Take Me Out To The Ballgame-Coors Field

I've been a baseball fan since I was five or six years old, or around 56 years. I still remember my Dad  taking me to Yankee Stadium for the first time.  Walking up the subway steps and finally seeing this massive building and then seeing the baseball diamond inside, is still unforgettable. I can't tell you who won that day, but my Dad used to take me once a year to see the Yankees play and I can still recite what happened on a number of those days.

When we planned our visit to Colorado I did check to see if the Colorado Rockies were going to be home during that time and they were.  I've only visited a couple other stadiums in my life, so this seemed like a good opportunity.  I've been to the old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Camden Yards in Baltimore twice and the old Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

There were five of us going to the game on a Sunday in Denver, my son and his fiancee, my youngest daughter and her boyfriend and myself.  It was a hot day, but we lucked out with seats at the very top of the stadium in the shade. Below are a couple pictures early in the day:

The Rockies were playing the Dodgers, one of the best teams in baseball. There were a couple home runs and some nice defensive plays, but the Dodgers won easily. As you can see it was a beautiful day and we had a great view of the ballpark and everything that happened during the game.  I walked around the stadium and got some other views.

Lastly, I took a picture of the waterfalls out in center field, a close up of the scoreboard, and a picture from the parking deck of the city of Denver.  We had a great time and yes, I did have a hot dog at the game. It was not Yankee Stadium, but it was a beautiful ballpark and a great experience.

Attitude Determines Your Altitude, Unless You're Visiting Colorado

There is a very famous success phrase that your attitude will determine your altitude in life.  It's not 100% of course, but having a positive attitude not only is good for your career, but also your health.  When we were planning our trip to Colorado I looked up and found out that the Denver area is one mile above sea level and it is common for people visiting to temporarily get "altitude sickness." This occurs when there is lower amounts of oxygen at a higher altitude.  I wasn't worried about it, but my concern was that it might be a problem for my wife.

I had spoken to a number of my riders who either lived in Colorado or had lived there in the past.  They said it probably would not be a big deal and to drink extra water and just be aware if you have some trouble breathing.  We drove three hours into Colorado to our daughter's house and had dinner and was up for a number of hours before going to sleep the first night.  

I didn't think about altitude sickness until about two hours later when I woke up and could not breathe.  I'm used to sleeping with a fan on above us at home, but I was now in the living room comfortably sleeping on a couch.  I knew there was air, there just wasn't much of it.  I went into the bathroom and found some. With the door closed, the air that had come from the air conditioner was still in there and I inhaled every bit of it I could.

Coming out of the bathroom I looked at my situation: I wasn't in my house, I didn't want to wake anyone up and it appeared that the air conditioning was not on. So here's the conversation I had with myself:

Positive Jeff: "It's going to be okay. You're tired, you'll be able to fall asleep."

Negative Jeff: "What if I pass out? Should I go outside and get some "fresh air"?

Positive Jeff: "Keep drinking water, relax, this is normal."

Negative Jeff: "You are 61 and you do have motion sickness, maybe this will be serious?

Positive Jeff: "I could spend more time in the bathroom, I know there's air there and I'm going to be peeing for awhile after I finish this whole water bottle."

And, that's when the air conditioning went on! I looked across from me and there was a large vent on the wall a few steps up the staircase.  I walked up there and stuck my face right in front of it and sucked as much air in as I could.  Pictured below was my new best friend:

As it turns out there was one chair at the kitchen table that had air blowing on it, so I sat there for a little bit. Then, I sat down on the couch, put my feet up and could still feel the air when I fell asleep.

The pressure on my head lasted about 30 hours which is normal and I kept drinking as much as I could. I felt much better outside during the time of my altitude sickness.  My wife? She was fine and had no trouble at all.  So, when visiting Colorado the first time and probably any time, for some people-it's the altitude that will determine how you feel.

The Picnic We Finally Had

When I was kid and we went on vacation by car, we would typically pull into a rest stop and have lunch on a picnic table. My mom would make sandwiches and sometimes they would attract flies and bees, especially the egg sandwiches. For some reason, I've always had fond memories of these times, although fighting insects for lunch wasn't fun.  Possibly the most memorable picnic I've had was when I took my youngest daughter to the local park in Edison when she was around 8 years old and we put down a blanket and I think had McDonalds.  She recalls it as "Picnic at The Poop Park." I do remember a lot of geese(?) walking around and trying to sit somewhere that was clean, however I may have ruined picnics for her.

Going on a picnic has been a running joke with my wife for a long time, because she doesn't really like picnics. Naturally, while we were doing six road days and 3,6000 miles with a dog, the idea of  a picnic seemed a lot more reasonable and possible.  There were a good number of rest stops and parks we stopped at that would have been nice and here are a few of them:

The third one had a great view of a mountain if I had taken the picture from the other side.  The first one was just a great park and the last one was a beautiful rest stop where I almost took a picture of a couple having a picnic, but this is a nicer picture.

The good news is that we did have a little bit of a picnic and it was in an unusual place-McDonalds. It was odd, but behind the McDonalds in the left corner were these two picnic tables and we did sit there for a short time. I was not chased by flies or bees and there was no sign of poop either, and there was no shade and also no scenic view.  Still, a picnic is a picnic. Maybe next time...... 

Driving 54 hours in Six Days

It sounds like a lot of hours. It was about 9 hours a day and 600 miles each day.  We did three days out to Colorado, four days there, and then three days back to Myrtle Beach. I did do all the driving, but as a longtime driver and with a couple hours of breaks during the day, the driving was not a problem.  I was looking forward to driving through the mid-west for the first time and I was not disappointed. Here are some highlights and some pictures(my wife and I took) as we went through South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado.

It was very different driving than going north on Rt. 95 towards New Jersey.  We had only one delay of twenty minutes which is far less than traveling North.  There were more trucks, but we did notice a lot  more trucks going east when we were coming home. There was considerably less traffic also which was great.  One of our only location stops was a very nice local park in Spartanburg, S.C.

The mountains and winding hills in North Carolina and Tennessee was the only difficult driving. Arriving in Lebanon, Tennessee, right before Nashville, we barely got inside before this storm hit. It didn't last long, but it was a heavy rain which we're used to in South Carolina.

One beautiful sunrise for you.  I took this picture from the garage of our hotel in downtown Kansas City, Kansas. This picture doesn't look real, but it is. It was amazing to see and I was lucky to be loading the car at the right time.

People always say that between Kansas City, Kansas and Denver there's really nothing to see, but I don't agree. I saw flat lands, farm land, beautiful skies and the wind turbines that are blowing all over as you drive out on Rt. 70. Below is a picture of the wind turbines as we drove alongside them.  On the way home some of the blades were being transported and this is what it looked like as we passed it. They are very large and very important also.

One of the terrific views is below when you finally reach Colorado and about an hour later you start seeing some mountains. Before you know it, mountains are everywhere and I will blog about some of the best mountain views we had.  As I requested, when we entered Colorado, my wife played "Rocky Mountain High", by John Denver. His song is one of two state songs that Colorado has.

The sunrise leaving Colorado was spectacular. I was driving, but this was one of the most beautiful sights we had traveling and there were no mountains.

It was some of the most fun I've ever had driving, even better than the hurricane I once delivered newspapers in or the blizzard I once drove home from work in.  I highly recommend the drive.

DON'T FAKE THE FUNK

We had an amazing trip out west and saw some beautiful and incredible scenery which I will tell you about in my next blog.  However, the most unusual and unique thing we saw was a real fluke that we actually saw it. We were driving up a winding road which was a mountain, when I glanced over to a house that had a mannequin in the front yard. I just barely saw it, but my wife said it was a female mannequin wearing a yellow dress and blue hair. You would think I would focus on that, but next to it was a sign that said, "Don't Fake The Funk." 

I laughed at the phrase, but first thought it was a safety sign that was saying something like, "be careful on the turns." It didn't make a lot of sense, but I was puzzled as to what it meant and why someone would put it in their front yard.  And, what did the mannequin have to do with it?

Unfortunately, I could not get a picture of this and since I am "technically challenged", this is the best I can do below.  Use your imagination and put the blue hair on the mannequin and the words on the sign. This will drive the techies in Colorado and New Jersey and the graphic artist in Highland Park, NJ., absolutely crazy.  They could have put this together in about five minutes.  Just imagine what we saw:

DON'T FAKE THE FUNK

 

We did get a glance of it again on the way down the mountain, but could not get a picture.  Could it be a song? There are a few songs with this name and also some quotes online too.  Here are some of the definitions that I found: 1."You're either cool or not, you can't fake it."  2.  "To perform below one's abilities". 3. "To promise more than you can deliver."   But, here's the one I like most of all:

"To act with a false ethos surrounding yourself  in an attempt to win respect from a certain influential party. Antonym: keep it real."  I agree that we should be who we are, authentic.  However, that still leads to a puzzling question: what did the mannequin have to do with the sign, or did it at all? 

ODIN'S LONGEST VACATION

Our dog, Odin, is a cockapoo and he's about 18 months old.  If you haven't seen a picture of him, this is a good one below.  We joined him recently on a ten-day vacation out to Colorado to visit two of our kids.  Odin had a great time and as you can see below he had quite a set-up in the car with two beds, the car seat and two pillows. 

Odin was able to pee in a lot of states he hadn't been to such as: Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado.  I spared you the pictures of that.  He had a lot of first moments, here  he is after christening the beautiful park at the Arch in St. Louis. He did it all for this special place.

Some of his other firsts were finally getting into an elevator without being dragged inside and learning to go up and down the stairs by himself.  Since we don't have any stairs in our house, we're going to have find some stairs for him to practice on.

He also walked across the Great Gorge Bridge without having any problems although some of us did. He visited his first Mexican Restaurant and paced back and forth watching all the customers.

On the first day, he got to visit Ray's house, the guy who sold shake machines and then bought out the McDonald brothers.  Here he is in the outside sitting area patrolling it and trying to figure out how to escape.  His visit to KFC was more exciting.  It was next to a McDonalds and I took him into the empty parking lot since it was morning and it was closed.  He was probably enjoying the smell of chicken.  I think he was looking for it. However, when he stood on the rocks and pooped, I realized he was looking for grass, not chicken.  Trying to get the plastic bag off the leash I took my eyes off the poop and then panicked when I turned back and saw only rocks.  I did finally clean up, he did not!

Lastly, here is Odin clowning around with his favorite person who is not called, "Mom". Notice our mouths are both open? I'm thinking chicken, but I don't know what he's thinking about.

Can You Eat Cereal From a Plate?

I am back from vacation just a few hours ago and I had to get this blog out to prepare you.  I think August might be the best blogging I have ever done.  I have some great vacation pictures, unusual pictures, and interesting stories.  My wife and I have a dog, Odin, who will of course be featured in some blogs this month also. On top of that, I am having a birthday this month and our 39th Wedding Anniversary also.  And, if that's not enough, at the end of the month, I will be writing about people I have not met yet and my gut feeling is that there will be at least one unbelievable story.

Let me get the month rolling with a question that some of you must have asked yourself at one point in your life, "Can I eat cereal in a plate?" A few days ago when we were visiting our daughter in Colorado, I went to have some cereal and there were no clean bowls in the cabinet.  My daughter later told me that I could have take two steps to the right and opened the dishwasher and taken a clean bowl, but what fun would that have been? I was on vacation, why not use a plate?

Here are some suggestions for you if you decide to try this at home.

1. Do not pour the cereal onto the plate, you have to let the flakes drop slowly only a couple at a time.

2. You can try to build a pyramid of cereal, it may be easier on a plate than a bowl.

3.WARNING: Do not pour milk onto your cereal, you need to let the drops come down slowly. In a bowl I usually pour milk just in one corner and then eat all the cereal out of that corner. On a plate this would cause a flood.  Some people spread milk all across the cereal as you would with salad dressing. Others, may decide to drown their cereal and that is hard to do on a plate without causing a flood.

4. If you pour cereal slowly in the middle of a plate, it will expand and reach all corners of the plate effortlessly.

Here is the picture of my plate of cereal:

The cereal is Kellogg's Special K with strawberries.  This was only the second time I have eaten them and they are pretty good.  From above, you cannot really tell this is a plate, but it is.  It also looks like I had a lot of cereal on the plate, but I didn't.  If you're cutting back on eating cereal, you should use a plate which holds a lot less cereal.

Eating a plate of cereal can be tricky, you have no place to dig into. Here are some tips:

1. Use a spoon unless you feel like you have a better chance with a fork or chopsticks.

2. Take your other hand and hold onto the plate, otherwise, the flood is coming.

3. The true test is the last flakes of cereal.  Have patience as you push them through the milk and somehow onto your spoon.

The goal within an hour is to wind up with a plate looking like this:

Slurping a plate with the last drops of milk is not a good idea. If you take your time, you should be able to get most of the milk off your plate.  This is where a spoon is definitely preferable to a fork or chopsticks.

I hope each morning you go to have some cereal, you ask yourself this question: bowl or plate today? What a great way to start your day!