Phoenix

On The Sort of Thing That Puts a Damper Even on a Cubs Win

Maryvale Baseball Park, 2016

Friday, March 18, 2016

Cincinnati Reds vs. Milwaukee Brewers
Maryvale Baseball Park
Catcus League (Spring Training)
Phoenix, AZ
1:05 PM

Outside the Game: 

The day began okay. I didn't get woken up by either the setup for breakfast or the people leaving for the Grand Canyon tour, so I was in a pretty good place as I got my breakfast (supplemented with no-working pancake machine) and went out for my walk in the park. There were more dogs than average this morning, and there were only one or two tweakers out.

I even had a short drive to the ballpark, as I would be going to Phoenix proper. An easy day was looking especially good, as I was getting pulled a little thin by everything as the trip started to sputter to an end. Yes sir, that's all I needed was a nice, easy day.

After a lazy morning, I drove out to the park and took my pictures and killed time until it was time to line up to get in. The main entrance was packed, so I went around to the other side, and I was the first person lined up in front of the secondary gate, in the blessed shade. After a decent wait, the gate was going to open in five minutes, and I got a call on my cell phone. This is usually not good. It is either my parents with bad news or my work with bad news or my landlord with bad news. But I had told my Dad I was going to call him later that day, and it turned out to be him, so I wasn't really expecting anything except telling him that I would call him after the game.

And then he told me my uncle died.

The youngest of the children in his family, my uncle had a heart attack the year before, but he was working on it, and there was nothing too immediately worrying about the situation. Except that he had another heart attack in the middle of the night and died.

I was cycling through the five stages of grief pretty quickly, but then the gates opened, and I was in the way, and I had to go in. So I numbly gave the usher my ticket and went in, and tried to work out what to do. After getting some pertinent information, I told my Dad I'd call him later, and I went about watching a game I suddenly wasn't too interested in. I was writing this up for the Website I freelance for, so I couldn’t just bail. But I could just go through the motions.

After the game, I went back to my hotel and called my parents again. There was nothing to be done, and the wake wouldn't be until after I was home, but I now had to call work and tell them that after two weeks on vacation, I was going to have to take two days off for my uncle's wake and funeral, and the thought crossed my mind that they might not believe me.

This was the afternoon I was going to mail all of my accumulated crap back to myself. When I did the Spring Training trip last year, I had the added benefit of having my parents to cart back all the accumulated cups and whatnot of my travels back with them instead of me. On my own in Arizona this time, I settled on just mailing all my knick-knacks back to myself. I had bought office supplies earlier on, and I had been filling up the two medium boxes I had as I went. I drove them down the road to the Fed Ex place and mailed them to myself, after exchanging lame jokes with the guy behind the counter about the "Indian pot" that I was insuring. (Because I had Native American pottery, and it was funnier when you called it “Indian pot,” and I really wasn’t in the mood for joking, either.)

I got back in my car and went to the Honey Bears by the airport and ordered a lot of food. A lot of food. And then I stopped at a liquor store and bought a small bottle of something. I think it was Jameson. And I responsibly parked my car, changed into my bathing suit, and went out to the hot tub with my bottle of something and my BBQ.

And I ate my food and drank my booze in the hot tub. And people came, and I gave them some booze and some BBQ, and eventually other people brought more booze, and it was a whole thing. The maintenance guy came by one time, but when he saw it was me and it wasn't out of control, he went on his way.

I don't remember much, but it got me through the evening, and I didn't ruin the hot tub--or at least it wasn't ruined when I left--and I dragged my ass back to my room and passed out.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Maryvale Baseball Park

Maryvale Baseball Park is the only Cactus League park that is actually within the borders of Phoenix proper, as opposed to all of its many suburbs. And apparently this area of Phoenix was a crime-ridden mess until recently, when the park was a cornerstone of the redevelopment efforts. And it is not a bad park, except that it feels decided low-minors as opposed to some of the newer palace parks, without the historical gravitas of the older parks to back it up.

The park is in a residential and commercial area, revealed by the fact that the beyond the outfield wall is a trucking company depot. I did meet a nice feral cat out there, however. The main entrance plaza follows the minor-league model of being wedged between the team store and the ticket booths. Two more (largely disused) entrances are on the other side of the park, furthest away from the parking lots. Across the street from the main entrance are the practice fields where you can hang out and get autographs.

All the entrances dump off onto a main promenade that circles the park above the one seating area. It is regular ballpark seats behind home plate and to the dugouts, then bleachers until the short outfield, and a grass picnic hill is the outfield. The concessions are all on the top of the promenade, so with the exception of the food court area behind home plate, you can grab grub while still watching the game. The downside is that the promenade isn't very wide, so at the entrance and the popular concessions stands, it gets backed up pretty quickly.

An abbreviated second level of press and luxury boxes rises above right behind home plate, providing some welcome shade for those under it. The rest of the main seating area is "protected" by slated overhangs that only provide partial shade until the shadow gets really long. The main digital scoreboard sits out in left-center, and especially for a newer park , it is decidedly a low-tech affair without video.

The Brewers are one of the lightest draws in the Cactus League, and this Friday afternoon game was certainly indicative of that, with the main seating area thinly filled and a few hardy souls risking the mid-day sun on the picnic hill. Bernie doesn't come south, but the Sausage Race does, to the great joy of the crowd, but there were few other between-inning activities of a more average nature.

That said, the fans that were there were there because of the team, so there's something to be said for that.

At the Game with Oogie: 

Braaaat

One thing that I can't take away from the park were the food options. This was no kidding around Milwaukee's best. A brat was a given, as was a container of cheese curds. Klement's Meat Sticks were also on offer for a buck, so that happened.

Cheese curds and meat stick... because

I was only able to get a seat on the bleachers right beyond first base. And I baked. The desert heat was out in full effect, especially considering sunburn would be a great topper for this already crappy day. Judging by the accents, all the people around me were people from the home state down here for the Spring. They were mostly nice, but they did not appreciate me booing steroid jackass Ryan Braun, who apparently was making his first Spring Training start after his suspension and ruining a guy's life. So they can suck that up.

The Game: 

First pitch, Reds vs. Brewers

This Reds-Brewers was not a clash of the titans by any stretch of the imagination, but it kept moving at least, sparing me from being cooked alive.

Things started quickly, with the Reds getting a one-out, two-base error in the top of the first. A single brought in the run, but a grounder back to the pitcher erased the lead runner on a fielder's choice. A two-out homer then brought in two runs to make it 3-0, Reds, at the end of a half. Not to be outdone, the Brewers started with back-to-back singles to make it first and third. A double brought in a run and left it second and third with no outs. A one-out grounder to short brought in another run, but a strikeout ended the first 3-2, Reds.

The second slowed down, as the Reds went in order, and the leadoff single for the Brewers made it no further than third. The third inning began with a single bunted over second and then over to third on an error by the pitcher. A single brought him home, but a double-play ended the half 4-2, Reds. The Brewers, for their part, went in order.

The Reds stranded a leadoff double in the fourth, while the Brewers had a leadoff homer and nothing else, ending the fourth at 4-3 Reds. Cincinnati stranded two in the top of if the fifth, but the Brewers had a two-out rally, with a single that stole second and made it to third on a wild pitch. All of this was made moot by a triple that brought him home, tying us up at 4-4.

The Reds went in order in the sixth, but after a leadoff single was picked off first, Milwaukee converted a one-out double who stole third and was brought home on a sacrifice fly to right to take the lead, 5-4. The Reds tied it immediately back up in the seventh on a one-out single that stole second and was brought in by a two-out single. The Brewers made a run in the bottom of the seventh, but were foiled at every turn. A leadoff walk was erased in a double play. A two-out walk stole second and was followed by another walk and a double steal, but a strikeout ended the threat.

The eighth opened with a walk for the Reds, and one-out hit batsman made it first and second. A walk loaded the bases, and a short double brought in two runs to make it 7-5, Reds. The Brewers only mustered one walk in the bottom of the eighth, and the Reds went in order in the top of the ninth. With their last licks, Milwaukee began with a single that got to second on a passed ball. A fly to deep right got the runner to third, and a walk made it first and third with one out. A grounder to short got the runner from first, but one run scored to close it 7-6, but the last-chance pinch hitter looked at strike three to cement the pointless victory for the Reds.

The Scorecard: 

Reds vs. Brewers, 03/18/16. Reds "win," 7-6.

The scorecard was part of the $5 (going to charity) full-color magazine program. However, the centerfold scorecard wasn't on the magazine paper, but rather heavy-weight paper. There was even a full-page instructions on how to keep score. And the scorecard was nothing to sneeze at. It was a Scoremaster variant with full batting and fielding stats, with room for notes, a line score section, and a full game stats box. Although, I will say, this particular day, I was in no mood to fill out the endless stat boxes after the game.

There was a double-steal in the bottom of the seventh, I used the pitchers' spot generically in the lineup, but otherwise, it was just a deceptively high-scoring game with not a ton out of the ordinary. Double-switches had me using reference letters several times, but that was mostly it.

The Accommodations: 

My adventures at the hotel were detailed above. There was no particular drama beyond that.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2016 Cactus League

Surprise (Royals)

On Learning I Had No Idea What a Taco Really Was

Surprise Stadium, 2016

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Milwaukee Brewers vs. Kansas City Royals
Surprise Stadium
Cactus League (Spring Training)
Surprise, AZ
1:05 PM

Outside the Game: 

I was woken up again by the tramping of another tour group meeting outside my room far too early in the morning. This put a grumpy haze over my morning throughout breakfast and my post-breakfast constitutional, which had too many tweakers and not enough dogs. I went again to the gas station market across the street to grab some water to last me before I got into the stadium, as that worked out pretty well previously. I trudged back to my room to get showered and lie on the bed passive-aggressively until it was time to go to the park.

I headed out to Surprise and parked in the big lot by the main entrance, got out to do my pictures and whatnot, and was quickly ushered in when the gates opened. The drive back to the hotel was without incident, and on the recommendation from the hot tub, I went to the taco place, Birrieria El Gordo. This was the second of the recommendations, and since Honey Bears worked out so well, I was particularly excited to try this one out.

I was forewarned going in. This was a hole-in-the-wall place with a weird schedule, and they no habla ingles. The guy said it was well worth it, so I decided to give it a shot. Upon walking in, I could hear the guy behind the counter roll his eyes, thinking that here comes another gringo. I tried a little Spanish, but they either pretended to not understand, or, more likely, they really couldn't understand my crappy pronunciation. So, I went to the tried and true "point and use fingers" method to order up some tacos. That seemed to satisfy them, so they served up some tacos in a bag. I decided that I should probably get this to go and went back to the hotel to eat.

Holy crap, these were the best tacos I've ever had by far. It wasn't even close. It was well worth the cultural awkwardness to eat these tacos, and I generally don't think anything is worth that kind of embarrassment. The experience has completely redefined tacos for me.

After dinner, I decided I had to do some laundry, so I put a load of clothes into the machine and spent my time waiting to switch to the drier while in the hot tub. That worked out better than I expected. By the time the laundry was done, I was about done with the hot tub anyway, so I went back to my room to fold clothes, do paperwork, and hit the sack early to try and prepare for getting woken up again the next morning.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Surprise Stadium

Let's get this out of the way: it is fun to say "Surprise!" You can't help but be a little enthusiastic when you have to say you're going to "Surprise," especially when you get to say it twice, because you are going to "Surprise Stadium" in "Surprise, AZ." So, in summation, it is fun to say "Surprise!"

With that out of the way, this is one the stadiums that I was dreading the most, as it was shared between the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals, who had, six months ago, ripped out my soul and trod upon it while beating the Metropolitans in the World Series. It is not that I held them any particular ill-will. The Royals had suffered even longer than we had, and their fan base are nice enough folks. But there still was a sense of dread on this one.

The park itself is a modern Spring Training construction in a sprawling desert complex with the stadium in the center of two large practice facilities (one for the Royals, and one for the Rangers) on the that team's side of the park (first base for the Rangers, and third base for the Royals). Each practice area mirrored the other, with a main center scouting tower surrounding a complex of the main practice fields, with minor league practice fields in the periphery. One bit of good news is that while I was blearily walking around the entire complex, I found an unclaimed home run ball that had cleared one of the Royals practice fields, so I had that going for me.

Free ball!

The stadium had three entrances. The main entrance was at home plate, flanked by the main ticket office and the outside team store. There are also entrances at first and third base. All the entrances empty out onto a main promenade that circles the stadium above the seating bowl. All the seats are proper stadium seats, and they run into the short outfield. One large picnic hill extends the length of the outfield, with the main video board behind the hill in left-center, and the "Home Run Porch" covered eating area behind it in right-center field. A second row of party decks, luxury boxes, second-level seating, and press boxes rises above the lower area from first base to third base around home plate.

The concessions and team store run along the promenade, in the blessed shade under the upper deck, and out in the open in the outfield. There are auxiliary team store tents in the outfields, as well as cart-based concessions. There are a number of memorials in the park. The field itself is named "Bill Parker Field," Buck O'Neil and Art Stewart get honorary seats, the Surprise Hall of Fame is on the walls in the covered promenade, and baseball quotes are on signs on the promenade. The Royals and Rangers have corners in their respective outfields, with the Royals proudly displaying a World series champion plaque, while the Rangers, pointedly, do not.

The Royals' lion mascot does not make the trip down, and the between-innings frivolities are kept to a minimum. The Rangers did pack the place, but there is no indication if this is due to their recent fortunes, or if the die-hards had been showing up every year. But they made noise and were paying close attention to the action on the field.

At the Game with Oogie: 

Shade scoring

I got seats right behind the third-base home dugout for the game. I was, of course, completely surrounded by Royals fans. They're an amenable bunch, however, so I resisted the urge to pick a direction and start stabbing. One of the older gentlemen next to me deciphered the Brooklyn Cyclones hat and asked me if I was a Mets fan, and he told me no hard feelings for last year, which was nice, but doesn't give me a damn World Series ring.

Chuckies sandwich

For food, I started out at a cart that apparently was really popular called "Chuckies," which just sold pork sandwiches and waffle fries. There was a complex ordering procedure, where you had to pay and get a chit and then turn in that chit for a sandwich. I was there right when they opened, so I guess I didn't have to deal with the lines that clearly necessitated such a process. To be fair, it was quite good.

Brat and souvenir soda

Still having some space before the game, I grabbed a brat and slaw and a souvenir drink before the start of the game. The soda would be useful during the first few innings, where I was baking in the sun before the shadows finally and gratefully overcame my section.

The Game: 

First pitch, Breweres vs. Royals

In my heart, I suppose, I was rooting against the Royals after what they did to me soul last year, but it was hard to actually hate them. They were just the better team. At any rate, this afternoon was the World Champs against the bottom-dwelling Brewers, but it was closer than the contest on paper might suggest.

Milwaukee came out swinging in the first, with a leadoff double and following single to bring in the runner. A one-out single made it first and third, and another double brought in two runs. The next batter singled in the runner from second, and just like that, the Brewers were out to a 4-0 lead at the close of a half-inning of play. The Royals threatened in their own half, with two singles and a walk loading the bases with one out, but a double-play ended the scoring threat.

The Brewers went in order in the second, but Kansas City came back with a two-out rally in the bottom of the inning, with three straight singles and a double driving in three runs to close the Brewers' lead to 4-3. Milwaukee went in order again in the third, whereas the Royals had a leadoff homer to right to tie up the game. In the fourth, the Brewers went in order, while the Royals kept scoring. A leadoff walk was followed by a single. Two outs followed, but the grounder to third to end the inning got thrown away and loaded the bases. A wild pitch scored a run and moved everyone up, a walk loaded the bases, but a fly to left ended the threat at 5-4, Royals. That lead lasted a half inning, as Milwaukee got a one-out single in the top of the fifth, moved the runner over on a ground out, and scored a two-out single to tie it back up at 5. KC went in order in the bottom of the inning.

Milwaukee retook a 6-5 lead with a homer to left in the top of the sixth, but the Royals tied in back up with their own leadoff homer to left in the bottom of the frame. Both teams went in order in the seventh, and the Brewers only had a walk to show for the top of the eighth. However, the Royals skirted ahead again in the bottom of the inning with another two-out rally of a single and a double to take a 7-6 lead. The Brewers went in order in the top of the ninth, and the home-town fans went home happy with a pointless 7-6 Kansas City victory.

The Scorecard: 

Brewers vs. Royals, 03/09/16. Royals "win," 7-6.

The scorecard was the centerfold of the mini-tabloid, full-color, magazine $1 program (branded for the Royals). As you might imagine, it was largely useless with pencils, especially the colored variety. But the suck did not end there. While there were not advertisements to make the space smaller, they neglected to even put in pitching lines. I had to add them in manually along the bottom.

(One other amusing note on the program is that they copied the stadium map for the Cactus League directly from the Cactus League Website. Not only is it obviously the same map, but they actually left in the "Roll over each stadium name for more information" line in the program. [I did try; it did not work.])

All that said, this was a pretty unexceptional game scoring-wise. There was scoring because of sloppy play in the bottom of the fourth, but beside that, it was a pretty average game with an exciting ending for the home team.

The Accommodations: 

The maintenance guy showed up again this evening while I was doing laundry to fix the non-critical things in the room. He was a nice enough guy, and I had seen him around before without knowing what his position was. He wondered why I was even in this room, because it an overflow room, and he thought it criminal that I was put in here for two weeks. I asked if he would pass his thoughts onto the management. He gave me a meaningful look and said, "What management?", without expanding further. I would later find out what that all meant.

But for the moment, I had successfully used the laundry and had most of the things in my room no longer falling apart. So, there's that.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2016 Cactus League

Milwaulkee

On Home Away from Home 

Miller Park, 2009

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
NY Metropolitans vs. Milwaukee Brewers
Miller Park
Major League Baseball, National League
Milwaukee, WI
1:05 PM


Outside the Game:
I had to get up insanely early this day after not quite enough sleep even by the standards of this trip. My barely functioning brain forgot to refill my tank on the short drive to airport, and I was subsequently tagged for nearly 20 bucks for a gallon of gas. That's how they get you.

Another sunrise

The KC airport is not an extensive edifice, and not thinking much about it, I went straight to my gate, only to find out that my gate was essentially a closet with one disinterested food stall wedged into it, which was to become my only source of breakfast. Suffice to say, I was disappointed with my meal. The plane thankfully boarded on time, and I was unconscious on the short jump up to O'Hare in Chicago. I remember little about the shuttle out to the rental car, except the clear idea in my mind not to accept any sort of "free upgrades." I got my sissy blue Kia without much to-do, and then settled in for my drive up to Milwaukee.

Not a Canyonero

For whatever reason, this Wednesday game was decided to be an afternoon start, which was what prompted this whole endeavor to start this early. I never did find out exactly why the game started when it did. At any rate, I had about an hour and half drive up to Milwaukee (as there were no direct flights from KC to Milwaukee, just Chicago). The one road on the way up was helpfully undergoing major road work, and it was absolutely pouring buckets all the way on the drive up. This just added a slight extra degree of difficulty to the drive and posed no danger of a rainout in the covered Miller Park.

Rain

Although there were some slowdowns in places, the drive up wasn't that bad, and by the time I had arrived at Miller Park, the rain had slowed to a misty drizzle. Despite the minor setbacks, I managed to get to the stadium two hours before the start of the game. However, I found out that Miller Park didn't open until an hour and a half before game time. There was a big tailgating community in the parking lots before the game, but I was a little concerned by the fact that the parking lot wedged everyone in so tightly. This fear would be realized after the game.

Packers! Whoooo!

Although not quite bad as Dodger's Stadium, the Miller parking lots after the game ended were just a stationary string of cars that didn't move for a good half hour after the last pitch. There at least were a bunch of personnel directing the traffic to avoid the absolute anarchy that was in place in LA, but people just pulled out of their space, got in the unmoving line, and threw their car into park. As it was the middle of the afternoon and not the middle of the night as was in the case for me in LA, I was in a little more accommodating spirit (no doubt helped by the Mets win), and I just finished proving out the scorecard in enough time before the traffic started moving again.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Miller Park

Brewer park is a retractable dome, and given the weather in the area, you can hardly blame them. As covered parks went, it was quite nice, and it got a lot of natural light in from big windows built into to dome structure itself and along the center field wall, which made it feel less oppressive than other domes in the league. You can get the culinary flavor for the area in that a huge TGI Fridays was built into the stadium and open year-round, and that there is another opportunity to stop and get a sausage on the walk from the parking lot to the stadium, you know, in case you hadn't had enough sausage tailgating and couldn't wait until you were actually in the stadium proper to get another sausage.

Miller Park had all the major accouterments you'd expect in a modern park, including an extensive kids play area, and specialty areas such as the right field bar and the Harley Davidson pavilion (that has its own motorcycle parking only area). Another big feature is "Bernie's Dugout," where the Miller mascot hangs out in his Left Field club house and slides into a big tub of water (formerly beer) every time the Brewers hit a home run. Thankfully, I did not get to see this during this game, and upon closer inspection of the Dugout, it seems that the splashdown, much like the cake, is a lie.

The other big event in the stadium is the Sausage Race, where the span between innings is filled with a race of guys in foam suits representing the different kind of sausages on sale in Miller Park. It is such a big deal that the kids area even has a interactive version of the Sausage Race, where you peddle along to make your sausage of choice go faster. If you haven't yet guessed, Milwaukee is serious about sausage.

Serious bidness

For an afternoon game in the middle of the week, the place was pretty packed, which speaks well for the local fandom. There was also a sizable Mets contingent present as well, and we made our presence felt when appropriate.

As with Houston, as soon as the last out hit the mitt, someone hit a button to open the retractable dome and let in the elements. This was less dramatic than in Houston, as instead of letting in searing beams of sun, it just kind of let a little more cold into the confines, along with a damp chill.


At the Game with Oogie:

He's so dreamy

Since this was going to a Mets game, I splurged for good lower deck seats right behind home plate on the first row of the deck overhanging the lowest deck. As it turned out, I was sitting right behind Bob Freakin' Euker's booth, which was pretty cool. You turn around, and there's a guy who saw Mr. Belvedere naked. It's quite a thing. My area was largely filled with rather sedate Brewers fans. As with San Francisco last year, after being in incredibly hot areas, I was suddenly plunged into cold weather, and if the game was played in the open air instead of under the dome, I might have been in danger of freezing after being in danger of heat stroke several days before. But thankfully, the air-conditioned interior of Miller Park was slightly less cold and damp than the outside of Miller Park.


The Game:

First pitch, Metropolitans vs. Brewers

Outside of a Subway Series game at Yankee Stadium, I had never seen the Mets play as a visiting team before. As a matter of course, I tend to root for the home team on these trips unless I have an active interest otherwise, and this surely qualified, not even taking into account that the Mets hadn't won a single game since I left on this trip.

The Mets jumped out to leaving men on base early, stranding two in the first, and one in the second and fourth. Despite a Brewers threat in the fourth, the Met's pitcher Pelfrey kept the Brewers locked down. The Mets scraped a run across in the sixth and managed to stiffle a Brewer's attempts, despite having runners in scoring position in the next three innings. The Brewer's Gallardo was literally mowing down the Mets, totaling 12 strike outs before he left the game on the hard-luck hook. The game breezed by quickly, as it was clear that that one run was all the shut-down Mets were likely to get, and the Brewers were similarly unable to get a run of their own across. Francisco Rodrigues came in for the Mets to close it out, and despite surrendering a lead-off single, he quickly retired the next three batters he faced, leading the Mets to a sort-of deserved first win in a week, crushing the Brewers 1-0.

There was a scoring incident of note, as David Wright struck out in the first inning, and the catcher dropped the ball without Wright noticing. If a catcher drops the third strike of a strikeout, the strikeout is recorded, but it is not a putout until the catcher tags the runner or puts him out on first. The catcher dropped strike three, Wright walked away, and by the time the catcher corralled the ball, he just waited until Wright walked back to his dugout and was called out by the umpire for leaving the basepaths.


The Scorecard:

Metropolitans vs. Brewers, 07/01/09. Metropolitans win, 1-0.

The $2 scorecard is sold separately from the free program provided when you enter the ballpark. It is a cardstock trifold with plenty of space to score a game and personalized to the series that was being played. (And frankly, looking at the [count 'em] nine players on the DL for the Mets on the scorecard was simply depressing.) It was an all-around honest scorecard, and it even had a listing for the umpires.


The Accommodations:

Clarion Hotel

After the game. I drove out to the Clarion Hotel out by the airport, checked in, and took a nice and quite unavoidable nap. I had the entire evening to kill, and not having any pressing business in Milwaukee, I took a recovery day in my nice hotel room and even did some laundry to wash the sweat of Texas and KC out of my clothes. After a bountiful room service meal, I went out to the adjacent airport to return my rental car, filled up and early this day. However, I managed to miss all the signs saying that the return was closed until I got into the lot, prompting me to beg for some help at another desk to get my car settled away. A two minute shuttle ride back to the hotel got me back in plenty of time to make it an early night and get back to being some manner of functioning individual before my flight out the next day.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2009 The Rest