On a Lot of Driving
Wednesday, July 29, 2026Springfield, VA
Outside the Game:
So, I had gotten laid off in the middle of July. Which was objectively not great. I decided to get in some travelling while I was still getting paid, so I made a quick plan to go down to the Carolinas and pick up the spares that had risen up since the world ended.
This particular day I woke up after another bad night's sleep. I was feeling stress for some reason. It was never properly defined.
I eventually dragged myself out of bed and got started on my daily tasks, taking a late nap and prepping the house for my absence. I got all my bags and headed out around 3 PM, making a quick stop at the post office as I left town.
The drive was not complicated, just long. I took the Parkway to the Turnpike, and then it was pretty much staying on 95 until the end of time. The drive did not begin fortuitously, as while still technically in north NJ, I saw a bird flying across the turnpike get hit by a car and live, only to be completely crushed by the following car. It was a powerful image that would stay with me for the rest of the drive, or at least until I passed another accident just before leaving NJ (with a truck that had clearly flipped a few times and was facing the wrong direction) that got to occupy my subconscious for the rest of the drive
The drive itself--scarring images notwithstanding--actually went pretty well. There was some rain that held things up a little, but I otherwise dodged heavy traffic effectively, hitting the Philly metro area before rush hour and the Baltimore/DC area afterwards. My biggest obstacle was not paying attention to my phone and having to hook it directly up to power on the road, as the long run on cell service constantly giving out directions nearly drained it to nothing.
Nonetheless, I got to the hotel around 7:30 PM, and I checked in and dumped my bags before heading across the street to a big mall to get some dinner before places started closing. I saw a restaurant called "Maggiano's" that turned out to be a chain, but I hadn't had Italian out in a while, and it had to be better than Olive Garden, as being worse than Olive Garden is impossible. And it turned out to be a great deal better. It was a corporate chain trying to emulate mid-scale Italian bistros, and in that, it succeeded. The food didn't end the world, but it was serviceable for what it was, and, as it turned out, I ended up over-ordering anyway.
I called my mother as I waddled back to the hotel. I got set up in the room, caught up on a few videos, and was in bed by 10 PM.
The Accommodations:
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| Wingate, Springfield, VA |
My goal for the night was to get a safe amount south of DC so I didn't have to deal with all that the next day, so I picked a Wingate hotel just off 95 a little over 4:15 from home as the crow flies. Outside of getting put right by the elevator (which didn't turn out to be an issue), the hotel was exactly what I wanted.
The bathroom with tub and shower was just off the entrance to the right. The main room had a king bed, nightstands, and chair on one side of the room and desk, dresser, TV, and fridge on the other side of the room. It was generic, uninspired, comfortable, and clean, so it did what it needed.
On More Driving, Interrupted by a Ballgame
Thursday, July 30, 2026
Fredericksburg Nationals (Washington Nationals) vs. Wilson Warbirds (Milwaukee Brewers)
Wilson Ballpark
Carolina League (A)
Wilson, NC
7:00 PM
Outside the Game:
I slept weird, having odd, inexplicably British-themed dreams that make even less sense in retrospect. I kept waking and falling back to sleep, eventually rising a little late for the start of the breakfast buffet, but I was quickly downstairs for a rather pedestrian offering. Just as I finished eating, a man came in and cleaned the place out. He was sporting second or third-degree sunburn on his face and arms, but milky white everyplace else, and he reeked as though he hadn't showed since he was burned. People literally fled from his presence, and I quickly retreated back to my room, happy I had made it down in time to eat before he arrived.
I went back to the room for some naps. I exercised, showered, packed, and planned for that night, booking a hotel near the ballpark. With another four-hour drive ahead of me, I was out at 11 AM sharp, checking out and grabbing gas before heading back onto the road. I returned a call to a recruiter on the way, and fought with some traffic south of DC partly because the little voice in my phone didn't take me on the express lanes, so I lost a good half hour there.
The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, and I stopped at a Wendy's right around the corner from my hotel at 3 PM ET for a quick lunch and to call the park to see when they open. I then drove around the corner and checked in. I went up to my room and had a nap, then prepped for a bit before striking out to the park. I was originally going to meet a friend in this area tonight, but since their schedules moved, I decided to just go to the game tonight, since I was already there, and meet up with them on the way home.
I took the short drive to the park and couldn't find the lot. I parked on the street to buy a ticket and was informed that there isn't a lot per se, and I should just park on the street. I found a place a block or so from the stadium and jumped out to take pictures of the outside of the park and the Whirligig sculpture park just beyond left field. I saw a batting practice home run clear the fence, and I was able to pick it up in the parking lot, it having somehow managed to avoid damaging any cars foolishly parked in the crossfire.
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| Free money |
I was still a little early, and there was a museum for the sculpture park right there. The Whirligig museum was closed, but there was a small, air-conditioned photography museum in the same building, so I looked around in there for a bit. I had to wait to enter, as the one person who was manning the museum needed to go to the bathroom just as I arrived. I was able to take in the small, but interesting, museum before heading out as the gates opened.
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| Fanciful |
On the way out of the park, I gave the ball from BP to a kid in a blatant attempt to garner some positive karma. I was back to my car just as the fireworks ended, and I was blocks away before anyone that stayed returned to their cars. It was a quick drive back to the hotel, where I did some light paperwork and went right to bed.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home to center, Wilson Field |
The generically named and clearly waiting-for-a-sponsor Wilson Ballpark was a little bit of a generic park in many ways. It had the one layer of seats stretching down from a promenade that circles the entire park under a second level that stretched from first to third base. There's a patio bar and kid's area in left field, a bar area under the scoreboard in center, and another patio area in right.
The view gave it some difference and a bit of dichotomy. The under-construction condos along the third-base line were generic enough, but the Whirligig park in left gave it some whimsy, and the rusted-out water tower in right provided reminders of the industrial past of the city. The mascot, Wilt (the Warbird), and the between-inning entertainments were suitably generic as well, but they kept the crowd entertained.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Corn dog bites and Gatorade |
I did my normal laps of the place, taking pictures and hitting the team store and the concessions stand. I settled on corn dog bites and Gatorade for dinner. I was also able to score the rosters and lineups, as well as a free souvenir cup, from guest services.
I had seats down the first base line, thankfully in the shade as requested. There was a young couple next to me on the aisle, but there were a lot of empty seats around me, most likely from season ticket holders not here for the weekday game. A group of the game's vendor sponsors, all in the same company-green shirts, had a bank of tickets in the next section over on the left and were progressively more drunk as the evening went on.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Nationals vs. Warbirds |
The late-season match-up between the Fredericksburg Nationals and the Wilson Warbirds started out as an incredibly quick affair, but dragged out in the later innings to a standard three hours.
The Nationals started the game with two walks and a single, but didn't get anything across. Wilson went in order. Both sides went in order in the second, and in the third, the Nats went in order, and Wilson almost did, with a two-out error ending the perfect game, but getting put out on the same play to end the inning.
Fredericksburg went in order in the fourth, but the Warbirds got their first hit (an infield "single" that should have been an error), chasing the starting pitcher, before getting a single and nothing else. The Nationals only had a walk to show for the fifth, but Wilson finally got someone on the board with a double, stolen base, and a single, staking them to a 1-0 lead after five. Fredericksburg came alive in the top of the sixth, with a walk, two singles, and an error leading to two runs, placing them out front, 2-1. The Warbirds led off their half with a triple, brought home on a sac fly, to tie it at 2.
Both teams went in order in the seventh. In the eighth, Fredericksburg scored again with a single, double, and sacrifice fly getting the lead back at 3-2. The Warbirds went in order. The Nats went in order in the top of the ninth, but Wilson tied it up with another triple and a single, but despite another walk, they couldn't walk it off, leaving it knotted at 3-3 after the regulation nine.
With the zombie runner on, Fredericksburg went on a tear in the tenth, with two double and two singles brining in four to make it 7-3. The Warbirds were only able to scrape together a couple of walks, and went down with a whimper.
The Scorecard:
Fredericksburg Nationals vs. Wilson Warbirds, 07/30/26. The Nationals won, 7-3.
As expected, there wasn't a home scorecard for the game, so I decided to get some Reisner Scoring reps in with the 7-2 Double Play Small Ball book. It is a small form-factor design that has nine player lines with one replacement and six unnumbered columns with pre-printed diamonds (dots), designed for Reisner scoring only. There are places just for the names of pitches, notes, and summary data on the bottom of each team.
Scoring with the Reisner method again took some getting user to, and I found a very big weakness with the system: It cannot properly handle Manfred Runners. I initially tried to split the boxes for the zombie runners, but I ended up re-writing both zombie runner frames in unused cells and annotating them.
There was a lot going on this game. The visiting pitcher had a perfect game through nearly three. A home batter in the second was clearly hit on the knuckles, but no hit batsman was awarded. The perfecto was blown in the bottom of the third when the third baseman threw wild to first, but it bounded back to the second baseman perfectly, who threw to the shortstop, who tagged out the batter trying to stretch to two. The first hit of the game was awarded an infield hit when it was clearly an E6. In the bottom of the ninth, there was a foul ball at home plate that was originally a 2U-3-4t DP, but the ball was subsequently called dead.
The home team got five strikeouts, so everyone got a free 20 oz. Pepsi from Circle K.
The Accommodations:
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| Days Inn, Wilson, NC |
Since this was essentially a nap hotel, I didn't really splurge, going for a Days Inn just down the road from the ballpark. It was definitely budget, but it was clean and quiet, so whatever. The check-in person was overly talkative, but that was just the capital-S South.
My room was on the second floor, off a promenade. The room had a king-sized bed, night tables and a desk on one side of the room and a dresser, TV, and lounge chair on the other. The vanity was at the back of the room, leading into the bathroom with toilet and tub on the left.
Nothing fancy; it did its job.
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