Wednesday, July 29, 2015
First, an update: I never told you the outcome of last night's game. The Miners were down two runs until they scored on a wild pitch and again on an errant pick-off attempt. Then some guy named Mike Earley hit a walk-off home run for the win. Quite exciting for the two hundred fans in attendance. Turns out Earley was a Chicago White Sox draft pick.
We started the day with breakfast at The Vault, an old bank that was turned into a restaurant. After that, we headed southeast across the bottom of Illinois toward, eventually, Nashville. We originally planned for a minor league game in Memphis until we found out first pitch was set for 11:30 am. Not gonna happen.
Our trip took us through The Shawnee National Forest, but even the cover of tall trees could not lower the temperatures to any comfortable level. The temps hit mid-nineties by 10:00 am. This is our third straight day of high temps and high humidity.
Being the modern day pioneers that we are, we took a swift left onto an unmarked road in the National Forest, because, you know, what could possibly happen? It was two or three miles of dirt and gravel road, with a couple of shallow creeks to ford. Hell, I have an all wheel drive vehicle. Here's what our fun road looked like:
Fun, right?
Except that we reached a point where the road narrowed and turned to mud:
Randy hopped out and walked around the bend to do a little recon and reported back: The road stops at a river, with no way across. Turns out it was just an access road for farmers.We turned around and headed back.
But we don't care!
We found our way back to the main forest roadway and headed for the Ohio River. I parked on top of the levee at Golconda:
Ohio River
The road to the ferry across the river is called the Ohio River Scenic Bypass.
Random observation from Randy: "Scenic Bypass. I see nothing especially scenic."
We boarded the ferry to Kentucky. An old man asked us where we were from, and he said, "Oh. I built I-55 in Chicago." Then he told us not to worry, it was going to cool off tomorrow. Thanks for the info.
Taken from the ferry.
The ferry dumped us off at Marion, Kentucky, where we stopped for lunch at the Marion Cafe. It's housed in an old masonic Lodge, built in 1888.
They have home-made pies. Randy and the waitress scoffed at me because I'm not particularly fond of pie. They made me feel shame. Randy enjoyed his Key Lime pie.
After that, another scenic drive through Land Between the Lakes State Park. It is so named because it is about a thousand mile long piece of land between two lakes. I would have taken a picture, but you've seen trees before.
Favorite signs: Hooker's Drive-Thru
Hooker's Men's Store
We arrived in Nashville just in time for first pitch. The Sounds are the Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland A's. As luck would have it, they were playing the Cubs' Triple-A team, the Iowa Cubs. Iowa was winning until the Sounds tied it in the seventh. Then some guy crushed a home run in the bottom of the eighth. They held on for the victory. Here are a few shots of a very cool ballpark, First Tennessee Park:
The video board is a guitar!
From right field.
Javi Baez
This is how close we sat - second row - for free!
Some lady had two extra tickets and she gave them to a couple of campaign workers shilling "Bone for Mayor" at the front gate. She told them to give them to a couple of nice people. The guy told us that and said he would give them to us even though we looked like "a couple of jack-legs." After we stopped laughing, he said there was one stipulation: we had to wear "Bone for Mayor" stickers. We did. For ten minutes. Would you vote for a guy named Bone?
Things we could not hang around for: Collinsville Bird Fair
More Favorite Signs: Brazilian Blowout!
Doom Chapel Road
Favorite Town Name: Cave-In-Rock, IL
Here's where my luck runs out: While parking my car in the lot at our hotel, I hear a clanging, rattling noise. I thought I had run over a piece of metal. Turns out it's coming from my car. Oh hell, you say!
I'll find a mechanic in the morning, I guess.
Although I'm very disappointed to learn that you're not fond of pie, the blog is excellent as always. Maybe the noise coming from your car was just Randy?
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