Dust In The Wind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH2w6Oxx0kQ For those who dealt with the placeholder for the last few days, you now know there was a method to my madness with the music I presented for your listening pleasure, hence the title of the trip report.
Wednesday August 20 My initial plans were to fly out of Boston early Thursday Morning which would force me to crash overnight inside the airport, hence a deal came my way which allowed me to take half a day off work and fly out of Providence Wednesday afternoon.
Arriving at my layover, Midway I was famished since I only had a small protein bar for lunch previously...
Well..what else would I have when there's only time for one meal in Chicago at the airport?
IMG_4768 by
ohso37, on Flickr
A fully loaded Chicago Style char dog at
Gold Coast Dogs of course.
When I left Providence it was a beautiful, dry sunny 80 degree day which considering how this summer has gone, that was actually one of our warmer days...
However when I arrived in Wichita the temps had just fallen to about 95 degrees....It was
HOT and HUMIDAnyway arriving just before 6pm CDT I had to get my rental, have dinner and then make it to the 7:05 ballgame.
I managed to grab my rental in a hurry, and I mean in a hurry, I didn't even realize that they downsized me from a compact to an economy car- a chevy spark! It actually made my old Tercel look huge...
My first stop was actually one of the weaker meals of the trip, but it was close to the ballpark and I needed to get something to eat in a jiffy..
IMG_4772 by
ohso37, on Flickr
The Nu Way Sandwich Shop was just about a mile from the ballpark....
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ohso37, on Flickr
I started out with a frosty mug of
IMG_4777 by
ohso37, on Flickr
Diet Doctor Pepper....Sorry to disappoint everyone but that is not their homemade root beer- the mug looks pretty cool though..
I also had their famous crumbly burger ( a large) which is very similar to the Iowa loose meats sandwich..
IMG_4783 by
ohso37, on Flickr
The meal comes with fries or onion rings, but I asked if I could substitute garlic salad instead.
IMG_4778 by
ohso37, on Flickr
Memories of that Garlic Salad from 4 years ago came back to me....It was overly pungent......I honestly don't remember the garlic salad at
Doc's Steakhouse being that overpowering. Unfortunately, I would not get to
Doc's on this trip.
After dinner, I had plenty of time to get to Lawrence Dumont Stadium
IMG_4787 by
ohso37, on Flickr
Home of the unaffiliated independent Wichita Wingnuts and former home of the Double A Wichita Wranglers.... The Wingnuts were hosting the Lincoln Salt Dogs that evening , and I assume they're from Lincoln Nebraska...
IMG_4793 by
ohso37, on Flickr
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ohso37, on Flickr
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ohso37, on Flickr
This is a classic old school ballpark built in the 1930's.... It's such a nice ballpark perfect for double a baseball. It's a shame that Wichita no longer has affiliated baseball
The only negative about the ballpark- Astroturf! Who really still uses that?
IMG_4823 by
ohso37, on Flickr
There is even a nice old fashioned scoreboard
What's interesting about this scoreboard is for every inning that the opposing team doesn't score, there's a mechanical goose who drops a goose egg
IMG_4836 by
ohso37, on Flickr
Lawrence Dumont Stadium offers nice views of downtown Wichita in the foreground
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ohso37, on Flickr
Anyway.....on to the game...
IMG_4808 by
ohso37, on Flickr
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ohso37, on Flickr
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ohso37, on Flickr
It was embarrassingly dismal... I've never seen such bad pitching....Anywhere......
At least I had a local beer to enjoy which did ease the pain...
IMG_4788 by
ohso37, on Flickr
And it was indeed a very regionally appropriate beer... A refreshing
WHEAT beer by
TALLGRASS brewing..
I did get some decent close up shots... but believe me it looks better than it actually was...
IMG_4815 by
ohso37, on Flickr
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ohso37, on Flickr
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ohso37, on Flickr
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ohso37, on Flickr
Probably the only thing that kept me there as long as I stayed was the mascot
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ohso37, on Flickr
Considering the one hour time change and the fact that I got up early so I could get out of work early made me give up after 2 1/2 hours barely out of the 5th inning with a score of 12-11 and the Wingnuts winning...I drove the short distance to my hotel which was just under a mile away
I eventually found out that the game lasted nearly 4 hours and the final score was 20- 12 Wingnuts..
Much more to come....
post edited by wanderingjew - 2014/08/29 07:56:10