The Baseball Road Trip

1 Comment Written by Aman on July 16, 2008 – 8:24 pm

Denver? Minneapolis? …Kansas City?!

The drive from Seattle to Denver is an alien landscape. East of Seattle (forever a geographical definition in my mind) is empty and when I say empty I mean desperately needing explanation empty. On our adventure eastward (the first 2500 miles) we saw no less than six exits jutting off of the interstate that are in every way unmarked (perhaps they lead to military silos, maybe they are for repair crews, or maybe they serve as the secret lairs of evil villains), there are houses far off the road that have no reason to be there, and there’s Wyoming.

I want to first tell you of the smaller than metropolitan capitol-cities of America. This includes Boise, Cheyenne, and Omaha as well as the towns in between. The attitude of someone from a major (greater than a million people) metropolitan area when considering having to go to these places is preoccupied dread. One tries to predict what sorts of people might hide away in such cities, and why anyone would have to drive through such a place. Stereotypes of bad-mannered or ultra-religious Americans who give “the rest of us a bad name” are left unsaid, but they refuse to go away. I want to dispel this, because these people are definitely neither bad-mannered nor uneducated, and their cities are worth the drive. Boise, Cheyenne and Omaha each in their own right have a culture radically different in pace and politeness from that of the major cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York) as well as from one another. We did not try spuds in Idaho nor visit the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City. Instead we talked to people along the way whose enthusiasm for our journey kept us going (700+ miles a day) every time we got tired. We were in a shoe store in Idaho (I needed sandals) and two men struck up conversation with us. When Mike informed them of what we are doing, one turned to his friend and said “Let’s quit our jobs, let’s go do that.” That type of passion is what got me through the next thousand miles.

Wyoming is beautiful (as is most of the mid-west). Look at the photos in The Long Road to Colorado. We drove through the state hovering around 8000 ft and I experienced two important things: Wyoming weather signs and 44mph winds. The state of Wyoming informs you that at any time the weather can negatively impact road conditions and that if any signs lights are flashing, you have to return to the nearest town: often more than 30 miles back. Thanks Wyoming! Note: 44mph winds are not enough to make the signs lights flash.

We celebrated the 4th of July in a motel in the American heartland – Omaha, Nebraska –with a six-pack and pizza wandering around watching fireworks all over the city. It was definitely a memorable Independence Day.

On Minneapolis/St. Paul and Kansas City: This was the first time we got to see the Mississippi River up close, but definitely not the last. I believe it is our duty to find a raft or a dock at some point and pay tribute to Mark Twain by sitting on it and fishing, so look out for that. Other than that, it’s a nice-enough city and the fans definitely deserve the ballpark they are getting in a couple years. I got to have an authentic mid-west (northern?) dinner of corn on the cob, burgers, baked beans, and MGD on a farm an hour out of the city. Mike and I both got lit up by mosquitoes, and it was the first city with real humidity. But we still like it. Kansas City was just as unique. Our host showed us a wonderful time with an authentic tour of the city: we drank coffee at an independent coffee house that managed to put a Starbucks nearby out of business, I got some awesome coffee bags, ate Gates BBQ which has a magic barbeque sauce, and fell in love with the HD jumbotron at Kauffman Stadium.

I love the mid-west. More on this next week.