All of the travellin' took place in June.--->
Our 11th annual baseball roadtrip ended eons ago, but we are just now getting around to posting our recap. Sorry for the delay.
15 baseball games in 15 days. Unfortunately no double-headers for us this year
:(
but still a record for us for consecutive days seeing a ballgame.
We traveled just over 3,000 miles to games in 9 different states (NY, PA, NJ, MD, VA, NC, SC, GA & TN) in 9 different baseball leagues (American, National, International, Eastern, Southern, Carolina, New York-Penn, South Atlantic & Appalachian) from the Majors all the way down to Rookie level.
We ate countless BBQ sandwiches (of indeterminate meat) and pints of ice cream, in helmet cups (of course).
We heard "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" 15 times at 14 ballparks. One played it twice. The Kingsport Mets played "Rocky Top Tennessee" instead.
We had been to 3 of the parks in the past, so the 12 new stadia that we attended on this trip now brings our total of ballparks visited together over the past 11 years to 89. Next year we're hoping to top the 100 mark.
We again tried to make the trip as eco-friendly as possible. Hopping from hotel to hotel doesn't make it easy, but we tried a few little things to avoid creating unnecessary waste.
- We brought our own shampoos and soaps so that we would not be using the hotel toiletries just once before they would be thrown away. We refilled our plastic water bottles a few times before moving on to fresh new bottles to reduce our plastic usage, and continued to collect the bottles (around 50 by the end of the trip, it was hot down south) and our paper/cardboard garbage to be recycled as home.
- Any trash that we had was thrown out in larger trash cans instead of the small hotel room bins, reducing the garbage bags that would have to be changed and saving time for the cleaning staffs.
- At the 1 hotel that we were able to stay at for 2 nights, we reused the towels and sheets instead of requesting fresh new linens for the 2nd day, to reduce the energy needed to do the laundry.
- We were also very happy to see that many of the ballparks now have separate bins for aluminum cans, plastic bottles and/or paper products to separate them from other waste.
Signs that we missed getting pictures of:
- Welcome to Compton - in the middle of a cornfield
- Trollingwood Lane
- Caroline County (sorry Revlina!)
We had a great time on our trip, but want to thank the many people who played a part in our experience, whether they knew it or not. Big thanks to:
- some old friends (Molly, Jason and Antje and their families) who we met up with along the way, for providing a chance to catch up on old times, as well as a place to crash, laundry availability, internet access and meals as needed, not to mention being a breath of fresh air seeing some familiar faces on our journey.
- thanks to the new friends we met along the way, including (in order of appearance) Charlie, Anna, David, Jane (thanks for the free tickets), Jim, Susan, Cory, Scott, Lucky, Roshan (thanks for the quick air conditioner repairs), the Altakaka & his Fakakta wife, Jason, Bradley (thanks again for arranging the public address announcement), Mike, Erik, Melissa, Eduardo, Lillian, Guillermo, Stevie, Jason's friends at Braves game, Gary, Wendy, Cameron, Shannon, Chris, Catherine, Rita, Kris, Jacob, Olivia, Wayne, Quentin and anyone whose names we unfortunately forgot to write down. Also all of the mascots (official and otherwise) that posed for pictures.
- all those who responded to our blog via e-mails, text messages, phone calls, blog comments and/or in person, for commenting and following and bringing smiles to our faces, despite the added pressure it put on us knowing we had to try to keep up with our daily blogging, which we partially succeeded. Thanks also to Scott & Christine for recording our chance cameo appearance on the YES network during the 1st game of our trip.
- all the bands who kept us entertained along our many miles and hours spent on the road. From heavy metal to country to fast irish to soul/blues to pop punk to southern rock, we love all of these bands. We hope you have a chance to check them out.
- Guy Fieri and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, for providing some interesting fare along the roads instead of the same old fast food. We were able to make it to 7 locations that had been featured on the show and enjoyed delicious treats such as french toast encrusted with Captain Crunch to pastarella sticks to southern country ham with red-eye gravy and grits to delicious fresh homemade pizza.
- various kapfolk and tlxers, for covering our jobs while we were away so we didn't have to worry about work (too much, anyway).
- last but most definitely not least, all the charities to which we have donated, for all of the good that they are doing to improve people's lives by fighting disease, providing food, shelter and/or opportunities, etc. We will not be begging our friends and family for any other charity walk donations this year as this will be our "charity drive" for the year. If you are able, please donate to any/all of these charities (or your own favorite charities). The current state of the economy has taken its toll not just on individuals, families and companies, but on many charitable organizations as well. Don't forget that they know how to stretch their money to spread the wealth, so any donations will go a long way to helping others.
Thanks for taking the time to experience our adventure with us. Comments can be posted on the blog site, or we can be reached at sem1234@excite.com, todd23nyy@yahoo.com or roadtrippersmtd@gmail.com. We don't know where our next trip will take us, but anyone who wants to join us is more than welcome. For those who aren't able to come with, we'll be sure to blog again.
See our other trips at
http://toddandstephaniebaseballroadtrip2008.blogspot.com
http://toddandstephaniebaseballroadtrip2010.blogspot.com
http://toddandstephaniebaseballroadtrip2011.blogspot.com
Your baseball roadtrippers,
Stephanie and Todd
p.s. In the weeks after our roadtrip officially ended, we stopped at a couple more ballparks. We went to Cleveland to see Stephanie's sister sing the National Anthem with a local singing group before an Indians game. However, a slow morning and a slower train caused us to miss the performance. But at least we got to see Sadie and Nathan.
And Stephanie's hair twin cousin, Jessica.
And the following weekend we headed to South Jersey to see our friends in TFL.
So we also made a stop in Lakewood to see the BruceClaws (normally the BlueClaws, a single A team for the Phillies, but a creative promo honoring the great Jerseyite Mr. Springsteen and his music that night).
We've been here before, but we still love the eyeball race.
We loved it so much, we brought home some friends!
