The Longest Day- adventure of a soon to be 77year old SJ fan going to the Providence game.
The alarm clock goes off at 3:30 in Port St Lucie. I have breakfast, do the 3 s’s, and drive to the West Palm Beach airport for a 7am flight. Nobody comments on my SJ sweatshirt or Johnnies hat. After a 30 minute maintenance delay I’m on the way. We land at LaGuardia a few minutes late. I was impressed with the Delta terminal and LaGuardia in general. It’s looking like a real airport. I had to run the gauntlet of gypsy cab hawkers to get to the taxi stand and tell the cabby to take me to the Woodside train station (a real dump).
There’s a lot of SJ fans waiting for the train and many more on the train. I get to Penn around 11 and head inside. I got my two sons passes to the pre game reception at Stout’s but they said it was so crowded they couldn’t get to the bar. I bought a large Goose Bay IPA and Cracker Jacks for an outrageous amount of money and got to my seat in section 111. My sons come in wearing SJ gear. #2 son went on EBAY and brought a Redmen T-shirt and hat. Great game and unlike prior years I never thought we would lose, although I was anxious at the end.
After the game we go to Tir Na Nog and had one round. It was so crowded we had to leave and hung out at Rosa’s eating pizzas. We eventually get on the 4:45 Babylon train with other SJ fans, everyone still talking about the game. I get off at Jamaica to take the AirTrain. Packed train but I’m the only one in red. Nobody cares. Same goes for the Jet Blue terminal. I’m hoping for someone to ask about the SJ gear so I can talk about the game, but no such luck. We take off on time at 8pm and have an uneventful flight back to West Palm. I get my car and arrive home around midnight. The wife’s half asleep but the dog is glad to see me.
I texted my sons the next day and say we need to do this again next year!
