This weekend was the first time I've been able to visit my parents up in Boston since Christmas. When watching the New England Patriots defeat the Denver Broncos clinching their way to The Super Bowl, I looked at Girlfriend Brooks and said "we are going to go up for The Super Bowl and watch it with Madre and Padre." When I explained to Brooks how we haven't seen a Super Bowl in person for over 20+ years, Brooks said "this is giving me chills. You are right. We definitely have to go up and watch with your family."
This was definitely a different feeling than any other Super Bowls. With our Patriots team being fairly new with our rebuild and several young players at important positions, while having underdog status, I feel most diehard fans were content. Most experts expected us to have a great rebuild this year and go 9-8. Instead we went 14-3 in the regular season, and went all the way to The Super Bowl. This means out of 32 NFL Teams, we still beat 30 of them. Even though the game was absolutely painful to watch, overall I think most fans are disappointed but still happy overall. I'm also happy for Seattle Seahawks QB Sam Darnold, former New York Jets player. I'm happy he's on his 5th team and now won the big one. Good for him.
This was a very quick trip up to Mansfield, Massachusetts just 12 minutes away from Gillette Stadium home of the Patriots. We were planning to leave Vernon, New Jersey by 7 or 8am like usual. I looked out my window and saw it was still snowing. I had been studying the weather forecasts and patterns all week. I knew that if we left at my preferred normal time of 7 or 8am, we would have been driving along with the snow storm for 4 hours minimum, even before the constant 50mph winds. We waited it out until 11am. While packing up my Jeep Compass, we noticed the chairlift at Mountain Creek wasn't moving up and down, but rather side to side from the 50mph winds. They were closed due to the winds. It was so surreal to see our mountains full of snow everywhere, Saturday before President's Day Weekend, without any people on them at all! We also couldn't believe our eyes seeing the parking lots empty when normally they are beyond packed this time of year on a Saturday.
We left at 11am, and arrived by 5pm. I nailed it with our timing. This was an intense drive that required a strong grip on your steering wheel at all times for the whole drive. You saw almost as many cars spun off the road like during a snowstorm. That wind was intense. It stopped snowing in Mansfield approximately an hour before we got there. The roads were still snow covered from the wind drifts, but only on the last ten minutes of our drive.
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Saturday night we were so happy to be off the road, and my parents ordered pizza for us. We were so happy and relaxed for that. Sunday we slept in, that drive tuckered us out for sure. Sunday early afternoon we went to see my Grammy at an assisted living place my family helped her move into recently. It was great to see her, and around some wonderful people. We spent an hour of quality time with her, as she's still trying to adjust to the new surroundings. I was very happy that we were able to see her. I love that we can visit her anytime we want, just like normal days. I was able to still give her a bouquet of flowers too, just like normal. Madre gave me the green light ahead of time telling me she had a vase in her new room. Grammy liked her flowers, that was one victory for me at least.
Before leaving to see Grammy, I asked Padre how far her new place in Norton was from Bog Iron Brewing in Norton? He said the two places weren't far at all from each other. Padre went and walked through deep snow to tie a Super Bowl balloon to my late sister Zannie's grave. This was a very tough day, being one year anniversary after my sister Suzanne's services. I'm tearing up while even writing this.
We were able to meet up at Bog Iron after that. We were able to do a cheers in her honor. Brooks drank a Burly Blonde beer, which was always Zannie's favorite at Bog Iron. Padre and I did delicious Soul Cellars. Brian gave us some delicious ice cream samples they'll soon be adding to their menu too! It was so fun being back home, being surrounded by everyone wearing Patriots shirts and colors ahead of the big game.
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Before the game, I saw Padre walking through The Allan Tavern with a red box like looking machine. I asked him what was it? This device is a hot dog steamer. He looked at me like I had two heads saying "Steve, we're steaming the hot dogs. We do it every year, this is tradition!" I looked at him and said "I haven't been here for The Super Bowl in 20 years, this tradition is new to me! I then annoyed everyone by putting ketchup on my hot dogs. I took plenty of heat from my loved ones for it, and that will not stop me!
Time to start planning President's Day / Valentine's Day Weekend. Normally my parents visit me, but this year some circumstances are making that not possible. While I'm really bummed they're not visiting me next weekend, at least we were able to spend time together during the Big Game. I'll be back up to see them next month.
Besides, Valentine's Day and President's Day Weekend it's not like I'm going to be bored. How often am I bored on Weekends anyway?