Pre Season Tailgating a Must!

The preseason is not just for the players and coaches.  We tailgaters need to have a preseason tailgate too.  Reason being, we need to make sure the tents or canopys are still fully operational, our cooers are still up to snuff and if our grill is still able to satisfy us.

I was 1 out of 3 for the preseason tailgating. 

First issue was my EZ up canopy did not go up so easy.  I will work on it today.  It was fresh out of the box and needed general unwrapping and assembly so I never got it done in time to grill and pay urban horshoes.  So I left it for today.

Sencondly, I didn’t realize I had throw out my cooler last year.  It was a zippered one that no longer zippered and it was too small for my growing tailgaters posse.  So I went with out one and kept stuff in grocery store bags with ice packs.

The food was simple tailgating fair this time – burgers, dogs , tortilla chips and black bean salsa – and the grill fired up well.  I will have more on the recipes later, but each week I will post recipes used at the game.

The atmoshere of the parkig lot was much subdued, as expected, with nothing riding on the game.  There were a lot of familys and youth groups in attendance.  The tailgating was very relaxed and children friendly.  We had one 7 year old youngster who was addicted to our urban horseshoe game.  

Urban horseshoes is basically throwing large washers at a 2′x2′ carpeted piece of plywood with a hole in the middle.  A 2″x4″ is under one lip to give it a 2″ raise for a slight incline.  Hole in one is 3 points, 2 points for landing on the carpeted part and 1 point if it leans against the fron lip of the plywood.  We play to 11 points.

The game itself was horrible if you are a Patriots fan.  The offense stinks with out Brady and special teams gave up back to back touchdowns.  It preseason so I am not getting that worked up about it.

Back to my canopy,

Todd