Sunday morning we awoke to a beautiful day for a ball game. We weren't sure what to expect as the forecast for the day was 60% scattered thunderstorms. So the clear blue skies was a pleasant surprise. The game started at 1:08 PM but we wanted to get there well early enough to get tickets, have a look around and get to our seats. It was a good 45 minute drive into Comerica Park and we wanted to stop somewhere for a breakfast/lunch on the way so to give ourselves lots of time we left the campground close to 10:00 AM. We stopped at a Panera Bread (huge chain all across the country) for a bite to eat. Kris had a souffle and Brian tried the mac & cheese with tomato soup on the side. A tad mediocre to say the least; the tomato soup was like eating a bowl of pasta sauce! Anyway, we arrived downtown Detroit to find the ball park is right off an exit from I-75 and found a $10 parking lot right there to make our exit after the game easier than hoped for. We had a 3 block walk to the main gate and within a block of where we parked the rates had already gone up to $20 so we did ok there and we arrived at the ball park pretty well when we expected, about 11:45, an hour and a quarter before the game.
The main entrance into Comerica Park is very "tiger-ish"...
The ticket agent explained that it was almost a sell out but tried to find us seats "in the shade if at all possible please", eventually recommending a spot in the lower bowl almost directly behind home plate. "No guarantees on the sun" she said because it is almost directly overhead to start the game, but "you should be in the shade for at least part of the game". Ok, a bit on the expensive side at $75 apiece but looked to be great seats. We went in, sought out the Team Store for our usual souvenirs then went to find our seats. Easy... excellent seats but, man was it hot there. The temperature on the scoreboard indicated 91 degrees (and it is barely noon), but it was like the seats were in a bowl, so it seemed hotter. This was going to be a tad iffy as to whether or not we would be able to last very long, maybe we'll get in a few innings at least before we end up leaving. In the meantime, it was still an hour to go before the game started so we walked up the stairs to the top of the section where the seats are all under the upper deck overhang. We picked two seats and sat but within a minute an usher came by and asked it these were our ticketed seats. We explained the situation with our seats and asked if we could just sit there, in the shade, until the real ticket holders showed up. He said "ok but no food or drink". Ok, we could live with that. About 15 minutes before game time, this young man and his son come up the stairs looking for their seats which turned out to be where we were sitting. We got up; they sat down. The little boy appeared to be pointing down into the lower bowl so Brian leaned over and asked the guy if they would prefer seats down closer to the action. "Hmmm, just where are your seats?" he asked. So, Brian took them down and showed them where our seats were and explained that we couldn't sit in that blazing sun for very long. SO THEY TRADED US SEATS! In truthfulness, they now had better seats (not much though) to watch the game and did have a much better chance at a foul ball. BUT...we were very happy....we were in the shade and to top it off there was a nice cool breeze blowing through the concourse behind us. Here's a pic, from center field, illustrating the seating difference...
It turned out to be the best thing we could have done. What a fluke encounter with that young man! By the 3rd inning people were starting to leave their seats and head up the stairs past us into the shade of the concourse. We had several people pass by and comment about how we probably had a couple of the best seats in the place for today's game! The young man we traded with came up in the mid 4th inning, his shirt was soaked with sweat and he said "Man, is ever hot down there!" but he and, more importantly, his son was still happy with the seats! Nice. Around the end of the 7th inning their seats were finally in the shade.
We were so grateful that they changed seats with us that Kris suggested we get a small souvenir for the guy's son. Brian went up to the gift store and came back with a "grab bag". For $35 it was a sealed bag with a baseball in it. The ball was either an autographed ball or a game used ball. On the ball is a hologram sticker with a reference number you look up, on the internet, for details. If autographed, the details provide info about the player who signed the ball. If a game used ball, the details provide info on the game, the pitcher, the batter etc. Brian went down and thanked the guy again and gave him the grab bag. The boy's eyes opened up as wide as ping pong balls and asked "Is it a surprise?". Brian said yes but he should wait until he gets home to open it. We hope he got a really good one, maybe a ball signed by his favorite player or something. Anyway, thank you, whoever you are, for trading seats with us!
Meanwhile, back to the game. We were lucky to see Justin Verlander start for the Tigers...
.... but, unfortunately, for the Tigers, it was not one of his better days (he has had some injuries and is having a particularly off season for his skill level). He gave up a first inning home run followed by a 6 spot in the third to give the Orioles a pretty good lead. That, combined with the Tigers inability to get runners home, as they left 12 runners on base, en route to a 9-3 loss.
We did see something we've never seen before. A foul ball to the 3rd base side of home plate, hit off the upper deck facade and was caught by a guy on the walkway below. About 3 pitches later another foul ball to the same place, off the facade and into the hands of the exact same guy! Some 40,000 fans and this one guy gets two in a row hit to him. What are the odds?
Back at the RV park, we chatted with our neighbour who also had gone to the game with his family. They had been given tickets, from a company he did some work with, along with premium parking right across the street from the main entrance (about 2 blocks closer than where we parked). He told us how it took them nearly an hour to get from the freeway exit to their parking lot (lots of pedestrians and no traffic cops), causing them to miss the first inning and a half. Then their seats were in the blazing son and none of them could stand it so they left after the 4th inning, went to his mother's home on the outskirts of Detroit and watched the rest of the game on a big screen TV. He liked our story!
For dinner we decided to go back over to Mugsy's Grille and Bar, for a large burger and fries (Brian) and an even larger "wet burrito" (Kris) that was way too big for one sitting so half came away for tomorrow.
After this game in Detroit we have 10 days before a Chicago Cubs day game we plan to get to. So we decided to loop down to St Louis, catch a ball game there, do some shopping and get back to the taste of some of that great St Louis BBQ that we like so much :-) We had enough time that we didn't have to rush to get to St Louis so we broke it into 4 driving days of about two and a half to three hours travel each day. As a bonus it looks like we are finally in line for a number of days of sunny weather. It will be hot and muggy though :-(
Monday we headed off on mostly secondary highways into Indiana. Around lunch time we hit Fort Wayne Indiana so decided to find a bite to eat. After driving around the downtown area for a bit we found a parking spot and within a block went into the Dash-In restaurant for pretty good salad and club sandwich. For the night we stopped at the KOA near Bluffton, Indiana. They, like so much of this whole area, have had so much rain and are grateful for a few days of sun for drying out. It was hot and muggy when we arrived and looked forward to hitting the pool. Disappointment time! Nice KOA, despite the water puddles, excellent restrooms but the pool was bordering on disgusting. You can excuse the leaves etc caused by the heavy rains but cigarette butts - not so much. Brian commented on this to the owner. Later when we returned from a drive into town we found a refund slip taped to our door. Brian went and chatted with the owner saying that a little bit of criticism doesn't mean that we shouldn't pay for using the other facilities. This isn't the first place that something was a bit off. The owner said he wants happy customers so gave us our money back. After a bit of back and forth, he agreed to split the difference.
Tuesday, continuing on state highways, we could tell we were getting closer to St Louis and it's all important BBQ. As we entered the small town of Cicero Indiana, we saw a sign for Big Dog's Smokehouse....
.... and just had to give the place a try. It must be lunch time somewhere! This place has all the ambiance one likes to see in a BBQ "joint" but we would rate the ribs and brisket only about a 7.5 or so, out of 10; fairly decent but not great. For the night we stopped at the KOA at Crawfordsville, Indiana. This time the pool was open and was very refreshing, but they could take lessons from the folks back at Bluffton when it comes to restrooms. That's how it goes. That evening we had front row seats to the rescue of a large rental RV. The driver had miscalculated the entrance into their site and actually missed it altogether, instead driving onto the grass beside the site. Well, with all the rain they have had, that particular piece of grass was actually more like a bog and that RV sank in nearly up to it's axles! They had to get a tow truck to haul them out.
Wednesday we joined I-70 west and we'll travel on this interstate all the way to St Louis. For a side trip we decided to go to Paris for lunch. OK, not "that Paris"...
...where after a look around in a very nice quilting store (for Kris anyway, Brian had a bit of a kip in the car) we had another nice salad and club sandwich lunch in the Main Street Cafe. For the night, we stopped at the KOA near Casey, Illinois. Another very nice pool, although all of them could be a tad colder for our tastes. Nice and refreshing anyway. Casey turned out to be a really neat surprise. They bill themselves with the motto Big Things in a Small Town and they have big things in spades! They boast the world's largest Knitting Needles, Crochet Hook, Wind Chimes and Golf Tee...
... along with numerous other "big things" including a pencil, shoes, and a corn stalk...
.... and a soon to be - the world's largest rocking chair. One talented guy who decided to try to do something to bring tourism to their small town. It seems to be working. Very cool.
Also, the KOA at Casey sits beside what is probably the tallest corn field we have seen so far on this trip...
Thursday we continued west on I-70 for a planned 2.5 hour drive to Eureka, a western suburb of St Louis where we'll park the wee trailer at the KOA through the weekend. Well, it was a planned 2.5 hour drive but the massive construction projects along I-70 as it crosses Illinois added at least an hour. In some places the single lane traffic backed up a long way and moved very slowly...
We stayed on the interstate network directly through the middle of St Louis getting great views of the Gateway Arch and coming within almost an arm's reach of Busch Stadium where the Cardinals MLB team plays...
We booked in at the KOA and paid through Saturday night. We'll watch the weather forecast to see if we want to try to take in a Cardinal's game on Sunday. If the weather looks good then we'll extend one more night. After getting checked in we headed to Super Smokers BBQ, a place we frequented when we were in St Louis a few years ago. Man, oh man, if anything these guys are even better than before. They've added brisket burnt ends to the menu so Kris jumped at those and Brian went for a half rack of ribs. WE ARE BACK IN BBQ HEAVEN (or darn close to it anyway)!!!!
Leaving the BBQ shack we stopped at Snuck's grocery store and picked up some pre-made salad fixings for dinner. After that BBQ we won't need much more than that! Back at the KOA we hit the pool. Again could be a tad colder but still refreshing none the less. For the evening we sat outside with our TV tuned to the Cards/KC Royals ball game where the Cards hung on to snuff out a Royals' 9th inning rally, with the tying run on third and the go ahead on second, for a 4-3 win.
Friday was a bit of shopping as Kris wanted to return to the Skif sweater main outlet store, an off the rack warehouse where you can get fabulous sweaters at wholesale prices. This store is in the St Louis area known as "The Hill", an old, and still is, Italian neighbourhood, so while Kris shopped, Brian went down the street for some excellent gelato until Kris showed up with a bag of goodies; two beautiful sweaters and a really cool shirt. Nice. For those not in the know; Skif is the design company that did the sweaters worn in the Matrix movie series. Leaving the Hill, we drove to the giant shopping mall, the St Louis Galleria, where Kris picked up a new swimsuit at Dillard's. After that, it was early afternoon and time for lunch. We thought about going back to Super Smoker's but had heard about Pappy's Smokehouse and it wasn't all that far from the galleria...
... Pappy's bills itself as the "best Memphis style BBQ restaurant in St Louis" and we hoped that the long lineup out the back door would be a good indicator of the worthiness of this boast! Well, about a half hour later we found out for ourselves. The line moved quite quickly and soon we found ourselves at the order counter. Brian had a half rack of ribs and Kris went for the burnt end brisket and they were both absolutely excellent. Yummmmm! The baked potato, potato salad and green bean sides were pretty good as well. Brian finished the ribs but Kris had a fair amount of brisket left over so we got a to-go box to compliment some Trader Joe salads for dinner later.
Back at the KOA we hit the pool. Pretty crowded with lots of kids having lots of fun so there was lots of splashing etc. Oh well, it was quite refreshing anyway. Then we finished off the BBQ and salads with some wine while we watched, on TV, the Cardinals beat the Braves 4-2.
Saturday morning, while viewing the weather forecast, Brian decided to check ticket availability for Sunday's ball game. Well... wouldn't you know it. The entire weekend is a sellout. There were a few seats available but nothing less than $125 per seat and no two seats together. So no game Sunday for us. Too bad, but not a deal breaker, on our quest to see all the MLB parks, as we have already been to a game at Busch Stadium. Instead we'll leave St Louis Sunday morning and take an extra day to get back north to Chicago. Saturday morning was also towel laundry day. Once that was done, we headed back to the St Louis Galleria to have lunch at Nordstrom Bistro, one of our favorite "comfort food" places. Today we both had the Cilantro Lime Shrimp salad. After lunch we had a brief look around the mall, including the Cardinals fan store (but no souvenirs this time) then drove over to Nordstrom Rack where Brian picked out a shirt, followed by a stop at Starbucks for a very nice iced Latte. On the way back to the KOA, we stopped at Artmart...
... a very fine locally owned St Louis art store that has been supplying St Louis area artists for some 60 years. Then we stopped at Snuck's for a few groceries and across the street to Super Smokers BBQ to pick up some smoked turkey to go with another Trader Joe salad for dinner. It was early evening by the time we got back to the KOA but not too late for another dip in the pool before dinner. Still very refreshing in the heat we have been having but this time it was some irresponsible parents who sat under one of the seven "NO DIVING ALLOWED" signs and cheered while their children dove head first into the pool. By some grace, none of them smashed their head on the bottom!
No Cards game on TV tonight but they did outlast the Braves 1-0. We finished the week watching the last couple of episodes of season two of The Wire, an HBO American crime drama series on DVD we brought with us.
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