Day 11 - Pittsburgh
I tell you what, there was only one thing better than waking up at noon at Gray's Grandma's house. The better thing was the breakfast that was waiting for us upstairs, prepared by Mr. and Mrs. Jodon. There was so much good stuff, especially the pancakes. After breakfast, we lounged around downstairs in the basement. Jason and Kyle were playing on the PS3 (no converter required inside), so Gray, Cole, their cousin and I played a game of Scattergories. It was pretty awesome, Gray totally destroyed the rest of us, but it was fun. We ate an early dinner of spaghetti, which once again was amazing, and then the four of us plus Mr. Jodon, Cole, and their two cousins headed into Pittsburgh for the Pirates game. It was a nice little drive into Pittsburgh, although we had to create our own detour after a bridge on our route was found to be uncrossable. Finally, we got into the park just in time for the first pitch. We headed up to our seats in the third deck and sat down just in time to see Matt Holliday of the Rockies jack a homer to left-center field. After a couple innings, the crowd was very small, as expected, so we all slowly made our way down to the 1st deck and sat down about halfway between third base and the outfield wall, probably 10 rows back. It was a really nice seat, and nobody was anywhere near us. We had a pretty good time down there, the Pirate and Parrot mascots were hilarious, and the Pirates racked up 8 runs and won the game 8-4. It turned out being one of the last games as a Pirate for Jason Bay, as he was traded to the Red Sox on July 31st, 3 days later. It was a really fun game, we had bought a foam Pirate sword as the souvenir of the night, so we fought with those at random points. We headed back to the house and hung out for a little while before heading to bed, sleeping comfortably once again on the couch/air mattresses. Hooray.
Monday, August 4, 2008
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.
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.
Day 9 - Cooperstown
Day 9 - Cooperstown
In the morning, we woke up around 7 AM and started changing and packing. We hit the road around 7:45 towards Cooperstown. We stopped a few miles down the road for some McGriddles to start the day off right. It was a 4 hour drive to Cooperstown, so we settled in for the ride. Jason and I continued our quest through Expert Career Mode on Guitar Hero 3, getting down to the last couple required songs before arriving in Cooperstown. Once we got there, we got to do a little more driving to try to find parking. Considering we were there on the day before the Hall of Fame induction of 2 New York Yankees, and considering Cooperstown is in New York, I think it's safe to say that it was absolutely packed. After parking about a mile a way in some shrubbery, we made our way into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is hard to describe. It had sooooo many baseball artifacts. The main sections were focused on Babe Ruth, Blacks in Baseball, Women in Baseball, and then different sections for each era of baseball history. Once I make an online album of the pictures, I'll post a link to them on here. Anyway, the Hall of Fame was amazing, and we got most of our gift shopping done in Cooperstown. We finally left Cooperstown around 4:30 or so and made our way south to Pennsylvania to stay at our hotel in Moosic, PA, about 15 minutes from Scranton. After unpacking into our hotel room, we drove about 15 minutes to get to an Applebees. At this point, I think it's safe to say that we were all tired to the point where we were wired and everything we said was funny. After scaring everyone in Applebees with our raucous laughter, some of us more than others (cough...Jason's loud laugh scared the people next to us on more than one occasion). Anyway, we ate our three course meals (personally, I got cheesesticks, steak, and chocolate dessert) and moved back to the hotel. After the GPS took us the wrong way (again), we got back into our room. After not caring about the Brett Favre "saga" for 30 minutes of NFL Live, we watched some Baseball Tonight (surprise), and then finally crashed asleep. Pretty short/uneventful day by our standards.
In the morning, we woke up around 7 AM and started changing and packing. We hit the road around 7:45 towards Cooperstown. We stopped a few miles down the road for some McGriddles to start the day off right. It was a 4 hour drive to Cooperstown, so we settled in for the ride. Jason and I continued our quest through Expert Career Mode on Guitar Hero 3, getting down to the last couple required songs before arriving in Cooperstown. Once we got there, we got to do a little more driving to try to find parking. Considering we were there on the day before the Hall of Fame induction of 2 New York Yankees, and considering Cooperstown is in New York, I think it's safe to say that it was absolutely packed. After parking about a mile a way in some shrubbery, we made our way into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is hard to describe. It had sooooo many baseball artifacts. The main sections were focused on Babe Ruth, Blacks in Baseball, Women in Baseball, and then different sections for each era of baseball history. Once I make an online album of the pictures, I'll post a link to them on here. Anyway, the Hall of Fame was amazing, and we got most of our gift shopping done in Cooperstown. We finally left Cooperstown around 4:30 or so and made our way south to Pennsylvania to stay at our hotel in Moosic, PA, about 15 minutes from Scranton. After unpacking into our hotel room, we drove about 15 minutes to get to an Applebees. At this point, I think it's safe to say that we were all tired to the point where we were wired and everything we said was funny. After scaring everyone in Applebees with our raucous laughter, some of us more than others (cough...Jason's loud laugh scared the people next to us on more than one occasion). Anyway, we ate our three course meals (personally, I got cheesesticks, steak, and chocolate dessert) and moved back to the hotel. After the GPS took us the wrong way (again), we got back into our room. After not caring about the Brett Favre "saga" for 30 minutes of NFL Live, we watched some Baseball Tonight (surprise), and then finally crashed asleep. Pretty short/uneventful day by our standards.
Day 8 - Boston!!!
Day 8 - Boston!!!
Song of the Day: Shipping up to Boston - Dropkick Murphys
We're going to Boston!!! We had a pretty uneventful night in the tent, just very close to collapsing as usual. We got up really early as we all really really wanted to get to the city as fast as possible. After a stop for some McGriddles, we made the drive into the city. When we got there, we just drove straight to Fenway Park to go buy our tour tickets for the afternoon and to park our car for the day. After parking in a garage right behind the Green Monster, we got our tour tickets and made our way to the subway to meet Brennan at Haymarket, right next to the Boston Garden. Brennan came over to meet us and took us over to the North Market for some lunch. I personally got some amazing pizza with Gray, while Jason and Kyle got some giant bowls of Macaroni and Cheese. After lunch, we started over to some of the historic sites in Boston. First we went to the North Church where Paul Revere hung one lamp to signal the British were coming by land. While we were outside the church, Gray noticed a shop selling Italian Soccer Team T-Shirts, so he had to stop and buy a couple. After that, we trekked up to Bunker Hill to climb the 294 step obelisk there. It provided an amazing view of the city. Then we started making our way back over to Fenway Park for our 3 pm tour. We made our way over to the Red Sox team store, which was absolutely humongous by the way. After looking around for a few minutes, we heard the tour guide calling us over. After telling us the rules, we made our way into the park. Our first mini-stop was on the ramp right next to the players' parking lot. Nobody famous was out in the parking lot, but there sure were some damn nice cars! After that we made our way to the old wooden seats behind home, 13 inches wide and damn uncomfortable, but definitely worth it. We got some great pictures down near the field before heading up to the Budweiser Right Field Deck. To get tickets up there, you have to buy a table with 4 seats. Food is brought to the table, and the view is great. Our next stop was the front row of the 2nd story in left field, another good view of the field. Finally, we headed up to the Green Monster seats. The view from the Monster was amazing, and it was so cool to be on top of a piece of baseball history. The Monster was the final stop of the tour, so we made our way back out of the park. As soon as we got out of the park, I made my way to our gate to stand in line to go into the park at 5:05. Gray and Brennan went to grab some food before Brennan headed back out to his grandparents' house, Kyle went to the Team Store, and Jason went to the car to charge his camera battery. Around 4:40, Gray and Brennan came over and took my place in line so I could go buy a Kevin Youkilis shirt. After buying and changing into my Youk shirt, I went back and joined Gray, Brennan and Kyle in line. At 5:06, they opened our gate and we sprinted into the park and were the first 3 people through the turnstyles that day! We immediately went over by the Red Sox bullpen to get some batting practice homers hit to us. The Red Sox were still taking BP when we got in, and we saw Big Papi taking his hacks before his first start back in the lineup in more than a month. After we saw the last set of the Red Sox BP, we saw the Yankees starters get their batting in. We got a few balls knocked over by the bullpen, but I was starting to get really hacked off because the ball boy that was shagging balls by us refused to throw any into the stands, but the guys that were on every other part of the field threw practically every other ball up into the stands. Finally, some of the position players made their way over next to us and so a few balls got tossed up into the stands. Throughout that 30 minute stretch, we caught five balls. Unfortunately, we are nice young adult men and gave four of the five away to small children who surrounded us. Near the end of the Yankees BP session, Richie Sexson jacked a homer into the bullpen. In the bullpen, they have a water hose to wet the mounds with, and they keep the hose on a big plastic reel. As this homer landed, I kid you not, the ball somehow wedged its way between the bottom of the rolled up hose and the bottom bar of the reel and got stuck under the hose. Now this was obviously a hard struck ball, so I'm guessing that it was pretty much all the way under the hose. Anyway, the bullpen coach and bullpen catcher made their way out to the bullpen after BP was done. When they got there, I told the bullpen coach a couple of times that the ball was wedged under the hose. Now there were a few other balls scattered around the floor of the bullpen, and apparently when he was picking those up, he took a half hearted look under the hose and didn't see the ball in the front. I told him to look under the hose, and his response was, "There's no ball under there. You can stare at that hose all game, but there's not gonna be a ball under there." Jerk. All of us saw the ball go under the hose, so he failed at trying to make me feel stupid. I'm hoping the grounds crew found the ball while he was still out there and that he felt like a Grade-A a-hole. Anyway, we finally made our way up to our seats after snapping a few pictures of Joba Chamberlain and Josh Beckett, the two opposing starting pitchers. Pretty soon, it got to be game time, and the stadium was absolutely packed. The lineups for the Evil Empire and for the Red Sox were announced, and then the game got started. I had been down getting Fenway Franks during the pregame and National Anthem, but I made it back up to my seat just in time for the first pitch. The first few innings progressed without much action in the game. We were sitting behind four ladies who, of course, were die hard Red Sox fans. They were the type of fan I like though, because they were the type that refused to join in the chants of "Yankees Suck" and actually knew what was going on in the game. We had a good time talking with them throughout the game, they had some good Sox stories and were very interested in our road trip, so we talked with them pretty much the entire game. Anyway, in I believe the bottom of the 4th inning, the Red Sox were batting, but the Yankees were flashing some leather. After a leadoff single, the Yankees center fielder Melky Cabrera made a full extension diving catch in the right center field gap for the first out of the inning. The next batter hit a hard bouncer right up the middle. Second Baseman Robinson Cano sprinted over, made a stretching grab, then backhand flipped the ball to Jeter, who made a barehand grab and the relay throw to first all in the same motion to beat the batter by a hair for the 4-6-3 double play. Even rooting for the Red Sox, we had to give the Yankees credit for that spectacular play. In the third inning, the Yankees pieced together three singles to bring in the a run to make it 1-0. The game continued onward, with not much else happening. Finally, we got to the bottom of the 9th, still with a 1-0 score. Yankee closer Mariano Rivera came in to the tune of many boos. After getting Big Papi to fly out, he gave up a single to Kevin Youkilis and the stadium woke up to try to rally the Red Sox to tie the game. Too bad Rivera had other ideas. He struck out Mike Lowell looking on Ball 3. It was quite possibly the worst call we saw on the entire trip, and Mike Lowell agreed with us. He slammed his bat down and turned on the umpire and was close enough to bite the umpire's mask. I'm sure there were a few choice words thrown in there, because it didn't take long for the umpire to give Lowell the old heave-ho. Lowell stormed off the field as the Red Sox manager continued the argument for another minute or so. Anyway, there were now 2 outs with Youkilis on first and JD Drew up to bat. Well, Drew got 2 quick strikes on him, and after a couple of waste pitches, Rivera painted the outside corner with his infamous cutter for strike three. Game over. Well, even if the Yankees won the game, we sure had a damn good time at the game. After making our way out, observing a couple of near fights on the way, we got over to our garage and I took the wheel. After forcing my way out of our parking space by not allowing myself to be cut off, we got back on the road and began our quest for some rope to hold up the much-maligned tent. After stopping at two Super Stop & Shop's that were out of rope, we finally found a Walgreens that didn't have a single driveway that snuck up on you so you couldn't turn in in time, got our rope, and headed back to the campsite. When, we got there, we used all 50 feet of the rope to tie up the four tent posts, and for once, had enough space in the tent to crawl around a little without getting stabbed by a pole. Finally, we all crashed for the night, tick-free, and after killing the two or three mosquitoes that snuck into our tent, we all fell asleep.
Song of the Day: Shipping up to Boston - Dropkick Murphys
We're going to Boston!!! We had a pretty uneventful night in the tent, just very close to collapsing as usual. We got up really early as we all really really wanted to get to the city as fast as possible. After a stop for some McGriddles, we made the drive into the city. When we got there, we just drove straight to Fenway Park to go buy our tour tickets for the afternoon and to park our car for the day. After parking in a garage right behind the Green Monster, we got our tour tickets and made our way to the subway to meet Brennan at Haymarket, right next to the Boston Garden. Brennan came over to meet us and took us over to the North Market for some lunch. I personally got some amazing pizza with Gray, while Jason and Kyle got some giant bowls of Macaroni and Cheese. After lunch, we started over to some of the historic sites in Boston. First we went to the North Church where Paul Revere hung one lamp to signal the British were coming by land. While we were outside the church, Gray noticed a shop selling Italian Soccer Team T-Shirts, so he had to stop and buy a couple. After that, we trekked up to Bunker Hill to climb the 294 step obelisk there. It provided an amazing view of the city. Then we started making our way back over to Fenway Park for our 3 pm tour. We made our way over to the Red Sox team store, which was absolutely humongous by the way. After looking around for a few minutes, we heard the tour guide calling us over. After telling us the rules, we made our way into the park. Our first mini-stop was on the ramp right next to the players' parking lot. Nobody famous was out in the parking lot, but there sure were some damn nice cars! After that we made our way to the old wooden seats behind home, 13 inches wide and damn uncomfortable, but definitely worth it. We got some great pictures down near the field before heading up to the Budweiser Right Field Deck. To get tickets up there, you have to buy a table with 4 seats. Food is brought to the table, and the view is great. Our next stop was the front row of the 2nd story in left field, another good view of the field. Finally, we headed up to the Green Monster seats. The view from the Monster was amazing, and it was so cool to be on top of a piece of baseball history. The Monster was the final stop of the tour, so we made our way back out of the park. As soon as we got out of the park, I made my way to our gate to stand in line to go into the park at 5:05. Gray and Brennan went to grab some food before Brennan headed back out to his grandparents' house, Kyle went to the Team Store, and Jason went to the car to charge his camera battery. Around 4:40, Gray and Brennan came over and took my place in line so I could go buy a Kevin Youkilis shirt. After buying and changing into my Youk shirt, I went back and joined Gray, Brennan and Kyle in line. At 5:06, they opened our gate and we sprinted into the park and were the first 3 people through the turnstyles that day! We immediately went over by the Red Sox bullpen to get some batting practice homers hit to us. The Red Sox were still taking BP when we got in, and we saw Big Papi taking his hacks before his first start back in the lineup in more than a month. After we saw the last set of the Red Sox BP, we saw the Yankees starters get their batting in. We got a few balls knocked over by the bullpen, but I was starting to get really hacked off because the ball boy that was shagging balls by us refused to throw any into the stands, but the guys that were on every other part of the field threw practically every other ball up into the stands. Finally, some of the position players made their way over next to us and so a few balls got tossed up into the stands. Throughout that 30 minute stretch, we caught five balls. Unfortunately, we are nice young adult men and gave four of the five away to small children who surrounded us. Near the end of the Yankees BP session, Richie Sexson jacked a homer into the bullpen. In the bullpen, they have a water hose to wet the mounds with, and they keep the hose on a big plastic reel. As this homer landed, I kid you not, the ball somehow wedged its way between the bottom of the rolled up hose and the bottom bar of the reel and got stuck under the hose. Now this was obviously a hard struck ball, so I'm guessing that it was pretty much all the way under the hose. Anyway, the bullpen coach and bullpen catcher made their way out to the bullpen after BP was done. When they got there, I told the bullpen coach a couple of times that the ball was wedged under the hose. Now there were a few other balls scattered around the floor of the bullpen, and apparently when he was picking those up, he took a half hearted look under the hose and didn't see the ball in the front. I told him to look under the hose, and his response was, "There's no ball under there. You can stare at that hose all game, but there's not gonna be a ball under there." Jerk. All of us saw the ball go under the hose, so he failed at trying to make me feel stupid. I'm hoping the grounds crew found the ball while he was still out there and that he felt like a Grade-A a-hole. Anyway, we finally made our way up to our seats after snapping a few pictures of Joba Chamberlain and Josh Beckett, the two opposing starting pitchers. Pretty soon, it got to be game time, and the stadium was absolutely packed. The lineups for the Evil Empire and for the Red Sox were announced, and then the game got started. I had been down getting Fenway Franks during the pregame and National Anthem, but I made it back up to my seat just in time for the first pitch. The first few innings progressed without much action in the game. We were sitting behind four ladies who, of course, were die hard Red Sox fans. They were the type of fan I like though, because they were the type that refused to join in the chants of "Yankees Suck" and actually knew what was going on in the game. We had a good time talking with them throughout the game, they had some good Sox stories and were very interested in our road trip, so we talked with them pretty much the entire game. Anyway, in I believe the bottom of the 4th inning, the Red Sox were batting, but the Yankees were flashing some leather. After a leadoff single, the Yankees center fielder Melky Cabrera made a full extension diving catch in the right center field gap for the first out of the inning. The next batter hit a hard bouncer right up the middle. Second Baseman Robinson Cano sprinted over, made a stretching grab, then backhand flipped the ball to Jeter, who made a barehand grab and the relay throw to first all in the same motion to beat the batter by a hair for the 4-6-3 double play. Even rooting for the Red Sox, we had to give the Yankees credit for that spectacular play. In the third inning, the Yankees pieced together three singles to bring in the a run to make it 1-0. The game continued onward, with not much else happening. Finally, we got to the bottom of the 9th, still with a 1-0 score. Yankee closer Mariano Rivera came in to the tune of many boos. After getting Big Papi to fly out, he gave up a single to Kevin Youkilis and the stadium woke up to try to rally the Red Sox to tie the game. Too bad Rivera had other ideas. He struck out Mike Lowell looking on Ball 3. It was quite possibly the worst call we saw on the entire trip, and Mike Lowell agreed with us. He slammed his bat down and turned on the umpire and was close enough to bite the umpire's mask. I'm sure there were a few choice words thrown in there, because it didn't take long for the umpire to give Lowell the old heave-ho. Lowell stormed off the field as the Red Sox manager continued the argument for another minute or so. Anyway, there were now 2 outs with Youkilis on first and JD Drew up to bat. Well, Drew got 2 quick strikes on him, and after a couple of waste pitches, Rivera painted the outside corner with his infamous cutter for strike three. Game over. Well, even if the Yankees won the game, we sure had a damn good time at the game. After making our way out, observing a couple of near fights on the way, we got over to our garage and I took the wheel. After forcing my way out of our parking space by not allowing myself to be cut off, we got back on the road and began our quest for some rope to hold up the much-maligned tent. After stopping at two Super Stop & Shop's that were out of rope, we finally found a Walgreens that didn't have a single driveway that snuck up on you so you couldn't turn in in time, got our rope, and headed back to the campsite. When, we got there, we used all 50 feet of the rope to tie up the four tent posts, and for once, had enough space in the tent to crawl around a little without getting stabbed by a pole. Finally, we all crashed for the night, tick-free, and after killing the two or three mosquitoes that snuck into our tent, we all fell asleep.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Day 7 - NYC and Massachusetts
Day 7 - NYC and Massachusetts
Ok we pick up the story after Josh and Jason go to sleep in the tent and Kyle and Gray go to sleep in the car. We will also be switching back to a timeline mode since I am actually writing this on the day that it happened.
6:16 AM - BOOM!!! Jason and Josh are woken up by a thunderclap and hear the rain approaching. In comes the wind, down comes one of the tents arms. So unlikely right? Anyway, the rain starts coming and the wind keeps blowing too fast, so Jason and I are stuck holding the tent up with our head while standing up in the center of the tent. Meanwhile, the tent has become saturated enough that the water has started to drip in. Finally, it gets to a point where there's no way we're going to be able to sleep in the tent.
6:39 AM - Break in the rain, Josh and Jason sprint to the car, climb into the front seat, and fall asleep.
10:00 AM - Our alarms to wake up go off. We wake up, change clothes, and get out all the stuff we need for the Mets game. Then we go check out the tent. Fortunately, it hadn't rained much more after Jason and I got in the car, so the air mattresses were only partially wet. We made good use of the 5 towels we had bought at Walmart, drying the entire interior of the tent and most of the outside too before folding it up and stuffing itinto the tent bag. After throwing all of the wet stuff into one of the dryers, we got everything else packed up and ready to go. We left around 11 AM.
12:15 PM - We arrive at Shea Stadium five minutes after game time. Coming in, we were expecting it to be an ugly stadium, but it wasn't as bad as we had expected. It did kind of have the feeling of one of the football bowl stadium in that the seats were placed as vertically as they safely could be. Check out Jason's stadium review on Kyle's blog (eastcoastbaseballroadtrip.blogspot.com) for more information and opinions on the stadium. In my opinion, it was not great but it definitely wasn't horrible, and it was definitely better than stupid Yankee Stadium. When we got into the stadium at 12:18, 8 minutes into the game, the first inning was already over, a sign of how the game was going to be. We got up to our seats, which were in a pretty nice spot on the third deck, and sat down.another inning zipped by in a matter of seconds, and it was already the third inning by 12:25. Gray and I decided to go down to the team store and get our souvenir of the game and then go get some food. In the time it took us to walk down to the first deck, buy our souvenir, come back up to the third deck, get food, and come back to our seats, three and a half innings had passed. Fortunately, the guy next to me was keeping score, so I cheated off of his scorecard and got caught up on my own scorecard. The game obviously was a pitvhers duel. It was Oliver Perez pitching for the Mets against Jamie Moyer of the Phillies. Moyer only had one shaky stretch in his 7 innings pitched. In the 4th inning, he walked two people in a row and then David Wright made him pay with an RBI single. Perez gave up a couple more hits than Moyer but was equally as effective. His only mistake was a hanging slider that Jayson Werth almost killed a camera man with over the fence in center field. Perez ended up stiking out 12 over seven and two-thirds innings. Moyer only gave up one run, but the Phillies bullpen came in and gave up two runs in the eigth inning, so we got to see Billy Wagner come in and close out the game. Overall, a very good experience. Also, a very short game. 2 hours, 20 minutes to be exact.
3:00 PM - We headed back to the car and got out of our parking lot to get on the road to Massachusetts. It was a pretty nice drive except for the stupid 55 mph speed limit and the extremely expensive gas in Connecticut.
8:00 PM - We got to our campsite and set up the tent so it could dry out and now we're heading over to Cracker Barrel!!!
11:00 PM - We ate some awesome dinner at Cracker Barrel and then headed over to the Super Stop and Shop to pick up some drinks and ice and stuff. Our waitress at Cracker Barrel told us that you could go to Staples to get Wi-Fi because they leave the Wi-Fi on at night, so now here we are updating the blog and checking facebook and things of the sort. Tomorrow we go to Boston!!! Woo Yay! We're pretty excited, but we're going to bed soon. I would imagine I'll be able to update tomorrow. So yeah. Good night..
Ok we pick up the story after Josh and Jason go to sleep in the tent and Kyle and Gray go to sleep in the car. We will also be switching back to a timeline mode since I am actually writing this on the day that it happened.
6:16 AM - BOOM!!! Jason and Josh are woken up by a thunderclap and hear the rain approaching. In comes the wind, down comes one of the tents arms. So unlikely right? Anyway, the rain starts coming and the wind keeps blowing too fast, so Jason and I are stuck holding the tent up with our head while standing up in the center of the tent. Meanwhile, the tent has become saturated enough that the water has started to drip in. Finally, it gets to a point where there's no way we're going to be able to sleep in the tent.
6:39 AM - Break in the rain, Josh and Jason sprint to the car, climb into the front seat, and fall asleep.
10:00 AM - Our alarms to wake up go off. We wake up, change clothes, and get out all the stuff we need for the Mets game. Then we go check out the tent. Fortunately, it hadn't rained much more after Jason and I got in the car, so the air mattresses were only partially wet. We made good use of the 5 towels we had bought at Walmart, drying the entire interior of the tent and most of the outside too before folding it up and stuffing itinto the tent bag. After throwing all of the wet stuff into one of the dryers, we got everything else packed up and ready to go. We left around 11 AM.
12:15 PM - We arrive at Shea Stadium five minutes after game time. Coming in, we were expecting it to be an ugly stadium, but it wasn't as bad as we had expected. It did kind of have the feeling of one of the football bowl stadium in that the seats were placed as vertically as they safely could be. Check out Jason's stadium review on Kyle's blog (eastcoastbaseballroadtrip.blogspot.com) for more information and opinions on the stadium. In my opinion, it was not great but it definitely wasn't horrible, and it was definitely better than stupid Yankee Stadium. When we got into the stadium at 12:18, 8 minutes into the game, the first inning was already over, a sign of how the game was going to be. We got up to our seats, which were in a pretty nice spot on the third deck, and sat down.another inning zipped by in a matter of seconds, and it was already the third inning by 12:25. Gray and I decided to go down to the team store and get our souvenir of the game and then go get some food. In the time it took us to walk down to the first deck, buy our souvenir, come back up to the third deck, get food, and come back to our seats, three and a half innings had passed. Fortunately, the guy next to me was keeping score, so I cheated off of his scorecard and got caught up on my own scorecard. The game obviously was a pitvhers duel. It was Oliver Perez pitching for the Mets against Jamie Moyer of the Phillies. Moyer only had one shaky stretch in his 7 innings pitched. In the 4th inning, he walked two people in a row and then David Wright made him pay with an RBI single. Perez gave up a couple more hits than Moyer but was equally as effective. His only mistake was a hanging slider that Jayson Werth almost killed a camera man with over the fence in center field. Perez ended up stiking out 12 over seven and two-thirds innings. Moyer only gave up one run, but the Phillies bullpen came in and gave up two runs in the eigth inning, so we got to see Billy Wagner come in and close out the game. Overall, a very good experience. Also, a very short game. 2 hours, 20 minutes to be exact.
3:00 PM - We headed back to the car and got out of our parking lot to get on the road to Massachusetts. It was a pretty nice drive except for the stupid 55 mph speed limit and the extremely expensive gas in Connecticut.
8:00 PM - We got to our campsite and set up the tent so it could dry out and now we're heading over to Cracker Barrel!!!
11:00 PM - We ate some awesome dinner at Cracker Barrel and then headed over to the Super Stop and Shop to pick up some drinks and ice and stuff. Our waitress at Cracker Barrel told us that you could go to Staples to get Wi-Fi because they leave the Wi-Fi on at night, so now here we are updating the blog and checking facebook and things of the sort. Tomorrow we go to Boston!!! Woo Yay! We're pretty excited, but we're going to bed soon. I would imagine I'll be able to update tomorrow. So yeah. Good night..
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Day 6 - New York City (Brought to you by Pace Salsa - "New York City?")
Ok, so to do this day justice, we must continue last night's story. We arrived at Codorus State Park at 12:06 AM on Wednesday, July 23rd. On the entire drive, we had been seeing lightning, but Jason looked up radar on the phone and it said that the storms would be missing us to the south. Once again, how wrong it was. We set up the tent in the dark as usual, still not knowing how to fix the semi-collapsing problem that had occurred in South Carolina, which we now know how to fix since I asked my Dad. The tent once again was semi-collapsed in on us, but we all fell asleep easily. Flash forward to 4:45 AM. BOOOOOOM!!! Good morning, extremely large thunderstorm! The rain just starts pouring down in sheets on us, and the wind blew hard enough to slightly shift the rain cover, allowing a few of our dirty clothes to get wet. Now imagine the four of us in our boxers wondering what on earth to do. Fortunately, the rain gave us a break and stopped for about 15 minutes, just enough to throw everything in the tent into the back of the car and to carry the tent to the bathroom to fold it up in dryness. Again, imagine the four of us running around a campsite at 4:30 AM in just our boxers, carrying air mattresses and tents. Finally we got everything dried and folded up in the bathroom, but at this point we all smelled like wet forest mud. We took turns in the two showers and got all cleaned up and dressed for the day and left the campsite around 5:10 AM. I was driving, Jason was riding shotgun and keeping me company and Gray and Kyle collapsed back to sleep in the back. The trip to Jersey City, NJ was pretty problem free except for when we decided we wanted McGriddles in Pennsylvania. Using Jason's GPS, we ended up trying 6 different McDonalds and not succeeding at a single one. The first two were doing renovations and therefore weren't open, one was the stupid GPS's fault, as it was not a McDonalds but rather a billboard advertising McDonalds, one didn't open until 45 minutes later, and one was inside a mall, so obviously it wasn't open that early. Finally, we gave up, dug up the pop-tarts, and continued towards New Jersey. Not much happened the rest of the drive, except it was obvious when we got to New Jersey because suddenly all the turn signals stopped working and people were just forced to try to swerve in and out of traffic without signalling! How unfortunate! Anyway, we arrived at our campsite at around 9 AM and slept in the car for an hour. It was fun. When we woke up, we took the ferry to Pier 11 on Wall Street. We took Wall Street down to Trinity Church and jumped on the subway on over to Yankee Stadium. We got there and made our way down to the line for the bleacher seats. After standing outside for 15 minutes, we started filtering our way into the stadium, only to find that no bags are allowed into the stadium unless they're purses or diaper bags. Mainly because the security there is too lazy to check the bags for anything. Therefore, even though Kyle's fanny pack only had a towel, 3 baseballs, and a bottle of water, and my bag only had my laptop and a bottle of water, we were forced to go across the street and check in our bags at the bowling alley. Stupid. Anyway, we finally got into the stadium just in time for the last 8 minutes of batting practice. I'll start by saying that the stadium was a disappointment somewhat, due to A) how crappy it was and B) how crappy the human environment was. The park was nothing special except for Monument Park, which we found out that we weren't allowed to visit because the bleacher seats are separated from the rest of the stadium. The fact that we could only see stuff in the bleacher area was a bummer in the first place, but then the fact that we had an hour and a half to kill, the fact that we were all tired, and the fact that there was nowhere comfortable to sit or lie down made it even more boring. I did manage to find a way to get a few pictures inside Monument Park. About 45 minutes before game time, I made my way over to a part of the bleachers that was right about the monuments. The line to go through the monument had been cut off at that point, so only a few people were left filtering inside. I found the first person I could that didn't already have a camera with him, asked him to take some pictures for me, and then tossed my camera down to him. At this point, the security guard was starting to slowly push people out of the monument, so the guy took pictures of just a couple of important Yankees and then tossed the camera back. It was pretty nice.
Finally the game started at 1:05 PM. I would tell you what all happened but I was too tired to remember most of it, plus the "well-run" vending companies at Yankee Stadium didn't have any scorecards. Way to go Yankees, reflecting the Steinbrenner values of being dumb. Now I will say that there was one cool thing about the bleacher seats: Roll Call. Every game, one of the "Bleacher Creatures" starts the bleacher crowd in chants for each Yankee fielder, starting with center field. The crowd continues chanting until the player turns around and acknowledges the crowd. That was pretty cool. The game itself was pretty boring, with the Yankees just scoring in two innings and the Twins just scoring one run in the ninth inning, which allowed Mariano Rivera to come in and save the game for the Yankees. The final score was 5 to 1, and while the game wasn't amazing, it is still an awesome experience that none of us will ever forget.
After the game, we picked up our Souvenir of the Game, listed in Kyle's blog (eastcoastbaseballroadtrip.blogspot.com), across the street from the stadium and made our way back onto the Subway into town. We got off at Grand Central Station, grabbed some coffee, and then headed out onto Broadway. We didn't get too far before realizing that we were starving. We stooped at Chipotle because A) their burritos dominate and B) they had free Wi-Fi (side note: Wi-Fi has been way harder to find than one would expect, which is why blogs have been so infrequently posted). After eating, posting, and checking facebook (after all, facebook is life), we took off down Broadway towards Times Square. We took in our fill of Broadway, stopping in the gigantic Toys-R-Us store to see the Ferris Wheel inside it, checking out Times Square and seeing where most of the shows on Broadway were. Then we headed over to Central Park to look, since three of us had never seen it. From there, we went to the semi-invisible Apple store, which just has a glass entrance but the store itself is underground. After that, we climbed back on the subway to get out to our ferry near Wall Street. We took one that took us pretty close to Wall Street but didn't quite take us there. That turned out being a problem, as we got a little mixed up before finding our way back to Pier 11. When we got back to Pier 11, it was 8:41 PM. Our boat had left at 8:40, and the next one didn't come until 9:40. We sat around the dock, called some people, tossed a racquetball around that i had left in my computer bag. When we finally got on the boat at 9:30, we had started to see a few flashes of lightning. When we got back to the camp, we trucked it over to our site and started setting up the tent correctly thanks to the directions I got from my dad. Unfortunately, what we thought was a stake bag in the tent bag was actually a bag of extra poles. At this point, things are starting to seem a lot like the night before. About halfway through putting up the tent, we see the sheets of rain advancing on us rapidly. Too bad it was too late to act this time. The rain hit us before we could even start to throw stuff in the car. Jason was inside the tent when it hit, Kyle was close enough to the car to jump in and stay relatively dry, but Gray and I got absolutely drenched. Gray and I ran to the bathroom to discard phones, wallets, etc. Then ran back out to the tent to start grabbing the two air mattresses which were already pretty moist due to the tent not being fully erected. We also grabbed Gray's sleeping bag, which was in its protective bag, so it barely got wet. Finally, when there was a semi-break in the rain, Jason ran to the car and Gray and I carried the tent into the bathroom. Then it started raining really, really hard again. We called Jason and told him and Kyle to go to the nearest Walmart and get tent stakes and towels. While the were off doing that, Gray and I hung the tent, the tarp, and the rain cover for the tent over the shower stalls in the bathroom. We slapped the tarp until it was dry since it doesn't hold water. Then we put deflated the mattresses and put them under the hand dryer in the bathroom inch by inch until they were both semi-dry, then we dried off our hats and then sat around in the bathroom waiting for Jason and Kyle to back and for the rain to stop pouring down. Finally the rain stopped, and Jason's radar said that the storm's had passed and shouldn't be bothering us again.We set up the tent again in the dark with stakes and Jason and I climbed in. Kyle and Gray sacrificed comfort for being smart and slept in the car. The story picks up tomorrow in Day 7. Goodnight Josh, Jason, Kyle, and Gray, ye unsuspecting campers.
This was actually the only Starbucks we saw in the entire city in 2+ hours of walking. Surprising.
Finally the game started at 1:05 PM. I would tell you what all happened but I was too tired to remember most of it, plus the "well-run" vending companies at Yankee Stadium didn't have any scorecards. Way to go Yankees, reflecting the Steinbrenner values of being dumb. Now I will say that there was one cool thing about the bleacher seats: Roll Call. Every game, one of the "Bleacher Creatures" starts the bleacher crowd in chants for each Yankee fielder, starting with center field. The crowd continues chanting until the player turns around and acknowledges the crowd. That was pretty cool. The game itself was pretty boring, with the Yankees just scoring in two innings and the Twins just scoring one run in the ninth inning, which allowed Mariano Rivera to come in and save the game for the Yankees. The final score was 5 to 1, and while the game wasn't amazing, it is still an awesome experience that none of us will ever forget.
After the game, we picked up our Souvenir of the Game, listed in Kyle's blog (eastcoastbaseballroadtrip.blogspot.com), across the street from the stadium and made our way back onto the Subway into town. We got off at Grand Central Station, grabbed some coffee, and then headed out onto Broadway. We didn't get too far before realizing that we were starving. We stooped at Chipotle because A) their burritos dominate and B) they had free Wi-Fi (side note: Wi-Fi has been way harder to find than one would expect, which is why blogs have been so infrequently posted). After eating, posting, and checking facebook (after all, facebook is life), we took off down Broadway towards Times Square. We took in our fill of Broadway, stopping in the gigantic Toys-R-Us store to see the Ferris Wheel inside it, checking out Times Square and seeing where most of the shows on Broadway were. Then we headed over to Central Park to look, since three of us had never seen it. From there, we went to the semi-invisible Apple store, which just has a glass entrance but the store itself is underground. After that, we climbed back on the subway to get out to our ferry near Wall Street. We took one that took us pretty close to Wall Street but didn't quite take us there. That turned out being a problem, as we got a little mixed up before finding our way back to Pier 11. When we got back to Pier 11, it was 8:41 PM. Our boat had left at 8:40, and the next one didn't come until 9:40. We sat around the dock, called some people, tossed a racquetball around that i had left in my computer bag. When we finally got on the boat at 9:30, we had started to see a few flashes of lightning. When we got back to the camp, we trucked it over to our site and started setting up the tent correctly thanks to the directions I got from my dad. Unfortunately, what we thought was a stake bag in the tent bag was actually a bag of extra poles. At this point, things are starting to seem a lot like the night before. About halfway through putting up the tent, we see the sheets of rain advancing on us rapidly. Too bad it was too late to act this time. The rain hit us before we could even start to throw stuff in the car. Jason was inside the tent when it hit, Kyle was close enough to the car to jump in and stay relatively dry, but Gray and I got absolutely drenched. Gray and I ran to the bathroom to discard phones, wallets, etc. Then ran back out to the tent to start grabbing the two air mattresses which were already pretty moist due to the tent not being fully erected. We also grabbed Gray's sleeping bag, which was in its protective bag, so it barely got wet. Finally, when there was a semi-break in the rain, Jason ran to the car and Gray and I carried the tent into the bathroom. Then it started raining really, really hard again. We called Jason and told him and Kyle to go to the nearest Walmart and get tent stakes and towels. While the were off doing that, Gray and I hung the tent, the tarp, and the rain cover for the tent over the shower stalls in the bathroom. We slapped the tarp until it was dry since it doesn't hold water. Then we put deflated the mattresses and put them under the hand dryer in the bathroom inch by inch until they were both semi-dry, then we dried off our hats and then sat around in the bathroom waiting for Jason and Kyle to back and for the rain to stop pouring down. Finally the rain stopped, and Jason's radar said that the storm's had passed and shouldn't be bothering us again.We set up the tent again in the dark with stakes and Jason and I climbed in. Kyle and Gray sacrificed comfort for being smart and slept in the car. The story picks up tomorrow in Day 7. Goodnight Josh, Jason, Kyle, and Gray, ye unsuspecting campers.
This was actually the only Starbucks we saw in the entire city in 2+ hours of walking. Surprising.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Day 5 - Baltimore and DC
Day 5 - Mike's House to Baltimore to Washington DC to Baltimore to Hanover, PA
Ok well its about 11 PM and we're on our way to our campsite in Pennsylvania. This has been an interesting day so far. To start, we woke up about 30 minutes later than we were planning, which cut off some of the time that we got to spend in Washington DC. After we got to Baltimore through the disgusting traffic (thank god we have 4 people and could therefore use the HOV lane, otherwise we might still be sitting on the Interstate), we parked at the Amtrak Station in Baltimore and bought our train tickets to DC. The train was really kinda fun. None of us had ever been on one in America, and we were able to find a little rectangle of four seats facing each other so we busted out my laptop and started playing Monopoly! 40 minutes later, we were in DC at Union Station, and we hit the ground running. Too bad it was in the wrong direction. After going about 6 blocks away from the Capitol and Josh stubbing his toe on a rouge concrete block, we got turned back in the right direction and found the capitol. Now, considering we got to DC at 11:25 and had to be on the train at Union Station at 4:05, I'd say its fair to say we were pressed for time. We got to the Capitol and took a few pictures from each side of it, then headed off towards the National Mall.
We made a beeline for the National Archives since our resident history nerd Gray could not live without seeing the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. As we reached the line to get into the Archives, Jason and I decided we wanted to go get a couple of pictures of the Smithsonian Castle and then get back with Gray and Kyle before they were let inside. As we got to the Smithsonian Castle, I get a text from Gray saying they had just been let into the museum. After getting our pictures of the castle, Jason and I ran-ish back to the Archives to re-enter the line to get inside. Once we finally got in, we moved quickly up the stairs to the Rotunda. As we approached, who else do we see just through the golden gates of the Rotunda at the front of the line for viewing but Gray and Kyle. I calmly walked up to the security guard, explained to him that Jason and I were grouped with Kyle and Gray but had gone to the bathroom, and we just wanted to get back with them. The best part was, it worked. So, thanks I guess to Kyle and Gray's patience, Jason and I got right in to view the documents. Let me tell you, we got some nasty glares from the 200+ people in line as we made our way forward. Anyway, by the time that whole fiasco was done, it was nearly 1 PM! We were hungry, but there was no way we were delaying for food. We walk-sprinted over to the White House and got to see something pretty cool. As we approached the sidewalk across the street from the White House, a police officer we would not be able to see the front of the White House for a few minutes. We soon found out why when 3 helicopters, 2 marine and 1 presidential, passed over head. The marine helicopters peeled off, but the presidential one landed on the front of the White House. Jason, thinking fast, ran halfway around the Elliptical Park and managed to get a view of the front of the White House. Since his camera gets 10x zoom, he was able to record a video of the helicopter on the lawn and then as it took off and flew over his head!
I'll post the video later, because it's awesome! Anyway, after that, we took off to the Washington Monument and got our pictures there, and then over to the World War II and Lincoln Memorials.
By the time we got out of the Lincoln Memorial, it was 3:10 PM and we knew we needed to start hurrying. We asked a security guard for directions to the nearest Metro station, and he gave us what sounded like good directions. Wrong. He told us to go 6 blocks down on 21st street from I think Constitution, but after we had gone 9 blocks down, we figured that the directions were crap. Unfortunately, it was 3:35 at this point. After getting directions from a blind man, who was correct, unlike the sighted security guard, we made it on to the Metro, but we had to switch lines a few stops down to get to Union Station. At this point, we were really pushing it, getting on the Red Line to Union Station at 3:52. We arrived at Union Station at 3:57 and took off running to find the trains and then to find our platform, which, of course, was the second farthest one away from us. Yay! We made it onto the train with 1 minute to spare, took separate seats, kicked back and enjoyed the ride back to Baltimore. That's where more fun came. Between bad/confusing directions from the GPS (Sophia is her name) and the drivers of Baltimore, who are the rudest S.O.B.s I have ever had the misfortune of driving around, as well as a wrong turn that took us down a sidewalk along the marina/mall, where we got many confused looks from the mall's patrons, it's safe to say that we had a hard time driving the whole 2 miles to get to our parking spot. Hahaha while we were driving by the marina, Jason just started waving at random people and they all started waving back and laughing at us. It was great. Anyway, we finally got parked and headed into Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Two words: Absolutely beautiful.
The atmosphere was amazing, considering the park includes Eutaw Street, which is closed off to traffic and has some great food stands set up, and has an old brick warehouse as the backdrop behind right field. We made our way down to our FRONT ROW seats in right center field and met the people next to us, the Meyers family. Jason's segment will tell you more about the fun we had with them. The game was another awesome high scoring one, including 5 home runs, and the visiting Toronto Blue Jays came away with a 10-8 win, but not before allowing the Baltimore Orioles to load the bases in the 9th inning to provide some suspense. We then made our trek to our campsite in Hanover, Pennsylvania, which is surrounded by some very creepy country houses for miles and miles. The Day 6 blog will tell you a hilarious, dysfunctional tale of 4 campers vs. 1 thunderstorm.
Jason's segment will also come later. So will pictures and videos. So yeah. We're gonna go to the invisible Apple store now. Bye
Jason's Segment
First off, I want to apologize for how late this is in getting out to you guys. But nonetheless, here it is. When on our travels, we stopped in a little town called Baltimore. There we met a little boy at the Orioles game named Stephen Meyers. Let me just tell you Stephen’s story. Upon arrival at our seats, I see this pretty awesome kid sitting next to me. Us being new to the town and stadium (and from Texas), we start to make conversation with the boy and his dad, learning about the Orioles, about Baltimore, and about the stadium. During every half-inning or so, the boy would hold up a poster, which I eventually asked what it said. Turning it toward me, he read it saying “Hey, Its my birthday! Toss me a ball!” The fellas and I were so excited for this kid and his birthday that we took it upon ourselves to beg, jab, and otherwise annoy the players until they turned around and noticed either what we were telling them, or what Stephen’s sign said. The opposing team didn’t want anything to do with us, tossing us aside as mere hecklers, which we eventually turned into when we found that they were going to completely ignore us. (which prompted me to heckle them with the “oh-so-intimidating” “I hate being ignored” heckle. FINALLY the right and center fielders for the Orioles start to look up and see what we’re yelling about (but still pulling the “I’m really looking at the scoreboard” bit). All we needed was a flyball to either of them for a 3rd out and we’d be set. Well sure enough, in that same inning, the centerfielder catches the 3rd out, roughly 20 ft from the wall, which he then nonchalantly tossed up to the kid. It made all of our days and to see Stephen’s face light up was a great sight.
Stephen Meyers if you’re reading this, happy birthday again buddy, and I hope we meet again.
Ok well its about 11 PM and we're on our way to our campsite in Pennsylvania. This has been an interesting day so far. To start, we woke up about 30 minutes later than we were planning, which cut off some of the time that we got to spend in Washington DC. After we got to Baltimore through the disgusting traffic (thank god we have 4 people and could therefore use the HOV lane, otherwise we might still be sitting on the Interstate), we parked at the Amtrak Station in Baltimore and bought our train tickets to DC. The train was really kinda fun. None of us had ever been on one in America, and we were able to find a little rectangle of four seats facing each other so we busted out my laptop and started playing Monopoly! 40 minutes later, we were in DC at Union Station, and we hit the ground running. Too bad it was in the wrong direction. After going about 6 blocks away from the Capitol and Josh stubbing his toe on a rouge concrete block, we got turned back in the right direction and found the capitol. Now, considering we got to DC at 11:25 and had to be on the train at Union Station at 4:05, I'd say its fair to say we were pressed for time. We got to the Capitol and took a few pictures from each side of it, then headed off towards the National Mall.
We made a beeline for the National Archives since our resident history nerd Gray could not live without seeing the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. As we reached the line to get into the Archives, Jason and I decided we wanted to go get a couple of pictures of the Smithsonian Castle and then get back with Gray and Kyle before they were let inside. As we got to the Smithsonian Castle, I get a text from Gray saying they had just been let into the museum. After getting our pictures of the castle, Jason and I ran-ish back to the Archives to re-enter the line to get inside. Once we finally got in, we moved quickly up the stairs to the Rotunda. As we approached, who else do we see just through the golden gates of the Rotunda at the front of the line for viewing but Gray and Kyle. I calmly walked up to the security guard, explained to him that Jason and I were grouped with Kyle and Gray but had gone to the bathroom, and we just wanted to get back with them. The best part was, it worked. So, thanks I guess to Kyle and Gray's patience, Jason and I got right in to view the documents. Let me tell you, we got some nasty glares from the 200+ people in line as we made our way forward. Anyway, by the time that whole fiasco was done, it was nearly 1 PM! We were hungry, but there was no way we were delaying for food. We walk-sprinted over to the White House and got to see something pretty cool. As we approached the sidewalk across the street from the White House, a police officer we would not be able to see the front of the White House for a few minutes. We soon found out why when 3 helicopters, 2 marine and 1 presidential, passed over head. The marine helicopters peeled off, but the presidential one landed on the front of the White House. Jason, thinking fast, ran halfway around the Elliptical Park and managed to get a view of the front of the White House. Since his camera gets 10x zoom, he was able to record a video of the helicopter on the lawn and then as it took off and flew over his head!
I'll post the video later, because it's awesome! Anyway, after that, we took off to the Washington Monument and got our pictures there, and then over to the World War II and Lincoln Memorials.
By the time we got out of the Lincoln Memorial, it was 3:10 PM and we knew we needed to start hurrying. We asked a security guard for directions to the nearest Metro station, and he gave us what sounded like good directions. Wrong. He told us to go 6 blocks down on 21st street from I think Constitution, but after we had gone 9 blocks down, we figured that the directions were crap. Unfortunately, it was 3:35 at this point. After getting directions from a blind man, who was correct, unlike the sighted security guard, we made it on to the Metro, but we had to switch lines a few stops down to get to Union Station. At this point, we were really pushing it, getting on the Red Line to Union Station at 3:52. We arrived at Union Station at 3:57 and took off running to find the trains and then to find our platform, which, of course, was the second farthest one away from us. Yay! We made it onto the train with 1 minute to spare, took separate seats, kicked back and enjoyed the ride back to Baltimore. That's where more fun came. Between bad/confusing directions from the GPS (Sophia is her name) and the drivers of Baltimore, who are the rudest S.O.B.s I have ever had the misfortune of driving around, as well as a wrong turn that took us down a sidewalk along the marina/mall, where we got many confused looks from the mall's patrons, it's safe to say that we had a hard time driving the whole 2 miles to get to our parking spot. Hahaha while we were driving by the marina, Jason just started waving at random people and they all started waving back and laughing at us. It was great. Anyway, we finally got parked and headed into Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Two words: Absolutely beautiful.
The atmosphere was amazing, considering the park includes Eutaw Street, which is closed off to traffic and has some great food stands set up, and has an old brick warehouse as the backdrop behind right field. We made our way down to our FRONT ROW seats in right center field and met the people next to us, the Meyers family. Jason's segment will tell you more about the fun we had with them. The game was another awesome high scoring one, including 5 home runs, and the visiting Toronto Blue Jays came away with a 10-8 win, but not before allowing the Baltimore Orioles to load the bases in the 9th inning to provide some suspense. We then made our trek to our campsite in Hanover, Pennsylvania, which is surrounded by some very creepy country houses for miles and miles. The Day 6 blog will tell you a hilarious, dysfunctional tale of 4 campers vs. 1 thunderstorm.
Jason's segment will also come later. So will pictures and videos. So yeah. We're gonna go to the invisible Apple store now. Bye
Jason's Segment
First off, I want to apologize for how late this is in getting out to you guys. But nonetheless, here it is. When on our travels, we stopped in a little town called Baltimore. There we met a little boy at the Orioles game named Stephen Meyers. Let me just tell you Stephen’s story. Upon arrival at our seats, I see this pretty awesome kid sitting next to me. Us being new to the town and stadium (and from Texas), we start to make conversation with the boy and his dad, learning about the Orioles, about Baltimore, and about the stadium. During every half-inning or so, the boy would hold up a poster, which I eventually asked what it said. Turning it toward me, he read it saying “Hey, Its my birthday! Toss me a ball!” The fellas and I were so excited for this kid and his birthday that we took it upon ourselves to beg, jab, and otherwise annoy the players until they turned around and noticed either what we were telling them, or what Stephen’s sign said. The opposing team didn’t want anything to do with us, tossing us aside as mere hecklers, which we eventually turned into when we found that they were going to completely ignore us. (which prompted me to heckle them with the “oh-so-intimidating” “I hate being ignored” heckle. FINALLY the right and center fielders for the Orioles start to look up and see what we’re yelling about (but still pulling the “I’m really looking at the scoreboard” bit). All we needed was a flyball to either of them for a 3rd out and we’d be set. Well sure enough, in that same inning, the centerfielder catches the 3rd out, roughly 20 ft from the wall, which he then nonchalantly tossed up to the kid. It made all of our days and to see Stephen’s face light up was a great sight.
Stephen Meyers if you’re reading this, happy birthday again buddy, and I hope we meet again.
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