In between our stops in Quartzsite we made a detour to Tempe to visit my friend Kevin and enjoy a long weekend of sports. The main reason we wanted to be in the Phoenix area was that the BCS National Championship game between Oregon and Auburn was going down in Glendale. Since we had previously tailgated in Eugene on our trip we felt in necessary to see them through to the end (plus we already had Oregon swag).

The timing also worked out that the Sunday before the bowl game my hometown Chiefs made the playoffs for the first in 5 years and Kansas basketball was playing Michigan back to back on CBS. So we left our NuRVer friends early Sunday morning for some quality sports bar time.

When we arrived in Tempe my buddy and his girlfriend, Molly, took us to Four Peaks brewery to imbibe and watch the Chiefs. Unfortunately, the Chiefs played as well as the wait staff served and were blown out by the Ravens. The beer was alright as Maria and I sampled a Kilt Lifter Scottish Ale and their Stout with mixed reviews.

We changed venues for the KU game which had a better result even though Michigan made it a much closer game than it should have been. Kansas won 67-60.

When Monday came around we were able to convince Kevin that he only needed to half day at work and the rest of the day should be spent tailgating with us at the BCS Championship game. We loaded up a cooler full of beer and Jimmy John’s sammys and headed to Glendale.

It was a beautiful day and we were found a good Oregon section to mull around. Some highlights included…

We met other Oregon "fans" that weren't going to the game.

Custom built Duck-mobile decided to park right in front of us.

A little pre-game Four Square action. It was serious.

We tailgated in front of this yellow car and pretended like it was ours. Once the real owners came back Maria still pretended like it was her car.

This tailgating accessory was super cool!! Two solar panels powered 4 12V batteries and a complete sound system. It all slides into place and packs into the plastic trailer underneath, branded with Oregon nonetheless. I want one! KU branded of course!

Once the game was getting ready to start, Kevin, Maria, and I headed over to an outdoor courtyard that was showing the game on a huge screen. While I wish that Oregon could have pulled off the win, it was great game that came down to the final play. What more could you ask for?

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Even though Maria persistently states that she is not a Chiefs fan we thought it would be fun to hit up a Chiefs game while we are on the West Coast. A month prior, we had considered going to a game when they were playing in Oakland, but the timing didn’t work out and Raider fans have a certain reputation we didn’t want to validate in person.

Turns out we already had plans to head San Diego the weekend that the Chargers were playing KC. Maria found an RV parking pass on Craigslist and we were set. We always like to share to joy, so we assembled a crew of Kansans and headed out to stadium bright and early at 7:45 am.

While I have been to several Chiefs games I can’t say that I’ve ever noticed the RV section at Arrowhead, but Qualcomm stadium definitely had a large section set aside for recreational vehicles.

Some pregame activities included:

Observing the passionate fans

RV Alley Beer Pong

Checked out the VIP Limo at the end of our row. Maybe next year.

Reppin' the Red in enemy territory.

The game itself was a disappointing showing as Kansas City’s starting quarterback was out because of an emergency appendecomy, and his back-up looked utterly clueless. The Charger’s scored first, last and everything in between as the Chiefs were shut out 31-0.

But the party doesn’t end when the game does. The RV section continues until about 4 hours after the teams have left. We couldn’t have left earlier if wanted too, as Stanley was pretty snuggly fit in between our neighbors. So we broke out the washers game and observed more fans like this one…

Charger bolts on elbows and name in Chargers font tattooed on back. Check.

All in all it was beautiful day for football and friends.

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