Howard County Fans Head to NOLA for Super Bowl

The Baltimore Ravens are going to New Orleans -- and so are Howard County fans, even if they’re not going to the Super Bowl. 

“We are so excited to just be IN the city our beloved Ravens are playing, we can't stand it!” Kim Hildebrand wrote in an email. “We will be happily watching the game with many other Ravens fans, I'm sure, in a local watering hole!”

Hildebrand said her daughter Kristen took her dad—Kim’s husband, Fred—for a ride in her new car on Friday and they stopped at a local bar. She said to her dad, “'If the Ravens win on Sunday, wouldn’t it be cool to go to New Orleans and just watch the game in a bar?'” 

Dad was in. So was mom. And then?

“They actually won!”

So there you have it—they’ve rented a house with some friends in the Garden District and will spend Thursday to Monday morning in New Orleans. Then, “We will drive back, hopefully celebrating our Super Bowl Champions!”

The Hildebrands have traveled for games before, Kim said, mostly along the East Coast. 

Mike Singer and his wife Wendy, on the other hand, have traveled pretty far for games before—they even ran into Johnny Unitas on the street in Arizona, where they went to support the Ravens near the end of the 2000 regular season. Baltimore went on to win the Super Bowl. 

That year, the Singers kept it low maintenance. They tailgated in a free lot with a Circle K styrofoam cooler. Except, “Come to find out we had driven into the exit of a parking lot,” Mike Singer wrote. A police parking lot.

This year, they're playing it by the book. The two have been season ticket holders since 2001, and have tickets to Super Bowl XLVII. No "unsanctioned" tailgaiting in police parking lots this time. 

“We started looking for trips to book right after [Sunday’s] game,” Singer wrote. “We’ve been waiting for this and saying that we’re going for years.”

Howard County officials are also getting plans together for the big game.

County council member Greg Fox said he and his son plan to attend the Super Bowl, according to the Howard County Times.

Are you going to New Orleans to support the Ravens? Or planning a shindig locally? Let us know your plans in the comments and upload you in your best Ravens gear by clicking "Add photos and videos."