Buckeye Blog

Continuing what I started back on June 29th, this past weekend I drove to Philadelphia and Baltimore, thus completing my drive from the Pacific to the Atlantic in one summer (FYI it takes about 47-50 hours of actual driving time).  Since I became committed to reaching every MLB Ballpark in America, I am liable to be anywhere in the U.S. at anytime during baseball season.  And there is almost nowhere in the U.S. that I don’t consider to be in driving distance.  I’m not entirely sure how this attitude developed (in college I found the drive from Cleveland to Columbus to be quite burdensome!), but I will say that being on the cusp of achieving a long-time personal goal certainly increases motivation and desire.  I would plan another trip for this weekend, but sadly the baseball regular season has come to a close. 

But what a season it was!  This year alone I visited 16 ballparks in 16 different cities and attended many of Cliff Lee’s league-leading 22 wins, including his first win in Oakland and 20th win in Cleveland.  I ended the season on a high note too.  Saturday in Philadelphia I witnessed the Phillies clinch the NL East at Citizens Bank Park (first picture)–which set off a wild party for Phillies fans.  And Sunday in Baltimore at Oriole Park at Camden Yards (second picture) I went to Fan Appreciation Day for the first time.  

I already can’t wait for the 2009 season to start!!!   

Pictures from the ballparks:

http://picasaweb.google.com/scott.miller.0217

Hard to believe it, but I’m finally back to Columbus—Home of The Ohio State University and quite possibly my favorite place on earth!  :)  So glad to be back! 

Josh and I arrived here after driving 7.5 hours from St. Louis.  We started the day by going to the Union Station Mall in St. Louis and having lunch at the Hard Rock Café.  On the way to Columbus I had an idea and asked Josh to check the sports page to see if the Cincinnati Reds were playing a home game tonight.  Sure enough they were, so I suggested that we make a quick stop-over in Cincy for the game.  I had already been to the Great American Ball Park in 2005 so I had not planned in advance to go to this stadium.  But we went anyway and it worked out well because it was fireworks night at the ballpark!  We ended up seeing a good game and a great fireworks show.  It doesn’t get much better than baseball and the 4^th of July!    

After we left Cincy we encountered a terrible rain storm, but we still made it to Columbus just after midnight.  In all it took me about 2700 miles and 40.5 driving hours to reach Columbus, OH from San Jose, CA.  We’ve still got to drive 2.5 hours to get to Solon tomorrow, but OSU is my home too so this is effectively the conclusion of the long cross-country journey.  I can’t believe I did it!  At times the trip was hard, but seeing my brother and being able to go to 4 stadiums in 4 cities in 3 days made it all worth it!  But I think I’m going to take a break from road trips for a while now!

Happy 4^th of July everyone!

Today my traveling party increased by one as I met up with my brother, Josh, in St. Louis.  We came from different places and by different means of transportation—he flew in from Ohio and I drove over from Kansas—but now we’re reunited at last.

Earlier in the day, before I arrived in St. Louis, I continued along highway 70 East and passed through Manhattan, Topeka, and Lawrence, Kansas; as well as Kansas City and Columbia, Missouri.  It was great to pass through so many cities that I’ve actually heard of.  I stopped in Lawrence to see the University of Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse and in Kansas City to see the Royals’ Kauffman Stadium—#21 on my list!  It was cool seeing Allen Fieldhouse in the same year in which the Jayhawks won the national championship game (which I witnessed in person).  And seeing Kauffman Stadium turned out to be one of the more exciting stadium visits that I’ve had because I had to sneak past security to get inside haha.

When the day started I had no plan as to how to get into Kauffman Stadium, since the Royals were playing in Baltimore and the ballpark is off limits for tour groups while it is undergoing renovations.  But I still wanted to go to KC and try anyway.  My first attempt to get in involved me pleading with a security guard on the basis that I came all the way from California and didn’t want to leave without a photo.  He ended up letting me inside the left field gate for a distant picture (and was nice enough to give me a batting practice ball that had landed in one of the fountains as a souvenir!), but he did not allow me to go all the way behind home plate like I wanted because he was being watched by a security camera too. 

But I was not about to give up.  I wandered around the perimeter of the ballpark until I found an unlocked gate that was marked as a construction entrance only.  I then proceeded to do what any good baseball stadium enthusiast would do—I made a mad dash through the gate, went behind home plate and snapped a photo, and then ran back to my car lol.  Even though the fountains were not turned on, I still liked what I saw and gave the ballpark a decent ranking of #13.  It does not, however, have the modern stadium amenities necessary to get a higher ranking (the ballpark opened in 1973).

After I picked up Josh at the St. Louis airport we went to the Cardinals-Mets game at Busch Stadium—#22 on my list!  I was VERY impressed with the ballpark and ranked it a strong #4.  The outside is made from beautiful red brick and the backdrop behind center field is highlighted by the Gateway Arch.  The Mississippi River is also visible from certain parks of the ballpark.  More specifics to follow in my facebook album later.  Down to just 8 stadiums remaining now!

And after 8 more hours of driving today, the total for the trip now stands at 33.

After a grueling day of driving yesterday, today was mainly a day to rest and enjoy Denver.  I thought downtown Denver was pretty cool and I hung out there most of the afternoon.  For a big city it sure did have a small town feel.  But of course the highlight of the day was going to the Rockies-Padres game at Coors Field—stadium #20 on my list!  It’s not everyday that I can see a new baseball stadium in person, so when it does happen it’s a very big occasion.  Whatever trepidation I felt about this trip yesterday was gone as soon as I saw the ballpark.  Going to baseball stadiums make it all worth it—it’s what I do (see my blog posts under the category of “Stadiums”).

I went to Coors Field two hours before gametime to see batting practice.  I walked all around the stadium taking pictures from all different angles, which helps me to rank stadiums later on.  Once the game started I drank a Coors Light because…well, it seemed like the appropriate thing to do there haha.  I also found out that stadium employees here allow fans from out-of-state to try out different seats during games for an inning or two if they are persuasive.  ;)  I thought Coors Field was nice, but I have seen better.  Unfortunately the ballpark does not face downtown Denver, so the backdrop is not that great.  I will be ranking the stadium as #14.  I also plan on writing more specifics about the ballpark at my baseball stadium facebook album later in the week.

After I left Coors Field I hit the road again on 70 East to get a little closer to Kansas City, where I will be going in the morning.  I ended up driving 5 hours to Hays, KS, bringing the trip total to 25 hours.  It was pretty obvious that I’m at the Plains states now, as the highways are flat and straight and there’s a lot of farmland.  It sure does make for an easier drive, so I’ll take it.  I also appreciated the fact that there are lots of towns and rest stops along 70 East.  I had cell phone reception the whole way and there were plenty of opportunities to exit the highway for gas and food.  I won’t take that for granted anymore after driving through Nevada and Utah yesterday! 

Tomorrow I’m also going to a Cardinals game in St. Louis after picking up my brother at the airport.  Big day ahead!

Today I realized just how crazy what I’m doing is.  I knew it wouldn’t be easy to pack up my car with everything I own and drive 40+ hours, but [despite the warnings] I didn’t think through how grueling this would be.  But I’m glad I went through with it after all because, well, I always like having a story to tell. 

The plan for today was to reach Denver, one of the main destinations of the trip.  I left the isolated town of Tonopah at 7am PST and again headed east through the Central Nevada desert on Highway 6, a.k.a. The Great Basin Highway.  This time I could see the roads, as it was now light out, but even then there were little signs of life.  For about 100 miles I had no FM radio signal, no cell phone reception, and I saw only a handful of cars—maybe one every 10 minutes.  Interestingly though, I did pass a military weapons testing range.  There were no rest stops and no gas stations until I finally reached the small town of Ely, NV.  I don’t think I was ever so happy to find a McDonald’s.    After leaving Ely, I would then experience the same roughly 100 mile drought again until reaching the town of Delta, UT.  All throughout each remote stretch I just kept hoping that I wouldn’t run out of gas or break-down—because there really wasn’t any way to get help.  But of course everything turned out fine since I’m writing this now.

Highway 6 became Highway 50 (in Utah) and then eventually Highway 70 (in Colorado).  After passing through the small towns of Salina City, UT, Green River, UT, and Parachute, CO every couple hours, eventually I reached a populated city—Aspen, CO—about 11 hours after originally leaving Tonopah.  Up through Aspen I was very fortunate to have encountered great weather and great scenery the entire day.  In fact, I saw [quite literally] nothing but blue skies, white puffy clouds, and the mountain side in each state.  The only difference in each place was the color of the mountains.  In Nevada the setting was desert-like, as the mountains were sandy and barren-looking.  In Utah, however, the mountains were greener and more colorful.  And in Colorado, the setting was the greenest and most beautiful of all—especially at Aspen.                                                                                                                              

After Aspen, though, things got a little rough.  Road construction and lane closures added time to the drive.  And then I encountered a lightning and heavy rain storm.  I pressed on through it, but that was a lot harder to do on the sloping and twisting highways of Colorado.  Then my phone died.  I tried very hard to overcome the problems and still make it to Denver in time for Monday’s Rockies-Padres game (including hitting 100 on the speedometer for the first time haha), but in the end nature and traffic just did not allow for it.  I arrived at the baseball stadium when the game was pretty much over.  But fortunately the same two teams are playing again Tuesday night, so I’ll get another chance.

My cross country trip is now underway.  Today I loaded up my car with all of my possessions and said goodbye to my roommates at 3542 Corte Bella Dr.  It was especially hard to leave my good friend Winston, the coolest 2-and-a-half-year-old I know.  We played with his new airplane and took some pictures together before high-fiving and then waving goodbye to each other (our customary practice) one last time.  I’ll for sure miss him. 

I left the house late because I put off packing until the last minute (I was having too much fun going out with friends all week!), so I only got in about 6 hours of driving time today.  My first stop on the trip was at Yosemite.  I was very amazed at how big the park was; seemed like it took a couple hours to drive all the way through it.  And of course the scenery was spectacular.  It was really dangerous though how on the way there the roads are so winding—and on cliffs.  Drivers better be paying 100% attention there for sure.  Speaking of concerns for drivers, regular gas was $5.09 in Yosemite!  What’s up with that??    

After Yosemite, I drove to Nevada on Highway 6 in total darkness.  It was kinda scary because it was hard to see the road–which had a lot of dips–and for the most part there were no other cars or signs of civilization at all.  Finally I reached the town of Tonopah in Central Nevada (I think about 250 miles from Vegas) and decided to get a hotel room here, figuring there might not be another town for many miles.  Finding a gas station was also a welcome sight.

Tomorrow the plan is to reach Denver in time for the Rockies-Padres game.  I’m also looking forward to Wednesday when my brother Josh will meet me in St. Louis to see another baseball stadium on this trip!