It was the vacation of a lifetime shared among four friends, a baseball bonanza that stretched from Hayward to Houston. The trip would cover a total of 4,500 miles and crossed nine states in 10 days. The memories of that August, 2006, trip are still fresh and will undoubtedly last a lifetime.
Initially, there was skepticism at home at the thought of undertaking such an incredible journey. After all, it would be less than two months after the birth of our second child, and did I mention it would be 10 days long?
My wife recently left for a four-day trip to Utah and I had all three children. Let me tell you how exhausting that was. I truly appreciate that my wife was OK with me going on this trip.
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I couldn’t have been with three greater guys than Derrick, John, and Jeff. We worked together at CSU East Bay’s Pioneer Bookstore and spent many a Friday night over numerous summers playing softball, and every fall and winter enjoying fantasy football together. We were good friends, and we decided that we would head to Houston to conduct our fantasy football draft with another friend who lived there.
In the process of planning this trip, we had a “Wouldn’t it be cool if…?” moment and decided that we would make the trip to Houston worth our while. Summertime means one thing for most sports fans: baseball! What better way to make our way to Houston than to attempt to coordinate the trip by visiting the ballparks between here and there, give or take a few? The planning began.
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Early on I decided to write to the teams and explain our idea in the hopes that they might help us cut costs and send us free tickets. I have a knack for letter writing, which is a story for another time. Both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks wished us well and sent us complimentary tickets. Score!
The way the trip was shaping up, it looked like we’d be able to hit Dodger Stadium, Chase Field in Phoenix, Coors Field in Denver, The Ballpark in Arlington and Minute Maid Park in Houston. In terms of planning a trip like this, we factored in things like travel time between games. We spread out the games by a couple of days in most cases so that we could mix in some sightseeing, and basically time to just catch some sleep and relax.
We budgeted for the trip, rented a car, set the dates for each of our stops, and then picked out a number of places we wanted to visit along the way. Then the countdown was on. I was anxiously looking forward to this incredible journey we were going to begin.
On the day of the trip, I realized exactly how long I would be gone, and the fact that my baby boy was now with us, and I felt overwhelmed by emotions. How could I take such a long trip? The feelings of homesickness kicked in before I ever took a step towards Houston. My family gathered together and we had a moment before tearful good-byes were said, and my friends promised they’d take good care of me. And away we went!
Los Angeles is just an eight-hour trip away and we pulled into Dodger Stadium about 45 minutes before the first pitch, which is about three innings before most of the “regular” fans show up. Rookie mistake? Anyhow, we tracked down the Dodger Dog booth and made sure to begin sampling each stadium’s staple treats. We found our seats and took in the view of the historic Dodger Stadium ballpark. It was very generous of the Dodgers to send us complimentary tickets.
We sat up high along the first baseline and had a terrific view of the Think Blue sign in the hills behind the stadium, a la the Hollywood sign. We enjoyed watching the old scoreboard throughout the game, and I must say there were endless different sections of seats and ticket prices throughout the stadium.
As for the Dodger Dog, I was impressed but not blown away or anything. Better than the fare in Oakland, but not the best we enjoyed on the trip.
Dodger Stadium turned out to be nice inside with the food and vendors and all, but not one of the newer stadiums we would enjoy on the trip. Coming from the cavernous Oakland Coliseum where I grew up attending ballgames, I could easily relate to Dodger Stadium.
The fans were cool from what we could tell and loved their Dodgers. They hung on to defeat Colorado that night on a walk-off home run by Andre Ethier, which started our trip off with a bang!
Making our way out of Dodger Stadium after the game would have been next to impossible if not for our trusty GPS device. It might be a good idea for first-timers to attend a day game at Dodger Stadium, if you ask me.
Anyhow, we headed toward Barstow and called it a night there because we decided to make a detour on our way to Phoenix via Las Vegas. Who can resist the pull of Vegas if you’re that close? Having never been to Vegas myself, we decided to make a stop there along the way. Plus, it turns out that my friend John had a close friend living off the Strip, so we planned on making an afternoon out of Vegas, if you can do such a thing.
Mostly we hit the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace. While inside, we ducked into a sports memorabilia shop and bumped into none other than Charlie Hustle himself, Pete Rose, signing autographs. I guess he has to keep hustling if he isn’t going to be in the Hall of Fame. That was a cool coincidence considering the nature of our being there.
We ate lunch inside the Aladdin Hotel and Casino and made our way in and out of the hotels along the strip before deciding to head out. I definitely have to get back to Las Vegas with Kari one of these days. There was so much to do and so little time to do it on this trip.
One thing that we all realized as we headed towards Arizona was how smooth the trip had been to that point. There had not been a single word of disagreement or contention. We were all having such a great time traveling together. Having been on many a family outing together, this was somewhat unfamiliar territory for me. There are stresses involved in traveling together as a family that were not a factor here on this trip.
We stopped off at the Hoover Dam at the Nevada-Arizona border and took pictures on either side. We felt the hot, heavy winds blowing us sideways when we got out for picture-taking on the Nevada side. As we wrapped around to just past the Arizona border, it was a bit calmer. The mighty Hoover Dam was impressive and awe-inspiring. But we needed to get to Phoenix, and that wasn’t exactly down the block.
Once on the long road to Phoenix through the desert, we were hit with a major storm and visibility was not so good. It started getting late and the occasional lightning strike in the distance was all the light we were going to get. Thank goodness again for the GPS device which kept us on the right track. Ultimately, we found our way to the hotel we planned on staying at in Phoenix in the wee hours of the morning and crashed.
The next day, when we finally surfaced from our sleep, we decided to head south to enjoy a day in Tombstone, home of the OK Corral. Vigilante Days were underway and so we strolled through town and hit the saloons and shops that remember the Old West and Wyatt Earp. Traveling through the desert was a new experience as well. The saguaro cactus filled in either side of the road as did the colorful mountains on either side of us. Off in the distance, you could easily make out the sheets of rain falling to the earth. Lucky for us, we were far enough away from the wet weather that it never hit us. But it was definitely hot.
That evening we drove back into Phoenix and found some parking close to the ballpark. Chase Field is relatively new and has a retractable roof. In the summertime, the roof is closed and the air conditioning is on inside the ballpark. It was a nice relief to get inside, and even cooler were the free tickets we received from the D-backs to attend this game. The D-backs continued the home winning streak we had on our trip as they beat the Florida Marlins.
A few things I’ll remember from this game were the echoes made by the sound system, foul balls, fans cheering, or simply cheering sounds that were being pumped through the sound system. The food selection in Chase Field was second to none. The stadium was clean and new and spacious. We thoroughly enjoyed the game.
We made our way to the Grand Canyon on the next leg of our trip. We spent the afternoon enjoying a trip to the IMAX Theater on the way to the National Park to learn about the history of the Grand Canyon. And after we made our way down the last 50 miles of the two-lane highway that brings you to the entrance, we parked our vehicle, walked across the street, and that’s just about where our jaws dropped off and down the Canyon. Breathtaking does not even begin to describe the sights of the Grand Canyon. And what an international event it turned out to be, as a host of people from countries in every continent seemed to be visiting. This is one place that attracts such an array of different people.
We stopped near the Four Corners before calling it a night in a motel in a border town in Colorado, of all places. In the morning we visited the Four Corners monument and were able to stretch into parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado all at once. We snapped a few group pictures with each of us in the four states and then visited some of the Native American arts and crafts vendors that circle the monument before heading out.
We continued our appreciation of Native American history and headed to Mesa Verde National Park, home of the cliff-dwelling Indians. There we saw entire cities built into the sides of mountains. An entire nation of Native Americans lived and thrived for years on end in such a remarkable fashion. The design and architectural innovation of being able to strategically carve a city into the side of a cliff is just unreal.
At some point near Winslow, we got off the Interstate and visited the Meteor Crater. It’s the most well-preserved meteor crater on Earth. According to the website, “Meteor Crater is the breath-taking result of a collision between a piece of an asteroid traveling at 26,000 miles per hour and planet Earth approximately 50,000 years ago.” We walked around the crater and did some exploring in the museum to learn how NASA used the facility to practice later adventures to the moon. This was a nice find on our trip and I would recommend a visit if you’re in the area.
Our first marathon leg of the trip was still under way. We began a trip that would take us all the way through the Rocky Mountains and into Denver for a baseball game at Coors Field. The earlier majesty of the Grand Canyon would nearly be equaled in my opinion, as we came to a stop high into our journey in the Rocky Mountains. The panoramic view of the trees, and wildlife, and water, and the vast wilderness on either side was a sight I have nothing to compare to. It was simply spectacular and if nothing else, served as a reminder of how fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful country.
This was the one place where we actually got a speeding ticket. It was a bit of a speed trap, we thought, because as we wound down a hillside, suddenly the speed limit posted hit 35 miles per hour, and up ahead a construction project was under way. Sure enough, the state trooper hit his lights and pulled up behind us. It took about 30 seconds of conversation between the young trooper and our gang of four, and we nearly had him convinced to join us for the rest of the trip. He went easy on us and we agreed to send in the fine instead of making an appearance the following month back in Colorado. But we labored on way to downtown Denver because our next game was going to begin that night.
We decided when we finally arrived in the parking lot of Coors Field to go in matching outfits to this game. While in New Mexico, we all picked out matching Brazil soccer T-shirts that we decided to wear into the Rockies game. No particular reason. It drew plenty of attention as we found our seats out in right field. We wandered up into the upper sections of Coors Field and found the purple-colored “Mile High Seats.” The Rockies made a late comeback to defeat the same Arizona Diamondbacks team we watched play in Phoenix a few days earlier.
The driving madness was not over by a long shot. In fact, our second marathon leg of the trip was about to get under way. We had to split up this next stretch into driving shifts. We left the parking lot of Coors Field in Denver and hit U.S. Highway 70, which took us through the night on a drive through the dense fog and to a beautiful sunrise along the farmlands and fields of Kansas. We made a few pit stops along the way, and when the sun rose we pulled in to enjoy breakfast. It was a crisp, bright morning with a smell of freshly cut grass and a country breeze hit us. While the moment lacked the apparent beauty of the Rocky Mountains or the grandeur of the Grand Canyon, there was something very homey and powerfully patriotic about it.
I pretty much had these feelings over and again at each stop along the way. No matter how far away I got from the S.F. Bay Area, I always felt like I was at home in a sense. The comforts we enjoy being in the U.S. and the beautiful landscape and scenery we have just about everywhere is something I will always remember about this trip.
Our trip to Arlington, Texas, continued through Oklahoma City. It was here where our emotions took a toll on us. We decided to visit the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which Timothy McVeigh blew up in 1995. The makeshift memorials still line the cyclone fence just outside the reflection pool and the chair monuments along the grassy hillside. A sculpture of Jesus stands across the street with the caption, “Jesus Wept,” engraved at His feet.
We solemnly made our way through the memorial and took our time looking at the names of the innocent victims, and stopping along the fence to see the gifts and cards and remembrances of the many children whose lives were taken. Tears came without warning. It was a startling contrast to the scenes of beauty we had enjoyed at several stops we made to this point. The memorial is beautifully built, but I could not help but feel violated and attacked and hurt. It reminded me at that point that our freedom and security comes at a price. There are those who would do harm to us, and yet this is our country. This is a free land, and we should never take that for granted.
I have felt the way I did at the Oklahoma City Memorial on two other occasions in my life. Once was when I visited the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial as an eighth grader, and the other time was on the morning of September 11, 2001.
Later that afternoon, we arrived in Dallas and got set up at a hotel before the big game in Arlington that night. We reunited with a friend who met us at the airport in Dallas and then we hit the pool, as the temperature was close to 110. Dallas was plain and simply hot.
The Ballpark in Arlington was, like most everything in Texas, big. It may have just been us, but we had a bit of a strange experience making our way into the stadium.
Our friend, Derrick, who is Indian, and as you can see from the pictures, a very well-built guy, was singled out of our group and patted down before entering the stadium. The other three of us made it through untouched. Why that was, I’m not sure, but it kind of tainted our visit to an otherwise beautiful ballpark. As most games go in The Ballpark, this was another slugfest that the Rangers actually lost to the Angels.
Center field at The Ballpark was alive with activity near the Nolan Ryan statue. There is a two-story tier in right field, and there is another two- or three-story building for fans out in left and center field. Mainly, we’ll remember how hot it was at The Ballpark and the unnecessary frisking at the front gate that seemed rather like profiling to us.
The following morning we made our way to the final destination, Houston. We made a detour to where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. There is a memorial there to JFK, and we saw the grassy knoll and the Book Depository Building. There really is not much more to it than that, and there were no visitors other than us.
I remember that it was kind of a creepy feeling I had, thinking about what the atmosphere must have been like that day. It’s basically a street that takes you down to an underpass and then onto a highway, so whoever did the shooting only had a short period of time to do it. Mainly, that was kind of a creepy feeling I was left with, but glad we thought of stopping off there to see that.
A funny story about our trip in to Houston involved the hotel we thought we were going to stay at courtesy of the Entertainment Coupon booklet. Well, we pulled in to the parking lot of this hotel and there was plywood on just about every window and it was obviously shut down.
The kind folks at Entertainment Coupon were on it and before you know it, we were upgraded and put up in a nicer hotel, closer to where we wanted to be. So that was an unexpected twist to the trip.
In Houston, we met up with three other friends who flew in from the Bay Area, and our good friend, Earl, who lives and works in Houston. We sampled some authentic barbecue and made a day trip to the Houston Aquarium.
Our final ballgame was a 1-0 Chicago Cubs victory over the Houston Astros. Minute Maid Park also has a retractable roof and air conditioning inside. It’s a newly-built stadium and has all the amenities one could enjoy.
The center field hill with the flagpole on it seems like a daunting task for any player to navigate. For the fans, there is the little train atop the left field wall which runs when the home team hits a home run. We missed that, obviously. But this was clearly a fan-friendly ballpark with great food and during the 7th-inning stretch, we not only sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” but they follow that with “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” which everyone sings. That was fun!
With a day left to enjoy in Texas, we made a final day trip to the Alamo in San Antonio, which we visited and explored. The neighboring River Walk shops were amazing and we stopped for lunch there as a whole group.
The final evening we were there, we completed our fantasy football draft for the upcoming NFL season and hung out together as a group. We looked back on the good times we had crossing the country and visiting the ballparks and making these lifelong memories. The next day we would head to the Houston Airport and fly home. Our trusty rental mini-van never let us down and we had clocked just over 4,500 miles.
It was a whirlwind adventure. We learned a lot about ourselves and each other. Our friendships were sealed permanently on this trip. We learned a lot about the beauty and magnificence of our great country. We were brought back in time to the uninhabited land that was touched by a meteor.
This trip provided us with a front row seat to the history of the Wild West. We learned about the trials and heartache and despair from some of the darker chapters that are nonetheless part of this great country.
Perhaps it will be the lessons that we learn moving forward that will inspire me. From the grassy knoll to the OKC Memorial; from the forgotten chapters of the Native Americans to the sacrifices made by the early pioneers who blazed trails through our new lands.
This trip I enjoyed five short years ago helped me realize how grateful I am to be an American. It also helped me realize how much I love and care for my family to allow me to take such an extraordinary outing. As we enjoy fireworks, barbecue, fairs, and celebrations today, wherever you are, be grateful that for better or for worse, we truly live in the most privileged, beautiful, and majestic country on Earth.
