The Road: Lessons Learned

I have completed my first road trip of the summer - the West coast. My trip consisted of 6 major league ballparks (Chase Field, Dodger Stadium, AT&T Park, the Oakland Coliseum, Angels Stadium, and Petco Park) 4 flights (Grand Rapids to Phoenix, Los Angeles to San Jose and back, and Los Angeles to Detroit, and one super long Greyhound bus ride (Phoenix to Los Angeles). It was also a blast to see relatives and friends, experience the different MLB ballparks, and tour some of America's finest cities. Overall it was a great trip with no real problems. Still there were some lessons learned that could only be obtained through experienced.

Lesson #1 - Talk to the Local Fans
Initiating conversations with total strangers is not something that comes completely natural to me. That being said, I found myself in conversation with fellow fans at about half of the ballparks I attended. Only in one of those ballparks did I ask about the specialty food item at the stadium (AT&T Park), and that was after I had already bought a regular hotdog. The local fans I talked to were nice to me and would have been glad to share some insight on their hometown park. I don't think anyone would take offense to "Hey, I am from out of town. What is the best thing to eat at this ballpark?"

Lesson #2 - Absorb the City Culture
I think I did a pretty good job at making an event out of each ball game. Most of the times I have done something before or after games which is unique to the area. It would have been pretty easy to go into a city for a game and head back on the road as soon as the game is finished. Unfortunately, I may have to this for some of my upcoming East coast read trip. Somethings I have learned from my West coast trip are: the better (and cheaper) food may be outside the stadium, the nicer stadiums incorporate aspects of the region into the themes of the park, and the city can offer some excitement if the game is boring (I can't believe I just wrote that).

Lesson #3 - Learn How to Upgrade Seats
Very few times did I sit the entire game in sections where my seat was assigned. I have learned there are two main ways of moving to better seats. The first is to show up for batting practice and stay in your seat until the game is well underway (i.e. 5th inning or so). Ushers will let you sit close to the field to catch home run balls and expect people to move to their actual seats when batting practice has completed. This method will not work however if the game is crowded. If a person has a ticket for the seat you are in, you have to move to either another seat in the same section or your actual paid seat. The second method is to get food after the game is well underway and move down. In my experience, ushers do not check tickets after the 3rd inning.

Lesson #4 - Know What To Collect
I decided to start collecting souvenir cups once I visited Dodger Stadium. This means that I am missing cups from Chase Field and Turner Field. At both of these ballparks I got a free weekly pamphlet that had roster information for both teams and a couple of fan interest stories. I thought this would be a great item to collect at each ballpark because it is free and tells me what series I attended. Unfortunately, not all stadiums give you these pamphlets. Being somewhat OCD on things, it would have been nice to collect the same items from every park. Possible items to collect at each ballpark could be baseball hats (although you could get them at a local mall), souvenir cups (serves a dual purpose), or picture at each stadium (free but not really a collectible).

Lesson #5 - Take Time to Plan Each Trip
I really wanted to take a ferry to Alcatraz while in San Francisco. Despite online websites warning me that the tours fill up well in advance, I thought I would just wing it. True to form every ticket for Alcatraz the only day I could go was completely sold out. I learned that if you want to do something, don't be afraid to plan it in advanced. There is nothing worse than sitting around in an interesting city with nothing to do because you failed to make a plan in advance.

Lesson #6 - Take Care of Yourself Physically
I found it was very easy to let myself fall into unhealthy habits on the road. Attending baseball games every night meant that I was eating a lot of processed food and not a lot of fruits and vegetables. Traveling also meant that I didn't have the time or facilities to work out. I tried to stay active by walking from place to place when I could and going on a few hikes. Lastly I learned that sunscreen is your ally. I didn't put sunscreen on early in my trip and ended up with a nice farmer's tan. I then went to the beach, attempting to even out my tan, and ended up getting sun burnt.