Road Trip; Lake County

Before we begin, this trip was taken before the Carolina run.
For some reason, this post never was posted through either Blogger's mistake or my own error.

The traveling roadshow rolled through Ohio as Fred Landucci visited Lake County on a Friday and Saturday that saw the Captains host two teams and as usual Cleveland Sports History night.

Friday was the first day for Fred Landucci and I as we went straight to Eastlake for the Captains night game against the Cedar Rapids Kernels, the low A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.
Straight to Eastlake didn't mean straight to Classic Park though, as Fred and I enjoyed Pickle Bill's before the game for Walleye and Perch.
I've been there a few times before as I've written, but Fred seemed to really love the place.
I love seafood and don't eat it as much as I'd prefer, so this is always a great stop for me.

Keep in mind that this was the weekend that set all sorts of heat index records all over the country and even though we were near Lake Erie and farther north than in Maryland, it was oppressively hot!
Fred looked like someone threw a bucket of water on him after about 20 minutes and even though I had the Cedar Rapids team set and the two Kernels from the Midwest League prospect set, none of them were going to make or break the day.
I got as many Kernels and Captains ( Captain Kernel?) as I could, collected my Skipper (mascot) Moon Landing bobblehead, took a visibly drained Fred Landucci and trucked on down the road to Ashland, where we were staying for the two days.

Ashland, besides being the only other place I've lived other than Maryland, has another advantage for trips for baseball- Centrally located.
It didn't play into this trip, but Mike Oravec and I have talked about a three-day trip that could include any of these within 90 minutes of Ashland: Mahoning Valley (short season), Lake County (low A). Akron (AA) and Columbus (AAA) and if you want to stretch a bit, you could add Dayton or Toledo as well.
It's the same plan that sees us stay in Asheville, yet only see one game there- it's not especially far to any one place and keeps many places in play to see.

After checking into the hotel and Fred wanted one of my bragged about Donna D's pizzas before the end of the day, we still had the next afternoon to kill before Lake County's game with the Peoria Chiefs (Cardinals).
That was easy enough as I took Fred around town a bit and then met my Aunt Becky and Uncle Terry for lunch along with my cousin Missy at my honorary Aunt Gayle's place of business, the Ashland Elks.
I always love seeing all of them and Fred enjoyed meeting my family as well, especially when I got out of the back seat and introducing Fred as "My Driver"!
Terry picked up the tab as he did last year when Derreck came out with me.
One of these days, I'll beat him to this!
A great time with a big sweep of all of my favorites (aunt, uncle, cousin and unofficial aunt) all in one place!
After lunch, I took Fred to the Ashland University bookstore, where Fred bought a hat and shirt and I bought Cherie and Rachel AU shirts and took a few pictures of the Big Eagle ( he has a name, but I can't remember it now) before moving to Lake County.

The heat was even more brutal on Saturday than it had been on Friday and the heat index had to be close to 110 degrees for the Peoria Chiefs.
I had cards for them, but again, I wasn't going to go nuts, if I didn't get anyone in particular- especially in this heat!
I decided to make sure Fred stayed healthy and gave Fred my stuff for the Cleveland Sports Night guests.
The guests were under the shaded concourse and I thought that the shade would help Fred stay in good shape.
That decision worked out well as Fred stayed as about as cool as you could be in the situation and Fred nabbed all of my stuff, most notable former Brown Josh Cribbs on an 8 x 10, former Iowa and Kansas City Chief quarterback Ricky Stanzi on a card and the biggest get- Ted Ginn Jr on a 16 x 20 picture and an Ohio State helmet.
Ginn was a late replacement for former Ohio State (and Cardinals) running back Beanie Wells. who had a tragedy in his family a few days before the game as his brother was murdered.
Very gracious of Ginn to replace Wells on short notice under the circumstances and good work by the Captains to add a top-notch
substitute at the very last minute.

The one thing that I made a mistake on was this- I knew the gates opened at 4:45 and assumed the game started at six.
I was wrong because the game started at seven and the weather was draining me fast.
I did manage to nab some Chiefs, but I was tiring and sweat was pouring off my face in a torrent.
Finally, with the players trying to stay in the cool clubhouse for as long as possible (and who could blame them for that?) and considering everything, I decided to throw in the towel (Had I possessed a real towel, I wouldn't have tossed it, I would have put it on my head) and decided to make the prudent choice- leave and graph another day.
I hated to do it, yet I had more than enough.

The final day, Fred wanted to see Columbus and we went home using a different route.
Fred wanted to see the Ohio State reformatory in Mansfield, known for its distinctive look and as the site of filming for the film The Shawshank Redemption.
Derreck and I had taken the tour last year and I know with Fred's mobility issues that the tour was not going to be easy for him, so we just walked around the outside for pictures and Fred bought some Shawshank items at the gift shop before we left.
In Columbus, we hit some Buckeye stores, where we each bought gifts for family and ourselves, I snapped some pictures of Ohio Stadium (they weren't great because of the angle) and the old Buckeye basketball home St.John Arena (these were really good and I even used one for my basketball game as St.John Arena) before heading home.

This was another great weekend and even though the weather could have been cooler for sure, it was still fun showing Fred some of the places that I've told him so much about.

Editor's Note: As noted, this was written almost a month ago, so my apologies for taking so long.
I still have posts to go up and if I have time a Buckeye preview before Saturday, so the remainder of the southern trip with stops in Tennessee, Hickory and then the ride home will be posted in the future.