This is probably sacrilege to our friends who have been die-hard San Francisco Giants fans for years, but we are now fans too. After watching the Giants on and off for many years, last year's season totally won us over. The personalities and hard luck stories of each of the players on the World Series team made us watch every single game and cry with joy when they won (or with agony when they lost) each post-season challenge.
When we started flirting last month with the idea of attending a Spring Training game, we didn't really think it would happen. After all, we were looking for tickets less than six weeks before the practice season ended, and these were the World Series champs! Our initial quest was unsuccessful, but ultimately we did find seats -- and great ones -- on a website called TicketsNow.com. We ended up picking tickets for a game with the Colorado Rockies, the team that Art saw the Giants play the very first time he ever went to see a live baseball game, and the Rockies first game ever with the Giants as a new franchise in 1993. The tickets weren't cheap, but we're in the 4th row, right above the Giant's dugout at Scottsdale Stadium. It is going to be a blast.
Of course, we decided to drive and are in our camper with Pepé, who won't miss a trip in the camper as long as we are alive to bring him along. We were quickly made aware of our naivete, however, when we went to make an RV park reservation in the Phoenix area for March. After exhausting every decent campground we could find in our trusty Woodall's guide, we resorted to Grade B, then C.... Finally, when I asked a friendly campground host if she could recommend a place that might have openings, she sent me a very polite email back saying that, no, she couldn't, but we should probably think about making our 2012 reservations as soon as possible. So with that, we scrambled to find a hotel where we will be staying for the three nights we are in Scottsdale. The Phoenix area, in general, is a major destination for "snow birds" from all over the U.S. looking for a warm place to weather the winter months. In addition, there is Spring Training, and several teams call Phoenix/Scottsdale their home during the practice season. Let's just say that we couldn't have picked a busier time to be visiting this area.
Once we made the plan to visit Scottsdale, it also became apparent we were going to be within striking distance of Laurie's mom and brother in Carlsbad, New Mexico, so although this trip is unfolding as we go, we will probably also be making the journey there. And we'll take our time in both directions so, other than the ball game on the 21st, we don't have much of a timeline.
Our main purpose in keeping a blog this time is to record this trip for us. That was a major lesson we learned on our USA road trip two summers ago -- that it was difficult to remember all the places we went without a written record, and having the blog, which we started for our family and friends, turned out to be more valuable to us probably than for them. But if you manage to find this, we hope you enjoy it.
No comments:
Post a Comment