The Pittsburgh Steelers won't be anything but spectators for this weekend's Super Bowl, but two Butler County couples at least have the memories of watching the Black and Gold defeat an unbeaten team last fall.

“A few years ago, my husband said, 'Let's go to a Steelers' away game.' He said he'd always wanted to go to San Diego. Of course, I think golf had something to do with that, lots of nice courses in California,” said Liz Scott of Penn Township.

Her husband, Brooke Scott, talked to their friends John and Laura Emmerling of Zelienople, about the trip, and the four all got to see the exciting victory over the Chargers in October 2015, when Le'Veon Bell's wildcat play sealed the win in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter.

In San Diego, the gentlemen played golf while the ladies did a bit of walking and sightseeing.

“We decided to keep the warm-weather stadium trips going … 'cause, you know, football weather is usually cooler … so all four of us went to Miami the next year,” Liz Scott said.

The Steelers lost that October 2016 game to the Dolphins, 30-15.

“Those two games were so hot — San Diego in the upper 80s and Miami in the 90s, even though both were in October — that the next year we thought maybe we'd try a not-so-warm-weather stadium,” said Scott.

So this past Steelers' season the couples considered maybe Green Bay, Wis., or Nashville, Tenn., would be a better destination.

“But both those teams (Packers and Titans) were coming to Pittsburgh to play this season, so my husband suggested Kansas City,” Scott said. “The Steelers were going to be playing at the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium in October, so we settled on that game.”

The Scotts and the Emmerlings flew from Pittsburgh to Wichita, Kan.

As much as these trips are about football they are also about golf, and Laura Emmerling noticed a golf course in Hutchinson, Kan., near Wichita, that was on her husband's top-rated list. So the trip started in Wichita then ended in Kansas City, Mo.

Kansas City is split by two states — Kansas and Missouri — but Arrowhead Stadium is on the Missouri side, Scott noted.

“Laura and I actually saw a lot of neat stuff in Hutchinson while the guys golfed. A bunch of huge grain elevators (storage for bulk grain), Smith's Market, which was this old-timey, food and gift place, got some Christmas presents there, a little boutiquey women's store with a great sale going on, and the town's own little art museum,” she said.

The four finished their brief stop in Hutchinson with a visit to the Cosmosphere, a Smithsonian-affiliated museum.

“Right there, in the middle of nowhere, is this fantastic air and space museum. Right when you go into the lobby, there's suspended from the ceiling a Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird, an early stealth spy plane from the 1960s. It's over 100 feet long.”

Cosmosphere displays covered the development of rockets, early space flight and the Cold War. The museum also contains an Apollo 13 lunar module, a moon rock and Apollo era space suits.

One Kansas sight the tourists didn't get to see was the world's largest ball of twine. “It was a two and a half hours away, so we missed that!” Scott said.

After driving for more than two hours across all the flat highways from Hutchinson in Kansas to Kansas City in Missouri, the next two days were filled with highlights.

The National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City was impressive, Scott said.

“It was started right after that war, opening in 1926, and says it is 'Dedicated to remembering, interpreting and understanding the Great War and its enduring impact on the global community.' It does that with an extensive collection of artifacts, videos and large-scale dioramas,” said Scott.

According to the museum, city leaders formed the Liberty Memorial Association and in 1919 raised more than $2.5 million in just 10 days, about $34 million in 21st century dollars.

One of the most fun sights of the trip in Scott's opinion was at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, or rather outside of it. “There are these giant shuttlecock sculptures over 18 feet tall, some upright or tilted, some upside down.

“The artist laid them out over the expanse of lawn in front and back of the museum to look like that was the giant playing field of a badminton game,” Scott related.

A trip to Kansas City wouldn't have been complete without trying the local cuisine and beverages. “We went to a barbecue place, which seemed like a local chain, a bit pricey maybe but admittedly the sauce was really good,” she said.

A tour of Boulevard Brewing yielded a beer-tasting and an enjoyable afternoon of further sampling. The brewery opened in 1989 and has become the largest specialty craft beer maker in the Midwest, employing more than 200 people.

Going to church has always been a part of these autumn trips for the four friends, and in Kansas City that meant attending Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, within walking distance of their hotel.

Then it was off to check out the Kansas City Public Library, which has building-height book spines on its outside, featuring titles such as “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, “O Pioneers!” by Willa Cather, “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, and “The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes.”

Of course, Scott said, the reason for the trip — the Steelers game — wrapped everything up neatly. That Sunday, the Steelers snapped the Chiefs' five-game winning streak with a 19-13 victory.

“I have to say the Chiefs' fans were really nice and gracious. They seemed more upset with their own team for having lost than with the Steelers for beating them,” Scott said.

“Even after the game, we were going back to the parking lot through this walkway over the traffic and a Chiefs fan held his hand out for us ladies at a steep part of the path,” Scott said.

“One thing I want to say about all the away games is there always seem to be lot of Steelers fans in other cities, of these three, probably San Diego had the most, all very enthusiastic,” she said.

“However, I noticed that Steelers fans at these games seemed to try to out-cheer the home team's fans, and that just makes the noise more deafening when the Steelers' offense is trying to play.

“So when the scoreboard says 'Make some noise' or something like that, it makes me want to say to the other Steelers fans there, 'They don't mean you!'”

“Well no matter all the other things we do, let's face it … when the Steelers win, that always makes for a better trip!” said Scott.