Packer Facts

When Phil and I first started to discuss where we wanted to go for our annual Birthday Letterboxing extravaganza lots of ideas were considered and discarded. My first thought was I wanted to put my hobbit toes in the Atlantic - so Virginia. That got nixed bc of distance. Then I mentioned that there were beaucoup boxes in Asheville, NC. Nixed bc hikes were all too long. Then there was the Winston-Salem discussion, but frankly neither of us seemed all that jazzed about it. So, I pulled the plug due to geography W-S is probably hot in July.

Phil mentioned that he had been thinking about Michigan (thanks to the Pure Michigan commercials), but those thoughts had been thwarted by my weekend in Ann Arbor with Sno'. I readily agreed to Michigan especially if we could hit the UP where I had seen wolves many years ago. Seeing one wolf in the wild would be worth more than a hundred boxes to me. Hearing them howl at night would be bliss. I reminded Phil that the moose sighting that eluded us in Maine might be doable as well. Phil suggested we slide down to Wisconsin so we could add a state to our tally as well. When I pulled up the map I noticed Green Bay was only about an hour from the UP border and we could drive by Lambeau field. Just like that it was decided. Only we traveled directly to GB via In and IL.

Phil has been a GB Packer fan since I can remember. I'm not sure he didn't pop out of the womb painted in green and gold. But it seems I would remember that. The lure of Lambeau - the Frozen Tundra - holds a certain mystique to him. Of course he wanted to go there. Duh! I checked and the Packers offer tours of Lambeau and the Packers Hall of Fame for a modest price. I knew we were gonna do that. What I didn't realize was what it would mean to him, what an important part of our trip it would become, or how much I would love the Packers after learning a bit about them.

Things I learned about the Packers:

The Packers are the smallest franchise in the NFL. Yet every game in Lambeau Field is sold out. The wait list for season tickets - well if you think your grand kids might someday live in GB and want them, you should consider adding your name to the list.

They are one of the 3 oldest teams in the NFL along with the Cardinals and the Bears.

The team is privately owned by share holders who bought shares in 3 IPO sales. The stock cannot be resold except to the Packers, so no profit can be made. There are no dividends to these stocks. There is just the pride of owning a small bit of history. The last stock sale was used to raise the needed money for renovations to Lambeau. How cool is that? And the city of GB has the same 1/2% sales tax as Cincy, but you never hear anyone bellyache about it. In fact they encourage you to spend more money to help their team!

Lambeau Stadium is the only NFL stadium with aluminum bench seats - 18"/butt. Judging by the size of the asses we saw in Wisconsin this seems like it is a tight fit on game day. And don't even think about how cold that aluminum is right there on the shore of Lake Michigan! My southern lovin heiney just puckered at the thought. So on second thought maybe packing people as close as they can helps keep them from freezing to death.

The Packers players use the bikes of kids in the neighborhood to ride from the stadium to practice while the kids skate or rollerblade alongside. This is done to promote a bond between the team and the people of GB. One particularly large lineman who ruined the kid's bike over the course of training, replaced it with a brand new titanium one. (That is one expensive bike!)

The Packers induct retired players into their HoF annually. But they also select one fan every year to induct as well. See they understand that the team is nothing without its fans!

They also retire jersey numbers so far there are 4 - at least until #4 retires then there will be 5. I fully expected a lot of anti-Farve sentiment, but there was none. Although they DO wish he would retire - NOW!

The Packers Pro Shop in Lambeau is the largest NFL Pro Shop in the league. Phil gave Tinkerbell quite a workout there!

That the uber hi tech security cameras at Lambeau probably resulted in me and Phil being put on their suspected terrorist list for poking thru the shrubs to plant a box (which we promptly removed after hearing about the cameras)

I'm sure there's lots of other things I learned, but don't remember right now. It was such a thrill for this NFL whore to see a Lombardi trophy - or 3 - and to walk up the players ramp into Lambeau field to the fake roar of the crowd gave me goose bumps - our tour guide Patty, a season ticket holder and Packer lifer said it still does that to her. I wonder what it's like to feel like that about your team.....or to have your team feel like that about you - the fan.

I did make it to the UP for part of the last day - not really long enough for wolves or moose. I will go back for that soon. My box tally was 22. I added one state - WI (Phil added 3). But I got to spend 4 days with someone who makes me laugh and who gave me a chance to see that not all NFL franchises are run like a fortune 500. Some are still run with heart - a heart that bleeds green and gold and smells alot like cheese.