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. 

Play Ball !!!

 

 

 

We've started our 2016 quest to attend  a game at 10 major league baseball parks.  We found a camp ground in NJ, half way between NY and Philadelphia. On Saturday, we went to see the Mets at Citi Field in New York.  For folks who grew up in the wide open spaces of the Midwest and Texas, the skyline of New York can be an intimidating sight.  There was no way I was going to drive our 1-ton dually into NY City and try to find a parking place, so we stopped at a park & ride in NJ and took the train to Penn station.  Then, we transferred to a train that took us to Citi Field.  It was an adventure in itself.

The Mets have a really nice ballpark and a huge variety of things you can get at the concession stands, like a grilled cheese sandwich for $12.00!!!  But as you can see, it's the ULTIMATE grilled cheese sandwich, "Well, in that case, give me two."  I'll have one bronzed.

One thing I have to say about Citi Field that was a letdown, was the home run celebration.  Now, you have to understand, the first time I went to Rangers Ballpark and one of the Rangers hit a home run, the fireworks went off, the theme from "The Natural" was played over the PA system and it gave me goose bumps.  And 22 years later, it's still exciting to me.  The Mets leadoff hitter launched a home run to start the game . . .  and an apple came up out of the center field area beyond the fence for about 10 seconds and then disappeared back into the ground.  That was it.  Come on NY, you can do better.

 On Sunday, we went to a game in Philadelphia, to see the Phillies. Or I should say, we tried to go to the Phillies game.  We tried to use the train system again to avoid driving in Philadelphia.  But this time we weren't as successful.  It took 4 and a half hours to get to the stadium.  The game was in the top of the 6th when we finally got to our seats, which gave us a great view of downtown Philly, which we thought was pretty cool.  They also have a really nice stadium. 

Not knowing the train schedules and where to go to transfer cost us a couple hours.  I got us on the wrong train at one point and we had to call Uber to get us back to the train station so we could get on the right train. 





Next up Yankee Stadium, the new one, of course.
As much as I dislike the Yankees, this was the most impressive park we've been to.  While Miami's new stadium might be a bit newer and visually stunning, Yankee stadium is almost as incredible AND when you visit Monument Park in center field and see all the tributes to the greatest baseball players who played on the best teams in baseball history, well it's unmatched.

Do I

 look tired?  Theres' a reason for that! (Jane)

 
 

 

There are photos inside and outside the stadium of all the greats in Yankees history.  Still, I can't help feeling a little disappointed that I didn't get to attend a game at the old stadium.  It would be great to look down on the field where Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Maris and Berra played.

Now that we're experienced train and subway riders, we figured out how to get to the game and back for less than $50.  We thought briefly about trying to go see the 9/11 memorial, but we're not THAT experienced at riding the trains.  And if we had, we might still be trying to figure out how to get back.  BUT we did manage to sneak in a visit to New York's most famous department store.

One other truly NY experience, on the subway going home a group of about 6 teenage African American boys got on our train with much fanfare (noise).  We, being tourists, immediately thought we were going to be mugged.  Instead, we were treated to a show of athletic skill and strength that had everyone on the train pulling out their cell phones and recording it. It was dancing complete with music and wild moves.  When they were finished, they passed the hat and at the next stop, went to the next car and performed again.  I tried to include my video, but I guess the file was too big.   What made it even more impressive was that they did their handstands, backflips and other gyrations on a moving, shaking, bouncing subway car.

I (Jane)  have a couple of things to say about New Jersey.  First, I had never heard anything good about New Jersey.  Have you?  My only Jersey experience was a trip to Atlantic City with Jim on a business trip once.  On this trip, we camped in rural New Jersey.....Jackson, to be exact....and it was beautiful.  Nice, two-story houses with wrap-around porches on nice lots.  Trees, trees, and more trees.  The campground smelled like the great outdoors instead of the toxic waste dump I expected Jersey to be.  Second, on the main streets through town, there would be a sign when approaching an intersection that said "U and left turns from right lane".  What??  Upon reaching the intersection, there would be a sign that said "No Turns".  What??  After passing through the intersection, there would be a sign for an exit to take for all turns.  So the exit made a little loop and what would have been a left turn is now straight ahead and what would have been a U turn is now a left turn.  I suppose they want to keep traffic from backing up for left turns on the main street.

As Jim said, the train system was NOT fun.  There was NJ Transit, Long Island Railroad, Southern Pennsylvania Transit, Amtrac, New York Subway, New York Trains, some with tokens, some with travel cards, some with tickets, and only one friendly person who was very helpful.  Directions from other people turned out to be a little fuzzy and assumed that we knew more about this than we really did.  On one train, as we sat comfortably in the rear of the train, the ticket-taker said, "Oh you're going to Hamilton.  This is Hamilton and only two doors open for this stop.  You have to go to the other end of the train to get off."  So we sprinted through eight train cars to get to the door, against the flow of people getting on.  Being polite was not an option, so we had to push and shove to get to the doors.

And then there were the signs along the highways that were warnings that the trees had been sprayed with  "noxious sprays".  Interesting. 

We went to Panera Bread for lunch one day and the young man taking the orders and running the register was not moving very fast.  So a member of management came up to the front to open another register.  When he took my order he said "apple, bread or chips" so fast that I had no idea what he had said.  When I said  "I beg your pardon" he started spinning his hand in the air as if to tell me to hurry, and then asked again just as fast.  So I started spinning my hand at him and said "apple" as fast as I could.  Yankees! What're ya gonna do?

Our trip from Virginia to NJ was fraught with tolls ---every few miles someone else wanted $12.00 or $24.00 or $16.00.  We will try to avoid the NJ Turnpike from now on.  (Jim again, yeah when you come up to the Northeast, bring your wallet.  It might be the birthplace of independence, but it's also the birthplace of the toll road, the subway and anything else you can charge a fee for.)

But we wouldn't have started this lifestyle if we didn't want adventure and it seems to find us at every turn!  Onward!