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!
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