Road Trip:Burlington

Day three moved us on to Burlington, North Carolina for a visit that would move Burlington Athletic Park from the "been to" list onto the game list for the Burlington Royals and the visiting Danville Braves.

But that comes later, we begin in Johnson City as we planned to lunch in town before hitting the road.
Once again, Trip Advisor allowed me to check some stops out, send Fred a list of a few options, and have Fred pick where to go for lunch.
This once again would prove very fruitful when Fred listened to me and later not so much when he didn't!
Just kidding, Fred, but seriously Cootie Brown's was tremendous!!

I had seen a Cootie Brown's from our road trip to Bristol, so I was familiar with the name, if not the menu.
I ordered a Reuben (on Wheat, not the listed Pumpernickel) and added some extra meat.
I almost never do this, but it's a road trip, one does things like this!

I added a side of their "famous" homemade potato chips, which were OK, but nothing tremendously special, but our server Andee (yes, I asked about the spelling) told us all about the Key Lime Pie being famous.
Now, after the potato chips, I did wonder a little, but the Reuben was great, so I was open, especially when Andee talked about her baseball fandom and she knew her stuff.
I'm not always a massive dessert person, but the picture did look good and I usually like to try what a place is famous for, so when Fred accepted my offer to split a piece, I was all in.
Well, in a word-Wow!
First of all, that piece IS a half piece, so the serving is large and the taste has to be tasted to be believed!
If you ever are in either Bristol or Johnson City, you owe it to yourself to try Key Lime Pie at Cootie Brown's and ask for Andee-especially if you are a baseball fan!

I wish I could say the drive to Burlington was enjoyable.
I wish, but I can't mainly because the GPS kicked us far off the beaten path that we were driving through forests (although we did see a really cool lake) and a pouring thunderstorm during much of the drive. 

Instead of going on highways, we were going through places like Boone, North Carolina.
If you ever truly want to know just how much of an upset Appalachian State over Michigan was-drive through Boone!
It was far too long of a trip, but it was a good chance to talk to Fred (although I fell asleep) with a trip through Wilkesboro, where North Wilkesboro Speedway, the former home of two NASCAR races, we saw the track and the still existing, but badly faded Winston Cup sign from the interstate and had I thought about it, I might have asked Fred to stop and look around, but this trip and Wilkesboro brought the quote of the trip.
Entering Wilkesboro's limits, the sign greeting us said "Wilkesboro-Where the Mountains begin".
Me: "where the mountains begin? Then where the hell were we for the last two hours? the beach?"

We finally arrived in Burlington after riding by our hotel by accident and deciding to take advantage by checking in, so we were treated to seeing a parking accident right in front of us.
Considering there were so few cars in the lot, the offending party should have felt like an idiot for even considering squeezing in beside another car.
I wrote before about my trip with Mike to Burlington to see the park, but this was my first trip for a game there.
Burlington's Royals come from a clubhouse area so they have to walk through the crowd to reach the field.

I got most of a team set finished and was the only one graphing the Royals.

On the other side, Fred was trying to get some Kevin Maitan's for my friends since I had failed so badly on Maitan in Bristol.
Alas, Maitan was still just one per and the lucky winner was Mike Oravec of Maitan's lovely "KM".
We watched some of the game and watch Maitan make two errors at shortstop (considering he's 17 when I look at his build if he makes it'll be as a third baseman) and hit off for dinner.
This time, we went with Fred's recommendation at the Village Grill.
Our server was nice, but the food was slow and pedestrian for the price, although I did enjoy the "Chesapeake Slaw", which was quite good.

Back to the hotel, where I did have a television with something called "Spectrum".
Spectrum offered on demand for free and did something that cable/satellite companies never do and I've screamed about for a long time-they put their channels in alphabetical order!
Easy to find, easy to flip through-makes so much sense, and next to no one does it that way...

I'll be back soon with the final day of my trip with Fred which features lots of driving, a thicket with Lizards, Jack Morris, and the Charlotte Knights...

Road Trip:Bristol

The road trip season continued as we rolled into Bristol Tennessee/Virginia and later Salem Virginia.
I'm going to write about both stops,but with other things to write about (death of Glen Campbell and tonight's Indians trade for Jay Bruce) might delay the Salem part or maybe shorten it a bit...

Fred Landucci drove Mike Oravec and I straight down I-81 to Bristol VA/TN for the visit to Boyce Cox Field and the Bristol Pirates of the Appalachian League.

I had visited Bristol on three occasions and had been inside to take pictures,but never for a game.
This trip would not only move Bristol to the game list,but would complete my ballpark list for the state of Virginia.
Bristol is a town that really is two towns that is one and I know how that sounds.
Bristol is divided right down the middle of town (remember the Geico commercials?) with half in Tennessee and the other in Virginia.
Boyce Cox Field is on the Virginia side and therefore finished Virginia for me rather than being another park in Tennessee.

We got into town early with the intent of returning to the Mad Greek restaurant,which is located on the Tennessee side of the line.
You might remember our Mad Greek stop last year and this was easily the place we wanted to eat in Bristol.
I ordered a small pizza and it was delicious!
I even passed on any sides in order to keep room for a small piece of cheesecake.
I'm not a huge dessert fan normally,but I do like cheesecake every once in a while and the dessert case looked very good.
I'm a big Mad Greek fan and if you are in the area-stop by,you won't regret it!!

We then decided to check out the Bristol Motor Speedway since it was so close.
Bristol was my favorite track to watch a race when I was a follower of NASCAR and I had wanted to see just what it looked like inside.
I was just amazed at the massive size of the structure built around the half mile track!
Words really cannot describe it and that is with the track virtually empty!
I can only imagine the noise when the track is filled with fans!
It still had the lines painted on the field for the setup for last season's game inside the BMS between Tennessee and Virginia Tech on the infield too!
I do have a live NASCAR race on my sports bucket list,but I'd rather do the smaller two circuits with less fans and fewer people though if I was ever going to go to one.
Bristol does have a truck race next Wednesday and I'm off work,but I'd rather add Charlotte to my collection of parks to finish North Carolina off...

After a stop at the Sullivan County Sheriff Department for a picture for Fred's wife Linda (the Sheriff dept,was the backdrop from a reality show that the Landucci's watched) and a stop at a Food City for some Yee Haw beer for the absent Michael and we were on our way to Boyce Cox Field for the Bristol Pirates and the Danville Braves.

I didn't have many cards for Danville,mainly a top 100 for 17 year old Venezuelan Kevin Maitan,who had just been promoted to Danville a few days after Mike and I's visit to Danville last month.
I had a few cards from other people for Maitan and other than a few cards for former Tiger and Danville batting coach Barbaro Garbey,I had nothing for them.
I did the visiting side while Mike did the home Pirates side,which seemed to have a little better access than for the visitors.
We were allowed to enter the park early by the Bristol general manager,who hit it off with Fred last season,so I was at the only place that had marginal access,a small area far down the left field line.
After several attempts to call to Maitan were ignored,I was feeling pretty down as it was right around this time (I was able to find wifi from somewhere in the area) that I heard about Glen Campbell,combined with my lack of luck with the pen-I was feeling pretty low.

Then a fellow came over and began to talk to me.
He seemed like a nice guy,who happened to be dressed as a Pirate,but turned out to be their mascot "Pete the Pirate"
"Pete" (real name Dwayne) talked with me for a few minutes about baseball,graphing et and made me take my mind off things.
Pete asked me who I needed,I told him the number and to my surprise,Pete walked down to the field and asked Maitan to sign my top 100 (and a baseball for the recently arrived Fred)!
I watched from a distance as Maitan signed it and made the Bristol portion of the day a success!
Thanks for everything,Pete and I will remember your kindness and help!
After I snapped a picture of Pete and Fred for the blog,I went over to the Pirates side,where Mike had gotten a few players and Pirates pitching coach (and former closer) Joel Hanrahan as well..
We watched a bit and before leaving town for Salem,we had a quick dinner across the street from the ballpark at Krystal,where I was able to have a great Grape Icee....

We were off to Salem and part two of the day will be coming soon.
I'm just not sure what I want to write about next,but I'll have a post coming tomorrow on either Salem or Glen Campbell and I'll have a post on the Indians addition of Jay Bruce from the Mets....