And we're off! Our Trip Starts in Arlington

The air was filled with as much anticipation as the rookie locker room on opening day of spring training... it was finally here... our first day of baseball! This day was chock full of amazing moments that it can only be revealed chronologically, so here we go...

We arrive at the stadium at about 3:15pm. Our intention is to buy our tickets, go to the Legends Museum (which houses the largest collection of baseball memorabilia outside of Cooperstown), then catch the game.

We wander into the Rangers front office and the security guard not only points us to the museum entrance, but also to the only ticket office open AND suggests some places for food. He did comment that the prices inside the stadium were exorbitantly expensive; we were tempted to tell him we're used to prices at the Angels Stadium and were pretty certain that nothing could phase us. Instead we forge ahead.

We proceed to the ticket counter and encounter our first comments about our t-shirts. Quick detour...For those of you who don't know, Suz made us shirts for our trip. The front has the picture currently featured on the top of our blog. The back lists the stadiums that we will be visiting this summer ala a concert tour t-shirt. In my totally "unbiased" opinion, it's one of the best things ever! FYI... based on the reaction (as you'll soon see) in Texas, we have designated these shirts as our official stadium uniform. God knows what they'll look (or smell like) once we get back home. But if players can adhere to their crazy superstitious traditions, so can we! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

So we get a comment from the guy in front of the guy in front of us about our shirts and we explain our trip to him. The person we're talking to buys his tickets and walks away. At this point I try and approach the ticket window, forgetting there is a person in front of us. He turns towards us and I see that he is an employee of the stadium. He asks us very politely if we would like free tickets in a great section. Well...our mamas didn't raise no fools and we promptly said, "Yes please!" Our new friend approaches the ticket counter and hands us our tickets. He also kindly points out that our tickets will also get us into the Cuervo Club, an air-conditioned restaurant area with views from behind home plate.

We enthusiastically thank Gary, our favorite Texan, and proceed to the museum. At the museum, we are informed that our 1/2 price admission ticket will also get us into a stadium tour tomorrow morning. Can our luck get any better you may ask? Oh just you wait...

Once we're done with the museum we enter the ballpark and head to our seats, which just happen to be located ONLY 26 ROWS behind the Rangers dugout. Once our shock at the kindness of our favorite Texan wears off we decide to go check out this Cuervo Club where we run into Curtis, our favorite Texan EMT. He is also intrigued by our shirts and we get to talking. Curtis turns out to be a WEALTH of information, giving us tips on which sports bar to visit in Houston and talking Suz (hopefully!) out of wearing her Angels gear to Yankee stadium. But wait there's more... once we sit down to eat our dinner Curtis reminds us to come find him before we leave and then returns to our table two more times. The first with free give-aways from previous games, a Michael Young flag and Texas Rangers beach towel, and the second time with two baseballs, retrieved from the Texas dugout and ACTUALLY USED IN A MAJOR LEAGUE GAME!!!!!

Our excellent time in Arlington is capped off by GREAT seat mates. We chat during the game, they show us the in-and-outs of being a Texas Rangers fan (including singing "Deep in the Heart of Texas" during the 7th inning stretch and cheering for your favorite dot in the Dot Race, see video) AND one of them offered us his season tickets for our St. Louis game next summer.



As a life-long Angels fan I'd never thought I'd say this, well the Rangers are 11.5 games back so I guess it's safe to say it, we loved the Rangers game. What a way to start off our trip!

Final Score - Texas Rangers 5, Seattle Mariners 7

Now... if you couldn't get through this VERY LONG post, here's a recap...

Early-bird parking: $0
Tickets to the game: $0
Ballpark tour: $0
Rangers merchandise: $0
Making connections for Part Two: $0
Starting our trip in Arlington: priceless

Land of the Free

I Y Texas. Our first game turned out to be one of the best nights of my life. From the moment we set foot in Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, amazing things happened. With a little luck, perfect timing, and two friggin-awesome homemade shirts, we managed to score loads of free stuff. I’ll leave the play-by-play to MB, but let me say that Texas Rangers fans may very well be the friendliest people on earth. No doubt we got the true Rangers experience Monday night. When the game finally ended, neither one of us wanted to leave the ballpark. We’re not ashamed to admit that these two die-hard Angels fans even rooted for the Rangers to win. Just in case you think we’re betraying our Angel roots, take a moment to watch the video of the Dot Race. I choose to think of the Dot Race as an allegory for the race in the AL West. The red dot represents the Angels, and the blue dot is playing the part of the Texas Rangers. Pay close attention to the red dot.

It’s safe to say that we will remember last night at Rangers Ballpark for as long as we live. A HUGE shout out to Gary for the awesome seats, Curtis for the info and souvenirs, ALL the Rangers fans at Arlington, and the man who said, “I think it’s great what you’re doing.” How did he know about my kidney?

Play Ball!

Following a brief night of sleep at the brand-new Holiday Inn in Arlington, we were ready to see some baseball. Game time was 7:10 P.M., so we had most of the day to kill and spent it searching for highly-coveted yet affordable Yankees and Red Sox tickets. Going into this, we knew certain tickets would be pricey, so we planned to shell out the bucks for those and get cheap seats everywhere else. Little did I know I’d have to sell my left kidney to buy a ticket to the Yankees game. After rationalizing the price to MB (and myself)—this is Yankee Stadium’s last year, they’re playing the Angels, we’ll be part of history, you have another kidney—we successfully purchased tickets. Then it was off to the ballpark for a visit to the Legends Museum and the official start of our 30th-year tribute to baseball.

Observations from the Road

Being a native Californian I love California. I love the weather, the accessibility to both oceans and mountains within a short distance and the occasional beautiful sunset through the haze and smog. However, on this trip I have had the opportunity to experience something that I have never experienced before...sky. Yes, I know that California has sky (duh!) but I have never understood the concept of Big Sky Country before this trip. And yes, before you think my blondness is shining through, I know that we are nowhere near Montana, but Big Sky is the only way that I can describe the scenery driving through New Mexico and Texas. The landscape is so flat it seems like the sky goes on for miles. And the clouds are like nothing I have ever seen, like big white fluffy cotton balls. Absolutely amazing! There was so much sky we could see the rain coming down before we actually drove through it. It really was incredibly beautiful. And here are some pictures to prove it...

Safe at Second

Morning, Day 2: We still like each other.
For those of you who have money on when we’re going to get sick of each other on this road trip, you’re going to have to wait another day to collect. Which reminds me, could someone please tell me what the over/under is, so we can get in on the action? Strike that. Since we actually have a shot of getting into the Hall of Fame on this trip, perhaps we should refrain from betting on ourselves.

We spent another day basically driving for 12 hours and not seeing any baseball. We don’t think we need to tell you this sucks. To be fair, parts of the New Mexico and Texas landscape were stunning. When we could see it. Through the rain. I have never seen clouds so close to the ground before. The highlight though had to be loading up on jelly packets this morning at Weck’s, Mark and Yo’s favorite breakfast place. Who knew smuggling condiments could be so entertaining? Today’s shout outs go to gasoline under $4.oo/gallon and the truck driver in the red-cabbed big-rig, who slowed down in the lane next to us so that MB could snap an unobstructed photo of the Welcome to Texas sign as we crossed the Texas border.

Ground Rules and Rain Delay

After weeks of building anticipation, the big day finally arrived. True to form, we were both up half the night finishing our packing, downloading music to iPods, and making final checklists. So much for getting a good night’s sleep before starting out bright and early. Ever the optimists, we had scheduled departure time for 7:00 A.M., with me (Suz) taking the first shift. For those of you who don’t know me, I am NOT a morning person. Thus, the morning unfolds: 7:00 A.M.- Start packing car. 7:20 - Realize everything will not fit in car. Reorganize luggage in parking lot. 7:30 - Depart. 7:35 - Stop at Starbucks. 7:42 - Get in car with coffee and breakfast sandwich. Pull out of parking space. MB expresses disbelief at my never having eaten while driving before. 7:43 - Drop breakfast sandwich on car floor.

Being the serious baseball fans that we are, and fully committed to the purpose of this road trip, we established some ground rules early on. Rule #1 states there will be NO non-baseball related stops or side trips. In other words, if it ain’t baseball, we ain’t seein’ it. An hour in (at 9:09, to be exact), MB attempts to justify the Coach outlet store as a baseball-related side trip, claiming “baseball has coaches!” (As I type this, MB still doesn’t see any problem with her argument.) At 10:46 A.M., Suz discovers the wonders of cruise control, “the best invention ever!”

We drove in and out of light rain all day through Arizona and New Mexico. After 800 miles, 12 hours, and 2 pit stops, we finally arrived at our destination in Albuquerque. Our first day on the road was fairly uneventful, save for a heavy downpour on I-40. Kudos to Suz for not driving us off the road. If you’ve never listened to Bill Cosby’s comedy routines, go find one right now. We recommend Himself. Finally, shout outs to Yolanda and Mark for letting us crash at their house on Saturday night and for showing us a good time in ABQ, and to the fabulous folks who thought up cruise control.

One More Thing

Since this is supposed to be a true and accurate account of our daily adventures, we thought we’d add a feature to recognize those individuals who have made our trip easier or more pleasant. Before we even hit the road, we need to give a shout out to the lovely ladies at the Tustin AAA, who provided us with TripTiks, maps, and tour guides; MB’s trainer, who gave us an awesome atlas; and Microsoft Online Excel tutorials.

The Louisville Situation

Well, when one teammate is a legendary procrastinator and the other is a time optimist, planning a five-week road trip across America (and part of Canada) and back can be VERY difficult. Initially, we thought we could knock out all 30 teams in one epic road trip, but reason (and SOMEONE’S work responsibilities--the nerve!) imposed time constraints on our journey. Susie still maintains that we could have done it had the teams been more accommodating in the timing of their home appearances. During the planning stages (which, let’s be honest, we’re technically still in) of our trip, we went through endless scenarios and routes, trying to cover huge distances and make back-to-back games. Can we drive from Houston to Atlanta in a day and still catch a game in the evening? If we drive from Tampa Bay to New York, will we have to skip Washington? If we’re heading west from Baltimore and want to get home by Tuesday, is there any way we can stop at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory? Therefore, we introduce Phase One of our grand adventure, which will cover 10 ballparks and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Phase One takes us through the South and up along the East Coast, hitting the home teams in Texas, Atlanta, Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Boston, and Toronto (see picture). And we’re going to accomplish all of this in 19 days. You might be thinking, “That’s crazy!” and you’d be right. But that never stopped us before.

Six Years in the Making

It all started six years ago, on a warm summer evening on the patio. We had just finished eating a dinner that we had cooked ourselves and were reflecting on our age and how “adult” we felt at that exact moment. One point led to another, and the conversation turned to what we would do to ring in our 30th birthdays. It had to be something good, something EPIC, something to look forward to, in order to bypass the typical lamenting of that milestone age. And then it came to us—why not visit all the major league baseball stadiums? We both loved baseball, having spent numerous nights passionately cheering on our beloved Anaheim Angels, sometimes with success. (At this point we think it appropriate to apologize to our downstairs neighbors for all the shouting, screaming, cheering, jumping, and thunderstick-ing.) Why not take that enthusiasm and love for the game on the road? There were 30 teams, so thirty places to visit, plus Cooperstown and the fabled Field of Dreams somewhere in Iowa. We had six years to plan it. After all, how hard could it be?