Undefeated
Well-Known Member
The drive from Burbank to Long Beach was a pretty good one for LA traffic, and when we arrived 1 hour early, we were already in yet another sea of black and gold. Dad and I were both completely blown away by the amount of Iowa fans on site.
We parked and made our way over to the line that was over 1/4 mile long to get in. My Dad ran into someone he knew and he told us that long line was for Iowa residents as they get free admission to the battleship. If you were a non-Iowa resident you had to pay to get in and could then just go right on to the boat. I think 80% of the crowd would have gladly paid the $19.95 not to stand in line for 2 hours to get on the boat, but the communication from the ship volunteers to the crowd was sketchy at best. Sadly some of these people never got on and there was a lot of frustration and I can't blame any of these folks. It was like herding cats. It wasn't really anyone's fault, they anticipated 15,000, ship tour guides informed us there were between 30-35,000.
One thing that made us realize we were with some trully dedicated Hawkeye fans were the amount of Iowa license plates in the parking lot at the Iowa. Hats off to these folks who made that long trip to LA to support the team. Iowa fans are unparalleled in their support.
On the ship we met a lot of great people. Tour guides said we crushed a 1 day attendance record and the young girl at the ticket counter said "Hawkeye fans are unbelievable, this is crazy"
We were lucky enough to be in a section of the tour when they decided to fire the gun from the portside of the boat; we ended being 15 feet away from the gun.
Once we were done with the tour we talked to some folks down where they were grillin' and servin' brews. Again the people there were great and all the talk was how we all thought we'd match up against Stanford.
No one anticipated the Picket's Charge of Rose Bowl history.
I'll say that watching MSU get stomped later that evening by Alabama left me a little worried as I crashed before 2 hours before midnight New Year's Eve...
After the Big Ten Championship, one of the biggest games in Iowa history was about to unfold in 14 hours at the base of the San Gabriel mountains. I've had better nights sleep...
We parked and made our way over to the line that was over 1/4 mile long to get in. My Dad ran into someone he knew and he told us that long line was for Iowa residents as they get free admission to the battleship. If you were a non-Iowa resident you had to pay to get in and could then just go right on to the boat. I think 80% of the crowd would have gladly paid the $19.95 not to stand in line for 2 hours to get on the boat, but the communication from the ship volunteers to the crowd was sketchy at best. Sadly some of these people never got on and there was a lot of frustration and I can't blame any of these folks. It was like herding cats. It wasn't really anyone's fault, they anticipated 15,000, ship tour guides informed us there were between 30-35,000.
One thing that made us realize we were with some trully dedicated Hawkeye fans were the amount of Iowa license plates in the parking lot at the Iowa. Hats off to these folks who made that long trip to LA to support the team. Iowa fans are unparalleled in their support.
On the ship we met a lot of great people. Tour guides said we crushed a 1 day attendance record and the young girl at the ticket counter said "Hawkeye fans are unbelievable, this is crazy"
We were lucky enough to be in a section of the tour when they decided to fire the gun from the portside of the boat; we ended being 15 feet away from the gun.
Once we were done with the tour we talked to some folks down where they were grillin' and servin' brews. Again the people there were great and all the talk was how we all thought we'd match up against Stanford.
No one anticipated the Picket's Charge of Rose Bowl history.
I'll say that watching MSU get stomped later that evening by Alabama left me a little worried as I crashed before 2 hours before midnight New Year's Eve...
After the Big Ten Championship, one of the biggest games in Iowa history was about to unfold in 14 hours at the base of the San Gabriel mountains. I've had better nights sleep...
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