We saw lots on our adventure. We saw the first and last pitch of all 7 games. We learned a lot about baseball and even more about each other. The biggest being that we are so much alike. We did have some navigational issues, and we should have been able to see more of Chicago and possibly Detroit, but I would not have traded the fun we had, lost in Iowa for anything on the trip. Like the nice lady at Walmart in northern Iowa who when I asked if they sold any Major League Baseball clothes, she said “Sweetie, we do, but we only carry it during the season, and it’s not baseball season for a while now.” I told her yes ma’am it is baseball season right now. Her response was “Well shoot a pickle in the foot, I didn’t realize that!” We had a new saying for the trip. Russell tries to bring humor and happiness into every situation.  Going into the quick shop to pee and grab a soda should be done with a smile. When we made wrong turns and got off schedule neither of us were upset. We just had fun being together without rules.

Here is a recap of our adventure with some more pictures:

We hooked up with some friends in Kansas City and watched the Royals pull off a victory against the Minnesota Twins. Met a great baseball fan and I think Carrot Top sat behind us…life’s been hard for the Top

We traveled on to Chicago where we had some road struggles, but ultimately made it to The Windy City where we watched the Cubbies lose to the Cardinals. We were in one of Baseball’s holy cities and you could feel the difference inside the ballpark. We called my friend Bernard Hairs on the way looking for parking advice. He told us what to do, but he also had a long list of things that Russell HAD to see while he was in Chicago. Bernard didn’t quite understand the length of our Iowa adventure, and regretfully there just wasn’t time to see anything but baseball.

From there we drove toward Detroit. I made the mistake of having Russ navigate us to South Bend because it was “on the way”. It is not… We had to get up before light to make it back to the correct Interstate and to Detroit in time for the 12:10 start. There was no way we could take ANY time to even drive around Notre Dame.  As it turned out it was a 1:10 start AND there was a 2 hour rain delay. There should be pics of the Golden Dome and Touchdown Jesus, but Tom’s an idiot.

We weathered the weather in great seats, but the Tigers did not…. losing soundly to the Red Sox.

 

 

Continue reading “Homecoming!!” →

The last game of our trip turned into a one sided home run hitting contest and our luck was not with the Cincinnati Reds. The visiting Philadelphia Phillies hit 7…yes SEVEN home runs to clobber the Reds 9-4.

With the day game in Cleveland and a night game in Cincy we were able to take more time in the host city. There are some beautiful views over the Ohio River & some great architecture.

We were able to plan out our parking so as to not have the same parking lot nightmare as Cleveland. I made the decision to actually park in Kentucky and walk across the bridge to the stadium. Yes…I made the decision to walk across this bridge.

Anybody who knows me well enough to still be reading this blog, knows I do not volunteer to walk anywhere. Much less up 4 flights of stairs and across that river then another block to the stadium, but I had visions of the day before in Cleveland. I didn’t want to waste precious hours inching out of a parking garage closer to the stadium. You see, we had a stupid plan for after the game.

What I didn’t factor, was that the announced attendance was only 17,000 of the 42,000 capacity and several thousand less than that actually showed up. AND it had rained pretty hard through 4 innings of the Reds getting blown out. The stadium only had maybe 5000 fans still there by the last out. In Cleveland there had been a near capacity crowd of 36,000, on a flawless day and it was an exciting Cleveland win. Then we had to beg & plead through 5:00 traffic…It was 11 o’clock before emptied out of The Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati & the streets were empty. Cars were easily slipping out of the parking garage a block from the stadium. I had to listen to Russell complain up 4 flights of stairs and all the way back across that damn river…not to mention my own legs bitching me out.

The only thing that saved good ol’ Dad, was our tickets were amazing!!! Since nobody goes to the games, we were able to get “all inclusive” Club Level tickets for a small fraction of the cost it would of been anywhere else.

They were so cool. The food was really good & very close. And our seats…fabulous.

Our dedication to the home team has certainly backfired to most of the cities we’ve visited. We finished our 7 games in 7 days with a 2-5 record. I’ll talk more about that and our trip home next.

We had a great Cleveland experience! We went to the Tuesday night game against the Pirates and had unbelievable weather to go along with fun seats overlooking the first base line.

I made friends in the 5th inning when I accidentally kicked over a Pirate fan’s mixed drink going to the restroom. I apologized, he was nice & I left. I came back with another Jim Beam & not only was he our new bestie, but the people behind us were impressed. When I told them our trip details our whole section had lots of questions. It was really great. Like we were all close friends. The Pirate fans moved closer to us to tell us their story. They follow the Pirates quite a bit & had brought a huge quilt with Pirate symbols & player autographs. They kept it neatly folded and hung it off the side during the 7th inning stretch. They offered us tickets to the Friday game in Pittsburgh. Like asked 5 times. Great people.

The best thing they did though was point out that their shortstop, Jordy Mercer, is from Taloga, OK and went to OSU!! I have a new favorite player!

Sadly we once again were not able to help the home team win, as the Pirates dominated the Tribe 9-2.

Since our next game isn’t until tomorrow in Cincinnati and the Indians were still at home against the Pirates, we decided to stay another day. The fact that there was a beach towel give away to the first 10,000 fans might have swayed us.

It was a beautiful cloudless 80° day and we were in basically the same seats on the 3rd base side. This was a different day for the Indians. That difference was not us, but Trevor Bauer. He pitched 7 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts and only 2 hits.

We met another nice man sitting next to us. He is a season ticket holder and came in a suit & tie. He’s an attorney downtown and worked a 1/2 day. A big baseball fan, he’s been to games just about everywhere… including Oklahoma City. He asked if Micky Mantle had played there or something, because he ate at his steakhouse before the game. He tried to get us to go to a game in Columbus – Cleveland’s AAA team. Since we were to be driving through Columbus that afternoon, we checked – they were away. In the end we felt good to be a part of a victory!

GO TRIBE!!

We did hear that Beyoncé was playing tonight at the Q next to Progressive Field, and since we didn’t have anyplace to be until tomorrow night…

I’m teasing of course. I don’t know how much they’d have to pay us to go to a Beyoncé concert, but I’m pretty sure they weren’t going to ask.

The parking was close to the stadium which was nice, but 36,000 fans leaving a large downtown at 5:00…it took an hour to get out of the parking lot. Tempers were flared. One car emptied to fight another guy…crazy. We had no where to be anytime soon, so we just enjoyed the show.

We made it to Cincinnati and are looking forward to the game. We splurged a little for fancy seats with all inclusive concessions! Our trek is about over, and we are sad, but a little eager too. We’re tired of just looking at each other.

Once again our streak of trying to help the home team failed. The Akron Rubber Ducks lost on Lebron James dedication night. His hometown is Akron & while Cleveland is sad for him to go the City of Akron is still proud of their favorite son. Russ was wearing Lebron socks and a local TV station filmed them.

We sat through two rain delays and were 2 of 45 fans left at the end of the game. We had entered a contest where you throw tennis balls onto the field after it was over to win a “prize”. We turned out to be the only people who was left that had tennis balls so they just gave us the prizes…that’s right…plural. Among our winnings is a ticket to the fair, 1 green fee at a local muni, a ticket to the Canton, OH museum of art, 1 round of mini golf and tickets to watch The Incredibles back at the ballpark Aug. 4th.

There was also a $5 gift card for a nice Italian restaurant that we enjoyed for lunch today. If anyone is coming to the greater Akron area in the next few months let me know. I can hook you up with some deals.

All in all we loved the atmosphere & the friendly people at the minor league park. It felt like an ever so slightly bigger David Allen Ballpark with beer. Oh and a ton more urinals…

Tonight we have tickets to see the Indians play the Pirates at 7:00. Let’s hope for good weather and a V for Chief Wahoo!!

I loved the HOF! I’ve always wanted to go & I’m so happy I was able to. It isn’t quite as exciting as I’d hoped. It’s a little waaay back history heavy & not near enough Barry & Thurman dedicated exhibits. There is a cool Jim Thorpe statue right when you walk in.

They are in the middle of a massive expansion. Adding a hotel & a waterpark. They need to do something to attract younger people.

We are now awaiting the start of the Akron Rubber Ducks game. They are the AA affiliate of the Indians & we are in a rain delay.

Those are actual rubber ducks on the tarp.

We heard they were playing & thought…why not? What a great trip!!

The trip was planned for the purpose of getting to The Pro Football Hall of Fame and today is the day. No baseball games for us today. Which is probably good news for the Cleveland Indians. Our presence did nothing for the home town team in Detroit. After about a 2 hour rain delay, the Tigers were blown out by the Red Sox 9-2…and it wasn’t even really that close.

Detroit was great! Easy to navigate, close & secure parking and super friendly people. I love to talk to strangers and the best in Detroit was Angela my beertendress.

During our delay Russ & I found a dry spot next to the beer. After checking my ID -I’m a youthful 47- Angela commented we have the same birthday. Different years I’m assuming.

After the game we put in the coordinates to Akron and double checked that we were following actual Interstate highways. Satisfied, we made great time and arrived in downtown Akron…unfortunately we had booked the hotel in Canton. A quick recalculating by Russ & we were off. Now there’s an Interstate that quickly connects Akron to Canton… think Edmond to Norman, but this stupid device took us on another backroad adventure down regular city streets. I’ve taught Russell some helpful new words.

We were both happy to sleep in today and look forward to seeing the HOF. We will also be eating a decent meal – inside an actual restaurant, finding good Indians gear for the game tomorrow…and buying an actual map…

We were hoping to be good luck charms for all the home teams on our trip, but a strong 8th & 9th inning by the Cardinals ruined the night for Cub fans…of which Russ & I are now. We might be in conflict later on our trip. We enjoyed everything about the Chicago leg of our adventure. The only regret is our schedule didn’t allow more time to see everything….or really anything but Wrigley.

The most important (and surprising) thing I’ve learned from the trip so far is how invaluable Jessica is to our vacations. The concept I came up with is perfect, the main overall plan has been great, the travel details however….horrendous.

I printed off (yes I’m old) the route & a not very detailed map, but other than just getting to KC, I’ve left the directions to Russ & my phone. I haven’t helped other than to complain. And when I threw out the idea of stopping in South Bend “because it was on the way” from Chicago to Detroit…it was the opposite of helping. You see, South Bend IS between Chicago & Detroit & it IS on an Interstate; however it IS NOT the exact Interstate that connects Chicago & Detroit. Russell, trying to do what his dad wants w/o arguing, maps it out and tells me where to turn. He figures I planned this trip for him & I know what’s up. Well…not only did we have to drive through back Country roads again to get back to the correct Interstate this morning, but I hadn’t calculated that it was a 1:00 start in Detroit & we had 4 hours to drive. We didn’t even pull into the hotel until 1:30 am. There wasn’t anyway we could take 5 min to drive through Notre Dame’s parking lot, much less see anything. Jessica would NEVER have allowed these mistakes. To compound my mistake I told Jessica of my stupidity and now she’s following us on Find Friends and calling to correct any wrong turn she perceives. Back seat driving from Oklahoma…at least she can’t see if I’m using turn signals.

This day of driving was going to be a challenge anyway; KC to Chicago is a long haul with the best of planning, but when you factor in already being off the interstate and no where near a major highway even… It’s been a learning experience. Like that the only thing in central Iowa is corn, corn & oh yeah…more corn. Fritos should be a lot cheaper than they are. Also the fine people of Iowa have not met a speed limit they didn’t obey. Imagine long stretches on a largely empty 2 lane winding, hilly road behind Ethel in her 1986 Plymouth & me trying like hell to make up time. Russell showed great patience with my frustration…if not any solutions. We changed roads like 50 times. At one point the GPS had us turn on Rainbow Ave. Every state highway in Iowa dead ends at some point. I was begging for an Interstate.

But find Chicago we did and it is more amazing that I dreamed it would be. It’s crazy how different the feeling is here vs KC. So electric. Russ did another amazing job with the tickets in our budget. It is 72° with a light rain & he planned ahead getting us under the covered area. He’s got skills!

Only one Chicago Dog down, but it’s early still

The game was fabulous! Weather was perfect…not just “late July and coulda been worse” perfect, but actually perfect.

I got to see Frank & Carmen & share a beer with them.

And the home town Royals won 6-5 after leading 6-2 going into the 9th. They allowed the bases loaded with the winning run on first before the last out. We saw a fire works display Jim Burnet woulda been proud of and we escaped any major traffic getting out of the ballpark. My plan was to drive a few hours, get out of the city & closer to Chicago with minimal traffic.

All smooth right….? Not on this father/son trip!

To fully grasp the problems that ensued I must first explain my duties as a husband. I am great (in my mind anyway) at several things. I do the laundry, I sew buttons, I’m not opposed to washing dishes, I make the bed. I’m what I’d call non-traditional…I’m sure my friends will now call me some other names, but I also dispatch spiders & open tight jars like other real men. What I DO NOT do is order things online. Hate it. In our separation of powers this is and always has been Jessica’s job. I don’t order pizza, Jimmy Johns, airplanes or unfortunately for Russ & I…hotel rooms.

For this trip we were doing very little by pre-ordering. I’d heard we will get much better prices if we wait to purchase tickets & for the most part, we have little idea where we’ll choose to rest our heads each night. I’ve put my 18 year old, honors graduate in charge of navigating & ordering tickets. He led us expertly to KC & the tickets he picked out 3 hours before game time for $22 each were perfect. So when I just said “get us to Chicago” I had no reason to second guess him. I did find it strange when we left the interstate, but the highway was still nice and it did lead to Chicago so that’s ok, but our real trouble started when I told him to find a room.

In an effort to help, Jessica had downloaded onto my phone several of her favorite hotel apps. All the major ones were represented — the gnome, Captain Kirk – only the best. Russell’s major obstacle was, by the time I said we should stop driving, we were in the middle of No Where, Missouri…Population 17. Interstate hotels, and actual road signs, woulda been a welcome sight. So he’s looking an hour away & trying to find the best deal. I hate spending money to sleep. If I’m gonna be there for a week I want nice, but if I’m just sleeping & leaving, I want clean. He found something he said was an hour away in a town called Kirksville with 2 beds (his big rule…the sissy)

What he didn’t realize was that Kirksville wasn’t just 60 miles away; it was 60 miles away off the already deserted highway through rolling hills with steep blind turns. It’s 1 am, very dark, deer & raccoons are around every turn. We can only go 45 mph. It takes a lifetime….and Russell & I can’t quit laughing. One of the best 60 miles of my life.

What a great trip this has been already.

After an incredibly easy drive where we ran into friends in Wichita, we arrived in KC 2 1/2 hours before the game. We met the nicest guy in Rick the parking attendant.

We told him about our trip & he told us about similar ones he’s made. We were early & alone, so he was quite chatty. He got a little teary at the end….

We parked & as we were walking through the empty expensive parking lots Russ found a pristine pair of Oakley’s! Then he was checking his phone and a great friend of his noticed he was at the game & mentioned he was too!

Russell is having a great trip so far. It being 83° and overcast doesn’t hurt either.

I’m now getting ready to find Frank Baker & Carmen Ball to buy them a beer. Before the first pitch. What a great country.