Through the generosity of one of my parishioners, Big Man and I received a pair of tickets to yesterday's Saints game in the Superdome. Since this parishioner is a long-time season ticket holder, these were no ordinary tickets -- they were seats 1 and 2 on row 17, section 138 on the Saints side. Yes, that's right, 17 rows up from the field! To make a good thing even better, the tickets came with a parking pass on the top floor of the Superdome garage, simple easy walking distance from gates F and G (the gates closest to the seats).
We've been holding the tickets for about a month or so now, and the anticipation has been driving us crazy. Since our terrific parking place would allow us to have our own personal tailgate party, we thought long and hard about the food. After much discussion, we decided on alligator sliders on pistolets. We arranged to borrow my sister L's little propane stove, that she and her husband usually keep on their boat, to do the grilling in the back of the van. We got sugar-free creme soda and Italian bubble water (his favorite!) for Big Man, and Abita pecan ale for me, and of course Zapp's special Who Dat chips.
The trick was finding the gator burgers. We knew that the Boudin Shop outside of Cecilia, Louisiana, carried frozen full-size gator burgers, but that's quite a drive. Last Monday, our shared day off, we drove out to Cajun country to try to find gator burgers much closer to home. We enjoyed our day, and explored several really neat Cajun meat markets, buying shrimp boudin and white boudin and andouille, but no dice on the gator meat, ground or otherwise. After a long day of touring around, having fun being together and seeing new things together (completely new to Big Man, but a renewal for me), we finally, 30 minutes before closing time, ended up in West Baton Rouge in a place called Bergeron's. There, we hit the motherlode: andouille, boudin, meat pies, stuffed pork chops, boned and stuffed chickens, turduckens, cracklin's -- and alligator meat. At this point, we were so relieved to find gator at all, I just decided to use my meat grinder and make my own gator burgers.
On Saturday, I prepared our feast. I ground 2 pounds of tenderloin alligator meat along with one egg (next time I would add another egg to hold things together), about 3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs (I used whole wheat end slices I've been saving), about a 1/2 cup of chopped onion and red and green bell pepper, 3 or 4 garlic cloves, a hefty sprinkling of Chef Paul Prudhomme's lemon pepper seasoning, and about a tablespoon of Provencal herbs (from La Madeleine). I mixed this all up together, and then formed small football-shaped patties, wrapping them carefully in clear plastic wrap to keep them separate, and then covered the whole shebang with foil wrap. Then I made my own caper sauce: Creole Tomato Salad Dressing, Creole mustard, Blue Plate mayonnaise, and drained baby capers; and put it all in a small watertight plastic container. So far so good.
To our great good luck, Sunday dawned a beautiful sunny warm day with clear skies. (It was so warm, in fact, that we had to turn the air conditioner on at church to take the edge off.) I rushed home after services and coffeehour, determined to spend as much time as possible at the Dome enjoying the atmosphere. While I heated up the dozen pistolets, we packed up the ice chest with the foil-wrapped package of gator burgers, the caper sauce, the creme sodas, the bubble water, the beers, and the obligatory bag of official Saints ice. Into a canvas bag, I threw in 2 black-and-gold fleur de lis embroidered towels, a spatchula, a knife to spread the sauce, the Who Dat chips, 2 Mardi Gras cups, and a small pile of heavy-duty paper plates. One TV table and 2 chairs, and we're ready to roll.
After double and even triple checking to make sure we had the tickets and the parking pass, we took off. Everything was like a dream -- the happy people under their canopies, radios and boom boxes blaring, the bright sun, the blue sky, and us with these great tickets. Just as promised, there was our terrific parking spot on the roof on the Dome lot, surrounded by excited Saints fans. We lifted open the back of the van, creating a sunshade, and set up our chairs. I draped each chair with a personal Saints hand towel as a big napkin. Big Man popped open a couple of cold ones, and we set up the propane stove and got it going on high. When it was sizzling, I carefully laid out 6 gator burgers and sliced open the warm pistolets, slathering them with caper sauce. I scattered plates with the chips, and while the burger grilled, Big Man and I sat and surveyed the scene around us.
Under the clear sky and shining sun, all around, Saints fans were dressed in jerseys and variations on black-and-gold clothing (including one guy in wildly striped pants in the expected colors of black, white and gold), some with big crazy hats, and some with elaborate make-up and props to complete their looks. (Us too: Big Man wore his long-sleeve Saints T-shirt with black jeans with his leather vest over it, topped by his top hat with old-gold satin band; I wore black knit pants with my sister L's flashy black short-sleeved scoop-necked top, all sparkly with gold glitter -- which I am still trying to get out of everything. I wore my gold fleur de lis earrings -- present from Big Man last year -- and I wore big flashy black and gold fleur de lis beads around my neck. I topped off my outfit with the black feather and gold metallic boa, gift form my sister-in-law R. We looked GOOD.) Everyone was happy and smiling, enjoying the day and each other, eating up all kinds of good food, drinking (of course), calling to each other, lifting their faces up to the sun (I swear I got some sunburn!), just loving the whole experience.
When the burgers were ready, I scooped them into the prepared pistolets and we chowed down happily! Big Man congratulated me on the tailgate, and frankly, I was pretty pleased my own self.
It got on to after 2 pm, and we began the reverse process of packing everything back up. We again double-checked on the tickets, grabbed the bag of Zapp's, and began the stroll to the gates. The Dome security has 2 lines to get in, one for men and one for women. A woman security guard patted me down briskly, and another guard kind of "bounced" my purse to make sure I was not trying to bring in any alcohol. (Guess we could've sneaked in the chips if we hadn't already scarfed them down.) Big Man and I met back up again inside the Dome and it didn't take any time at all to find our seats, right on the aisle, so close to the field! (We were so close that during the game we could clearly see Drew Brees's frustration on the sidelines after throwing an interception down in the Red Zone. Poor fellow.)
We thoroughly enjoyed the game and everything about it -- all the foofaraw, the national anthem sung by the Imagination Movers (the crowd was really too old to appreciate them), Drew's big "Who Dat" chant to start things off, the people watching, the costumes, the hollers, the Wave, the Kiss Cam, the Fit Cam, the Saintsations, and of course the game itself. We got to stand up and get crunk several times, which was the most fun at all. We took pictures with our iPhones, and every now and then hugged and kissed, saying, "Isn't this the BEST?? Isn't this wonderful??"
In the 4th quarter, with the Saints way ahead, some folks began leaving early to beat the traffic, but Big Man said we were there for the duration and wouldn't leave til they shot off the smoke cannons to say the game was over. And that's just what we did, seeing the official end of the game and then joining the giant crowd leaving. We went into the restrooms (which were empty!), and then took our time getting back to the car. Out on the walkway around the perimeter of the Dome, we were part of the huge throng of happy excited people, taking pictures with the costumed characters, loudly chanting "Who Dat." An almost-full moon glowed down on us. Everyone was happy and so were we. We were in no hurry.
On our level of the parking lot, we could see a long line of cars waiting to leave, but we were not in a hurry at all, and live close enough to the Dome that it's not an issue, so we just sat in the car, with the radio playing, making some calls (bragging to people!), talking over and reliving the game's highlights. We were so happy.
Finally the line went down and we drove down all the ramps and headed home under the moon. We were two of the happiest people in the city, and we woke up that way this morning as well.
One of the best days EVER!
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