Salem Day 5 cont..../Tri-City Day 1

I couldn't finish off Salem-Keizer without letting you see how strange their mascots are. This first guy is named Crater and is their regular mascot. They are called the Volcanoes, hence "Crater". However, I don't really see any resemblance to anything volcano here. He just looks like a freaky, baseball headed, dinosaur bodied freak. In Spokane we have Otto (pics to come). He is a big furry spokanosaurus. The kids like him. I'm pretty sure Mia would not have anything to do with this guy. Anyway, here he is.


Now on to the other guy. I think it was the second day there, they announced that the FAA just cleared Roof Man to land. I kinda wondered about that, but soon forgot. An inning later I hear a brutal rumbling sound from what sounded like a tiny speaker turned up WAY too loud. All of a sudden up on the roof appears this red costumed guy. Roof Man! I thought we were pushing it with Recycle Man (pics to come), but then I see this......


He stands on the roof in the middle of one inning and just throws out t-shirts. The fans love Roof Man because he gives out stuff. Our fans hate Recycle Man because all he does is pick up your recylables and puts them in the recycle bin. Recycle Man is pretty much Roof Man in a blue suit with a cape added. These are actually pictures from our last night there. I waited every day for him to return, but I guess he can only come out a few times a week. The FAA must be getting stricter....

I'm glad we don't go back there.

Anyway, this morning we leave the hotel in Salem at 8:00 to drive to Tri-City. Our hotel is in Kennewick. When we were arranging everything I asked what time would be ok for us to arrive to be sure our rooms were ready. They said 12:30 would be fine. How did I know it wouldn't? We pull in at about 1:00 and I head up to the desk. I tell the lady "Spokane Indians" and she replies with "of course you are....". That's not good. She proceeds to tell me that she can give me the keys and the rooms should all be clean. But they might not be. If the rooms aren't clean the guys can drop their bags in there and walk next door to the mall while they finish them. No big deal right? I pass out everyone's keys and tell them what's going on. Get back to the front and she says that two of the rooms haven't even checked out yet and apologizes over and over. The two rooms? Tim Hulett, the manager of the team, and mine. Brutal! At least there was a mall next door.

Here are a few pics of the room here. We aer staying at a Red Lion.





Last, but not least, here is a picture of the TV in the room. Somehow doesn't fit in.


That's all for now. Bus at 4:00. We won again last night. New winning streak continues tonight.

Salem Day 5/Hotel

Finally the last game here in Salem-Keizer is tonight. Sorry Keizer, I haven't been giving you enough credit for being boring along with your partner city Salem. I finally got to sleep in today now that I found that "do not disturb" sign. I got up about 10:30 and at about noon went with JT to grab a bite to eat. We decided on Taco Del Mar because the other options were Denny's (tired of that place) or Panda Express (JT's tired of that place). I had the burrito/taco combo. Decided on chicken burrito and steak taco. The chips and salsa were surprisingly good. I would definitely recommend that salsa, tasted like home. Overall, it wasn't bad, I'd eat there again. After that we walked next door to Wal-Mart and walked around a bit. I had to pick up a few fantasy football magazines. Got a few upcoming drafts to prepare for. I figured I should do a little bit of research before I head into those things. Then we came back to the hotel.

This hotel is a pretty nice one. Over the years I have generally figured the nicer the hotel, the less there is to do near it. (Examples: Jackson, MS-Great Doubletree Hotel, not too many food options and no taxis. Savannah, GA-Brutal Days Inn, mall across the street and tons of fast food and restaurants. Same with Birmingham, AL.) That kinda fits with this one. We are staying at a Comfort Suites. It is clean, nice, and the staff is friendly. The only gripe I have is the hiding of the DND sign in the closet! Seriously, when have you ever seen that? Brutal. Here are a few pics of my room. I finally got the camera working again. The only cost was ALL the pics I took at Nike.


Above is a view from the door looking in. The back half has a nice, big bed with the TV and the a/c. The room is separated by that little half wall thing. In the front half is a desk, couch, chair, table, and desk which you can see below.

Right when you walk in that door the bathroom is to one side and the other side has the closet along with a small fridge and microwave. It is a small room, but it has a nice layout and is comfortable. On the road, depending on the game time, we will have a bus between 3:15 and 4:00. It is pretty important to have a comfortable hotel and/or something to do near it because we spend the majority of the day there.

It's 3:30 and we have a 4:00 bus. Gonna do most of my packing now. We have an 8:00 am bus tomorrow for Tri-City, WA for a 3 game series.

I will try to get some pics of the mascots here tonight and put them up. Pretty interesting to say the least.....