Travel Home - Day 4

We got up and left the hotel at check out time, which was 11:00. Today the drive was going to be from Vegas to Phoenix. My brother was set to graduate from UTI, an automotive school, on Friday. The rest of my family was driving in from NM the same day, so we were just planning on getting there around the same time. Pretty easy day.

We left the hotel and headed south down Las Vegas Blvd (The Strip) to a place in Vegas that I had never been in all the trips I made to Sin City.....the sign.




I always thought that it was in some faraway place when you first arrive in LV driving in. Little did I know that it was right down the street this whole time!

After taking a couple of pics there, we hit the road. I had heard that crossing the Hoover Dam might take over an hour because of the new bridge construction being so close to finished. I've been over that dam plenty, so we went a different route down through California and across I-10. This plan didn't sound so bad because our hotel happened to be right off of I-10. We stopped for a quick lunch at Quizno's and were off. Not too far into the drive we stopped for some gas, hit some construction, thankfully no traffic, and then this....


I guess it was cool to be in California for a bit. Just added to the states I drove through. We didn't stop until a quick drink/pee break right before turning onto I-10. I think we were on 10 for about 2 miles until....


A few more hours of that road and we were there! Finally a mini-break from driving. My mom and the rest of the crew got to the hotel about 10 minutes before us, so it was perfect timing. The kids and even my sister were excited to be in a hotel. I'm over hotels, so it wasn't anything special for me, but it was fun to be in the vacation atmosphere with them. My sister and I hit up Wal-Mart for some beers and wine for the next few nights. When we got back, it was time for dinner. My mom is an In-n-Out Burger freak, so I conveniently got the hotel right across the street. Of course, we all walked across for some food. It was delicicious. I went into new territory and got a 3x3. Good stuff.
Funny story....my nephew Adrian was done with his food and being a good boy, went to throw the fries he didn't eat in the trash. Nobody really noticed, but then we all heard my mom scream "No!!". All of us turned, freaked out that Adrian was about to hurt himself. Nope. My mom was just mad that he wasted the fries. She might be part crazy.

After dinner, we gathered up a few drinks and hit the hotel pool. It was the perfect time to do it, too. It was probably 8:30 at night, but still in the 90 degree range. Just the kids and I actually got in, but we all hung out outside for a few hours.

Tomorrow....Diego's graduation day!!

Travel Home - Day 3

Now this day is they reason that Kathleen met me out here. Today's drive is from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. We decided to leave kinda early and then we would also gain another hour when we got there because of the time zone change. Toni and Mia skyped me early when Mia woke up and then we got ready and hit the road.

The drive through the rest of Utah was a pretty boring one. There was one exception. We drove through 2 different "speed limit test zones". There were each about 15-20 miles long and here is the test....


That made me pretty excited! Hopefully the test run works and they start raising speed limits across the country.

We drove until right before lunch time and stopped in St. George, UT for lunch.


Jimmy John's has an awesome sandwich if you have never had one. Kathleen discovered it on her last trip to SLC and likes it because you can get your sandwich wrapped in lettuce instead of bread. She needs gluten free so that works great for her.

At the end of Utah, before you hit Nevada, you drive through a small portion of Arizona.


In that small piece of Arizona, you drive through a place called the Virgin River Gorge. I don't know the story behind it, but it pretty neat. Here are a few pictures of it.





Arizona was about 20-30 minutes or so and then we saw this one.


I guess that's an old prospector on the sign. Who knows?

Well, not too long later we finally could see the city. Beautiful Las Vegas.





We had a room for the night at the Tuscany. Nice hotel, real cheap, and right off the strip behind where Bally's is. We checked in and checked out the casino there for a bit. We signed up for a players card and used up some free slot play. I ended up cashing out $15 for nothing. Nice. We then decided to go to downtown Vegas for the afternoon and early evening and then we would be able to do the strip later at night. I taught Kathleen paigow on the way, so we were anxious to try out her skills on the tables. We found a $5 table at Binion's and played there for a bit until we met the part of the Las Vegas 51s staff that runs the show. Kathleen had about 5 pina coladas by then so was feeling pretty good. We ended up going to the Golden Nugget, the 51s visiting team hotel, for some drinks at Vic and Anthony's Steakhouse. A few drinks later we decided since we were there, we might as well eat.


Delicious steak and the biggest asparagus I have ever had! Thanks Denise! After dinner, we walked around the hotel a bit and looked at the pool. They have a water slide there that goes through a shark tank right next to the pool! I gotta stay there one time to try that pool. There are some tables right next to the pool too.


Denise took off and Kathleen and I hit up downtown again. We ended up playing paigow at Binion's more and took a break every hour to watch the Freemont Street Experience show above us. I'll post those another time. I also talked to a guy who was filling the time interviewing people and showing it above the people as well. Here are a few pics of downtown Vegas.





We found this thing that puts you in the crowd at Woodstock.



And finally, can't leave Vegas without a pic with a showgirl!


The camera ended up dead with all the video I took of the shows above us. After we left downtown, we walked over to the strip and walked around there a little bit. We finished up the night playing mini paigow at the Flamingo. Kathleen got lucky, but I couldn't hit anything! We finally headed back to our hotel about 1:00. I went to bed, but Kathleen hit up the Tuscany casino for a few more hours. She decided to take advantage of the short time in Vegas. I decided to take advantage of the Tuscany beds.

Next stop....Phoenix

Travel Home - Day 2

So I woke up bright and early on Tuesday to hit the road. The plan for the day was that my cousin, Kathleen, was going to fly into Salt Lake City and meet me for the rest of the drive home. We have another cousin, Tiffany, who lives there and goes to the University of Utah (boo Utes!!!) so we were planning on hanging out with her for the evening. She is in the dance program and does nothing but dance all day. Hopefully seeing a little family and getting away from the studio will be good for her.

I think I took off driving at about 8:00 or so. If you have never driven through Montana, it is a pretty boring drive. It looks the same through most of it.

The mountains are nice. I'm used to them at home.

After a little bit, I had deja vu and saw this sign.


So I've been driving for a couple of short days and have already been to Idaho twice! The "major" cities that I drove through for the day were Idaho Falls and Pocatello, ID. Not exactly the largest metropolis areas. After a few more hours I got out of Idaho again and saw this nice sign to welcome me to Utah. It's not such a good pic, but take my word for it when I tell you it was cool. Better than all the other states that just say "Welcome to 'insert state here'". It had a guy ski jumping and a nice rock.


The drive the rest of the way into Utah to Salt Lake City was pretty easy. Utah has some beautiful scenery.

Even if you are not a mountain person you have to admit that this picture is pretty cool.

Well, I booked a room at the downtown Marriott Courtyard in SLC and got there about 3:00 or so. This was a pretty huge upgrade from the Motel 6, Butte, and it wasn't a whole lot more expensive. I didn't take pics of the whole room, but it was pretty spacious. However, I did take pictures of the bathroom and sink areas. You know when you stay at decent hotels and they make little things with the towels? Like folding the hand towel and tucking the washcloth in, making one into a triangle and standing it up, or making a little fan out of one. Well, these guys took it to the next level.



Not only was the washcloth tucked into the handtowel a fan, but the toilet paper roll had one tucked in, the extra toilet paper roll had one tucked in, the washcloth on the bathtub had one, and even the kleenex box had one sticking out! Dang! I bet those housekeepers hate folding things into fan shapes.

Kathleen's flight got in at 4:30 and so after I got on the computer for a bit I went and picked her up. We met Tiffany later that night and had a delicious dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. I crushed way too much food (salad, bread, lasagna, chicken marsala, spaghetti, and ice cream). The food was good and the company was better. Tiffany took us back to her place and we ended up hanging out there for the rest of the night. Next time I see her, she will be 21 and we will get to see a whole other side of Salt Lake City. I am not sure what side that is, though. We'll have to wait and see.

We finally headed back to the hotel about 10:30 with a quick stop at Walgreen's for a few things Kathleen couldn't pack in her carry-on. Bed time because tomorrow's stop....Las Vegas!

Travel Home - Day 1

Monday was the first day of the offseason.

I had breakfast planned with the Baseball Chapel chaplain Bobby Watkins at 9:00. I figured 9 was good because it was early enough to get me going and late enough that I could sleep in a little bit. We ate at Perkins and had some good conversation. Bobby used to live in New Mexico so we had plenty to talk about. That lasted about an hour.

I headed to the ballpark next to finish up what I needed there. I finished mostly everything during the last homestand so all I really had to do was the final clean up and pack up all of my stuff. All in all, pretty easy. I finished there in about an hour as well.

Next, I headed home to finish packing up that stuff. Donna, our landlady, was kind enough to do all of my laundry for me so all I had left was to fold and pack. I had pretty much gathered everthing else together and put it over by the door so it was ready to go. I finished packing all of that stuff and then decided to take a nap. Sunday was a pretty long night so I was still tired. I woke up about 2:00-2:30 and figured since I was done I might as well hit the road. Breaking up Tuesday's 11 hour drive into 2 days seemed like a good idea. I packed up everything into the car, said my goodbyes and headed off.

Spokane is right on the eastern border of Washington, so I got to say adios to that state pretty quick. Next state....Idaho


The northern tip of Idaho is a relatively short drive that is mostly just mountains. The beginning part is Coeur D'Alene. Here is the only picture that came out decently that I took while trying to drive. The lake is huge and when you are coming in from the other direction, there is a really pretty view of it.


At one other point, the clouds were in the mountains and here is a nice picture of that.


Next state.....Montana. This sign was on an overpass so it was a little easier to get a picture of.


I stopped for gas and a bit to eat in Missoula, MT and decided to drive about another hour or so to Butte, MT for the night. I decided to take a page out of last year's book and stopped at a Pilot Travel Center and ate at Arby's. That was a standard stop with last year's team in Jacksonville. I was looking for something cheap and easy off the highway for the night so that I could head right out in the morning. The first exit past where I needed to head the next day had a Motel 6 right there. Perfect. Headed in and asked for the cheapest room for the night. Shock then hit me when she said it was $68 with tax. Maybe they shouldn't leave the lights on so much. Plus, this was as basic a room as you get. Tiny towels, no shampoo, tiny TV, no alarm clock. Sheesh.




That was it for Day 1. Next post...Day 2.

I took an extra long time to get home. Any other year day 1 would have been Spokane to Salt Lake City and day 2 would have been SLC to Albuquerque. This was a busy drive.

Until next time....

End of Season

Our last game was on Sunday and we went out in fine fashion with a huge win at home. The home crowd got to see Jason Ogata with the batting title, an Indians win, and a spectacular fireworks show.

The end of the season is pretty hectic for us athletic trainers. Luckily, we got to finish at home so it allowed me to do a lot during those last 3 days that I would have otherwise had to do afterwards. Here are some of the things I do:

Exit physicals - one of the most important things at the end of the year. We have to document and sort of problems that anyone has at the end of the year so that if they need any offseason follow up, work comp can take care of it if is work related. Every player has to fill out a form that has this information. If they say they hurt themselves during the year and it is not on the exit physical form, then that is a problem.

Inventory - one of the most boring things at the end of the year. It is important to get a good count of what is left at the end of the year so that whomever has to make the order for the next year knows what they are working with. It is more time consuming than anything. I was able to do all of that before the last game. Benefit of finishing at home.

Player travel - we are the middle man between the front office and players for their travel home. All of the flight info or driving money goes through me. Once these guys are all gone, it is a huge burden lifted. At the end of the year everyone just wants to go home, so when there are problems it is never good.

Packing up, part 1 - the athletic training room has to be packed up to a point. Things just can't be left out all offseason so cabinets are filled, boxes are packed, and everything is just generally cleaned. Some things have to go back to Surprise to the complex and that has to be prepared too. The small athletic training room in Spokane was easy.

Packing up, part 2 - I have to pack up all of my personal belongings. The ballpark stuff usually fits in one big bag, but this year I had to use an extra side box also. The house having to be packed up is no fun neither. Fortunately, the place we stayed at had most everything there, so not a lot was unpacked. I mostly had to wash and pack my clothes. Fitting it all into the car is also a fun little puzzle to put together. Having to carry baby stuff is a large addition to the car.

I was able to do all of this during the last 3 game homestand and in the first part of Monday. It was good because I got to start the drive home on Monday afternoon instead of Tuesday morning in the darkness.

I will have pics and commentary about the trip home coming up. In real time, I am already halfway home, but in blog time I am just leaving.

Otto 7th Inning Stretch

Mascots are a great part of baseball. They keep the crowd entertained and are usually fun and enjoyable. One of my favorite things to watch is how the mascots move along during the 7th innings stretch. It is pretty funny. They all do basically the same thing and try to act out the song. The "if they don't win it's a shame" and "1, 2, 3 strikes...you're out" are always good parts to watch them do. Here is our mascot Otto doing it.

I did tell him that I was going to record it and that is why he did that little thing at the end.

1st Base Coach - AKA Clark Murphy looking like an idiot

Add another one to the books.....

Money Promotion

All over minor league baseball they are always having crazy promotions to try to get fans to come out to the games. Last night in Spokane, we had one of the coolest ones I have seen. People were able to sign up somewhere leading up to the game and then also at the game for a chance to be in on a money drop. They chose 30 people to do it. Here is the cool thing. They took $2,000 in $1 bills up in a helicopter and then dropped it all onto the field. They let the people loose and in just under 3 minutes all of the money was picked up. The other cool thing was that some of the money blew into the stands and into the dugouts, so everybody that was still around had a small chance to get in on the action.

Here is the chopper landing on the field and the intern getting in to go up and drop the money.


Here is the money falling out of the chopper and the mad dash for it. Sorry it is so bad, but I was trying to walk around and film over people and not run into anybody.


In my opinion, this was a solid promotion. I think $2k in the big picture to sponsor a promotion like this is a good investment. I have no idea how much the helicopter cost. People were crazy for this thing. You could even draw less people and give them a chance to get more money. Plus it was pretty fun to watch. Well done Spokane Indians.

National Anthem

As you can imagine I have heard my fair share of national anthems. I am pretty sure that at the major league level they have tryouts and screen the candidates who want to sing every night. Not so much in the minor leagues. I have heard some people who it seems like they just plucked out of the stands. Some of the oddest ones I have heard have been in the south. Some of those people actually just make up their own words to the anthem. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I would sing songs on the radio based on what it sounded like instead of what the words really were. I figured that I would post at least one national anthem before this season is over. This guy was not what I was expecting.



I couldn't get a good picture of him, but this will suffice. I thought he was going to rap the anthem the way he was dressed. He wasn't the best singer of the year, but he also definitely wasn't the worst. He did know all the words.

There is a sort of running contest to guess the time of the anthem. Every day the over/under is 1:30. That is a standard time. Usually we pre-judge how long it is going to be based on what they are wearing, male/female, if they practice a little, etc. I obviously wasn't at the line for this one, but was told that they all chose the over. Good call.

I would just like to say that it takes a lot of courage to go out in front of a crowd and sing like these people do. I commend them. I know I couldn't do it (mostly because I can't sing). So anytime we make fun of them, we know that they are really better than us....

Yakima Strawberry Lemonade

Being able to travel to all of these different ballparks all across the country like I have been able to do enables me to try lots of different stadium specialties. You already saw the mini donuts in Tri City, which were awesome. Now I have found this little taste of heaven in Yakima that is their strawberry lemonade. This was our second trip to Yakima and I did not know about it before. It is too bad because my wife was here the first time we can and I'm sure both her and our sweet-toothed daughter would have loved this stuff.

Here is a video of them making the drink.


I think that it is the fresh lemons that make the drink. I don't know if there are other flavors because our clubhouse guy, Ack, brought them in every day. I guess it really doesn't matter because I don't see anything tasting better than this.

Here is a picture of the finished product.


If for some horrible reason ever find yourself in Yakima at a Bears game. Do yourself a favor and pick up one of these. It will be $4 well spent.