A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

road trip

Trying to grasp all the miles


A map of states where I’ve watched professional baseball games. 

There will be several posts over the next few weeks – or months, depending when I get down to writing them – about the two road trips I recently took. Both were baseball related and I saw many new stadiums and experienced a lot of cool things.

But for now, as I catch my breath and get back to the “real world,” I wanted to look back on everything in numbers.

Here they are:

  • 17 baseball games
  • 1 MLB, 16 MiLB games
  • About 4,000 miles covered (I drove about half of that, give or take)
  • Games watched in seven states
  • 15,906 photos taken (DSLR … not counting phone)

Now, take into account on that photos number – I do shoot on high-speed action, so a lot of it might be sequences etc. But I still took a lot of photos! And it’s also a lot of photos I have to go through over time and upload etc.

But the beauty of these two little trips was the baseball. I had the chance to see new stadiums and different places and I really enjoyed myself. I look forward to trying to have a baseball trip each summer as it is something that can be really fun and relaxing.

There will be more on these trips, for sure. For now, though, I’m just trying to absorb what I’ve seen over these trips.

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Road tripping for baseball

A baseball road trip is something I’ve always dreamed of doing.

Alas, over the years, I’ve never tried to do one. But this year, that changes. In late July/early August, I am going to take a baseball trip that I will hopefully remember for years to come. Originally I was going to fly to one or two places and then drive, but in the end, I’ve decided going on a true road trip is the way to go.

Especially with having a GPS and all that – it makes it way easier.

Still, I’ll have my baseball road trip map, directory, prospect guide and all that. The first trip, I’ll be doing things solo and then the second one, going with a friend, who owns a house in southern Virginia.

This trip will encompass a lot – baseball, some geocaching, and a little soul searching in regard to seeing where I stand in life. With a lot of tunes (I still need to load it on my phone) and podcasts (not sure I have enough, but I have some!) that I will have loaded up for the trip, I’m going to be ready to put a couple of thousand miles on my car, take a lot of photos, find a few geocaches, and watch many innings of baseball.

My only hope is that Mother Nature will cooperate for most of the trip.

Recent events and such in my world have made it much easier to split this trip into two parts, though. The first part is starting this week as I travel to games in Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. It’s only going to encompass five days, most likely, though, so that’s not a bad thing in that regard. Then work for a few days and the bigger trip to Virginia/North Carolina is set to happen.

Planning these trips isn’t ever easy. For the first part, it’s including hotels and all that good stuff. The second one is, luckily, without hotels. For that part of the trip, we’re planning 13 games in nine days — so several days with more than one game. I’m sure at the end of it, I’m going to need a breather.

Obviously, one wants to do something a tad more on these trips, too. You want to see more things and such. I know I won’t have time to do too many things, but there will be some things I’d like to get in. The Louisville Slugger Museum is one of them. If I have time, going to the Muhammad Ali museum is one as well. There’s also a few places I’d like to try and eat on the trip.

The beauty of all this, of course, is that I’m pretty much winging it. I have an idea where I am heading and such, but I will kind of do my thing and see what happens. I have games planned and I’ll likely get tickets at the gate (maybe ahead of time at one or two), but just kind of go, watch, take some photos and keep my score book.

The best part of this upcoming weekend, though, is that I haven’t honestly fully planned things out. I have a blueprint of what I want to do, but I’m leaving it open in case I decide to change things up. About the only thing guaranteed is the Stampede event/Reds game on Saturday. That and I want to make sure I nab a geocache or two in Kentucky as it’s a state I haven’t found one in yet. Outside of that — we shall see how it all goes.

It’s funny, too, as I normally would have a whole list of geocaches to find for this trip. I’d be looking to do all sorts of stuff. But this is going to be one of those trips where I just want to do some thinking. And listening to music or podcasts or something else.

Instead, I’m going to play it a little off the cuff. I have some hotels reserved. I have destinations planned, but from there — it’s where the ball bounces!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Can of Corn Challenge: Dream baseball road trip

Dream road trip

If you are a baseball fan – you’ve likely come up with that one dream road trip. It could be to see your favorite team or maybe see the team you’ve cheered on for years.

Maybe you want to just hit certain stadiums, or see two select teams play one another.

Or, it could be that you want to see the lowest of minor leagues on a warm summer night, with not much else around besides the sounds of the game.

No matter what your trip is … it’s all about the game.

Though I’ve taken some small road trips in the past to see baseball, I’ve never really taken a lengthy trip. I’m doing a couple of decent ones this year – one with a major league game scheduled, the other with nothing but the minors. I’ll have a post about this trip soon enough.

But the dreams of a baseball road trip…

Honestly, I’ve wanted to take a summer where I did nothing but travel around, take photos and watch baseball. I’d hit every MLB stadium during this trip, as well as hitting up as many MiLB stadiums as possible. Add in several Hall of Fames and other baseball stops and it would be glorious.

Alas, I am not sure when or if that will ever happen.

I have a couple of dream road trips, though – ones that I believe are possible during my lifetime.

Trip 1: California

It would likely take some planning, but I’d want to hit every MLB stadium (and any MiLB games I could fit in) in one trip – Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles Dodgers AND Angels, and the San Diego Padres. It, of course, would require flying to the opposite coast and then renting a car and plotting things out, but it would be glorious.

Trip 2: Wrigley Field

I am pretty sure this is on the bucket list of most baseball fans. Why wouldn’t it be? Though, in the past, I would add on sitting in the bleachers during a day game as part of this – that’s not really required for the road trip, rather a dream part of it. Instead, it’s just about getting there.

For some reason, I always thought it would be fitting to go to Chicago via train for this one. Then go to the stadium, soak up the history and watch the Cubbies play. I’m sure I will get there one day, but we shall see when.

Trip 3: Fenway Park

It’s almost comical I haven’t been to a game there yet. It’s only about four hours away or so and I can easily make it down and back in a day, if I want to. Things just haven’t aligned up for me to go yet, and I know it will happen eventually.

Trip 4: Just going

I’m kind of doing this in August – going on a trip for a week for the sake of watching baseball. Sure, I’ll do a few other things, but the goal of this is watching baseball – away from my home area. Nothing but baseball.

In the end, this post doesn’t detail the trips as much as I would have liked to, but honestly, the best trips are more of setting up an area, and then seeing what you can fit in (depending who is home etc.) and then go from there.

How about you? Do you have a dream baseball road trip? If so, link up your blog post below and join us!

If you want more information on the season-long Can of Corn Challenge, please visit this page. I am co-hosting this challenge with Kasey at Kasey at the Bat, so go visit her, too! The more the merrier, so please feel free to visit all the others and join up! Also, feel free to grab the button below!

Can of Corn Challenge

Can of Corn 2016 – Dates

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please Like HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Plotting, planning, and trying to find cheap (and clean) hotels.

Twenty down, 30 to go.

At the beginning of this summer, I had set a soft goal of seeing 50 baseball games this summer. I knew it was a long-stretch, but it’s something I am really trying to do.

On Thursday, I hit my 20th game so far this year, this one between the Toledo Mudhens and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders.

Of those 20 games, two have been MLB games (Washington and Cleveland). I’m planning at least three more MLB stadiums – Philadelphia (which I’ve been to before), Cincinnati (for what will be an amazing experience), and Toronto (which will be new). Some others are possible, but who knows.

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Mainly, though, it’s minor leagues and independent leagues. And I don’t mind it that way because it’s a lot of fun that way.

Minor league baseball gives you a different atmosphere (though, to be fair, Washington and Cleveland each had great atomospheres), and it’s more intimate. You get to see players who may or may not ever get to the majors.

It’s the roots of the game.

Coming up in July/August is a trip I’ve been plotting. For part of it, I’ll be going solo on a swing out to Cincinnati and some others. That will then lead me to a friend’s house for the second part of the trip, which will then have two or three of us hitting several games.

If all goes well and Mother Nature cooperates and everything goes well, over a nearly two-week trip, I’ll hit 18 games. That is one of those road trips I’ve dreamed about doing, and it is pretty exciting.

So it comes down to finding hotels and the best travel routes and seeing things that I need to see (such as the Reds Hall of Fame, the Louisville Slugger Museum etc), and seeing what kind of photo opportunities are along the route.

I’m looking forward to the trip and the excitement of seeing new places, yet at the same time, it’s almost stressful to plot this trip. Just because I want to make sure I get to do more than baseball, yet keep baseball as a main part of the trip – if that makes any sense.

It’s the Summer of Baseball, though, and I’m looking forward to this trip and hitting as many games as I can. Reality is, I never know when or if I’ll be able to do this again, so it’s time to take advantage of it.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Block Party is almost here!

For those of you who geocache, you likely know that this year’s Block Party is the final one. With that in mind, three of us are embarking on the cross-country trip to go to the event, as well as others surrounding it.

And I’m getting quite excited.

The trip is going to be five days of some serious fun, at least I hope. My true hope is that Mother Nature gives us some good weather for the time we are out there.

Anyway, the plan is to fly out on a Thursday morning and arrive mid-afternoon in Seattle. After grabbing the rental car, and checking in at the hotel, it’s into Seattle for the first event.

The pathtag I have for my Northwest trip!

The pathtag I have for my Northwest trip!

The weekend continues with some historical geocaches (on a side trip to Portland), some cool other places, and a baseball game. Unfortunately, the Mariners are on the road, so I am going to catch a minor league game.

Now, don’t get me wrong, but though this is a geocaching trip, I am hoping to see some other things. Am I going to be able to do everything possible? Probably not. But I want to be able to visit the Space Needle and the Sky View Observatory. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get to the outskirts somewhere and get a photo or two of the Seattle skyline.

I’m sure a brewery or two will be on tap (ha! See what I did there?) too, which will be fun.

That being said, there are some great geocaching items planned.

We’ll be attending the final Block Party at Geocaching.com’s headquarters. Also, there’s a trip back to HQ on the following Monday to get a hosted visit, which I think will be a lot of fun. The HQ GeoTour looks like a blast and I think we are planning on doing that on one of the other days (not Block Party day) to hopefully get a chance to do them without a game of “pass the log.”

The Friday trip to the Portland area is going to net us the original cache stash plaque, as well as some other old geocaches. I’ve been looking at a few of the caches there and I think it’s going to be pretty cool to grab some of those historical ones and know I’ve done them.

There are three webcam caches that I am hoping we can nab over the course of the weekend, too. Considering how few of these are around, it’s nice to be able to get them when you can.

On Sunday, a trip to the spot of the “Ape” cache that is no longer there. So, unfortunately, I won’t get the chance to get that icon on my profile, but the Snoqualmie Tunnel is open. This tunnel is part of the rail trail and is an old railroad tunnel. It’s very cool and is a round trip hike of a little more than 5 miles (on level ground, if I read right), so that’s pretty cool. On the other side are some historical geocaches, so that will add to the experience and the day.

There’s really not a lot more I can say about this trip, without breaking down day by day. I think in the overall scheme, it will be a fun trip. I’m looking forward to grabbing a few new states on my profile as well as finding some old caches. I’ve also created a pathtag for the trip to the Pacific Northwest, so that is cool to have and hopefully trade along the way.

I’m definitely excited about seeing a few things, getting to go to a baseball game and, of course, geocaching. It should be a heck of a fun experience and I’m looking forward to it.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!