In just four days, on February
9, 2025, NFL Super Bowl #59 will take place in New
Orleans pitting the Kansas City Chiefs against the
Philadelphia Eagles, a game highly touted for its record-breaking possibilities
and behind-the-scenes drama. I am very excited to watch this game, and it
brings to mind another highly anticipated Super Bowl, XXII, January 31, 1988 in San
Diego. The Denver Broncos, our favorite NFL Team,
played against the Washington Redskins and our hopes were high for the Broncos
to take home that much sought after trophy.
Just a month earlier, December 1987, I started a new job as
a brewer with Anheuser-Busch in Fort Collins
at their newly constructed brewery located just a few miles southeast of our
home. My world dramatically changed from that of an over-the-hill lumber sales
person whose work future was grim to that of a forty-year-old woman given an
opportunity to learn new skills with a respected employer who paid really well.
I had won the job lottery!
In January of 1988 I was totally immersed in the intensive
training at the brewery and our son, Patrick, was away at college so Bob saw an
opportunity to fulfill a longtime dream of exploring the Mayan ruins in Mexico.
I’m sure the cold January weather in Colorado
had something to do with his choice of longtime dreams to pursue. He and his
friend Bill West share many interests and Mayan Culture is one of them, so they
put together a plan and soon found themselves on a plane bound for Cancun.
You may wonder what this has to do with Super Bowl XXII? On January 31, 1988, Bill remembers that
everywhere they went that day in Cancun and Chichén Itzá
Bob asked if anyone knew the results of the Super Bowl game. Bill pointed out
to Bob that in the big scheme of things the results of the football game had
little to do with their activities in Mexico and the score results could wait
but Bob persisted and finally learned that the Broncos lost to the Redskins 42
-10, not even a close game. This was the third time the Broncos had played in
the Super Bowl and it would not be until ten years later that they won their
first, Super Bowl XXXII, when they defeated the Green Bay Packers 31-24.
From what I heard about their time in Mexico
I don’t think the football game put a damper on Bob’s and Bill’s fun at all. Upon their return to Colorado after a week-long trip Bob and Bill told Carol and I bits and pieces of their exploration
of the ruins, the great meals, a flat tire in a taxi, acquiring a new
friend named Bud who was in Mexico by himself, even a party with some pretty
women from Washington State, participants in an Apple Growers’ convention, but
knowing these guys I suspect there were stories that went untold. Bob brought
back a handful of silver bracelets and several rolls of undeveloped film. Bill and Bud both took photos, too, and shared their photographs with us.
I really enjoyed all the photos they took and the stories
that accompanied each photo. Thirty-seven years have elapsed since I heard
those stories so I have forgotten most and will let the photos speak for
themselves.
There was talk of another trip like this, a visit to the pre-Columbian Chaco Canyon area of New Mexico. It is now the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Bob and Bill never made that trip to New Mexico and that time of travel and off trail hiking has passed. But their inquisitive minds and insatiable curiosity are very much alive, I'm happy to report.
