A Baseball Road Trip-Part 1

On Wednesday July 7, I left my little Southern Kentucky town on a 4 day solo vacation that was really 2 trips in 1. The first part of my excursion was venture to a two major league baseball parks in 2 days.

I turned left onto I-65 and headed north about 9:45AM. My destination was Milwaukee WS. I had a ticket for the Brewers game at Miller Park against the San Fransisco Giants at 7PM.

My first memory from this trip came into view along I-65 in between Indianapolis and Chicago. For about a 5 mile stretch to either side of the highway all I could see were white wind turbines. The interstate went directly through the Earl Park Wind Farm in Benton County Indiana. It was an amazing sight. Like I said slick looking wind turbines as far as the eye could see.

Once I got to Chicago I went through the city on their toll road. While the most direct route through the city, I had to go through 5 toll booths and pay a total of $6. On the way back I took a different road.

After I got through Chicago and headed toward Wisconsin I noticed the sky was clouding up. I knew from looking at the weather forecast there was supposed to be rain showers. I was worried at first but then realized that the Brewers' stadium had a dome. A rain out was not a factor. Still rain had an effect on my day.

As I got into Wisconsin the skies opened up and it poured. For the next hour to hour and a half the rain came down in sheets. I had to slow down traveling no faster than 40 mph. The water pooled on the highway splashing up into the my wheel wells slowing me down even more. At times the only thing I could see were the taillights of the car in front of me.

Finally about 30 miles outside of Milwaukee the skies cleared and the rain slowed to a sprinkle. I tuned into a local radio station to catch the traffic information. The weather reporter said that the rainfall had been measured as 3 inches in about 90 minutes. That was a lot of rain.

The exit to Miller Park was easy to find using my GPS. The road to the parking lot was just a turn or two. The cost of parking was $8. The handicapped parking spot I found was less than 50 yards from the stadium gate.

By the time I parked it was raining pretty steadily again. As I sat there looking out my windshield at the Miller Park sign (see picture above) I realized that this was the first time I'd been to a major league baseball game that I didn't have to worry about the rain. I retrieved an umbrella out of my back seat and headed inside the park.

The gate I went through was right in front of the section where I was going to sit. My ticket was for section 117 row 15 seat 10. It was right behind home plate. It was a great place to sit. The only thing was that it was right in the middle of the row. I knew during the game if I wanted to get up and go somewhere it would be a hassle having to get past the people in the seats on either side of me.

I was the first one in my row to arrive. I sat and took some pictures and then decided to go look around. I was hungry too so dinner was on the agenda as well. I explored the entire ballpark, walking around the concourse. I took pictures of the various views of the field and had someone take a picture of me. I bought a hot dog and a brat. I ate them both (but not the buns) back at my seat.

The game held lots of promise. Cy Young Award winning pitcher, Tim Lincieum, was the starter for the Giants. I'd never heard of the Brewers starter, Chris Narveson, but I was hoping it would be a good game. Well those hopes would be dashed extremely early.

In the top half of the first inning the Giants hit Narveson up for 4 runs off 3 home runs. Later in the 4th they would score 7 runs including a grand slam by 1st baseman, Buster Posey. The Brewers managed a couple of runs on a homer by Ricky Weeks and a late inning sacrifice fly.The game ended with a 15-2 score.

Of course since I was there alone I was sitting among people I didn't know. I tried to talk to them throughout the game. The couple to my right weren't so receptive. The couple to my left were from Tampa, Florida. They were very nice to talk to.

During the game the weather outside cleared up a bit so they opened the roof. It was a novel sight to see. I was glad they did it because it was very humid with it closed. Although it did drizzle a bit when they first opened the roof it was cooler and rather nice. The game was over about 10PM. I did some souvenir shopping. I got a pin with the name of the park on it and a refrigerator magnet with the Brewers logo on it.

My night concluded with my checking into a Motel 6 near the Milwaukee airport. I made the reservations online and had no idea what kind of hotel it was. It turned out to be a real fleabag.

I wouldn't let my dogs stay there if I had a choice. But I was tired and it was only for one night.

When I got to my room the air conditioning was not on and the room was really hot. The AC unit was a wall unit that was not very good and it was very noisy. I turned it on, moved one of the beds down in front of it and tried my best to get to sleep. It was after 1AM when I finally did.

Nevertheless, as I did go to sleep I thought back on the day and my wonderful experience at Miller Park. I really had a great time. I couldn't wait for the next day when I'd go to see the White Sox play in Chicago.