Day 8 Addendum

Two things I forgot to mention yesterday:

The camera did a good job of making me look tan, but my face was/is pretty red. Fortunately, I was able to shave without too much pain. Shaving while sunburned is punishment for shoplifting in some countries!

Official Waffle House(!) count for the Omaha-Kansas City-St. Louis journey: 2. I did see a highway sign for a third Waffle House, but without seeing the actual building sign or the building itself, I can't include that one in the count. That's just the rule.

Day 8: Omaha, Kansas City, & Waterloo, IL

Before I left Omaha, I felt I needed to document certain aspects of my stop there. This was my sleeping arrangement: a futon and a Disney princesses pillow. I didn't sleep with the Minnie towel, but I definitely used it in the shower.


After leaving Saturdays games, Sarah and I realized that we didn't take any pictures together at the stadium. So here's a picture of the two of us, to prove that Sarah actually was there the whole time. (Two other things of note: 1) I'm actually not blinking in this picture, and 2) Sarah was nice enough to scrunch down a little so I don't look so short.)


From Omaha, I went to Kansas City to visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The drive to Kansas City was the first time on this whole trip that I've missed a turn. Fortunately, I assumed the museum was downtown, and after orientating myself, I followed the signs for Downtown Kansas City. The museum is on East 18th Street, so after the highway dropped me off at Broadway & 1st Street, it was pretty easy going from there.

Cameras weren't allowed in the museum, which is actually part of a larger building that holds several museums. I was able to take a picture of the sign outside. However, I realized that standing in the middle of the street just to get the whole sign in the shot wasn't a great idea. So you'll just have to trust me that the sign doesn't say "NEGRO LEAGUES HOUSEBALL MUSEUM."


From what I could gather, the block on which the museum is located - 18th & Vine - has a lot of cultural history. Here's a banner for the American Jazz Museum.


Leaving Kansas City, I headed for Andy's place in Waterloo, IL. On the way, I saw a sign for a Sonic. I'm sure many of you have seen the commercials but don't know of any Sonics nearby. I've always felt the same way, and wondered whether or not the commercials were just some big hoax. I needed gas, so I stopped at the exit that had the Sonic sign. Rest assured, they do exist. (And as we all know, grainy photographs posted on the Internet are more than enough to prove something exists.) I ordered a blue coconut slushie, and it was delicious.



I made it to Andy's around 10 PM Central, making this the latest I've been out driving so far. But considering this was my second longest day of driving, that's not too bad. I don't have any pictures of the St. Louis area yet, but I'll work on that over the next few days.

Day 7: Omaha

On Saturday, Sarah and I caught two games of the College World Series. It was very hot, and we are very burnt, but we also had a very good time.

Here's me in front of the new CWS statue.


Here's another shot of me, since I may or may not have been paying attention in the first shot.


Here's the statue without the smiling dork.


Here's Arizona State taking batting practice.


Our seats for the first game were in the third row of the right field bleachers. This establishing shot shows how close Sarah and I were to the action.


Here's Cal-Irvine warming up in front of their dugout.


My first shot of the scoreboard.


ASU taking fungo practice. Hooray fungo practice. (Boo FireFox for not including "fungo" in its spell check dictionary.)


UCI's turn for practice. The Anteaters had several guys who could hit homers to right on a regular basis. A few came really close to us.


UCI warming up in the bullpen.


And ASU's bullpen.


I tried to take pictures of those people I vaguely recognized. Here's Ben Orloff.



Here's the organist, Lambert. My camera didn't react in time before the video panned away from his face.


Here's Cody Cipriano.



And Andrew Romine.



We had to exit the stadium and stand in line to get into the second game - Fullerton vs. Oregon State. Fortunately - somewhat - we wanted to move from right field to left anyways. Here's the back of the scoreboard, as we were waiting in line.


Here's our view of the field from left. We were in the second level this time.


Here's the luxury/press box above the first base line.


OSU warms up.


Fullerton didn't mess around with warmup jerseys.


More fungo-ing.


More poor photography. This was OSU fungo-ing.


This is the first time I took a shot of the flags in center. Sarah says that when a team is eliminated, their flag is lowered.


Finally, some activity in Fullerton's bullpen.


We saw two good games; ASU won 4-3 and OSU won 3-2. Tomorrow is another long day, as I'll be going from Omaha to the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City en route to St. Louis. Unfortunately, I had to scrap a stop at the Knute Rockne crash site. Maybe next time.

Day 5 & 6 Megapost: Washington, Field of Dreams, Omaha

Here's a self portait of Patrick and me watching the Cubs on TV. There's a video of him on my camera, but I'm going to wait until I get home to figure out how to post it.


Patrick tried on my ND baseball hat and sunglasses. He had a little trouble standing still, though.


Thursday night, Mike and I went to see the Peoria Chiefs play.


The lineup would have been useful had I actually found a booth that sold scorecards.


The scoreboard, duh.


When we walked up to the ticket booth, this guy handed us two tickets for free. He wasn't using them and couldn't find anyone who wanted them. When we got to the seats (the tickets were real, obviously), they were in the first row, right behind the third base dugout.


Ryne Sandberg is the Chiefs manager this season.


The Famous San Diego Chicken made a cameo appearance, even though he wasn't supposed to be there until Friday. He did his schtick on top of the dugout in front of us, but I didn't want to take a picture them, because I didn't want him to try anything funny with my new camera.


The guy on the far left is Carney Lansford's son, and is the best defensive infielder in the Cubs system.


Jeremy Papelbon - I still haven't looked up how he's related to Jon.


Shhh - don't tell mom, but I managed to take a picture of the Mississippi river while avoiding traffic on the bridge going over.


The drive to the Field of Dreams was interesting. I apparently didn't go the most popular way. The road that runs past the site is paved in one direction and gravel in the other. My directions took me the gravel route.

Here's the house from Field of Dreams. There was an "Employees Only" sign out front, so I'm not sure if the family still lives there, or if it serves as an office now.


I signed the logbook. I couldn't think of any clever quotes from the movie on the spot, so I just wrote in, "FINALLY MADE IT." Later I added, "IS THIS HEAVEN?"


The field from the first base bleachers.


The left and right field foul poles also serve as flagpoles.


See, I told you.


This message is on the back of the main sign for the Field of Dreams Movie Site...


...and here's the front of the sign.


Another display that talks about the movie.


The corn isn't to high this time of year. That, or Ray Liotta is pretty short in real life.


The view from the right field foul pole.


"RAY LOVES ANNIE." This is carved on the top row of the first base bleachers. Ray and Annie are the names of the characters Kevin Costner and what's-her-face play in the movie.


I don't know - third base.


I did play an inning in the field, but never got to bat. I played at short, sans glove. I had one ball hit to me and misfired to first. The batter-runner tried for second, and I couldn't field a the throw without a glove. Basically, it was just like me trying to play shortstop for my softball team.

The view as I was walking off the field.


It was a long drive, but I did make it to Omaha in time to see the game. Sarah had a pair of General Admission tickets. GA tickets let you sit in the outfield bleachers, and it's first come, first served. They supposedly don't let in any more people than will fit, but of course people didn't squeeze in as much as expected. Sarah and I found a spot to stand until late in the game, where we finally got seats near the batter's eye in center. We watched a good game, as North Carolina came back to beat Mississippi State 8-5. An MSU player did manage to clear the batter's eye with a home run, and it landed less than 100 feet from us.

Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium.


And finally, some action on the field.


What's up for Saturday? More College World Series.