Niagra Falls and the Road Home

We were all pretty exhausted at the last campground, to be honest, I don't even know were it was.  I had slept from Cooperstown to wherever we were because I had been up 36 hours straight.  We arrived at about midnight, just in time to sit around a picnic table and reminisce about what we've experienced to that point.  After finishing our midnight snack, we all got one last night of sleep in the RV. 
Niagra Falls was amazing.  It has nothing to do with baseball, but was a very memorable part of the trip.  We made our way to the observation deck (we got a good chuckle when Brian hollered out, "Cannonball!") on the US side and then took an elevator to the bottom where we got on board the 'Maid of the Mist'.  We were all given a poncho and before you knew it, we were floating to the bottom of the falls.  To think that people have survived plunges over this monster stumped us all.  This was another location on our trip that numerous languages were being spoke.  It was amazing.  A few more pictures ended up being taken from the cliffs besides the falls before we made our way to the gift shop.  For me the photos in my mind were pretty much all I needed to take away from this place. 

The last place we stopped on the road home was the original home of buffalo wings in Buffalo, NY.  We ordered up two platters of 50 wings each and put them away.  The hottest wings, were nothing compared to those we tried in Cleveland, but the over all taste and quality of the wing was superb. 

All in all, we ended up putting on 2883.9 miles on that little RV.  I don't know how soon we'd do this again, but I know none of us will ever forget it.  When you spend that much time with some of your closest pals, you realize that they are more like brothers. 

Thanks for following along.  In the words of Forrest Gump, "That's about all I have to say about that."

Play ball!

Cooperstown, NY - Prime Destination Point

Cooperstown was GRAND!  We arrived in Cooperstown on the crack of dawn.  We were able to park the RV right in town for $20.  I was worse than a kid on Christmas morning wanting to open his presents, so I started to wander down main street.  None of the shops were open, but window shopping just added to my anticipation.  The street itself reminded me of days gone by.  Homemade advertising sings, potted plants along the Blvd., and the smell of cafe's and diners cooking up breakfast.  We chose to eat breakfast at a neat little joint call T.J.'s.  After a night of winding roads and little sleep, it was a great pick-me-up.  From there we made our way to the actual Hall of Fame.  Upon arrival I bumped into a familiar face, Clyde Doepner, the Twins Historian/Curator at the post office (which is the only one in the nation open on Sundays).  He was just as excited as me to begin the day.  One way to get a cheap souvenir is to have any items from that day stamped for the price of a postage stamp.  We talked for a bit and laughed about what Bert might have in store for his speech.  It began to rain a little but it couldn't wash the smiles off of our faces.  He did me a favor and snapped a picture of me in front of the HOF and we went our ways.  Once in the hall, I couldn't help but to gravitate towards the gift shop.  I hadn't even gone through the hall and there I was looking for trinkets I could remember the day by.
After glancing at all the items in the gift shop, I bumped into a couple other fellas from Gibbon that made their own way out to Cooperstown, Doc and Larry.  Doc has been an avid baseball fan for years.  He's also at nearly every Gibbon Reds (http://www.gibbonreds.com) home game.  In the past he's shared numerous baseball stories with me, my favorite being about his experience attending the 1965 World Series games in Bloomington, MN.  Today was different, we were both experiencing Cooperstown for the first time.  Decked out in Twins gear, we shared our thoughts and first impressions of town and discussed the plans we had for the duration of our trips.  Before we parted, we had our photo taken by Bert's display case with our pals and wished each other safe trips home.
Thinking that we better get our lawn chairs set up for the actual induction, we hopped on a bus and went to the ceremony grounds.  I'm glad we did because by the time we got back for induction, there were thousands of people there.  Then it was back to the the HOF.
Artifacts from the game have been wonderfully preserved and are easily accessible.  Babe Ruth's uniform, Honus Wagner's baseball card, and World Series rings are just a few of the items you can't miss.  A true fan could literally take all day to get through the entire museum.  Since we didn't quite have all day, I did my best to absorb as much of it as I could.  I knew there was lots going on out on main street so I decided to make the rounds to all the shops.  It was here that I got to meet HOF baseball player, Pete Rose.  I paid a little bit of cash and had him sign the foul ball I got at the Cleveland game.  I figured it's all part of the same trip so why buy another ball.  He looked a bit tired, but enjoyed talking with the fans that stopped to see him (there really weren't that many... lol).  One way or the other, he's a historic player of the game and it was neat meeting him.
It was now time to see what we had came for, the induction ceremony.  Walking back to our chairs was like taking of tour through the Festival of Nations.  Roberto Alomar, Jr. had quite the following from Latin America, Canada, and the US.  Reporters from around the world were making the rounds as well.  Speaking of reporters, our hometown news crew, KARE 11, had contacted us via Twitter (www.twitter.com/gibbonreds) and asked if they could ask us a few questions about our trip.  Why not?  Randy Shaver, KARE 11's Sports Reporter, met us at our seats and wanted to know how our trip came to fruition.  We told him how a simple phone call last year amongst our crew snowballed into what has now become one of the greatest road trips we've ever experienced.  I shared that I was glad to mark a few more items off my 'Baseball Fans Bucketlist'.  We were tired and running on fumes, but I think a large portion of the fans in attendance were feeling the same way.  Thanks, Randy, for taking the time to feature us in your news broadcast.  Viewers from back home were quick to notify us that they had seen us on the air.  Fun.
The actual induction ceremony was phenomenal.  I believer there were over 52 HOF members that graced the staged with their presence.  It was a who's-who of all the players that have made legendary impacts on the game.  To see Bert amongst them was very fitting.  His speech reflected on his early years of playing ball and all the people that impacted his career.  He got a lot of chuckles out of the fans with numerous stories and one-liners.  He also paid homage to the great Harmon Killebrew and Kirby Puckett.  Bert was first-class that day and now has his permanent place amongst the games greatest players. 
When the ceremony was finished, we crossed paths with some more Minnesotans and shared stories about each others trips.  We finished up our souvenir shopping and saddled up for one last campground before we made our way to Niagra Falls.

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!