Road Trip: Day Three- Taking Home Vince

    We got up early for what was scheduled to be the busiest day of the trip.

I've written about Jungle Jim's International Market several times here, but it's not a trip to the Cincinnati area without a stop at Jungle Jim's.

I admit that I love taking my travel companions to Jungle Jim's because I enjoy telling them about the store, listening, and watching them think It's just a grocery store, like Wegman's, right?"

And then to see them be amazed when they first walk through and take in what there is to see, I get quite a chuckle out of it.

Fred was just as amazed as everyone else and, as in the past, walked away wanting to show someone else Jungle Jim's someday.

Down the road a bit from the Jungle is the Ohio Valley Antique Mall, where I had some luck in the past, most notably a Cincinnati Royals program for the collection.

I found a 1979 Street and Smith's baseball preview with a J.R.Richard cover and a 1973 program from the Cincinnati Reds, but the big find was near the end of the facility tour.

Inside a glass case rested the trophy above.

In 1971, an award featuring a bronze cast of Vince Lombardi was presented to a former NBA All-Star and basketball Hall of Famer Jack Twyman.

Twyman is the namesake of the NBA's Twyman-Stokes award for best teammate and is named for the two for the care that Twyman provided Stokes after an accident that ended Stokes's career.

Sidebar- I can't believe with all the remakes and reboots in Hollywood, no one has made a film about the Twyman-Stokes saga since the 1973 film "Maurie" starring former NFL star Bernie Casey and Bo Svenson of Walking Tall fame.

The trophy was presented by Mack Trucks CEO, Zenon Hansen, to Twyman and was available for purchase.

I have been unable to find anything further about the trophy (If anyone knows anything further, please contact me!). Although I suspect it came from the family (Jack Twyman passed away in 2012) or perhaps one other owner.

The case's consignor had a note of twenty percent off, which made it still expensive but feasible, and the light bulb went off on where this trophy belonged.

Only one person I know combines the love of Vince Lombardi and basketball history, and I began to try to figure out how to land this big fish.

After I purchased my items, Fred bought his and said goodbye to an employee he had been talking with while I looked around, we drove down the road to eat lunch at Roosters.

While we waited for our food, I called Omaha, explained what it is to Ryan, and sent a few photos.

After hearing the price, even after the discount, Ryan wanted it, but money is always tight around the Christmas season, and he reluctantly had to pass.

Then I asked him this: If I were to provide some of the money as his Christmas gift, would he be interested in obtaining it?

Ryan liked that idea, and after lunch, Fred and I returned to Ohio Valley to see if perhaps a deal could be made.

I walked in and found the guy Fred had talked with to ask if he could call the seller with an offer, as I wanted to try to save Ryan and myself a few dollars.

He said that he couldn't do that, which I found odd.

Usually, at antique malls, the management will call a seller, but only if the item is over a specified number, which I understand because sellers don't want to be bothered by someone wanting to pay 2.50 for a five-dollar item.

So, I countered by asking to see the manager, whom he said was eating lunch.

I thought she would want to be consulted on this, so I asked him if a call could be made.

He wasn't thrilled but asked her, and he came back saying that the call would be made and apologized to me for being incorrect earlier about not being allowed to call.

He then asked for my offer and if I wanted to add anything else, which I did- I wanted him to tell the seller that I was traveling through from Maryland and that there wouldn't be a second chance tomorrow.

That happened to me once on an item, and the seller (who was in the store) said, "Oh, you'll be back tomorrow, you know you want it." So I wanted to be sure that the seller knew that this was the only opportunity.

The offer was accepted, so we saved some money, but I was happier to land a unique item for Ryan and his collection.

It's a good feeling to do something for someone you love and care for.

Fred and I drove to Columbus to spend the night before going home the next day.

When I brought Vince home, Cherie looked at him and, with the weight of the award, thought that he would be residing in our dining room for a long time.

However, Ryan visited in January and took Vince with him.

Vince is now exactly where he belongs- Omaha with Ryan and Archie. 

Road Trip: Day Two

       Day two started with us heading to Springfield, Ohio, and the Springfield Antique Center.

I've had luck there in the past, and I would again this time as I grabbed the pictured Sesame Street clubhouse from 1977 for Archie.

It came with a few figures, but it gives me a project to work on for when he visits.

I found a few programs, most notably a 1971 Ohio State vs Michigan State and an Arkansas vs Navy game from 1982, but the big find was for Archie.

Fred found a silver dollar for his collection, so both of us were pleased leaving Springfield.

We drove to another place in Dayton, Antiques Village, but I didn't make a purchase there.

We grabbed a light lunch at a combined A&W Root Beer/Long John Silvers which was up the street from Antiques Village.

I've always liked LJS, but in recent years, all of the local stores, with one exception (Martinsburg, WV), had been closed, so this was a nice treat.

We then drove to the Cincinnati area for our evening stay at the Fairfield Hampton Inn.

Located next to the former Cincinnati Mills Mall, which was in the midst of demolition during our visit, the Hampton was a little different, as many of the lights weren't functioning!

The front desk person was helpful and gave me some bulbs, but the issue must have been with the lights or wiring, as none of the new bulbs worked either!

I gave Fred the choice of our dinner location and, befitting the name Landucci, Fred chose an Italian chain, "The Old Spaghetti Factory." 

It wasn't very good, and the service was slow.

It was actually so bad that Fred gave me a future "Chip" to cash in on a place that Fred might not select, but I'd like to try!

We returned to the hotel to watch the Browns 31-29 loss to the Tennessee Titans from earlier in the day and rested for the third day, which would see one of the favorite items that I've ever found, and it wouldn't even be mine!

Road Trip: Landucci Hits Ohio

    In December, I was able to do something that I've wanted to do for a while.

I've written about Fred Landucci many times through the years, and in recent times, Fred has had his share of physical issues, but he's always wanted to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and I wanted to be able to deliver that for him.

Fred's always been there for me, and I wanted to do this for him.

Originally, the trip was planned for Mike Oravec to join us, but his mom had been in poor health, and he needed to stay home in case he was required, which is more than understandable.

Fred and I left in the morning with one early stop planned in Steubenville, Ohio, at the Naples Spaghetti House.

Noted as the favorite restaurant of the late Dean Martin, Mike Oravec, and I had stopped there in 2024 and enjoyed it so much that Fred wanted to eat there as well.

However, there was one problem- there were no parking areas near Naples due to a town parade/event!

Fred was disappointed, as was I, but with Fred's limited movement, it would have been just too difficult for him to navigate.

Leaving Steubenville with regrets, we traveled to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

I've been to the Hall many times (and this is my third visit this year!), so I'm not getting too deep into the Hall, other than Fred had a great time, and I was happy to help him see something he has always wanted to see.

We traveled to Ashland to spend the night, and bought a few things from the store, along with me buying some items for someone from work.

We ordered some pizza from Donna D's before watching the Big Ten title game with Ohio State losing a disappointing 13-10 decision to Indiana.

We got up early for a big day on day two, with a gas stop where I was able to buy Fred his Christmas present- an old school football from Ohio State with a neat look of worn leather.

The photo above is a small hint of one of the hits from day two, which I'll write about at a future date!

Road Trip: Wrapping it up

     The final day of the final leg of the road trip season was here and it started at Buc-Ees, the legendary gas station (don't call them a truck stop, no trucks are allowed) directly off I-40.

I'm not sure words can describe the activity all around when you enter a Buc-ees and that's before considering the mass of items, all of which seem to have the face of a very pleased beaver!

I had a list of things to bring home for Cherie, Rachel, and Posey, including their famous beaver nuggets, which are bigger versions with extra sugar of Kellogg's Sugar Corn Pops cereal.

I found all of their requested items but one and I used the rest of the time to check out the available food options since we would be stopping back for lunch.

The next drive was to Knoxville, home of the Tennessee Volunteers, to stop by Bargain Antiques.

Bargain Antiques is yet another former department store that has found new life with antiques.

I found a few things, a Kroger cloth grocery bag for Cherie, who always likes to pick up bags from grocery stores away from home, a small Green Lantern key chain ( from a booth with ninety percent off that cost me only fifty cents), and a Tennessee basketball program.

What I found most interesting was the parking lot which was so slanted that parking at the bottom of the lot must have felt like hiking up a mountain!

We hopped back on I-40 for lunch at Buc-ees, and because we had stopped by twice, we had some ideas about the food offerings.

Buc-ees has an amazing number of different sandwiches among other made-to-order items and I decided to try two different sandwiches in the smaller size.

I ordered a fried chicken sandwich (similar to Chick-fil-A) and a turkey sandwich.

The chicken was very good and the turkey was good but a bit chewy.

Driving home on a sunny day allowed us to take our time and make a few stops along the way with the best stop at Snoopers Antique Mall in Wytheville, Virginia.

I found two items there, two Topps posters from 1970's releases.

In the 60s and early 70s, Topps usually had an insert of some type in each pack of that season's baseball cards and in 1970, it was posters.

The 9x10 posters were printed on very thin paper and needed to be folded into eighths in order to fit the posters into a standard pack of baseball cards.

As a result, there are few in outstanding shape today as even if you haven't touched them since 1970, the materials are still vulnerable, which is the main reason that I never tried to collect the posters (or the other years that Topps used posters as the bonus prize).

However, for the price (four dollars each), and the condition (the seller had them flat and in plastic), I could not resist adding a Hawk Harrelson ( with the Indians and their red wishbone C caps) and Don Mincher (in the Seattle Pilots uniform that would not see the field in 1970) to my collection.

There were a few other shops in the area but I found nothing that I purchased, so the trip was over other than rolling the final miles out for the trip home. 

2024 was a good season for me.

I saw seven new ballparks in Portland, Maine, Worcester Massachusetts, Somerset New Jersey, Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio, Florence Kentucky, and Omaha, Nebraska to raise my total to eighty-nine.

It's starting to become harder to add stadiums with few close enough now for a day trip.

The closest stadium to the north (Non-MLB) is the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (in Manchester) with the exception of Brooklyn and Staten Island as there is no way I'm fighting that type of traffic for a minor league ballpark!

There are preliminary plans to add New Hampshire early next year along with a stop in Boston at Fenway Park, so that would move me to ninety-one but unless a longer trip comes into the picture (unlikely at this writing), New Hampshire and Boston may be the only new additions for 2025.

The closest stadium to the south that I need would be in South Carolina (Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Charleston, or a new stadium opening in Spartanburg for 2025). the nearest to the northwest would be any of the Indiana fields (Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, or South Bend), and the adjacent southwest stadium is even farther away in Memphis!

I've also added quite a few to the visited states list in 2024 with stops in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas for the first time.

However, the states that could be feasible to see for the first time are becoming fewer in number.

I suppose if I ever made the drive to Omaha again and if I wanted to drive somewhat out of the way, I could add Minnesota and/or Wisconsin.

South Dakota is only two hours away from Omaha, so I guess that could happen, and if I ever decided to add a Georgia park (or the new stadium coming to Chattanooga Tennessee), it wouldn't take much to add Alabama but as you can see, the low-hanging fruit has been picked!

It's been a surprisingly good road season with many memories made, and some cannot be repeated.

2025 has a high standard to meet. 

Road Trip: Tennessee

     The final trip of the 2024 baseball season was to Kodak, Tennessee for the last visit to Smokies Stadium. 

The Chicago Cubs AA affiliate will move thirty miles to Knoxville for the 2025 season.

The move will leave Smokies Stadium without a tenant in 2025.

The stadium opened in 2000 after the franchise left Knoxville's Bill Meyer Stadium, allowing East Tennessee to retain Double-A baseball.

Smokies Stadium sits on a hill overlooking the area and interstate and other than a Bass Pro Shop shopping area across the street, the area was known essentially for being the exit to the vacation areas of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge when I made my first visit to the area.

Now it's congested, and the area between the exit and the tourist traps has filled in and it's more like visiting a metropolitan area's traffic than what you would expect in East Tennessee.

It was well, Smoking hot on the day of the game and I was disappointed that I missed my friend Corey White while we were at the game.

Corey left us tickets but we missed communication and I wasn't able to see him, although I thanked him for the tickets via messenger.

We decided to leave after a few innings due to the heat and started hitting the antique mall circuit.

One massive facility was open for the first time on a visit so we stopped by and it was more of a flea market than an antique mall.

No judgment but flea markets rarely produce the type of additions to the collection unless you collect black hair coloring or car air fresheners and while this one didn't find any purchases, I did see someone I knew as I walked by one collectible booth.

Eric Esch, popularly known as "Butterbean" was once known as the "king of the four-rounders" after a career spent in the "Toughman" contests transitioned into a somewhat legitimate boxing career against preliminary boxers before finally fighting a legitimate heavyweight in aging former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes and losing a one-sided fight.

Esch is remembered for his quick icing of WWF Brawl for All victor Bart Gunn in thirty-four seconds at Wrestlemania XV but I didn't see much action from Esch, who recently starred in some videos from former wrestler Diamond Dallas Page covering Esch's attempt to drop weight and improve his mobility.

It was pretty sad seeing Esch have trouble moving around and no one asking him to sign anything, just sadly sitting in a chair.

We ran through a few places where I didn't purchase anything before finding the Green Olde Deal in Sevierville.

I did find a few programs there at very affordable prices,  1964 Baylor at Texas, 1984 N.C.State at Maryland and a 1981 Bluebonnet Bowl program with Arkansas playing Florida.

Dinner was a return to Captain Jim's Seafood House, where I had eaten before with Fred Landucci and Lefty Koch, the last time I visited Tennessee.

I had enjoyed my previous visit but there had been a few recent poor reviews, so even up to pulling into the parking lot, I was wondering about my decision, so as I was getting out of the car, the person parked next to us was leaving, so I asked him what he thought.

He said it was great and would return but if he did, he wouldn't get the crab legs addition as he thought there were plenty of items and for the extra twenty-five bucks, he didn't receive his money's worth.

I followed his recommendation, bought the non-crab legs buffet, and was quite pleased.

It takes a decent amount of time to navigate the Sevierville version of the Las Vegas strip and near our hotel was the famous Buc-ees, the gas station that has to be seen to be believed..

I mainly wanted the lay of the land of Buc-ees (like I could eat anything after Captain Jim's) for the next day when we would eat lunch there and purchase requested swag for the girls.

After returning to our hotel, next to the stadium and one that hosted the Smokies opponents, who could walk to work each day, I watched the Newcastle-Bournemouth match on replay from Peacock, and drifted off to sleep or what passes for it in my world.

On the next installment, time to wrap it up with Buc-ees, Knoxville, and a nice find in Virginia on the way home! 

Road Trip: Florence

   The final day of the trip involved more antique stops for the collection, a stop for dinner, and another park checked off the ballpark passport. 

We started the day with a trip that hadn't been planned originally.

I had thought since we had until the 6 PM start for the baseball game, that it might be interesting to travel to Indiana or Kentucky to the nearest large antique mall and see what they had to offer.

Those two states were intriguing as I was hoping to find some ABA items as both states had teams in the league as well as looking for the usual that I look for.

The decision was Indiana and Exit 76 Antique Mall in Edinburgh, Indiana and I'm glad we had extra time because the GPS took us through about every farm road in the state, which meant we spent about an hour more than we would have needed to arrive via the highway!

This was another excellent Antique Mall and I found a few things that I was looking for - including one that was placed back for a Christmas present (I reserve the right to edit this in a few months to insert the item)!

I did find several programs with the jewel being a 1975-76 Indiana Pacers media guide from the team's final ABA season!

I liked the price even better at three dollars and I added two 1993 NCAA regional programs, several Pacers programs from the eighties, and a 1985 Indiana State vs Evansville basketball program all at fifteen dollars for the bunch.

There was one other thing that I saw early in our visit and was considering purchasing but I forgot about it and I wish I wouldn't have!

I did buy one other item as there were two drinking glasses from Shakey's Pizza with characachers of Richard Nixon (red) and George McGovern (blue) from the 1972 presidential election.

I was tempted to buy both but the Nixon didn't even remotely resemble him, so I only purchased the McGovern glass.

After leaving Exit 76, we stopped in Columbus, Indiana, just outside the state capital of Bloomington and the home of the University of Indiana.

The lunch choice was Jaggers, a regional fast-food chain.

I ordered a burger with egg and ham (I can't remember the name on the menu) with fries and the young lady behind the counter started raving about their chicken, which she claimed was "better than Chick-fil-A", so I ordered it as well.

Well, she was wrong as they were overcooked and scrawny to boot.

It was too bad because the burger was pretty damn good.

By the time we arrived in Florence, Kentucky, we had an hour to kill so I ran into a Target looking for a Cincinnati Reds T-shirt for Cherie.

They didn't have a wide selection, so I would stop and find her one at a Walmart after the game before we left town.

The Florence Ya'lls are a team in the independent Frontier League and are named after the city water tower.

The story goes that the tower had the local mall's name on it but the city changed it to Ya'll due to legal concerns.

The Ya'lls open their ballpark very early, so we were able to go inside and check out the team shop (no baseballs for sale, which was the second time this season that a team shop didn't sell baseballs) for a bit before the players come out to the field.

Thomas More Stadium was in nice condition but nothing stood out as particularly unusual and it seemed pretty typical of a stadium built in its time (2004) with one exception.

Florence, Kentucky is located on the opposite side of the Ohio River and is the location of the Cincinnati area airport, so there is the unusual slice of attending a Ya'lls game as you constantly see (and hear) airplanes taking off and landing.

It's pretty loud and even though it's been years since my concussion, loud noises like that still bother me and while the locals are used to it, it wasn't pleasant for me!

After a quick stop at a nearby Walmart for Cherie's Reds shirt, we headed home with only stops for stretching the legs and bathroom breaks until hitting the homestead.

Florence was the final stadium that I visited for the first time this year, bringing my total to 89.

New Stadiums this year included Worcester, Portland, Somerset, Omaha, Dayton, Cincinnati, Florence, and the new park in Hagerstown.

The trips for next year are unknown as it's becoming more difficult to find parks that are close enough to do in a day.

One trip in the works would add the final minor league stadium on the east coast, New Hampshire, and add it to Fenway Park in Boston.

Once I add New Hampshire, I would have every park from Maine through North Carolina except for two parks in the New York City area (Brooklyn and Staten Island) and I find it unlikely that I go through the hassle of NYC traffic for those two parks.

The nearest stadiums to the south that I would need would be (whichever is closer to these) a new park in Spartanburg, Columbia, Charleston, or Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, while the closest to the west would be one of these Indiana facilities- Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, or South Bend.

I still have one more trip to write about before concluding the summer road trip series and I'll be working on that in the future!

Road Trip: Cincinnati

      Upon waking up for day two, I had a general idea of how the early part of the day would be spent.

The morning portion would be in Fairfield, Ohio.

If that sounds familiar, it should as it was the first stop on the Omaha trip earlier in the summer. 

This meant a return to Jungle Jim's International Market, which entails plenty of food shopping to bring home for myself and others.

I've written plenty about Jungle Jim's in the past and all I can say is- you have to experience it to truly understand just how massive the inventory at Jungle Jims truly is.

We drove up the highway for a stop at the Ohio Valley Antique Mall, which Cherie and I drove by on the Omaha trip but we didn't stop so we could hit Hoosier Gym in Indiana.

Ohio Valley was top-notch and I saw a few things that I considered purchasing but walked away without buying anything- although I have some items in mind for my possible return this year!

We decided to drive back to Florence and our hotel but first, we stopped by a place that I had visited before on a trip with Ryan- the replica of Crosley Field, the home of the Cincinnati Reds until 1970.

The town of Blue Ash constructed a scale replica of the dimensions of Crosley Field including a replica scoreboard, an original ticket booth, and some of the original seats at one of their recreational areas.

I find it interesting that near the Crosley location is a field based on Riverfront Stadium to the dimensions of that former Reds home with artificial turf (or a lookalike) as its surface.

We slowly found our way across the Ohio River to Florence and decided to eat (since we hadn't all day) at a place close to the hotel, so we could rest a bit.

The pick was Ford's Garage, a chain based in six states, and one that I had never heard of before.

The motif is automotive with the wait staff wearing mechanics uniforms, and several cars around the building, and the chain has a licensing agreement with the Ford Motor Company to use their name and iconic logo.

I ordered a cheeseburger and they used a brand to place the restaurant logo onto the bun, which I thought was interesting.

After a short respite at the hotel, we drove back to Cincinnati for my first visit inside Great American Ballpark, the home of the Cincinnati Reds.

Ryan and I had stopped by on the mentioned trip earlier but only to check the outside of the stadium as there wasn't a game that day.

One thing that works against me going to major league games is the long walks to get anywhere near the ballpark.

Between my age and weight that gets harder every year but while the walk was lengthy, I don't think I did too badly and I didn't feel any pain from the walk.

When you walk up to GAP, the statues are all in front of the stadium, with a massive team store on the property but not as part of the stadium.

The stadium looms large in front of you as you walk up making it look even larger than it is!

Because we were only watching a few innings and wanted to get back before dark, we bought cheap seats in the upper deck.

I'm odd about heights, I don't mind once I'm at my destination but I'm uneasy about the climbing portion, I'm always worried about tumbling over, and that has been a concern of mine going back to childhood.

The Reds hosted the St.Louis Cardinals and hit three home runs, two by Spencer Steel, in a 6-1 win.

We didn't stay for the entire game as mentioned but we did see all three homers and all the runs that were scored in the game.

I liked Great American Ballpark, maybe a little better than Cleveland's Progressive Field but not as much as Pittsburgh's PNC Park.

The sight lines were good and I've always liked the right field stands overlooking the Ohio River from television viewing.

After we returned to the hotel and rested for the evening, we prepared for the final day of the trip which will include a stop at the independent Frontier League' Florence Ya'lls.

Road Trip: Dayton

     Now that the Omaha road trip series is finally finished, I can move on to the other two trips of the summer.

The first of these was a three-day two-night trip that added three new stadiums to my ballpark roll call.

The plan was to visit Day Air Ballpark, the home of the Class A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, and then drive to our hotel for both days, located in Florence, Kentucky.

Leaving early in the morning to arrive in Dayton for the game, we stopped in Zanesville, Ohio for lunch at Roosters!

I've written about my love for the chicken chain based mostly in Ohio and Kentucky with one location each in Indiana and West Virginia.

Another great chicken sandwich at arguably my favorite chain in Ohio!

Day Air Ballpark was opened in 2000 and the hometown Dayton Dragons hold the pro sports record for consecutive sellouts at 815 and at over 8,000 person capacity, DAB is closer to a AAA facility than a High A stadium.

They have nice sightlines and big crowds but there are a few issues.

First, parking wasn't easy as we circled the stadium a few times before finding a space, and even that required an illegal turn (please don't tell!) to grab a space.

For all of its beauty, the park is still nearing twenty-five years of age and as with any groundbreaking stadium, they have its flaws because they are among the first to be built.

In Dayton, it's the strong attendance that causes the problems as I thought the concourse was very snug (reminded me of Akron's Canal Park), and when the urban parks have these problems it's very difficult to do anything about the issue because they lack the space to make them wider.

Dayton is a beautiful park to watch a game but all things considered, I wonder if it is worth some of the hassles in going to a game there.

The game was a sellout and after watching a bit, we made the decision to hit a few antique malls in the area, this would allow us to be finished here and concentrate on the Cincinnati area the following day.

Our first stop was in Dayton, with a stop at Antique Village, which is another repurposed former department store in a strip mall.

I always like those stores because it's good for the area to keep a building occupied rather than an unused eyesore but I also like seeing those because it means an expansive area with lots of things to see!

When we entered the store. Antique Village was having a promotion with 25 percent off every item sold in the store, which made me more likely to buy some items I normally might not.

I wound up with some interesting items that included a Bert from Sesame Street hand puppet from 1971, a plastic Bob's Big Boy from the 1960s, a bobblehead of former Reds pitcher and radio commentator Joe Nuxhall, and Super Toe, who you can see on the I Tell Ya' Herbie posts.

As we checked out, the gentleman at the counter asked if I was a collector, and of course, I said yes and he gave me a bobblehead of the Reds T. J.Friedl at no charge!

I'm planning a December return and Antique Village is a definite return trip!

Springfield, Ohio is a town in the news lately but they also have two terrific antique malls.

I had visited Heart of Ohio in the past, and when we were leaving that time, we had been told of another local mall that was almost as expansive.

The Springfield Antique Center was open for another forty-five minutes and we moved through as quickly as possible before finding a huge treasure trove of sports memorabilia.

I had to skim quickly but I did pull a few programs for the collection, two Cincinnati Reds programs, an Ohio State-Illinois program, and a program from the now-defunct Garden State Bowl from 1981 between Houston and Navy.

There was so much to look through and so little time. I saw plenty that I might have been interested in purchasing with more time, mostly something I didn't know existed- the game BASKET has existed in various boxes and designs since the 1960s from the Cadaco game company. Still, I didn't know there was a version with the TV show The White Shadow on the box.

It was the name and some artwork of series star Ken Howard as the inside was the same as the other BASKET games but it was a little overpriced for its condition and I reluctantly passed.

Our hotel in Florence, Kentucky was an hour away, and after arriving and checking into the hotel, we drove to a nearby Skyline Chili for dinner before hitting the bed for the night.

Next time, day two with more collection additions and my first trip to the Cincinnati Reds.

Road Trip: Take the long way home

     It was time to leave Omaha and we were driving in a different route than the one that brought us to Omaha as we would be dipping south through Kansas, driving across Missouri, and into southern Illinois before rejoining our original route in Indiana which would take us across Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania briefly and then home.

We were taking this route for two reasons.

First, it allowed Cherie and I to add Kansas to the visited states list and to visit the Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Library.

Earlier in the trip, we had considered day trip drives to the Truman Library on one day and the Eisenhower on another but we decided to do the Eisenhower version on the way home as it was a little farther away than the Truman Library.

This would be a fortunate decision as the path to the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, turned out to be one filled with two-lane highways and lonesome towns, and I'm sure that I would not have enjoyed that trip a second time to return to the hotel!

Roughly three hours later, we arrived in Abilene and the Eisenhower Library.

The Eisenhower Library isn't a one-building unit as in the Truman version; rather, it's like a college campus with separate buildings holding the library, museum, boyhood home, a building holding Mr. and Mrs. Eisenhower's graves, and the gift shop.

The gift shop is the first building that you see and is the closest to the parking lot, so after taking a look around there, we walked across the campus to the museum, where we were greeted warmly by someone inside, welcoming us.

As I moved around the museum, I recalled that there had been a few renovations through the years and even though the renovations were fairly recent, it felt a little dated which was odd since the Truman Library is actually a few years older.

The exhibits weren't old, the facility just had a dated feel to it, and I couldn't shake why it did.

After the tour, we took the above photo of the statue located in the middle of campus and walked towards the front area, considering a tour of the boyhood home but we didn't want to wait for the tour and moved to the building with the President and First Lady's tomb.

This was where things really felt dated and the building had the smell that you sometimes have when you move into buildings that are filled with old items.

I found the musty smell a bit overwhelming and left quickly for the gift shop, where I bought a magnet and a few items for others and escaped back to the road.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that I was disappointed with the Eisenhower Library, that would be a stretch but while I would consider visiting the Truman (and maybe the Hoover) Library again in a few years, I'm not sure that I would need to return to Abilene to visit again.

We moved toward Kansas City, with our only stop at a rest area McDonald's for a box of Chicken McNuggets that Cherie and I split, passing by Topeka, Lawrence, and Manhattan ( home to the University of Kansas and Kansas State).

Traffic was a bit tight in Kansas City for a while, which stymied our plans to stop and eat, but we did drive by Kemper Arena (the home of the old Kings and Scouts), Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Chiefs, and Kaufman Stadium, the home of the Royals.

From the interstate, we could look directly into Kaufman and peer into the field.

Kansas City is reportedly moving toward a new facility in either downtown Kansas City (Ugh) or another interstate-friendly park across the state line into Kansas, so if I ever make this trip again, I have Kaufman marked down as a priority!

After we crossed over Kansas City, we stopped at our third Brass Armadillo and I found a Kansas basketball program from 1986 and a few things to put back for Christmas.

The most interesting thing at this Brass Armadillo was this "delightful" statue of Oscar the Grouch,
which is not only strange, but it's incredibly creepy looking!

It was about five feet tall and at $295.00 was quite a steal (sarcasm included)

We decided to hold off on eating again to get as far as possible before it got dark in an attempt to leave Missouri for the night and we managed to do that as we finished our day in Greenville, Illinois at a Comfort Inn with a takeout from a nearby Domino's.

We took our time the next day, moving across Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, before stopping in St. Clairsville Ohio for the night.

I might have been able to make it home with a little under four hours to go but the sun was starting to go down and as I would have been getting tired, we would have reached the longest, darkest, and most desolate part of the trip, so we decided to stop for the night.

We walked around the mall that is on-site with the hotel, ate lunch at Quaker Steak & Lube, and finished our trip in the afternoon, arriving home with a waiting Rachel and Posey.

It was the longest trip that I had ever taken in miles and the second longest amount of time away from my house in my life and I'd like to thank Cherie for putting up with me and having such a good time together, Ryan and his family for welcoming us and all of their logistical help, and to Rachel for staying home and taking care of our Posey.

So, three months after it's over, I've noted everything for posterity.

My grandson is now over three months old, and something might come as a surprise to you.

It's hard enough being away from your family in these times when communication is easier and cheaper than it has ever been since the beginning of time.

You can pick up the phone and pay the same amount to call anywhere in North America, and it costs the same as calling your next-door neighbor.

With the internet getting better and faster daily, visual communication is also easier and cheaper than in any time known to man.

And I can only imagine the difficulties in timely communication at any other time, so I feel somewhat fortunate.

Yet, it feels somewhat strange to me.

It doesn't feel real.

I love getting Archie's pictures and updates, and Ryan has been excellent at keeping us informed and as involved as we can be.

But it still doesn't quite feel different, and maybe it shouldn't, I'm not sure.

It'll be an interesting journey, and we are barely out of the starting gate.

Now that the Omaha series is completed, I'll try to write a bit over the next month or so on my two baseball trips of length (Ohio and Tennessee) and maybe my day trip to Somerset New Jersey for the AA Patriots.

Hope you enjoyed reading this series. 

Road Trip: Pulsar, Hayburners and Leadbelly's

As we entered our final full day in Omaha, we decided to use our morning and early afternoon to visit Lincoln, Nebraska's capital city and home to the Cornhuskers.

Located about an hour west of Omaha, Lincoln was interesting with an antique mall to peruse and I had looked up a few interesting places to consider eating. 

On the drive, I saw the Platte Valley Antique Mall which I hadn't seen while researching and since it was literally off the interstate, we decided to stop.

I was glad I did as I found a few programs (Omaha Royals and a Nebraska-Oklahoma 1980 football) and saw a cool old pinball machine that I would have loved to have purchased!

Manufactured in 1951, Hayburners used a horse racing motif, and not only was it working, but it was recently cleaned and looked almost new!

It's the exact style of machine that I love with the old numbers that move plates as you score and a basic few bumpers system but reading the reviews of the game, it looks better than it would play and it was for the best that I didn't purchase (Like I was writing a three thousand dollar check and figuring out how to get it to Maryland anyway!).

The next stop was on the outskirts of Lincoln, and the main reason for the drive was the Aardvark Antique Mall.

Aardvark was large and had a large supply of items but I managed to hold off the impulse to buy Pulsar the Ultimate Man of Adventure (I had him as a kid and hadn't thought of him in years but this was the first of three times I would see Pulsar this summer) and escaped without spending anything!

We continued into Lincoln for a visit to Leadbelly's.

Located in the Haymarket district near Memorial Stadium, home of the Cornhuskers, there were several places to choose from to eat and a few shops as well, one of which Cherie stopped by to purchase a few items for herself and others.

Leadbelly's had a 1930s-style speakeasy feel to it and it wasn't overly busy for a weekday lunchtime visit, which added to our enjoyment as we could talk and not have to shout over others.

We decided to have a little bit of a few things as we split a bacon cheeseburger, and ordered two appetizers to share- some delicious orange chicken poppers and some stadium nachos.

Everything was great, and we certainly enjoyed our time at Leadbelly's.

After driving back to our hotel for a little downtime, it was time for the hardest part of the trip.

We met Ryan and his family at the Greek Islands, a favorite of theirs and a place that plays to the theatrical as they do things like lighting a hot plate in front of you as part of the show.

I really wasn't that hungry after Leadbelly's so I ordered a sandwich and that was all that I ate.

It was good, but I wasn't up for eating too much.

After our goodbyes, which were far harder than I expected, it was quiet in the vehicle.

Surprisingly, I was thinking of my parents and events of over thirty years before.

You see, anyone who knows me well knows that I always wanted to return to raise my family in Ohio and for various reasons, that never was able to happen.

My parents never wanted us to leave and while that was understandable, I felt that they could have been more supportive, and had they done so, I might have been able to pull the move off.

Yet years later, while I'm preparing to say goodbye to my son ( and Nebraska is much farther away than Ohio for the geographically challenged), I found myself thinking of those times and perhaps empathizing a bit with their plight.

After all, they didn't want to lose their son, daughter-in-law, and grandson (most of this was before Rachel was born) either, and maybe they thought they were doing the right thing.

That's what I was thinking and I'm still torn but in the end, I don't think ( not that I could) I'd try to stand in anyone's way or guilt trip them before or after the decision.

In the end, I think everyone would like to have their family close by, but life takes all of us in different directions and while I miss my son ( and my new family), I don't think it would be fair to put my wishes above what is best for either of my children.

All of that said, it's not easy leaving them behind and I'm not sure that it ever will be easy nor should it be.

If it were easy, I'd wonder how much one would really care.

We finish up the series next time with the drive home and the stops on the way!  

Road Trip: Race Horses and Storm Chasers

     The road trip to Omaha rolled on as we spent the day with Ryan, who showed us the sights of his new hometown.

Ryan. Cherie and I saw the various markets and attractions of Omaha, but for me, there were two stops that I wanted to see most of all, and Ryan was kind enough to make that happen.

The first stop that I really wanted to make was a return to Omaha suburb Gretna and Werner Park, the home of the Omaha Storm Chasers, the AAA affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.

One thing that I didn't know before the trip was that the Storm Chasers didn't use the same ballpark downtown that is used for the College World Series.

I just assumed that was the case and was surprised to hear that the Storm Chasers had their own facility.

Werner Park didn't stand out from the interstate, and it seemed to be tucked away in an area filled with industrial businesses and homes, but it was easy to find and had plenty of places to park, unlike the urban stadiums, where parking is always a pain.

Walking outside the stadium is a beautiful statue of Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson, an Omaha native who also attended Creighton University in the city.

The statue is very well done and captures Gibson's release from the mound perfectly.

We didn't stay very long, long enough to hit the team store, snap a few pictures, and watch enough to count Werner Park on the visited stadiums list.

We then returned to Omaha to look for a small monument to the racehorse Omaha, who was the third horse to win the Triple Crown, and who lived out his life in Nebraska after a poor career at stud.

Ak-Sar-Ben (Nebraska spelled backward) Race Course was the center of Nebraska horse racing before being torn down in 2005, and somewhere in the area, Omaha is buried.

The remains weren't found when the facility was razed, although occasionally writers use modern methods to try to pinpoint where they may rest.

Now the area is called AkSarBen Village with an entertainment village, a park, and an arena that hosts events for the Nebraska-Omaha sports teams.

We would return to the hotel afterward for the evening to prepare for a Memorial Day cookout the following day at Ryan's, which I had a surprisingly good time considering that it combined the outdoors and meeting new people, neither of which are noted as favorites of mine.

In our next and possibly final installment, we start our final day in Omaha, travel to Lincoln, say goodbye to Ryan and family, and take the long way home.

It is possible that there could be two posts depending on the length of the post.

 

Road Trip: Finding Paladin or Have Collectibles Will Travel

     The next day on the trip was Cherie and I's thirty-seventh anniversary, so we kept the day low-key.

We agreed far ahead of time about the trip being our gifts to each other, so we kept that day very basic as we started the day with a visit to Conrad's elementary school for his award as "Tiger of the Month", complete with school fight song "We are the Tigers".

I've always thought teams named the Tigers used the song "Tiger Rag," but times change.

After that concluded, Cherie and I returned to the hotel for a while before another visit to the hospital to see Archie.

I never got tired of that trip, but I did leave for a bit to go shopping in Omaha as Conrad needed a thing for an upcoming football camp the following day.

We spent the rest of the day around the hotel and enjoyed hanging out with plenty of talk about the good times.

The following day, we had agreed to take Conrad to his football camp, starring Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco, because Archie was coming home, and that's what we could do to help.

After making the football camp stop, we traveled to an Omaha suburb, Gretna, and our second trip to a Brass Armadillo!

At the Omaha Armadillo, I found this Exhibit card of Richard Boone, the star of the 50s television show Have Gun Will Travel.

The case with this card was in the first row that we walked through, but I took note of it in case I didn't overspend.

The Exhibit Company produced postcard-sized cards in the forties, fifties, and sixties, and they came out of vending machines one card at a time, with cards of baseball and football stars, singers, and film and television stars.

I wound up buying it for $15.50, and it came with three other Hollywood cards from the set as well.

I only knew one of them (Gene Barry of Bat Masterson TV fame), but I would have bought the "Paladin" card anyway, so the others were an added bonus.

That was the only thing that I bought for myself here, although Cherie and I found some things for other people. Still, I was very close to buying a vintage Mego Catwoman, but the price was a little higher than I saw it on eBay, and I decided to pass.

We drove back to Ryan's for pizza and a visit before ending the day back at the hotel.

The following day was our day with Ryan, who showed us the sights of Omaha, but that will wait until the next installment. 

Road Trip: Meeting Archer

        The schedule for the next few days was going to be very Omaha-centric, and that's going to be understandable as the post moves along.

We spent much of the morning lounging around the hotel, waiting to hear when to go to the hospital. 

Yes, I said hospital.

Cherie and I were in Nebraska to welcome our first grandchild and it was a surprise a few months back when we received the news.

You see, we were young parents when we had our first child, and it was unexpected through the years that we would be older than most to have our first grandchild.

We received the call that we could go to the Omaha Women's Hospital a little before lunch and we maneuvered our way across town to reach the hospital and a very modern facility.

Being modern wasn't a surprise, but the large amount of parking close to the building certainly was!

We waited inside a very modern and spacious waiting room and there were only two other people in the room.

Of course, this being life, we were trapped with this older fellow who "regaled" his companion (and sadly, we heard it all) with stories about his farm life, including gems such as his use of animal waste to increase yield and gelding his animals.

Fortunately, he was gone after thirty long minutes, and between Ryan's occasional appearances to keep us updated and talking to Cherie, I survived the king of neutering.

The time moved by quickly, and eventually, we received word of our first grandchild's arrival.

We had some time to spend before going to see Archie and had a surprisingly good meal at the hospital cafeteria while we waited.

The meal at the cafeteria wasn't only good, but it was one of the highlights of the trip as Cherie and I reflected on our life together with thoughts and memories of both of our children as kids and adults.

I felt really good about Cherie and I's life together, with so many wonderful memories from our family.

Once we moved to the maternity ward, our lives were going to be different.

After hanging with Archie for an hour or so, we returned to the hotel and when we were starting to get hungry, we walked next door to King Kong, a Greek restaurant with huge and tremendous hamburgers.

We got our meals to go and returned to the hotel with these massive sandwiches!

King Kong has four locations, three in Omaha and one in Lincoln, and with several statues of giant gorillas outside is exactly what you would think a King Kong restaurant would look like!

The burgers come in four sizes, ranging from a half-pound up to a two-pound burger!

I ordered the second (one pound) and it was so huge that I ate it in two meals!

We would return again to King Kong before we left Omaha, and I couldn't speak more of our food there!

The day started as so many had and ended with Cherie and me as grandparents.

I can't lie and say I wasn't surprised when we were told Archer was on his way, but even though we live so far away, it's a different feeling now.

It's hard to believe that he's two months old now and it's easier to handle the distance for now, realizing he wouldn't know us anyway but I do wonder how easy it will be in the years to come.

I grew up seeing my grandparents in Ohio once a year, and the results were mixed.

I was close to my grandfather and more distant from my grandmother, but when you see people seldom, it's a big deal when you can see them, but you lack the everyday familiarity that comes with living closer.

It'll be interesting to see how everything plays out, and I'm looking forward to the ride.

I'm continuing the Omaha series when I have time, but my writing time has lessened recently, so not sure when I'll have another installment.

Road Trip: Kansas City, here we come!

     I planned from the beginning that the second day was the best opportunity to squeeze in a day trip before the real business started, I wanted to visit both the Truman and Eisenhower libraries before returning home.

I decided to visit the Truman Library first for two reasons- the first is that the Truman Library was closer to Omaha than the Eisenhower Library and the other is if plans changed ( and they often can), if I had to choose one or the other, I preferred the Truman library. 

We left in the morning for the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Independence, Missouri, which is a suburb of Kansas City.

I was a little surprised at the condition of Independence as we entered town.

There was some road work being done but many closed stores with barred windows and it seemed to be very run-down.

Pulling up to the Truman Library, the front grounds were more expansive than I expected, and from my time watching programs on and from the library were the most familiar to me.

However, the most recent renovation placed the entrance at what formerly was the rear of the building.

I didn't realize this until we were touring the building as the mural that used to be the first thing that visitors saw when entering, now was near the end of the building's tour.

The main difference is the new entrance has the feeling of being in a residential area with houses that were likely around when the library was built (it opened in 1957) and a cozier area than the previous entrance which looked like a looming colossus!

When entering the building, we passed an elderly woman and someone who called her "grandma'.

As I took the photo at the top of the page, this guy began to act strangely and began making odd remarks to the elderly lady, which made me wonder what his deal was.

When entering the museum, we saw another life-size statue of Truman and more noise from this guy and when we entered the first stage, the guy started to holler and make strange noises.

We never heard from or saw him again, so my best guess is that security walked him out.

What I really liked about the Truman Library was how wide the building is and the center area with the President's and First Lady's graves and the President's office area.

Everything seems so modern which is amazing with the building nearing seventy years of age!

I enjoyed going to the basement of the building and seeing various vehicles that were used by the family during the White House years and I loved watching some of the films that the museum featured.

As we hit the gift shop on the way out, I bought a few magnets for the fridge (I really liked one that was based on the cover of the book Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure) and my biggest decision came down to which Truman item I wished to buy for me.

The library had an awesome Swiss Army Knife from Victorinox with a facsimile autograph of Truman available in blue or white.

I love Victorinox's products and a similar-sized knife that looks like Swiss cheese that my mother-in-law bought me for Christmas a few years ago is a staple on my key ring.

A Truman bobblehead had some appeal too and to my surprise, the knife was a few dollars cheaper.

I decided on the knife and the other items before leaving the museum.

For a facility of its age, the Truman Library through its renovations and design has given a modern and fresh look and feel to the building, which I would highly recommend to anyone in the area.

We began the drive to Omaha, looking for a place for lunch.

I had originally considered Kansas City's barbeque staple Arthur Bryant's but while we were close enough to see the Kansas City skyline, it would have been going out of the way to get there and we were beginning to see the rush hour traffic as a possibility, so I wanted to get ahead of that, if I could.

As we hit the fringes of the KC metro area, I saw a sign for Whataburger, the Texas-based burger chain that I visited once in Florida, and instantly decided on Whataburger so Cherie could try it.

It turns out that Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who grew up in Texas and attended Texas Tech, wanted Whataburgers in the Kansas City area and is a member of a partnership that owns franchises in the Kansas City and Wichita areas.

This store placed a signed Mahomes jersey in the lobby as part of the decor.

Whataburger ranks with Five Guys (I've never had the West Coast staple In and Out) as the best of the higher chain burger joints and if you have the chance to stop at one- do so!

After leaving Whataburger, we stopped at WD Pickers in Platte City, Missouri and while they had many things that I would have loved to have purchased, their prices were a bit high and they didn't have anything that I had to have at those prices.

Still, I'd return there on another trip, if I was in the area.

We also stopped in St. Joseph MO and the Jesse James antique market, named after the outlaw who died in St.Joseph.

It was large with two buildings but I didn't purchase anything there either.

We finally rolled back into Omaha and one thing I consistently notice that is different than the East Coast is the distance between gas stations, restaurants, etc.

In the East, they are all over the place, even smaller or rural areas, and in the Midwest, there are far fewer.

We then met Ryan and his family for an orchestra recital, which proved to be interesting, mainly because the youngsters played six pieces that all sounded the same despite the director calling out the song titles before each piece.

A stop at a local supermarket (Family Fare) for some supplies for the hotel concluded the day out other than a food trip next door to the hotel for dinner.

I'll get into more detail on that establishment as we move on in this series.

Next time on Road Trip- The reason we traveled to Omaha. 

Road Trip: Have you ever seen the rain?

     Waking up early on day two outside of Davenport, Iowa, I snapped a few photos of the mighty Mississippi before our day driving across Iowa, making a few stops on the way before our arrival in Omaha.

Our first stop was recommended by Ryan and didn't take us that long to arrive at the Iowa 80 truck stop, advertised as the world's largest. 

Iowa 80 is big and with plenty of food and shopping options, there is almost anything that you may need while traveling available at Iowa 80.

A few days before the trip as I was planning the route, I discovered the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library is almost directly off the exit.

 While I had plans to visit two libraries on the trip, the Hoover Library wasn't one of them.

However, if it was that easy to find, I added it loosely to the day's schedule.

It was that easy, so we made the call to make a visit to West Branch, Iowa.

Entering the library, you can drive around a local park on the library grounds, visit the grave of the former President and First Lady, and walk through a grassy area that is a reconstruction of the prairie that Hoover grew up with as a young man.

The library was filled with displays, a theatre to watch a short film, and seemed to be recently renovated with wide open spaces and modern decor.

The gift shop at the Hoover Library is by the entrance/exit area and we stopped there for a few trinkets, including one that I thought was really neat.

There was a small passport-like booklet for the Presidental Libraries that I purchased and a small foam fishing bobber (fishing was a passion for the former President),

I can't say no to cool fidget items and since the Hoover Library was the first I ever visited, I thought it would be cool to have as I visited others.

The Hoover Library was the pleasant surprise of our trip as it was much better than I had anticipated.

The drive across Iowa continued with our next stop at an antique mall that Ryan highly recommended, The Brass Armadillo in Des Moines.

The Brass Armadillo features lots of collectible items in huge stores and I thought the Des Moines location was their only one but they are in six cities in the Midwest and West.

We wouldn't be finished with the Brass Armadillo on the trip but on this one, I bought three programs, a 1977 Ohio State at Iowa football, a 1980 NCAA Mideast Regional basketball, and a 1969 Philadelphia Eagles at St.Louis Cardinals for the collection.

The local radar showed severe thunderstorms in the area and a tornado watch, so we tried to outrun the storm and we had success for a while.

However, eventually, we had to get off the interstate and into a McDonald's parking lot where I must admit it was a little scary with the van rocking from the high winds, seeing items tossed into the air, and hearing the tornado warning sirens, which is unsettling when you aren't used to it.

Once things had cleared a little, we got back on the road, and after a half hour or so, we had cleared the storm as we were driving west, it was later that we saw the tornado destroying the town of Glenville, Iowa, a town that we had passed earlier in the day.

I feel very fortunate even now that we dodged that storm.

We stayed on the road until we found Omaha and met Ryan and his family for dinner at a local Chinese buffet.

The dinner was nice, and then we found our hotel home, which Ryan graciously provided for us, for the next eight days at a Home 2 Suites in Omaha, located a short distance from Ryan's home.

I'm going to write about the places that we saw on the trip but some of the trip may be condensed for time and space.

I may do one or two posts on the various foods that we ate rather than try to remember every meal on a particular day.

I'll continue this series soon when I have time! 

Road Trip: Getting There

     My trip to Omaha with Cherie was the longest trip that I've ever taken and the longest time that I've ever been away from home at one time as well.

I decided to leave at 4 AM or so but since I couldn't sleep, we left town at 2:30 with the plan in mind to make a few stops in particular and see how far we could drive before we began to tire.

The planned first stop was a return to Jungle Jim's International Market, which I've written about in the past as a grocery store/market where one could spend multiple hours shopping, especially if you aren't a regular shopper at Jungle Jim's.

Jungle Jim's caters to not only the local area but also foods from around the world and has to be seen to be truly believed.

Cherie and I spent two hours there buying things for friends, hot sauces for me, and items for our hotel such as snacks and drinks with a special gift for Posey.

If you are ever in the Cincinnati area, check out one of their two locations!

We stopped at their suburban store in Fairfield because Cherie had discovered a toy store there a few months ago and it was only a few stoplights down the highway.

I had timed things so we wouldn't have to kill a lot of time when the Toy Dept. opened at eleven o'clock and things were on track but we had passed a Roosters restaurant after we got off at our exit.

I had raved to Cherie about Roosters since my last visit to Ohio and their delicious chicken, so we doubled back to beat the lunch rush and then travel to the Toy Dept.

Based mostly in Ohio and Kentucky (there is one store each in Indiana and West Virginia), Roosters allows you to pick two sauces to spin your chicken and my sandwich (Hot and Garlic sauce), and just as in my last visit, I was very pleased.

Cherie enjoyed hers as well and noted the picture by our table of one of her favorite TV shows "WKRP in Cincinnati!

We stopped by the Toy Dept. next and surprisingly I didn't buy anything!

The store was large and filled with items but only one figure (1980's Super Powers DeSaad) was needed for the collection and even though the price was fair, it wasn't a steal and I didn't want to start the trip tossing money around unless it was a bargain!

Our next stop was Knightstown, Indiana for an anticipated visit!

Hoosiers is one of my favorite films and might get the nod as my choice for best sports drama ever, so when I discovered that the home gym for the "Hickory Huskers" was open to the public, it was an easy choice for a visit.

Knightstown is a small town and Hoosiers Gym's architecture looks very regal and distinctive of its time (1921) and rolling through Knightstown gave the feel of "Norman Dale" heading into Hickory.

Walking into the building gave me the feel of stepping into the film and a very nice gentleman (I really wish I could remember his name) told me that the gym was closed after one of his high school years in 1966.

He asked if we would like a tour and we were happy to see the gym, locker room, and the famous door that Gene Hackman walked through before Hickory's first game and uttered "Welcome to Indiana basketball".

We were told several stories about the renovation of the gym, how often it is used (over 100 times per year), the tradition that sees teams that play on the floor leave a signed jersey, and how the team picture that ends the film was possessed by someone from the film for many years before the gym was asked if it would be interested in having it.

The tour was almost completed and another person came into the building, so we thanked our host and I decided to try to redeem myself for a lousy job of shooting at the Basketball Hall of Fame (I'm not sure I made a shot that wasn't a layup) with a better outing at the Hoosier Gym.

I was having a blast when I nailed my first shot, and almost hit my second before a bad miss on my third.

I started thinking about ending the day but instead, I hit my next two and started feeling a little rhythm going before Cherie signaled she needed a drink and it's always a good thing to finish on a made shot!

I'll take my three for five happily!

We stopped in the gift area before we left with Cherie getting a Hickory Husker T-shirt (I loved the design, too bad not in my size) and I bought a Hoosier Gym mini-basketball.

If you love the film or even just basketball, I highly recommend Hoosier Gym.

The plan was to drive as far as we could and stop when I was tired, we moved across Indiana and through Illinois and decided to try a Holiday Inn inside the Illinois-Iowa line.

The clerk was very kind in finding us a room that overlooked the Mississippi River, which Cherie adored looking at through the window, and it was very pleasant to watch the barges move down the river.

We both enjoyed the hotel so much that we remarked that if we ever made this trip again, we were hopeful that we could stay there again.

I'm going to try to tell the remainder of the story in installments when I can because this post took a decent amount of time to write but I'm looking forward to writing more about the road.

Road Trip: Fayetteville

     The trip back was scheduled to be a lazy day of just driving around and seeing what turned up to be worth a stop.

We did a lot of driving around stopping here and there, with a stop at a Walmart that was all grocery items, which I didn't know existed!

Most of the visits were misses except one but I was able to find another Partridge Family item for Rachel- with two bonuses.

Our last stop in Fayetteville before the stadium was The Shops at 213 Hay Street and I found an assortment of old basketball programs all in a plastic bag for five dollars.

I'm not sure that I would have bought them individually but all for five bucks, well, I couldn't resist.

They included a 1951 program from the University of Chicago, a 1955 program for a game between California and Santa Clara, and media guides from the early seventies from Duquesne and Texas.

There also was a Partridge Family album among a box of albums lying on the floor, and while I look for Partridge albums for Rachel, they are easier to find than single 45s such as I found for her in Mount Airy.

However, when I picked the album up to examine it, a Partridge Christmas card fell out and that clinched the purchase for Rachel's collection but when I placed the card back into the album cover, another item was there, a book cover of David Cassidy.

Now for younger readers (and Cherie did have to explain just what a book cover was and how it was used as Rachel had no idea), a book cover is what was used in school to "cover" textbooks for your use for the school year in order to save some of the wear and tear that textbooks would receive and therefore protect them to be used for many years rather than one or two.

Our afternoon food choice was Smithfield's BBQ in Laurinburg, North Carolina.

Yes, named after the famous ham company located in North Carolina, Smithfield's has forty locations, most in North Carolina with a few in South Carolina, and I had stopped at one when I went to Jacksonville with Ryan in 2022.

I like the vinegar-based sauce that Smithfield uses and the cashier was very helpful with their various sauces she even said "I can tell you all aren't from around here from the way you talk!"

The sauce was used on both my sandwich of pulled chicken and cole slaw and if you see a Smithfield's, give them a try.

I've heard for years about the struggles of Fayetteville and their city from multiple persons and minor league baseball had been there before with the South Atlantic League's Fayetteville Generals and the renamed Cape Fear Crocs from 1987-2000.

The franchise wasn't one of the stronger teams as far as attendance and they were purchased and moved to New Jersey as the Lakewood Blue Claws but the decision was made for (ahem) a downtown ballpark that will help revitalize... You know the rest.

The Woodpeckers were created in 2019 playing in the Carolina League for the previous two seasons as the Buies Creek Astros while Segra Field was being built.

After the canceled Covid season of 2020 and MLB taking over the minors, the Woodpeckers were moved to the SAL for 2021 and Segra Field once again completed North Carolina for seeing every affiliated stadium for my list.

The good news for Fayetteville is that they have built a very nice stadium and one that I preferred on a facility basis over Kannapolis, which I had visited the night before.

The sightlines are terrific, the concourse is very wide, and the team shop is large, filled with various items, I liked it better than Kannapolis, which had a far smaller shop with limited offerings compared to the Woodpeckers.

The employees were incredibly helpful at various points inside the park and should there have been a need, security was available yet not obtrusive either.

The crowd was very small, even for a Wednesday, and I wonder if the Woodpecker's attendance isn't hasn't reached its peak already.

I wish I could say the same for outside the park.

I've never been to a city its size ( 208,000) with the number of let's say undesirables around the city and the ballpark and once you move a block from the ballpark, it gets even worse.

The parking is distant from the stadium and honestly, I wasn't thrilled leaving it where it was parked.

A large building that seemed to be part of the renewal project looked mostly vacant to me (this could be due to the time and that I only saw the building from one view) and other than a small roundabout near our parking area, I didn't see anything else that was developing.

What appears to be a cautionary tale for Hagerstown for their new stadium opening next year is the results in Fayetteville from admittedly a one-day sample, and one that would be interesting to keep an eye on in the future.

The drive home would see lots of late-night traffic on the always wonderful I-95 due to construction and end the baseball road trip season with a whimper but despite its small size, I enjoyed my trips as always.

Next year is already in the planning with trips to New England to Portland, Maine, and Manchester New Hampshire and Tennessee to visit our friend Corey White for the Tennessee Smokies' final season in Sevierville before their return to their former home (with a new stadium) in Knoxville.