Mission Accomplished

When we started this stretch of 10 ballparks in 23 days, I was skeptical that we could get 'er done without hitting some kind of snag or schedule deviation along the way.  The schedule was very tight, 3 days in one spot, 2 days in another and although I did have to make a schedule change, we were able to make all 10.

We wore jackets and jeans in Chicago because guess what, it was cold and windy!

 

If you zoom in, you can see that it really does say US Cellular Field

 

The GM at our Chicago tow company gave us his season tickets, great seats 10 rows back.

 

 

They have a really neat area for kids out in the left field side of the stadium.  There are batting cages, a place where they are timed running from home to first, a mock infield where a guy throws ground balls to the kids

 and a shooting gallery type area where you throw baseballs at cutout images of catchers and when you hit them, they fall over.

 

Two nights later we were in Milwaukee for a Brewers game.  They have a really nice ballpark with a retractable roof. 

 

This is a beautiful park.  I can't believe the Rangers will have a new stadium with a roof in 2021. 

Speaking of beautiful parks, this is our camp site in Stoughton, WI.

 



And yes, for some unknown reason, there's a duck head out in the middle of an open field.

We were camped near Madison, which gave us a chance to see some dear friends we haven't seen in 13 years, Bill & Sharon Napier.  Our kids grew up together until they moved to Madison 26 years ago. 

We had a wonderful dinner at their house and did 13 years of catching up. And it was Jane's birthday, so we had cake and ice cream. 
 

Last stop, Minneapolis, eh?  I mean really, we are almost in Canada don't you know?

And the strange thing is, they built a new stadium in 2010 and DIDN'T put a roof on it!!  Crazy Minnesotans, Minnesota-ites?  Whatever!

For some reason, we like parks where you can see the downtown part of the city from your seat. (We know that's not going to happen in Arlington)

 

This is the farthest north we've been in our "rolling estate".  We parked at Mall of America and took the light rail to the game.  It was very easy. What are the odds of our meeting a man on the train who lives in Lewisville (where we lived for eight years before we started our travels) and flew up for the game because he is also on a quest to visit all the baseball parks?????  Pretty slim, I think. BUT we did.   When we got back, we had to make a run through the mall.  I didn't know they had an entire amusement park inside.

Here's a shot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ride.

It would take a whole day to walk through this place.
We are spending a few extra days in Minnesota to get a repair done to the RV (which, fortunately, is happening now and not in the middle of our 23 day sprint) and then, strangely enough, we don't know where we are going.  On July 5, we will start our summer stay on the lake in Arkansas, but until then we have to make some travel decisions.  We might go to Texas to find out where the city is in which we "live".  Our address is in Livingston, Texas, at a mail forwarding center run by Escapees RV Club.  When people ask us where Livingston is and we tell them we don't know, we get some really strange looks.  But I need to renew my driver's license which expired last week. I didn't know that after renewing it online for 12 years, I have to appear and have a new picture taken.  They seem to think I might have changed in 12 years. Nah!  South Dakota is also in the running for our "spare time".  After Arkansas, we have our travel plans in place through April or May of next year.

So come back soon to see where we wind up for the next three weeks!

 

This is where we are currently and they have the biggest Cottonwood tree I've ever seen.

 

Maybe this will give it a little better perspective.  If you look closely, you can see Jane standing at the base of the tree.  I'm guessing the trunk is 25 ft. in circumference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep on Truckin'

We're in the middle of our craziest stretch of scheduling so far.  Seven games in seven cities in 14 days.  We left York, PA and settled in Lake Milton, OH.  Why Lake Milton, OH you might ask?  Because it's half way between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

 We had a terrific time in Cleveland.  It was our first time to attend a Rangers away game.  We decided to get to the park early and watch the Rangers take BP (that's batting practice for you non-baseball fans)

We were surprised at how many Rangers fans we saw going into the stadium and I, along with many of them, waited patiently in the right field bleachers for one of the Rangers to hit one out into the seats.

My patience finally paid off and I was rewarded with a BP home run ball.  As you can see, the weather was great, in fact it was the first time in the six games this year that the weather forecast wasn't calling for at least a 50% chance of rain.  The stadium is great, the concessions were first class and there were lots of places to enjoy the food.

 

No wonder Jim Thome hit over 600 home runs, look at the size of that guy!!!!  And that bat is huge.

We got to see Cole Hamels pitch, it was an exciting game that went to extra innings and the only thing that could have made the day better, would have been a Rangers win. 

Since it was our only time to see the Rangers, we got seats about 10 rows behind the dugout.

Two nights later it was on to PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

                                                                                                 The statue of Roberto Clemente

PNC park has one of the best settings of any park in baseball.  On the shores of the Allegheny river, we could see the 6th St. Bridge and downtown, a beautiful view from our customary seats in the upper deck behind home plate.



 The next day it was off to another venue.  We drove to Niles, MI to spend one night.  The original plan was to be here for five nights, but meetings in Chicago this week forced a change of plans.  So, we decided to make the best of it and start celebrating Jane's birthday early by having dinner at Tippecanoe Place in South Bend, IN.

This was the home built by Clement Studebaker in 1889.  It is now a restaurant, but you can roam through it on a self-guided tour.  It has 40 rooms and 20 fireplaces, all made with Italian marble.  The craftsmanship is stunning.

 

 

I was in South Bend on business 30 years ago and had dinner here.  I remember telling Jane that if we ever got the chance I would take her to dinner there.  It's worth the experience.

 

You can't visit South Bend without a cruise through the campus at Notre Dame.

 

 

 The famous Golden Dome

 

Interesting note connecting Studebaker and Notre Dame:

Knute Rockne did promotions for Studebaker and had decided to quit coaching for a full time sales position with Studebaker making $10,000 a year.  12 days later he died in a plane crash.

 

 

 

 

 



CHOCOLATE!!!!

The Smothers Brothers (if you're too young to know who they are, I'm sorry for you.  I'm sure you could see some of their fine work on You Tube.) did a song where Tommy, the funny one, would sing,
"Oh I fell into a big vat of chocolate."
"Oh I fell into a big vat of chocolate", then Dick, the straight man, would sing,
"What did you say when you fell into the chocolate?"
"What did you say when you fell into the chocolate?"
Tommy would reply,
"I yelled Fire! when I fell into the chocolate."
"I yelled Fire! when I fell into the chocolate."
Dick:
"Why did you yell fire when you fell into the chocolate?"
"Why did you yell fire when you fell into the chocolate?"
Tommy: not singing would shout, "Cause nobody would come if I yelled, CHOCOLATE!!!!!"

Since we're camped in York, PA we had to make a trip to Hershey, PA to tour the chocolate factory. So, here we are surrounded by chocolate; Hershey bars, Whoppers, Rollos, Peppermint Patty's, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Twizzlers and all combinations of chocolate, peanuts, caramel.

 
 













Where else can you find streets named Chocolate Ave. and Sweet St.?

We even did the chocolate tasting where we got to sample 4 different kinds of chocolate, from very dark to the world famous Hershey's milk chocolate.

 

 

And of course, we didn't get out of the gift shop without bringing home some edible "souvenirs".

 

While we were driving to Hershey Park, we noticed the marquis at the events center said the circus was in town, so we didn't have anything else to do that night and since we're not very spontaneous (selling the house and moving into an RV when we've never even slept in one is not considered spontaneous, that's more in the category of insane.) we went and had a great time.

 

 

Then, on to D.C. for our trip to Nationals Park and the game between the Nationals and Cardinals. We parked at a Park & Ride lot outside the city and took the Metro to the city for a little sightseeing.  (We're getting so good at this mass transit stuff.)

 

This is at the WWII Memorial with Washington Monument in the background.

 

 I'm sure you recognize this as the place from which Forest Gump made his ill-fated speech and found "Jen-nay".

 "And that's all I have to say about that."

We went to the Lincoln Memorial, "Uh-gan."

And we couldn't leave out Jefferson.

Then, it was on to the game (we were ready to sit down after about 5 miles of walking).

 

Nationals Park opened in 2008 and it's a really nice park, but the surprise was that the Cardinals fans almost outnumbered the Nationals fans.  The cheers for the Cards were almost as loud as those for the home team.  One thing I have to say about the Nationals Park is that it didn't seem to have anything unique about it to set it apart from other stadiums and without the history of great players to memorialize, it wasn't particularly memorable.

 

Then, we went to Camden Yards for the Orioles and Red Sox on Memorial Day and had an absolutely great time.  Camden Yards had everything lacking in D.C. 

 

Championships and great players to celebrate, the warehouse behind right field with offices and restaurants,

                                                                                                  Cal Ripkin

 

 

and I thought Eutaw street was really cool.  That's the area out past the right field bleachers, but in front of the warehouse.  They have plaques to commemorate where home run balls landed.  It tells who hit it and when and how far it traveled.

Here's one Josh hit back in 2012, 425 feet!                                       







          And here's one Ken Griffey, Jr. hit off the wall of the warehouse during the home run derby, 465 feet!!!

 

We sat in the middle of group of Red Sox fans and they had a great time watching their team win.

 

Now, it's on to Ohio and a Rangers game in Cleveland, then a game in Pittsburgh.

 

OK, totally random......I have one more thing to say about New Jersey.  It is against the law to pump your own gas in New Jersey.  We stopped to fill up the truck and here came a guy to do it for us.  And the fuel was just as cheap as anywhere else.   So, there you go.  New Jersey had some things we haven't found anywhere else.