We completed our long, not quite direct route back to Florida last Friday. If you're a couple of blogs behind, check out the two previous ones to get up to speed. When we woke up in Hill City, South Dakota that morning it was an unseasonably cold 7 degrees (not a misprint). It snowed fairly heavily on us the first hour or so of our drive from Hill City to Denver. Thankfully the roads were in great shape so there were no issues and we could relax and enjoy the snowy scenery along the drive. As we made our way south towards Denver it did warm up gradually and it was actually hovering around the freezing mark when we arrived in the mile high city.
We cleaned the inside and the outside of the Silver Bullet and left her in the capable (hopefully) hands of a Denver hotel that participates in the Park, Sleep and Fly program. In our case the order was changed a little bit. We parked the car, flew back to Florida and will spend the night at the hotel on November 21 when we fly back to Denver. If you're going to be parking a car at an airport for an extended period of time you might want to check out this program. It can potentially be much less expensive than traditional airport parking.
Arriving back in Florida was somewhat of a shock to our systems. In the matter of a little over a three hour flight we were transported from being in unseasonably cold temperatures to unseasonably warm temperatures. The highs in Florida since our return have been in the mid to upper 80's with high humidity, giving it a "feels like" temperature in the 90's. A bit too warm for our liking, hopefully cooler weather will move in soon.
A couple of weeks back Ben called and said he had a serious question for me. I wasn't sure where the conversation was going but of course I said "what is it"? He proceeded to ask "if the Ray's make it to the World Series and there's a game 6 do you want to go"? If you're not a sports fan, the Rays are the Tampa Bay Rays. The World Series is the culmination of the seasons playoffs. A team has to win 4 out of a possible 7 games to be "champions". So there were a few things that had to happen for this to become a reality, but no way was I turning down such a great offer from my favorite son. Everything fell in line and we met in Texas (where the World Series was held in this pandemic year) for a little postseason baseball.
The setting was different than in "typical years", I'm pretty sure we're all in agreement this isn't a "typical year". All games were played at a neutral site, in this case at the Texas Rangers new ballpark in Arlington, Texas. The seating capacity was reduced to approximately 25% of the stadiums capacity. Masks were required and there were more hand sanitizer stations than souvenir stands inside the stadium. It was a different experience and even though the Rays lost, it was an enjoyable experience that I'm so thankful Ben and I were able to share. In years to come we can talk about the agonizing loss as well as the unique experience of attending the World Series during 2020, the year of the pandemic!
A batting practice gift from Brett Phillips, the Rays hero from game 4.
Now, about that agonizing loss. This was the third World Series game that I have attended during my time on the planet. I went to a game between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals in two different seasons. One of the those games was with Beth and the other was with some work colleagues. We were living in Texas at the time and went to quite a few Rangers games every year so naturally I was cheering for them. I've always liked the Rays (Ben's a huge Rays fan) and we go to their games frequently, so of course I was cheering for them this year. That makes three World Series games and in each case the team I was cheering for lost! Maybe in the future if the team I am cheering for makes the World Series and I have a chance to go, in the interest of them having a fighting chance to win I should just stay home. Three strikes you're out...........nah, it's too much fun, especially when they can be shared with family. Besides, I didn't serve up any of those three homerun balls Albert Pujols hit against the Rangers. Also, I didn't take Blake Snell out of the game when he was pitching REALLY well!
Not even my "Rally Cap" helped the Rays!
