2 Sep 2023 - Air Force Academy Football Game

 

This morning we hiked about 3/4 mile from our campsite to the Air Force Academy Falcons football stadium to watch their first game of the year.  We straightened out the route a bit and hiked through the pines and then up the road past the very long line of cars waiting to park. 

Besides being their 'home opener', it is also parents weekend, so things are a bit crazy.  It was a clear, sunny day and the temperature rose by the hour up to 86F which was not bad.  After about 20 minutes we arrived at the stadium.  

Our seats were in section M-8, which is  on the home side in the middle level right on the 50 yard line.  Awesome view.  

Our seats circled in red

Our view for the game!

We arrived early enough to walk around a bit, grab a cold drink to supplement the bottled water we brought with us, and then we made our way to our seats.  There were not many there yet, but the seats filled the closer we got to game time.  We watched the teams warm up, the cadets arrive, the marching band assemble, and overall just really enjoy the beautiful morning.

Soon the color guard entered and forty squadrons of cadets marched in.  USAFA Parachute team landed on the field one by one, representing all of the branches of service and finally a flight of T-38 aircraft flew a formation over the field.  Some pictures:

Color guard marching in

Forty Squadrons represented

The parachutists exit the aircraft

Parachutist arrival

T-38 flyover

As mentioned last night, the Air Force Academy hosted the Robert Morris Colonials, who are from Robert Morris University, in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. It was not long before the Fighting Falcons opened a 21-0 lead.

Each time the Fighting Falcons scored we had fireworks, cadets rushing onto the endzone doing pushups and thunderous roar from the crowd.  We had several opportunities to sing the first verse of the Air Force Song loud and proud!!  Doreen was right there on that!

Half time arrived and our doggie clock was rapidly expiring, so we watched the peregrine falcon fly around the stadium, which is nothing short of amazing.  

The marching band was performing as we made our way around the stadium and out the exit towards the FamCamp.  

The concession area was crazy, but we did not find anything but food vendors (no clothing, etc).

The Fighting Falcons would go one to put the hurts on the Colonels 42-7 as a nice way to start the season.  The whole stadium atmosphere was wonderful and it was so cool to see cadets reuniting with their families.  Doreen and I are both very glad we went.  This was not on our radar.

We hiked our way back to the FamCamp, logging just over 10,000 steps today.  We cooled down a bit in the RV before barbecuing some burgers and sweet corn outside for dinner.  We caught part of the Iowa football game on Directv and I am multi-tasking now, writing this and watching a recording of the Cubs at the Reds.  I purposely did not look at the final score but so far so good (bottom of 7, 1-0 Cubs!!)

Tomorrow we will meet up with Bruce and Vickie (Prier) Garwood at their house for brunch.  As mentioned before, I have not seen my neighbor and classmate Vickie for approximately 53 years, but we have been in contact on Facebook.  It will be so great to catch up with her and finally meet her husband.