The Boyes family, clockwise from top left, Peter Farrell(needing a haircut) Chris,Carolyn, and twins Zoe and Jack.

Yep, I’m pretty certain a phrase that I’ve never heard before in my life came out of the mouth of Chris Boyes as we were hanging out at the Adam’s Mark the evening prior to the Sabres home opener.

As we mentioned in a post earlier this summer Chris has been a Bills fan for over two decades and in the process picked up a following for the Sabres as well.

So it is on this weekend that Chris is in the Buffalo/Niagara region and bringing his wife Carolyn and twins Jack and Zoe with him. And with us being longtime Buffalo area residents, we’ve attempted to put our best foot forward to show off the place we call home.

Save for an anonymous @$$hole who broke into their rental car during the night, I think we did well……We brought Chris and Jack to the Anchor Bar Thursday to acclimate them with the true home of the Buffalo chicken wing and intoduce them to our city. It was there I asked an obvious question: Why be a Bills fan?

Chris answered that American football was starting to pick up in the UK and several friends were watching, most picking teams that were renowned and successful and the Bills at the time were not as this was those mid 80’s down years. Chris wanted to follow a team when it was down and be able to watch it make its way up to the top. Thankfully for us, he hasn’t hopped off when times went bad.

One thing is certain, bandwagon fan this is not, Chris has been known (verified by Carolyn) to at times get up in the middle of the night to catch his Bills on the ‘net as those prime time games start at 130-2 AM overseas. Chris can recall with the best of Bills fans the best and worst of the past two decades. Being that Dallas will be the opponent when he visits the Ralph, he recalled the time back in the mid 80’s when a winless Bills club stunned the Cowboys for their first win of the season.

Since they were connected with a couple of really cool sports bloggers/roadtrippers(heh heh), The Boyes family had some really great seats for Friday’s home opener. When we came down to greet them, they were all decked out in some blue and gold gear, right down to Jack’s Sabretooth baseball cap. Unfortunately for them, the Sabres couldn’t pull out the win after a great start to the game…guess means that they gotta come back again right???

They’re in the Falls this weekend doing, well the obligatory Niagara Falls business, then it’s back to Buffalo, where Chris will indeed fulfill his nearly generation old dream of attending a Bills game at the Ralph.

Yep, visiting Buffalo a dream come true….it really is. It’d be nice to hear that more often. Any others like you overseas Chris?

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