2024 Road-Trip

Here is the plan!

DAY 1: The first day of our trip was a 387 mile travel day from Medford, Oregon to Winnemucca, Nevada. It was a beautiful drive through forest land as well as desert. We ended the day watching the Angels lose to the Astros in 10 innings from our hotel room.  Tomorrow we are getting up early for a quick five hour 352 mile drive to make the first pitch at Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City at noon.  The Bees are hosting the Albuquerque Isotopes.

DAY 2: We hit the road by 5:45am and made it to our seats at Smith’s Ballpark by 12noon, five minutes before first pitch. Driving through the salt flats is always amazing, and if we had time we would have went to the Bonneville Speedway. The game was great, food was mediocre but we split a sundae in a larger than usual baseball helmet, and the Bees won. Tomorrow onward to Cheyenne Wyoming!

Day 3: We left Salt Lake City at 9am expecting a nice 6 hour drive listening to Curve Brim Media podcasts along the way. Little did I know choosing to wear my Lake Elsinore Storm hat was perfectly approproate for the day ahead. We drove through a snow storm for a couple of hours but things cleared up about an hour out of Cheyenne and we got to stop at a huge Lincoln Monument on I80 (the Lincoln Highway).  The highlight of the day was visiting Pioneer Park the home of the Cheyenne Indians from 1910-1911, and then again in 1941. The field is well taken care of and looks nothing like it would have 83 years ago. (Originally built in 1896 with rodeo stands, Pioneer Park had a capacity of 2,000. The 1941 Cheyenne Indians season tickets cost $20 and single game tickets were 40 cents, with single game tickets for soldiers costing 25 cents. Pioneer Park is still in use as a public park, hosting a ballpark today.) Tomorrow is a seven hour drive to Omaha to see a Storm Chasers game. I hear there are tornados in Oklahoma right now so I don’t know how that will affect our travel plans. 

Day 4: A non noneventful seven hour drive across Nebraska. On the way we were listening to the Baseball by Design podcast and Paul Caputo introduced us to a food we never heard of, the Runza, so we had to stop and get one for lunch.    We arrived at Werner Park about an hour early so we had an opportunity to walk around the park get something to eat before the game.  The Omaha Storm Chasers defeated the Columbus Clippers 6-5. Beautiful stadium + friendly crowd + delicious helmet sundae +  fireworks = great night. Tomorrow we have another seven hour drive to Whiting Indiana to visit with our youngest daughter and her family (4 month old grandson).  No baseball in the plans for a few days, then off to Lousiville Kentucky to see the Bats.  

FAMILY DAYS: We had a great time with our youngest daughter’s family and especially her new son Walter. 

DAY 5: We left Whiting Indiana early and arrived in Louisville Kentucky with plenty of time to visit the Lousiville Slugger Museum and catch a Bats game at Slugger field in the evening.  Tomorrow on to Tennessee to see the Smokies. 

Day 6: A nice four hour drive through beautiful Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee. If you ever come for a game stay at the Hampton Inn Servierville overlooking Smokies Stadium.  We arrived at 3:00 and to our surprise the Chattanooga Lookouts were having a team meeting in the hotel lobby.