Bottom of the 18th

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,