Westward Ho!

It's been an whirlwind week so lets get right to it.

Sunday the 13th
First let me fill you in on a dream I had the previous night. I was on my trip and out of nowhere my sister showed up with her daughter, Kylie. My sister was adamant to not let me proceed with the rest of the road trip for some reason that was not remembered. So, she took my car and backed it into a canal. I ran into the canal and drove my flooded car out and was furious. We had a huge fight in which Kylie took my side and so Kylie and I decided to runaway from my sister before she could cause any more problems. The rest of the dream is irrelevant. I told my sister about the dream. End of Part One of the dream.

Drove to the Phish show and got to the lot at 2:30pm for a 7pm show. I did not have a ticket but was determined not to pay full price for a show that was not sold out. When I arrived at the venue I was the only car in the lot and something seemed wrong. After about a half hour of no cars I found out I was at the wrong venue at Hershey Park and had to continue a half mile down the road. To my delight I was not the only early arriver and the parking lot scene was jumping. At first I was skeptical about selling booze because there was a lot of police and it was a different venue than I was used to, but as the lot filled it made things easier. In fact, throughout the night I went through a handle of Jack, a half liter of vodka and the two cases of beer that I had brought.

I met a lot a very nice folks in the lot as you tend to do at these shows. In the row over was a group from New York that set up four square and I dominated. I was having a blast in the parking lot, so still without a ticket, I caught the first set from the lot. In this particular venue you can see and hear just fine from the lot. So after the first set I walked towards the entrance to buy a ticket and was informed by the staff at the venue that they were not letting anyone in anymore. First, I'm glad I had not already purchased a ticket. Second, I was floored by the fact that even if you did have a ticket, they were stopping you from entering the show. So, I watched the rest of the ridiculous set from the lot and I wasn't all that disappointed.

Monday the 14th

Monday was mostly a travel day. I hit the road for Cleveland at 10am in hopes of getting there by 3pm. My only plans for the day was to hit the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. The drive to Cleveland was fairly uneventful, but I noticed a lot of towns in Ohio are named after cities in Europe- Toledo, Belfast, Moscow, Malta. I passed a town named Ravenna, which was cool to me because I was almost a year to the day that I was in the former capital of Italy by the same name.

As I was driving I got a call for my sister. She told me about a dream she had the previous night. We were with a group of family friends on a frozen lake in the winter. We were all walking on the lake when I fell through. She said that they dove in to get me and I had hypothermia and almost died. So, I figured after both of our dreams, I needed to avoid water or proceed with caution. But, ironically the hotel I was staying in Cleveland was one block off of Lake Erie. End of Part Two.

I had arrived in Cleveland on time-by 3pm- only to find the hours for the Hall of Fame are from 10am-5:30pm. So I went and got a necessary oil change at a shop the next property over from the hotel I was staying in and decided I would go to the Hall the next day when it opened before picking up my father from the airport at 1:30. Oh yeah, this part of the trip my father came and joined me on.

That night I explored Lakewood, OH- suburb in which I was staying and was pleasantly surprised. The area was middle-class, clean and CHEAP. I went out to get some food and found a sports bar called Pacers doing 35 cent wings and 24oz domestic drafts for $3. I had a solid night for $27. Also a really good local beer there was Crooked River's Black Forest Lager.

Tuesday the 15th

As planned I woke up and plugged the address for the Hall into my GPS. When I looked down for the directions, I noticed that it had my current position in the middle of the lake similar to my sister's dream(seriously, I can't make this stuff up). Being that I wasn't sinking I knew it was wrong and took off for the Hall and arrived before the doors opened to maximize my time. Twice during the drive my route had me driving through the water. I would later discover that this was the beginning of the end for this particular GPS.

However, I arrived safe and dry. For those who have never been there before, it is a all glass pyramid right on the docks of the Port of Cleveland. It is not all that big and the three and half hours I spent was enough to get a good overview while also exploring a few displays in detail. They had a very cool exhibit highlighting Bruce Springstein all the way back from his days playing in a band in high school to today. Some other highlights were the exhibit on Austin City Limits 35th Anniversary, and the early founders of American "rock and roll". I put it in quotes because a many of these founders were Blues and Gospel guitars and songwriters. Which leads me to my next point that it should not be called the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame but rather the Music Hall of Fame. Many of the artifacts and inductees fall under other categories such as R&B, Country, Hip Hop, Motown and Pop. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it immensely and then it was off to the airport. And for the second time in the same day the GPS acted up again, this time re-routing me, while sitting at red lights, three times.

A few hours later, my father and I, were parking for free at and abandoned gas station across the street from Progressive Field where the Indians were to host the the Mets. When we went to get tickets, I asked the guy what was the best value we could get for tickets. We settled on second level, behind home plate for $24. After we got in I looked at the free program and noticed today they had a Budweiser 2 for Tuesday special. It was two bleacher seats and a $20 concession voucher for $32. I was a little pissed at the time and it was mere moments later that I got poopied on by a freaking seagull. Got me right on the head and on the shirt. However, I did not let these events ruin my experience. Progressive Field is beautiful. The outside has statues of franchise greats like so many have now as well as a monument garden inside with Cleveland greats like Cy Young who played for two different Cleveland franchises- Spiders 1890-98 and Naps 1909-11). The inside had a classic feel to it. It has a cozy and friendly feel to the small confines and great vantage points from all angles and levels. The seats were rather comfortable and the aisles were noticeably wider offering added leg room-not that you had to worry about the person next to you seeing that just short of 13,000 showed up for the game. As for the game, it was the second time in as many starts I saw Johan Santana. He got rattled early including a Travis Hafner 374' laser to right, but settled down and with the help of a monster go ahead two run shot (405') by rookie Ike Davis, the Mets overcame a 4-1 deficit to beat the Tribe 7-6 on an overcast day. I was excited to see Indians catcher Carlos Santana in just his fourth game, but he went 0-3.

Wednesday the 16th

Next stop Detroit. I was a leisurely 2 and a half hour drive around the lake to get to Detroit. My father and I had never been to the city so on the way in we went to the visitor center for tips on killing a few hours before the 7pm game. We settled on Greektown, a small section in downtown that is of, yep you guessed it Greek influence and they have a casino. Parking at the casino is free and it is only about 6-8 blocks from Comerica Park, so it definitely made good sense to park there. We had a huge and delicious lunch at a restaurant called Pegasus Taverna just next to the casino. As we ate my father commented that my eyes lit up as we walked by the craps tables. So far I have done a good job avoiding the casinos during my travels to try to keep on budget, but I have had the itch to roll some dice. He said he would spot me $100 if I wanted to go play, one of the many perks of having my father travel with me. An hour and a half later I walked away up $135, better than most days selling beers in the lots. Then it was off to Comerica.

From the outside I was impressed with Comerica. Like many stadiums in the downtown area it was right off the street surrounded by bars. I had a quick beer at Cheli's, named and owned after the Red Wing's fan favorite Chris Chelios. After buying our tickets we made our way inside to check out some attractions inside the gates. The have some cool, unique things like the the Big Cat Court, which is a food court surrounding a carousel that has tigers instead of horses. There is also a baseball themed ferris wheel, a Monument Garden in the outfield, and structures throughout the concourse highlighting each decade of Tiger's baseball.

The ballpark was a simplistic two tiered structure that had the retro feel to it with a fountain in the outfield that would spray after homeruns. However for a newer stadium I was let down by several features. The seats were narrow, uncomfortable and not angled properly to watch a game from most sections. The scoreboard already needs to be upgraded to have better visual appeal and crisper picture.

The starting pitchers were Livan Hernandez for the visiting Nationals and Justin Verlander for the home team so I was expecting somewhat of a pitchers duel. Verlander struggled early giving up two solo HR's. Adam Dunn's in the first was an upper deck tape measure shot (436'). But then he settled down striking out a season high 11 in 8 inning giving up just one more run. Hernandez got shelled, giving up 8 runs (his previous season high was 4) including a bomb to Tiger's rookie slugger Brennan Boesch. Verlander moved to 11-1 in interleague play and the Tigers won 8-3.

After the game we took to the road to head to Cincinnati for a 12:30 game the next day. About 1am I almost hit a deer that was standing in the middle of the lane of the highway. But I felt cheated because the deer never looked up and I was robbed of a true "deer in highlights" experience. We got about 40 miles outside of Cincy before it was 2am and stopped for the night. 450 miles throughout the course of one day was enough for me.

Thursday the 17th

The next morning I putting the address to my college buddy's address into the GPS as it finally gave up on me. The GPS froze and would not work any longer. Eventually we got to Lee's place and then off to Great American Ball Park for a 12:35 game against the Dodgers-the only non interleague matchup. Like many of the Midwest ballparks it was a smaller park with limited, but good, outfield seats. There is a Steamboat party deck in the outfield which is unique. We sat down the first baseline, the shade thankfully, and watched as Bronson Arroyo would shut down the Dodgers, limiting them to 5 hits in 7 innings and also hit a 3 run HR (5th career) in the second inning. Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips added HRs as well in a 7-1 Reds win- we left after the seventh to drop my father off at the airport. But before we left I was told I had to try a Skyline Chili Dog and I was not dissapointed. It was really good and the chili had a hint of cinnamon to it. Also I got on the Jumbo-tron with my sign for the first time.

After the game Lee and I put together a grill, an adventure that took a little longer than it should have since two college degrees couldn't tell the diffence between left and right. That night he took me to a bar down the street from his place, a cool little suburb just NE of downtown. For the record, I kicked his ass in pool just like I used to do in college.

Friday the 18th

The next morning I woke up on Lee's incredibly comfy couch and took off to St. Louis at 9am. It was a good 6-7 hour drive and I did not want to sit in traffic. But first I needed to buy a new GPS so I went to Target and got a TomTom 330. I also decided to take the southern route through Louisville as opposed through Indianapolis because I had done that drive before and had never been to Kentucky. The drive was boring for the first few hours. The only excitement was seeing where Santa Claus spends his off-season in Santa Claus, IN which happens to have a Holiday World. There weren't many people on the road and eventually there was a stretch where it was just me and a Indiana State Trooper for a few miles. I followed behind the trooper for several miles as he was going 65 in a 70 in the left lane. Seeing that I still had a few hours to go I got over in the right lane and put in on cruise control and 70mph. The second I passed the cop, he got behind me and turned on his lights. He approached my car and this is how the conversation went:

Trooper: "License and registration son. What the hell were you thinking?"

Me: "Excuse me, sir?"

Trooper: "I don't know how you drive in Florida, but here in Indiana we do not pass State Troopers".

Me: "I'm sorry sir, but I am on a road trip heading to St. Louis, so I put the cruise control on the speed limit."

Trooper: "Well I'm not going to right you a ticket, but in the future you should never pass a policeman".

NOT GOING TO WRITE ME A TICKET! For what. I wasn't speeding or doing anything illegal, nor possesed anything illegal. In fact, the cop had no right to pull me over in the first place and was just on a power trip. For those of you who know my views on our civil servants in blue, this just futher justifies my views.

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful and I got to the lots at Busch Stadium at 4pm, or so I thought. I totally forgot about the time change and it was only 3pm. This would have been fine if this was a tailgating scene, but it wasn't, so I took and nice hour and half nap.

Busch Stadium is only a few years old and I had high expectations for it. However, they fell short. Among the things that bothered my most was that you could not see the field as you walk through the promenade and the PA system was low and muffled. However I was able to hear that Ryan Ludwick's batting song was "Brass Monkey", which I thought was an excellent choice.

The game featured 2009 Comeback Player of the Year and 05 Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter facing the Oakland A's. Matt Holliday started things off with a 2 run HR in the first, but Oakland would answer and lead 4-2 in the second. St Louis would claw back and escape with a 6-4 win with Lou Brock in attendance on his 71st birthday. And for the second straight day I made an appearance on the big screen.

After the game I got in the car and started a five hour drive towards Chicago where I was to catch a Cubs game at noon the next day. And, just like everytime I have driven at night, it poured about 150 miles away from Chicago. So I spent the night in Pontiac, IL about 100 miles south of Chicago.

Saturday the 19th

I was up and out by 9am figuring I had plenty of time to get to Wrigley. However, I did not account for the absurd amount of traffic in Chicago. There was stand still bumper to bumper traffic at 10am on Saturday morning. And like in Toronto I was not only baffled by furios as well. To make things worse, as soon as I got into city limits the GPS could not find a signal and was useless. So, I was stuck in traffic and clueless as to where I was and how far from Wrigley Field. I got off the highway, since it was going anywhere anyway, and asked for directions at a gas station. I was only about twenty minutes away, but the side streets had just as much traffic and it took me about an hour and a half.

I arrived at Wrigley right around noon, parked in someone's alley for $20 and scalped a GA bleacher seat for $20. When I got through the gates the Cubs were already down 1-0 and there day only got worse. They gave up 4 in the first and finished the day with as many errors as hits (2) in a terrible 12-0 loss to the Angels. The loss was the worst the Cubs have suffered since being shutout 12-0 by the Montreal Expos in 1992 and Chicago's worst loss at Wrigley since a 17-0 loss to the Reds in 1988. The game really seemed to drag on and knowing my car would be blocked in I still stayed the entire game. It was also the hottest day I have had so far and there way no shade in the bleachers.

Wrigley is the second oldest park to Fenway so I was excited to see how it stacked up. It definity had a small, old time feel with and does not house a video board-which stopped my consecutive appearance streak on the big screen at 2. The ivy was just as green as the field and the beers were the cheapest I have seen so far-$6.75. One very unique thing about Wrigley is there ability to capitalize on the nearby buildings. Over the years more and more of the surrounding buildings have added bleachers to their rooftops. Definitly a cool way to see a game and I might have to try that the next time I catch a Cubs game. The view from the bleachers was great and I was right by "Bartman Corner" in which I had to take a picture.

After the game my car was indeed still blocked in and the GPS was still useless and frozen so called the Super 8 I was staying at to get directions. It was in a north suburb called Prospect Heights about 20 miles away. On the way I passed a Target and went to exchange my GPS. Freaky thing though, I pulled into the parking lot and and the GPS unfroze and received a signal. Still determined to get a functioning piece of technology, I went in to find out that they were out of this particular model. Seeing that the GPS was working again, I decided to give it another try and got back on the traffic infested roads. After an hour and half my GPS informed me I had reached my destination only to discover it was taken me to a graveyard. After called the place again, I was on the right road about 5 miles away.

The rest of the night was pretty mellow including a load of laundry and Prospect Heights "best bar" only two blocks away from the hotel. It waspretty cool but did not pick up until well after midnight, but last call was at 4am.

Sunday the 20th

This was the first day in almost three weeks I did not have a game or traveling to do to get to a game. I decided to make the most of a relaxing fathers day. It has been over a year since I saw a movie in the theaters and decided to end that streak. I went and saw Iron Man 2 followed by Karate Kid. Both were pretty good but I think I was more impressed with The Karate Kid because I did not think a good remake could be done. Also Jayden Smith is a pretty good actor, but he needs tokeep those cornrows because if he ever shaves his head it will become painfully appearant he has his father's big ears.

After the movie I went to find a Target beacuse at this point the GPS, when recieving a signal and not frozen, would literally take me in circles to the starting point. So I decided to splurge and get a more expensive GPS and definitly a different brand. So far this on works much better.

For the next few nights I am staying at a Hostel in Chicago about 2 blocks from UIC. Its a pretty cool place with a great location in Greektown. My next game isn't until Tuesday so I have a couple of relaxing days ahead of me to explore Chicago. I will be taking the train to avoid traffic since I also found a great free spot on the street a block away from the hostel.

That was a lot of catching up and now my eyes hurt. So until next time. . .

Shoutouts:

My father for joining me on this part of the trip and all the assistance he provided. I hope you had a good Father's Day.

All the other fathers out there including Mike Elbert on his first Father's Day.

Lee Skierkiewicz (hope I spelled that right) for the couch to crash on in Cincy and providing a good time and steak.

Ed Mitchell and Duke Realty for the tickets to the Reds game.

Cliff Jenkins, photog at Reds game, for getting me on the Big screen

Stacey for being my drinking partner on Saturday night

Manute Bol, who died this week, for being such a good humanitarian

Florida and Florida State for putting up piss poor performances in the CWS.

Randoms:

Everything that happened this week oculd fall under this section so I will not elaborate more.

1523 miles, 400+ songs

Songs of the week: Social Distortion "Story of My Life", The Redwalls "Build a Bridge", David Bowie "Changes", A Garcia and Saunders tune I do not know the name, John Cougar Mellencamp "Ain't that America", Xavier Rudd "Native Eye", Sister Hazel "Just Remember", Pearl Jam "Wishlist", Jay-Z "Lucifer", Cage the Elephant "In One Ear".

Computers should have a function that you can highlight sentences that you accidentaly capitalized and automatically lowercase them, so you do not have to retype them.

People in St. Louis were not very friendly and looked at me like I had three heads and a monkey growing out of my chest.

Cleveland had a hot dog race-like so many parks do now- with three competitors. Ketchup won by a squirt.

Dude in weinie suit outside Wrigley advertising for a place said "eat me" on the back.