Pittsburgh and Powering Forward

It's 3:30am and we all forgot what sleep is.  We're only about 3 hours away from Cooperstown, the pinnacle of our trip.  We've made lots of memories so far and have met lots of awesome folks from around the world.  After packing up from the last RV camp, we headed to Canton, OH.  Driving all this way and not seeing the Pro Football Hall of Fame wobituld have been a sin.  Mort was in his glory taking in all the glorious history of the sport.  I really enjoyed seeing the Vikings displays.  Bummed there isn't any information about any Super Bowl victories for them though.  Chuckled with some Cheese Heads, bought a couple souvenirs, and hopped back in the RV to head to Pittsburgh.
While making our way to the stadium, we got to hear a little bit of the rock band, Slayer, performing an outdoor concert before the game.  Loved seeing all the metal heads. We made it to PNC Park just in time for the National Anthem.  Once again, I wanted to see what the stadium all had to offer, but I wasn't real impressed with anything in particular.  My favorite piece is a giant bronze statue replica on Mazoroski running home after his game-winning World Series home run.  Then I also thought about the catcher that was behind the plate for that historic moment, Johnny Blanchard.  I was fortunate enough to talk with Blanchard one night while he made a guest appearance at Twins Fun Night in Fairfax, MN.  He told me that after Mazoroski hit that home run, he received hate mail and other threats for calling the wrong pitch.  Yankees fans are brutal.  After wandering around the stadium for a couple innings, I settled down in some nice seats 16 rows up behind the home team Pittsburgh Pirates (though for this day they were the GRAYS to honor the past Negro League team).  It also just so happened that in this sellout crowd, there were 7 more seats in my row, so I called the fellas and we all enjoyed awesome seats until we left the game.  While sitting there, we talked baseball with some locals and learned that the bridge out in the horizon was named the Roberto Clemente Bridge and that the wall in right field was 21 feet tall to honor #21, right fielder, Roberto Clemente.  Overall,Pittsburgh has one of the most beautiful skylines in baseball with a legion of dedicated fans.  Didn't get any hotwings in Pitt though, just simply didn't have time.  So in the 8th inning we made the trek back to the RV along the Ohio River.  It was unreal, more fans had lined there boats and yachts up along the river ready to party it up.  BBQ's, beverages, and good music were all around.
The moment we made it back to the RV, we thought we were in for a fiasco.  There were lights on and people were in it.  Luckily, it happened to be the wrong RV, we were parked another 10ft away.  Relieved, we hopped in the RV and began our last jaunt to the HOF.  The little county back roads proved to be a daunting task.  Hills, trees, brush, and sharp curves with wooden crosses bordering them made for a tense ride to the next freeway.  To ease the tension, we just put on CCR's Greatest Hits and made the best of it.  Gotta love CCR.
That leads us up to now.  The final approach to what is to be one of the best baseball experiences any of us could dream of.  I can't imagine how Bert is feeling right now.  He's definitely earned this.
Since we're operating on fumes, I'm not sure when the next blog entry will be.  I know we're going to try and cross paths with fellow Minnesotans while we're out there.  What better way to celebrate the occasion than with fellow fans.
Hopefully we'll get some more pics put up on my facebook page soon as well.  We're utilizing all the electricity we have available in this rig.
Here we go!