My New Vice...

is eating sunflower seeds in the car. I get in the car and the first thing I want to do...nay...feel compelled to do is grab my bag of sunflower seeds, pop a handful in my mouth, and get a chomping. I then, and this is the worst part, spit the seeds into old Coke bottle I have. I already have filled and emptied that bottle two times. Then I just toss it on the ground until the next time I get into the car. Is there anybody else like me out there? I know I need help, but I just can't get enough of those seeds.

Just some random thoughts

1) Why is it that the nicer the hotel you stay in, the more they charge you for internet use. This weekend we went to San Jose and brought the computer in case we needed to look up an address, find something to do, etc. But it cost $15 for a 24-hour period so that was out. Last year I went to a conference in Ft. Worth at a really nice hotel and it cost $25 for a 24-hour period. Then you go to a Days Inn and you get it for free, no problem.

2) I was just watching the video of the reporter in Iraq who threw a shoe at President Bush. The best part of this is I saw an article with the excerpt that in "Arab culture, throwing shoes at someone, or sitting so that the bottom of a shoe faces another person, is considered an insult."
I find it interesting that sitting with your shoe so it face a person is insulting. That seems interesting and probably specific to the Arab culture. However, I think it goes without saying that throwing a shoe at someone is probably going to be an insult an any culture.

Christmas in July

"Christmas in July" used to mark the half way point of the year and mean Christmas was only 6 months away. But now it seems that is really when people are starting to set up for Christmas. I remember back in the day when stores like Macy's or JC Penny's would start putting their Christmas stuff out in October and everybody would feel really uncomfortable about it because it was too early in the season. But now if you don't have your Christmas stuff up by Labor Day, you're behind the times. Costco has to get there extremely large inflatable displays up because heaven forbid you would buy those anywhere else (an aside: a neighbor of ours has a large inflatable turkey on his roof. Really? We are now putting up inflatable displays to celebrate Thanksgiving? Really?)
We had to return something at the Gap this evening and Santa's village was already set up and Santa was even there trying to get Charlotte to come and take a picture with him. Riverpark has its big display up shouting "Happy Holidays" in festive Christmas colors on the corner of Blackstone and Nees. And we passed a usually vacant lot all ready to receive its first shipment of trees and flock them.
I personally have always been someone who likes to celebrate one holiday at a time. We just got done with Halloween so now let's celebrate Thanksgiving. Only until Thanksgiving is over can we put up any Christmas decorations or listen to Christmas carols. I'm like this in many things in my life. I guess I'm goal oriented in that fashion. When I was in college or optometry school and I had multiple tests during the week, I took them one test at a time. I couldn't begin to study for a test that was three days away before I had completed the next test. (That made for one hellish week in optometry school during finals when I had 7 tests in 5 days). I even used to be that way with food. I couldn't eat my potatoes until I had finished all of my cranberry sauce, although I've become much more relaxed when it comes to that.
Which leads me to a question, "When do you start listening to Christmas music?" As you've probably gathered from this post, I wait until the day after Thanksgiving. I feel that I get about 3 1/2 weeks of solid Christmas music and I don't dilute by starting it before. It gives me something to look forward as well. But I've also heard people who already are playing Christmas music because they love it so much and don't want to only be confined to 3 weeks of it? So which is it? Let me know where you stand by leaving a comment.

Redskins predict winner is Obama

Since the 1940 election (except the 2004 election) if the Redskins win their final home game, the incumbent party wins. If they lose, the incumbent party is ousted. So based on the result of the Redskins getting thumped tonight by the Steelers at home, the Replubicans will have to wait another 4 years to get into The White House.
And for those who have any doubt if Obama will be ready if he wins, look at the extra work he has been doing to prepare him for the job:

Obama Undertakes Presidential Internship To Ease Concerns About His Lack Of Experience

Kute KhildKare Signs

If there is one thing that really bugs me, it is the need for childcare places to use "k" instead of "c" in the titles of their businesses. For instance, there is a place in Fresno called "Kiddie Kare". Really? The English language is hard enough for kids to grab with all the weird phonics rules, but now you are going to intentionally misspell a word in your title because you think it looks cute? Newsflash...It is lame. And why do childcare businesses only see the need to do this?
But today I saw one that really bugged me. I've started working in our Madera office on Monday and Fridays and I was about to pull into our office parking lot, I saw the sign: "Kiddie Kountry Club". What really stands out about this is that they used the "k" for "Country", but completely changed tactics and used a 'c" for "club" . If we're being consistent here, shouldn't it be "Kiddie Kountry Klub"? But of course, when they were brainstorming this genius idea, somebody probably stated you can't do that because then the initials will be "KKK". "no problem," somebody else said. We'll just not use a "k" with "club".
How about this idea: SPELL THE WORDS CORRECTLY!
Are there any others out there? Let me know.

Back to the Blog

I'll save you the classic "it's been a while since I posted, but I hope to post more."  (but it is a true statement).  Anyway, it is Olympics time, which means it's time to watch events that I never really watch until the Olympics roll around (thank you women's sabre and light double scull, both of witch I've watched with interest this weekend).  

I've always been outspoken about my love of the west coast time zone because of the ability to watch all American sporting events and still get to bed at a normal time.  But international competitions are a different beast.  Especially when they are in China on the other side of the world.  The east and central time zones get to watch the Olympics mostly live during primetime events.  NBC negotiated hard to get the time of big events like gymnastics and swimming finals in the coveted primetime slot which would mean early morning in China.  But that would still be too early for the west coast, so they decided to tape delay them here on the west.  10 years ago, that wouldn't have been such a big deal.  But with the internet, it makes trying to avoid results of events so much more difficult.  I can barely even look at my phone anymore without the threat of seeing some results.   I guess that will be challenge over the next two weeks.

Happy Summer Solstice

In case you missed it, at exactly 4:59 PDT summer began. Technically, it is when the sun is the farthest north when the declination of the sun is at the Tropic of Cancer. Christa, Charlotte, and I celebrated this by heading outside in the brutal Fresno heat to enjoy the beginning of summer. While we didn't look directly into the sun (a friendly reminder from you eye doctor who never recommends you look directly into the sun) we did enjoy being outside from the official transition from spring to summer. So enjoy the longest day of the year, they only get shorter from here on out.

To commemorate the 10 year anniversary of our baseball trip, The Penner's and Wiens's met up to catch a Triple AAA baseball game between Fresno and Portland.  As you can see, things have changed since we last went on our trip.  Keeping score was a little more difficult when you are chasing kids around.  They did great though.  They even made it through an extra inning game and survived the firework show following the game.   But we had a great time reminiscing about our trip, complete with a review of our "Trip All-Star Team" and a review of the stats.  Unfortunately we didn't think of taking a picture of all of us until we were about to leave the parking lot.  

Well...

Sometimes you're right and sometimes you're not... I guess was right in the fact that Lamar Odem was inconsistent (as usual) and they ended up losing.  Next year, I'm predicting Portland over Boston in 6.  Go Blazers!

NBA Finals Prediction

Just thought I would toss in my prediction before the start of the series. I'm going with the conventional wisdom and picking the Lakers in 6. The key to me is Lamar Odem. If he can play consistent, then I like the Lakers.

June 4th, 1998

Thursday June 4th, 1998
No Game
Gas:

Baker, CA $9.45

Shafter, CA $7.00
Lodging:

Brian: Shafter

Aaron: Fresno

We began our morning with a huge breakfast. We walked over to Excalibur for an amazing all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. June 4th is Brian's birthday, so my birthday gift to him was paying for his meal. If you know Brian, you probably know that a huge breakfast is probably one of the greatest gifts he could get (Happy 30th birthday Brian).

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We arrived into Shafter in the early afternoon. We were tired and ready to be home, but we had grown accustomed to life on the road, living out of a suitcase, driving, and enjoying each other's company.

I originally was going to spend the night and head home the next day, but the day was still young and I wanted to go home and see Christa and my family, so I left Shafter and finished the last 1 1/2 hours by myself. The crazy thing is that after all that driving, the worst driving I faced was on Highway 99 on the way home. Traffic was horrible and I almost got into an accident when a water cooler fell off the back of a pickup truck.

We had traveled 8660 miles, visited 17 baseball stadiums and seen a game in everyone (Amazingly we had no cancellations due to weather, which was close to happening in a few cities), had no car problems, got no speeding tickets, and had an amazing time together seeing this great country we live in.

Thanks for all who took the time to read and relive this trip. This trip could never have occurred without great support from family and friends and I thank you again, 10 years later, for all you did.
We now return you to your regular scheduled blogging.

June 3rd, 1998

Wednesday June 3rd, 1998
No Game
Gas:  St. George, UT

Lodging: Las Vegas, NV

We packed up our campsite and made our way to Las Vegas.  Now most of you would think, awesome...two guys, Vegas...oh wait, we were only 19 years old.  There are not a lot of things to do in Vegas when you are below the age of 21.  But we still had a fun time there.  We stayed at The Holiday Inn on the strip, which was the steal of the trip.  We got a double room, on the strip, for only $30, and that's including taxes.  

Anyway, we headed to New York, New York and had lunch there.  we then headed over to MGM Grand and hung out around there.  We thought about hanging out and watching some games in the sports book, but we weren't even old enough to do that.  We walked around the strip and visited a few stores.  In the early evening, we took in an all-you-can-eat buffet.  That was nice because we hadn't had a lot of food to eat over the last few days.  We walked by Treasure Island and saw their pirate show.  We saw the Stratosphere  off in the distance and it looked like it wasn't very far, close enough to walk.  Well, looks can be deceiving.  We walked, and walked, and walked.  It was a lot farther than we thought.  We finally made it and traveled to the top and took in the view from the top.  We decided we would take a cab back.  We first went to the Fremont Street Experience and saw the show there.  It is a light show that is syncronized  to music.  Following that we headed back to the strip and walked around for a while looking at the Vegas nightlife.  Finally we headed back to our hotel and went to sleep for the final time on the trip.

June 2nd, 1998

Tuesday June 2nd, 1998
No Game
Gas: Thompson, UT $13.49
Lodging: Richfield, UT

Today was just a travel day.  We left Denver in the morning, traveled through the Rockies, and made it to the Richfield KOA in the early afternoon.  We thought about continuing on, but we hadn't camped for a while and decided a nice afternoon and evening camping sounded like fun.  

We arrived in the late afternoon and set up camp.  We stayed at the Richfield KOA which was right next to a restaurant called JB's, so that is where we had dinner.  The rest of the night was spent reading, relaxing, and working on the baseball stats for the games we had seen.

June 1st, 1998

Monday June, 1st, 1998
Arizona Diamondbacks 6 @ Colorodo Rockies 4
Stadium: Coors Field
Gas: Lakewood, CO $9.01
Lodging: Denver, CO

We spent today exploring downtown Denver.  We left Mary Jane's apartment, got an oil change for the car, and then headed to downtown Denver.  On our way there, we saw Mile High Stadium, where the Denver Broncos at the time played their games.  We decided to stop by and see what we could of it, as it was scheduled to be replaced by Invesco Field.  We were able to drive right into the parking lot by the stadium.  Nobody was there to stop us, so we just walked into the stadium  We were able to get to the south end zone bleachers and snap a few pictures.  Nobody ever did stop us the whole time we were there.

When we finally got downtown, we headed to the Denver Mint to see where all of our coins are made.  We then headed to the state capitol.  We toured it and headed up to the top of the rotunda and got some really nice views of the city.  After that, we headed to the Denver Public Library where we spent most of the rest of the afternoon.  Now, you might be wondering what would we be doing at a library as tourists?  At each game that we had attended, they had been passing out the All-Star ballots for the upcoming All-Star game.  Most people would fill them out at the game and put them in the ballot box.  We knew though that this year's All-Star Game was going to be played at Coors Field, which was going to be the location of our final game.  Early on in the trip, we decided we were going to save a ballot from each game we went and would turn them in at Coors Field.  For whatever reason, we thought there was some sort of special symbolism about turning them into the location of our final game AND the home of the All-Star Game.  So we grabbed the most recent Baseball Weekly, headed to the library and scoured the stats to determine who are 1998 All-Stars would be.  It was then time to fill out our 16 ballots and then head to game.   

The tickets that we had were probably the best ones of the trip.  The were on the third base side about 30 rows up.  The highlight was being able to turn in all of our ballots when the ushers came to collect them.  We did realize as we were walking back to our car that this was going to be our final game and thought brought on a bit of sadness for both of us.  Following the game, it was back to Mary Jane's and we both called it a night.

May 31st, 1998

Sunday May 31st, 1998
No Game
No Gas
Lodging: Denver, CO

Today was a very slow day.  We woke up, had some breakfast at the Eickenberry's and then Don took us on a little tour around Scott City.  Early in the afternoon we headed on our way to Denver.  We were fortunate to stay at my dad's cousin Mary Jane in Denver.  She took us to eat at Casa Bonita, a rather mediocre restaurant as far as the quality of food goes, but quite the experience complete with cliff divers and cowboy shootouts.  Following that, she took us on a tour to go pick up the tickets for the following nights game.  We already had tickets we had purchased, but Mary Jane's friend had season tickets and was able to get us those, which was an upgrade over what we had.  We met him that night and we were talking about the Rockies when he mentioned that "we also have a pretty good team up the street," referring to the Denver Broncos.  For whatever reason, Brian and I still use that quote because we thought it was pretty funny.  I guess you had to be there.  We headed back to Mary Jane's apartment after getting the tickets, did some laundry, and then went to sleep.

May 30th, 1998

Saturday May 30th, 1998
No Game
Gas:
Chapman, KS $8.51

Scott City, KS $8.39
Lodging: Wildwood, MO

Grandma Bryan gave us the breakfasts of all breakfasts.  She made us ham, eggs, potatoes, potatoes, juice and bagels.  She even made us a bunch of sandwiches for the road.  It was so much fun to hang out with her and spend time with her.  We left in the mid morning and headed back on the road toward Scott City, KS.  It was really windy and we were facing a huge headwind.  All during the trip, we were carefully monitoring our miles per gallon and were doing really well, until this portion of the trip.  

We went back to my parent's really good friend' Don & Trudy Eickenberry's house in Scott City. Don owns the local Napa Auto parts and we stopped by to say we were in town.  He said "you guys are on your own."  The highlight of the night was eating Pizza Hut in Scott City.  The food was good, but the highlight was our waitress.  She spilled water all over Bryan, carried our glasses with her thumbs on the inside, and the switched our glasses.  When we told her this she just shrugged her shoulders and "uhh...okay."  After Pizza Hut, we finished off our healthy dinner with a Blizzard from Dairy Queen.   We came home to see Don who was now home.  We watched some ESPN Sportscenter and worked on our stats.  Trudy was out of town so we got to stay in the garage aka "house" instead of the unfinished basement this time.  

May 29th, 1998

Friday May 29th, 1998
No Game
Gas: Kingdom City, MO $9.69
Lodging: Overland Park, KS

The bugs were there the night before, they were all around while we slept, and they were all around in the morning.  We went to the showers, and the bathroom was full of those cicadas.  We had not plans this day (besides getting away from those bugs) on our way to back to Kansas City.  

We went to Einstein Bagels and got a dozen bagels and ate those on the road.  We drove straight through to Kansas City and back to Overland Park when we realized that this was the home of the NCAA (They did move their headquarters to Indianapolis a few years later).  They had a museum there so we decided to stop there and check it out. 

Following that we headed back over to Grandma Bryan's house.  We got there about 3:00 in the afternoon and spent the afternoon hanging out.  Grandma B took us to see her church and meet some of her friends.  We then headed out to the Boardroom BBQ.  Kansas City is known for their BBQ and we took the advice of Christa's dad, Christa, and Grandma Bryan and this is one of the best places in Kansas City.  And it did not disappoint.  We had beef brisket and ribs and they were phenomenal.  Following dinner, we came back to Grandma Bryan's and Brian and I played catch at the school across the street from her.  After that we hung out with Grandma B, read a book that she had written about her life which was very interesting, and then watched some of the Eastern Conference Finals between Chicago and Indiana before heading to bed.

May 28th, 1998

Thursday May 28th, 1998
Colorado Rockies 1 @ St. Louis Cardinals 4
Stadium: Busch Stadium
Current: Busch Stadium
Gas: Marshall, IL $7.05
Lodging: Wildwood, MO

After getting up and breaking down camp, we headed straight to St. Louis for another afternoon game. We got to the stadium a little early, so we hung outside the stadium until the gates opened. The old Busch Stadium could easily have been like Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, but they did a great job of making the best of a bad situation. They returned to natural grass after having AstroTurf, redid the concourse, and made a lot of changes to the outfield. While still a "cookie-cutter" stadium, it did not come across that way and was an enjoyable place to watch a game. Plus, the Cardinal fans have a reputation of being smart, intelligent fans and they lived up to that reputation.

Following the game, we walked over to the Gateway Arch and took the tour to the top. If you have never done that, it is a great experience. You sit in these really tiny seats and you get ratcheted up to the top of the arch. But the view is worth it and just knowing that you are in the arch is pretty unbelievable.
Following that, we headed out to our campground for the night, the Dr. Edmond A. Babler Memorial State Park. It was a nice enough campground, but the temperature was about 90 degrees with what felt like 90% humidity, not the most comfortable weather. Along with that, it was the year cicada bugs were out, literally millions. They were so loud, we could barely hear each other talk. After setting up camp, we decided the weather was too uncomfortable to eat in, we travelled back into town to the Boston Market and ate there. We came back and tried to read, journal, and work on stats, but the lights attracted so many bugs we had to quickly give up that idea. We finally just called it a night and suffered though a hot and humid evening in the tent.

May 27th, 1998

Wednesday May 27th, 1998

San Francisco Giants 5 @ Cincinnati Reds 7

Stadium: Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field

Current: Great American Ball Park

No Gas
Lodging: Marshall, IL

Today we attended, in my humble opinion and I think Brian would probably agree, the worst stadium we saw on our trip. Fortunately for Reds fans, this abysmal stadium is no longer around.  More on that later.
One of the exciting things about our trip was the number of different states we got to travel in while on the road. A 'tradition' we had was as we entered a new state, we would take a picture of the sign welcoming us into that state. For those of you who are not up on their geography, Cincinnati borders Kentucky, separated by the Ohio River. The night before we were looking at our map and realized how close we really were to Kentucky. None of our plans had us traveling in "The Bluegrass State." Until we saw Interstate 275. Interstate 275 travels around Cincinnati and drops down into Kentucky. We couldn't pass up this opportunity, so from our hotel, we traveled onto I-275 and entered Kentucky for roughly about 5 minutes. But that was enough to say we were there.
Back to Cinergy Field aka Riverfront. This was one of those cookie-cutter, multipurpose stadiums built in the 1970's. The field served dual roles as the home of the Reds and the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals. The biggest flaw of the stadium was the field. For one, it was AstroTurf. Not the new stuff that looks and feels similar to real grass, but the old stuff that is essentially concrete. Even worse, was that in the left field, there was a track that you could see where the seats for the football games were rolled out onto, literally in left field. They were covered with AstroTurf, but it was so obvious that they were there, I'm surprised that more left fielders didn't break an ankle out there.
It was an afternoon game, so following the game, we headed out to our next spot. We headed to another campsite, this time in Illinois.  We stayed at the Lincoln Trail State Park.  We were able to set up our tent right by the lake.  Our neighboring campers were kind enough to give us a bunch of free wood to start a fire at night.  It was a very peaceful campground, besides the pesky raccoons we had to continually chase away.  At night we planned on working on our stats and do some journaling by the light, but the bugs were so bad we finally had to give up.  

May 26th, 1998

Tuesday May 26th, 1998
No Game
Gas: 

Bruceton Mills, WV $8.47

Cincinnati, OH $9.17
Lodging:Cincinnati, OH

After a big breakfast, and a quick goodbye to the girls (Which was the worst part of the trip by far.  Is that better Christa?) we headed back west.  I do remember thinking how weird it was to think that after 22 days of heading east, we were now reversing our direction and beginning the ride home.  

We arrived to the place in West Virginia at about 10:00 AM after only about 3 hours on the road.  We realized it was a good decision to keep going because we had plenty of time to travel the rest of the day.  We arrived to the Motel 6 in Cincinnati in the later afternoon.  After settling in, we walked across to the street to have dinner at Frisch's Big Boy (The same as Bob's Big Boy, but with a different first name.)  We headed back to the hotel and for the rest of the evening, relaxed, watched some television, and worked on the stats from the previous games we had attended.

May 25th, 1998

Monday May 25th, 1998
No Game
Gas: 

Braintree, MA $10.46

Newark, DE $9.52
Lodging:Elicott City, MD

Today was another travel day.  It was also Memorial Day so traffic was a little bit lighter.  Once again, we had a highly nutritious breakfast at Dunkin Donut and then it was off to travel.  The amazing thing about the east coast, particularly the New England area is how many states you can travel in one day.  Out her on the west, it takes a almost a half-day's drive to get to a different state.  Out there, in the same amount of time, we traveled from Massachusetts to Maryland while passing through Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Deleware.

We arrived back at the Snook's home in the early afternoon.  I called my grandma to wish her a happy birthday (Happy birthday grandma!).  While we were traveling back to the Snook's, Brian and I were looking at our road atlas.  Our original plan was to travel to West Virginia and camping in Triadelphia.  But we realized if we did that, we wouldn't get to far and still have a ways to go to get to Cincinatti for a 1:05 Wednesday game.  We decided that it would make more sense if we found a place to stay in Cincinatti.  We prided ourselves when planning for this trip that we avoided staying hotels.  We saved money by camping, or Mennonite Your Way, or family/friends.  But we decided it would make more sense to go to Cincinatti and called to make a reservation there for the following evening.

That evening, we had a huge BBQ dinner on the back deck of the Snook's.  Then we went with the Snook family to a local delicacy, "ice".  Essentially it was shaved ice with different flavor options.  The place was packed, but it was worth it on such a beautiful Memorial Day.   Following that, we came back and began to pack for the return trip home. 

May 24th, 1998

Sunday May 24th, 1998
New York Yankees 14 @ Boston Red Sox 4
Stadium: Fenway Park
Gas: No Gas
Lodging:Braintree, MA

After having breakfast at Dunkin Donut (Which seem to be everywhere in Boston) we took the Red Line right out of Fenway Park. It was a thrill to walk around and just soak in the atmosphere around the stadium. We were told by many people that we had to have a Fenway Frank. I was expecting much more, but ultimately I was a little disappointed. This is my opinion of course, but the best stadium food we had on our trip was in Milwaukee and their brats. Now that was some good food.
We sat in the right field bleachers just above the Yankees bullpen out by the "Pesky Pole" so we got to hear all of the Sox fans cuss and ridicule all the Yankee pitchers, especially David Cone when he was warming up as the starter. It was really exciting to be apart of the Yankee/Red Sox rivalry. The only problem was it was a rather boring game with the Yankees dominating the whole time and we were in the hot sun the whole game. But it was still great to say we've been to a Yankee/Red Sox game.
Following the game, we still had the whole afternoon ahead of us. So we did some more sightseeing. We went to the top of the Prudential Tower and enjoyed the beautiful views up there. We headed back to Boston Common because we enjoyed our time there the previous night, enjoyed some Ben & Jerry's and then headed back to Braintree.

May 23rd, 1998

Saturday May 23nd, 1998
No Game
Gas: No Gas
Lodging: Braintree, MA

Today was really just a travel day for us. We woke up rested (well, Brian and I did thanks to sleeping in the tent. The girls in the car didn't feel so great.) we travelled from Cooperstown to Boston. The highlight of the trip was listening to the radio and everyone breakdown the blockbuster trade that happened the day before.

We arrived at the lovely Motel 6 in Braintree (seriously, it was nice).  The best part was it was next to the Red T line which took us straight right downtown.  After having dinner at Chili's right by our hotel, we headed downtown.  Boston is a great city and we had a great time there, especially in the Boston Downtown Crossing area.  We hung out in Boston Common, saw where "Cheers" was, and just enjoyed walking around this great city.  Both Brian and I needed a new book so we headed over to the nearest Borders and spent some time there.  We were all really tired and headed back home to Braintree.

May 22nd, 1998

Friday May 22nd, 1998
No Game
Gas: Deposit, NY $8.75
Lodging: Hartwick Seminary, NY

After leaving the hustle and bustle of New York City behind, it was on to upstate New York to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame.  It was amazing to see how dramatically different New York City and the rest of New York really are.

As I stated in a previous post, we found early on in that our California plates made us marked cars and our goal was not to get any speeding tickets while on this trip.  We usually set our cruise control at whatever the local speed limit was and enjoyed our drive (Not to mention really good gas mileage).In Kansas we had been followed by a State Trooper for about 5 miles, just waiting for us to speed.  He kept ducking in behind us and then would speed up next to us the whole time, but we just kept our cruise control on and kept looking forward.  Well, we actually got stopped in New York.  As we were driving along a deserted state highway, we approached an overpass.  From a ways away, we could see that there was a cop on top of the bridge and suddenly we realized he was using his radar gun to nail people.  The moment this occurs, you adrenaline automatically skyrockets and begin to panic.  But then we realized we had nothing to worry about because we had set our cruise control and we were not speeding.  After we passed him under the overpass, we looked in our rear view mirror and saw about 10 State Troopers lined up ready to get the word from their buddy who was speeding.  All of sudden, one of the State Troopers peels out, turns on his lights, and gets behind us.  We can't believe it, but we pull over.  After we get over to the side, he again pulls out and starts heading down the highway.  So now we are just sitting there, no cop anymore, and we really are unsure what the rules are here.  We waited for about 5 minutes but nobody ever came back and finally decided we would be okay to leave.  As we pulled out, we saw another car pulled over: a white Honda Civic.  What we figured happened is the cop on the bridge told the other cops to pull over a white Honda Civic.  He saw us and pulled us over but realized himself or got another call that we were the wrong Civic.  Our adrenaline was running for awhile after that, but that was the closest the whole trip we got to getting a ticket.

The highlight of the day of course was the National Baseball hall of Fame.  We arrived there in the early afternoon.  Unfortunately, we could only spend the afternoon there.  We saw what we wanted to see, but one could spend a few days in there before you would really feel like you've seen everything.  After the museum closed, we headed over to Doubleday Field, considered the birthplace of baseball (although recent research would suggest this is not true) We had pizza at the local Pizza Hut and then headed to our campground.  Cooperstown is really a beautiful town and I would love to spend more time there.  It's the kind of place you imagine Norman Rockwall thinking about when he was creating his paintings of Americana.

We got back to our campground and this is where the big decision came.  Who would sleep where.  We could only fit my two person tent in the trunk.  We tried to fit the Snook's 4 person tent, but it wouldn't fit with all of the luggage.  So we went with our two person tent.  That meant two could sleep in the tent and the other two would sleep in the car.  We gave the girls first choose and after seeing that there was a threat of rain, and the number of roots that were under the tent, they decided the car was a better choice.  I think they reconsidered that decision in the morning when they woke up sore and stiff and Brian and I woke up feeling great.  

May 21st, 1998

Thursday May 21st, 1998
Baltimore Orioles, 1 @ New York Yankees 3
Stadium: Yankee Stadium

Future (Next Year): Yankee Stadium
Gas: No Gas
Lodging: Secaucus, NJ

Despite getting in really late at the Henkel's the night before, they were exceptional hosts and went out of their way to make us feel welcome.  They had gotten some bagels, cereal and made us eggs when we got up.  Mr. Henkel provided us with maps, tour guides, and eve sprang for $1.90 bus tickets for each of us to take into the city.  

We took the NJ Transit bus to New York 42nd Street bus terminal.  We came out from underground and all of a sudden we were in Times Square!  We walked over to Rockefeller Center and NBC Studios and decided to take a tour.  We had a great time there and Christa even got to be a weatherperson for the day.  Following that, we went to the top of the Empire State Building.  We came back down and walked some more around Rockefeller Center.  Following lunch was spent the afternoon in Central Park.  It was finally time to go to the game and we hopped on the subway with the help from some friendly New Yorkers who told us which subway to get onto.

As much as I loathe the Yankees, it was great to go to a game there.  We toured Monument Park in the outfield and the Yankee fans are wonderful, knowledgeable fans.  Following the game we followed the mob to the subway only to be told that there was a fire down the line and all the subways were being delayed and diverted.  We finally got back to the bus terminal and took the NJ Transit to right outside the Henkel's home.  Looking back, all four of us have been amazed about how much of New York we stay in just one day.

May 20th, 1998

Wednesday May 20th, 1998
Cincinnati Reds 8 @ New York Mets 6
Stadium: Shea Stadium
Future (Next year): Citi Field
Gas:  Woodbridge, NJ $8.90

Lodging: Seacacus, NJ

Today we took off from our "homebase" of Elicott City, MD and headed for a few days away with the girls exploring New York City and Boston.  

We left in the morning and headed to Battery Park.  We took a ferry out to the Statue of Liberty and took a tour of that.  After spending some time there and taking the ferry back we realized that we were going to be cutting it close with rush hour traffic if we were going to get to the game on time (And by on time I mean really, really early so we can take all of our pictures).  When we were waiting for our car to arrive from the garage, we began talking to a guy who was heading that way.  He told us to just follow him, stay on his tail, and he would get us to the Shea Stadium.  This was a ride of a lifetime.  He was crossing back and forth into oncoming traffic and speeding like a maniac.  Brian did a great job of following him and true to his word, he took us right to Shea. 

Once we got into the stadium, we could see dark clouds looming over New York City off in the distance.  We could actually see lightning and hear thunder.  It did sprinkle a little before the game and we thought we might have our first rain delay...but the clouds moved away quickly and the game went on as planned. Because of the threat of rain, nobody showed up and we were really the only people there.

The fear of our trip came right after the game.  As we were walking out to our car in the parking lot, we noticed that we couldn't see our car.  All four of us knew where we parked, but we could not see it.  I don't remember who said it, but someone did finally say, "ahhh...is our car gone?"  This of course would not have been good news.  Stuck in New York City, with no car that had all of our stuff in it.  Brian and I began running to see the "crime scene."  Fortunately as we got closer, we could see that the huge truck in front of our Civic had perfectly hidden it.  We still had our car and was very relieved.

The night was only beginning though.  We had planned to stay with another Mennonite Your Way family, William and Lorna Henkel.  We had called earlier in the day and told them we were in New York City and were planning to go to the game that evening, but they said we could just come to their house following the game.  After dealing with the traffic following the game, then just some really bad traffic, we got across to New Jersey.   But we could never find the right turnoff.  We kept calling Mr. Henkel and he kept telling us where to go but we could just never find the right turnoff.  We stopped a few times to ask directions and were getting really frustrated.  By this time, it was approaching 1:00 am and we were still not at our host's home.  We kept calling and apologizing but Mr. Henkel was very gracious.  He told us "I've stayed up many a night with a high school daughter, don't worry about this."

We finally got there about 1:10 and Mr. Henkel was still up to welcome us home.  We finally all fell asleep at about 1:30 am.

May 19th, 1998

Tuesday May 19th, 1998
St. Louis Cardinals 10 @ Philadelphia Phillies 8
Stadium: Veterans Stadium

Now: Citizens Bank Park
Gas: Philadelphia, PA $10.25
Lodging: Elicott City, MD

Today we left the girls behind and headed north to the City of Brotherly Love.  We headed down to the historic district of Philly and went to the National Park visitor's center, checked out Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and Ben Franklin's former house, which has since been turned into a museum.  Both being the history buffs that we are, we ate all of this up.  We didn't get a chance to climb the steps of the museum like Rocky, but we still had a great time seeing where the early beginnings of our history began.  While we were enjoying all of this, we were keeping a close watch on the sky, because the clouds were threatening.  Fortunately, no rain ever really materialized.

The highlight of the day though was the game.  It started with batting practice.   While we were walking around taking our pictures, we were in dead center when Mark McGwire came to bat.  Already that year he had hit 17 home runs and there was very early talk about his pace to possibly beat Roger Maris record of 61.  He absolutely crushed the ball in batting practice.  We were about 10 feet about getting a number of his batting practice hits all the way out in the upper deck in center field.  But he was not done.  He hit season home runs numbers 18, 19, and 20 that night in Philadelphia.  Philly fans, notoriously known for being some of the most outspoken fans in all the game, even stood up and gave him a standing ovation after his third home run of the night.  That night, as we listened to the game on the radio (yes, we each had a radio we listened to the game we were at) talk quickly turned to how McGwire was almost certainly going to eclipse Maris's mark, which he eventually did with 70 home runs..  It was a very exciting night to be a part of that magical season.

Hindsight being 20/20, some the original excitement has lost some of it's luster due to the steroid scandal that has ravaged baseball and McGwire's subsequent Congressional testimony in 2005 where he came away looking very guilty in using performance enhancing drugs.   But at the time, it was probably for me the most exciting feat I had seen at a baseball game and I will never forget that feeling of seeing him crush number 3 over the fence and everyone going crazy.

Following that rush, we then had to drive the 3 hours back to Elicott City.  We were both exhausted by the time we got back and after talking with the girls for a few minutes, we went straight to sleep. 

May 18th, 1998

Monday May 18th, 1998
Tampa Bay Devil Ray 6 @ Baltimore Orioles 3
Stadium: Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Gas:  No Gas
Lodging: Elicott City, MD

Today we explored Baltimore with the girls a.k.a Christa and Shana.  We pretty much just hung out around Inner Harbor.  We did oblige the girls for all the baseball they were about to endure by going to spend a little time at the local mall.  Had lunch at an Uno's Pizzeria and then later in the afternoon and some dessert at this place that was new to us but sounded like an amazing idea: The Cheesecake Factory.

It was then off to the game.  It was the girls first opportunity to see what a baseball game on our trip was like.  They were gracious enough to walk around the entire stadium with us and let us take all of our pictures.  We met up with Shana's family at the game and enjoyed a beautiful night at the ballpark.

May 17th, 1998

Sunday May 17th, 1998
No game
Gas:  No gas
Lodging: Elicott City, MD

Today we were sight-seers in our nations capitol (Washington D.C. for those who need to brush up on their geography).  Shana's family had recently moved from Bakersfield, CA to Elicott City, MD, a suburb of Baltimore, for Shana's dad's work at Nestle.  Christa had traveled out to visit Shana a few days before we arrived.  Our goal was to spend some together touring the eastern seaboard (Quick aside:  why do we call the east coast the eastern seaboard, but never the west coast the western seaboard?  Anybody have any ideas?).  Brian and I were tired from our long drive the night before, but Shana's dad Bob made us a great, big breakfast that was fabulous after eating so many meals on the road.  

We drove down to a parking garage in Silver Springs, MD and got on the Metro and went to Arlington.  We saw the ceremony at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, walked around the cemetery and had our picnic lunch in front of the Iwo Jima Memorial.  We then traveled to check out the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial.  After a very busy and packed day, we headed back to Shana's parent's house.

That night we had a wonderful lasagna dinner and dined out on the back deck of the house.  It was also the night we had a early birthday party for Brian.  The girls were kind enough to bake him a very nice baseball shaped cake.  That night we walked around Shana's house which was still out near the country and strolled around looking at all the deer that made their home in her backyard.  We also watched the 20000th Sportscenter, whose leadoff story was the perfect game pitched by the Yankees David Wells.

May 16th, 1998

Saturday May 16th, 1998

Texas Rangers 3 @ Cleveland Indians 10
Stadium: Jacobs Field
Now: Same (now called Progressive Field)
Gas: 

Maple Heights, OH $8.85

Clear Springs, MD $9.34
Lodging: Elicott City, MD

We were lucky to get into this game.  During this time, the Cleveland Indians were celebrating an unprecedented streak of sellout at the new Jacobs Field.  We were there of the 231st consecutive sellout of what would ultimately reach 455 straight game.   When we were purchasing tickets for this trip, we had split all the games up between us on who would get the tickets and we knew that this would be a tough ticket to get.  Brian was in charge of getting the Indian tickets and originally they said that it was all sold out, but the person selling the tickets told him to call back on Saturday because they might be releasing some tickets for purchase.  So Brian did just that and we got our tickets.  Not only did we get tickets, but they were really good tickets along the 3rd base side in the lower level.  They were actually handicapped seats so they had a lot of leg room.  

The skies were cloudy and there was a threat of rain that day, but it didn't come, it just made it a real muggy day.  This was the fist place we had been too where they used a barcode reader to scan the tickets instead of ripping the stub off, and thought that was pretty crazy.  This is also where we met Anne the usher.   Since we were at the top of the lower level, she was the usher in charge of the two sections right by us and she would hang out by us in between innings.  Once we told her about what we doing, the first thing she said was " Will you guys marry me?"  Of course, the answer was no (Don't worry Christa and Shana, we never considered marrying her, even though she could have hooked us up with free Indian tickets in "The Cleve").

The most memorable moment of the game was a Home Run hit by Jim Thome of the Indians.  He hit it so hard that it was still rising when it hit an auxiliary scoreboard in right field.  It also broke a few lights, causing a few sparks to fly.  It was nothing like Roy Hobbs in the natural, but it was still a shot.  

It was an afternoon game and our goal was to head to Maryland where Shana and Christa were staying at Shana's parents house.  We knew that it would be long drive and we figured we wouldn't get in until early morning.  But we left right away from the game, made excellent time and made it to Shana's parent's house by 11:00 pm.  We faced some really miserable weather along the way but still made really good time.  We made such good time that the first thing they both said when we got there was "Were you guys speeding the whole way?"  (Which we were not, because we knew we were a marked car due to our California plates.  More on that in a future post.)  It was great to see our girlfriends and we spent the rest of the night hanging out and talking.

May 15th, 1998

Friday May 15th, 1998

No Game
Gas: Mississauga, ON $9.45
Lodging: Bedford Heights, OH

Today was a nice relaxing day.  We began by heading to Niagara Falls.  We didn't get a chance to take a boat ride  down to the bottom  of the falls due to time constraints, but we did got to spend some time looking at them.  We also headed up to Skylon Tower for a birds-eye view.  The highlight of the morning was stopping at pancake house in Canada, have Brian pour some syrup over his pancakes, only to realize that there was huge fly trapped in the syrup container that he just poured on his pancakes.

We made it back into the states with no problem through Buffalo.  We traveled down to Bedford Heights, OH at another Mennonite Your Way house of Leo & Dorothy Miller. When we arrived there, they informed us that they had accidentally made plans to visit their children for the weekend. Our first reaction was, "Bummer, I guess we have to go get a hotel or camp someplace."  But instead, they told us where everything was, where the food was, and how to lock up tomorrow when we left.  I don't know if two college teenagers came to my house and I had to leave, I would just leave them the keys and say "see ya later."  

We hung around the house, made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, journal about trip so far, played some catch and hung out watching some television.  The big news of the night, Ol' Blue Eyes Frank Sinatra died today.

May 14th, 1998

Thursday May 14th, 1998
Anaheim Angels 4 @ Toronto Bluejays 5
Stadium: The Skydome
Now: Same (now called Rogers Centre)
Gas: Detroit, MI $6.00
Lodging: Toronto, ON

While neither Brian nor I had ever been to Canada prior to this trip, we were excited to travel into the "Great White North" on this leg of the trip.  However, it was somewhat anticlimactic because we already had done it the night before with Beef and Sweet to get their beer.

Beef's dad was kind enough to get fresh bagels for us before we left, so we had a very nice time hanging out with him before we left.  

We've said before that we took my mom's Honda Civic.  It was a great car and we were very fortunate to take it.  However, it did not have a CD player (Not even a tape deck).  We had brought a portable CD player and some mini-speakers but that did not work.  So we were stuck listening to a lot of radio, I mean a lot of radio.  It was fun to get a flavor of the different areas we travelled by listening to the local radio, but a CD player would have been nice.  All this to say that on the day we travelled to Toronto, it was the same day that Seinfeld was airing its final episode.  That was ALL any radio station, from Detroit to Toronto, were talking about.  As we got close to Toronto we were struck by how smoggy the city was.  

Toronto was the first city we stayed in where we used Mennonite Your Way.  For those not familiar with MYW, it is group of people who offer up their homes to people traveling.  As their website says:  "Mennonite Your Way renews an old tradition among Mennonites, Brethren, and other Christians of “like spirit” by organizing a hospitality network so travelers can share Christian courtesy and fellowship."  We stayed with Burgetz family who were great.  They told us how to get to downtown, gave us some advice, and then let us go on our way.  In fact, they were going out of town and it was just going to be their older daughter and son staying there, but they gave us a set of keys so we could get back in if no one was around.

We took the Yellow Line TTC downtown and headed toward the CN Tower.  We headed to the top which gave us unbelievable views.  The Skydome usually has it's roof closed, but for today's game, the roof was open and you could look down onto them getting the field ready.  The best part of the CN tower is an area that is a Plexiglas floor.  That doesn't seem like a big deal except the only thing separating you from the Plexiglas and the ground is 1,122 ft.  Even though you knew you were safe, it was still really freaky to trust yourself  on the Plexiglas.

The actual game was very exciting with a game winning homerun in the bottom of the ninth, 2 out by Mike Stanley.  The most interesting part was in between innings they would show the Seinfeld episode as it was going.  The only problem was  it would just it wherever it was at that time, which was usually in the middle of some scene.  So none of us really knew what was going on.  Brian and I never saw the episode until about 1 week later when we were at Shana's house in Maryland.

  

May 13th, 1998

Wednesday May 13th, 1998

Seattle Mariners 5 @ Detroit Tigers 8

Stadium: Tiger Stadium

Now: Comerica Stadium

Gas: Paw Paw, MI $5.98

Lodging: Gross Pointe, MI

Today's game still has a lingering feeling of what could have been. We'll get to that later.

We left Chicago early that morning. We had not driven our car for 2.5 days so it felt kind of weird to get back behind the steering wheel. One of Brian Sweet's friends, Dave was flying out of Detroit later that evening and was planning on taking the train to Detroit, but we told him we had room so he came along with us. Sweet was taking the train to Detroit and the plan was for us to meet him at the Amtrak station in Detroit later that afternoon. We dropped Dave off at the Detroit airport in the late morning and now had some time to kill before meeting up with Sweet. We headed downtown to the Renaissance Center where we figure we could get some lunch and then explore downtown. We found a place to park and as we were walking there people kept staring at us, I guess because we looked like tourists because they were not used to seeing tourists tour downtown. I have some friends from Detroit who like it very much (Hello Goodwills). But let me say, when we were there 10 years ago, it looked like an old, rundown, dangerous city. 70% of the buildings were empty, graffitied, and/or falling apart. It reminded me of the images they show of war-torn cities like Sarajevo or Baghdad. Nobody else was really out on the streets and those that were did not make one feel safe. We had lunch at the Renaissance Center, but that was about all there really was to do.

Finally it was time to go get Sweet at what we thought was the place we were supposed to meet him. Unfortunately, as everybody exited the train, there was no sign of Sweet. Apparently, there is another train station a few miles away which is where he got out of (Remember, this was before everybody had cell phones). So after much concern and fear of being stuck without Sweet (Who was going to take us to his friends house to spend the night), we finally tracked him down.

It was then off to Gross Pointe, one of the nicest communities in the country. This is where Ford, Chrysler, etc. all had their homes. So suffice to say, it was pretty nice. Me, Brian, and Sweet were going to spend the night at his friend's "Beef" house. Brian and I were imaging some huge, bulky guy if his name is Beef. However, when we met him, he was a really small guy. We found out he got this nickname because his real name is Michael Gerke aka Beef Gerke (Get it? Beef Gerke? Like Beef Jerkey)

And this is where the problems began to happen for us. Beef's dad had season tickets (really nice season tickets that he was letting us use. Like, 3rd base 3 rows behind the dugout kind of tickets). We decided we were going to carpool of course too because he had a parking pass. But Beef was a big fan of beer and since we under 21 in the states, that meant traveling south into Canada before the game(Yes, Detroit is actually north of Canada. Go figure) So Beef took us into Windsor to get him some Labatt's Blue. The problem with this was that our ritual was to arrive as early to stadium as possible so we could walk around the outside, get inside and climb as high as we could behind home plate, and all around the rest of the stadium. We snapped countless pictures at these points to document what each stadium was like. But Sweet and Beef did not hold these same ideals. They held the ideal of drinking age in Canada is only 19. Brian and I kept looking at our watches, realizing that with each passing second meant one less chance to take a picture. And it's not like crossing back into the United States is easy. You do have to stop at customs which meant more time. Brian and I were getting really anxious now. Not only were we going to not take pictures, but we might not even make the first pitch, which is almost sacrilegious to us. We finally got our car parked and made it to our seats during the bottom of the first. Fortunately, we had a radio we could listen to play-by-play and able to keep accurate scores in our respective scorebooks. The problem was we still did not have any photographic evidence of our trip to Tiger Stadium.

We had to wait until after the game to get as many pictures as we could. The ushers were pushing people out of the stadium so they could begin the cleanup. Fortunately for us, we were able to sweet talk an usher who let us climb up to the top and snap a picture. But when you look at all of our other pictures, it is still daytime with the batting cages up during batting practice. All except Detroit, which is at night time with the sprinklers on the field following the game. We still to this day feel somewhat robbed of our chance to see Tiger Stadium in all of its full glory and it brings up some contentious discussion about Beef and his beer and how we should have insisted on taking our own car to the stadium while they went to go to Canada. Of course, hindsight is 20/20.

May 12th, 1998

Tuesday May 12th, 1998
Anahiem Angels 2 @ Chicago White Sox 5
Stadium: Comiskey Park
Current: Same with different name (U.S. Cellular Field)
Gas: no gas today
Logding: Chicago, IL

Today was another day to sleep in. We woke up, lounged around the house, and set out again on the el to downtown Chicago. This time we headed to the shores of Lake Michigan. We thought about going the aquiriam, but that cost money. We found out that the Adler Planitarium is free on Tuesdays...and it was Tuesday. The Chicago Bears Soldier Field is right there as well. So after the planitarium, we walked over to the stadium to see if we could get a view. We found an open gate and decided to walk in. We really didn't see much of the field, but we did get to walk around the bowels of Soldier Field.

We than headed to the game. There was a threat of rain before the game and it did sprinkle a little. Not enough though to cause any delays. Comiskey is in the south side of Chicago. Surrounding it on all sides are high rise low-income apartments aka "the projects". When you look out from the stands, you stare at this high rise buildings and see black streaks above windows, evidence that there has been fires there. We also occasionally heard gun shots ring out during the game. The best story from this game was when we were walking around the stadium prior to the game snapping all of our pictures of the stadium. on the back side, the fence backs up right to some low-income housing. There were 2 small boys standing there yelling at people as they walked by through the hole in the fence that they were selling papers. Both being the newspaper fans that we are, Brian and I headed over there to see what and how much they were selling. We both looked at the paper and it appeared to have fake headlines. Not wanting to spend any money on a fake paper, I politely said no thanks and walked away. Brian however, did not back away so easy. They continued to pester him. Remember, there was a fence seperating the two of us and all he had to do was simply walk away. But he didn't. The 2 boys kept pestering him and you could see Brian getting this look on his face that he had to buy this paper. So finally, he got his wallet out and paid $1 for the paper. I remember seeing the look on the kid's face, essentially saying "I can't believe we actually got some sucker to buy one of these papers."
With fake newspaper in hand, we then started to head to our seats. The newspaper was called "The Onion." At the time, we did not know the brilliance that we had come across. We just thought Brian had been snookered into buying some cheap newspaper from some little kids hustling us. Only in time did we know that we actually held one of the funniest pieces of journalism available.

May 11th, 1998

Monday May 11th, 1998
Game: None
Gas: no gas today
Logding: Chicago, IL

Today was a much needed day of rest.  We did not have to get up early.  We did not have to drive anywhere.  We didn't even do much until the afternoon. 

 Not only was our place close to Wrigley Field, but it was also right by "the el", or elevated train.  In the afternoon we, (we being all the people from the game the previous day who were also crashing at Brian's friend's brother's house) hopped on the train and headed downtown for the afternoon.   Chicago is a great city and we walked all over the place.  We traveled up to Sears Tower and enjoyed a spectacular view from that vantage point.  We had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, walked around downtown some more, and then headed back to the house to just relax.  

The best story from the day though occurred on the el when we heading into downtown.  All of us were sitting on the train when a man got up with a big duffel bag and walked to the front of the train.

"LISTEN UP EVERYBODY!"  he yelled.

"Oh #@)#!"  I thought.   This guy has a duffel bag filled with explosives and is going to hold us hostage.

"Okay, everybody listen up.  I'm only going to say this once!" he shouted

Now were were really nervous.

He slowly began to open the bag and we all though for sure this guy was going to pull out some gun or explosive or something. Finally he revealed to us what was in the bag

"I'm selling peanuts for $5 a bag.  Anybody want one?"

Are you kidding me?!?!  Peanuts!?!?  After the near heart attack, we continued our uneventful trip to downtown.

May 10th, 1998

Sunday May 10th, 1998

San Francisco Giants 3 vs. Chicago Cubs 0
Stadium: Wrigley Field
Current: Same
Gas:
Franksville, WI $8.75
Lodging: Chicago, IL

Today we made the short drive from Milwaukee to Chicago in order to catch an afternoon game at Wrigley Field.  We were meeting up with one of our friends who we dormed with our freshman year, Brian Sweet.  He had transferred to the University of Notre Dame his sophomore year so he was in the area.  His friend's brother had a place in Chicago that we were going to spend the next few nights at.  We really didn't know where we staying and it's proximity to Wrigley Field (remember, this was pre-Google maps).  Sweet had just told us it was nearby the stadium.  So we figured we would drive by to see where we were staying before the game.  As we were getting closer, we looked up and realized that we were driving right pass the stadium. After driving the wrong way down a one way street (oops) we finally saw the house  The house we stayed at ended up being literally 1 block from Wrigley Field.  WE WERE STAYING IN WRIGLEYVILLE!!!  

When we got to the stadium, we did our usually picture taking from every possible vantage point we could.  We were very excited as well to see Kerry Wood a mere 3 days after his 20K game.  We met Brian Sweet outside of the stadium who had also brought some friends from Notre Dame: Dave, Brian Lutz, Eric, Erica, and Matt.  Now Wrigley Field is a great place see a baseball game with a great sense of nostalgia: Ivy in the outfield, homeruns hit onto Waveland & Sheffield Ave., the seats on the houses across the street, the manual scoreboard.  But it was still built in 1914, which means obstructed views which is what we had at our original seats. I could not see any play at second base because of a big pole right in my way. Luckily, the game was not sold out so we were able to move to less obstructed seats.  

After the game, we pretty much just hung out, walking around Wrigleyville enjoying to the local atmosphere.    Back at the house, being the huge Notre Dame football fans they all were, we watched endless tapes of previous Notre Dame Football games.

May 1oth also happens to be Christa's birthday.  I had planned it, with the help of her Grandma when we were in Kansas City, that a bouquet of flowers would be delivered to her door in the morning.  I also had called ahead to have a message on the scoreboard read "Happy Birthday Christa Bryan".  It was supposed to come up in between the 4th and 5th inning.  When the Cubs made their last out, I was ready with my camera and snapped a picture of it.  Of course, wouldn't you know of all the pictures I took (31 rolls, back in the day before digital.  More on this in later posts)  this was the only, literally the only one that came out blurry.  We were able to have it digitally adjusted, but still...

May 9th, 1998

Saturday May 9th, 1998
Houston Astros 11 vs. Milwaukee Brewers 6
Stadium: County Stadium
Current: Miller Park
Gas: 

Black River Falls, WI $9.71

Logding: Muskego, WI

We learned our lesson about dressing appropriately for games near major bodies of water.  When we arrived at our campground in Milwaukee, it was a beautiful, sunny day.  It was still that way when we arrived at County Stadium.  There was a slight breeze, but nothing to really be concerned about at the time.  We figured shorts and a sweatshirt would be appropriate.  However, everyone we encountered on the way to the stadium was wearing pants, long sleeve shirts, big jackets, and carrying blankets.  That wasn't a good sign.  The locals knew what they were doing and we didn't.  By the time the sun went down, the wind picked up off of Lake Michigan and we were freezing.  Luckily for us, we decided to follow the locals lead and bring in a stadium blanket.  Brian and I cuddled together under our blanket to stay warm.  Usually, both of us would agree that a baseball game can't be too short.  But we were both ready to see this end and end soon so we could get back to our car and warm up.

As far as the stadium goes, this was the oldest stadium we came across.  Some of the chairs in the stands were the original wood ones with the paint chipping off.  And the food lived up to it's billing.  We each had a bratwurst and it did not fail to deliver.  

May 8th, 1998

Friday May 8th, 1998
New York Yankees 5 @ Minnesota Twins 1
Stadium: HHH Metrodome
Current: Same
Gas: 

North Kansas City, MO $7.50

Clear Lake, IA $8.75
Logding: St. Paul, MN

This was an add-on game.  In our original plan, we were planning to travel from Kansas City up to Milwaukee.  We realized though that there was a game in Minnesota that if we traveled expediently, we would be able to make it.  We at first thought that we would be cutting it close to get there by game time, but we ended up there in plenty of time.  We had time to start at the Iowa State Capitol, the Minnesota State Capitol, and spend a little time at my Uncle Leon's and Aunt Sharon's house before the game, who joined us along with my Uncle Scott, Aunt LouAnn, Marlys Wiens, my cousin Jessica, Christina, Deb and her husband Nic at the game.

At the game, the highlight was seeing former Minnesota Twin Chuck Knoblauch come back as a high-priced Yankee, and got roundly booed by the Twin fans.  Also, we got to meet Wally the Beerman.  And although we weren't of drinking age at that time, we got an autographed Beerman card.  The neat thing about the Metrodome is getting blown out of the stadium. Because it is a dome, the inside is pressurized differently than the outside.  So when you walk out the door from the dome to the outside, you literally get "pushed" out by a big gust of air.

May 7th, 1998

Thursday May 7th, 1998
Boston Red Sox 3 @ Kansas City Royals 5
Stadium: Kauffman Stadium
Current: Same
Gas: 

Salina, KS $9.77 (Cheapest gas on trip.  $0.98/gallon)
Logding: Overland Park, KS

Today, after making it over half way across the country in 3 days, we were able to finally see another baseball game.  The thrill of this day though was being able to spend the night at Christa's grandma's house in Overland Park, KS.  I had the opportunity to meet her a few times and she was one of the funniest, nicest persons I ever met.  She lived by herself and was a big Chiefs/Royals fan.  She knew everything about the team and asked us all kinds of questions about the team.  After the game, she talked all about the game and discected the game better than either one of us could.  It was great to spend time with her and she was a great host.  

May 6th, 1998

Wednesdy May 6th, 1998
No Game
Gas:
Rifle, CO $11.06

Kit Carson, CO $9.85

Logding: Scott City, KS

We experienced more interesting weather.  Outside of Vail, CO we drove through a mild snow storm.  Then in Kansas, we saw a funnel cloud off in the distance.  We stayed at my parent's friends house, the Eickenberry's.  Well, sort of a house.  During the time, they were remodeling their home.  Don was living in his fully functional garage.  We stayed in the unfinished basement of their remodeled house.  Scott City was the town my parents lived for a few years before moving to Fresno.  We enjoyed a great steak dinner, some NBA playoffs, and a good nights rest.

This was also the day that Kerry Wood struck out 20 against Houston.  We were able to listen to this on the radio as we avoided the funnel clouds across Kansas.

May 5th, 1998

Monday May 5th, 1998
No Game
Gas: 

Rancho Cucamonga, CA $8.81

Mesquite, NV $11.04

Selina, UT $7.80

Lodging: Green River, UT 

This was a day of travel.  We got up early and made our way through California, Nevada, Arizona, and finally into Utah.  This was our longest day of travel of the entire trip.  It was also a day of interesting weather.  We actually had to pull over outside Cedar City, UT because of a huge hail storm.  We didn't get into Green River, UT until late.  So late in fact, that the KOA we were camping out was closed, so we just had to drop our money in the mailbox, set up camp, and go to bed.  It rained pretty good that night as we fell asleep.

May 4th, 1998

Monday May 4th, 1998

Chicago White Sox 6 @ Anaheim Angels 5

Stadium: Edition International Field of Anaheim

Current: Same with different name (Angels Stadium)

Gas: no gas today

Logding: Los Alamitus, CA

Brian and I set out from Shafter, CA in the early afternoon.  The night before, my parents, Christa, Brian and his family (parents, brother Nathan, sister Ali, and his girlfriend (and current wife) Shana) had traveled down to Shafter.  We had one big meal at Giovanni's in Shafter.  My parents left that night and I spent the night in Shafter.  

We packed our car, my mom's 1997 Honda Civic which she so graciously let us borrow.  She took my 1991 Honda Accord so we could have the newer, under warranty car.  We made one stop at the bank, the supermarket, and then hit the road.  We of course would have liked to see a Dodger game, but they were not in town and we figured we had already been to plenty of games there, so we decided to skip that stadium and head further south.  

Our first stop was Anaheim (That was back in the day when they were still Anaheim)  It was actually a little overcast and there was a threat of a rain delay.  Fortunately, the game went off and we were able to watch our first ballgame.  

Following the game, we spent the night at the mother of my RA in college, RC Griffin III in Los Alamitus.  

10 years ago today I embarked on one of the greatest trips I ever could have imagined when I traveled cross country to watch 17 major league ballgames in the span of 30 days. I went with my friend Brian Penner and had many great memories. Over the next month, I will reminisce about that trip, share some highlights along the way, and show just how much cheaper gas was back in 1998.

Awareness Test

As I'm getting ready for another season of high school football, I was purusing a few ref related websties and came across this video. I don't want to ruin it by talking about it, so I'll let you take a look. I failed when I took it. It is a pretty clever video.

Ice Cream Chat

I don't eat a lot of ice cream (Trying to keep my girlish figure you know), but it is one of my favorite desserts.  If I had any choice of what to have to cap off a meal, it would be fresh, homemade vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries. I don't like the chocolate family of ice cream unlike my wife.  My all-time favorite ice cream is Baskin-Robbins Rainbow Sherbet (I know, I know.  It's not technically ice cream, but still...)  Tonight I did have a bowl of ice cream of what could possibly be my new favorite flavor, Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Crunch.  It was recommended to me by Jamie Mack last night and it did not disappoint.  

On a related topic, don't miss Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day on Tuesday April 29th.  If that is not enough for you, Baskin-Robbins is offering 31 cent cone night on Wednesday April 30th from 5:00-10:00.  

Dodger Stadium Announcement

Today the Dodgers announced additional changes to Dodger Stadium that they plan to make. Once the two New York teams close up shop in their current digs, Dodger Stadium will be the 3rd oldest stadium in the majors.  They are calling it "The Next 50".  As you can see here,  they are planning to make most of the changes on the outer portion of the stadium, particularly in the outfield.  While I do believe that Dodger stadium is a gorgeous stadium, the one area where I always though could use some improvement was beyond the outfield.  Depending on where you sit, all you see is parking lot.  Although it did provide a great backdrop when Kirk hit his homerun in game 1 of the '88 World Series and you got to see all the brake lights lit up as people realized they had left too soon.

I can't really complain about the improvement overall.  I am happy that they are making changes that will affect most everybody and not just the super rich and their luxury boxes.  

However, I am disappointed that it still does not provide an alternative for public transportation.  I've always loved stadiums where you could park for cheap and then take some sort of public transportation in.  The Dodgers are beginning to dialogue with the city regarding bus routes or even a Subway line up into Chavez Ravine.  My problem is that this is something that they are just beginning to discuss.  Which means we are many years away from anything on that front.  Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts on the new plans.

Dice Stacking Update

An update on my progress: I can fairly easily pick up the die with the cup. The difficulty that I'm having is stacking them. Right now, they bounce around the cup and when I put them down on the table, they just fall haphazardly. But my quest continues and I will keep you posted.

Happy Earth Day!

Uniwatch

I love anything and everything to do with sports uniforms.  There is one site called uniwatch that is entirely devoted to discussing the minutiae of uniforms.  It is a daily read of mine ( and should be of yours as well.) Part of the daily entry is based on reader input and contributions.  I've contributed a number of things over time and I got another mention on Monday.  To see it, go to Monday's post, scroll down to "Uniwatch News Ticker," and scroll halfway down to see my contribution.  (Context note:  Paul Lukas, the main contributor, hates the color purple with a passion.  This will make more sense when you read my part.)

Welcome back

I'm back!  After a little hiatus, I've decided to restart my personal blog.  Why?  I don't really know.  Why not.  Of course, I'll continue to be a part of my other blog, but this will just be a place for me to spew whatever it is I'm thinking on any particular day.  If nobody reads it, so be it.  I still look forward to contributing to it. So...let the games begin:

1)  I'm constantly trying to seek knowledge and become a more well-rounded person.  This week that quest is going to involve learning how to do this:

2) The Dodgers are frustrating me to no end right now.  They just got swept by the Braves this weekend which in and of itself is no good.  But to compound the situation, There are 2 HUGE Braves fans at work who I've been messing with this past week, so I can only imagine what is in store for me tomorrow at work.  To the victors go the spoils though

3) I specifically gave this blog a lame name.  Please, please, please help me come up with a clever title for it.  I have a few ideas, but I want to see what everyone one else thinks would be a good title.