Writing the Boston part of the blog was saying goodbye to the entire trip, perhaps that is why I left it so long, maybe it's because I'm a lazy sod. 6 weeks culminated in a stay with Justin and Caroline who might never have believed that we'd take them up on the drunken offer to accommodate made at Mark's wedding.
We got the final fixture out of the way on the first night, Boston Red Sox managed to win comfortably and after 18 games we finally got to see our first home team grand slam.
The following day the we strolled round Boston for a bit before the four of us had a a bit of Mexican and a trip very interesting bar.
The website of 'Rendezvous' informs you in flashing letters that they have 'ample parking' and great restaurants nearby. This is slightly damning of the establishment given that they themselves claim to be a 'Bar & Restaurant'.
Our second to last day involved a trip to Saratoga Springs race course, it was over three hours away but as the oldest sporting venue in the United States (cheers Reidy) we knew we couldn't miss out. As the sun shone down on us we happily lost money, all systems failing completely. It didn't matter though, we had a couple of drinks, soaked up the atmostphere and had paid a paltry $3 to get in.
The final night Justin took us to a great American Style restaurant where we dined on trip favourite chicken wings and ribs. With beers shotgunned and full stomachs the night was a great curtain call on our trip. Many thanks to Justin and Caroline for being great hosts for what was our longest stay anywhere (4 days).
Unbelievably they took the rental car back despite a complete failure to get most of the duct tape off of the bumper. Then it was just a case of still having our passports and summoning enough energy to get on the plane.
Many thanks to everyone that hosted us, without you we would have had only the smallest bit of fun. I'll end the blog with a few facts and approximations about our trip.
6200 miles
23 states
18 baseball stadiums/teams
2 horse tracks
$70 lost gambling with Phil
Most overused joke;
"What state are we in?"
"I'm feeling a bit shabby how about yourself?"
Most spent on a ticket $50
Least spent on a ticket $0 (thanks Brian)
Favourite Stadiums - Chase Field/Petco Park
10 couchsurfing hosts
12 bits of duct tape fixing the car
5 Dennys
2 IHOPs
25 Starbucks visits
$250 spent on toll roads
$400 spent on fuel
Favourite night - Metal Shop, Arlington, Texas.
Favourite baseball game - Dodgers 9, Phillies 10.
Hours spent blogging - LOTS
Worth it? - Very much so.
Thanks for reading everyone, stay in touch.
Dj/Phil,
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Pawn Stars in NYC
Updating this blog is easy when you steam into a town, have all sorts of adventures and meet a few entertaining characters. When you go to New York City with the energy of a sloth that's just fallen out of a particularly tall tree, it all becomes a bit of a struggle.
Parking in New York is a lot of fun, if you don't like money that is. So we decided to drive to Newark Airport, leave the Prius in a parking lot and get the train back into Manhatten where our hotel was. It probably wasn't the easiest or even cheapest way of doing it but it was a solution nevertheless. We were staying at the Excelsior which is just next to Central Park, I was all set to go for a run there but the blister caused by my new trainers proved something of a hindrance/excuse.
The first plan of action was to head to Citi Field to see the Mets beat the Phillies 1-0 before a quick stroll through Times Square and back to the general area of the hotel for a beer or two. Interestingly a highlight of the evening came from the TV in the hotel room where we discovered a show called Pawn Stars which you can read about here
The following day involved some walking around, sorting out and printing out Yankee's tickets online, exploring Soho and then a trip to the much recommended oldest bar in New York (McSorley's)
The selection of beer's is just two, which come in the form of 'light' and 'dark'. It was there that we met Chris and Jen (not you Chris and Jen!) who we were to stay out with for the rest of the evening. Phil and I left separately but both got home safely, apparently it came down to a disagreement about the direction home, judging by the time it took I was probably in the wrong.
The following day was an absolute shambles, so much so that I'm going to ignore it.
After checking out of the hotel, we went out of town to get the car, parked up by Yankee's stadium ($36) and then saw them surprisingly lose to the Detroit Tigers by 3-1. The NYC trip had gained Phil another $40 from my sky rocket and he had now won five in a row; disaster.
With just Boston remaining, we managed to get about two of the four hour drive done straight after the game before crashing out at a motel for the final time.
Parking in New York is a lot of fun, if you don't like money that is. So we decided to drive to Newark Airport, leave the Prius in a parking lot and get the train back into Manhatten where our hotel was. It probably wasn't the easiest or even cheapest way of doing it but it was a solution nevertheless. We were staying at the Excelsior which is just next to Central Park, I was all set to go for a run there but the blister caused by my new trainers proved something of a hindrance/excuse.
The first plan of action was to head to Citi Field to see the Mets beat the Phillies 1-0 before a quick stroll through Times Square and back to the general area of the hotel for a beer or two. Interestingly a highlight of the evening came from the TV in the hotel room where we discovered a show called Pawn Stars which you can read about here
The following day involved some walking around, sorting out and printing out Yankee's tickets online, exploring Soho and then a trip to the much recommended oldest bar in New York (McSorley's)
The selection of beer's is just two, which come in the form of 'light' and 'dark'. It was there that we met Chris and Jen (not you Chris and Jen!) who we were to stay out with for the rest of the evening. Phil and I left separately but both got home safely, apparently it came down to a disagreement about the direction home, judging by the time it took I was probably in the wrong.
The following day was an absolute shambles, so much so that I'm going to ignore it.
After checking out of the hotel, we went out of town to get the car, parked up by Yankee's stadium ($36) and then saw them surprisingly lose to the Detroit Tigers by 3-1. The NYC trip had gained Phil another $40 from my sky rocket and he had now won five in a row; disaster.
With just Boston remaining, we managed to get about two of the four hour drive done straight after the game before crashing out at a motel for the final time.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
A Tale of Two Phillies
Sean had forgotten we were supposed to be staying but he still took us in as promised when he got home from work. He has a cool place about ten minutes from downtown Philadelphia which is where we headed after we got the introductions out of the way. When he told us about a bar called Tattooed Mom's we knew that we had to go there.
The walls of Tattooed Mom's have writing and art all over them, all drawn by patrons of the bar who were mostly a lot cooler than us.
We met a couple who had just been to see the newly formed Philadelphia Union MLS team, talked about the origins of Sean's collection of tattoo's and general life in the town. Next we popped to a dance bar, laid down twenty minutes worth of style and returned home.
The following night was the Phillies game who were to take on the LA Dodgers. It was a little scary to see that the game was sold out but we managed to negotiate a tout down from $75 to $50 for good seats by the third baseline. We had an hour to kill before the game so we returned to the Prius for some informal tailgating with a few warm beers we happened to have in the car.
With Phil $20 in front overall he selected the home team for our wager as we entered the ball park. We then had our obligatory Philly Cheesesteak which was probably the best thing we've eaten the entire trip. The Dodgers led 9-2, before deciding to lose 10-9 in the ninth much to my dismay and cost.
We headed back to Sean's prior to the two hour drive to New York the next morning, we considered a detour to Atlantic City but surprisingly sensible budgeting won the day.
The walls of Tattooed Mom's have writing and art all over them, all drawn by patrons of the bar who were mostly a lot cooler than us.
We met a couple who had just been to see the newly formed Philadelphia Union MLS team, talked about the origins of Sean's collection of tattoo's and general life in the town. Next we popped to a dance bar, laid down twenty minutes worth of style and returned home.
The following night was the Phillies game who were to take on the LA Dodgers. It was a little scary to see that the game was sold out but we managed to negotiate a tout down from $75 to $50 for good seats by the third baseline. We had an hour to kill before the game so we returned to the Prius for some informal tailgating with a few warm beers we happened to have in the car.
With Phil $20 in front overall he selected the home team for our wager as we entered the ball park. We then had our obligatory Philly Cheesesteak which was probably the best thing we've eaten the entire trip. The Dodgers led 9-2, before deciding to lose 10-9 in the ninth much to my dismay and cost.
We headed back to Sean's prior to the two hour drive to New York the next morning, we considered a detour to Atlantic City but surprisingly sensible budgeting won the day.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
DC taking its toll
Day two of Washington DC surprisingly contained less actual sightseeing than the first, a pretty special performance considering the lack of effort made on day one.
I do suppose though that smuggling a few beers up to the hotel pool, farting around a bit (not literally) and then going to the game early was at least mildly constructive. A talented young chap called Stephen Strasburg was to be pitching for the Nationals and we were in danger of a sell-out. We'd also agreed to go with the girls we'd met the previous night (well two of them and another friend).
Tickets were successfully purchased so we headed to a bar/tent arrangement just outside the stadium called The Bullpen. The bullpen in baseball is where the pitchers warm up and in keeping with that theme they had a test your pitching speed area. With a couple of Margarita's inside of me I saw no reason not to be first 'on the mound'.
Quite where the speed-gun got 29mph from I have no idea, I was too busy feeling sorry for myself to notice Phil reach somewhere in the mid 40's and Giles 30's.
With no discernible talent for throwing (other than like a 6 year old girl) my ability to remain on pace with drinkers of Phil's standard was not much better. I just about managed to see out an evening of the National's losing comfortably, live band Karaoke and a session of the board game Taboo before crashing on the sofa.
The 11th August saw us slowly negotiate the journey back to Giles' hotel before saying our goodbyes and accidentally stealing his sunblock. The journey to Philadelphia took around 4 hours which was our second real traffic issue on the trip (after LA), it should only have taken 3.
Also we also paid a toll of $10.30 which painfully hurt as a) I paid it and b) I laid Phil the overs in the 'Will the toll be under/over $4?' in-car betting.
We knocked on Sean's door around 7:30pm, he wasn't in.
To be continued...
I do suppose though that smuggling a few beers up to the hotel pool, farting around a bit (not literally) and then going to the game early was at least mildly constructive. A talented young chap called Stephen Strasburg was to be pitching for the Nationals and we were in danger of a sell-out. We'd also agreed to go with the girls we'd met the previous night (well two of them and another friend).
Tickets were successfully purchased so we headed to a bar/tent arrangement just outside the stadium called The Bullpen. The bullpen in baseball is where the pitchers warm up and in keeping with that theme they had a test your pitching speed area. With a couple of Margarita's inside of me I saw no reason not to be first 'on the mound'.
Quite where the speed-gun got 29mph from I have no idea, I was too busy feeling sorry for myself to notice Phil reach somewhere in the mid 40's and Giles 30's.
With no discernible talent for throwing (other than like a 6 year old girl) my ability to remain on pace with drinkers of Phil's standard was not much better. I just about managed to see out an evening of the National's losing comfortably, live band Karaoke and a session of the board game Taboo before crashing on the sofa.
The 11th August saw us slowly negotiate the journey back to Giles' hotel before saying our goodbyes and accidentally stealing his sunblock. The journey to Philadelphia took around 4 hours which was our second real traffic issue on the trip (after LA), it should only have taken 3.
Also we also paid a toll of $10.30 which painfully hurt as a) I paid it and b) I laid Phil the overs in the 'Will the toll be under/over $4?' in-car betting.
We knocked on Sean's door around 7:30pm, he wasn't in.
To be continued...
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Giles and The Negotiator
Further reading on Marc Norton can be found here but essentially he is a bit weird, runs a furniture store and is famous in Cleveland. We had a brief meeting and photo session, he was somewhere between uninterested and compliant.
Pat, Wyatt, Phil and myself continued to the Marina where we spoke mostly about the cost of boats before heading to the ballgame. I was introduced to the mascot which is a big purple monster type thing called Slider.
The Indians won 7-6 but unfortunately we didn't see most of it as we got stuck at the bar. We left for Baltimore with nothing but good memories of Cleveland and it's definitely somewhere I'd recommend a visit.
Our trip to Baltimore was a fleeting one, we drove to the ballpark watched the White Sox comeback from 2-0 down to beat the Orioles and that was pretty much it.
A mere thirty minute drive got us to DC where we managed to stumble upon the presidential motorcade outside the White House, it was about 15 vehicles long. Apparently Barrack Obama was on his way to play basketball with some NBA stars, tough gig.
For those of you that don't know Giles he is our friend from London who happens to be working in Washington whilst we were here. We'd agreed to meet up a few days previously and conveniently we saved a few cents by staying in his hotel room.
We didn't really have any plans so rather than explore the cities museums and art galleries we went up to the hotel pool and relaxed for a little bit. After a few hours we jumped online to see if anything was happening in DC on a quiet Monday.
The Counting Crows were playing in a place called Vienna in Virginia and it seemed a reasonable idea to pay around $50 to go and see them.
"How are we going to get tickets?" said Phil
"We'll just get them from touts outside." I replied.
So with no tickets we took a 20 minute metro ride and then a 15 minute shuttle bus to the venue.
"I'll handle the negotiating" I said
Unfortunately there was nobody to negotiate with, it had completely sold out and all we could find was someone selling a single ticket.
We persisted.
Another single ticket came up and so I decided to purchase in the hope of finding two more.
"How much do you want?" I enquired
"$25"
"Done"
It was at this point that a policewoman came over and told me that what I had just done was illegal and that we needed to enter or leave the grounds.
So we now had one ticket, three people, a criminal act and a few dollars less than we came with. We decided to cut our losses and return to town, fortunately I covertly managed to hunt out a purchaser who asked me how much I wanted for it. It was time to make a tidy profit for my troubles.
"$25" I said (completely bottling it)
The guy bit my hand off but he only had two twenties and I only had enough change to give him $13 which he seemed happy with. I had made myself a tidy two bucks completely by accident!
Having bargained my ticket so successfully I was to be further tested, this time by the taxi driver.
"40 dollars"
"I want you to use the meter"
"I like your style" said the gentleman from Ghana who had previously lived in Croydon of all places.
When the fare came to $43 the driver looked pretty smug about life, Giles and Phil were now cursing my negotiating skills albeit in a good natured fashion.
It didn't take us long to realise he hadn't bothered to take us to the place we asked him to and when we did finally make it to the AdamsMorgan region we found that there was in fact nothing going on whatsoever.
We headed instead to Georgetown where whilst playing Mario Kart in a bar we met some girls who were to invite us to their house for a bit. It wasn't long before Giles offered to give me a much needed haircut and for some reason I agreed to it. He tried but it didn't really suit me and after trying to fix it myself the next morning I resorted to paying $30 in an all black barbers for the best haircut i'd had in the previous 12 hours (just).
The Nationals game will follow shortly...
Pat, Wyatt, Phil and myself continued to the Marina where we spoke mostly about the cost of boats before heading to the ballgame. I was introduced to the mascot which is a big purple monster type thing called Slider.
The Indians won 7-6 but unfortunately we didn't see most of it as we got stuck at the bar. We left for Baltimore with nothing but good memories of Cleveland and it's definitely somewhere I'd recommend a visit.
Our trip to Baltimore was a fleeting one, we drove to the ballpark watched the White Sox comeback from 2-0 down to beat the Orioles and that was pretty much it.
A mere thirty minute drive got us to DC where we managed to stumble upon the presidential motorcade outside the White House, it was about 15 vehicles long. Apparently Barrack Obama was on his way to play basketball with some NBA stars, tough gig.
For those of you that don't know Giles he is our friend from London who happens to be working in Washington whilst we were here. We'd agreed to meet up a few days previously and conveniently we saved a few cents by staying in his hotel room.
We didn't really have any plans so rather than explore the cities museums and art galleries we went up to the hotel pool and relaxed for a little bit. After a few hours we jumped online to see if anything was happening in DC on a quiet Monday.
The Counting Crows were playing in a place called Vienna in Virginia and it seemed a reasonable idea to pay around $50 to go and see them.
"How are we going to get tickets?" said Phil
"We'll just get them from touts outside." I replied.
So with no tickets we took a 20 minute metro ride and then a 15 minute shuttle bus to the venue.
"I'll handle the negotiating" I said
Unfortunately there was nobody to negotiate with, it had completely sold out and all we could find was someone selling a single ticket.
We persisted.
Another single ticket came up and so I decided to purchase in the hope of finding two more.
"How much do you want?" I enquired
"$25"
"Done"
It was at this point that a policewoman came over and told me that what I had just done was illegal and that we needed to enter or leave the grounds.
So we now had one ticket, three people, a criminal act and a few dollars less than we came with. We decided to cut our losses and return to town, fortunately I covertly managed to hunt out a purchaser who asked me how much I wanted for it. It was time to make a tidy profit for my troubles.
"$25" I said (completely bottling it)
The guy bit my hand off but he only had two twenties and I only had enough change to give him $13 which he seemed happy with. I had made myself a tidy two bucks completely by accident!
Having bargained my ticket so successfully I was to be further tested, this time by the taxi driver.
"40 dollars"
"I want you to use the meter"
"I like your style" said the gentleman from Ghana who had previously lived in Croydon of all places.
When the fare came to $43 the driver looked pretty smug about life, Giles and Phil were now cursing my negotiating skills albeit in a good natured fashion.
It didn't take us long to realise he hadn't bothered to take us to the place we asked him to and when we did finally make it to the AdamsMorgan region we found that there was in fact nothing going on whatsoever.
We headed instead to Georgetown where whilst playing Mario Kart in a bar we met some girls who were to invite us to their house for a bit. It wasn't long before Giles offered to give me a much needed haircut and for some reason I agreed to it. He tried but it didn't really suit me and after trying to fix it myself the next morning I resorted to paying $30 in an all black barbers for the best haircut i'd had in the previous 12 hours (just).
The Nationals game will follow shortly...
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Akron ic case of good times...
As we approached the more expensive East Coast we decided to fit in our bulk cheap clothes purchasing at an Outlet Centre just outside Pittsburgh. It would have been an insult to our feet not to avail the Reebok store of their buy one get one free offer on already cheap trainers. Needing some running shoes (in order to work off the 8 million hot dogs I've consumed) I purchased some only slightly offensive looking green and yellow numbers, being a man I also neglected to try them on.
It was getting late so the conclusion of our evening was to be another Econolodge motel just near our next game, I finally got round to testing out my new 'sneakers'.
Firstly I put the left one on, then the other left...
"ARSE"
"2-2" said Phil
"Yep"
Game 11 of our trip started about 15 minutes before we got there, causing us to miss yet another home run. We found PNC Park to be one of the better stadiums and because the Pirates are so appalling we were able to get fairly good seats pretty cheaply.
Given that it was 12:35pm on a weekday the only others in attendance seemed to be Reds fans and screaming kids on a 'day camp'. The Reds won fairly comfortably prompting Phil to hand over $20 and keep me in hotdogs for another few nights.
We had a walk around town looking for the main bar area but it seems we weren't able to find it, as the rain started to belt down we got the feeling Pittsburgh was telling us to leave and who were we to argue.
After a quick detour to change the left shoe for a 'right' one we ventured three hours Northwards to a place called Youngstown, we were to attend the first day of the Bridgestone Invitational Golf Tournament in Akron and had to be up with the lark or at least just after it.
$40 got us into the course which enables you to walk around pretty much everywhere. Frustratingly though no cameras or mobiles are allowed in the grounds and they use scanners to enforce it.
Perching around the green of the par 5 2nd we saw most of the top players including Tiger Woods who managed to make bogey, also we did not hear a single person say 'Get in the Hole' which was both pleasing and surprising. We stayed for around seven hours before heading further north to Cleveland.
Pat and his buddy Wyatt were waiting for us by the pool, the plan being to drink looking out over Lake Erie and we did not object. They then took us downtown where we got more drunk. I don't remember much apart from making some local buddies and being invited to a BBQ by someone who had 'Never met an English person before'.
Pat is a fireman/paramedic/self employed fencer as well as being a top guy and a lot of fun. The four of us had lunch at 'The Harp' (Irish pub obviously!) before getting a guided tour of a microbrewery despite the fact that they didn't do tours. We purchased some Indigo Imp and sat down for a bottle outside, it was genuinely one of the best beers I've ever had and I hope it sells as well as it should for them.
Next we were to meet a local celebrity but I'm too tired and will have to pick up the tale in the morning...
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Chicago? Not without any power it doesn't!
Strangely I begin writing this blog in exactly the same place that I wrote the last one, Lebanon, Indiana.
We had to returned here to collect my passport which I managed to leave behind when we stopped between Cincinnati and Chicago a few days previously. It was a stupid move but on about the only occasion we've had to double back on ourselves, there could certainly have been worse times to do it.
Reaching Chicago we'd dumped our bags with Sean before heading out for a quick walkabout and a beverage prior to seeing the White Sox get defeated by the Oakland Athletics. The Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) nearly got a visit but the significant queue smothered our interest completely.
The next day Sean showed us around Chicago and it was handy to be directed straight to the better parts of town. A brunch restaurant inspired me to try a fruit sushi which was cleverly named Frushi, this was to be followed by a pineapple, ham and coconut omelette which while decent probably wasn't worth the hour and a half they made me wait for it.
En-route to a street party towards the North side of town we stopped for a game of pool. Sean had never played Killer before and so we were surprised that he was so keen to compete over sacrificial shots of tequila. Luckily Phil took most of the load and so we were in good form to continue onward!
Some of Sean's friends showed up and debate raged as to whether or not meat pizza is better than vegetarian pizza. It seems I was in the wrong place to ask, the popularity of the Chicago Style variety featuring Italian Sausage cannot be questioned under any circumstances in this town.
The night culminated in my first ever game of Beer Pong, some full scale basketball inside an actual bar and a late night diner at which I fell asleep at the table. It should also be noted for feature reference that some stumbling around the general area in which Transformers 3 is currently being filmed took place.
With the passport incident leaving me slightly indebted to Phil's good nature, Monday 2nd August proved something of a balancing act.
Having left Sean's place for the final time with the absolute intention of getting a further days sightseeing under our belts we approached the Prius with all but a care in the world. With memories comparable to that of Koi carp a popular method of finding our transportation has been to frantically press the key button until our ride should reveal itself.
"Open the doors Phil"
"Er"
"I'm trying to"
"Stop pissing about"
"I'm not"
With the Prius as dead as a well known extinct bird we'd assumed that the 'Clicky Game' (we actually did call it that) had been the culprit. We'd navigated our way to a branch of The National Car Rental who suggested that we'd (PHIL) left the lights on and that a jump start would provide sufficient remedy.
Their synopsis had of course proved entirely correct and having received what we assume was a complimentary power boost we were back on the road and on the way to Wrigley Field, the historic home of the Chicago cubs.
I'd been advised that the area surrounding the stadium was one big party and that is exactly how it was. We'd had to drive around a bit to find anything close to reasonably priced parking but eventually we rocked up at a lot around a mile away with plenty of time to enjoy a pre-game refreshment.
"I'm just going to put my suitcase in the boot" said I
"Why?"
"More room in the back for your rucksack then Phil."
"Fair enough"
"Actually Phil, where is your rucksack?"
"Ah shit."
Having concluded that he'd left it in the car park all the way back at Sean's place the race was on to both locate the rucksack and get back in time to take in the game.
A nervous subway ride later we found the bag lying in the middle of the car park next to where the car was a few hours ago, it was concluded that it had in fact been left twice. With Phil now 2-1 up in time killing schoolboy errors the forthcoming passport detour was to be a peaceful one.
Having got a little tired of both supporting the home team owing to four straight defeats we'd begun wagering between ourselves on the games. A coin toss giving me first choice I decided to select the Cubs in the home of becoming $20 richer.
For the first time in 20 days something compelled me to purchase chewing gum approaching the stadium, I had cleaned my teeth that morning and there appeared to be no apparent reason for it. It was only as I'd left the shop and looked down at my packet of Wrigley's that I reaslised how depressingly susceptible I am to advertising.
Despite cheering the Cubs solitary run with fresh breath nobody could stop the Brewers making me $20 worse off. We left for some long awaited Buffalo wings, my 'holiday cigar' and a few hours drive to break up the Pittsburgh journey.
p.s
Best title so far?
We had to returned here to collect my passport which I managed to leave behind when we stopped between Cincinnati and Chicago a few days previously. It was a stupid move but on about the only occasion we've had to double back on ourselves, there could certainly have been worse times to do it.
Reaching Chicago we'd dumped our bags with Sean before heading out for a quick walkabout and a beverage prior to seeing the White Sox get defeated by the Oakland Athletics. The Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) nearly got a visit but the significant queue smothered our interest completely.
The next day Sean showed us around Chicago and it was handy to be directed straight to the better parts of town. A brunch restaurant inspired me to try a fruit sushi which was cleverly named Frushi, this was to be followed by a pineapple, ham and coconut omelette which while decent probably wasn't worth the hour and a half they made me wait for it.
En-route to a street party towards the North side of town we stopped for a game of pool. Sean had never played Killer before and so we were surprised that he was so keen to compete over sacrificial shots of tequila. Luckily Phil took most of the load and so we were in good form to continue onward!
Some of Sean's friends showed up and debate raged as to whether or not meat pizza is better than vegetarian pizza. It seems I was in the wrong place to ask, the popularity of the Chicago Style variety featuring Italian Sausage cannot be questioned under any circumstances in this town.
The night culminated in my first ever game of Beer Pong, some full scale basketball inside an actual bar and a late night diner at which I fell asleep at the table. It should also be noted for feature reference that some stumbling around the general area in which Transformers 3 is currently being filmed took place.
With the passport incident leaving me slightly indebted to Phil's good nature, Monday 2nd August proved something of a balancing act.
Having left Sean's place for the final time with the absolute intention of getting a further days sightseeing under our belts we approached the Prius with all but a care in the world. With memories comparable to that of Koi carp a popular method of finding our transportation has been to frantically press the key button until our ride should reveal itself.
"Open the doors Phil"
"Er"
"I'm trying to"
"Stop pissing about"
"I'm not"
With the Prius as dead as a well known extinct bird we'd assumed that the 'Clicky Game' (we actually did call it that) had been the culprit. We'd navigated our way to a branch of The National Car Rental who suggested that we'd (PHIL) left the lights on and that a jump start would provide sufficient remedy.
Their synopsis had of course proved entirely correct and having received what we assume was a complimentary power boost we were back on the road and on the way to Wrigley Field, the historic home of the Chicago cubs.
I'd been advised that the area surrounding the stadium was one big party and that is exactly how it was. We'd had to drive around a bit to find anything close to reasonably priced parking but eventually we rocked up at a lot around a mile away with plenty of time to enjoy a pre-game refreshment.
"I'm just going to put my suitcase in the boot" said I
"Why?"
"More room in the back for your rucksack then Phil."
"Fair enough"
"Actually Phil, where is your rucksack?"
"Ah shit."
Having concluded that he'd left it in the car park all the way back at Sean's place the race was on to both locate the rucksack and get back in time to take in the game.
A nervous subway ride later we found the bag lying in the middle of the car park next to where the car was a few hours ago, it was concluded that it had in fact been left twice. With Phil now 2-1 up in time killing schoolboy errors the forthcoming passport detour was to be a peaceful one.
Having got a little tired of both supporting the home team owing to four straight defeats we'd begun wagering between ourselves on the games. A coin toss giving me first choice I decided to select the Cubs in the home of becoming $20 richer.
For the first time in 20 days something compelled me to purchase chewing gum approaching the stadium, I had cleaned my teeth that morning and there appeared to be no apparent reason for it. It was only as I'd left the shop and looked down at my packet of Wrigley's that I reaslised how depressingly susceptible I am to advertising.
Despite cheering the Cubs solitary run with fresh breath nobody could stop the Brewers making me $20 worse off. We left for some long awaited Buffalo wings, my 'holiday cigar' and a few hours drive to break up the Pittsburgh journey.
p.s
Best title so far?
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Schedule
1st Chicago
7th Baltimore
8th Washington
9th Washington
10th Washington
11th Philadelphia
12th Philadephia
13th New York
14th New York
15th New York
16th New York
17th Boston
18th Boston
19th Boston
20th Boston
21st Fly Home
2nd Chicago
3rd Pittsburgh
4th Pittsburgh
5th Cleveland
7th Baltimore
8th Washington
9th Washington
10th Washington
11th Philadelphia
12th Philadephia
13th New York
14th New York
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