Day 10 - Philadelphia

Day 10 - Philadelphia

Our trip to Philadelphia started at the Rodeway Inn in Moosic, PA. After waking up and packing, we made our way to the front lobby to check out and for our complimentary continental breakfast. So much for that. When we got there, we found two dozen cake donuts, half of them coated in chocolate, and some water. Pretty classy breakfast huh? I grabbed a couple just because I was starving, we checked out, and then we headed off to Philadelphia. When we got there, we could already see the rain clouds gathering. We hurried around the stadium to get to Gate C, the only one that was open, but were disappointed to find that there was not going to be any batting practice that day due to the Father-Kid game that the Phillies were holding, but we got to see Tom Glavine do his bullpen session, which was pretty cool since he'll be in the Hall of Fame soon. After watching Glavine, we started playing some of the games that the Phillies have at their park. One of them was a pitching radar machine, which we all played a couple times. I hit the top speed among the four of us, clocking in at 74 MPH on my 5th pitch. Gray hit 72, and I don't remember for sure but I think Jason hit 71. After playing around for a while, we hit up the Cheesesteak shack and got some fatty, greasy cheesesteaks. It was amazing. Anyway, we headed up to our seats, and then decided to move up into the shade to watch the Father-Kid game. After outfielder Shane Victorino gave up 19 runs to the children, they called the game in favor of the kids. Finally, the regularly scheduled game got underway, and we moved back to our seats since the incoming clouds had provided plenty of shade. The Phillies gave up two runs in the first inning, so they probably weren't too unhappy when the game went to a rain delay after an inning and a half. After the first inning, the storm clouds had formed a circle around the ballpark, and the rain had started to pour all around us. As the top of the 2nd progressed, the rain the closed in on us slowly. Finally, we see the people out in the left field bleachers start to scatter and run for the exits, so we took that as our cue to run to our exit. Good thing we did, because as soon as we got down the stairs, the rain just started pouring down. It got to the point where we couldn't even see the other side of the stadium for 20 good minutes. Fortunately, the Phillies people were nice enough to turn the TVs to something else. First, we watched the Mets-Cardinals game, and then we watched the AFL Championship, which the Philadelphia Soul won, making the Philly people happy. Anyway, the game resumed finally after 2 hours of rain delay. We stuck around through the seventh inning stretch, which allowed us to see Atlanta put up 5 runs, followed by the Phillies answering with 12 runs in the 4th through 7th innings, including 5 HRs. It was pretty awesome. When we left, it was 12-5, and the rain was starting to approach again. In fact, as we climbed in the car, it started to sprinkle, so we were pretty happy that we had left. We listened to the 8th and 9th innings in the car, with the Braves scoring 5 more runs in the the 8th inning before Brad Lidge came in and closed it out in the 9th. Meanwhile, we were on our way to Gray's Grandma's house in Pittsburgh. It was a pretty easy drive on the Penn Turnpike. We stopped off at the Burger King for dinner and gas and then continued on to New Eagle, PA. We got there around 11 PM and took our stuff down to the basement and chatted with Gray's family (his mom, dad, and brother were up there while we were). Finally, we got settled in downstairs, me on the couch and Gray, Kyle, and Jason each on an air mattress. As soon as I hit the couch I was out. It was nice.