My journey begins!

So this is the first stop on my adventure.  It also happens to be by far the closest, at the United Center in downtown Chicago.

This game, on October 13th, also happened to be my 21st birthday, where I made the horrible mistake of buying alcohol at a game (really, don't do it, $10 for a single beer is so not worth it, and if you can't wait 3 hours for a beer, you have issues).



But that's besides the point, admittedly this was my second game at the UC, so I knew the place is beautiful.  I also knew there wasn't a bad seat, so being up in the 300s was not a big deal.

Also, here's a pic of our seat

Of course, given that this was one of the first games of the new season, the energy in the place was ridiculous.  That picture above was taken early during warmups, and trust me, the place was packed, and it was a Wednesday night game.

Even cooler was that, during one of the intermissions, the guys from Orange County Chopper, from the TV show, came out and presented the team with a bike they made (apparently they featured the bike on the show, but I don't have cable or watch much TV, so I don't know).  Unfortunately, because I was using a phone camera, I couldn't get a great picture of the bike, but you should be able to see it well here.

Alas, even with a 2-1 lead after the first period, the Hawks would surrender the lead and the game in the third and lose 3-2.  Thus began my home team curse.
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