Day Adventure: Dallas

After crashing in Colorado City, Texas last night, we woke early to finish the drive out to Dallas so that we could enjoy the city before the Ranger’s game that night.  We pulled into town a little after noon, and headed straight for some good ol’ Texan BBQ at Mike Anderson’s BBQ.  Everyone got the brisket sandwich, which was delicious.  The meat was nice and tender and the portions were great.  The BBQ sauce also had a great sweet flavor, which went well on the sandwich.  While the sandwich was delicious, my favorite parts of the meal were the sides.  When you order, you get to choose two sides to accompany your sandwich.  You spoon them onto your plate as you head down the buffet line.  The two best were the garlic and cheddar potatoes and the corn bake.  The mashed potatoes were smooth and balanced, but the cheesy corn bake was definitely where it was at.  It was basically corn bread with a cheese topping, jalapeños, and some other spices.  Needless to say, it was tasty.  And to top the meal off, we got free soft serve at the end.

We left our mark at Mike's

            Once we finished our meal, we went to Dealey Plaza to see where JFK was assassinated.  No more than 90 seconds after we reach the square, a man approaches us and offers to give us a tour of Dealey Plaza.  He looks very reminiscent of a person you could stumble upon in Berkeley, and only in Berkeley.  But in reality he was just your standard local who waits to solicit tours of popular attractions to tourists for tips.  Initially, I was very hesitant to accept.  Being, from Berkeley, we’re all used to telling people, “no thank you”.  However, this gentleman, who went by Sherman, lured us in and we just couldn’t refuse to accept.  Once he knew we were in, he started shouting off tons of facts about both himself and the day JFK was assassinated.  Knowing a decent amount of history about the assassination, I can say that he was knowledgeable on the subject, and could have created at least a two-hour documentary for the History Channel.  Sure some facts were stretches, but we could easily identify them and we would just continue on with the tour.  He brought us to all the hotspots: the grassy knoll, the locations in the street where the bullets entered JFK (both were marked by an “X”), and the book depository.  Needless to say, he told it how he saw it, and that was full of conspiracies.  It wasn’t the most traditional story telling of November 22, 1963, but it sure was full of passion.  It was fun to hear a local tell the tale, the stories behind the conspiracies, and his own take on the day.  It seemed only fitting that we received a tour in an unconventional manner, provided that the JFK assassination is still enshrined in mystery to many people.  At the end of the tour, we tossed him a couple bucks and took some photos of the square.

The Man Himself

     After the tour with Sherman, we headed to the Dallas Arboretum for the rest of the time before the game.  We only had an hour before closing, and we contemplated turning back after seeing the $15 dollar price of admission, but the very nice attendant gave us a discount since we were from out of town.  The discount was enough to convince us to enter, and we were in.  There were tons of really cool gardens spread around a lake and we made the most of our hour.  Taking in as much as we could, given the size of the arboretum.  All in all, a great preface to the ballgame later that night.

     

The Thing?

It got 3 stars on Yelp and the 30 or so billboards we saw advertising it painted a picture that dripped with intrigue.  When we reached the exit, we had no choice but to investigate what the thing was.  What we found was The Thing?. 

As soon as we left Joe’s and Cindy’s and got back onto I-10 we started seeing billboards advertising “The Thing?”  We saw one, then another.  And then another…  After we realized that the only 10 billboards we had passed were exclusively for “The Thing?” I pulled out my phone and googled this thing.  After 5 minutes of painstaking research, I could conclude that this was the cheesiest tourist attraction in the Southwestern United States and that we had to go check it out.

We continued on the interstate to “The Thing?,” located in Dragoon, AZ, about 60 miles east of Tucson.  Literally each and every billboard along the way—about 30 or so—were for “The Thing?”  When we arrived at the place all we found was a gift shop, gas station, Dairy Queen, and a few sheds out back that contained the museum tour we would take.  The gift shop had your standard collection of Americana and Native American jewelry and home decorations.  It also sold a collection of t-shirts with various country-themed slogans on them, and lots and lots of fireworks. 

After browsing the store and picking up a $5 t-shirt, we each paid the $1 admission for the tour and began our journey to discovering “The Thing?.”  My research proved correct.  The tour looked like it consisted of a random collection of items purchased at various garage sales across the country, and then put up on display without any logical or aesthetic order.  The attraction’s curator—if you can even use that term to describe the person responsible for “The Thing?”—must have been on some kind of substance when he or she put it all together. 

The first shed we entered had several vehicles in it and an S&M scene carved out of wood.  There was clearly an intended order in which the attraction wanted us to see the “artifacts” because there were giant yellow footprints that we were instructed to follow.  The logic guiding this order is lost upon me, however.  The things we saw in that first shed were an old WWII jeep, then a covered wagon, then a car from the 60s, then a car from the 80s, then a rickshaw carriage, and finally the S&M scene.  The exhibits weren’t even in chronological order.  Each exhibit had a very brief explanation of what it was that incorporate some “clever” use of the words “the thing.”  For example, the covered wagon said something to the effect of, “this was just the thing our forefathers used to travel west.”  But the next shed got even stranger.  There were old Italian paintings, books from the 17^th century, old pottery, and wood carvings.  The things were put into display cases and I remember one case as so bizarre because it had an old printing press in it and a pot.  The only description was “this is a printing press, and this is a pot.”  It was the least educational “museum” I had ever seen. 

Next, we continued along the footsteps and entered the third and final shed where we finally got to see what “The Thing?” truly was!  When my eyes fell upon it I was as overwhelmed by it as I was by the rest of the attraction.  Feelings of fear, anger, sadness and joy all hit me at once.  “The Thing?” was simultaneously the greatest and worst thing I had ever seen in my life.  I wish I could tell you what it was, but that would take all the fun out of driving 1,000 miles and spending your $1. 

While “The Thing?” is incredibly lame and I’ve spent most of this post ragging on it, I must note that it was very enjoyable.  The sheer ridiculousness of the whole thing made it almost too hilarious to bear.  And truly the most mysterious part of it all is, how in the world can they afford all those billboards off of only $1?  This might be something the IRS should check out…

Got My Country On

With Jason Aldean’s “Dirt Road Anthem” playing on the radio, we drove up the bumpy dirt road to Uncle Joe and Aunt Cindy’s house.  From about half a mile out we could see the expansive house Joe had built himself—a structure we knew stored an arsenal of weapons, trucks, tools, heavy machinery, and just about every other toy a man could ever desire.  As we walked up the porch a pack of 5 dogs greeted us excitedly and our hosts welcomed us with arms outstretched. 


After we spent a few minutes getting settled in, the ensuing activities were like a montage of country songs.  We took out a quad and an old jeep-like vehicle to drive all over the dirt trails on Joe’s and his neighbor’s properties.  We then swung by the shed where Joe stores his back-hoe, dozer, tractor and giant water tank.  After lunch we headed out to the wash for a few hours of shooting.  We loaded up a wagon with enough guns and ammo for a small army.  We had pistols, revolvers, a shotgun, magazine-fed rifles, bolt-action rifles, and even an assault rifle.  As a bunch of city boys, we’re used to driving out to a shooting range where the operating business produces a very controlled shooting experience.  Way out here in the country, we just drive down to the wash, set up some targets and fruit and blast away.  The only rules are: There are no rules.  Just kidding parents!  We observed all safety protocols with the utmost orthodoxy—weapons always pointed in a safe direction, unloaded until we reached the firing line, and so on.


For Jake it was the first time ever shooting a firearm and he did great.  For the rest of us it was an opportunity to enrich our palette for guns and hone our skills.  One of the greatest moments was watching Joe’s neighbor, Dan, shoot a watermelon with a WWII M1 Garand rifle.  The watermelon exploded, sending water and fragments in every which way—leaving nothing behind where it had been sitting. 


Four hours passed with the blink of an eye and before we knew it, the sun was coming down.  We loaded the toys back onto the wagon and drove back to the house.  Brad fired up the grill and cooked up some awesome steaks.  After dinner we sat on the porch and saw a filled with stars unlike anything you would ever see in the Bay Area.


It was the perfect conclusion to the most country day I had ever experienced.  Having just written my senior thesis about country music, all that’s been on mind are guns, trucks, backwoods, dirt roads, small towns, the simple life, American flags and so on.  I had been itching for months to put on my cowboy hat and let loose, and yesterday I got to do just that.  Joe urged us to make our next visit longer so that we could play on the heavy machinery and help him build something.  That is definitely something I hope we get to do.

The four of us would like to thank Uncle Joe and Aunt Cindy for so kindly hosting us and showing us a great time way out here.

Post Game Festivities

After the game the three guys and I perused downtown area and discovered that an anime convention was occurring at the same time, which made for an interesting sight.  People were dressed in all kinds of costumes from Japanese cartoon characters to Star Wars characters. After that we made our way to my Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Kurt’s house in Mesa.  We had a great time there spending time with my family and they were so kind and funny.  The highlight of the night was playing Kinect on the Xbox, which is kind of like the Nintendo Wii without a remote.  The Olympic and boxing games were intense and provided lots of laughs, giving us plenty of exercise for the day.

Game 1: Arizona Diamondbacks

We arrived in Phoenix about 45 minutes before game time, giving us enough time to get to our seats.  We sat in the third row of the “Uptown” right field bleachers and the park was pretty crowded and excited to see the Diamondbacks take on the Brewers.  There were also hundreds of dogs there since it was bring-your-pet-to-the-game day.

Our View from the Seats

Stadium - The stadium was very interesting.  It’s an indoor stadium, with a retractable roof, which allows them to have actual grass.  One of the best aspects of the stadium is its air conditioning.  Yes, the park is air conditioned, making an afternoon game bearable.  Although the outside temperature was mid-80’s, the air conditioning was much appreciated.  The stadium is about a decade old, and it looks that way.  The concourse has many of the same brick characteristics in the old park revival stadiums that were built around this time (AT&T, Camden Yards).  From the seats, the stadium looked more like a warehouse with a pool in right field.  Most of this was due to the dome, aspect of the stadium, which was closed when we went.  Yet, the stadium lacked a lot of natural lighting, since billboards covered the outfield windows.  All in all, the stadium had nice aesthetic features, but the Chase Field’s best features were its food.

Food – We were shocked when we stepped into the stadium and the hot dogs were $1.50 and the beer was $4.  The food was all so cheap!  Granted they were on the smaller side, it was nice to see a stadium that didn’t charge an arm for a hot dog, and a leg for the beer.  We all settled at the Hungry Hill Sangwich, which offered different gourmet sausages and meatball sandwiches.  All the food from this stand was amazing.  We had two types of sausages and I had the meatball sandwich.  Although more expensive than the hot dog, we all agreed that the price wasn’t unreasonable and the food had a great price/value ratio.

Fans - The fans were super into the game.  We noticed this immediately when it seemed as if a chorus was accompanying the high school marching band for the anthem.  It was pretty amazing hearing the crowd all sing along with great pitch.  The crowd was also very responsive to “make noise” signs, which made that comeback all the more exciting.  The fans helped to make a great game.

From Left to Right: Jake, Ryan, Naddav, Brad

Final Score: Diamondbacks 4, Brewers 3. Great comeback by the Diamondbacks.

Story of the Day: 5/27

We start the day at 5:45am heading east.  We had to leave early in order to make it to Phoenix for the 1:05 Diamondbacks game.  In the car, we talked out the events for the day, just so we were all on the same page.  We also begin talking about logistics for the trip, i.e. who would pay for tickets, gas, etc.  No more than thirty minutes after we start on this conversation, we get pulled over by a cop.  Here comes ticket number 1.  It’s 8:01 in the morning as the officer approaches us along the side of the car. 

Officer: “Sir, I pulled you over today because you were doing 86 in a 70 zone.  I saw you pass me [while I was giving another person a ticket], slow down for a moment, but then accelerated afterwards.  I’m going to have to give you ticket. What I can do for you is reduce your ticket to only show that you were going 80.  Then you won’t have to come back for a court appearance.”

Naddav (wearing his U.S. Coast Guard hat): “I understand, sir.  If it’s of any help, I’m in the Coast Guard.”

Officer: “Unfortunately, I can’t do anything for you, other than change your listed speed to just above 80.”

The Officer then hands over the ticket and turns to walk away. 

It was hard to hold in our laughter. Everyone except Naddav got a lot of laughs out of it, since the trip was not even three hours old and he had earlier claimed that he would be able to talk himself out of a ticket due to his Coast Guard and campus police department experience.  Instead, Naddav got a $156 lesson on how not to talk your way out of a ticket.  Hopefully, we don’t receive any more lessons in that field.  The only lesson in our future is Naddav’s online traffic course. 

The Beginning

It’s finally here.

For almost two years, my three roommates and I have been talking about going on a baseball road trip the summer after we graduated college.  It began as a simple idea, thrown out over a meal, never actually considered, but always there in the back of our minds.  For a while, I didn’t even know if the trip would happen at all.  Even if it did, I had no idea what it would look like.  Things started to change once our last semester began.  We created a map of the stadiums and soon after, Brad outlined the first road trip plan.  After four plans, we finally settled on one that worked with all of our schedules and brought us to all of the sights and stadiums that we wanted to see.  The trip covers 17 stadiums, over half of the states, and will last 35 days.  We hope you enjoy following along as we travel all 60 million feet, 6 inches.