America's Favorite Roadtrip

Slacker 2.0: Leaving Never-Never Land & Acting 23.

2009-09-02T16:27:00.002-04:00

I don't know where I left off nearly a month ago when I last posted a blog, but I have full confidence that Matt kept you up to speed on everything since San Fran. I'm going to put the rest of my memories from the trip in a short-but-sweet list form:
- Aunt Sandy taught Elle & me a new way to shoot tequila- replace the salt & lime with cinnamon & oranges. (Elle & me is the correct grammar in this case. promise).
- Lake Tahoe is gorgeous in person, and even more gorgeous in pictures you find online...
- Having a wonderful family we only know through a friend of a friend of a family member has completely restored my faith in people. You guys were amazing!
- When it comes to camping in Yellowstone in mid-summer, whether you think you can or you can't, you're right. 30 degrees in the middle of August with 2 sleeping bags means Elle & I are sharing one. (Also the correct grammar for this case).
- Sitting in a car drinking tall boy Fosters and a box of wine with only the light from your computer is #1 in the "top romantic events I've ever been a part of"... Elle has officially made it into one of my "top" lists.
-Bull testicles are not half bad. When they're deep fried and you're drunk.
- By the time we hit Denver, Matt was upset that "his spirit hurt" because he couldn't handle the drinking lifestyle anymore. I thought he said his spear hurt. This is why it was funny.
- I have found my counter part. She lives in Minneapolis, is just as outspoken and inappropriate as me, goes by the name of Ashton, and I adore her.
- When drunken college students I don't know are loud in the stands, it's obnoxious. When it's Evan, it's hilarious.
- Our 5-day stop in Chicago sealed my fate. I had a job interview & was offered the job. I'm moving in 3 weeks!
- Our car, including the GPS, my cell phone & Matt's Lebron James folder were searched on the way into Windsor. Due to the currency exchange rate, and my ignorance of the exact math, I paid $24 for an Arby's sandwich & curly fries. I shall never return to Canada.

Now that we're back in the real world I fear I'll barely survive it. I've already had a taste of people declining my going-out invites, and I don't like it. I don't like it one bit.

Maybe I miss having Matt to tell pointless stories to and telling him how awesome he is... for having an awesome friend like me. Maybe. Just don't tell him. We agreed not to make a big thing of our separation.

Thanks to our dedicated readers! You've made us the mini-celebrities we are today & I, for one, couldn't be happier that I don't have to remember to blog anymore. Not that I was very good at keeping you up to date anyway.. Again, that's where Matt is my better half.

Toronto Pictures

2009-09-02T11:34:00.002-04:00

Chicago Pictures

2009-09-02T11:32:00.002-04:00

Milwaukee Pictures

2009-09-02T11:24:00.002-04:00

The Final Days

2009-08-26T20:49:00.002-04:00

To Anyone Out There Still Reading,

So I'm back in North Olmsted, Ohio and I've had a few days to rest and recoup - if you don't count Mike's bachelor party on Saturday. I'm going to be quick and to the point while explaining the last four days of our trip. After a few more days of rest and contemplation, I'll come back and try to write something profound to sum it all up...but for now, let's just keep it simple.

I left off on the morning of the White Sox game. We relaxed for the better part of the day, and then my parents and I drove into downtown Chicago and visited Navy Pier. We ate dinner there and took the train to the South Side for the White Sox game. I was very surprised at the high energy the crowd at U.S. Cellular Field displayed. I thought most people in Chicago were Cubs fans, but in all honesty, the Sox fans were intense. We endured another rain delay, but only for an hour this time. We watched the game for a while, then my parents left early and Sam, Sloan (OU friend living in Chicago), and I stayed for the rest of the game. Two things stick out in my mind. One, the Sox fans executed the best wave I have every seen. Two, we met Sam's friend Brandon at his seats for the last two innings. He got tickets from work and was sitting in the third row behind the visitors dugout...so that was a pretty nice view to catch the end of the game from! I thought the whole experience was pretty cool, and I really would have enjoyed it if I didn't DESPISE the White Sox.

I stayed at Sloan's apartment after the game, and then the next day I walked to Sam's aunt's house nearby and hung out with her and her cousins Morgan (7) and Keagan (2). I took the train out to Mike's house and had dinner with him for his birthday. I know, I know, I should have been cooking for Mike on his birthday...butttt he cooked me an incredible pasta dinner with homemade sauce and meatballs and sausage and the whole deal! We watched the new show "Shaq Vs." - really cheesy but kinda cool - and then I drove back into the city to spend our last night in Chi-town at Sam's Aunt Steph's place.

On Wednesday we headed to Detroit for the Tigers game. We stopped just East of Ann Arbor to spend time with my sister's high school friend Corrin and her husband Tim. We drank a few beers and bullshitted, then drove to Sam's Dad's hotel (he was in town on business for the day.) We had a few more beverages, then the three of us drove downtown to Comerica Park for the game. I'll describe what it looks like for you since this is the ONLY game I forgot to bring my camera to. In a nutshell, it looks like someone puked up a plethora of HUGE tiger statues. THEY'RE EVERYWHERE around the stadium. That's the only important thing to note. After the game Sam went back to the hotel with her dad and I went back to Corrin and Tim's house to catch up and hang out a little more.

THE LAST DAY!

We drove to Toronto in the morning and had a little setback crossing the border. I've been to Canada three times before with no problems, but since Sam had a guilty look on her face, we had our whole car searched and were detained for a short while. After they found nothing but food, clothes, and baseball junk in the car, they let us go. We walked around the streets of Toronto for a while when we arrived and just wandered aimlessly into stores and the like. We made our way into the Rogers Centre (formerly the Skydome) for the game a little early and found our seats. The Blue Jays were playing the Red Sox, and once again their jackass fans were in full force. We only stayed for the first five innings for three reasons. One, we were driving back to Cleveland right after the game and didn't want to roll in around 4AM. Two, it started raining RIGHT AFTER they opened the retractable roof and we were getting wet. Three, I can only take so much cheering from Red Sox fans before I puke.

So that puts me where I am now. We arrived back at my parents' house around 2:30AM last Friday morning. I'm still letting everything marinate for a few more days before I lay down some great insights about the whole summer and traveling in general...so keep reading! (If anyone besides my mom and Rachel still are!)

Peace,

Matt

Milwaukee and Chicago I

2009-08-17T11:47:00.002-04:00

Hello Friends,

On Friday, we left Minneapolis in the afternoon and headed for Milwaukee to catch the Brewers game against the Houston Astros. Very quickly, I realized I was going to like Miller Park. It definitely ended up being one of my top five or top three favorite parks. Some of the highlights were the mascot sliding down the big yellow slide every time a Brewers player hit a homerun and, of course, the famous sausage race. During the sixth inning of every game the stadium has a race between five "sausage mascots." The best part about this time was that the Italian sausage won! The game itself was exciting yet anticlimactic. The Brewers scored eight runs in the first inning and the outcome of the game was never in doubt. They ended up winning 11-2, but we didn't stick around to see the ending. We left early to drive down to Chicago for the night, and I dropped off Sam and Elle at Sam's aunt's house then drove out to my brother Mike's house in the suburbs. After three cities in one day, I was pretty exhausted so I relaxed and watched last week's episode of Entourage before calling it a night.

Saturday was spent soaking up some serious family time. My parents are in Chicago for the weekend staying with Mike and Christie, so we hung out together all day Saturday. We woke up early (relatively speaking) and went to brunch before getting ready for a cookout at Mike's house. Mike's college roommate Adam, his wife Bree, and Bree's cousin Meaghan (see St. Louis) joined us as well. We all started drinking and catching up, then eventually we played some cornhole and ate dinner. Another old roommate of Mike's, Grove, came later and we ended up getting a pretty good crowd to go to the bar near Mike's house.

Since Grove tends to enjoy liquor, the bars were interesting. He was buying us shots and drinks all night, and here are some of the results...
Adam tapped the top of Mike's beer bottle with his bottle, expecting Mike's beer to foam up and overflow. The only problem was that Adam was drunk and hit it too hard, resulting in the bottom of Mike's bottle dropping out and beer and glass going everywhere.
Grove was teaching Christie to salsa dance, then her balance betrayed her and she got to know the floor a little better.
As we're catching a cab home, Adam and Bree were leaning on each other, only neither one was in any shape to help the other one out. So they basically tackled each other on the sidewalk.
Finally, after a long night of shit-talking between Mike and me, we got home, cleared out the living room, and had a Pavia battle-royal. It went something like this: Mike was drunk as a skunk so I took advantage of that fact and threw him around the room most of the time. He resisted a bit, then stopped, and I threw him around a little more until I wasted all of my energy and we both laid on the ground drunk and trying to catch our breaths. Good thing we didn't break anything in the living room or Christie would have kicked both of our asses. Oh yeah, after churning all the alcohol up in my stomach, it decided it was time to let it all out...so I had a date with the porcelain.

Sunday: Game Day
We woke up in a frenzy (thanks to Bree's early burst of energy) trying to pull ourselves together and catch the Metra train into downtown Chicago. On the ride in, my dad asks me if I know that the game starts at noon, not one. I said, "No. I'm sure the game is at one." He tells me to check my ticket, and I do, and it says the game is at 1:20PM. The tickets that Mike, Christie and my parents got from friends say the game is at noon, only on Saturday! So Mike and Christie scrambled to get tickets from Craigslist as the rest of us relaxed and recouped on the train. We took the red line subway into Wrigleyville and finally made it to Cubby Bear Tavern to get ready for the Cubs game. I took advantage of the free beer still sitting in my body from the night before, and after a couple morning beverages the shampoo effect started setting in. So eventually Mike, Christie and my parents scalped tickets to get into SUNDAY'S game and we headed into Wrigley Field. Sam and I had tickets we bought online the day they went on sale and Adam, Bree, and Meaghan had tickets in our same row!

Here's how the game went:
After EIGHT first pitches, the game was ready to start, but not before it started downpouring. The rain was on and off for a while, but they wouldn't start the game until it cleared up. Around 1:45 or 2, the weather really started clearing up and we thought the game would start back up. Unfortunately, whoever is making decisions at Wrigley Field is a complete moron. The weather cleared up and an announcement was made saying that thunderstorms were on the way and would be there in an hour. They decided to wait it out and try to start the game AFTER the rain came. Here's the problem...what if the rain never comes?! These people are complete idiots because two hours later the rain finally did come, but they could have played four, five or even six innings by then! What an ass-backwards way of thinking. So thanks to the intelligent people at Wrigley Field, we didn't actually see any baseball yesterday.

We woke up early, took the train into downtown, took the red line to Wrigley, drank at the Cubby Bear, and sat in Wrigley for almost four hours. I'd say we got the whole experience, minus the baseball, so I think it counts towards the whole seeing 30 games in 30 stadiums thing. After the "game," we hustled to catch the train back to the suburbs and picked up some Chicago style deep dish pizza on our way home for dinner. At night, we watched UFC and Entourage, the only two things REALLY worth watching on TV these days. Finally, before crashing for the night my mom, Meaghan, and I watched the worst movie I've seen in a while, The Cutting Edge (even though I've seen it before...shhhh). To my mom's credit, she was so into the movie that she stayed up and watched the whole thing without even dozing off on the couch (a normal occurrence around 9PM).

I had a great weekend spending time with my family and it was especially great to see MY MOM! Today we'll be heading to the White Sox game, and I'm hoping we actually get to see some baseball! Hard to believe it, but we only have three more games and four more days. Almost there...

Matt

Minnesota Pictures

2009-08-14T10:54:00.002-04:00

Yellowstone to Denver PIctures

2009-08-14T10:48:00.002-04:00

Denver and Minnesota

2009-08-13T23:25:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends,

I have some catching up to do, so let’s get right to it. We left Seattle on Saturday morning at 5:30AM on our way to Yellowstone National Park. We left so early because we expected to get to YNP in time to set up our tent and explore a little. That didn’t happen. Between the longer than expected drive and the time change, we arrived at the visitors center of the park around 7PM, only to find out that we had another two hour drive to our campsite. We started setting up the tent – in the pitch black and rain – and found out there weren’t any stakes with it. By the time we got it set up, I was ready to go to sleep; only it isn’t easy to sleep when you are freeeeezing cold. We had two sleeping bags, two pillows, and a blanket…and THREE people. Oh yeah, did I mention that the temperature was hovering just above freezing? In August. Sleeping on a tree root didn’t help either.

Needless to say, I didn’t get the best night of sleep I’ve ever had. This is a great lesson in Murphy’s Law. Here’s the silver lining: The drive to and through Yellowstone was the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. The Pacific Northwest and Wyoming are by far the best places to drive in the country.

On Sunday we headed for Denver and were pleasantly surprised to find that the drive wasn’t nearly as long as we thought it was going to be. We arrived at Ken’s apartment around 6PM. Ken used to work with my brother in Kansas City before he was transferred to Denver. He also graduated from Elder; so unfortunately, he bleeds purple like the rest of you Cincinnati fools. I was staying with Ken while Sam and Elle stayed with Elle’s cousin Erin and her husband Nick.

Here’s the fun part: It is an incredibly small world, as we’ve been finding out all along this trip. Ken and I were having a drink and talking, then one conversation leads to another, and this is what we came up with: Ken graduated Elder the same year as Joe, Elle’s boyfriend. He knows Elle, and Elle graduated high school with Ken’s sister. Then, Ken and are were talking about getting a bite to eat, and he asked what the girls were doing for dinner. I said they were at Elle’s cousin’s for a cookout. Ken asked what Elle’s cousin’s name was, because of course, he knows Erin and Nick! They invited him to the cookout, but he said he couldn’t go because he had a visitor from out of town coming (me)! Damn Cincinnatians all know each other.

Anyways, Ken and I headed over to join the girls and friends for a fun cookout. After some good food and a few drinks, Ken, Elle, Sam, and I headed to a local watering hole to shoot the shit a little more. The bar we went to had tons of board games, so we drank and played Mad Gab…just another typical Sunday night. The best part was that Sully was in town visiting his grandparents and he met us at the bar. It’s always great to see friends from home…and to have some Cleveland blood around all the Cincinnatians (trust me, it helps).

On my second day in Denver I was the world’s biggest bum. While Ken was working, I was watching about five or six hours of The Office on DVD. Later on in the afternoon, Sully came over to his apartment and we watched some more The Office and started drinking a little. Ken got home and decided the best thing for us would be to take a couple shots of Tequila. He was wrong. I was decent drunk before we even left for the Rockies game.

We had a good crowd for the game. It was Erin, Nick, Elle, Sam, Ken, Sully, and me. The thing that sticks out most in my mind from the game is the food. Somewhere along the way on this trip, we met someone who told us we need to try Rocky Mountain Oysters while at the Rockies game. Luckily, he was nice enough to actually tell us what they are and not let us be surprised. They’re fried bull testicles. Well, as I’ve been saying all along, when in Rome…

In all honesty, they really weren’t too bad. They were kind of tasty, considering I was eating balls. Maybe the alcohol had something to do with it as well. However, I wouldn’t recommend trying more than a few because I had one too many. I felt like shit the rest of the night, and when we went out for a few drinks after the game, I was not feeling so hot (understatement of the year).

The game itself was awesome, but I missed a lot of the most important parts. The Rockies shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki, hit for the cycle and turned an unassisted triple play. These are two things that RARELY happen in baseball and they were somewhat of a blur for me. As we were leaving, I noticed Tulo being interviewed on the jumbotron and hearing that he hit for the cycle. I was thinking, “Did that happen in this game???” Someone said, “I wish they would have made it more obvious,” to which a woman replied, “They couldn’t have made it more obvious. The screen was flashing CYCLE! CYCLE! CYCLE!” The one thing that does stick in my mind is a catch that the Rockies’ centerfielder made in the ninth inning. He slammed into the wall full-speed and robbed a possible homerun.

Anyways, our last day in Denver was spent checking out a few sites around the city. Ken took off work for the day and took us out to Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Park. Then we saw a little of downtown and the 16^th St. Mall before we saw Funny People at the movie theatre (It was just as funny the second time around). We had a nice dinner at a kick-ass pizza place with all seven of us for our last night in Denver. Afterwards, we went back to Erin and Nick’s and relaxed for a little while before our long drive to Minnesota.

We left in the middle of the night and got to Minneapolis around 4 or 5PM on Wednesday. We met up with a friend of mine from OU, Ashton, at her apartment before the Twins game. She’s living in apartments near U of Minnesota’s campus, subleasing with some students, and they’re all nice enough to let us crash for a few days. Ashton came to the Twins game with us last night. It was the best deal we’ve had yet (besides the free tickets). It was $16 total for four seats in the upper deck…a special student four-pack. Plus, it was dollar dog night. This reminds me, recent grads don’t ever get rid of your student IDs. They’re priceless.

Finally, today we saw a few more things on our last day in Minnesota. First, we went to Summit Brewing Company in St. Paul for a free tour and beer tasting. The best entertainment possible is a brewery tour because they’re almost always free and you get to learn about and drink beer. Did I mention it’s free? After that, we went to the Mall of America just to check it out. It was impressive and dull all at once. Impressive because it was so huge and had every store you could ever imagine. Dull because it’s just another mall, only bigger. The only special part about it was the mini theme park and roller coasters in the middle of it.

Tonight for dinner Ashton, Sam, Elle, and I met my friend Margaret (another Bobcat) at a place in the “trendy” part of town. It was cool to have another OU reunion and shoot the shit over some drinks and dinner. Anywhere we go, it’s great to see Bobcats and reminisce about the good ole days in Athens.

It seems that I’m always tired every day now, and today is no different. So I’m going to call it a night. Next, we’re moving on to Milwaukee and Chicago. Talk to you all sometime soon. I’ll try to put up some more pictures soon.

Peace,

Matt

Seattle Pictures

2009-08-12T00:48:00.002-04:00

Bay Area Pictures

2009-08-12T00:30:00.002-04:00

Most of these pictures speak for themselves.

Anaheim and San Diego Pictures

2009-08-12T00:00:00.002-04:00

Seattle

2009-08-11T23:47:00.001-04:00

Most people who know me well will tell you that I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. I generally believe that people are inherently good, and I think the majority of people are more likely to help you than hurt you. Our experiences in Seattle have reaffirmed my thoughts and taught me that regardless of your expectations, people will always find some way to surprise you.

With that said, let me explain our relationship to our hosts in Seattle. Sam’s mom set us up with a place to stay at her ex-coworker’s cousin’s house. Jaime is the cousin, and we stayed with her, her husband Mark, and their two adorable girls Peyton and Katherine (9 and 6?). So this family took in three recent college grads without knowing any of us, knowing Sam’s mom, or having any idea what to expect or who would should up on their doorstep.

As you can probably tell by now, they welcomed us with open arms and treated us far better than we deserved (this has definitely been a theme on our trip). When we arrived Thursday night we sat around and chatted for a little while and got to know each other, and then they all went to bed and left us to “help ourselves and make ourselves at home.” Mark left us with an email address and contact info for a friend of his who works at Safeco Field (Mariners’ stadium). So Sam emailed Mark’s friend to set up a tour for us the next day!

Before we get to that, let me tell you what we did to entertain ourselves on Friday afternoon. We drove into downtown Seattle to see the Pike Place Market. It is a world famous open/outdoor market and one of the largest farmers/artisans markets in the country. You may recognize it from seeing clips of Pike Place Fish Co. employees throwing huge raw fish across the market when customers place an order. You may also recognize the giant pig/piggy bank that sits out front. Anyways, we spent most of the day walking around and exploring the market. We checked out different artists’ work – and realized we couldn’t afford most of it – and also browsed through all the fresh produce farmers were selling. We also got to see the world’s first Starbucks, which is right in the heart of Pike Place Market where it all began…before they started trying to take over the world. It’s such a cool atmosphere there and I think if I lived in the area I would probably be there three or four times a week (I’ll get back to that later).

From the market we walked to the game and got there incredibly early. Why, you might ask, would we be at a 7:05 game before 5 o’clock? Well, because it was Ken Griffey Jr. bobblehead night of course! There were only 20,000 bobbleheads available for giveaway, and I swear at least 10-15,000 people were standing outside the stadium in line waiting to get in and grab their piece of history. The other reason we arrived early was to meet up with Mark’s friend for an all access tour of Safeco Field! In a word, it was phenomenal! She took us to the press box, owner’s suite, diamond seats, etc. We got to see all the ins and outs of the stadium, which coincidentally really makes you fall in love with it.

Needless to say, after seeing all the different great views in the stadium, it was really tough to take our actual seats and watch from the nosebleeds. But, we managed to get by of course. The game was really exciting too. The Mariners were losing the entire game until the 7th inning when they scored four runs to tie the score at 5 a piece. The game went to 11 innings when the Mariners finally won 6-5. Unfortunately, we weren’t there to see the ending because we had to leave the game early to get the car, which was parked in a lot with a time limit! Seems like bad luck, but after the stadium tour and our incredible hosts, nothing could have gone wrong in Seattle.

After the game we drove back to Mark and Jaime’s to find that they had baked cookies for us to take on the road! How unbelievably nice are these people??? But wait, it gets better. This morning at 5:30am we were just about to take off for Yellowstone National Park to camp for the night. Jaime wakes up to say goodbye to us and GIVES us one of their sleeping bags because we only have one and she wants our night of camping to be comfortable! If you ever have doubts about the inherent goodness of people, please remember our wonderful Seattle hosts.

Now, back my comment before about visiting the Pike Place Market all the time if I lived in Seattle. Seattle is an amazing city and I would love to live there someday. However, it is the one place that I really want to live, but I KNOW I never would. Why? Because in our two day stay there I didn’t see a single ray of sunlight. It is perpetually overcast in Seattle, and although it didn’t rain at all (which I thought it would), it was constantly gloomy and somewhat depressing. STILL A GREAT PLACE TO VISIT THOUGH!

So like I said, we’re on our way to Yellowstone National Park to camp for the evening. We’ll be in Denver on Sunday, which is when I’ll end up posting this entry…and probably another since I’ll have lots to say about YNP. Until Denver…

Slacker.

2009-08-11T23:31:00.002-04:00

It's been over 2 weeks since my last blog and I'm well aware I've been slacking.

The Anaheim game started our last leg off with a bang. Some heaven-sent man handed us 2 tickets to sit behind home plate with him- for free- again upping my drinking budget (thank you, Angel wearing jeans). The game was next to amazing and the reasons are 3 fold: 1) we saw 2 fights break out in the stands which stalled the game and involved no Indians fans 2) the Indians resembled an actual baseball team to pull out an 8-6 win and 3) when Francisco made a hell of a save, Anaheim cheered. Classy.

I spent some quality time the next day with Brittany Burke- a dear friend from OU who has made quite a life for herself in LA. We caught up over bottomless Bloody Marys and a celebrity sighting (Maggie Grace) then I headed to UCLA to meet up with Rachel & Matt. We went around campus (Rachel just moved in for Law School- hello future sugar mama) & ended up at a Mexican restaurant-obvi- where we each had a 32oz margarita. It was here that I realized Rachel's love for Ritas, -and a potential drinking problem- because she finished hers by the time I was nearing the halfway point on mine. I spent Wednesday exploring the college town that is UCLA while Matt & Rachel spent the day at the beach. They got back & we got ready for the big two-three celebration in Santa Monica. Rachel, Matt, Mckenzie, Ashley, Brittany, Stile & I (all Bobcats) went to Cabo Cantina- a place with happy hour til midnight with 2-for-1 deals. When Matt got a beer, I was given a beer. When Stile got a shot, I was given a shot. It rapidly turned into a give-Sam-your-other-happy-hour-drink. Once midnight hit & my friends decided to sing- which made the people sitting next to us shell out their 2-for-1 margaritas, adding to the birthday frenzy. Thanks guys, wherever you are. Onward to a bar where Ashely informed the bouncer that it was my birthday. The info trickled down the line to 3 guys behind us who wanted to buy me a birthday drink. As Matt wrote earlier, these guys seemed eager to hear about our trip. I have to throw in that I have a slight recollection of taking a shot of American Honey, and by shot, I mean half of a pint. Great Birthday. It's the most amazing thing to know that wherever I spend my birthday, I've got great friends to share with me.

On my birthday we drove (actually, Matt drove) to San Diego. It was on our way out of town that I had my second, and best celebrity sighting (Jamie Kaler). He walked right past me, rocking out to his iPod. I spent the day with my friend from high school, Evan. We went to Pacific Beach to a bar to catch up- a common theme in this blog- over Bloody Marys- another common theme- and after, we went to a beach party with Evan's girlfriend Katrina to meet her friends. Low & behold it was the Metz family (Natalie & Drew) in town for a family wedding. I finally got to meet Natalie's perfect bundle of joy as well as the rest of the Metz family, before picking up our newest companion, Elle. The cherry on top of a great birthday was sitting on Evan's patio with his roommate and Elle, drinking and catching up.

Friday was the Padres game & Evan bough me awesome tickets on the 3rd base line. For those of you who know Evan and actually like him, you know it can be a love/hate relationship. Today was love. Thanks Ev! I sat next to some obnoxiously loud Jehovah's witness who was heckling the 3rd baseman and for those of you who fall into the above category, you also know I'm talking about Evan. He had people laughing, yelling at him, and 2 adorable 6-year-olds mimicking him. We went out with Elle's cousins after dropping Matt off at his cousin's and take a guess- I knew them from OU too. The more expanding west we do, the smaller the world gets. Not a day into the trip & Elle gets us kicked out of the bar. In fact the bouncer could be quoted as saying to me "girl, you've got some great moves- but you've got to get your friend out of here." Elle & I stayed up partying with her family friends & I ended up watching the sun come up.

Onward to San Jose/San Francisco the next morning. We arrived 10 hours & 1 killer PCH drive later to Bob Fenner's house. He immediately had dinner grilling for us and one hell of a great plan for the night. I'm going to explain this night and the next morning on the way to the Giants game to you with some quotes from Bob, which should sum it up for those of you who know him:

"Tonight's gonna be one of those nights the Black Eyed Peas write songs about"

"The best part of waking up drunk is that it's like free beer"

and

"I'm glad I have my sunglasses on because I'm fucking hammered"

The game consisted of the 4 of us shampoo effecting our way through the day. It's all pretty much a blur, except I remember not being able to get on the same drunken level as the rest of the clowns I was with, and oh yeah, the next morning was Bob's first day at his new job.

That Monday, while Bob was fighting back yaking during his first meeting with a new company, Elle, Matt & I went biking along the San Fran Bay. It was breathtaking in every sense of the word. The scenery was beautiful and the hills made me remember that I'm horrible shape. The only other way to describe it is with pictures- which are posted somewhere on this site.

I'm going to break up these blogs for you so to keep you from trailing off and actually doing something productive. Stay tuned for Slacker 2.0 to hear about our trip to Tahoe, Sacramento, Seattle & Bull Testicles.

Los Angeles Pictures

2009-08-07T13:07:00.002-04:00

Arizona Pictures

2009-08-07T03:03:00.002-04:00

That's all I've got for tonight...I'm tired. I'll try to put more up tomorrow morning or later on this week. Enjoy.

Colorado Springs Pictures

2009-08-07T02:10:00.002-04:00

Mostly pictures from Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. I forget most of the names of the rock formations...but everything was beautiful!

Kansas City Pictures

2009-08-07T01:32:00.002-04:00

St. Louis Pictures

2009-08-07T01:23:00.002-04:00

Uno Mas de California

2009-08-07T01:01:00.005-04:00

Hello Friends,

We’re on our way to Seattle right now, in the middle of a wonderful 12 hour drive. It shouldn’t be too bad now that we have three drivers (I guess it’s not so bad having Smelly Elle around after all), and also because I’m really excited to get to Seattle. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while now.

There isn’t much battery left in the computer, so I’ll briefly recap the past couple of days for you all. On Tuesday, Elle and Sam took the car and headed to Lake Tahoe and then eventually to Sacramento. I stayed in Santa Clara with Bob for one more night and some much needed “man time.” It isn’t that I can’t handle being around women all the time, I mean I lived with four gals for a year. But when you spend so much time without any male bonding, things start to get a little feminine all the time.

Anyways, on Tuesday I slept in, caught up on emails, and eventually made my way outside. I walked around Santa Clara’s campus, downtown San Jose, and eventually settled at Panera for lunch. When Bob got home from his second day of work (much better than his first according to him), we had left-over fajitas – which were still delicious. Then, we went to the movie theatre and saw Funny People. It was a pretty kick-ass movie, and I usually hate Seth Rogan. But I have to say he did a good job and even made me laugh a little. As a whole, the movie was a mix of funny, sad, and inspiring.

Moving on, I spent much of Wednesday on various trains. In the morning I took the Caltrain (like a commuter train) near Bob’s house to just south of SF. From there, I took BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit – more like a subway system) to Berkeley. I spent the day in Berkeley just walking around and exploring. The campus there (Cal) is beautiful and felt like a small town even though the campus is so big. It was cool to see Bancroft Way – named for Ann Bancroft from The Graduate of course. Now I need to go back and watch The Graduate for the umpteenth time and see if I recognize any of the places. All-in-all, Berkeley is a really cool and interesting place.

Finally, I took another BART train from Berkeley down to Oakland to meet the girls for the A’s game. I can honestly say there was nothing interesting about the Oakland Coliseum, except for the fact that it’s right next to Oracle Arena where the Golden State Warriors play. The game was all right, and kind of exciting because the A’s hit a lot of HRs. There was one that hit a sign about 10 to 20 feet away from me, just out of my reach! After the game, we drove back to Sam’s Aunt Sandy’s place in Sacramento, crashed for the night, and that brings us to where we are now…driving again!

THANKS AGAIN MR. FENNER FOR SHOWING US THAT YOU’VE STILL GOT IT. WE HAD SUCH A GREAT TIME IN THE BAY AREA AND WE REALLY APPRECIATE YOU GIVING US A PLACE TO STAY AND TREATING US SO WELL (PAYING FOR DRINKS AND ALL THAT GOOD STUFF!). I’LL BE BACK TO VISIT SOMEDAY WHEN MY BODY FULLY RECOVERS FROM THE WEEKEND THAT DESTROYED IT. P.S. - I SAW A MEESE POSTER WHILE I WAS IN BERKELEY.

- Matt

Dallas (Texas Rangers) Pictures

2009-08-04T20:14:00.003-04:00

More pictures will be coming soon. It took me forever to upload these because of a slow connection. When I have time and a better connection I'll be putting up more.

Yep, We're Still In California

2009-08-03T22:42:00.002-04:00

I have a lot to talk about from the past few days. I'll make an attempt to be brief, but we all know that's probably not going to happen. When I last checked in, we had just celebrated Sam's birthday and spent a day in San Diego. Day two in SD was another great one. I slept in to catch up on sleep, and then Sam and Elle came and picked me up from Jess and Alex's place. The three of us, along with Sam's high school friend Evan, drove up to Encinitas to Stone Brewery. If you've had Stone I.P.A. or Arrogant Bastard Ale, then you know what I'm talking about. We hung out there and explored their gardens, took the brewery tour, and of course, indulged in some free taste testing. It was pretty cool, but not QUITE up to par with the Boulevard tour in KC. Clevelanders...if you have the chance to try Arrogant Bastard Ale, do it. It tastes similar to Great Lakes Christmas Ale, only slightly less delicious.

That night we went to the Padres game. There honestly wasn't anything too interesting that happened worth noting. I had already visited Petco Park last year, and it was definitely as cool as I remember. I guess all I remember is that the Padres won and Evan was drunk and yelling at/harassing the Brewers' third baseman. After the game I went back to Jess' and Sam, Elle, and Evan went out and apparently got hammered. There are pictures (and dance moves) to prove it. SO THANKS AGAIN JESS AND ALEX! I HAD A GREAT TIME IN OB AS USUAL AND HOPE THAT I'LL GET THE CHANCE TO VISIT AGAIN SOMETIME SOON!

Needless to say, Saturday morning I drove the early shift. We left about 10am and headed North towards San Jose to visit our good friend from OU, Bob Fenner. It took us longer than expected because we took the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) for about half of the trip. There was more traffic and the route is longer, but the scenery is ABSOLUTELY worth it. Imagine driving hours with nothing but the Pacific on your left and mountains on your right. Gorgeous. We finally arrived in San Jose/Santa Clara at Bob's place around 8ish, and Mr. Bob Fenner Mr. Bob Bob Fenner had a delicious dinner waiting for us. I wouldn't have guessed that Bob is a chef, but now that I know, I'll call him a grill-master. He made beef and chicken fajitas, and the second best guacamole I've ever tasted (see the previous post in LA to read about the best guac ever).

We hung out around his apartment with a few of his buddies from work and shot the shit for a couple hours. We started drinking somewhat heavily and playing card games to prepare ourselves for a lovely evening in Santa Clara at an SCU bar. Bob's buddy Andy had already polished off a bottle of Jack by the time we were ready to hit the bar. The Hut, as Bob likes to describe it, is what came out when Pawpurr's screwed the CI. To paint a picture, it's a college dive bar (our favorite kind) where they have pop-a-shot basketball and everyone pins their business card and a dollar to the ceiling when they get their first job. Now, there's one of Bob's business cards with my name scribbled on it pinned to the ceiling with a dollar...even though I don't have a business card and haven't made my first dollar after college yet.

The rest of the evening can be accurately described in one sentence. "Party like a lobster, party like a lobster." Now those of you who know Bob Fenner know that he's about as generous a man as you'll find anywhere. You also know that he loves the phrase, "Lemme get a whole mess of shots over here." What I didn't expect was for him to open a tab and take care of us for the evening. Bob truly is THE MAN, and he knows how to have a great time and how to show anyone and everyone a great time. Then again, those who know him already know this. What happened the rest of the night gets a little blurry from here. Here are some highlights from the Hut. Bob was on top of a table on the back patio "dancing" with an umbrella. Elle was awkwardly staring at what she called a midget but what most people who don't completely disregard political correctness would call a little person. We took more shots of Jager than I wanted to. Andy passed out on a bench on the patio. The next thing I know, we're walking back to Bob's. On the walk home, Elle asked me to hold her purse. I proceeded to wear it the rest of the walk home and scream, "It's a satchel" every two minutes (hope you've seen The Hangover). People were falling in bushes and tackling each other. I ripped a spider-plant out of the ground and carried it home because Elle wanted to get Bob a housewarming gift. I aggressively challenged Bob's friend Mark to a foot race, but we never did because he wouldn't take off his shoes and race me barefoot. We got back to Bob's apartment and I started challenging people to wrestling matches, and luckily Bob did not take me up on that offer because he would have kicked my ass. When it was time to go to bed, Sam and Elle were apparently invading my personal space because I kept yelling "Give me some effing privacy!" at them. I even climbed into one of Bob's kitchen cupboards to get that "much-needed" privacy. Now Elle has a bunch of pictures on her camera from the walk home that explain a lot of unanswered questions, but I hope those pictures never make it to the public.

The next thing I know, Bob is waking us up at 10:30 to get ready to catch a train at 11 for the Giants game. Coincidentally, it felt like I got hit by a train. We barely made it to the train, rode it an hour and a half into San Francisco, and started drinking about 10 minutes into the ride. I needed one, maybe two beers to activate the shampoo effect (see Sam's previous post for a description). We hit Pete's Sports Bar before the game, drank some PBRs, and got into the Giants game to enjoy our standing room only tickets. I got lost/separated from everyone in the first inning. We met back up, stole some people's seats in the upper deck, and enjoyed (kinda) a great afternoon baseball game. Day games kick ass by the way. The Giants beat Cole Hamels and the Phillies 7-3, and the crowd was way into the game the entire time. I think it was even a sell-out. The coolest part of AT&T Park was looking out at the Bay Bridge and into McCovey Cove where Barry Bonds used to hit HRs. There aren't hundreds of kayaks waiting out there anymore, but there are still a few.

After the game we took a cab down to Fisherman's Warf, what Bob calls the most touristy place in the city. The cab ride was outrageous, complete with a dance party and the best sing-along to Queen's "Somebody to Love" that there has ever been. At the Warf, we saw a bunch of sea lions, walked around, and settled at a restaurant for appetizers and...wait for it...a few more beers. After a long, long, longgg day we caught the train back to Santa Clara. Bob caught up on his sleep (or passed out...depending on how you look at it) on the ride home considering the next day (today) was his first day at his new job. Drinking on a school night is always fun but not always recommended. If anyone can do it gracefully, it's Mr. Bob Fenner. Back at Bob's, we watched a few new episodes of Entourage and crashed early, obviously.

While Bob was rotting away at work and impressing his new co-workers, Elle, Sam and I drove into SF and rented bikes for a couple hours. We toured some of the city and rode out to and across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a good ride and there were some pretty amazing views of the bridge, the city, and Alcatraz. Eventually, we made it to an In-and-Out Burger to see what all the California hype is about. I would say it was good, but not great. Good fast-food burger (better than McD's, BK, and Wendy's for sure), but the fries were nothing to write home about. I'm glad I got to try it, but I wouldn't go crazy about it or probably even ever get it again. All-in-all I'm very impressed by SF and I think it's a really cool city with a lot to see and do. It seems very touristy, but we had a great time hanging around the downtown areas. So we're back at Bob's now, relaxing of course, and re-fueling the batteries for our upcoming adventures in the next few days.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading through this novel. I enjoyed writing it and trying to recap what has happened to us in the past couple of days, so I hope you enjoyed reading it. Once again, I'll try to keep you posted more frequently, but we're still in CA so it's tough to get away from all the fun. And I promise tomorrow I'll put up some more pictures, finally. Talk to you all sometime soon.

Peace,
Matt

Mas California

2009-07-31T14:47:00.003-04:00

Hello Friends,

Sorry that it has taken me a few days to post a new update on our lives, but we are in sunny southern California. It's a bit difficult to sit inside and write when the beach is a half mile away. Before I get into what we've been up to, let me answer my mom's questions in her most recent comment. The Indians traded Cliff Lee. They are now looking at trading Victor Martinez (our best player) to the scum of the Earth, the Boston Red Sox. What do I think? Well Tribe fans, get ready to experience the Cleveland Indians of 2003-2006. We are in full-on rebuilding mode. Expect to see a different manager next year, and don't be surprised if we are so bad in 2010 that the Kansas City Royals finish with a better record. It would be nice to see some life from the Tribe at the end of the season to save Wedge's job, but don't count on it. As a Cleveland sports fan, I now have three things to look forward to. (1) Tailgating and drinking my way through another horrific Browns season. (2) OSU football - winning just enough games to make it to a BCS bowl game and get blown away by an SEC team. (3) King James leading the Cavs to a championship and ending the 46 year drought of Cleveland professional sports (yes, I actually believe this). Enough Cleveland sports venting, here's what we've been up to...

Our past few days in LA were some of the best I've had on this trip. We spent two nights in Westwood on UCLA's campus with Rachel. She moved in on Tuesday to get ready for law school. Once again, Sam and I were the first guests to spend the night. The majority of the night was spent catching up with Rachel, and then we went out to a couple places around Westwood Village. First, the Westwood Brewing Co. is the most disappointing brew pub around. They had a $3 bottle special, only they were sold out of about 20 kinds of beer and had 4 types left. Weak. The best part was that Mickey Davis (Christie's sister) met us there for a few beverages and was kind enough to pick up the tab and treat us to some free drinks. She gave us - well really Rachel - the scoop on living in LA, all the fun stuff to do, and what to watch out for. We also spent some time talking about the upcoming wedding and how much fun we're going to have, of course. When Mickey decided to call it a night (it must suck to have a job), Rachel, Sam and I went across the street to a kick-ass Mexican (go figure) restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately, the kitchen was closed so we didn't get much of a dinner. What we did get were giant margaritas and the best guacamole I've ever had - no joke. The manager brought out a huge tray with all the ingredients, sliced and scooped the avocado, added in onions, tomatoes, cilantro, etc., threw in some hot peppers, and squeezed the juice from a lime to top it off. He asked smooth or chunky (chunky obviously), and wallah, the best guac ever!

The only word to describe our last day in LA is perfect. Here's a quick rundown. Rachel and I spent most of the day at the beach. We bummed on the beach, walked from south Santa Monica to the Venice Pier, and walked back north on the Venice boardwalk. This place is slowly becoming one of my favorite's in the country. I think I've mentioned it before, but there simply isn't a better people watching spot. So we headed back to Westwood after a full beach day, cleaned ourselves up, and got ready to celebrate Sam's birthday!!!

We first went to a small diner in Westwood for dinner. I had a turkey burger with avocado. I only mention that because I absolutely love how Californians put avocado on everything. So to celebrate, we drove down the road to Santa Monica to a place called Cabo Cantina. This place has something that most bars I've been to wouldn't even be smart enough to think of. It has late night happy hour, in addition to its normal happy hour. So from 10:30 to 12:30, ALL drinks are two-for-one. In other words, order a beer, get two. Order a margarita, get a double or get two. Order a birthday shot for Sam, get one for yourself. You get the idea. What made it even better was that we had an OU reunion to celebrate. Our good friend Sara was in town from Chicago, staying with Ashley and McKenzie. Plus Rachel joined us and Sam's friend Brittany was there as well. Seven Bobcats all drinking together in LA. We decided that we have absolutely no school spirit until drinking is involved. "Sam, drink that faster. You call yourself a bobcat?" After Cabo, we went to a bar down the street to end the night. The only important thing to note is this: Sam had three guys around her at once talking to her about the baseball trip. As you all could have easily guessed, telling a guy in a bar that you're on a baseball roadtrip to see every MLB stadium will most certainly get his attention - especially if you're a cute blonde. Definitely a successful bday celebration for Sam!

Yesterday was a bittersweet goodbye to LA. On one hand I was psyched to go to San Diego (who wouldn't be?), but on the other hand I was sad to leave LA and some of my very best friends. But the show must go on, so we drove to SD after a quick pit stop to pick up my credit card from Cabo Cantina! Bonehead move Matt. I spent yesterday with my cousin Jess and her boyfriend Alex, while Sam took the car and headed to her high school friend Evan's place. Jess, Alex, and I walked the rocks/cliffs along the beach and enjoyed happy hour at South Beach Bar & Grill - my favorite place in Ocean Beach. We enjoyed fish tacos and $3 pint night. After spending a few hours drinking and people watching as beach-goers passed by, we headed back to their apartment to chill in the hot tub and crash early. I was pretty drained from our stint in LA, but I'm refreshed today and ready to take on the Padres game. I think I slept for 10 to 11 hours last night, but it was a well-need rest. I'll be checking back in in a few days, so please stay tuned to read more about San Diego and the Bay Area. Adios!

Matt

Indians vs. Angels

2009-07-28T13:05:00.002-04:00

Hello out there all you Wahoo maniacs. I know I just wrote yesterday, but I figured I would give everyone who hates their job something to do at work today. Plus, I want to dedicate an entire entry to the Indians vs. Angels game last night - it was THAT good.

Besides the fact that I'm a Tribe fan going into enemy territory, the cops were on our ass before we even got into the stadium. Some moron cop yelled at us through a megaphone because we were jaywalking. REALLY? We were already half way across the street and we had to turn around, fight traffic to get back to the sidewalk, and walk two blocks out of the way to get to an effing crosswalk. REALLY? Go arrest someone who's actually committing a crime.

OK, now that I've gotten that out of the way, last night's game was probably my favorite so far. As we are waiting in line at the ticket center, a guy comes up to us and offers us free tickets. He got them from work and could only use the one, so we joined him in seats behind home plate in the first row of the second deck. Great view of the field, of course.

First of all, we were keeping the official score because we had scorecards left over from the Diamondbacks game. I used to hate keeping score on the bench when I played baseball, but it's been so long and I completely forgot how much fun it can be. You have to pay attention to every play, so the game turns out being way more interesting. What made it even more interesting is that the guy sitting next to me (ticket-giver) talked baseball with me the whole time and filled me in with all the important info about the Angels.

The game was one of the most exciting we've seen so far. Here's a quick rundown of how things went:

Tribe scores 2 in top of 2nd (2-0)

Angels lead off bottom of the 2nd with back-to-back-to-back HRs (2-3)

Tribe and Angels each score one in the 3rd (3-4)

Tribe tie it in the 5th (4-4)

Angels get that run back in the bottom of the 5th (4-5)

Angels score again in the 6th (4-6)

Angels bullpen does its job and shuts down the Tribe for three innings (4-6 still)

Top of the 9th: Carroll singles. Choo singles. I say to Sam, "Here's how this is going to play out. Victor is going to hit a 3-run HR, we'll take the lead, then Kerry Wood will come in and blow a save." Sure enough, Victor Martinez hits a 3-run HR in that at bat! Peralta follows with a solo HR. (8-6 Indians!)

Bottom of the 9th: Kerry Wood gives up a lead-off double, just to make things interesting. Then he does his job for once and gets a fly out, a strike out, and a fly out to end the game! It's pretty rare that I'm wrong, but I'm glad I was in this case!

It was a fantastic back-and-forth game with tons of hitting and an Indians victory. That's five in a row for the Tribe. Now if only they hadn't sucked miserably for the first three quarters of the season, then maybe we'd be on to something here. But at least we don't have the worst record in the American league anymore! Since I have a scorecard, let me give you some highlights...

Indians get 20 hits and 8 runs, leave 11 runners on base

Choo: 4-4, BB, 3 runs

Martinez: 1-5, 3RBI (3-run game winning HR)

Peralta: 4-5, 3 RBI, 2 runs

35,371 in Attendance

Pitching: non-existent

The only other important thing to note is the Angels fans. I was extremely confused by them. The ticket-giver was telling us how Dodgers fans are really intense and Angels fans always have a laid-back atmosphere at the game (it is Orange County). I was wearing my Grady Sizemore t-shirt and never once heard anyone give me shit or try to trash talk the Indians. The crowd even clapped and tipped their hats to an amazing diving catch Ben Francisco made in centerfield. I have never been to a stadium where the fans were more receptive to visitors. However, they must have something against each other. We saw a pretty serious fight in the stands half-way through the game. Then at the end, two Angels fans were escorted out for being obnoxious. The best part is that it was other Angels fans that were complaining about it and cheered like crazy when they were finally kicked out!

Anyways, I think last night was one of my favorite games so far (it's still tough to top Camden Yards). We have a few days off from baseball and we'll be spending them enjoying Westwood (UCLA), Santa Monica, and Venice. Life is good.

Go Tribe,

Matt

I'm In L.A. Bitch

2009-07-27T13:30:00.004-04:00

If you don't know what I'm referring to in the title, you're lucky. If you do, then you've heard the worst song on the planet. If you're curious, or you're a glutton for punishment, youtube the title, but beware that you'll be pissed you heard it. Thanks for introducing me to this song Ashley.

Before I talk about our first two days in LA and how much I love this place, I have a few things that I forgot to mention in the last blog. First, did anyone else know that Phoenix doesn't have daylight savings time? We thought we were on Mountain Time, but apparently Phoenix is on Pacific Time until the fall. The result of our ignorance was arriving at the Diamondbacks game 45 minutes before the first pitch (which I kind of liked, obviously). Also, I woke up the next morning to my alarm, brushed my teeth and washed my face and all that jazz, only to find out I was up an hour early and we weren't planning on leaving for another hour and a half. Fantastic! Now, I forgot what the second thing was I wanted to talk about, so when it comes back to me I'll throw it in.

The drive from Phoenix to LA was about six hours long, a relatively short trip considering some of our recent journeys. We stopped at Joshua Tree National Park along the way for a quick drive through and some pictures. It was pretty scenic and interesting, but mostly it was just the middle of the effing desert. All I could think of during our short visit there was U2 and the Entourage guys doing shrooms.

Moving on, we went to Sam's brother's (Chris) place in the valley when we finally made it to LA. We chilled and watched entirely too much Man vs. Wild (although I'm pretty fascinated with it since I had never seen it before). Chris and his roommate came to the Dodgers game with us. Dodger Stadium entered into my Top 5 favorite stadiums list. It's older, but has a great baseball feeling and the fans create a great atmosphere. They LOVE Manny, which is OK with me for the most part because I'm one of the few Tribe fans that still likes, or at least has an appreciation for, Manny. Here's a hilarious list of celebrities who were at the game and that they showed on the Jumbotron: Larry King, A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez - who am I kidding? If you don't know who Slater is then we aren't friends), James Vanderbeek, and some dude from the original 90210. Also, some moron proposed to his girlfriend on the Jumbotron during the Kiss Cam segment. I'm not an expert on the female psyche by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm fairly confident in saying that 9 out of 10 ladies DOES NOT want their hand in marriage requested at a baseball game in front of 30,000+ people. That's about as romantic as proposing on the Universal Studios Tour when Jaws pops out of the water (which is my plan by the way). Two more notable memories from the game: Chris' roommate bought Sam and me Dodger dogs because he grew up in LA and insisted it is the best hot dog on the planet. It's damn close to being true. Second, he brought a handheld AM/FM radio to the game to listen to the radio broadcast while we watched. Despite the fact that it's such an old man thing to do, it was awesome.

After the game we drove to our friends Ashley and Mckenzie's apartment in Venice. We hit one of the local watering holes expecting a somewhat tame night. As usual, I was wrong. It turned out to be a ton of fun though and we headed back to the apt and crashed. I feel asleep on the couch and woke up on an air mattress. That's mostly attributed to the warm well shots of tequila - which were $7!!! None of this is important, so moving on. Yesterday was a full day of Southern California fun. Ashley, Sam, Sam's bro and friend, and I went to Venice Beach (which is a 90 second walk from the girls' apartment) and walked the boardwalk. I'm convinced that this is the best place in the country to people watch. Those who have been here understand, and it would be impossible to describe it to those who haven't. Just a preview: Tree Man walks on stilts in a full tree suit and creepily stalks beach-goers. Also, on Sundays at sundown Venice Beach hosts the world's largest drum circle. Anyways, after strolling the boardwalk for a while, we laid on the beach for a few hours and relaxed. I swam for a little while, but the Pacific is pretty damn cold. The waves were amazing though - easily the best I've ever seen. After the beach, we went to a German beergarden right on the boardwalk and enjoyed mid-day pitchers.

After a brief stop at Ashley's apartment again for a dip in the swimming pool and hot tub, Sam and I headed to West Hollywood where we stayed last night with my friend Kristen from HS. Kristen, Kim (sister), Sam, and I went to Runyon Canyon park and hiked up to a great lookout spot with a view of the entire city from downtown to the beach. We followed that up with a trip to a place called Crazy Rockin' Sushi. I have been craving sushi for over a month, and it was everything I expected it would be. It really hit the spot. Last night at Kristen's apartment, we watched some Planet Earth DVDs and chatted to catch up on everything. It was a great relaxing night and the perfect end to what I'll call one of my favorite days on the trip so far. As if it isn't obvious, I love it here.

A few schedule changes for anyone who cares:

Aug. 2 - Giants game in SF

Aug. 5 - A's game in Oakland

Aug. 19 - Tigers game in Detroit.

I hope to talk to you all soon. Peace.

Matt

Californication. (Sam)

2009-07-27T04:07:00.004-04:00

After what I would consider the best day of sightseeing in Colorado Springs, we spent 11 miserable hours driving through the desert in order to get to the Arizona Diamondbacks game. We arrived to the game at what we thought to be on time, but due to the no daylight savings thing Arizona’s got going on, we were in our seats, ready to go a half hour before the game. It’s a good thing the beers were only $4 & the corn dogs $1.50 as that kept me occupied until the game started. The retractable roof made for a cool stadium- in both senses of the word- but we had to watch Pittsburgh play… AGAIN. Why is it that people insist on wearing Ben Roethlisberger jerseys in public? I mean, you don’t see me sporting Chris Brown attire around.

We only spent a total of about 15 hours in Phoenix, and given the triple digit temperature, it was enough for me. Onward to California! After making a quick trip to Joshua Tree, we drove into LA. I’m not ashamed to say that I partook in the ultimate cliché and played California by Phantom Planet when we rolled in… you know, the O.C. theme song. First stop: Sherman Oaks to visit the big brother. Chris moved out here about 3 years ago so we don’t get to see each other much. He & his roommate came to the Dodgers game with us & proceeded to supply me with beer during the game & one hell of a Dodger Dog. It’s no Big Red Smokey, but it runs a close second.

What do 90210, Saved By the Bell & Dawson’s Creek have in common? Other than each having some kind of connection with 89 Mill (the Dawson’s Creek poster, the Saved By the Bell birthday bash & just a general obsession with Jason Priestly I’m sure a majority of you had) the star of each was at the game. Ian Z, James Van der Beek & everyone’s favorite army brat turned wrestling jock- AC Slater all attended the game. We also saw the best thing I’ve ever seen. And by best, I mean worst. A marriage proposal via the jumbotron. Note to my future boyfriend/fiance/sugar daddy: A proposal via jumbotron is a guaranteed no.

Afterwards, we went to Venice to meet up with Ashley & McKenzie. Two fellow Harvard on the Hocking alums. We went to a bar across the street from the girls’ apartment, which led to the ineluctable hangover this morning. Apparently going out would be the demise of my entire body because not only did light/sound/movement in general hurt my head, I also woke up with a broken toe.

When I called my step dad to have him make a diagnosis via telephone, he asked what had happened. Naturally, I had no answer, which led to him asking how many times I’ve been ‘loaded’ on this trip. I’m expecting an intervention when I get home. Funny thing is I really wasn’t loaded, I’m just dumb sometimes when it comes to remembering what I did more than 10 hours ago.

So today we spent the day on Venice beach, first at the beach & later moving to an outside bar where the shampoo effect occurred.* Later in the evening we got to West Hollywood to visit Matt’s friend from high school, Kristen. We went to a park that overlooks the entire city before making our way to a half-price sushi restaurant. Matt got a little excited & ordered enough food to feed a small army, so we’ve got lunch for tomorrow.

Blogging in detail is a new idea for me. I don’t know if you even care to know that I got my first sunburn of the summer, that my body is slowly planning a revolt against me, or that I hate Ben Roethlisberger (let’s be serious, don’t we all?) But since I’ve still got your attention, I must be doing something right. So I’ll be sure to keep doing this more often- so you have something to do while you’re at work.

1. * 1. Shampoo Effect

A residual drug or alcohol phenomonon in which, during a period after a heavy binge, only a small amount of the recently-abused substance is needed to re-activate your buzz. So named after what happens in the shower when you "rinse and repeat": only a tiny bit of shampoo is needed the second time around to achieve a full sudsy lather.

Heading Out West

2009-07-25T01:52:00.002-04:00

Hello all you dedicated readers. Sam and I are in Phoenix right now, and we just witnessed a massacre at the Arizona Diamondbacks game. Before I get to the game, let me catch you all up on the past few days. First, a dilemma: Sam's previous blog was a perfect detailed account of our days in Colorado. Should I write my normal overwhelmingly annoying blog that contains every single detail, or should I concede the details to Sam on this one. Easy choice...I don't want to steal Sam's thunder, so I'll be brief. Plus it's late, I'm tired, and I don't feel like writing.

I promise only a few thoughts on Colorado:
I WAS mad we had to stay in a hotel, but life goes on. Now the good part. As Sam said, Pueblo and Colorado Springs are absolutely gorgeous. The Garden of the Gods was one of the most amazing sites I have ever seen. Pictures will be coming soon so you all can be jealous...err I mean enjoy them. Finally, I could see myself living in Colorado Springs or Denver - I liked it that much. The only problem is this guy named John Elway and the EFFING Denver Broncos. I'm not sure the city is big enough for the two of us.

Moving on now, we had about a 12 hour drive to Phoenix today. It was the first time all the long drives actually started to be excessive. By the end I was thinking to myself, "Get me the hell out of this car." Although the drive was excruciatingly long and we were driving through the middle of nowhere, the scenery was, in a word, breath-taking. Mountains. Canyons. Deserts. Evergreens. Cacti. We saw all of the above.

As for the game, I continue to be amazed by almost every ballpark. Chase Field is a site to see. It's another stadium with a retractable roof (I guess it's really hot in Phoenix?). The place is absolutely huge too. My favorite part is that there's a pool and hot tub beyond the fence in right-center field. And wouldn't you know it, a home run was hit into the pool during the game! The other great part about the stadium was their value food at concession stands. Hot dogs, corn dogs, popcorn, peanuts, etc. all for $1.50 each. Can't beat that. Now, I said the game was a massacre because it was close until about the sixth inning when the Pirates scored four runs to make the score 6-3. Two innings later they scored three more to make it 9-3. We decided to leave after that, obviously disgusted with any Pittsburgh sports team actually winning a game. The final score was 10-3. I think I threw up in my mouth on the way out.

So we're off to Los Angeles tomorrow for the Dodgers game. There's talk of a stop at Joshua Tree National Park along the way (keeping my fingers crossed that we have time). Coming up for us in SoCal are visits to West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice, and San Diego. As if our lives aren't sweet enough already, it just keeps getting better. But did I mention I miss everyone back in Ohio (and elsewhere)?

Two things I learned today:
It's REALLY windy in the desert sometimes (which makes it a bitch to drive).
It DOES rain in the desert, but it only lasts about 90 seconds.

Adios Amigos,
Matthew

The Gateway to the West, Saint's & The Rocky Mountains (Sam)

2009-07-23T22:29:00.002-04:00

You’d think being on this adventurous summer roadtrip, I’d be better at keeping you updated on what we’ve been doing. Unfortunately, baseball, bars & swimming all day have kept me from doing so. I’m sorry. I’ll try harder. I’m going to attempt to recap the past 5 days to you in an excruciatingly detailed blog that will make Matt’s mini-series of books look like child’s play. But I get ADD more often than not, so we’ll just take it one paragraph at a time.

Six hours after midnight & five after I went to bed, we had to hit the road for our eleven-hour drive toward the gateway to the west. The minute I realized our jaunt was nearing the halfway point, I wanted to drive slower, thinking that I could somehow make this lifestyle last an extra month. We got to St. Louis around 4 in the afternoon to my Uncle Fuffy’s house (my brother couldn’t say Jeff when he was younger, Fuff came out & that’s stuck around for about 25 years). I haven’t seen Fuffy, Aunt Sandy or their perfect little munchkins, Abigail & Blake for about a year. Matt and I parted ways for the night (tear) & I spent the night with the family at Sandy’s family reunion. The game was Sunday afternoon & Busch Stadium quickly became my new favorite stadium (until Kansas City, but we’ll get to that eventually). We went to the game with Matt’s friends & their family. It’s becoming more apparent to me that when people join us for the games, it’s a better time. Not that I don’t love you dearly, Matt, but after long hours in the car together we’re starting to run out of things to talk about. It was especially nice having other people with us at this game, because it fell on a day that Matt decided to have a hangover. For those of you who know Matt’s new years resolution for 2008 was to have one & only one hangover (which I was lucky enough to see last summer in W.V). This year- he’s doubled that number on this trip alone. While I was in bed at 10:30 on Saturday night, Matt was busy playing beer pong, going to bars, & eventually losing his phone/dignity/ a little self-respect.

After the game I had a homemade family dinner while waiting for Pavia to get back from the family dinner he was attending. We watched Entourage & went to bed early- rightfully so for Matt, I just went to bed out of boredom. Monday we went swimming with the kids for a little bit before we left. They’re in 1^st & 3^rd grade and a delight to be around. I was sad to say goodbye. Nonetheless, we packed up & headed out for Kansas City to prepare for our visit to Kauffman, Drama’s & for those of you who know us, another night of drinking.

We arrived 4 hours later to Drama’s house. Drama & Mike met a few years ago in a Browns bar- apparently there’s some outside of Cleveland- & it must have been love at first sight because they lived together when Mike lived in Kansas City. After a couple hours of UFC (I’ve got to get some more girlfriends), a bar called Saints was on the itinerary. Ah, Saints- where the $2 drinks flow like wine & the 20-something TV monitors show silhouettes of exotic dancers after midnight. After what I would consider to have been little-to-no effort on our part in persuading Drama to drop the position of DD & to let me witness what everyone has been referring to as “dramatized”, things started to get interesting. Yes, $2 domestic beers, import beers, well and call drinks and yes, Matt & I still manage to rack up a $66 dollar tab. Not bad right? After the damage done to my credit card we cabbed it home & sealed our fate for the next day- of being bums. While Drama had what I imagine to be a terrible-horrible-no-good-very-long day at work, I introduced Matt to Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. 4 hours of it. After, we got our acts together & went to the best BBQ restaurant I’ve ever been to, which happened to be connected to a gas station. Oklahoma Joe’s was the best recommendation I’ve ever been given- Thanks Mike! The Plaza is a pretty cool area with outside shops, restaurants & bars near Mike & Drama’s old place. From there we went to the Royals game. I love, love, loved Kauffman Stadium. The waterfalls in the outfield, the jumbotron, & my favorite, the kids’ area behind the outfield. They had mini golf, a mini baseball field & batting cages. Everything a 10 year old could ask for. & apparently, everything Matt could ask for because I had to remind him he was 23 a number of times. In fact, saying “We gotta get outta here, I wanna do all this stuff but I’m an effing grown up now” would be a direct quote. After snagging some close seats for the rest of the game, we went back to a friend of Drama’s to watch more Its Always Sunny & to relax before the long drive ahead of us on Wednesday.

Flash forward to Wednesday around midnight, after our 10-hour odyssey to Pueblo, CO in order to break up our original 20-hour trip to Arizona. Another friend of Pavia’s was kind enough to leave us the key to his apartment even though he’s out of town for the week. One problem: midnight + half working flashlight + possible wrong address does not equal a comfortable night stay in Pueblo. What it does equal is a mad Matt & a $60 hotel room. Our night of beer, pizza & Bull Durham was interrupted by this unfortunate turn of events. Matt went to bed & I stayed awake watching Fight Club & working on this fine piece of craftsmanship you are now enjoying.

We woke up today & after digging in the rocks for a while we finally found the invisible key to let us into the apartment. We got ready & headed for the Garden of the Gods- which has been my favorite place to date. I’ve been looking forward to the Colorado visit since the beginning of the trip & I’ve been quite pleased so far.

Garden of the Gods is a beautiful place that I can only describe with photos (which will be up soon). Matt & I went on our own for this exploration & I eventually found a cozy rock that overlooked the mountains where I sat & read for about an hour. I can’t wait for our visit to Denver in a couple weeks.

Even though this is the longest blog I’ve written, it may not have surpassed Matt’s epic entries. But you’ll have to forgive me because A) tonight we are rain checking my favorite movie, which was interrupted last night & 2) we’re watching Walking Tall right now featuring the absolute love of my life, The Rock. If you’ve ever been in my bedroom before you’ve seen the life size cardboard cut out & the water bottle, so you know I’m being totally serious. I probably won’t blog again until after my birthday so the next time you hear from me, I’ll be 23!

And again, I’m being totally serious about The Rock.

Kansas City

2009-07-22T12:35:00.002-04:00

We're in KC right now, but heading out to Colorado later today. Our next baseball game is in Phoenix on Friday, but we decided to stay a night in CO to cut the 20 hour drive in half! With last night's Royals game, we're officially over the hump. We've been to 16 games so far, and some of the best are yet to come. We've been in KC for two days now, and I only have a few stories to share, so I'll attempt to keep this short.

In my last post I explained how I drank entirely too much in St. Louis and then mentioned to Mike that "I'm never drinking again." Well, as most of you know (especially Mom), that usually means I won't be drinking until the opportunity presents itself again. So we arrived in KC on Monday at Drama's house. Drama was my brother's roommate before he moved to Chicago, and in case you're wondering, he got the nickname Drama for good reason. We decided to go out for a few drinks at a place called Saints. I've actually been there before, but it was called Mickey's and I don't remember much because Jimbo was running a Tequila promotion a few years back which included Mexican Sumo wrestling. Use your imagination. I also distinctly remember this place because last time I was there I almost got arrested thanks to Jimbo's douchebag boss who led me to believe that following him through the kitchen to piss outside the back of the bar was a good idea since the line for the bathroom was too long. Thanks jack ass.

Anyways, moving on to Monday night. Monday specials at Saints just happen to be some of the greatest weekday specials I've seen at any bar. All bottles and draughts are $2. All well and call liquor is $2. Yet still, Sam and I managed to run up a $66 tab between the two of us. How the hell did that happen you might ask...unfortunately, I cannot answer that question. I think it was a combination of the many beers and drinks we consumed, plus the couple of shots that actually weren't $2. Damn you Saints. Now then, Monday night is a school night for Drama. He drove with the intention of only have a drink and staying sober to drive us home. Well for those of you who know Drama, it wasn't too difficult a task for us to convince him that his plan wasn't going to work. He proceeded to get close to Dramatized, we took a cab home, we didn't get to sleep until early morning, and then Drama had a wonderful time getting up for work at 7:30. Ahh the life of a working man. Needless to say, it was a great first night in KC.

Day two was the day of the Royals game. We bummed around and recovered all day, watching hours worth of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. I had never really watched the show before, but I love it now. In the late afternoon, Sam and I went to Oklahoma Joe's on a recommendation from Mike. Simply put, it was the best barbecue I've ever tasted. How does a beef brisket barbecue sandwich with melted provolone and onion rings on a kaiser bun sound? The best part...the "restaurant" is in a gas station! After lunch (kinda) we went to the Plaza, which is just a huge strip on a few streets of shops, restaurants, bars, etc. It's where Mike used to live in KC, so I'm pretty familiar with the area and was able to show Sam around a little bit. We went into a few stores, Sam bought some stuff while I looked around at things I don't need / can't afford, and then we took off for the Royals game.

The last time I was at Kauffman Stadium was a few years ago. Since then it has been renovated, and it's like a completely different stadium. We moved down to really good seats on the third base line during the game and got to see a close game...at least until the 7th inning when the Angels scored 8 runs to blow the game wide open. Way to go Royals. My favorite (and least favorite) part of the stadium was the area beyond the outfield stands. It was great because they had mini golf, simulated batting cages, a timed running the bases, a mini baseball field for kids to take batting practice, a jungle gym, etc. It's like little kid baseball heaven. Now what I didn't like about it is that the whole time walking through there I was thinking, "Damn that would be so much fun! I really want to run the bases! I really want to hit batting practice on the mini field. I BET I COULD HIT A HOMERUN." And then Sam reminded me, "Of course you can hit a homerun jack ass. The field is made for kids." This is where I got really depressed and realized that I now have to refer to myself as an adult. Life sure is rough these days...

Stay tuned for stories from Colorado, Phoenix, and then California! I cannot wait to get out west! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone out in LA, SD, and the Bay area!!! See you all very very soon.

Matt's Favorite Pictures

2009-07-20T11:55:00.002-04:00

Halftime

2009-07-20T11:10:00.003-04:00

Well I realized today that our trip is half over. We've gone to 15 baseball games in about a month and seen many cities along the way. So far, this has been one of the best experiences of my life, and I'm looking forward to the second half. I could never have imagined how great it was going to be seeing all of the friends and family we've been staying with. Since this is the half way point, I'm going to give you all some Top 5 favorite lists to give you an idea what's been on my mind so far.

Cities: New York, Austin, Atlanta, Boston, DC

Ballparks: Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Orioles), Citi Field (Mets), Minute Maid Park (Astros), Citizens Bank Park (Phillies), Fenway Park (Red Sox)

Beers: Yuengling, Fat Tire Amber Ale, Dos Equis, Killian's, Tecate (only cause they were $1)

Sites: Central Park, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Washington Monument, Town Lake (Austin), Georgia Dome

Drunkest Nights: Karaoke night in St. Louis, Dirty Triangle night in Atlanta, Mexican fiesta night in South Jersey, Karaoke night in Pittsburgh, Solid Gold night in Miami

Teams We've Seen: Cleveland Indians, New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, Cincinnati Reds

Cities I'm Most Looking Forward to Visiting: LA, San Francisco, Denver, San Diego, Seattle

Ballparks I'm Most Looking Forward to Visiting: Wrigley Field (Cubs), Pac Bell Park (Giants), Coors Field (Rockies), Safeco Field (Mariners), Rogers Centre (Blue Jays)

Michael Jackson Songs (REVISED): Wanna Be Startin' Something, P.Y.T., The Way You Make Me Feel, Bad, Human Nature

That's it for now. Check out the next post for my Top 5 Favorite pictures...

Adios Ya'll

2009-07-19T23:11:00.005-04:00

We're in St. Louis right now. It's 11:12 PM and I'm STILL nursing a hangover from last night, but I'll get to that soon. First, let me catch ya'll up on the past few days.

Don, Sam's dad's childhood friend and our extremely generous host, had beer waiting for us when we got to his house. Dos Equis is fantastic. Now then, he took Sam and me out to dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant, which was delicious. I had one of the best burritos I've ever eaten. The next day, Friday, was gameday for us. We went to the Texas Rangers game, and it was one of the best ball game experiences we've had yet. First, Don's company donated four tickets to us...in the 17th row directly behind home plate. It was a gorgeous view. Sitting there, seeing the entire field in perfect view, and recognizing every pitch reminded me why I love baseball. I've been to so many games recently that the novelty wears off sometimes. But not on this night. Baseball truly is a beautiful game. All right now, enough of that crap. Moving on...

Don and his wife Kelley couldn't make it to the game with us, so we scalped the other two tickets to some Twins fans. It was like finding extra money in your pocket that you didn't know about. Needless to say, that's a sunk cost. That money was as good as spent as soon as it was handed over. We rarely eat or drink very much at games because it's expensive. But at this game, we were able to treat ourselves to dinner. I had a hot dog and a few Killian's. Sam skipped the hot dog, and had a lot of Killian's. For once on this trip Sam was drunker than me. Music to my ears. Here's how I can sum up the Rangers game: Free tickets. Free parking. Free (in my mind) food and beers. Drunk Sam sighting. Josh Hamilton hit a towering home run. This was a GREAT game. To all our friends in Texas, THANK YA'LL!!!

OK now, I'll stop with the ya'll since we're out of Texas. Although it is catchy. On Saturday we drove 11 hours to St. Louis. We went to Sam's uncle's house and talked for a bit, then she went to her family reunion and I took the car to Meaghan Pijut's apartment. Sam has asked me a few times how I know Meaghan, and this is tricky, so take notes. Meaghan is the cousin of my brother's college roommate's wife (Adam and Bree). Anyways, I'll just call her a friend. I was worn out after a long day of driving, so one of the first things I said to Meag was, "I'm getting shitty tonight." Let's just say that I did not disappoint. First we went to Matt's (Meaghan's brother) house. For the first time in 2+ years I indulged in cold, refreshing Natural Light (only it was effing warm!). It tasted just like I remember...warm, watered down piss. Matt's friend Jordan and I went undefeated in beer pong. I've still got it. Who knew? Meaghan's friends were at bar, so we went to meet them there. Let me just say that it didn't take much convincing to get me there. Meaghan uttered the two phrases that immediately send adrenaline through my body..."dive bar" and "karaoke." The rest of the evening went something like this: Drank too many beers. Took too many shots. (Thanks Matt. I told you I HATE vodka...future hosts please keep this in mind.) Fell in love with one of Matt's friends, or so he says, but who can remember (Allison maybe?). Talked for an hour to some guy who shares Meaghan's birthday. Sang Piano Man with Meaghan and Julia. Asked a 300 pound man to do a duet with me (we didn't get called, which worked out for the best for Double D's patrons). Walked home. Called six pizza places at 2AM (and no one answered). Which led to...ate cold leftover bow tie macaronis and a plain tortilla shell. That's that last thing I remember.

The Aftermath:

I woke up this morning feeling like I got hit by a train, but I'll get back to that in a minute. There are two beds in Matt's house, and his roommate wasn't in town, so one open bed. I passed out on the love seat. Meaghan was on the couch. Matt was in the recliner. The two beds were empty. I was walking to the bathroom and ran into Matt and Meaghan's dad who was there to pick up Matt to go get Cardinals tickets. My phone was lost for two hours (the first time I've misplaced my phone for more than a couple minutes in my life!). It was under Matt's roommate's pillow! If I was in the bed, why did I pass out on the love seat? Matt opens the freezer and says, "Who put the container of macaronis in the freezer?" That would be me of course. What the hell? I called Mike to tell him a little bit about the night. I muttered my famous words, "I'm never drinking again." Mike's response was, "Did you get hit by the Pijut Train?" Well Mike, in a word, YES. I chugged more than a gallon of water and still felt dehydrated. But enough of my sob story. Life goes on and the world keeps turning despite the fact that I shut down for a day.

We actually had a baseball game to get to this afternoon. We met Matt and Meaghan's parents at a bar before the Cardinals game. I drank water. They were kind enough to bring us St. Louis' delicioso Gus's pretzels. The game was a close one. A 2-1 Cardinals victory, but all I could think about was if I was going to die, if my head was going to stop throbbing, and if my stomach was actually exploding or just felt like it. Basically, I didn't feel so hot.

After the game Sam took the car back to her uncle's and I went to the Pijuts' for a lovely home-cooked meal. It was absolutely amazing, topped off with some dessert for Meaghan's birthday. Happy quarter century bday Meag! Don't join AARP just yet :) Then, Matt made my day. He walked from the living room into the kitchen with a record, and wouldn't you know it, it was Thriller! We listened to the entire album on the Pijuts' record player and searched through all of their old records. I mentioned when we were in Boston that I really wanted a record player after messing around with Meg's (Meg from Boston that is. Miss you!). Now I know that it will be the next thing I buy, besides food, beer, baseball tickets, and gas of course. I'm back at Sam's uncle's casa now, and winding down to call it a night. We watched Entourage and I'm a little disappointed. First, because I want E and Sloan to get back together. And second, in myself for actually being emotionally invested in a television show.

THANK YOU Pijuts for showing me a fantastic time in the Lou. Matt and Meag, I can honestly say you all got me drunker than I have been on this trip yet. That reminds me, I can't drink like I used to. If I couldn't only get myself to believe that I'd have a lot less problems. As I told you earlier today, I hope that last night stands as the drunkest night of the trip. It will be hard, nearly impossible, to top. Please keep reading and spreading the good word to all your friends. We love having fans!

I'll check back in very soon. We're off to Kansas City tomorrow to see my good friend DRAMA! Until then, stay classy folks.

Catch You On The Flip Side,

Matthew

P.S. Check out this video from last night. It explains a lot.

Texas: So Big it Took A Week to See it All. (Sam)

2009-07-17T13:18:00.005-04:00

Our week long break in Texas has been an eventful yet restful one. The rest of our stay in Austin included a fabulous shish kabob dinner, seeing millions of bats fleeing the "bat bridge", $1 cans of Tecate (A Texan's Corona) & a newly strong bond between Marisa & me. At 11p.m. I decided to get the tattoo I've been wanting, and when they finally squeezed me in at 3a.m., Marisa was kind enough to donate her now-likely-broken hand to me while the artist went to work on my side. Now, I'll always remember our vacation in Austin. Wednesday we left for Dallas, with a little detour to visit the Pavias' neighbors from Nashville- of course they don't live in Nashville anymore, but you seem like a bright reader, I'm sure you figured that out already. We spent the day laying on their doc, swimming in the lake, and eventually going out on a boat ride at sunset. I keep telling you guys we lead this tough life, but you don't seem to think I'm serious. Weird.

Yesterday we got to Dallas, and my Dad's friend from when he was a kid, Don's house. After the Dos XX went down like water, Don, his son Zach & niece Amanda took us out to dinner at....wait for it....a Mexican restaurant. We can't get enough during this trip, each place gets better and better! We sat around the pool for a little while longer that night & I played cards with Amanda. She beat me. Twice.

Today we're going to the Texas game. Don's company was kind enough to donate 4 tickets behind home plate for the game. Probably our closest (legitimately) seats this entire trip.

It's been great hearing Don's stories about my dad, and even though I was already given the "don't hold anything you hear against me, i'll deny it all" disclaimer, I'm sure I can use some of it as ammo in the near future.

Many people ask us if we're going to write a book on our trip. It started to become more and more of a good idea to me in recent days, so I've decided to see what I can do. Hopefully I don't get bored with it after 20 minutes of writing, but I'll keep you updated in future blogs.

Smell ya later,

Sam.

San Antonio & Austin Pictures

2009-07-17T01:02:00.002-04:00

Texas Again!

2009-07-17T00:31:00.002-04:00

Hello Friends,

So we’re still in Texas. At the beginning of this trip, I thought this week would be the slowest and worst part of the trip. I was definitely wrong, because each day in Texas has been amazing in its own way. Our second night in Austin was so cool, in a completely different way from the first. First, we banded together to collectively cook a feast! Between the six of us, we made steaks, vegetable skewers (w/ mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, and onions), corn on the cob, rice, and couscous. Huge success! Then, we saw the phenomenon simply known as “the bats.” Each night, at about sundown, somewhere around a million bats fly out from under a bridge into the city, which is obviously known as “bat bridge.” The cool part is that we were watching with a crowd of hundreds of people that show up every night just to see the bats. I wonder how many times a bat has flown down and given someone rabies?

Now then, Marisa took Sam and I to what I’ll call Mecca. Let me attempt to paint a picture for you. This bar has Tecate Tuesdays, which means $1 cans of Tecate and Tecate Light (think Corona, but better). It also has just about every bar game you can think of. Just to name a few, there’s pool, ping pong, shuffleboard, Golden Tee, Big Buck Hunter, Ms. Pacman and Galaga (on the same machine!), and my personal favorite…SKEEBALL!!! Besides the fact that I’m incredibly rusty and basically sucked at skeeball, it was more fun than I can describe in words.

Our next mission of the night – our first of course being $1beers and skeeball – was to find Sam a tattoo parlor. After a few tries, we found one that could fit her into the schedule. In reality, they didn’t fit her into the schedule but the artist was kind enough to stick around past the time they were open to tat up Sam…at 3 o’clock in the morning! Now, this was a great night, but it was time to cash in considering we had a long drive the next day.

After Austin we headed North towards Dallas, but took a detour to spend a day with Bob and Marlene, good friends of my parents from when we lived in Tennessee. They live near Athens, TX! For those without a map, it’s about 70 to 80 miles southeast of Dallas. Bob and Marlene live in a place where the majority of roads are County Rds. Bobcats, think Co Rd 25, only more secluded. Their backyard walks down to a personal dock overlooking a beautiful lake! I’ll spare all of the details, but here is the gist of how yesterday, last night, and this morning went…

Floated in a raft on the lake with a book and a beer. Laid on the dock and soaked up some sun listening to S&G. Bullshitted and swapped stories with Bob and Marlene at happy hour (mostly stories about how my parents used to be back in the 80s in Tennessee – their partying days). Were fed delicious burgers and baked beans. Took a ride on their boat at sundown. Watched the sunset from the water, with a full cooler. Slept like a baby, in my own bed. Woke up early enough to enjoy sitting on the dock – before the Texas heat arrived – and reading for a few hours while gazing out at the entire lake.

Why should I ever get a job? I could do this for the rest of my life.

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MARISA AND THERESA FOR LETTING US STAY AT YOUR PLACE AND SHOWING US A KICK-ASS TIME IN AUSTIN. I LOVE IT THERE AND I AM SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING A RETURN TRIP FOR ACL. THANKS ALSO TO BOB AND MARLENE FOR SHOWING ME HOW BEAUTIFUL TEXAS CAN BE, LETTING US ‘CHILL’ FOR A DAY, AND SHARING SOME GREAT STORIES ABOUT MY PARENTS!

Random side note:

Sam called her last entry “Everything’s Bigger In Texas.” Here are some random observations that make me believe that statement…

The Capitol building in Austin is larger than the U.S. Capitol in D.C.

At lunch in Austin, the water cups were at least as big as mega mugs (32oz).

The County Roads aren’t double digit like in Ohio…there’s Co Rd 2830.

I think there are more billboards from Houston to San Antonio than anywhere else on

Earth. (And at least twenty for one giant travel stop called Buc-ee’s)

The turtles I saw in the lake this morning should be in the Galapagos.

More From Texas

2009-07-14T18:38:00.002-04:00

Austin is my favorite city in Texas so far...hands down. But before I go into details (cause you know I will), let me catch y'all up on what's been going on since Houston. We left Houston Monday morning and headed for San Antonio. I had an absolute blast in Houston. It was fantastic to see Brett and meet Sam (Who I'm sure I've met before somewhere. OU is a small world.), and of course it's always great to be with fellow Bobcats. SO THANKS A MILLION BRETT AND SAM FOR LETTING US STAY...ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING WE DRAGGED IT OUT FOR FOUR DAYS! WE HAD AN AMAZING TIME SO THANK YOU!

In San Antonio we saw the Alamo and strolled along the Riverwalk. The Alamo was very cool and had an old Spanish/western vibe. It was strange how such a historical building is right in the center of downtown San Antonio, across from a Ripley's Believe it or Not. There was a lot of history to read, but no one wants to stand around reading in 100 degree heat, so we spent about an hour or so there. The Riverwalk was amazing. It's very peaceful and relaxing to just walk around. All the restaurants and shops are cool too. The BEST part was that Christie met us for lunch because she's in San Antonio on business this week. It was so great to see her and catch up. San Antonio (or at least the Riverwalk) in a word: "Quaint"

We arrived in Austin Monday night at Marisa's house. She's a friend and former co-worker of Mike and Christie. Her roommate Theresa and her have a nice little house, and Theresa's younger sister and brother are visiting too, so it's a full house. Last night we went out to 6th Street in Austin. Marisa's description is very accurate. "Bar. Pizza place. Tattoo parlor. Bar. Pizza...you get the idea" I loved it because it reminds me of Court Street in Athens, only on a much larger scale. But it's fantastic and I had a blast. We hopped around to a few different bars, and by the time we took a cab home, I was feeling no pain...until this morning.

After a late and painful start this morning, all of us went to lunch at a great place with mostly Mexican food and a Hawaiian theme. It's right on the river/lake too, so we had a great view. After lunch was the favorite part of my day, and of my trip to Texas for that matter. Marisa dropped me off at Austin Rowing Club. I rented a kayak for an hour and cruised around on Lady Bird Town Lake, which is pretty much more of a river. I have some great pictures I'll be putting up soon. Oh and just in case anyone out there is as dumb as me and didn't think about this, if you go one way downstream, the return trip will be upstream. In my defense, it's supposed to be a lake, not a river. Anyways, I just love being out on the water and it was incredibly relaxing (even the trip upstream). I listened to Simon and Garfunkel on my iPod the whole time, and my mood afterwards was about the best it's been in a while.

I walked from the lake back to Marisa's. About four miles in Texas heat is fun. But I made it and I'm glad I walked because it gave me time to listen to some tunes, get some exercise, and enjoy being outside. I know most people wouldn't enjoy being outside when it's 101 degrees, but I'm not most people. Stay tuned to read more about Texas in the upcoming days.

Adios,

Matt

Everything bigger in Texas. (Sam)

2009-07-14T18:21:00.006-04:00

I don't usually like to blog more than one time in one state, but everythings bigger in Texas- including the amount of time between games apparently- so here's the first half.

We got to Houston & walk into Brett & his girlfriend's apartment. What do you know, I know Sam from freshman year at OU! Before we went to dinner, they introduced us to their amazingly perfect schnoodle, Google. She's a schnauzer poodle mix and the new love of my life. They took us to a Tex-Mex restaurant which was amazing, I'm really getting used to this Mexican food 3 times a week thing. We had a couple of beers & watched some TV for a very relaxing first night.

Friday, we spent the day at the pool at Sam & Brett's apartment complex before the game. The entire time I was thinking about Google. We went to a place called The Flying Saucer before and after the game, which had 80-something beers on tap & 300 total. You can join a UFO club where once you try every beer, you become infamous with your name on a saucer for their wall. The saucer wall consists of 7 walls and a ceiling... covered in saucers. I tried a couple of different beers & we had ginormous soft pretzels which are quite possibly the best pretzels invented.

Saturday we went to Galveston for pizza slices & the beach. The water was more hot tub than ocean water, but the breeze on the shore made it much easier to lay out for a couple of hours. With the SPF 70 on of course. We stayed in and hung out with beers, brajitas, and Taken.

On Monday I was forced to say goodbye to Google, Sam & Brett. We had an awesome time in Houston!

We went to San Antonio for the day to see The Alamo, and the Riverwalk. We had lunch with Christie who was in town for work & it was great to see her.

Once we arrived to Austin I realized one of the girls we're staying with is cousins with my friend from high school- so that makes 75 out of the 15 cities we've been where I've known someone who knows someone who's cousin is someone else. Its been getting more standard. We went out last night & tonight we're making steaks....and going out again. This is also getting pretty standard. I don't hate it.

Until Dallas

Houston Pictures

2009-07-12T19:52:00.002-04:00

My First Trip To Texas

2009-07-12T13:17:00.004-04:00

Hi Friends,

It's been a few days since I've checked in, so let me catch you up on what's been going on in Houston...

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and didn't over-exert ourselves at all. After a 16 hour drive, there isn't much to do except for try to recover. We are staying with more friends from OU here in Houston. My friend Brett and his girlfriend Sam have been nice enough to put us up for a few nights and treat us right. Our first night, we went to dinner at a killer Tex-Mex restaurant, had a few beers, and watched some TV. It was good to catch up on sleep after the long drive.

Friday was game day, and we hung out by the pool for most of day. Once Brett got home from work, we headed downtown to a bar called The Flying Saucer. It's a great bar with about 80 or so beers on tap. As Brett said, "Any bar that celebrates beer is OK with me."

Minute Maid Park was pretty cool, and it was the second game in a row played inside a dome. Actually, it's a retractable roof, but they keep it closed during the summer because apparently it's hot in Houston in July. The game was a close one. The Astros led most of the way until the Nationals scored a few runs in the 7th and took the lead 5-4. The Astros tied it up, and then ended it in the bottom of the 9th on a game-winning single with the bases loaded. So exciting! After the game they opened the roof and we watched fireworks with the Houston skyline in the background. I'm starting to realize that each game is different and each game presents something interesting and unique. The games honestly keep getting better as the trip progresses.

We went back to the Flying Saucer after the game and drank some more. One of my favorite things is a bar that offers sampler platters of a bunch of beers. So I took advantage of the Flying Saucer's "Texas Flight" sampler of different beers from breweries around Texas. Afterwards, we headed back to Brett and Sam's and I think I passed out sitting up trying to watch TV. Probably a combination of still being tired from the long drive and drinking a few beers.

On Saturday we slept in a bit to recover, then the four of us took off for Galveston. We spent the day at the beach and I passed out for a while listening to the sound of the ocean. It doesn't get much better than that. We picked up some beers on the way back into Houston and went straight into the pool with them. After a while, we went back up to Brett's to cook dinner. Brett and I used our super culinary skills to come up with a great new creation. He made brats, but also fried up some peppers and onions and we put them on tortillas with cheese and hot sauce for a make-shift brat/fajitas dinner. We'll call them brajitas.

The rest of the night we hung out in the apartment, drank, and watched some great stuff. East Bound and Down on HBO on demand. For those who have seen it, you know what I mean when I say it's absolutely hilarious. For those who haven't, watch it as soon as you can. Then we watched Taken on blue-ray. I thought it was a really good movie and the main character is a total bad-ass. On a side note, thanks to Brett, I discovered a new great beer and a new great idea. The beer is Fat Tire Amber Ale, and the idea came from the side of the label. The founder/brewer of Fat Tire went on a bicycle trip around Europe visiting different breweries. I think that sounds like fun (just kidding Mom! don't worry). So anyways, it's been a fantastic couple of days in Houston. I'll keep y'all posted during the rest of our tour of Texas! We're off to San Antonio and Austin tomorrow.

Peace,

Matt

Orlando and "The Marathon" Drive

2009-07-09T17:57:00.001-04:00

Hello Again Friends,

It’s one o’clock Central Time and I’m writing from the car somewhere near Lafayette, Louisiana. We’ve been in the car since 12 midnight Eastern Time when we left Orlando this morning. We decided to drive straight through from Orlando to Houston without any stops, passing through the great states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas in the deep south. Let’s just say we’re a bit anxious to get to Houston. This is the longest car ride of my life to date, even if that will change in a week or two when we head out west!

Our last day in Orlando was another low key one. I caught up on blogging, uploading pictures, and responding to emails. I went to chill out by Alisa’s pool and read, but after a half hour it started getting dark and windy. I said, “Screw it, I’m not getting rained on,” and went back to the apartment. It rained five minutes later. She lives right by an outdoor mall (similar to Crocker Park for you Cleveland folks), so I went there and walked around, went into a few stores, and eventually settled in at Barnes and Noble’s Bookstore for a couple of hours.

After work, Alisa met Sam and I for dinner at this kick-ass restaurant called Fuji Teppan Cuisine and Sushi. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Davis (Christie’s parents – she’s my brother’s fiancé), Sam and I were able to enjoy a delicious Japanese Steakhouse dinner at no cost to us! The leftovers fed us for lunch this afternoon too. Gotta love that. We watched There’s Something About Mary after dinner and I took a power nap because I was driving the first shift. So all-in-all Orlando and Tampa were very laid back. It was refreshing to slow down and not move so fast for once. A wise man once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you might miss it.”

So goodbye Florida and on to Texas. Some fun (and some not so fun) and strange tid-bits I learned during our stay in Florida:

- It rains just about every afternoon, but not for more than a few minutes

- Even though it rained every day we were in Florida, it never felt gloomy and I never felt the usual depression I do from Ohio rain

- There are little to no waves on any Miami beaches

- Toll roads suck. And of course, they’re everywhere in Florida, especially near Disney World and all that jazz.

- The GPS sucks in big cities (just expanding on prior knowledge)

- Lots of old people live in St. Petersburg

- The Florida panhandle is longer than it looks

- The Central time zone actually starts just west of Tallahassee, not at the Louisiana/Texas border

- Miami is awesome (thanks to the weather, beaches, and Latin culture – coincidentally, the Latin culture also enhances the beaches)

I had a great time in Florida, but I’m glad to move on to Texas. We have eight or nine full days in Texas, so we’ll be all over the place! Here’s a little preview of things to come…Houston for a few days, Galveston, San Antonio, Austin for a few days, and Dallas/Fort Worth for the rest of the time. Although I originally was dreading this long stay in Texas, I’m definitely looking forward to it now, and I think it should be a killer time with everything we’ve got lined up to see!

JUST WANT TO THANK YOU AGAIN ALISA FOR LETTING US DROP BY IN ORLANDO FOR A FEW DAYS. IT WAS GREAT TO SEE YOU!

Keep On Livin’,

Matt

Day-old Japanese food & the mind of a 20-something female. (Sam)

2009-07-09T17:53:00.001-04:00

Since days here seem to run together, I can only assume it’s 4 days after my last blog- since Matt usually blogs daily and we’ve been in the car for 16 hours. That puts us at Thursday.

There’s not much to tell since Miami. We went to Orlando & I finally got to see my long lost friend Alisa who we stayed with. It was great seeing her & it makes me wonder when the 59 +1 can have a reunion. We drove 2 hours to St. Petersburg to join the Ibolds (one of my best friends from high school) for dinner & they came to the game with us. They were on vacation & decked out in Reds gear for the game- a fact I was very impressed with- especially after that 22-1 loss against the Phillies the night before. The Rays stadium was a dome, the first one I’ve ever been in. While I loved the smorgasboard of decorations around the stadium, the fact that it was inside felt a little surreal to me. Baseball is a spring/summer season sport & what’s the point of having it inside?

Last night, Matt, Alisa and I went to dinner at a great Japanese steak house (compliments of Mr. & Mrs. Davis- thanks a mil!). We got a great meal and were able to visit with Alisa after she got off work & before we had to leave for our long haul across the south. I drove from 4:30-9am & since I don’t have much to talk about in this blog, I’ll share something’s that came to my mind during that time:

- First and Foremost, if you ever thought listening to Dane Cook would get old- you would be wrong.

- Secondly, day-old Japanese food is the best food when you’ve been on the non-eating diet like I feel I have been on. Which brings me to point 3:

- the non-eating diet is the best diet I’ve ever been on because, in the words of the great Sparky Palastri “You see, when you skip a meal, your body feeds off its fat source. And if you skip enough, maybe your body will eat your ass.” Thanks for the confidence boost, Sparky.

- While in the middle of playing Super Troopers in my head for the oh- about the fourth time this trip- I started wondering what the semi trucks coming the opposite way would look like if they became Transformers (it was also at this moment that I realized how severe my ADD could be).

- I came to the conclusion that solitary confinement is cruel & inhumane, as there were a couple of times when I would have paid a trucker to talk to me. I also want to know why human teleportation hasn’t been perfected yet, and do we have anyone working on this?

- After my fifteen podcasts on “stuff you should know” I found out a very interesting fact: The world’s biggest serial killer was a Hungarian Countess. She killed over 650 people- and she had some accomplices.

- One of those was a Ujvary.

- Finally, I want to know when the American Idol tour will be over so I can buy Kris Allen’s debut album.

The mind of a 20-something female is very complex, and since I’ve spend a number of hours in seclusion while my co-pilot was sleeping, I’m going to take full advantage of the mall we are sitting at, be a girl for an hour and purchase myself a little pre-birthday present.

Hope you enjoyed my rambling, and I’ll see you in 3-4 business days.

Tampa Pictures

2009-07-08T12:10:00.002-04:00

Miami Pictures

2009-07-08T12:09:00.002-04:00

Orlando and Tampa

2009-07-08T10:53:00.004-04:00

Hello again loyal readers. When I last signed off, we were living the high life in Miami. Since then, we've moved on to Orlando and Tampa. We arrived in Orlando on Monday night, and we're staying with our friend Alisa from Rocky River who is also another fellow Bobcat. Our first night was a very relaxing one, and I needed it to recover from the last week in Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Miami. Monday was the first night in a week that I didn't drink, and it was a well needed rest (although I'm certainly not complaining about the craziness that was this past week). We ate some delicious Subway ($5 footlongs is the best thing that has happened to fast food since the invention of Chipotle) and watched some TV.

Sam and Alisa have this ridiculous show that they watch called The Secret Life of The American Teenager. It is the most outrageous show I've seen in a while, considering that everyone in the entire show is pregnant and no one is still married to or dating the person who impregnated them. Furthermore, they're all dating the best friends, ex-whatevers of their baby's daddy. Did I mention all the characters are 14 and 15 years old? Oh yeah, the acting is just about the worst I've seen since Keeanu in Bill and Ted. But, I enjoyed the entertainment value of it! I felt the need to redeem myself after that, so Sam and I popped in Green Street Hooligans, one of my all-time favorite movies. If you haven't seen it, check it out.

Yesterday I slept in. Sam woke up before me for the first time on our trip, and I'm not quite sure why. But it felt good to catch up on sleep and not have much to do all day. We drove to Tampa for the Rays game in the afternoon. We actually drove all the way into St. Petersburg (who knew the Tampa Bay Rays played in St. Pete?) and met Sam's high school friend Jessica and her family who are on vacation in St. Pete. We all hung out at a bar by the stadium and then went to the game together. They were super generous and Jessica's dad even bought the tickets to the game and wouldn't let us pay. Normally I would have put up much more of a fight, but any help we're offered along the way is difficult to turn down. Jessica's whole family was decked out in Reds gear, and they definitely heard about the 22-1 Reds loss on Monday night from all the Tampa fans. On any other day I'm sure no one would have cared about Reds fans in Tampa. They don't even play in the same league. But leave it to the Reds to embarrass their fans. Sam was definitely happy though though because she had the opportunity to be a girl for once on this trip. Jessica and her gossiped for the ENTIRE game, and Sam didn't stop smiling for a second.

Tropicana Field is the first dome we've visited on the trip. It was a completely different feeling. There's something unnatural about playing baseball inside, but regardless it was a fun game. Four things stick out about the game...

1.) There was a cool carnival atmosphere on the lower level of the stadium. The lower level was actually sort of under the stadium and you had to walk UP stairs to get to the seats. There were more games and promotions than any other stadium we've visited so far.

2.) Most stadiums focus their in-game and post-game promotions around kids. For instance, kids under 12 run the bases after the game. In St. Petersburg, they have the Senior Stroll...senior citizens stroll the bases after the game. They also have Rays Bingo!

3.) A huge fish tank sits in centerfield and has tons of sting rays swimming around for your viewing pleasure. I couldn't pony up the ridiculous $4 fee to get close and pet them though. But I got a few cool pictures.

4.) This was the first game we've been to that went into extra innings. Pat Burrell won the game for the Rays in the bottom of the 11th with a walk-off 2-run home run. We left at the end of the 9th because we had to drive back to Alisa's in Orlando! Buzz kill.

So today is another chill day as we decide when to leave for Houston. We have at least a 15 hour drive to get there, but the Astros game isn't until Friday night, so we can take our time. With the All-star break approaching, we have two games between now and July 18! So we'll be touring the great state of Texas and seeing lots of other stuff besides baseball games. Stay tuned for more pictures coming soon and stories from Texas.

Lots of birthdays this time of year so...Happy B-day to Billy, Jerry, and Richards. What a drag it is gettin' old.

Thanks Bill for the new Dave CD. I've been jamming it non-stop since we left the Nati. My favorite songs so far: Shake Me Like A Monkey, Time Bomb, and Spaceman.

Peace,

Matt

Atlanta Pictures

2009-07-07T00:03:00.002-04:00

Cincinnati Pictures II

2009-07-06T23:40:00.002-04:00

Welcome to Miami

2009-07-06T23:15:00.002-04:00

I’m not quite sure where to begin with the madness that has been Miami. We’ve spent two days here, and it has been a hell of a good time. While in Miami, we’ve been staying with Julie/Jewel, our great friend Rachel’s sister. She was generous enough to give us a key to her apartment by the beach because she slept at her boyfriend Mike’s place. This is becoming a theme, and it’s crazy that people are entrusting us with keys to their houses/apartments. Another crazy thing is that this is the third or fourth place we’ve stayed where we were either the first guests to stay at a new residence or the first people at all to even sleep in someone else’s place. Anyways, enough with the preamble, let’s get into some stories…

We spent our Fourth of July driving ten hours from Atlanta to Miami, instead of spending it with all of our closest friends celebrating Seth and Danielle’s wedding. What’s worse is that a ten-hour drive turned into twelve because my favorite toy, the dumbass GPS, got us lost once again. We drove around Miami for what seemed like an eternity before finally finding Jewel’s place. Her and Mike (boyfriend) were spending the 4^th on a friend’s yacht, watching fireworks over the ocean. Sam and I had to entertain ourselves, so what could we do? Well of course, we found a liquor store and bought some beers, then found a pizza place and bought some dinner (at 11pm). So we ended up having a pretty kick ass 4^th with just one another, drinking, eating great pizza, and watching Animal House and The Graduate on Sam’s laptop. One thing I’ve been learning on this trip is that things rarely go as planned and having the ability to have fun no matter where you are or what you’re doing is truly a virtue. Most of you know that I’m anal as shit about having a plan and trying to make things go exactly the way they’re supposed to. Fortunately, this trip has been teaching me that I can’t go through life that way, and I need to more frequently play the cards that life deals. Anyways, my point is nothing we planned on doing on the 4^th came through and we ended up having a killer time just drinking, eating pizza, and chatting it up. (Side Note: Sam and I learned more about each other in the drive to Miami and our night in than I think either one of us bargained for. Just a sample…Sam now knows who of our friends I’m most attracted to…and I won’t mention that here!) Anyways, a simple evening with not much to it turned into a great time.

Now, day two in Miami was the complete opposite of simple and low key. I woke up and drove to the beach from Jewel’s (it’s really only about a half mile away but I underestimated how close it is). I went for a run on the beach, which kicked my ass because all the beer drinking, pizza and hot dog eating, and lack of working out is slowly putting me out of shape. Nonetheless, it was a great time and the scenery was beautiful. The water is crystal blue around these parts. And strangely, there are really no waves in this area and the ocean is incredibly calm. For those who don’t know, I’m a complete beach junky and could spend every waking second of every day there and be 100% happy. But unfortunately, I had to leave the beach to make it to a baseball game (I guess that’s why we’re on this trip in the first place. Damn.).

Jewel and Mike joined Sam and me for the Florida Marlins game. They play at what used to be Dolphin Stadium, but was recently renamed Landshark Stadium thanks to Jimmy Buffet. I’ve never seen less people at a baseball game. If I had to guess, I would say the crowd was about 2,000 people. The stadium looked even emptier because it is a football stadium and it’s huge. We had a great time at the game in spite of the fact that it was 98 degrees out and we were baking in the sun the entire time. I was sweating more than Patrick Ewing in his prime. We ran into some OU people at the game randomly. This is happening way more than I thought was possible. This is the second city in a row that we RANDOMLY crossed paths with some Bobcats that we know. One other thing I noticed is that prices for food/souvenirs at the game were outrageous because the Marlins can’t sell tickets so they need to make money some how.

DISCLAMIER: THE FOLLOWING STORY IS NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT TO LOOK AT THEIR BABY IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT. THAT MEANS YOU MOM J HOWEVER, I WANT TO BE TRUTHFUL IN EVERYTHING I WRITE, SO HERE’S HOW THE REST OF THE DAY WENT.

One thing I’ve been trying to do on this trip is surrender to our hosts’ lifestyles. A great way to gain experience on this trip is to let our hosts show us a good time and never say no to doing anything they want to do. Each time we stay with new hosts, I like to attempt to become part of their lives for a few days. In other words, “When in Rome…”

Moving on…after the game we went back to Mike’s apartment and met his kick ass dog Odie. We started making some drinks and snacked on Mike and Jewel’s huge array of stolen hot sauces with chips and Jewel’s delicious homemade salsa. Then we went down to the pool with our drinks to just relax and chat about life. After a few hours, we cleaned up a bit and went to dinner at an incredible authentic Argentine/Mexican/Cuban restaurant. The chicken fajitas were the best I’ve ever had, period.

While at dinner, Mike received a text from a friend asking if we’d like to meet him at Solid Gold. At first, Sam and I were drained and decided we would just have our hosts drop us off at Jewel’s before they went out. We didn’t think we could handle another night out. We were wrong. We changed our minds and decided to go with Mike and Jewel to meet their friend. One thing that’s amazing is how well connected they are (shout out to OU MIS: Your network is your net worth). On our drive there, Jewel gets on the phone with a friend and the conversation goes something like this -

Jewel: We’re on our way to Solid Gold. Who do you know there that can hook us up?

Friend: Yada Yada Yada.

Jewel: Cool, so ask for him, him and her and tell them we know you?

Friend: Yada Yada Yada.

Result: We park the car for free, skip the cover, and get escorted to a VIP table.

Anyways I’m rambling now, so I’ll try to wrap up soon. Sam is spoiled. Her first strip club experience was in a Miami club at the VIP table. We got complimentary drinks and then Chris (the Friend) and Mike bought a bottle of Grey Goose for our table. We proceeded to drink way more of it than is necessary, especially for me because Vodka never sits well in my body. Sam’s first ‘tip’ was hilarious, but she enjoyed the hell out of it. The strippers could smell new blood and they loved Sam knowing it was her first time. So to make a long story short (which I’m absolutely terrible at), Sam will forever be tainted with the idea that all strip clubs are like this one. That is until she visits a place like Concepts or The Crazy Horse on Brookpark Rd. and gets a wake-up call.

I could never lead this type of lifestyle on a daily basis. It’s just not my personality. But for one day, I had a damn good time.

My favorite part of our stay in Miami was the moment at Solid Gold when Sam learned (via a group vote from the people we were partying with) that she should “let her hair down more often!”

Sorry about writing a novel. I know it was long, but I hope you enjoyed it.

Peace,

Matt

Hot-lanta (land of the birds)

2009-07-06T23:11:00.001-04:00

Hey deprived readers. Sorry that it’s been a few days since you’ve heard from us. We were just having so much fun in Atlanta that I didn’t think to sit down and write. We've also been without internet access for a few days, so I have two posts to share today. Here’s a quick rundown of how things went while we were in Atlanta…

We had an 8ish hour drive from Cincinnati on Wednesday. It was actually a pretty quick and easy drive, mostly because we are now driving Sam’s sister Kelley’s car. It’s a smaller car than Sam’s, but it’s a Toyota with about 30,000 less miles (at least until we get a hold of it), and I feel much safer taking it cross-country. The only problem so far is that it drains/eats oil, and we have to continually fill it up. This is familiar territory for me…anyone remember White Lightening??? Hopefully it’s still running somewhere. Anyyyyways, so we get into Atlanta sometime between 9 and 10pm, and our good friend Jeremy (aka Jerry) greets us with some beers. We met Jerry at OU and have been close friends with him for about four years now. We also hung out with Brian Solomon, his girlfriend Kim, Jerry’s friend Sean (aka the Irishman with a British accent – from Chicago?), another OU friend Kyle, and three Brazilian ladies who cook a mean desert. We drank a bit, ate some burgers and hot dogs, and chilled around Jerry’s apartment complex for the night.

Day two in Atlanta was one of the best so far on the trip. I took MARTA (Atlanta’s public trans) downtown and met Jerry for lunch at a kick ass Deli called Reuben’s. Then he gave us an all-access tour of the Georgia Dome. For those of you who know Jerry, he’s incredibly modest about his job, but he is the man around the Dome. He basically runs shit and took us into every single part of the dome and introduced us to I think everyone in the entire place. My favorite part was seeing the Falcons’ locker room and sitting in Michael Vick’s old locker. After the Dome, Jerry drove us around ATL a bit and we saw some cool neighborhoods and Georgia Tech’s campus. We got back to Jerry’s apartment and started killing some beers before the Braves game. Jim (aka Papa Bear, aka Crichton, aka Jimbo) joined us poolside for some beers and then came to the game with us. The game was one of the more exciting ones we’ve seen so far, and I even cheered for the Braves. Except I couldn’t bring myself to do the Tomahawk Chop. I’m still bitter about the ‘95 World Series. So anyways, we continue to drink at the game, and afterwards Jerry, Sean, Jim, Sam, and I all went to a bar called Moondogs. Just to paint a picture, it’s in a row of three bars that the locals refer to as “The Dirty Triangle.” Needless to say it was our kind of place. They had beer pong tables set up in the bar and we went through countless Miller Lite pitchers (thanks to the many dome calls we performed in Dr. Zeus’ honor) before getting drunk enough to dance to a cover band playing mostly 90s music and Jerry’s personal favorite…Save tonight, and fight the break of dawn. Great night.

Day three was characterized by just straight bummin’ around. We sat by Jerry’s pool for at least seven or eight hours during the day, drank a little (and I do mean just a little because I felt like crap), and then decided to stay in, lay low, and grill out again. It was Jerry, Sean, Kyle, Kyle’s sister, Sam, and me. We made some burgers and had some beers outside, telling each other stories from college and what not. This night also marked the return of Yuengling to our lives. I’m seriously starting to get pissed that everyone but Ohio sells it. So it was a relaxing day and night on our last one in Atlanta. We had an incredible time and wish we could have stayed longer! THANK YOU SO MUCH JERRY AND FRIENDS FOR SHOWING US A GREAT TIME. ATLANTA HAS BEEN ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLACES SO FAR (AND I THINK SAM’S FAVORITE BECAUSE SHE KEEPS TALKING ABOUT MOVING THERE)! IT WAS GREAT TO SEE YOU JERRY AND I HOPE WE’LL BE ABLE TO VISIT AGAIN SOMETIME IN THE NEAR FUTURE! THANK YOU!

We’re in Miami Beach right now. I won’t go into details about our travel day getting here in this blog. Just stay tuned for Miami stories in the next one. Adios!

Matt

Second Leg of the trip. (Sam)

2009-07-06T20:11:00.003-04:00

The Cincinnati game was the most unbelievable experience I’ve ever had. A few hours before the game Channel 5 interviewed me about the trip & made a story out of it for the 5 o’clock news. It was a little embarrassing seeing myself on TV, but it was very cool that they even linked our blog site to the newscast website. At the game I got to deliver the game ball, so I took Matt with me & he witnessed Gapper (one of our mascots) just barely cross over the “take-advantage-of-me” line. Obviously I fell pretty hard for the guy who escorted us around the stadium- most of you who know me know I fall in love on a daily basis… which reminds me, thanks for still being my friend. We had 61 of my best friends & family at the game and it was very cool.

7.5 hours after leaving Cincinnati, we arrived in Atlanta to Jeremy’s house. Jer is one of our fabulous friends from OU & now he more or less runs shit at the Georgia Dome. When we got to his apartment, we were once again welcomed with beer & a cook out. We met Jeremy’s roommate, Abby, his friend Shaun & another OU alum, Kyle. After drinking for a while, we crashed from another long day of driving. The next day we were given the grand tour of the Georgia Dome- everything from being on the field & the locker rooms, to the press box & Jer’s office. Afterwards we lounged by the pool & got ready for the game.

Turner Field was very cool, & we always love having people at the games with us. This time it was us, Jer, Shaun, Kyle & his sister, Matt’s friend Jim & Brian Solomon. The score was close nearly the entire game, which made it more fun to watch. After a great Braves win, we went to a bar called Moondogs, and just to give you an idea of what this place was, it’s one of the 3 bars which they refer to as “The Dirty Triangle”. After many Miller Light pitchers, and twice as many cups of popcorn, we were making the most of the dance floor, and out of all the bars in all the cities I literally ran into Eva! (an old friend from OU who I haven’t seen since last spring). I listened to Matt, Jer & Shaun talk about ‘birds’ for a good 3 days & came to the realization that I need some more girlfriends. Hey Shaun, what’s the male equivalent to a bird? Be careful of those birds who are only after your green card.

After a 3^rd night in Atlanta of grilling out, swimming & drinking we didn’t want to leave. Unfortunately, we had to leave on the 4^th of July early in the morning for a 10 hour drive to Miami- which turned into a 12 hour drive once the GPS quit working on us…again- and finally got to Jewel’s (Rachel’s sister) apartment. She was out for fireworks, so Matt & I just ordered a pizza, got some beer & watched some movies on the computer.

Yesterday we went running on the beach in the morning, and went to see the Marlins play in the afternoon. Dolphin Stadium was in the middle of nowhere with maybe 2,000 people. And I still manage to run into a friend from OU. It was 98 degrees outside (yeah, like the band) but towards the 8^th inning it started drizzling so it cooled us off a lot. After the Marlins won, we went to Jewel’s boyfriend’s apartment to swim. He lives in a gorgeous high rise apartment that overlooks all of Miami. They took us swimming, then to a Latin Restaurant for dinner. The food was amazing and for dessert we went to a strip club. Yeah- my very first time at a strip club and it was in Miami with my friend’s sister who I had only met once before. But we had an awesome time and I’m not sure how to even put into words what was going on in my head. Birds, birds, birds everywhere, that’s one thing I can tell you for sure. (I hope the Atlanta folks will appreciate that). The group we went with got us VIP everything and they thought it was hilarious to give me singles to give to the ladies on stage… SORRY FAMILY. And they convinced me to take my hair down & expose my 80’s fro- which you all are well aware of, you’ve seen it before- something I don’t do that often. We had a blast with Mike, Jewel, and all of their friends. Mike gave me a bathing suit from a line he used to work for & Jewel gave me one from a line she used to design! (microkitten.com)

Today we’re leaving Miami to visit Alisa in Orlando (I’ll never be, Alisa Bertin) & I’ll have much more to tell you soon. Thanks for joining us for this edition of The Great American Roadtrip & we’ll see you next time.

Hasta en Texas!

Cincinnati (The first rest)

2009-07-01T10:14:00.002-04:00

We've spent the last four days in Cincinnati, and I must say, it has been a much needed rest. For the first two weeks of the trip, we have been traveling from city to city at an incredibly fast pace and haven't stayed in one place for more than two days. We've been to nine games already, almost a third of the way done with games, but it's only two weeks into a ten week trip.

Here's a quick update on how I've been spending my time in Cincinnati...
Saturday: Seth's bachelor party
Sunday: Billy took Berk, Trox, and me out on the Ohio River in his family's boat (which needs a name by the way...may I suggest The Stugots III???). Saw "The Hangover" at the movie theatre. It lived up to the hype.
Monday: Went to Kings Island with Katie Solomon. Loved it. I will never get sick of or bored by roller coasters. My two favorites - Diamondback and The Beast.

Tuesday:
I hung out at the Phelan household all day, catching up on emails, uploading pictures, and relaxing. Mama Pavia came down to Cinci to go to the Reds game with us. The pre-game festivities were fantastic. The actual game sucked (Thanks for at least getting a hit Reds. You're all most as embarrassing as the Tribe). Thanks to everyone who came out to the In Between Tavern to have a few drinks before the game and to everyone for coming to the game and supporting us! Without question, being on the field before the game was the most memorable part of Cincinnati. Sam and I walked the game ball out to the mound right before the first pitch. It probably ended up as a home run ball thanks to Bronson Arroyo. It was surreal to be on the field, and surprisingly, the stadium doesn't seem that big from field level. The field itself feels just like any other baseball field I've been on, only a hell of a lot nicer. Also memorable was the fact that we couldn't get off the field without Gapper, the Reds' creepy mascot, trying to feel up Sam.

We're off to Hot-lanta tonight and will be staying with a fellow Bobcat, Jeremy, for a few nights. Definitely looking forward to it!

Trip favorites so far:
Game: Indians 5 Pirates 4 - in Pittsburgh
Stadium: Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Fans: Orioles fans (in case anyone cares, Red Sox fans are my least favorite)
Bar: The Hop House (Pittsburgh)...but only because they have karaoke on Tuesday nights
City: NYC
Meal (eating out): Happy Hour sushi at Wok and Roll (DC)
Meal (eating in): Family dinner at the Phelan household - steaks, twice-baked potatoes, corn on the cobb, steamed mushrooms, asparagus, it goes on and on...
Site: Philadelpia Museum of Art (Rocky steps)
Public Trans: NYC subways
Beer: Yuengling...NO CONTEST
Host: Are you kidding? Everyone has been amazing!

Talk to you all soon. Thanks again everyone in Cincinnati. I'm SO glad I was able to see you all!

Seth and Danielle: Good luck on Saturday. I'm SO sorry I cannot make it, but I wish you all the happiness in the world. And HAVE FUN.

Peace,
Matt

End of the East Coast (Sam)

2009-06-30T15:11:00.003-04:00

Let's see if I can remember what has happened since Philadelphia.

I want to start off by saying that as pretty as the PA turnpike is, it's ridiculous that we had to pay a $20 toll to get from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. We went to Pittsburgh for the Pirates game and had Natalie, our fabulous friend from OU as our host. She and her family were great. We went swimming and grilled out for dinner and got to see Pittsburgh in a pretty cool new way. We went on an incline where we saw an amazing view of the entire city. Obama apparently said Pittsburgh is one of the most underrated beautiful cities. He was right. Downtown looked amazing from the incline, and we did get a great picture of an obscene gesture towards Heinz Field ;)

Apparently Matt sang karaoke when we went to the bar with Natalie's friends. I found out the next morning because I posted up at the bar for $2 drinks- something we can't afford to take for granted on this trip. Even tho we were in Shitsburgh (only because of your football team) we had an awesome time. It's a gorgeous city with the best hole-in-the-wall bars we've ever been to- and we've been to a lot.

On the way to DC, our karma decided to even out the good luck we'd been having lately, by breaking my car. In Uniontown, PA (yeah, I've never heard of it either). A few hundred bucks & 4 hours later we were back on the road. We missed the first 4 innings of the Nationals game, but the less time we had to spend around Red Sox fans, the better. The Nationals stadium was huge and amazing. It just fit in with the excitement I felt while I was in DC.

We stayed with Matt's old neighbors from home who have the perfect house to start a family- which is perfect because they're expecting their first child! We entered into a pool Chris & Jodi have for when their bundle of joy will be born. Chris is a huge Navy football fan & ironically the baby is due the day of the Army vs Navy game! They're going to be awesome parents & I'm so excited for them.

After touring DC, having some great sushi, finding out about Michael Jackson and touring DC more, we left for Baltimore. On the way we stopped at Walter Reed to visit my cousin, Marc who was injured in Afghanistan. He's doing great, looking great & had plenty of amazing pictures to show us from over seas. I'm so glad we got to visit him.

Baltimore was our shortest trip yet. We got there in time for a block party pre game at the bars across the street from Camden Yards. Everyone kept telling us how awesome Baltimore's stadium is & we didn't understand why... until we got there. $1 beers and hot dogs outside of the stadium was exactly what our budget called for. Inside the stadium we couldn't put into words what was so awesome but we could definitely feel it in the air. We stayed with some friends of the Pavia family and their house was beautiful. They had pizza and beer waiting for us when we got there & we had a lot of great conversation for an hour or so. Their 2 golden retrievers entertained me well into the wee hours of the morning- probably not a good idea since I was driving the first leg at 8am.

We got to Cincinnati for a 4 day break & that's where we are now.

I'll be sure to blog more often so I can add in more details- so tune in next time!

Cincinnati Pictures I

2009-06-30T11:33:00.003-04:00

Baltimore Pictures

2009-06-30T11:32:00.002-04:00

Washington, D.C. Pictures

2009-06-30T11:31:00.002-04:00

Pittsburgh Pictures

2009-06-30T10:54:00.002-04:00

Philadelphia Pictures II

2009-06-30T10:53:00.002-04:00

Baltimore (End of Leg 1)

2009-06-28T11:34:00.003-04:00

Hello Friends,

The last few days have been pretty exciting. Our second day in DC, we strolled by the White House just to take pictures. Then we visited Sam's cousin Marc in the hospital. He's a veteran and was injured in Afghanistan. He showed us all kinds of cool pictures from his time overseas. After the visit, we took off for Baltimore.

We finally made it to a game early, with time to spare. The pregame/tailgating experience outside of Camden Yards is the best we've seen yet. Directly across from the stadium is a strip of four or five bars. They are in an inlet street, which is blocked off, and each one has bars set up outside. We were drinking $1 and $2 beers, plus eating $1 hot dogs. It was basically a huge block party / street party before the game. Bobcats...think if Athens blocked off an entire street block and all the bars were serving beers outside, while the crowd covered Court Street. The stadium itself was sweet too. Pretty small and great view from everywhere. Behind the right field wall is the old historic warehouse, and the whole strip behind the outfield is awesome. I'll go out on a limb and say this was the best overall experience so far, taking into account pre-game, stadium, game action, fans, etc.

We stayed with Ross, a friend of my dad's, and his wife Janice. Basically, people have been treating us way better than we deserve throughout this entire trip, and Ross and Janice are no exception. We got to their house, and they had a pizza for us just out of the oven and cold beers waiting. We drank, hung out, and shot the shit for a while. How good is life these days?

We woke up early the next morning and took off for Cincinnati around 8am. It was a solid nine hour drive, so I had Sam drop me off at the Phelan household. From there, straight to the Priestles' for Seth's bachelor party. I'll avoid details, but all-in-all, it was a hell of a good time. We hung at Seth's parents' place, then took a party bus around town. This starts our few days of rest in Cincinnati. We're done with the East Coast leg and get to relax before heading South. Stay tuned for more pictures soon.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO CHRIS AND JODI, AND ROSS AND JANICE. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WELCOMING US INTO YOUR HOMES. WE COULD NOT HAVE ASKED FOR MORE HOSPITALITY AND THANKS SO MUCH FOR MAKING US FEEL WELCOME. AND OF COURSE WE APPRECIATE YOU FEEDING US AND HAVING BEERS FOR US!!!

Side Note: I can't believe I forgot to write about this in my last blog, but can you believe that Michael Jackson died? Get ready for how dumb this is about to sound...Our parents always say they'll always remember where they were when JFK was shot. Recently, most people will always remember where they were when Princess Diana died. Now, I'll always remember being in Wok and Roll eating sushi at happy hour, hearing the King of Pop died. He's both the weirdest/creepiest dude ever, and also the greatest entertainer. For your listening pleasure, check out my top 5 favorite MJ songs:

Wanna Be Startin' Something
P.Y.T.
Bad
The Way You Make Me Feel
Thriller

Peace,
Matt

Washington, D.C.

2009-06-26T12:27:00.002-04:00

This will be a quick one. I promise.

Yesterday Sam and I did the tourist thing in D.C. We saw:

The Library of Congress

The Capitol

Walked the length of 'The Mall'

The Washington Monument

The WWII Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial and Reflection Pool

The Washington Monument was my favorite. I also enjoyed sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, much like our friends Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers. Only there were over 100 people sitting with us. How do they have those steps all to themselves???

After site seeing, we took the metro and met Chris in Chinatown at a place called Wok and Roll. This place was phenomenal! Happy Hour means $2 Miller Lites and $1 Sashimi sushi pieces. Probably the best meal we've had yet. After dinner we came back to Chris and Jodi's, drank a fair amount of Yuengling, and watched the NBA draft. Can't ask for much more in life.

Today we're going to swing by the White House to say hello to Barack. Then we're visiting Sam's cousin, a Veteran and Purple Heart recipient, in the hospital. Finally, we'll be watching the Orioles battle the Nationals at Camden Yards tonight!

Check out the pictures I've posted so far in the slideshows on our blog. Click on a picture or the View All button to see the entire album at Photobucket.com

Side Note: While watching the NBA draft, Chris and I discovered that Kobe Bryant was chosen 13th in the 1996 draft. The Cavs picked 12th. Their pick...Vitaly Potapenko. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Cleveland professional sports.

Peace,

Matt

Philadelphia / New Jersey Pictures

2009-06-26T11:13:00.002-04:00

Cooperstown Pictures

2009-06-26T11:06:00.003-04:00

New York Pictures II (NYC and Mets game)

2009-06-26T10:43:00.002-04:00

Boston Pictures

2009-06-26T10:26:00.002-04:00

New York Pictures (Yankees game)

2009-06-26T10:23:00.002-04:00

Cleveland Pictures...Finally figured this out. More to come tomorrow.

2009-06-26T00:57:00.002-04:00

The Roller Coaster Ride Continues

2009-06-25T11:31:00.002-04:00

Hello Again,

This trip has already had more ups and downs than I could have ever imagined. And it's only been about nine days.

Tuesday in Pittsburgh:

We slept in and bummed all day. We laid around Nat's pool for a couple hours and just relaxed. After a day of rest, we drove into Pittsburgh early for the game. We rode the Duquesne Incline...which is basically just a trolly car that goes straight up and gives a good view of Pittsburgh (if there is such a thing). Then we rode a ferry across the three rivers and over to PNC park.

The Tribe-Pirates game was exactly what I expected. David Huff pitched for the Tribe and gave up four or five hits in eight innings of solid shut-out work. We had a five run lead (5-0) going into the bottom of the ninth. I told Sam, don't get too excited yet, the Tribe's bullpen will make an attempt to blow this game. First batter, Adam Laroche, hits a HR out of the stadium and into the Allegany River. We give up another run, then Kerry Wood comes in and gives up two more runs and loads the bases. So now it's 5-4, the bases are loaded and there are two outs. Count is full. And FINALLY Kerry Wood gets Laroche to fly out to end the game. GO TRIBE!

After the game we went to a bar near Nat's house. They had $2 well drinks and it was Karaoke Night. To make a long story short, I ended up singing a duet to Only the Good Die Young with our new friend Jen, a 42 year old professor from Duquesne University. All-in-all, a GREAT NIGHT.

Wednesday:

Sam and I are both in great moods. Things could not be any better on so many levels. Until our Karma decides to start evening itself out. The car breaks down in Uniontown, PA. We spend a half hour to an hour just trying to find a mechanic. We finally find one, and they are actually really helpful, for the right price of course. So it takes two more hours to fix the car, and we spend it watching the Steve Gilkos Show (used to be the security guard from Springer), the Tyra Banks Show, and Arthur (yeah, the aardvark). So a three hour detour in the middle of nowhere PA set us back a little. We were way late for the Nationals game last night...strolled in around the fifth inning.

The game was against the Red Sox. Let me reiterate how much I dislike Red Sox fans (except for you Meg...you're the best). There were probably twice as many Sox fans as Nats fans, and it tends to make the game less fun when 95% of them are obnoxious. Plus, it's always good to see the home team win and their fans actually care. I'm not sure the city of DC knows the Nats exist.

Last night we arrived at our new place in Alexandria, VA around 11pm. We're staying with a friend of the family Chris and his wife Jodi. They had muffins and beers (Yuengling is starting to turn into an obsession for me. I love this stuff) waiting for us when we got in. Sounds like an odd combination, but it doesn't get much better. And I got to meet Smokey III last night for those of you who know Smokey and Smokey Jr.

Side Note: Cavs get Shaq in a trade for Ben Wallace (washed up and about to retire), Sasha Pavlovic (sucks and has always sucked), the 46th pick in the weakest draft in recent history, and $500K in cash. I'd say it's a steal. As our host Chris so eloquently put it, The Big Cactus becomes The Big Guitar.

Hasta Manana,

Matt

THANK YOU SO MUCH NAT FOR SHOWING US A GREAT TIME IN THE NORTH HILLS. EVEN THOUGH WE WERE IN PITTSBURGH, YOU PROVED THAT IT'S NOT WHERE YOU ARE BUT WHO YOU'RE WITH THAT REALLY MATTERS. WE'LL BE BACK AGAIN SOON TO MAKE OUR MUCH AWAITED RETURN TO THE HIGHLAND AND THE DUTCHESS. TALK TO YOU SOON. THANKS AGAIN!!!

More from PA

2009-06-23T10:58:00.002-04:00

Hola Amigos,

Not much has happened since we last checked in. In fact, about all that has happened has been us seeing a few sites and visiting a plethora of townie/hole-in-the-wall bars.

Our second night in South Jersery, Finn and her friend Shannon took us to two of the most fantastic dive bars. We had a great time, because we're from Athens and these are the type of shady establishments we tend to enjoy. All-in-all, our trip to South Jersey was a huge success. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LETTING US STAY WITH THE FRIENDLY GHOSTS AT YOUR NEW HOUSE FINN. WE HAD AN AMAZING TIME. THANKS FOR BEING SO HOSPITABLE AND SHOWING US THAT JERSEY IS ONE HELL OF A PLACE, CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF.

Monday we decided to see just a little bit of Philadelphia before heading to Pittsburgh. We saw the Liberty Bell, which was strangely fascinating. Then we ate at Geno's Steaks, which supposedly has the best cheesesteaks in Philly. Sam and I split a "provolone with"...which just means a cheesesteak with provolone cheese and "with" onions. It was pretty damn good, but not the giant ball of grease we expected, so no complaints. Then we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. For those who aren't Rocky fans, that would be where he runs up the steps. So I ran the steps, of course, and threw my arms in the air in victory. We took some pictures of the Rocky statue and were on our way to Pittsburgh.

The drive on the PA turnpike from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh is suprisingly long, scenic, and expensive. How does a $20 toll just to get from one city to the next sound? We're staying with our friend Natalie from OU while we're in Pittsburgh. Last night, we went to Fatheads Brewery for dinner (yes, it's the same as the one in North Olmsted). The beer was great. The food was great. The service was the most god-awful thing I can imagine. After dinner, we went to yet another kick-ass dive bar. This place was crawling with townies...and us. Loved every second of it. Except for the continuous awkward silence because for some reason the Highland Hilton does not play music. My favorite part of the night: In PA, you can buy six packs from the bar for carry-out. We decided to get a six pack to-go and head back to Nat's house. So I walk out of the Highland with a brown bag full of beers, and I open it and see that there are just six stray beers in a paper bag. Classy.

We're heading to PNC Park tonight to watch the Tribe beat up on the Pirates! My favorite part of Pennsylvania so far is undoubtedly Yuengling! Ohio needs to get on board and start selling it.

Talk to you all soon,
Matt

NY II and Philly

2009-06-21T18:03:00.003-04:00

Hey friends,

Day two in NYC was a blast. We walked all around the city and hit a bunch of different sites. Some of my favorites: CENTRAL PARK, Strawberry Fields (John Lennon's place and memorial), and of course the free meal we ate at one of NYU's dining halls. We went to the Mets game Friday night, and it was awesome. Sam, Kelley, and I took a 45 minutes subway ride out to Queens. Citi Field blows Yankee Stadium out of the water. Better atmosphere. Better view from all seats. Cheaper prices for everything. Maybe I'm biased because I actually like the Mets and hate the Yankees. Sam, Kelley, and I enjoyed the game over some beers and free peanuts via Kelley's huge purse. After the game, we rode back to Kelley's dorm and just chilled there for a while and hit the sack to prepare for the long day on Saturday...

Saturday:

We woke up about 7am to get ready. Left NYC at 8. Drove over four hours to Cooperstown in upstate NY. Cooperstown was just as I remember it. It truly is a baseball fan's heaven. The town can be summed up in the few words we overheard from a [not so bright] woman walking past us on the street. "Geez. Like every store is a baseball shop."

The museum was just as cool the second time around. Only this time, we didn't spend seven hours reading every word written on every square inch of every wall. We spent about three and a half hours in the museum, and Sam loved every minute of it. She was in heaven. The only thing new since I visited two summers ago was an exhibit paying tribute to Latin American baseball players. All the photographs and stories of Latino baseball players coming from nothing were captivating.

After the museum, we hit some stores on Main St. and then left for Philadelphia. We were on our way to stay with Finn, a friend of my brother's and a true veteran of the original N.O. Shuffle. She lives in South New Jersey, about 20 minutes from downtown Philly. The drive was around five hours, but it could have been shorter. We stopped to have dinner at a rest stop/service center off the Pennsylvania (Penna) Turnpike. A side note...Not many times in my life can I remember having a bad piece of pizza. A piece of pizza is something that is almost impossible to screw up. Even a slice done wrong tastes good. Let me just say that the pizza at the Allentown service center sucks. Stay away from it if you're ever in town...We also lost some time due to the GPS getting us lost in downtown Philly on the way to Finn's house. Second time this has happened. I've decided GPS's are either generally stupid or just get really confused in big cities.

We got to Finn's new place (she just closed yesterday) around 10:30. She asked us an easy question.

Finn: "My friend's having a Mexican themed party at her house with tequila, costumes, and Mexican food. Want to go?"

Us (simultaneously): "Sure."

So we got there, met some of Finn's friends from Jersey, and let loose a bit. Sam and I had a battle to the death (rock/paper/scissors) to see who would be the DD. I won. End of story.

Sunday:

Woke up this morning with a little bit of a headache. Sam and I drove down to Citizen's Bank Park about an hour early to get some drinks at the bar beforehand. We met an old Phillies fan at the bar with about as many teeth as games we've been to so far. That's five if you've lost track. He made fun of me for being bald, asked how many kids I have, and told us for two college grads we sure don't know shit. To give you an idea about his condition, in the middle of our conversation, Sam told me to make sure he didn't fall backwards off of his barstool. This guy is my new best friend.

Moving on...the Phillies game was awesome. We had nosebleed seats, but they were the best seats we've had since the Red Sox game. As the toothless Phillies fan told us, "there ain't a bad seat in the park." Again, we indulged in some free peanuts (this time via Sam's huge purse. I guess traveling with a girl isn't so bad after all) and beer. The Phillies lost 2-1, but it was a close and exciting game. Needless to say, we had a great time.

We're heading out for a few beers with Finn tonight, then checking out downtown Philly a little more tomorrow before traveling to Pittsburgh. Stay tuned.

THANK YOU KELLEY FOR LETTING US STAY WITH YOU IN NYC. I HAD AN AMAZING TIME IN THE CITY AND AT THE METS GAME! YOU'RE A GREAT TOUR GUIDE (ESPECIALLY FOR A NEWCOMER TO THE CITY). BY THE WAY, METS' STADIUM GETS A 10 OVERALL AND PHILLIES' GETS A 9.

Peace,

Matt

Bos-NY-Philly (Sam)

2009-06-21T17:20:00.003-04:00

My last blog was Tuesday, but absence makes the heart grow fonder- so I hope it's everything you imagined.

When we last left our heroes, they had just gotten back from Fenway. Wednesday we toured Boston. I can officially tell people I 'went to Harvard'. The Boston Massacre site, The old Statehouse, The Capitol Building, Boston Commons & of course we had a beer at Cheers. Being there (Boston, not Cheers) reaffirmed my likeliness to move there. Chicago's got some serious competition as of this week. (I do, however, solemnly swear NOT to become a full blown Red Sox fan. Just a Fenway fan). The history is awesome.

We left in a panic Thursday morning at 11:02 am when we found out the Yankees game was in fact at 1pm, not at 7 like we had originally thought (shout out to Kell Bell for the text message update). Apparently karma was really working in our favor because when we arrived to New York at 4pm (5 after we found our way out of Brooklyn) and got to the game at 6:40, the rain delay had just been lifted. Since most fans didn't want to stay 5 and a half hours, it was a free for all on the first level. We ended up sitting 20ish rows back from the first bast line.

We stayed with Little Sister Kelley in the NYU dorms. She's a dreamer (www.summerinternships.com) so she's interning there for the summer. We went to Central Park, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Time Square, & the NBA store (yeah, worth mentioning). Then Kell swiped us at the Dinning Hall for dinner (Boyd who?). We went to the Mets stadium- which is completely underrated, especially compared to Yankee Stadium- and Kell came with us. It was an awesome trip to The Big Apple.

By the way, Hal, that UofD name drop was for you ;)

Saturday- or what I assume was Saturday, since we seem to be losing track of days- we drove 4 hours to Cooperstown. I don't remember being that anxious when I was driving on the 2 lane road for an hour to get there. I don't know that I can describe to you what this place was like, but I'll do my best.

I didn't stop smiling the entire 4 hours we were there.

I felt like I wanted to move there.

I felt like I was born 60 years too late.

I teared up a little.

I think I squeezed LL Cool M's arm 17-20 times before we even bought our tickets.

This place was unreal. This history and stories of old time baseball are what I live for. I had chills the entire time I was there. LL left me in charge of the camera, which was a huge mistake because he got it back with nearly 120 more photos than were on it before it was in my possession. I met 2 gentlemen from Cincinnati inside (shout out to West Chester) and we contrived (Elle) around the Pete Rose/Cincinnati display to discuss the morons behind us who were hard core anti-Pete Rose. I won't get started on that again.

The only hope my parents had left of marrying me off was that I always intended on traveling to Cooperstown for my honeymoon. Well, now it looks like I won't be needing to, so I'm sorry you're stuck with me.

We traveled to Philadelphia immediately after the best pit stop in the world- which was only 9 hours out of the way- and stayed with Fin, a close friend of the Pavia family. She's been great, she took us along to a Mexican Fiesta last night were we met a bunch of tequillaed-up friends. We then proceeded to play what I'm estimating to have been a 2 hour game of Beer Pong. Just enough to get my co-pilot on this trip at his funny am-I-serious-or-not-you'll-never-tell point.

Today was the Phillies game, which I loved. The game was sold out, the fans were intensely happy to be there & our 2nd to last row seats made the view look amazing. There wasn't one seat in that place that could have been considered a waste of money. We sat at an awesome bar connected to the stadium before the game, where we met quite an interesting gentleman who had some even more interesting things to say to/about Matt.

The toughest decision I had to make today was 'do I sacrifice my Yuengling so that I don't have to listen to Nickelback in this bar anymore? Or do I sacrifice my ears for the sake of this Yuengling?'

Sounds like we've got a pretty good thing going on here...

Hasta en Pittsburgh.

Karma

2009-06-19T10:35:00.003-04:00

They say Karma's a bitch. Not for us. We must have built up tons of positive karma in our past lives. Here's what happened yesterday...

We woke up in Boston around 9 or 10am and planned to leave for NY around 11ish. We expected to get here around 4 or 5pm, plenty of time to check into Sam's sister Kelley's dorm and take the subway to Yankee Stadium. As we're getting ready to leave, Sam asks me what time the Yankee's game is, and I say, "I think 7." She says, "Kelley texted me and said the game is at 1." So we're rushing to get here and MAYBE catch the last few innings of the game! (it's at least a 4 to 5 hour drive, without traffic)

As we're driving, it starts to rain, so we're thinking, "wouldn't it be nice if the game was rain delayed just long enough for us to make it there on time?" So as we're driving, the rain really starts coming down and the game is delayed. We're pumped. We eventually make it to NYC around 4ish, as expected, only to find that the GPS is giving us the complete wrong directions and we're nowhere near Kelley's dorm on NYU's campus in Manhattan. After driving around lost for a while, and a whole lot of bitching at the GPS, we finally end up in Chinatown where Sam has been before, and we think we're close. We end up figuring out how to get to Kelley's office to pick her up from work. We take a few laps around the one way streets and find the parking garage where we're leaving the car.

It's about 6 by now, and the game is still delayed! Sam and I decide to take the subway out to Yankee Stadium anyway, figuring they might let us in or we could at least get a picture. As it turns out, we get there at 6:40, and the 5 and a half hour rain delay just ended! The game started back up at 6:30 and we only missed the top half of the first inning!

It gets better. On our way into the stadium, a reporter from the NY Times stops us to ask us about the rain and waiting all day for the game to start back up. We tell him we weren't waiting all day, but we have a pretty good story for him. I tell him all about our baseball pilgrimage, that we were in Boston two hours before the game was supposed to start, and that the rain delay was our saving grace. So we finally get into Yankee Stadium, and at the gate, the employees are telling everyone, "It doesn't matter what your ticket says. Everyone sits in the lower level. Sit in any seat you want."

So we went from missing the game entirely to seeing the whole game, watching from about 20 rows up, about 50-100 feet from first base. Not bad for $12 tickets.

Peace,
Matt

P.S. - Site-seeing today. Mets game tonight. Stay tuned.

Boston Again

2009-06-18T09:46:00.003-04:00

Hey All. Yesterday was our second day in Boston. Meghan had to work most of the day so we did the whole site seeing thing. We were ridiculous looking tourists, walking around downtown Boston with a giant map. But we saw a ton of cool stuff. We took the subway downtown and explored Quincy Market, Feniuel Hall, and Columbus Park. Then we went to the Old State House and saw the site of the Boston Massacre and read a bit about the history of it.

Eventually we walked over to Boston Commons and then to Cheers (the bar from the TV show) and had a beer. We met three guys doing a very weak version of the same trip we are taking. They paid $1000 to a company that plans baseball roadtrips and are only going to five games! But it was fun to talk to some other baseball fans, and they're going to be at the same Yankees and Mets games as us in the next two days.

So then we took the subway out to Harvard Square. It was a cool area with all kinds of artsy shops, but the really interesting part is how similar the campus looks to OU's. We walked around the campus and were standing on their main green, when we both looked at each other and thought this looks exactly like College Green. We have a picture so check it out when it goes up in the next few days. After this, we meandered into some classroom buildings looking for a bathroom (it's impossible to find a public restroom in the middle of a city and I had had to piss for about two hours at this point). Then we headed back to Meghan's apartment.

I hung out on the roof and drank a few beers waiting for Meghan to get home from work. So Meghan, her roommate Katie, Sam, and I went to dinner when she got home. We had some drinks, some pizza, and some laughs, and then headed home to call it a night (with a few more beers).

All in all this has been an amazing two days. Meghan and her roommates treated us sooo well and we never stopped having fun the entire time. If everyone is as welcoming and generous as these gals, we're in for some adventure and a hell of a time. Hope you're reading this Meg...THANK YOU SO MUCH. HOW CAN WE EVER REPAY YOU??? We're heading off to NYC this morning, so stayed tuned for more details about the next couple of games. Talk to you all soon.

Peace,

Matt

Boston

2009-06-17T00:29:00.006-04:00

Hello Friends,

I'm in Boston right now at our friend Meghan's apartment. We met her at OU over the past couple years. She is the greatest hostess. Anyways, here's a run down of what we've been doing...

Yesterday was an amazing first day of the trip. We went to the Tribe game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Of course, the Tribe's bullpen blew the game. Score was 14-12 Brewers. It was such a great time though. Thank you so much everyone who came to the game to bid us farewell. Panini's was a great time and sitting with so many friends and family members during the game was perfect. Thanks especially for for the many generous gifts (and free beers).

A few favorite moments from the game:

Being on the JumboTron

Eating a Panini sandwich (the rest of the trip won't be so tasty)

Joe's Indians hulk fist coozy

All the pictures we took

So after a decent amount of drinking and not a whole lot of sleep, we woke up early as hell and got on the road about 6am. We had a little mishap right off the bat. I was driving the first leg, and because it was 6am, I wasn't thinking. I was planning on getting on 9oE and instead decided it would be more fun to take 80E, the turnpike. So after our detour (we lost a solid half hour), we were on our way. We drove about 11ish hours to Boston, stopped four times along the way for gas, and arrived around 5:30ish. It was perfect timing. Meghan left work and met us at her apartment around 6. We chilled and then she walked us to the subway to take to Fenway Park.

It's a really short train ride to Fenway from Meghan's. We got to the ballpark and walked around outside for a while to check out the sites. Then, we went into the park and found our seats. Fenway is sick. It's such a cool historic building and great place to see a ball game. The energy in the place is unreal. It reminded me of Indians games back in the mid to late 90s when fans actually gave a shit. I'm not a Sox fan (That's an understatement. I hate the Sox.), but it was soooo cool that I found myself actually getting into the game with the crowd. I cheered for the Sox on more than on occasion. I'm ashamed. Our seats were killer too. On a side note, this was one of the coolest birthday presents ever. THANK YOU SO MUCH RACHEL. We were right around 3rd base in the lower level. The best part of the game was everyone singing Sweet Caroline. People really get into it.

After the game we headed back to Meghan's. It took forever because the train station was packed. But we made it back and walked to Meg's apartment. We've just been chillin here since, having a few brews. Like I said before, she's the best hostess. She had Sam Adams Summer Ale waiting for us in the fridge. Her apartment has roof access and an absolutely insane view of the city. She has the coolest record player I've ever seen. We jammed some Fleetwood Mac and Van Morrison records. Another side note, I want a record player really bad.

That's about it for the first day. Meghan has to work tomorrow, so Sam and I are heading into the city to explore. We have tons of stuff to see. I'm pretty excited to see Harvard Square because I'm told the campus is identical to OU's.

Be on the look out tomorrow for pictures from the first two games. I'll post them when I have time tomorrow. Thanks again to everyone who came to the kick off game in Cleveland, Rachel for the Boston tickets (they were amazing, if I didn't mention it), and Meghan for being a great hostess and setting the bar for all the rest :)

Listen to:

Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon

Van Morrison - It Stoned Me

Rolling Stones - Miss You

Peace,

Matt

Tribe & Red Sox. End of Day 2 (Sam)

2009-06-16T23:26:00.002-04:00

Tribe game was the best kickoff I think we could have asked for. 45(ish) people, Panini's before, & Mrs. Pavia's billboard signs wishing us luck (& eventually getting us on the jumbotron). Rick Vaughn bobble head night, Major League clips between innings & an 80's firework show after the game. Perfect weather. Plenty of beer. Sound too good to be true? Well, Sully showed up, so it was. (Don't worry, you're still my favorite). Joe bought a ginormous Hulk fist, which we thought was the worst purchase in the history of spending money, until we saw it was a koozie and immediately decided it was to be the central focus of our attention for the rest of the game.

Bottom line: First trip to The Jake, huge success. Sans the final score of the game, 14-12, Brewers.

Waking up at 5:30 a.m. after a semi-rowdy first night in Cleveland wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Most definitely because Pavia drove first. (Thanks, dude). 11 hours, half a bag of beef jerkey, & one terrible tasting Red Bull (mainly because there was no side of vodka) later, we arrived in Boston. Meghan's house, to be exact. It's an unreal apartment with roof access (ladder to the skylight leading to the roof) & an amazing view of the city. We saw where she works, Fenway Park & on a clear day, we could probably see all the way to Cambridge. Fenway was breathtaking & the reason I love baseball. The old school billboard, the Green Monster & the classic '20s structure gave it the same classic atmosphere. You almost forget you hate the Red Sox once you're in there. We had tickets in about the 50th row on the 3rd baseline. Awesome tickets- Just ask Matt. (For those of you who don't know, Rachel got Matt these tickets for his birthday). In fact, as you're reading this, the following conversation is taking place:

Sam: Hey what row do you think we were in at the game today?

Matt: I dunno, but we had pretty awesome tickets. How'd we get those awesome tickets?

Sam: I dunno Matt, since this is the 7th time we've discussed it, is it because you're a stud & a heartthrob & ladies love you?

Matt: You should write that in your blog.

I will refer to Pavia from this point on as LL Cool M

Tomorrow is a day full of Boston touring. Meghan says it's small so it should be easy to get around. Seafood dinner- because we hear it's awesome- & roof drinking. Then off to New York & Cooperstown. Thanks Pavia family for a great kickoff & thanks Meghan for being our first host on the trip.

Hasta en NY.

-Sam

Trip Schedule

2009-06-09T22:15:00.002-04:00

Hello Friends,

Here is the schedule of games we'll be seeing and the cities we'll be visiting. Please let us know if you'd like to come to any of the games with us. We already have tickets to the games with an *...so if you want to come to one of these games with us, you'll need to get tickets on your own. We can let you know what section we're sitting in.

6/15: Cleveland, OH - Cleveland Indians vs. Milwaukee Brewers*

6/16: Boston, MA - Boston Red Sox vs. Florida Marlins*

6/18: New York, NY - New York Yankees vs. Washington Nationals*

6/19: New York, NY - New York Mets vs. Tampa Bay Rays*

6/21: Philadelphia, PA - Philadelphia Phillies vs. Baltimore Orioles

6/23: Pittsburgh, PA - Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Cleveland Indians

6/24: Washington, DC - Washington Nationals vs. Boston Red Sox*

6/26: Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Orioles vs. Washington Nationals

6/30: Cincinnati, OH - Cincinnati Reds vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

7/2: Atlanta, GA - Atlanta Braves vs. Philadelphia Phillies*

7/5: Miami, FL - Florida Marlins vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

7/7: Tampa, FL - Tampa Bay Rays vs. Toronto Blue Jays

7/10: Houston, TX - Houston Astros vs. Washington Nationals

7/17: Dallas, TX - Texas Rangers vs. Minnesota Twins

7/19: St. Louis, MO - St. Louis Cardinals vs. Arizona Diamondbacks*

7/21: Kansas City, MO - Kansas City Royals vs. Los Angeles Angels

7/24: Phoenix, AZ - Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

7/25: Los Angeles, CA - Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Florida Marlins*

7/27: Anaheim, CA - Los Angeles Angels vs. Cleveland Indians

7/31: San Diego, CA - San Diego Padres vs. Milwaukee Brewers

8/1: San Francisco, CA - San Francisco Giants vs. Philadelphia Phillies*

8/5: Oakland, CA - Oakland Athletics vs. Texas Rangers

8/7: Seattle, WA - Seattle Mariners vs. Tampa Bay Rays

8/10: Denver, CO - Colorado Rockies vs. Chicago Cubs

8/12: Minneapolis, MN - Minnesota Twins vs. Kansas City Royals

8/14: Milwaukee, WI - Milwaukee Brewers vs. Houston Astros

8/16: Chicago, IL - Chicago Cubs vs. Pittsburgh Pirates*

8/17: Chicago, IL - Chicago White Sox vs. Kansas City Royals

8/18: Detroit, MI - Detroit Tigers vs. Seattle Mariners

8/20: Toronto, ON - Toronto Blue Jays vs. Boston Red Sox*

4 months to go

2009-02-23T17:09:00.003-05:00

Our trip will take place from June-August, 2009. We've started purchasing tickets for the trip & we're up to 7 games so far! We'd love for whoever wants to join us for a game-or leg of the trip- to just let us know & we'll be sure to get extra tickets. We'll keep you posted.