Ticketless E. Chicago trio having a hot time

MIAMI -- RV there yet? A hearty trio of East Chicago, Ind., firemen arrived Thursday evening in a Fleetwood Tioga RV at the Miami Everglades Campground, about 30 miles outside Miami. Accompanied by two gemologist friends, they drove 27 straight hours out of Chicago, avoiding snow, tornadoes and sleep. They are the Devin Hesters of the Highway.

No one in the group has tickets to the Super Bowl.

Da Bears fans preferred to spend $30 each on leather replica 1920s Bears helmets, the kind Bronko Nagurski used to wear. The men and their headgear were quite a hit at the 200-site campground, evenly divided between Bears and Colts fans.

On Friday afternoon, East Chicago Assistant Fire Chief Arturo Vazquez, 55, led fearless firemen Oscar Quiroga, 48, and Willie Hernandez, 38, into the heat of trendy South Beach. They wore their tiny helmets, looking like Speedos for the noggin.

"We had stopped in Bushnell, Fla., for breakfast," Vazquez said over a Friday brunch of Pacifico beer and lime at the campground. "Me and Willie were eating breakfast, and Oscar was at the next table, being very demonstrative. He had his helmet on.

"He didn't know it, but I zoomed in and took a picture of him with my cell phone."

Vazquez then introduced himself to an older couple who were having breakfast. He quizzed the gentleman on his Football Hall of Fame acumen.

"He said he knew a few Hall of Famers," Vazquez said. "So I showed him the picture on my cell phone and said, 'This is 'Gator' Quiroga; he was a linebacker for the Bears in the 1920s.' He didn't recognize him; then 'Gator' got up and said hello." A nickname was born.

Colts fans aren't this funny.

The firemen borrowed their 15,000-pound RV from fellow firefighter John Villegas, who recently returned from Iraq. He is now headed to border patrol duty.

The first thing the group did when they got to the campground was pitch a tall flagpole. They flew a Bears flag beneath a crisp American flag.

Hernandez does not drink, so he was the main driver. Vazquez said, "Willie did all the driving, I did all the talking, Gator did all the sleeping. Dave Gutierrez ate all the ham sandwiches."

The firemen will drive home Monday, headstrong into the Chicago wind.

Farther down U.S. 1 in Key Largo, a group of former Chicagoans gathered Friday afternoon at the Caribbean Club, a favorite haunt for Bears and White Sox fans. They call the bar along the calm Florida bay their "office." The Caribbean Club is best known for being a backdrop for the dock scenes in the Humphrey Bogart classic "Key Largo." The club was built in 1938 by Carl Fisher, the brains behind the Dixie Highway and Miami Beach.

The group included Norm Higgins, 57, and Charlie Wood, 60, both of whom were born around 55th and Halsted. John Darido, 31, relocated to Key Largo three years ago from suburban Franklin Park.

"The Bears get their uniforms torn and dirty," declared Wood, who has lived in Key Largo on and off for 30 years. "Teams like the Miami Dolphins want to stay pretty."

Higgins is a graduate of St. Rita High School and a classmate of former White Sox pitcher and current broadcaster Ed Farmer. Higgins has lived in Key Largo since 1976 and still can't get smackdown Bears culture out of his head.

"The first [Miami] Dolphin game I went to was at the Orange Bowl," said Higgins, a genteel Irishman who is now a commissioner for the Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District. "They were playing the Jets. My brother came down from Chicago. I get arrested for drinking wine at the game. I told the police officer, 'Sir, in Chicago we drink at the Bear games.' I got arrested, but it was an Irish sergeant that let me go." That's the Chicago way, a savvy and strong way to Miami.

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