We left you off in Tampa Bay, Florida. Well we are now in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. About 1100 miles away. My my was there a lot of driving inbetween.
First off, let us tell you about the Devil Rays game. Both of us were pleasantly surprised by Tropicana Field. Although it is a domed stadium it still tries to have an intimate look. It does, however, have catwalks about 200 feet up from the field and Alex Rodriguez hit a shot off of one which landed at second base but was ruled a homerun. Later in the game Jason Giambi hit a juice ball off of one on the right field side but it was ruled foul. It is kind of like watching a volleyball game at California High School (about 4 people will appreciate that joke). Two crazy things happened at this game. One, there were more Yankees fans than Devil Rays fans. By a ratio of about 5:1. There is a reason for this, the Yankees have longed made their spring training home in Tampa Bay so the Yankees was the only baseball these people got for decades. Also, the Devil Rays have never had a winning season. Yet something didn’t seem right about hearing a stadium chant ‘Let’s go Yankees’ outside of New York. It is like going to the bank teller and asking them for a pound of pastrami, just the wrong place for such antics. The number two crazy thing involved some fans. Now, I’m not making this up, Geoff has a picture to prove this story. The left fielder for the Yankees is Hideki Matsui, a Japanese fellow, who is nicknamed ‘Gonzilla’, because, well, us Americans only have association with about 3 Japanese things and ‘sushi’ or ‘Sony’ just didn’t seem appropriate. Here is where it gets weird. The drunk Yankees fans next to us in the cheap seats pointed down to some fans along the third base line. It was a man and his son wearing full body matching Godzilla-like outfits. Let’s me be clear here so there is no confusion. A man, he was a man, probably in his 30s, either made or had made a full size green felt suit complete with hood in the shape of a head. There were purple spike-like objects along the back. His head looked out the mouth of the fabric monster. This man, he was a man, either made or purchased not one, but two of these costumes. He then put on himself and his infant son. As fore mentioned, Tropiciana Field is domed and climate-cultured, yet the Stadium does reside in St. Petersburg, Florida where the game time temperature and humidity were both 94. Imagine the thought path this guy had, “You know the Yankees are coming town. Oh, I have a good idea, since the Yankees have a player nicknamed Godzilla I’m going to get me and little Corky all dressed up like cartoon monsters and then risk heat stroke on my way to the game. Then we will sit in front of thousands of other people and hold up signs hoping and prayer to get that one smile or wave from Hideki Matsui. Then, and only then, will people know how much I like the VISITING TEAM.”
Right after the game we left town. Earlier in the day we did stop at the Home Depot to buy battery-powered fans. Here is the exchange between me and the cashier.
9th Grade Educated Cashier: What you gettin’ these for?
Scott: The humidity, its killing me, I can’t sleep.
9th Grade Educated Cashier: You been drinkin’ haven’t you?
Scott: What?! No, not yet (note: it was 9:47 in the morning)
9th Grade Educated Cashier: Ahh, don’t lie. Where you from then?
Scott: Los Angeles.
9th Grade Educated Cashier: Whaz humidity like out there?
Scott: Nonexistent. Its great, you can walk around outside without sweating.
9th Grade Educated Cashier: Yeah, but you got those earthquakes.
Scott: Touche.
Somehow my purchase turned into the age old East Coast - West Coast battle. And she presented the argument that living in an area with ridiculous humidity 24 hours a day and about 5 hurricanes a year is better than living in an area there the ground shakes for about 10 seconds every couple of years. What a nugget of gold. I would have settled for a nice, “Good morning, find everything alright”. That would have a little less infuriated, however not half as humorous.
That night we drove completely out of the state of Florida, slept for a while in Savannah, Ga., and kept rocking up the 95. We drove through South Carolina, North Carolina, and most of Virginia. Last night we stayed with our friend from home Alicia who lives in Lynchburg, Va. which is located in the center of the state. On the drive out there we drove through Appomattox the site of Gen. Lee’s surrender to end the Civil War (technically the war didn’t end until the surrender of Edmund Kirby Smith’s army in Texas on June 2, almost 3 months after the treaty at Appomattox). The National Park is only 2 miles off the main highway so we decided to detour. It cost a couple of bucks to get in but I throw the vibe out to the lady at the gate and she let us in for free. I mean, I had not showered or shaved in two days, I was driving a sweet Ford Aerostar, and I was wearing a purple shirt that said ‘Lakers, team of the 80s’ – everything a girl in Appomattox, Va. could dream of. We were only there for a few minutes, but it is such a cool place. Open battlefields, old buildings, crazy old ladies dressed in authentic 1860s garb, what is not to like? We even got to stand in the parlor room of the McLean house where the treaty was signed. Considering baseball was invented during the Civil War era we thought it was only appropriate to be at such an important Civil War landmark.
Lynchburg is not too far from there and we were estatic to get there. Mainly because it was the biggest city we saw all day, but it did also offer a shower, a shave, food, laundry, drinks, and friends. After we got cleaned up we went to the local Olive Garden. It was lovely. To make it even better Alicia’s boy Matt is a server there and he comped our meal. Nothing feels better on a road trip than being clean and full unless it is being clean and full for FREE. For our friends at home – Matt is the closest thing we can imagine to what Larry Olsen was like in college. Sometimes he even talks with his hand over his mouth. He was instantaneous fun. We then met up with Alicia and some of her friends at some townie bar. We left once the band started playing because there were that terrible. Who would have thought that the Tuesday night entertainment in Lynchburg wouldn’t be Grammy award-winning? The amazing part was that we got our cover charge back. Well, Alicia, who is an attractive, college-aged, blond girl got our cover charge back. We then went to the birthday party of one of her college friends. Who is a twin, but celebrating her birthday by herself. Kind of depressed me a bit. Yet I still managed to have a great time.
The drive from Lynchburg to Philadelphia was not that far but it was really long. We drove through DC and Baltimore. Crazy that we will be back in those towns next week. But for now it is all about the City of Brotherly Love and sweet sweet cheese steaks.
7 Comments:
Still following all of this...and why the heck not...I'm in Davis over the summer I have nothing else to do but read about Scott hitting on State Park fair takers as he's dressed in beautiful 80's Lakers fan garb.
-BFog
Hi Geoff and Scott,
Geoff, we received your nice note and post card today. Thank you!!!
Sounds as if the trip is a roaring success. We found your blog in Eugene while visiting our friends, the Helms. Had a great time in the Pacific northwest. We went to the Pendleton Shop in WA and bought you a blue and gold shirt.
Love,
G'pa and G'ma
Ok, from reading everyone's posts here there is a bunch of pent up hostility amongst the bunch of you...so sad. Fouts, you really wanna kick my ass? Be careful what you wish for (please forgive the profanity though), and by the way, unless you really think you can take me, back the fuck up (oops, forgive the profanity again, it slipped ;)).
Timmy, fuckin' learn how to spell (sorry about the profanity again, must be the German in me, deutsche being my native language you stupid mother fucker - did I spell all of that correctly?...not my native language y'know?). It's a douche. Done wit' u.
Andrea, you can't spell...even when you're fuckin criticizing (apologize for the profanity again). Of course, you were so
quick to correct yourself you obviously have some deep seated feelings of inadequacy...my God!
Since you (Andrea) felt like bringing up questions of linguistics why don't we take time to mention Scott's apparent inability to spell or write in English (Queen's standard and all). He went to Stanford? I guess the bar has officially been lowered. Run a spell check on his writings and it'll take an hour or two. Oh well...life goes on.
By the way...I'm not the original anonymous poster, just someone you all pissed off with your idiotic comments. Nor am I the second anonymous poster (if it's not the same) that asked "What Would Jesus Do?".
Lastly, you all call anonymous "he". Did any of you ever think that it might be a female, or is that some latent chauvenism? Just wondering.
Get over yourselves...Scott, Geoff, enjoy the trip. It must be awesome. Enjoy it while it lasts. It has to be incredible (just be safe and make sure you get home in one piece).
A. Friend
The nice thing about this blog is that it is open to anyone. The bad thing about this blog is that it is open to anyone. Scott and Geoff, Rock on. Dad/Atticus
Hey Cousin Scott...it's Kellie. Just wanted to say hello and tell you how much I'm enjoying reading about your trip.
Also...I don't know if you got my message, but I need Geoff's last name so I can give it to Chad for your tickets.
If I don't hear from you I'll probably just call your mother. Be safe...glad you made it out of Florida in one piece!
Scott, where are your posts? Sherry and I wanted to tell you to forget what anyone else here says and to keep on doin' what your doin'. Just ignore the negative posts...anyone doing that is just going to relish the feedback and it'll create more negative posts. Waiting to hear more.
John
LOL...OK
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