Baseball Trip Replay - Day 34 - June 26, 1994

June 26 - To paraphrase a friend of mine:

"ONTARIO - LAND-D-D OF-F-F DARKNESS-S-S!!!" (Note the echoes)

Seems he has never driven across Oklahoma in the daylight, and there is nothing to see there at night. Ontario is real dull at night also. They were having fireworks in Sudbury, which was cool. All I remember about Ottawa was that the freeway was built into a trench that ran the length of the city, and as a result, nothing in Ottawa was visible from the freeway. The freeway starts in Ottawa; before that the road is just a two-lane highway with a 90 km/h speed limit. After years cursing US Interstates because they are so incredibly dull, I found myself wishing for one that crossed Ontario. It would have helped had it not been raining through most of this drive.

The sun started glowing on the horizon through the clouds about three. It finally came up about 4:45. I crossed into Quebec about 5:00, and reached Dorval airport about 6. I bought a book and read it to stay awake until Anna arrived.
Anna's plane was on time, and I met her outside the customs gate. We found our hotel, and checked in. The Queen Elizabeth was great; we got really good rates for a first-class hotel. We slept most of the day. We got out that evening, and went walking around. We decided to go see The Lion King, and then went back and ordered room service. Good food, not expensive. Did I mention that I liked this hotel?

Route - I-35W North to I-35. I-35 North to US 8. US 8 East to US 2. US 2 East to Michigan 77. Michigan 77 North to Michigan 28. Michigan 28 East to I-75. I-75 North to Sault-Ste. Marie. Ontario 17 East to Ontario 417. Ontario 417 becomes Quebec 40. Quebec 40 East to Montreal.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 33 - June 25, 1994

June 25 - Now it was time for the worst drive. When I originally planned this trip, I allowed two days to get between Minneapolis and Montreal, which is reasonable. However, my wife and I decided that she would meet me in Montreal, and the only way we could schedule it had her arriving at Dorval airport at 9 AM on June 26. This meant I had about 25 hours to drive 20. I left St. Paul about 9 AM. I reached Sault Ste-Marie about 7. Canadian Customs went through my car completely, and it took forever. They opened every bag and asked me about 50 questions before they let me through. I got back on the road to cross Ontario.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 32 - June 24, 1994

June 24 - Got up and wrote status reports while watching World Cup on TV. Decided to get some Canadian money before the game. Tried to find the American Express office in downtown St. Paul, but it was gone, and the phone had been disconnected. Got money from a bank.

Made my way to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. I call it the Metrobubble, since the roof is inflatable and held up by air pressure.

HHH has no parking to itself, so when you park, you get reamed by the local parking lots. The stadium is an extremely bizarre place. I grew up with indoor baseball and turf, so that did not bother me. The stadium is just strange. It's basically a square, and on three sides, they have normal seats, but in right field, they have retractable folding layers of football seats, and they cover a lot of them with this large plastic tarp, what is commonly known as the Hefty bag. Balls that hit this thing die and fall straight down to the turf.

In addition to the stadium weirdness, it was Minnesota Dairy Night, and they gave us cheese graters as promotional items. They had Miss Minnesota Dairy, and all during the game, they were putting factoids about the Minnesota Dairy industry up on the scoreboard. Sigh. Minnesota won 4-1 on a well-pitched game by everybody's favorite retread, Jim Deshaies.

Game log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06240MIN1994.htm

It's the Minnesota Twins cheese grater:

It's really cheesy.

Video clips:

And the scoresheets:

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 31 - June 23, 1994

June 23 - Drove to St. Paul from Cincinnati. There is no good way through or around Chicago right now. I 90-94 through downtown is being rebuilt, and is a mess. They are working on the Illinois Tollway (I-294) a lot. So this was kind of aggravating. It also rained most of the day. While in Ohio and Indiana, I didn't care, since there is nothing to see anyway, but I like Northern Illinois and Wisconsin, so I was glad when the rain finally went away. I also should have checked the map; I could have saved an hour or two by going up I-90 from Chicago instead of I-94. Oh, well.

Got here about 9.

Route - I-74 West to I-465 in Indianapolis. I-465 North-West to I-65. I-65 North to I-80-94. I-94 West to I-294. I-294 North to I-94 in Wisconsin. I-94 West to St. Paul.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 30 - June 22, 1994

June 22 - I got up and drove to Cincinnati. You know, I am tired of the O. J. Simpson story. I normally enjoy sports talk radio shows, but that's all they ever talk about. Sigh.

The place I stayed was nice enough, but I don't know about the neighborhood. I really don't like Cincinnati much. I almost went here for college, but I'm glad I didn't.

I got to the stadium. This, along with Oakland-Alameda, Veteran's, Three Rivers, Busch and the Astrodome, is one of the cookie-cutter circular multi-purpose stadiums built in the sixties or early seventies. It's better than Milwaukee. However, it's kind of dull. Both the Bengals and the Reds want a new place to play, but how is this small place going to pay for it?

However, this place is baseball happy. Lots and lots and lots of red baseball caps everywhere. Cincinnati is the team to beat currently in the NL Central, since Houston is doing the usual and getting pummeled by Colorado. Sigh.

During the game, USA beat Columbia in the World Cup prelims. Unbelievable. The Rockets played Game 7 tonight, and they were leading when the game was over.

The game was great. Cincinnati scored once in the first. San Fransisco answered with a run in the top of the second, but Cincy scored another in the bottom of the second. Barry Bonds led of the fourth with a solo home run, and the game was tied. The Reds scored a run in the bottom of the eight, and brought on the closer, Jeff Brantley. Matt Williams blasted a home run in the top of the ninth to tie it again. The bottom of the ninth went like this:

Monteleone pitching. Boone fouled to catcher. Dorsett doubled to left. Walton ran for Dorsett Howard announced as pinch-hitter for Brantley. Hickerson came in to pitch. Brumfield hit for Howard. Brumfield walked. Sanders hit a fly ball to center; Walton went to third. Beck came in to pitch. Larkin hit a single to right, Walton scored. Reds won 4-3.
The Rockets weren't on the radio in the car. Grr. Got back to the room. The local NBC affiliate decided not to broadcast the NBA finals. Unbelievable. So I found a station on the radio through the static, and listened to the last minute.

ROCKETS WIN!

Now, you must understand. The concept of a championship to a sport fan who grew up in Houston is foreign. The Oilers have been to the playoffs thirteen times, but they have only two very early AFL championships from 1960 and 1961 to show for it. The Astros have been to the NLCS twice and played very well, but lost. The Rockets lost twice to Larry Byrd and the Celtics in the NBA Finals. UH went to the Final Four and lost. I was honestly expecting the Knicks to open up a thirty point lead and coast to the win.

But the Rockets won.

WE WIN! WE WIN!

You will have to forgive me.

Route - Michigan 20 East to I-75. I-75 South to Cincinnati.

Game Log - https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06220CIN1994.htm

I actually have some video clips from the game. They let me take in the camera, and I managed to get this tape digitized.

And the scoresheets:

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 29 - June 21, 1994

June 21 - I decided to stay another day here and drive to Cincinnati and only stay one night. So today, I played clarinet and bass clarinet with Kennen. It was a struggle to play Kennen's bass clarinet. He uses much harder reeds, and some of the keys are in weird places. Still we had a good time. After we got tired, we talked some more.

Kennen is trying to get a position at a college, so he was extremely interested in my clarinet choir tapes, as he might have to do one. We listened to most of them over the time of my visit.

That evening we went to a picnic concert at CMU. The group wasn't that good, but we had a good time anyway. Kaylee loved it. There was grass and there were dogs and there were people. It was the solstice, so the sun was still up when we left at 9. We went back and talked some more. We then remembered that Kennen had wanted to install ClarisWorks on his SE, but he only has low density disks. After working around that problem, we realized that he has System 6.0.1, and of course, ClarisWorks requires 6.0.4. Sigh. In addition, FileMaker's About Box crashes. Sigh. Oh, well.

I got to bed quite late.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 28 - June 20, 1994

June 20 - Joanna works as a professor of flute at Central Michigan University. She took me to her studio, loaned me flute and gave me some pointers. I think she really helped. She gave me some embouchure pointers, and helped me with some articulation problems I am having. This was great.

We went back, and I took a nap. We went out for Chinese food, and went back to the apartment. Kennen and Joanna wanted some video footage of Kaylee, so we took some. We talked a while and went to bed.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 27 - June 19, 1994

June 19 - I got up early and cleared out so that I could get to Tiger Stadium, a nice three hour drive. Tiger Stadium is the oldest stadium in baseball right now. I don't remember the year it opened, but I think it was 1911. Anyway, as a result, parking is a nightmare. It is better than Candlestick, but not by much. I parked in this church lot down the street from the stadium.

And they don't let video into the stadium. Sigh.

This is a strange place. The upper deck hangs over the lower deck almost completely, and there are pillars everywhere. About one sixth of the seats have an obstructed view of the plate. Where I was sitting, I could only see the ball when it was pitched, right when it left the bat and when it was fielded. As a result of all of the obstructed views, they show the game on monitors while it is going on. So you too can pay $12 to watch the Tigers on TV with no sound. Anyway, after all of this, it would be a shame for them to replace this place. Ty Cobb played here. With all of its quirks, this place is right out of history. All this game needs is 28 Camden Yards.

The Tigers won 3-1, and everybody was surprised at the pitcher's duel. Rookie pitcher Gohr pitched a whale of a game, pitching seven and two-thirds innings, giving up six hits, one run, walking two and striking out seven. Detroit won 3-1.

I went back to Mount Pleasant, and Kennen and Joanna made yummy food for dinner. Kaylee is really adorable, and she is fun just to watch.

Route - US 27 South to I-96. I-96 East to Detroit. Reverse for trip back.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06190DET1994.htm

A precious child

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 26 - June 18, 1994

June 18 - I drove to Mt. Pleasant from Washington. Mt. Pleasant is three hours north of Detroit. I forgot to account for this, so this turned out to be a thirteen hour drive. Sigh. Not much to say here, just a long day of driving.

I got to my cousin's house about 1 AM. My cousin, Kennen White, and his wife, Joanna Cowan White, have a baby who is about 11 months old. I think her name is spelled Kaylee. Kennen was still up, and we talked a little bit before I went to bed.

Route - I-495 to I-270. I-270 West to I-70. I-70 West to I-76. I-76 West to I-80-90. I-80-90 West to Intestate 475 in Toledo. I-475 North to US 23. US 23 North to I-96. I-96 West to US 27. US 27 North to Mt. Pleasant.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 25 - June 17, 1994

June 17 - Becky took me to work in the morning. I met Senator Bingaman; he is a nice, middle-aged guy. Seems to be a perfect Western politician; he looks like he has spent a lot of time with horses out on the range. Becky then took me about the Capitol building, and got me in to see the Senate and House chambers, including going onto the Senate floor. I had a good time doing this; I could see myself in politics.

After Becky really had to go to work for real, I went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I really liked it, but I hope that they update some of the displays soon. There was some out of date info, and some of the text was worn away. Nothing like places like this to remind one of the seventies.

There is a relatively new display about computers and space with some truly amazing old computers. Scary stuff. They also have a couple of films about computers that are truly, truly awful and seem to me to only be vehicles for the computer companies that sponsor them to show their insignia. Sigh.

I didn't get through this place, but I don't think I missed *too* much. Sigh.

I then drove to Baltimore and Camden Yards. It's really easy to get to, which was a welcome relief from DC. Camden Yards is a neat place; they have closed off Eutaw Street and made it part of the stadium. They have stocked it with food places, souvenir stands, and bars. They don't let you in to the actual stadium until about an hour and a half before the game. Until then, you can hang over the walls and watch batting practice. Actually, the bleachers are open, so fans can watch batting practice from their seats. The walls, however, are five feet high or so, so you have to be fairly tall to see, and they don't let kids sit on top, so their were a lot of fathers with kids on their shoulders.

They let us in, and I found my seat. The seats down the line are my only real complaint about this place; they face the area between second base and center field. It's amazing that this happened in a stadium so young. This is a nice place, but I prefer Jacobs Field.

The O's fans have their idiosyncrasies. They say "O" real loud when "Oh, say does that star-spangled" line comes around, and they don't sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" when the seventh inning stretch comes around. Instead, they play "Thank God I'm a Country Boy". Gack.

And frankly, I am tired of seeing the Orioles. I keep running in to them; they were in Oakland, and Kansas City, and now here, and I think I have another game with them later.

I was sitting, watching the game and listening on the radio, as I normally do when I go to the game alone, when the O. J. Simpson chase came on the radio. So while they were playing the game on the field, I was relaying what was going on to the people around me. A very surreal experience. The Orioles beat the Twins, 9-2. Stars of the game included Chris Sabo, who went 3 for 4 with one walk, one double, 2 RBI's and one run scored; and Leo Gomez, who went 3 for 4 with a double, home run, walk, 2 RBIs and 3 runs scored.

I got completely lost in Washington again trying to get back to the apartment. I hate driving in this city. Just when you find a street on the map that you think will work, it gets blocked by a monument, and the continuation has no sigh. After an hour and a half in the city, I found the apartment again. By this time it was 12:30, and OJ had given himself up. I went to bed.

Route - Washington 295 to I-495. I-495 North to I-95. I-95 North to Baltimore. Reverse route back to Washington.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06170BAL1994.htm

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 24 - June 16, 1994

June 16 - Don't ever drive in this place.

I really think that Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina are the best places to live in this country. The drive was nice. The area has just enough mountains not to be flat, has tolerable summers and winters if you like snow, and is pretty with lots of trees and streams. Really cool area.

Washington, however, is pretty ratty. Once you get past the nice monuments, buildings and museums, the city is a dump, ill-maintained with a discontented population. It also has the most screwed up street systems. I got completely lost trying to get to Mike and Becky Lepalla's house.

I finally got there. Mike works as a legal lackey in the Department of Labor, Becky works for Senator Mike Bingaman. They had a friend visiting whose name escapes me. She is in seminary, and reminds me of Shannon Kimball-Auth. Becky and Mike's apartment is rather small, but given housing costs in Washington and what they are probably making, I don't feel that this is unusual. They have a cat and a dog and I had a good time playing with them. Mike and I had to go get a visitor's parking permit for my car, and the police station was decidedly unimpressive. It seems that the weird bureaucracy of Washington makes it impossible to do city services right.

After catching up on gossip, we all went to bed.

Route - Ohio 14 South to Pennsylvania. Ohio 14 changes to Pennsylvania 51. Pennsylvania 51 East until merge with Pennsylvania 65. Pennsylvania 65 to I-79. I-79 South to US 40. US 40 East to Intestate 68. I-68 East to I-70. I-70 East to I-270. I-270 East to Intestate 495. I-495 South to George Washington Parkway. George Washington Parkway to I-395. I-395 to city streets.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 23 - June 15, 1994

June 15 - What a wonderful baseball park.

I got into Cleveland about noon, and found a place to stay. Turns out there is a metro line right by this motel, so I did not drive to the game. I took the train, and when you get out of the train, you walk through a mall. The fountain in the mall is really cool. It has ropes of water leaping out and falling in a hole a little away randomly, so you have these random arcs that look like they are alive jumping around.

The stadium is beautiful. Cleveland is an extremely industrial city, so the stadium was designed to match the buildings and bridges. The outfield looks up into the skyline. It's great. It has a little over 42000 seats, and they come close to selling out every game. The field has reasonable dimensions, unlike the Ballpark at Arlington. The scoreboard is nice; I don't know; it seems basically perfect for Cleveland. The game was great too. The Indians were behind 3-0 in the bottom of the eighth and tied it, then Jim Thome hit a homer in the 13th to the picnic area in center field. The place is baseball happy right now.

Had no trouble getting back to the motel. All in all a good day.

Route - I-71 North to Cleveland.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06150CLE1994.htm

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 22 - June 14, 1994

June 14 - I left David and Valerie's about 10 o'clock. Got to South Bend, Indiana around 3 and spent forever finding the Woodwind and Brasswind. Finally found it, and bought a clarinet mouthpiece, and tried out the three top-of-the-line bari saxes. The Selmer is great. It's the only model that is better than mine.

I then set out for Columbus. US 33 goes through a very, very long urban stretch through South Bend, Elkhart and Goshen, IN. Took about an hour and a half to get through all of it.

Got into Columbus about 9:30 EDT. Turns out that I have met Margaret, Gail and Jeff before. Jeff even remembered me. Had a good time figuring out whom we all knew at Rice. Anna would have hated it, as she gets tired of Rice gatherings. Then everybody had to go to bed.

It is very hot this summer in the Midwest, and nobody has AC. Ah, well. Lot's of nights sleeping in sweat. Just like old times.

Route - US 41 South to I-80-90. I-80-90 East to US 33. US 33 East to Columbus.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 21 - June 13, 1994

June 13 - Got up and felt good. David and Valerie went to work about 10. David left me directions to get to Jiffy Lube so I could change the oil again. Got that done, and then found the Saxophone Store in Evanston. Borrowed an alto and tried out mouthpieces and bought one, a hard rubber Yanagasawa. The Lawton was just a little better, but it was twice as expensive, and for my fourth saxophone, I decided that it wasn't worth it. Had lunch. Got back and made some house-related phone calls. David and Valerie got back, and we got on the train for Commiskey Park.

Comiskey is relatively nice. It's very clean, quite roomy, and there don't appear to be any bad seats, but it's kind of sterile. The game was great, if you like baseball. The Sox won 1-0. Jason Bere pitched eight innings, giving up no runs, two hits, and striking out 14. Roberto
Hernandez pitched the ninth for the save. Bobby Witt pitched a good game for Oakland, but, well, it is Oakland after all. Then we took the train home.

David is a very nice guy, and Valerie is very bubbly. They are both extremely sharp. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay with them.

Game log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06130CHA1994.htm

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 20 - June 12, 1994

June 12 - I got up and felt much, much better. The sinus headache was gone, and most of the other symptoms were too. I was still a little stuffy, however. Got on the road about 10. Took highway 45 down here. Wisconsin is absolutely beautiful. Lots of green with little rolling hills and trees and pretty farmhouses. Lots of Victorian era barns. Good stuff. Got to David and Valerie's place about noon. They are very nice people; they cooked two delicious meals for me and would not let me help clean up. He is from Guilford, south of London, and she is from Montreal. They are both grad students at Northwestern. They just graduated. Valerie is taking a job at UT Austin, and David will be doing postdoc work in Tallahassee. Their apartment is a carved-up Victorian in a neighborhood with a lot more of them. Wilmette is a northern suburb of Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan. Seems like a nice place. A couple of their friends, John and Marty, came over for dinner. They are nice people. Marty is quite a bit older than me, in her fifties, and John is about my age, so they make an interesting couple, if indeed they are one. They are, however, buying a house together, so we had things we could talk about. All in all, a pleasant day. I really like the meeting-people part of this trip. Route - US 45 South to Lake Blvd. in Skokie. Lake Blvd. to Wilmette

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 19 - June 11, 1994

 June 11 - Started off feeling ok, I guess. So I went to the Milwaukee Art Museum. Right by it, they were having a big festival. A couple of thousand people with music and barbecue. It dawned on me watching people come and go that it was a gay and lesbian thing, and the museum ticket teller confirmed it.

Looked at art for about three hours. They neglected to tell me their video policy at the entrance, so I got scolded. Seems you can scan the art and use it as backgrounds, whatever that means, but you can't just stand there and film it. So I stopped. But I am not erasing what I got before that. Reasonable museum. The modern American collection is particularly impressive, and they had a glass collection which was amazing.
About 4, I developed a sinus headache, so I went back to my room and doped up and went to sleep, hoping not to miss the game.

Got up in time for game, and felt better. Not great, was still really tired and stopped up, but went to the game anyway.

Milwaukee County Stadium is very bland. They don't have DiamondVision, which is ok, but they play video with the light-bulb scoreboard. Uggh. Looks like an Apple II screen. Bob Eucker is good on the radio, though, and the sausages are quite yummy. Cleveland won, 5-2.

Game Link: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06110MIL1994.htm

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 18 - June 10, 1994

June 10 - Got back on the road. Got to Chicago just in time for rush hour. Not only that, but they are rebuilding the Kennedy freeway, which is the busiest in the city. Traffic was horrible. Once I got through that, Northern Illinois and Wisconsin are very nice. Got into Milwaukee about 8. Had real trouble finding a place to stay. It's a nice town; lots and lots of brick buildings, parks, breweries, and Lutheran churches. But not many motels. Finally found one on west side of town. By this point, I really felt terrible; I was stopped up and had a touch of fever.

Route: I-57 North to I-90-94 (Kennedy Expressway). I-90-94 West (North) to I-94. I-94 North to US 41. US 41 North to I-94 (avoids toll in Illinois). I-94 West to Milwaukee.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 17 - June 9, 1994

June 9 - Left Dallas for Milwaukee. Drove a lot. At one point, in rural Arkansas, I was trying to take a shortcut from I-40 to I-55. Didn't work out, there was a sign missing and I ended up on a dirt road with very poor, very black people living in shanties looking at me like I was crazy. Other than that, the trip was long. I was starting to get stuffy now. Sigh. Stopped in Cairo, IL, just across the border from Missouri on I-57. Just in case you were wondering, that's pronounced "Carrow". The motel was a dive, but it was clean. I went to the truck stop to get a newspaper, but all they had was bad pornography and cigarette smoke. Truckers are depressing. And to think I really wanted to be one for a while when I was growing up.

Route - Texas 183 East to I-35E. I-35E South to I-30. I-30 East to I-440 (Little Rock, AR). I-440 East and North to I-40. I-40 East to Arkansas 218. Arkansas 218 North (East) to I-55. I-55 North to I-57. I-57 North to Cairo.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 16 - June 8, 1994

June 8 - Had lunch with Laura Heisz (editor's note: Now Laura Hornung). She is now a lawyer working in a trucking law firm. She has had a relationship from hell that has been over for several months but she is still reeling from. Other than that she is doing fine. She is doing some community theater, for instance.

Went back to my uncle's house. You know, I just hate Dallas. It's zoned way too much, the buildings are really ugly, the people aren't very nice, and there seem to be topless bars everywhere.

Went to the Ballpark in Arlington, about a ten minute drive from my uncle's house. The game had a 6:05 start time so the Yankees could try to get to Toronto and still get some sleep. As a result, I was the first one of the group of six to get there, and they all missed the first inning. They eventually got there. There were Laura, Andrew Tucker, Laurence Herrera and his wife, and Laura's sister Deborah. Drew and I caught up; Amy, his wife, did not want to go see baseball, so she didn't come. They are busy working; he has to travel a lot, and it seems that he is always too busy. I didn't know Laurence at Rice very well, and we didn't talk much. Deborah is a real baseball fan, so we had a good time. The Rangers won over New York, 6-5. The Ballpark is brand new. It's kind of neat, but is really a kitchen sink. It has Detroit's home run porch, Comiskey's Sky Box row, Baltimore's warehouse look, etc. Plus the outfield is entirely too large, esp. in left. But it is an interesting place. Left, got home, went to bed.

Game link: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06080TEX1994.htm

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 15 - June 7, 1994

June 7 - Woke up and back of palette in mouth felt scratchy. Sigh. Knew I was going to get another episode of the sinus infection that would not die. Took massive amounts of drugs.

Got on the road for Dallas. Left just in time, as really bad hailstorms were trying to cut me off. As I would leave a county, it would fall under a tornado watch. Really glad I don't live on the Great Plains anymore.

Went through Oklahoma City about 5. It's been 19 years since I have been through this place; I hope it's at least 19 more. It's ugly, dirty and has really bad weather. The Arbuckle Mountains south of there are really pretty, but I have trouble using the term "Mountains" to describe them.

---

Got to my uncle's house in Euless about 8:30. Euless is between Dallas and Fort Worth, just southeast of DFW Airport and north of Arlington, where the Rangers play. My family used to get so lost trying to find this place; I just drove to it. I don't understand.

Got caught up with my uncle, Herschel White. He is an old mainframe programmer and systems analyst from IBM who accepted IBM's recent early retirement package. He is now consulting and is having an interesting time adjusting to life away from Big Blue. My aunt had to visit her mother, who was having cataract surgery, so she couldn't make it to see me this time.

Route: I-35 South to I-35W. I-35W to I-820. I-820 East to Texas 121. Texas 121 to FM 157 in Euless.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 14 - June 6, 1994

June 6 - Got out of Topeka about 11. Got to Kansas City about 12:30 and found a place to stay. Dialed in, took care of random misc. stuff, and took a nap. Also called Kansas City Star. One of the columnists liked my trip, so he mentioned it in the 6/7 issue in his column. Went to the stadium, but got lost on the way. There are only about five freeways in KC, but there are about 25 highway numbers, and it is a total maze. Ended up in Kansas City, KS, and had to turn around, but the exit I took had a mile of no U-turn signs, and I had no idea what the side streets would do.

Anyway, got to Kaufman Stadium. This place is great. From the outside, it looks like the half-completed Death Star from Return of The Jedi. There are no seats in left, center or right fields; they start just inside the foul poles, and taper into two decks behind home plate. Instead of bleachers, they have fountains in the outfield. Between innings, they change between several patterns, but when the hitters are up, they just run. In between the fountains, there are several patches of grass, including one in center for the hitters' background. The only thing against this place is the turf isn't real, but they are putting in grass next year. Baltimore won, 4-2.

Route: I-70 East to Kansas City.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06060KCA1994.htm

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 13 - June 5, 2020

June 5 - An exciting day. Got up about 10 and hit the road for Kansas City. Western Kansas is the second most boring scenery so far. Bleah. Did chase a big thunderstorm, and almost caught it about 9 PM, but stopped and ate, and by the time I got back on the road, it had moved south. About 10:30, got real tired of driving, so I stopped in Topeka and bedded down for the night.

Route: I-70 East to Topeka.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 12 - June 4, 1994

June 4 - Got up about 11. Ate lunch. Got queasy. Really felt miserable. Decided to skip the Colorado Railroad Museum and go back to Tibor's. Pete had gone to work. Tibor and Bec had gone to the all-day concert. I slept.

About 4:30, I woke up feeling much better. Galynn Gaddy showed up about 5. She was staying with Tibor for a few days so that she could find a place to live and a part time job since she will be moving to Denver to go to graduate school. I had only met her once before, so we got reacquainted. We decided to go to a movie.

We saw Maverick, a fun movie, even if it is 20 minutes too long. She was getting over a cold, so we went back, and she went to bed. After messing around with the computer, I decided to go to bed also.

Before I got to sleep (I had had a nap, remember), Pete came home. He proceeded to open some chips and dip. A little later, Bec and Tibor got home. This got everybody up again, as Tibor and Bec had never met Galynn. So everybody got to know each other, and Bec got to tell her story about knowing Gordon from the Violent Femmes again and got to add this day's concert to it.

Seems she saw him at a concert one time and just introduced herself. She didn't act like all of the teenybopper groupies, so he actually talked to her. She then started going to as many of their concerts as she could, including one in Australia. She tries to gets tickets on her own, but Gordon now usually puts her on the guest list. Gordon found her today, and Tibor got to meet him. They had a good time.

After all of this, Galynn and I went back to bed. Tibor, Bec and Pete started playing cards again, and since I was just tired not sleepy, I got up and joined them. We played until 4. Sigh.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 11 - June 3, 1994

June 3 - Tibor's Denver Hilton continued welcoming guests as another person flew in.

But first, I took my computer to a shop to have the system reinstalled, got the light fixed in my sun visor (it was hanging down in my field of vision) and had lunch. I then made my way to the airport to pick Tibor's friend Bec up.

Of course, there was a real bad accident on I-25, and they closed all lanes, and I had to find my way around this on city streets. Fortunately, Denver is a grid.

Got there about 10 minutes late. Bec came out from Baltimore to see this concert that had the Violent Femmes and to interview for a job. Bec and I dropped her stuff back at the apartment, and tried to go to the US Mint, but it was closed. We did however, see the World's Ugliest Building. This amorphous looking dark grey brick thing had windows seemingly in random places and of random shapes.

I took her back and got my computer. Got back, and Tibor, Bec, Pete and I went to this excellent Italian restaurant and ate. We then went to the Rockies game.

Mile High is a football stadium. Still, it wasn't that bad. I could see Pike's Peak from my seat. We moved to other seats because of railings in our way. Colorado won 6-4, over Pittsburg, but the ninth inning was tense, as Pittsburg had men on. Best game so far.

We went back and played cards and drank alchohol until 2 AM, and went to bed.

Game link: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06030COL1994.htm

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 10 - June 2, 1994

June 2 - Tibor and Pete went to work; I slept. Got up and got my oil changed. Dialed into work, but when I went to shut down my computer, the system got corrupted, and the machine wouldn't boot (flashing disk question mark icon). Sigh. Spent the rest of the afternoon reading, and enjoying the thunderstorm. I hadn't seen a good one for a while.

That evening, Pete had to work very late. Tibor and I went to dinner (you guessed it, Mexican). We went CD shopping, came back, played cards, played pool, and went to bed.

Tibor has a "luxury condominium" right next to where he works in an eighteen story buiding. He is on the fifth floor. In the basement, there is a ping-pong table (no ball) and a pool table. Nice place.

I can't believe I did this trip without a good point-and-shoot camera. This "picture" was taken of the view outside of Tibor's window. I have no business with a fully manual camera.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 9 - June 1, 1994

June 1 - Set out for Denver. The drive was about an hour too long. Most of the flat-for-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see part of the trip, I was watching the big storm move east of me before I got to it, so I missed it.

Stopped at the Cadillac Ranch just outside of Amarillo. This is a patch of farmland off of I-40 that a guy took ten 40-60's vintage Caddilacs and stuck them nose-first into the ground. The fins stick up out of the ground. He spray painted them blue and took out all of the glass. There is lots of really cool graffiti, and they are fun to climb on. Art. Serious Art.

Went through the prettiest small town I have ever seen, Rocky Ford, CO. Just a gorgeous, quaint little town.

As the sun was going down over the Rockies, I had to sit on Highway 50 and wait for the construction trucks to pack up and go home.

Got to Pueblo right about sunset. The combination of the sunset, the darker rain clouds and Pike's Peak made a great view.

I finally got to Denver about 10 PM, and got to Tibor Roberts' place. This place is kind of hopping this weekend; I am here for my trip, and one of Tibor's friends from grad school is working out here for a week and staying with Tibor.

Route: I-27 North to I-40 (Amarillo). I-40 West to US-385. US-385 North to US 287 (Boise City, OK). US-287 West to US-50 (Lamar, CO). US-50 West to I-25 (Pueblo). I-25 North to Denver.

 

Saying goodbye to Grandmother and Roy. He died 4 years later; this is last time I saw him.

Grandmother took this. It's one of only two picture I have of this car.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 8 - May 31, 1994

May 31 - Well, I think we ran out of things to talk about. However, I had to figure out how to ship this antique radio (it's in a cabinet 42" high) back home. Grandmother's phone was acting up also. I arranged the shipping from a pay phone, and called the phone company to look at the problem.

When I was preparing for this trip, I had tried to find a knee-length raincoat with a hood since I am expecting rain to happen somewhere this summer. I first went to Sears, and then Target, but they said that raincoats were "seasonal" in California. I went to North Face, an outdoor shop, and they didn't have what I wanted, and what they did have, they wanted $70 for. When I told Grandmother this, we went down to Wal-Mart in Plainview and found one for $15. Stupid California.

Grandmother and Me

Zenith Model 9-S-262 from 1938. It worked when I brought it home from Grandmother's in 1981. She then took it back and stored it when I went to college. Did not work in 1994. I sent it to California. Never got it fixed. Sold to collector in 2006.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 7 - May 30, 1994

May 30 - Memorial Day - Grandmother and I talked all day. I tried to dial into the net, but Grandmother has a phone which doesn't work with TouchTone, and Sprint needs TouchTone for phone cards, and my computer doesn't have an output for the phone, only an input for the line into the modem. Sigh.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 6 - May 29, 1994

May 29 - Mrs. Carey woke me up with an omelette already cooked for me. After thanking them profusely, I set out for Plainview. I was dreading this a bit because I know how boring driving in the Panhandle can be. New Mexico was dull; however, they had been getting lots of rain in West Texas recently, so all the grass and crops were green and there were lots of colorful flowers
along the highway.

I got into Plainview about 4:00, and Grandmother proceeded to stuff me full of food. My step-grandfather, Roy, is really getting old. He is quite deaf, so he has trouble keeping up with conversations, and he has circulation problems in his legs, so he has to sit in his recliner with his feet up. He sits and reads the paper most of the time.

Grandmother and I "visited" until bedtime.

Route: US 285 North to US 70 (Roswell). US 70 East to Plainview.

Hmm. Apparently my route was sub-optimal. At least I didn't go through Lubbock.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 5 - May 28, 1994

May 28 - I got off to a late start, but then packed up and headed for Carlsbad, NM. After a long, really dull drive, I arrived about 8:30 PM. There was some scenery; I went through Guadalupe Mountains National Park. There were some really cool mountains, but it was so small.

I stayed with Martha Carey's parents in Carlsbad. Martha's sister was playing a recital that evening, so they weren't home when I got there. They just left the front door open for me. Wow.

Mrs. Carey left me microwave dinner, and I nuked some lasagna and watched tv. After I got bored with that, I went to the piano room. They have two grand pianos and a pipe organ in one half of the living room. I started messing around with some Mozart which I have no hope of playing. They got back, and we got to know each other.

Turns out they have a PC and an HP Laser Jet IIP printer with 512K, and they are having printing problems in Windows (suprise, suprise). I explained to them why and the best way to fix it, and Mr. Carey said, "I think you have earned your keep!"

Route: I-10 East to US-62-180 (in El Paso). US-62-180 East to Carlsbad.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 4 - May 27, 1994

May 27 - Bobb and I went to the Tucson Sonora Desert Museum, and had a blast. This place has lots of plants and animals from the desert. It has lots of different species of cactus, with an entire display devoted to the Saguaro. There was an aviary, a special hummingbird aviary, a display of
desert cats, a prairie dog town, some coyotes, foxes, etc. It was a neat place, and the cafeteria has good food.

Bobb then drove me to the Kitt Peak Observatory, which has lots of cool telescopes and a killer view.

We picked Nancy up from work, and had dinner at a place serving Middle Eastern food; I had a wonderful chicken kabob with rice and vegetables.

We then all went to the Tucson-Salt Lake City baseball game. I had never been to a minor league game before; I think I still prefer the majors. Don't get me wrong; I had a great time. Nancy, who had never enjoyed going to a game before, really liked it a lot. Was a wild game; there were five errors, including one on a botched rundown play, three more rundowns, three wild-pitches
and two passed balls. Tucson won on a double in the bottom of the eighth, 8-7.

No internet information about minor league games from 1994.

Baseball Trip day 3 - May 26, 1994

May 26 - Checked out in the morning, and headed for Tuscon. Almost got stopped on I-8 for doing 62 in a 55. The road was downhill, and I was passing somebody, and someone else was, too. The person behind me got stopped.

I left the fog in San Diego. It was quite hot just over the mountains. The land is fairly desolate, but there are actually quite a few plants to look at, and there are lots of mountains. So the drive wasn't too bad.

Well, take that back. Both sides of Yuma for 75 miles or so are really quite dull (not as dull as some of the stuff later in the trip, however). My favorite spot on this drive was the "rest area" on California side of the border. It consisted of a big patch of dirt with two picnic tables, a pay
phone, and two porta-potties. Wow, what a place.

I got into Tucson about 5, and found Bobb Head's and Nancy Nelson's house without any trouble. I settled in, and Bobb, Nancy and I went out for (wait for it), Mexican food! (In Arizona? What a surprise!). Bobb had a Morris dance rehearsal at his house, and Nancy had to go out an try to attract bugs with a black light since it had rained the night before. (She is a graduate student
in entomology at ASU). This is not a usual occurrence in late May.

Route to Tucson: I-805 South to Cal-163 East. 163 East to I-8 East. I-8 East to I-10 East. I-10 East to Tucson.

Baseball Trip day 2 - May 25, 1994

May 25 - Woke up at 5:56 AM to find the room shaking from an aftershock to the January Northridge Quake. Couldn't get back to sleep, so read a little while. Got checked out about 9, and headed to San Diego.

Checked into the TravelLodge, and took a one-hour nap. Went and visited Anna's aunt and uncle, Linda and Fred. Talked with them a while, and went to the game.

Jack Murphy Stadium is really ugly from the outside. It looks like several praying mantis' atacking a giant doughnut. But the inside is nice.

I got really good seats, which is not too big a surprise, since the owners have done their best to alienate the fans. I was about ten rows back right behind home plate.

They closed the upper deck, and put tarps with all of the team logos on them on the seats. Looks kind of cool. All of the hawkers wear pin-striped baseball uniforms with the word "HAWKERS" on their chest. They were cool. The weather was still nippy with fog; I was hoping to have left that behind in the Bay Area.

The Giants beat the Padres 5-1 (I wrote this down wrong in 1994; it was actually 5-2.)

Route: I-110 to I-710 South. I-710 South to I-405 South. I-405 to I-5 South. I-5 South to I-805 South into town.

Game Link: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B05250SDN1994.htm

Note that I forgot to bring my clipboard into the stadium. I did have my little travel notebook, so this in how I kept score.