tourist attractions. It should be here in, oh, 30 minutes...

(5:35PM) A train blows past the station at high speed. We straighten our windswept clothing and rub the grit out of our eyes. Apparently, not our ride...

(5:50PM) On the slow train to Chicago... Its likely the art museum will be our destination tonight, since we are unsure whether the planetarium will be open today.

(6:50PM) Having reached Union Station, we decide to walk the 12-odd blocks to the art museum... And I just ran into a tree, typing this... I'd better catch up to the guys....

(7:10PM) We detect that we might have picked the wrong direction to start walking. A street dweller sees me looking at my Blackberry and asks us where we want to go, and gets us back on track. Three minutes later, Tewaney's latent KGB training kicks in and he notices the same guy has been tailing us for several blocks. We make him walk between the two of us as he gets closer (also a KGB technique apparently) and peace of mind returns once he's passed.

(7:11PM) Tewaney informs me that now he has to kill me. Blogging may become very light...

(7:45PM) We enter the Art Institute of Chicago.

(9:00PM) We leave the Art Institute of Chicago. Tired and hungry, but culturally enriched, we go in search of food. Nate remembers seeing The Village, "Oldest Italian Restaurant in Chicago." Six blocks later and we are seated immediately! Chianti anyone?

Speeding through the museum, snapping as many pictures of as much as I could (being the official chronicler of our journey by now), I realized I wasn't really seeing anything I was looking at. I am going to have to come back without any technology some day, or to museums in my home city, and really absorb the works of art in a way my camera's eye could not.

Plus, apparently museums are full of presumably cultured and intelligent attractive young females as well, some of them single... go figure!

Time to eat.

(10:35PM) Full of good food and good spirits (both kinds), and after a short tour of the South Concourse in the train station, we board our train (at the North Concourse of course) back to Itasca and the hotel. Another great day in the city of Chicago.

(10:50PM) A lady sitting below me (we're in the upper deck) is doing needle-point. Good way to pass the time I guess! I find myself mesmerized by her intricate hand movements, combined with the gentle rocking motion of the train. A strangely peaceful scene.

(11:12PM) Tewaney picturesquely observes that we're all absorbed in our handheld device of choice (blogging, KaGlom-ing, or otherwise)... but who is paying attention to when our stop is? Fortunately we have two more before we disembark.

(11:26PM) As we stand in the rain that just started falling, waiting for our shuttle back to the hotel, we burst into a chorus of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head!" Five minutes later we notice the umbrella-covered table right behind us. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are certified geniuses.

(12:20PM) Midnight cheesecake run!

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Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Three, Our Limo Awaits, CDW Tour

I don't know what it is about hotels and traveling, versus home, but I always seem to naturally wake up an hour earlier than the alarm is set even when I've gone to bed at 2AM (like last night). It's a strange phenomenon.

Perhaps today, though, it could be due to the anticipation of taking my first limo ride. This morning's plan was to take a tour of the CDW warehouse and do lunch with some of our reps. Just before we left, we found out that CDW is going to treat us right: we'll be picked up at our hotel in a limousine and taken to the warehouse for the tour, then to lunch (on CDW), and then back to our hotel. Well! We're honored, and what a great start to the day!

After that we've got options: the Untouchables tour of all the Mob Days gangster hot-spots, accepting an invitation to tailgate at a Chicago Fire MLS soccer match, or just hopping the El and doing whatever we feel like.

(10:00 AM) We find out that the town car we thought was our "limo" is not, in fact, waiting on us (unless Bariskov is Tewaney's KGB codename). Seconds later, a stretch limo pulls up and the driver asks for Mr. Scherman. That's more like it!

(10:17 AM) Apparently our limo driver is lost or something, as we are turning around in a church parking lot. Not easy with a stretch limo.

(1:05PM) Our tour of the CDW distribution center over, we're headed to lunch at Big Bowl Chinese and Thai with our reps Jeff, Brad, and Lonnie now. Their warehouse is awesome, about 1/4 mile two ways and highly efficient. We got to see Mantissa (?) Machine in action, that sorts all the prepped boxes and knows based on their weight where they belong. They have some impressive Quality Control facilities as well.

(2:16PM) Headed back to CDW to take our limo back to the hotel. I hope this one will have a sun roof! Plans for tonight are to see the art museum and planetarium, maybe check out some of the night life.

(2:30P) Nate tests the theory that farts don't stink in a limo. Myth Busted.

(3:00PM) "So what did you guys talk about in the limo?" ... "Space toilets."

(3:03PM) First mullet sighting. (Yeah, without a sunroof the limo's kinda boring.)

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Two, Mexico vs Guadaloupe

A tense game, 0-0 all the way up to the 72nd minute, and suddenly Mexico got its goal. The stadium erupted (and Coke flew wildly all over Chesher and I from some mysterious source). Its looking like we'll get our wish of a US vs Mexico showdown after all!

The stadium is really packed too, more so than for the US game. Its a sea of green, white, and orange swallowing us few spots of red, white, and blue. The official attendace was just announced, at a respectable 50,790.

Sunday should be quite interesting!

Post-game tailgating with other US fans commences.

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Two, US vs Canada, and We're On TV!

We're in the stadium now, and our patriotic attire earned us some air time soon after we got to our seats. Nate and Chesher are both draped in flags, top-hatted with our signature Uncle Sam head gear, and living it up. We're all in USA jerseys and I've got my scarf ready for waving. We're in section 110, row 11, seats 12 through 15... thirty feet from the field and right on the midline, a truly magnificent place to be today.

Speaking of the game, I'm gonna get back to watching it. More at half-time!

(39:00 game time) GOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!!! Frankie Hejeuk gets us our first one.

(45:00 game time) GOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!!! Penalty kick by Landon Donovan sees us at 2-0 into halftime. Its looking likely we'll be seeing our boys play Mexico on Sunday!

(74:00 game time) Canada slips one past us, as Hume and another player double-team Keller, our keeper. Hume has bullied his way through this second half, on a field rife with fouls and referee blindness. We still lead, but it won't be a shut-out as hoped.

(88:20 game time) BOO! Bradley gets an undeserved red card for a heel clip. This has been quite a second half, but we all chant "U S A" as the 90th minute comes by and hope is still strong. Four minutes of stoppage time to go...

(93:00) The crowd around us erupts in disappointment as Canada rushes the box again and the terrible swish of ball in net is heard... but no! Offsides is called! Jeers turn to jubilation, and a minute later the game is over. USA wins!! We are officially in line to buy tickets for the finals on Sunday :-) :-) GO USA!!

(8:30PM) US vs Canada sealed in our favor, tickets in hand for Sunday's finals, we settle in to watch the second of our double-header matches where Guadaloupe faces Mexico and we see who the US will need to face before they can claim the Gold Cup (bets on Mexico). Blogging will be light the remainder of the evening, but pictures hopefully will be up by the end of the night. From Soldier Field in Chicago, this is Shaun, Dave, Nate, and Tewaney saying: see ya! ;-)

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Nate's Photos

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Two, At Soldier Field

We have arrived! Unfortunately a damper is placed on our tailgating plans as it looks like we will have to park underground... driving anywhere near the stadium is a mess.

Off to figure out where we're grilling...

(30 minutes later) After wandering around and driving around and finally lucking out to meet a friendly traffic director, we are on the parking deck across from the stadium! Tailgating is once again possible!

Parked and grilling...

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Two, Things Get Physical

We are stuck in traffic on our way to Soldier Field for our tailgate party before the game. Nate has declared that we're breaking out the grill at 4PM no matter where we are. To pass the time as we inch toward our goal, we do some more amateur road trip video and continue the grand (?) tradition of insulting, embarassing, and offending one another (and anyone else in sight). This soon erupts into a bout of girl-fighting between Dave and Tewaney in the back seat, surely sealing our place among the ranks of mature rational adults. In the immortal words of Nate Scherman, Gold Cup chauffeur for us idiots, "This is ridiculous."

(1 minute later) Woohoo, we're moving again! Back to the trip....

(5 minutes later) Never mind, we're stopped again :-P

Ad nauseum...

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Two, Sweet Suite

Three hours later and we have arrived at our Hyatt Place suite, in Itasca, IL, just outside of Chicago. This place is pretty sweet for $120 a night, with a 40" widescreen HDTV, huge comfy couch ... and some cute lady hotel clerks the only single guy in the group can work his charm on ;-)

We're chillin' a bit in front of the TV before our game tonight, around 5 hours away... when were not jumping on the beds, that is...
Nate...

After all that sitting in the car, who can blame him!

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Two, Dave Makes A New Friend

We stopped for gas in Towanda, IL, and are still waiting to leave. Dave got into a chat with a crazy guy who just pulled up out of nowhere in an SUV to ask "if the gas here is any good" and thirty minutes later he's still talking about everything under the sun (and some stuff he just made up). We really wish the camcorder had been rolling, but he wouldn't let us record him because he "doesn't exist." Chesher is traumatized now and wants that 40 minutes of his life back. Hilarious self-interview ensues.

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day Two, On the Road Again!

We're really blogging now! Got the EVDO card up and running with perfect coverage so far, pictures uploading, video camera importing, and speeding along down I-55 North.

bfhfdrhuhgrthy - Chesher's contribution (thanks man)

After a 7AM wake-up call (officially recorded trip diary time, but some of us may have been up 30 minutes sooner...), cinnamon rolls and Eggos (and Oreos and cigarettes) for breakfast, a little parking lot soccer while waiting for our straggler Tewaney (no car alarms went off thankfully!), and losing one of our car-window American flags to the forgetfulness of the driver and power windows (NATE!), ... we're in the second half of our trip There. Chicago won't know what hit it.

Today's activity: documenting license plates from different states. Yeah, we're bored, but its 9:20AM ... and we've only just passed our 4th antique mall. But hey, there's the Basset Waddle to look forward to!

It should be noted that wearing seat belts in a road trip minivan is apparently entirely optional, but those who try to reseat themselves after some trans-axle amateur camera work may then wind up belly flopping into the backseat upon acceleration, eating camera and bringing their buttocks uncomfortably close to the other occupant. All is well now, though.

Chicago Gold Cup Road Trip: Day 1

Here we are in Troy, Illinois, about 5 hours after leaving Parkville, Missouri, finally on the road trip for which this blog was initially created! We're on our way to see the US soccer team dominate the Gold Cup, starting tomorrow at 6PM when they take on Canada in the semi-finals. There are four in our motley crew -- me, Nate Dog, Big Dave, and Sugar T. (I would be The Ferg, yo).


Well so far we nearly forgot the food (thanks Nate), had our first death threat two minutes into the trip, experienced making a sandwich at 55 MPH ("I feel like Mr. Bean!"), got the call that one of us is now officially a Resident Alien (congrats Tewaney), sat on the bread and didn't realize it for an hour (thanks Tewaney), watched "Road Trip" with the audio piped through the van stereo, thoroughly insulted each other every chance we could, and learned how to snap pennies from the pro (Nate can bulls-eye an earlobe from twenty paces).

So now we're in the hotel watching the Royals play the Cardinals, drinking, belching, puzzling out how to open the cheese for our sandwiches, and basically being manly men as much as possible to compensate for the fact that four large guys have to share two queen beds.

Good thing we're all friends!

... I'm sleeping in the chair.

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