Justin BT#S - Part 2

Miles Traveled (so far): 1073.4 (DAMN!)
Approx Hours on road: 18
Rest Stops of greater than 1 hour: 1
Number of Games seen with 30 or more hits: 1
Average Times Per Inning a 'Pink Hat' annoyed us: 3
Weather forecast for the next game (Temp/Chance of thunderstorm): 80/50%
Thunderstorms seen so far: 4
Motorcycles going way to fast, at night, with no lights on: 1
Number of Souvenir cups acquired: 4
Number of Souvenir cups "stolen": 3
Number of Souvenir cups bought: 1
Number of times I misspelled Souvenir this post: 3

Road Trip Tip #2: Stay Organized! I mean it. Both in your Car and in your Hotel room. If everything is easy to get to, and easily seen you won't forget stuff. (Like an almost full bottle of rum.)
2 asides on this one.
In Hotel: Keep everything in an easily seen location.
In Car: Keep everything in an easily reached location.

P.S. - The cups are stacked nicely and tucked in a corner between the Gatorade, Red Bull, Mini Air Compressor & Jump Box. I just wanted to show 'em off.

Stupid Hotel Internet!

Ok, so the hotel internet was not working last night, so I could not tell you about our exciting Chicago adventure! So, I apologize for this being a little late. And I also apologize for not having a photo of perhaps the coolest vendor on the planet. More on him later.

First, we arrived very close to first pitch due to rush hour traffic, construction and a Consuela (our GPS) being a little bit crazy with the directions. So we pretty much went right to our seats. Which were taken by a large group of people, so we went up a little higher. No big deal, we could see more of the field anyhow. And were further from other people, which made me happy. We later discovered that these seat stealers had not only taken 2, but at least 6 seats that were not theirs. I have decided this is a large breech of stadium etiquette. If there is only 1 additonal person in your party, it is acceptable to sit in the best seats and pray no one comes to kick you out. If there are 6+ extra, and about 20 empty rows up top, you go and sit up top and if no one shows by the second inning in the other seats, then you are free to move down. Don't steal my seat because you didn't buy your tickets all at once or you wanted to sit in row 9 instead of 22.

It did work out in the end though, because it started to rain and since we were up higher, we were under the little roof. The people who stole our seats came scrambling up, soaking wet, to sit higher than us. As it should have been. We later moved over about 5 sections to sit up high were no other humans were. Since the seat stealers were rather annoying human beings.


So, the awesome vendor? He was selling Margaritas! They were in a pack on his back! He had a hose to put them into a cup and sell them to you. Best vendor ever. He stopped to pose for a pick with a pink hatter in the next section over, so I did not want to ask him to pose because that would be pink hatter-like and I don't do that. So I was waiting for a time when I could take a sneak photo of him. Time never came. Sorry folks.

The White Sox lost, but did make a good effort in the 9th, loading the bases and bringing the winning run to the plate. It was a good game all-around, though I would have expected Mr. Buehrle to have pitched a bit better than he did. All around a fun adventure. We have several awesome photos which are not on this blog. You will be able to find them on Facebook later.

We started our day with a trip to Fifth Third Stadium (named after a bank, which is apparently a little confused about math...kinda scary), which is where the Mudhens play. This is a photo of the entrance, which was pretty darn cool-looking.


Off to St. Louis now. Here's hoping the game doesn't get rained out. 50% chance of thunderstorms at game time... :-(

Justin's Road Trip By The Numbers Part 1

Hi all, It's the better half of the two here, Justin (don't tell Lina I said that.) I figured I'd chime in on my own during this road trip with a much more "Sports Themed" post. This is probably the only post I'll make with actual sentences. For the most part it will just be quirky little tidbits of information using numbers and a little road trip survival hint. So here we go:

Road Trip By The Numbers:
Approximate Miles Traveled: 670
Approximate Driving Time: 12 hours
Number of Rainstorms encountered: 3
Number of rainstorms that were Thunderstorms: 3
Number of rainstorms that had lightning that made Justin or Lina say "WOAH": 3
Number of White Castle stops: 1
Burgers ate ate White Castle: 4
Estimated Weather for next game (temp/rain chance): 80/10%
Percentage of shower heads Justin has been taller than: 100%

Travel Tip:
If you hotel room doesn't have a fridge, fill the sink with ice (but leave the drain open so water doesn't fill the bowl. It's an old-school style fridge!

Game Postponed...not that we would have made it anyhow

So, the Mudhens game was supposed to start at 5 p.m. There was no way we would have made it there in time, so we made a few other stops along the way. And it turns out the game was postponed due to rain (the only AAA postponement of the day!). Which made perfect sense to us since we hit 3 thunderstorms on the way to the hotel.

One of our stops was our first ever meal at White Castle. And this White Castle was awesome because it was paired with Church's Chicken. Which I am guessing is the Ohio version of a Taco Hut. We got to try fried okra. It was very tasty. Neither of us had ever even had okra before. But if you fry it, I will try it. So we at the okra which the cashier recommended to us. Burgers were pretty good. Fries had been waiting too long to be eaten, but being hungry, we ate them anyhow.

I found it amusing that the bottoms of the burger and fry boxes had interesting little tidbits. Like cheese makes hamburgers taste better but doesn't make a good coaster for a cup of coffee. And you can warm your buns with these, which can actually be purchased. Kinda frightening.

Since there is no game to tell you about from today, I will tell you about the first game we ever went to together. It was a Los Angeles Dodgers vs New York Mets game. My two favorite teams. I honestly don't remember who won. I do recall that we were there at least 2 hours before the gates even opened because I was so excited to get to the game. I had an amazing time. It is one of the best gifts Justin has ever given me (also the first given to me while we were dating). Come to think of it, most of the best gifts involve baseball or softball. Not all that surprising actually.

As many of you know, Justin and I are big baseball fans. He loves the Red Sox and I love/hate the New York Mets. But both of us will watch any team live and love going to different ballparks. Thus, I suggested a ballpark tour for a honeymoon. And Justin immediately said yes and felt like the luckiest guy in the world.

So, on Monday (tomorrow) we set off bright and early (ugh) to Toledo, Ohio to hopefully catch a Mudhens game (Mudhens vs. Lehigh Valley Ironbirds). I say hopefully because the game is at 5 p.m. and it is an 11 hour drive on a normal day. And we are traveling on Memorial Day. And we have to go through NYC. I hope we can make it. If we do, you will see a post tomorrow night about the game and stadium. If not, you will see a post about how awful the traffic was and perhaps a story or two about Justin and I and the other ballparks we have visited.

Thanks to the beauty of free wireless internet in hotels, we will be able to post every day. Can't wait to share this trip with all of you.

And one last thing before I go tonight. The photo I am sharing shows my nails all done up from the vow renewal ceremony yesterday. I had baseballs put on my ring fingers and kept them hidden from Justin. Then when he put on the ring and saw it, he gave a really big smile. It was wonderful. My nail people did a great job.