Current Song - New York, New York (Frank Sinatra)
During my time off, I wrote down what happened during the vacation to the Baseball and Football halls of fame. I didn't have a computer near me, so I wrote it all down on pen and paper. The daily account was written toward bedtime each night, so it kind of feels rushed. The vacation started on March 8. Here goes:
Day 1
Middlebury Heights, Ohio - I just completed day 1 of my five-day northeast adventure. I left home around 10:15 this morning and filled my tank in Dixon before leaving.
I was surprised as I left because neither mom or dad gave me a hug. Well, I'm not that surprised, but I'm that old now. They did when I left for Tucson last year. So yeah, I'm old now.
It was drizzling during most of my Illinois ride. Once I got into Indiana, I was doing 80 in the 55 on the far left lane when someone tried to move in on me. It shook me up a little, and I stopped in Gary for a quick break.
After leaving Gary, it felt like forever to get to Toledo. I stopped for lunch in South Bend - had a triple whopper with cheese, this to be explained later - and only then realized that the College Football Hall of Fame was there. Shoot! Maybe I'll make it on my way back.
The fuel lasted until near Sandusky (actually, the 80-90 is 20 miles south). Gas was only $2.72 there, and was $2.69 back home. My tolls were all paid for with my I-PASS, even in Indiana and Ohio.
I'm staying at a Motel 6 in a suburb of Cleveland, Middlebury Heights. $35.99 a room; I only require so little right now. This hotel's an outdoor one - where I park my car in front of my door. Only a couple of things: the water didn't look clear for drinking, and there's no alarm clock. That's a bummer, because I need to wake up at 8:00 a.m. and leave at 10:00 for Cooperstown.
The budget is holding up well, I'm using the $50 for gambling at Par-a-dice for emergency money instead.
All I really need to do is get a light dinner and go to bed.
Another long day tomorrow - but at least it's somewhere I've never been to. I went to Cleveland once already.
Day 2
Middlebury Heights - Had some trouble sleeping last night, but found myself awake at 6:00 a.m.
I got some McDonalds [last night] and watched a movie with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. I didn't catch the name of the movie [Bad Boys II], but it was good except for the abrupt ending. Really wanted to see more.
No fast food tax in Ohio. I bought milk to go with my dinner - one for dinner and one for breakfast. The breakfast one didn't last. There's no fridge in the room, nor an ice machine. So I thought it was wise to fill the ice bucket (yeah, an ice bucket, but not ice machine) with cold water. By the time my throat was dry around 3:30 a.m. the milk wasn't all that cold - so I drank it all. Now I have to buy another one.
Five bucks for breakfast before going on the road - an early start. I was going to be out by 10, but maybe now by 9. I'll drive in the heart of Cleveland before heading out toward Pennsylvania. I also have to make one business call and call my grandparents today.
Cooperstown, N.Y. - I'm at the HoJo in Cooperstown. Not a whole lot of people are here.
The drive was just as long, but not as boring. A lot of mountains and snowy ground. The Alleghenys and the Catskills are in southern NY. Drive through Cleveland and Erie this morning. I blew past the "Welcome to Pennsylvania" sign, but stopped before the "Welcome th New York" sign and took a pic of it.
A very, very senic drive all of the way through NY. Once I got there and saw "Binghamton 263" I thought it would have been closer than that. I stopped at the first rest stop in NY and picked up some more brochures for mom and dad. One of them was for the Lucy-Desi Museum in Jamestown (the birthplace of Lucille Ball). I had to stop and at least go to the gift shop.
Had lunch at a Wendy's in Olean. I sat next to a guy who overheard my phone call to one of my freelancers. I said "I'm all the way in New York" [on the phone] and we ended up talking for a bit. He told me about the Revolutionary War battlefields I would pass, as well as the mountains. He also asked where I was from. I said "Northern Illinois" and he told me about his trucking trips through it. I eventually told him I lived in Sterling - and he told me about how the Mill made steel for Progresso Soup cans. I knew a Sterling link would appear somewhere.
Leaving Olean, I drove [through] the Seneca Nation. You could tell not just by the welcoming sign, but the feeling of the road. I'm sure somewhere Chief Iapoppayatire was wishing me "safe travel."
Gassed up again and Chemung. The Sandusky fillup didn't quite make it to Cooperstown. Gas was $2.93 there, twenty cents more than Sandusky.
I arrived in Cooperstown a little before 6:00 p.m. I needed to get a phone card, so I tried to find a pharmacy. Found a CVS in downtown. Real wonderful! Better than Galena. The country is better than Jo Daviess County (and I said once I wanted to retire there). I'll see more tomorrow. Gotta see the pics!
I also bought my dinner there. Cambpells Chunky Beef was on sale. I also got some newspapers. One story on the front mentioned a place I passed - yet ANOTHER Hall of Fame. Sadly, the National Soccer Hall of Fame is closing down.
Watching college basketball and filling out post cards now. More tomorrow.
Day 3
Cooperstown - Made some changes to the plans. I was going to go through central Pennsylvania and eat at a particular restaurant. The restaurant was Denny's Beer Barrel Pub - home of the biggest burgers. After figuring out my fuel budget, I made the cut. My Pair-A-Dice money is now in the fuel budget.
The Hall of Fame was the first place I stopped at. Parking is scarse, and I had to park in a city street a block away. The townhomes are almost right next to the street - there's no front yard.
The Hall of Fame isn't as crowded as I thought it would be. I think it's busier on the weekends. The post office is across the street, so I dropped off my post cards and walked to the front. It was like finally ending that trek to a pilgrimage. At 23, I was at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
It was pretty empty when I got there, but it had only been open for 30 minutes. Okay, I was all alone until about 1/4 of my whole time in. I was kind of surprised - it was no Field Museum, or Milwaukee Art Museum, or Old Tucson. Pretty empty of people. Exhibits, on the other hand, were plentiful.
I walked to the second floor and unknowingly started my adventure at the exit. The first area was artifacts from the recent day. So I thought the end would be artifacts from the early days. Today's items are in an area that looks like a clubhouse locker room. Each locker had the hat or bat or ball or glove used for an important feat of each team in baseball history. There's too much there to remember everything. The McGwire and Bonds homerun bats and balls are there. Tony La Russa's jacket from his 2,000th managerial win is there. Alex Rodriguez's 500th homerun helmet, Geoff Blum's 14th inning single bat, Jeff Bagwell's World Series jersey, just a ton of items! It may want me to go back again.
That's just one area. There's more.
A timeline of baseball artifacts takes up the whole second floor. Rickey Henderson's cleats from his record-setting swipe are among what's there. A lot of jerseys, hats, balls and gloves. There are some other side exhibits during the walking timeline. One of them is an area on Latin American baseball, another on women inb baseball, and an area on the Negro Leagues.
The timeline is where I shot the most pics. The things I really wanted to see were things related to four Hall of Famers: Jim Bottomley, Joe McGinnity, Red Ruffing and Al Spalding. These four were born in Northern Illinois. There's a Ruffing pair of shoes and an award. Bottomley's bat in which he belted seven homeruns in five games is there. There wasn't any McGinnity or Spalding artifacts there, but there was a McGinnity trading card there.
Northern Illinois's other link to the Baseball Hall of Fame was in the women's exhibit. A Rockford Peaches jersey (from A League of their Own) was there, along with a bat from one of the Peaches finest hitters, Dottie Kamenshek.
The last stop of the floor was items from the way-past. The first ball from the first game in which admission was charged was there, as well as old catchers helmets. There was also a whole exhibit dedicated to Babe Ruth - with the No. 60 ball and bat, and the "Called Shot" bat.
Off to the third floor, where most of it was dedicated to the ballparks. A noteable piece is the cornerstone of Ebbets Field, as well as one of the exploding scoreboard pinwheels of old Comiskey Park. A Hank Aaron exhibit followed, with history and artifacts from his career, including the uniform he wore when he hit No. 755. The records exhibit followed, with a wall-to-wall list of all-time records and their Top 10 retired and active stats. A wall of almost every no-hit ball since 1940 was next. The floor's features ended with a brief history of baseball cards and the replaying of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" routine on a television.
I made my way down to the first floor, where there was an art exhibit of baseball-related work. Then there was the Holy Grail of the museum - each plaque of each Hall of Famer. I shot the first class, as well as the four area Hall of Famers.
The last thing I saw was artifacts from the media perspective. I learned that the box score was invented by Henry Chadwick - the "first sportswriter" in our nation's history.
The time at the Hall of Fame was capped off by my picture being taken in the Hall gallery, and shopping at the gift shop. Four hours of fun and interesting history was waiting to be discovered.
After putting my gifts in the car, I made my way back to downtown. There are five or six card shops there. I stopped at a couple of them and bought cards. One store had a "quarter box" with cards for a quarter. If there's one thing I love about collecting cards, it's raiding these boxes for good deals. My general rule is 90% off. I know the prices in my head - it doesn't take a whole lot to memorize a Beckett. One shop had autographed 8x10 pics on sale. A lot of current players I've never heard of before. The one football pics in there became mine - one of Marcus Allen. It probably would be more expensive in Canton.
The day in Cooperstown ended with "Lupper" at T.J.s Grill. It was a restaurant on one side and a gift shop on the other. I bought a bacon cheeseburger platter. Even though I got a 10% discount with my HoJo key, the food is pretty expensive - that, and a large coke was around $18!
Doubleday field was the final stop. After snapping the entrance, my camera showed low battery. Time to save it.
I'm back at the hotel. Going to do laundry and check the computer. My day will start very early tomorrow - as I have to work on posting Supersectional stories from tonight.
Day 4
North Canton, Ohio - I didn't expect Wednesday to be much trouble. I was hoping the Supersectional articles would be posted this morning. However, only one was sent. The other had to be waited until later.
We figured I needed to find a computer somewhere between Cooperstown and Canton. [redundant written info omitted]. I either had to find another Hotel with Internet, or find a library. I eventually found one at the Euclid Public Library. They don't require a library card. Cool! I got a hold of the other Supersectional story.
However, I had a huge blow to the day. Someone e-mailed me regarding a comment I made in the Decade Retrospective. It turns out a lawsuit I said was done was not done. Big error. I wrote a statement of retraction.
That is enough to make me pre-write my "State of the Site Address," and try to come up with a Doctrine regarding content.
I'll think of that now, and tomorrow will bring another interesting trip. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is nearby, and will be the final stop before going home. I plan on getting there when they open at 9:00 a.m. I won't spend a whole lot of time there, and plan on leaving by noon. A real light lunch will follow on the way home. I'll have dinner at home.
I'll spend Thursday night home before traveling to Peoria for Eastland-Salt Fork in the morning.
Day 5
North Canton - Almost time to go home.
Sterling - Everything went to plan, and I even gothome early. I visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. It's just as interesting as the Baseball Hall of Fame. A lot of old artifacts - what I like best. This was just a minor stop, as opposed to the main reason why I'm on the trip anyway.
The Football HOF begins with a history of the building before going up a spiral staircase to the timeline of football. This is the stuff I like. I like learning about history, and how it shaped what's going on today.
After the timeline, the actual gallery was next. There were a lot of people in it, and pro football is about 50 years younger than pro baseball[, and 25 years younger than prep football]. The room was dark and shiny with a lot of busts.
I then sat down to hear a presentation about oddball stuff there. I got to touch a pair of shoes used in a George Clooney football movie. We saw the first nose protector and knee pad, a piece of the Pontiac Silverdome, the panel from Art Rooney's private office-to-lockeroom elevator, and electrical wire used to heat the field for the Ice Bowl game (the wire didn't work).
There's an exhibit on secondary leagues (AFL, USFL, etc.) and one on today's game (similar to baseball). A Super Bowl history exhibit followed, and I sat in a theatre to see the Steeler-Cardinal Super Bowl game in a theatre-like screen.
I was the only one in the theatre. Like the Baseball Hall of Fame experience, there weren't too many people in it. I went on a good day.
After leaving Canton, I began my trek home. Wasn't much to see - and I stayed in the left lane the entire time. I hit rain in Indiana, and heavy rain in the Southland. I got home around 7:45 p.m.
The end.
It was a really fun trip! I enjoyed the drive to and from. I enjoyed the places I went to. If given the opportunity to do it again, I'd do it. I earn two weeks vacation in July. I'll be done with college too - so it may make the vacation a bit more fun. I found myself worrying about schoolwork at times.
Absolutely fun!
Pictures are on my MySpace photo album.
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