Travel Stories- Portland

The Older We Get, the Better We Were
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Posts: 12
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 9:53 am
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 9:30 am
Travel was nuts to begin with and this had to be the mother of all bad trips. It was September 1974 and we were flying to Portland from Philly on what seemed to be a local plane. I say local because of all the stops we made. The more I tell the story, the more stops it took, but in reality it was close to 5 stops and layovers including a 1 1/2 hour layover in Seattle, landing as we are looking at the lights in Portland!
What made the trip interesting was the Eagles were the Monday night game and it was against Dallas. As we landed in each airport and deplaned, we saw the same play over and over again, Joe Lavender returning the ball 96 yards for a touchdown off a fumble recovery.
So we finally get to Portland and they have an old school bus to pick us up. i go with Tom in his car and we drive to the hotel. The team bus breaks down and the guys walk to the hotel. Some tried a shortcut and found a fence around the hotel with barbed wire. It was several hours before we stopped all the bleeding.
We then go into the stadium. It was an old baseball stadium that was lined for football, baseball and soccer. For whatever reason, they decided that they should move the field around, so they relined the football field in a different direction. All the lines were white, all permanent paint.
We kick off and there are whistles all over the place. They ruled the ball dead in the end zone, even though the ball was on the 25 yard line.
With all the lines, they had no clue which line was which.
Luckly, the trip home was uneventful.
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Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 10:59 pm
PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2010 3:01 pm
I remember coming back from Hawaii after the entire team had been out doing some Major League partying. The flight back went to SF, Phoenix then Philly. Like a whole freakin' day and we got back in the wee hours of the morning.

I was wiped out for a couple of days.*












*But the after-game funtime was worth it... :twisted:
Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings.
-George Will
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Posts: 12
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 9:53 am
PostPosted: Thu May 27, 2010 11:08 am
Remember the flight out?
We flew Philadelphia to LA and watched a kung fu movie, Golden Needles with Joe Don Baker. After we took off from LA to Hawaii the new movie started, Golden Needles.
I thought some of the players were going to kill the pilot for picking the movie!(Like it was his choice)

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