Day 4 - Spartanburg to Mike's House
8:00 AM - We actually all did wake up at 7 AM. After packing up the tent and brushing teeth, applying deodorant, etc., we went up to the park check-in and paid for our one night stay. Now we're on I-85 North.
10:30 AM - Ok, we got to Charlotte around 9:30 and decided to stop at Walmart for ice, batteries, and a small fan for camping. Had no problem finding all of that. Then we went over to Best Buy to find a 400 Watt converter since my Dad and Mrs. Andreen informed us that the PS3 uses 400 Watts. So we went into the store to get a converter that would actually work. Hahahahahahaha. Want to take a wild guess what happened after remembering our stop at the Beaumont Best Buy? Yep, we brought it out to the car, opened it (neatly this time so we could put the box back together in one-ish piece), and plugged the PS3 into it. BZZZZEWWW. Whatever the opposite of good luck is, we're having that with the power converters. Next time we stop by a Best Buy, we're gonna try a 750 Watt converter. Oh well, at least Guitar Hero 3 will never get old...oh wait, it did yesterday.
12:48 PM - Blogging from Greensboro, NC, the heart of civilization. We're probably 4 or 5 hours from DC and the Clifton, VA area. Yay.
7:00 PM - We're at Mike's house! His mom made us some pizza so we had a good dinner. We're probably gonna head out to throw the frisbee around a little bit and then I'm sure we'll be busting out the PS3.
11:00 PM - Alright well we got our frisbee on for a while until we got nice and sweaty and then we came back to the house and I smoked Gray and Jason at pool while Kyle set up the PS3 and then proceeded to beat Mike 28-14 at NCAA Football 09. After that, Gray and I played out our rivalry, Fightin Texas Aggies vs Texas Fat Cows. Seeing as how I had never used a Playstation controller before and how Stephen McGee apparantly can't throw the ball within 10 feet of his target on the game, Gray jumped out to a 28-0 lead by halftime. Then he pulled a cheap but clever one on me, kicking and recovering and onside kick to start the second half, partially due to my inability to figure out how to switch alignments. I started scoring points late, including a 83 yard kickoff return for a TD, but ended up losing 49-24. Nonetheless, it was still fun. Now we're gonna go to bed since we should probably be leaving around 8 AM.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Day 3 - Atlanta and Spartansburg
Day 3 - Atlanta
We left Joey's house around 9:15 AM for the 2 hour long but 3 hour of time drive. Thanks a bunch, time zone change. We got to our parking spot in the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium around 12:20 and took some pictures where Hammerin' Hank hit number 715. We then made our way into Turner Field for the Nationals-Braves. After being thwarted by an usher in our attempt to get down by the field to take some pictures, we made our way up to Section 417, Row 2, Seats 1, 2, 3, and 4, although that quickly changed to seats 1, 3, 5, and 7 after we realized how hot it would be to be packed together in the 97 degree heat. After sitting in the sun for a few minutes and talking to our usher Alexis for a few minutes about the park and the city, we made our way over to the Coca-Cola mist sprayers. Surprisingly, everything in the stadium was sponsered by Coca Cola. You would have thought that Coca Cola was based in Atlanta or something. Anyway, there was some cool stuff out there, so we took some good pictures. We got back to our seats just before game time. The first inning was pretty slow, but then it turned into a blowout. In the 2, 3, and 4th innings, the two teams combined to score 16 runs, due to both poor pitching as well as a couple of errors by the Braves. I must say though, in the pitchers' defense, the umpire was calling the tightest strike zone i've seen in a long time. Bobby Cox got thrown out in the 3rd inning after arguing balls and strikes, which was pretty awesome. The final score was 15-6 Nationals. It was a great game at a very nice stadium. Then we made our drive to Spartanburg, SC for our night of camping at Croft State Park.
Night 3 - Spartanburg, SC
Oh my God. Ok, so lets start with this statement: The tent is not as big as we thought it was. We got to Croft State Park at 9 PM but nobody was in the office, so we just went ahead and picked one of the many open spots. We popped up the tent, which did not have three compartments like I thought it did. We decided to put all 4 of our air mattresses in it. Let's just say it was a tight fit with just the mattresses in the tent. Throw in the fact that it was still 88 degrees outside even though it was dark, and we we're just getting started with our night. We figured we'd get up early tomorrow morning to get to the Virginia area faster, so we all climbed into the tent around 9:45. As we climbed in, we noticed that the tent poles had started leaning inward due to the pull of 4 air mattresses on the edge of the tent. We finally all got settled, none of using sheets or sleeping bags due to the sheer heat of the night time. After a little jostling and making sure i was positioned in a place that would ensure that my face would not come in contact with any of the other three guys' feet, We began to calm down for sleep. Too bad the tent had other ideas. Out of nowhere, we found the top of the tent in Kyle's lap. The poles had swiveled around 180 degrees and folded at the middle. Exciting huh? After about 5 minutes of manuvering and holding poles up with our feet, we found just the perfect spot where the tent would stay up on its own. Each of us was slowly reminded to turn our phone to "Alarm Only" mode as we each received text messages that woke all of us up at random points in the night. Quite an experience.
We left Joey's house around 9:15 AM for the 2 hour long but 3 hour of time drive. Thanks a bunch, time zone change. We got to our parking spot in the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium around 12:20 and took some pictures where Hammerin' Hank hit number 715. We then made our way into Turner Field for the Nationals-Braves. After being thwarted by an usher in our attempt to get down by the field to take some pictures, we made our way up to Section 417, Row 2, Seats 1, 2, 3, and 4, although that quickly changed to seats 1, 3, 5, and 7 after we realized how hot it would be to be packed together in the 97 degree heat. After sitting in the sun for a few minutes and talking to our usher Alexis for a few minutes about the park and the city, we made our way over to the Coca-Cola mist sprayers. Surprisingly, everything in the stadium was sponsered by Coca Cola. You would have thought that Coca Cola was based in Atlanta or something. Anyway, there was some cool stuff out there, so we took some good pictures. We got back to our seats just before game time. The first inning was pretty slow, but then it turned into a blowout. In the 2, 3, and 4th innings, the two teams combined to score 16 runs, due to both poor pitching as well as a couple of errors by the Braves. I must say though, in the pitchers' defense, the umpire was calling the tightest strike zone i've seen in a long time. Bobby Cox got thrown out in the 3rd inning after arguing balls and strikes, which was pretty awesome. The final score was 15-6 Nationals. It was a great game at a very nice stadium. Then we made our drive to Spartanburg, SC for our night of camping at Croft State Park.
Night 3 - Spartanburg, SC
Oh my God. Ok, so lets start with this statement: The tent is not as big as we thought it was. We got to Croft State Park at 9 PM but nobody was in the office, so we just went ahead and picked one of the many open spots. We popped up the tent, which did not have three compartments like I thought it did. We decided to put all 4 of our air mattresses in it. Let's just say it was a tight fit with just the mattresses in the tent. Throw in the fact that it was still 88 degrees outside even though it was dark, and we we're just getting started with our night. We figured we'd get up early tomorrow morning to get to the Virginia area faster, so we all climbed into the tent around 9:45. As we climbed in, we noticed that the tent poles had started leaning inward due to the pull of 4 air mattresses on the edge of the tent. We finally all got settled, none of using sheets or sleeping bags due to the sheer heat of the night time. After a little jostling and making sure i was positioned in a place that would ensure that my face would not come in contact with any of the other three guys' feet, We began to calm down for sleep. Too bad the tent had other ideas. Out of nowhere, we found the top of the tent in Kyle's lap. The poles had swiveled around 180 degrees and folded at the middle. Exciting huh? After about 5 minutes of manuvering and holding poles up with our feet, we found just the perfect spot where the tent would stay up on its own. Each of us was slowly reminded to turn our phone to "Alarm Only" mode as we each received text messages that woke all of us up at random points in the night. Quite an experience.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Day 2 - Houston to Auburn
9:30 AM - We have departed from Houston after plenty of last minute packing. We're a little cramped in the back seat, mainly due to the large volume of food that our parents sent with us. No complaints there though, and I'm sure it'll all be gone in the span of a couple of days. We've got our 4 suitcases in the back of the van, the TV in the middle and all sorts of random stuff strewn about the cabin. It's gonna be interesting, that's for sure.
10:30 AM - Well, crap. My AC/DC power converter doesn't have enough power to run either the PS3 or the TV. Frustrado. We're stopping at Best Buy in Beaumont to pick up hopefully a 200 Watt converter. Then I'm gonna lose to Gray at NCAA Football 09 as the Fighting Texas Aggies! Ok we're at Best Buy, so we're gonna make a mad dash for the converter now. Oh, and we're all getting really annoyed with the radar detector because it's detecting all of the X-Band radars from stores like Target and Wal-Mart. The beeping has to stop.
11:30 AM - Well, this is becoming very interesting. Stopped at Best Buy to buy a power converter. We bought a 200 Watt, 115 volt converter and brought it back to the car and tested it out. No dice. After a more thorough investigation of the PS3, we found that it uses 120 volts. So we went back into Best Buy and returned the converter, getting some weird looks from the people who had just had us in the check out line a few minutes ago. After returning it, we took a closer look at power converters and found one that was advertised as providing 120 volts. After taking it out to the car to check it, we found that it too was insufficient. Muy frustrado. We then read the box and saw that it said 115 volts, but the manual said that it was 115 volts so that it could run with 110 volt and 120 volt appliances. Except PS3s I guess. Anger.
12:00 PM - Unhappiness with the video gaming system is setting in. After a call to the Sony Playstation 3 helpline, they told us what we already knew, which was that the Playstation isn't getting enough power. Unfortunately, they couldn't tell me anything else, even though I'd sat on hold for 25 minutes. Super gay. Oh well, Kyle and Jason are entertained in the front, Gray is playing Game Boy, and I'm about to bust out my computer's Monopoly, so it's all good.
12:53 PM - Jason - "Give me some Cajun jokes."
Josh - "Shane Heumann"
Entire Car - "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" (very loud, hilarious laughter)
2:30 PM - We just got gas at a station that featured a live tiger out in a cage at the stadium. Pretty cool, except it was being a lazy cat and sleeping in its little box thing. Oh well.
4:00 PM - Thank God. We are out of the god-forsaken state of Louisiana.
10:52 PM - Auburn, AL - We just got back from a mini-tour of the Auburn campus with Kyle's friend Joey, who we're staying with. It's a pretty nice campus, really cool looking football stadium. It's been a long day in the car, things are slightly less organized than they were when we left this morrning. We rolled into Auburn around 8:30 or so, grabbed some pizza, and then went with Joey to a place called Snow Biz, some really awesome snowcones. From there, we headed over to the Auburn campus and walked around inside the basketball arena for a while and looked at a few other places too. Now we're trying to find out where on earth we're going to sleep tomorrow night. Ought to be fun. Oh, well Baseball Tonight is on, so I'm gone. Nationals - Braves at Turner Field tomorrow!!!
9:30 AM - We have departed from Houston after plenty of last minute packing. We're a little cramped in the back seat, mainly due to the large volume of food that our parents sent with us. No complaints there though, and I'm sure it'll all be gone in the span of a couple of days. We've got our 4 suitcases in the back of the van, the TV in the middle and all sorts of random stuff strewn about the cabin. It's gonna be interesting, that's for sure.
10:30 AM - Well, crap. My AC/DC power converter doesn't have enough power to run either the PS3 or the TV. Frustrado. We're stopping at Best Buy in Beaumont to pick up hopefully a 200 Watt converter. Then I'm gonna lose to Gray at NCAA Football 09 as the Fighting Texas Aggies! Ok we're at Best Buy, so we're gonna make a mad dash for the converter now. Oh, and we're all getting really annoyed with the radar detector because it's detecting all of the X-Band radars from stores like Target and Wal-Mart. The beeping has to stop.
11:30 AM - Well, this is becoming very interesting. Stopped at Best Buy to buy a power converter. We bought a 200 Watt, 115 volt converter and brought it back to the car and tested it out. No dice. After a more thorough investigation of the PS3, we found that it uses 120 volts. So we went back into Best Buy and returned the converter, getting some weird looks from the people who had just had us in the check out line a few minutes ago. After returning it, we took a closer look at power converters and found one that was advertised as providing 120 volts. After taking it out to the car to check it, we found that it too was insufficient. Muy frustrado. We then read the box and saw that it said 115 volts, but the manual said that it was 115 volts so that it could run with 110 volt and 120 volt appliances. Except PS3s I guess. Anger.
12:00 PM - Unhappiness with the video gaming system is setting in. After a call to the Sony Playstation 3 helpline, they told us what we already knew, which was that the Playstation isn't getting enough power. Unfortunately, they couldn't tell me anything else, even though I'd sat on hold for 25 minutes. Super gay. Oh well, Kyle and Jason are entertained in the front, Gray is playing Game Boy, and I'm about to bust out my computer's Monopoly, so it's all good.
12:53 PM - Jason - "Give me some Cajun jokes."
Josh - "Shane Heumann"
Entire Car - "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" (very loud, hilarious laughter)
2:30 PM - We just got gas at a station that featured a live tiger out in a cage at the stadium. Pretty cool, except it was being a lazy cat and sleeping in its little box thing. Oh well.
4:00 PM - Thank God. We are out of the god-forsaken state of Louisiana.
10:52 PM - Auburn, AL - We just got back from a mini-tour of the Auburn campus with Kyle's friend Joey, who we're staying with. It's a pretty nice campus, really cool looking football stadium. It's been a long day in the car, things are slightly less organized than they were when we left this morrning. We rolled into Auburn around 8:30 or so, grabbed some pizza, and then went with Joey to a place called Snow Biz, some really awesome snowcones. From there, we headed over to the Auburn campus and walked around inside the basketball arena for a while and looked at a few other places too. Now we're trying to find out where on earth we're going to sleep tomorrow night. Ought to be fun. Oh, well Baseball Tonight is on, so I'm gone. Nationals - Braves at Turner Field tomorrow!!!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Night 1 - Jason's House
Ok, so Day 1 was pretty damn sweet! Gray, Jason, and I went to the Cubs-Astros game. We got there like 10 minutes late but somehow missed the entire 1st inning because Brian Moehler mowed the first 3 Cubs in 4 pitches. It was a very fast game, Jim Edmonds homered in the 5th inning and all the stupid freaking Cubs fans decided to be really loud about it. Carlos Lee launched one off of the windows in left field to tie it up at 1 in the bottom of the 7th. In the 8th, the three of us decided to make a point to the stupid, boisterous Cubs fans so we just randomly picked the 2nd out to make a big deal about. When the Cubs' batter grounded out, the three of us just stood up and started screaming and high-fiving. It ruled. In the bottom of the 9th, Miguel Tejada led off with a ground-rule double, and then on the next pitch, our boy Hunter Pence smacked a single to left-center field and Miggy came around and scored on a bang-bang play at the plate. It was so awesome!!! After we got back, we started packing the car. Tomorrow we leave at 8 am!!! YAY! So far, this trip rules.
Day 1 - Houston
Today is Day One of our East Coast Baseball Roadtrip. For those of you who aren't aware of what all is going on, let me give you some more background. Me and three friends, Jason Howeth, Gray Jodon, and Kyle Guest, are going on a 14 day, 10 game, 11 stadium baseball tour of the East Coast of our country. Our stops include Houston (tonight), Atlanta, Washington D.C. (no game here, just a tour of the stadium), Baltimore, New York for both the Yankees and the Mets, Boston, Cooperstown (Baseball Hall of Fame), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Arlington. We're camping 6 nights, staying with relatives and friends 7 nights, and staying in a hotel 1 night. This trip is going to be flat out amazing. Tonight is Game 1, Chicago Cubs vs. Houston Astros. We are using Jason's tickets for section 212 on the Club Level. The pitching matchup is Ted Lilly vs. Brian Moehler. I've got to get back to packing, but I will post again tonight after the game!
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