Spring Training 2015 part 4

Sunday March 21- Saturday March 28 (Days 421-427)


The time is rapidly going by. Days of morning exercise/coffee/breakfast rituals are followed by stopping at a store on the way to a game. Going to the game, and then dinner with cards afterwards  make for full days. The highlight this week was a dinner and play at the Broadway Theater that was putting on Les Miserables. All in all, a great week!

 One of several steak dinners we shared. This one with a super salad and mixed veggies.

 Harris and Rick discovered Catch Fire which was great with lots of ice on a hot post-game afternoon.

 Harris introduced Rick to a Thomas camping favorite...Beans, hamburger, and chips!

 Harris and Rick shared the table with a local couple who raved about the food at the Broadway Theater. They were correct. The steak and salmon were terrific and the Les Miserables production was fantastic.

 Our lunch spot across the street from Surprise Stadium. The pickle ball courts are just across the way.

This life sure is tiring...

Spring Training 2015 part 3

Sunday March 15- Saturday March 21 (Days 414-420)

 

While Harris was awaiting the arrival of his Montana baseball buddy, Rick, he met some great Washington folks camped next to him. Ron and Becky Pike live just south of the Canadian border and were on their return leg from the Florida Keys. Stories were swapped and Harris showed them the ins and outs of watching Mariner baseball. He also introduced them to Total Wine in Phoenix and the benefit of returning to Washington with spirits purchased in Phoenix. They took orders from their kids and left Total Wine with a full shopping cart and a very satisfied store manager. While waiting Harris tasted a Cinnamon whiskey that he figured Rick would enjoy while playing cards and a Cavanaugh Irish crème that he could share with Judy. Forty bucks later he was out the door.

On one of the days before a baseball game, Harris decided to geocache a few miles west of Camelback Stadium. On his third cache he met an Arizonian geocacher named Joe Hike who has over 12500 caches. As Harris tagged along he was amazed at how quickly Joe spotted or figured out cache locations. Before they parted they teamed up on 21 caches, the most Harris has found in two hours of geocaching.

Rick arrived on Wednesday with a thunderstorm in tow. Neither slept well as the rain pounded their vehicles waking them every few hours. The following day they took in a double header as the rains stopped just an hour before game time. The preselected game was sold out when they arrived at Camelback so they drove on to Surprise to watch K.C. and later caught the Mariners evening game at Peoria. The rest of the week was spent attending a game a day and playing cards at night. They continue to seek the perfect 83 degree day.

 Ron and Becky Pike

While finishing the bottle of Horchata on an employee recommendation (which was very good),

 meeting up in WA was discussed after it was discovered that both wives are quilters.

 Joe, the 12,500+ cacher

 Our salad on many nights

 Shortly after the rain stopped and the first game of the double header day

Chicken fettuccine alfredo before the night game at Rio Vista Park

On Friday before the Mariners vs Texas game, Rick introduced Harris to Pickle Ball at the fantastic community park across the street from Surprise stadium. After a training session with Coach Rick, Harris was able to return the ball consistently 3 out 5 tries inside the court.

Spring Training 2015 part 2

 Sunday March 1- Saturday March 14 (Days 406-413)


 Harris has settled into his Spring Training routine (it didn't take long). The rain has disappeared and most days were a perfect 83 degrees. He has Margaritaville on his XM radio playing in the background while doing the "chores" in preparation for heading off to geocache or the game. The week was punctuated with checking in with Judy and granddaughter River about weather conditions in the Great Northwest. Below follows some snaps of the week and relevant comments.
  

 Peoria, ground zero for most of the week.

 He couldn't find the cache hidden at Arrowhead Lakes subdivision, but it was a picturesque place to hide one.

 Down this road south of Goodyear Stadium were 11 caches placed about 1/4 mile apart that Harris found . The bike came in very handy.

Harris hates "Arizona caches" where a small cache is  hidden "in the rocks". He didn't find this one!

 Harris ran into a couple of birders at this cache who told him this was a stopping place for many varieties while migrating.

 This cache was on a 2 mile hike in Thunderbird Conservation Area close to the RV park.

Harris couldn't believe the hoopla surrounding Will Ferrel's appearance at the Oakland A's vs Mariners Thursday game in Tempe, AZ. Will played A's shortstop and M's second base. He saw no action at either position but made his presence felt as the game was slightly delayed while he changed jerseys. He came out of the Mariner dugout with his shirttail hanging out and one shoe untied. The crowd loved it! 

On another sports front, Harris has been kept abreast of all breaking news concerning the Montana boys tournament via the Lubansky newsfeed headquarted in Belgrade. Harris awaits Rick's appearance this week even more than Ferrell fans awaited Will's.

Spring Training 2015 part 1

 Sunday March 1- Saturday March 7 (Days 399-405)

Another spring means another Spring Training trip! Harris has been busy preparing Howie (the last 11 months if you ask Judy)  for the trip. And this year marks Howie's 10th birthday, 7 of which were with Harris and Judy. Howie has 110,000+ miles and it seemed time to install a second set of new tires. Since the last set of General Grabbers HTS went 55,000+ miles and still had tread left, Harris did his usual price negotiation to get his best deal on another set.

As has become a ritual, Harris left early on Sunday morning (4AM) to beat Seattle traffic and to get into California by nightfall. He briefly considered going via Boise because there wasn't snow on the ground just to change things up, but night temps in the 20's quickly convinced him that the “same old drive” down the warm throat of California (night temps in the 50's) wasn't bad at all. Diesel prices were climbing compared to a few weeks ago, especially in California, but were still much cheaper than years past( 2.59 in Portland/2.99 at Costco in Bakersfield/2.49 in Phoenix)

 A fellow sprinter  at a rest stop

To not be totally a creature of habit, Harris went via a different route from Bakersfield to bypass the whole Los Angeles mess.

The Route:

I-5 down to Bakersfield,

hwy58 to Barstow

then I40 to Needles.

Hwy 95 and then Hwy 62 which was hilly and very scenic down to Parker.

Hwy 60 to Wickenburg and then to I-17 and south to North Phoenix RV

 New neighbor provided dinner the 1st night at the RV campground

Harris stopped at a rest stop just a few miles north of Patterson, CA for 6 hour sleep.  Before leaving Seattle, Harris showed Judy how to track his movements on the “Find Friends”  app so he didn't try to leave too early the next day. The worst weather he encountered was just before arriving in Phoenix. Torrential rains and lightning added excitement as well as keeping him awake from Wickenburg to I-17. Luckily there was little traffic along that route.

Unlike previous years where Harris was in shorts before nightfall in central California, he didn't don them until Wednesday for the first baseball game. Also unlike previous years the RV park was almost completely full. Luckily he found one spot that has a tree for shade being held for someone arriving later and since Harris has been coming for several years the manager swapped the spots so he could keep the tree!

Harris had one day to relax before baseball began which was fortunate because Howie had several problems. The fridge wasn't working when plugged into shore power before the trip. After using google to troubleshoot he found that the fridge AC heating element was bad. He did find out that the fridge worked just fine on propane. Since no one had the element in stock at a reasonable price he had  it shipped to the RV campground from an online source. The other problem was that Howie's sliding door handle wasn't working resulting in him having to enter the van via the front seat. More troubleshooting online while camped at the site showed him how to dismantle the handle and rehook the lever to open the door. The handle is now working (knock on wood). The third problem occurred when plugging into the pedestal at the RV site (the one with the nice tree!). It worked fine the night before, but when plugging in the following morning there was no power. Harris wasn't sure which wire was the ground, neutral, and hot on the cable so he took Howie to an RV dealer just down the road and a very nice guy helped him troubleshoot it. Nothing wrong with the cable and Howie got power from the RV dealer just fine. Therefore there was a problem with the site power. Long story shortened...Harris figured out the 50 amp plug in worked fine while the 30 amp didn't. Problem solved! Hopefully Howie will be fine for the rest of the trip.

He is making short work of getting into his baseball groove/ritual. So far the Mariners are 2 for 3. The highlight was meeting up with Judy's brother and sister-in-law for the second Spring Training game. The game had it all...30+hits, good defense...shouting...errors...extra inning...and a walk off single for the win! A great start to another Spring Training.

 The first game!

 Ralph and Charlotte cheering the Mariners

 Ducks snacking on morsels coming at them down the canal

 A great geocaching bike route