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: Tennessee

Day three saw our trip move over to Tennessee (Every time, I think of that I keep hearing Jimmy Hart screech "Memphis, Tennessee Babay!) and our almost annual visit to Corey White and the Tennessee Smokies.
Fred, of course, had met Corey a few times in the past, but Lefty had yet to have the pleasure.
I told Corey later that he had met all of my autographing friends, but one (Mike Oravec) and I will have to take Mike to Sevierville soon to finish the set!

When you go over to Tennessee from Asheville (about 90 minutes away), you have to plan how you'll spend your day.
You either stay in Asheville and go closer to game time or spend your day in the Knoxville area to kill the time because doing something in the middle of those choices aren't an option.
The choice made by Fred was to visit Knoxville and check out Neyland Stadium for some Tennessee Volunteer items.
This followed his choice not to last year and he's regretted it ever since, so I knew that this was going to be the outcome!

Fred wanted to go inside Neyland and look around or at least grab some swag.
The problem that there is very little parking around the stadium, even when school isn't in session and after some failed attempts to find the parking lot and a memorable exchange with a passer-by ("you can park here, but if they catch you-they will tow you"), I dropped Fred off and while he looked around in the store, Lefty and I stopped in a space, ever vigilant for the parking czar to avoid a ticket!
After a handful of minutes of this, Lefty began to look for Fred in the store as I waited outside.
Fred and Lefty emerged with a beaming Fred with a new Rocky Top shirt among others and we wove our way out of Knoxville and back towards Kodak, home of the Smokies.
I snapped a picture of the Sunsphere, the symbol of the 1982 World's Fair that was held in Knoxville, as we sat at a traffic light.
I could not tell where any World's Fair has been located since 1982, but if you were alive in 1982, the relentless pounding of constant commercials for that World's Fair was constant and with the Sunsphere being the symbol, I remember that to this day!


With still plenty of time to kill, Smoky Mountain Knife Works obviously sells about every kind of knife that you can imagine among other gimmicks for hunters and fans of various genres like Game of Thrones, but the highlight for me was the Relic Room with tons of collectibles from many many countries.
Now how many of the items are legitimately what they say they are is open to conjecture, but there are lots of interesting display cases that would take a significant amount of time to see everything and even just looking can be fun.
Fred even bought a limited edition Tennessee Volunteers Swiss Army Knife.
I've always been a fan of the multiple-use knives with Swiss Army and other companies and I'm pretty sure that had they had an Ohio State version, it may have been going home with me!

We hadn't eaten lunch yet and we began to process of looking for lunch and riding through the strip of Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge was very similar to riding through that of Myrtle Beach.
The same types of touristy stores (Everything 9.99!), gaudy hotels, things to do, and tons of places to eat in a long traffic line on both sides of the street.
It was kind of fun to see all the stuff and even though I still wonder about a large number of pancake eateries around the area, it was cool just looking around.
Still, I had seen a billboard or two for some interesting places and I just wasn't seeing them, although some of the places did make me consider them, I wanted something different.
Finally, I saw it in Captain Jim's Seafood Buffet.
I pondered and looked at the buffet and reluctantly chose the non-crab leg version over the more expensive with crab legs.
It was very good and Lefty graciously paid for everyone's meal over Fred and I's objections.
Very nice of him to do and I must admit it was fun going to these places and looking them over.
Sure, it was everything cliche' that you can think about "tourist trap', but there is a reason people travel to areas like this- because they are fun.

After our drive back through Pigeon Forge etc to the home of the Smokies after a stop at the beef jerky outlet, where surprisingly I didn't buy anything for me, although I did buy some pepperoni sticks for the ladies at home, my good friend Corey White was waiting for me with the cards that he had worked on me throughout the season.
Lots of great stuff that included several additions to the top 100 sets and a team set of the Mobile Bay Bears (Angels), who are in their last season before moving to a suburb of Huntsville, Alabama and change their name to the Rocket City Trash Pandas among many great cards.
As we sat in the parking lot, I ordered two team sets of the next team to play in Smokieland, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins).
I usually buy one set for me and one for Corey for him working on them.
Not sure how many times I can do that each year due to expense, but I'll certainly try for that for the initial season of the ahem Trash Pandas next year.

We enjoyed the game as I worked on the visiting Biloxi Shuckers, the AA team of the Brewers and
one that even though they didn't have a top 100 card for the set as Corey Ray was promoted a few days before the trip, I still had the team set and some cards from the Carolina Mudcats set that I didn't finish for various reasons.

I was able to get most of them finished, but I did leave a few for Corey to finish up for me and we waited outside for quite a while for rehabbing pitcher Brent Suter, who now is back with the Brewers.
Suter took over an hour, but once he left the locker room, he was very accommodating, signed everything for everyone and talked for a bit as well.
However, I got Suter's cards signed and talked to him, but the conversation that I really enjoyed was with Shuckers batting coach Chuckie Caufield.
Caufield had played for the West Virginia Power back in the early days of my autographing hobby back in 2007 with players that still play in the bigs today such as Michael Brantley and Jeremy Jeffress, and prospects of the time such as Matt LaPorta.
Chuckie and I must have talked for about fifteen minutes about that team, their players, the SAL and of course his memories of Hagerstown.
It was really cool talking about those times and I got the feeling that Chuckie enjoyed being remembered too.

We didn't return to the hotel in Asheville until about one in the morning, but what I carried with me is Lefty telling me that no matter the autographing in Tennessee, the trip still would have been a great one because he met Corey and Corey's other friends Wayne and Delmar.
That's always the fun part of doing anything- being with your friends and the people that you meet on the way.

Next time, we move to Hickory North Carolina and my return after 12 years.

Road Trip: Kingsport and Tennessee

Day two of a two-stop day started off strong with a stop for lunch in Johnson City, Tennessee after a few liquor store stops for Michael.

I don't want to give you the idea that Michael was imbibing, he collects liquor and works in the industry, so that has a huge interest to him.
Me? Not so much, but I can always read in the parking lot!

As always, I send suggestions for food stops to Fred and he picks from the list.
Well, usually as this time, he vacillated from the list and selected Nick's in Johnson City on his own.
Michael and I agreed to say fine and our time at Nick's was great!
All thirty seconds of it as we pulled in to the parking lot without any cars, a for lease sign in the window and trash in the lot-Other than that-Nick's was terrific!
We left Nick's, looked at the area and a chastened Fred told us to pick, Michael and I were both intrigued by Mellow Mushroom, which looked to be a psychedelic pizza chain that I've seen in a few different places, but never tried.

We all shared a large pizza and I thought it was pretty good, I'd return and we decided to not order an appetizer or side so that we could have dessert at Cootie Brown's, which is right up the street from Mellow Mushroom.
A quick jaunt and Key Lime Pie later, we were off to nearby Kingsport and more liquor stores for Michael, but we did visit the campus of East Tennessee State University, where Michael and Fred each bought a hat from the Buccaneer bookstore.

Arriving in Kingsport, the third of the East Tennessee "Tri-Cities" area, I was somewhat excited.
The visit to Hunter Wright Field completed the ten team league, which meant I had visited every park in the league and even though I did not have a lot of cards, they were important ones.
The opponent for the homestanding Mets were the Bristol Pirates and both teams shared the same building for their clubhouse.
The problem was the length of the building that made it impossible to get from one end to the other if you saw someone you needed from the far side.
That meant that I decided to do the Mets and their first rounder Jarred Kelenic and that meant a very short time to react as it was just a few steps to a walkway that led to the field.

As you can see in the picture of Hunter Wright Field, the tarp was rolling out, the storm clouds were rolling in and I had to snap a picture of the field quickly.
Shortly, after I took this picture the rain fell- hard!
The field does have a small overhang that some fans could get out of the rain, but you could tell that this game was in jeopardy.
Hunter Wright is built on a slanted lot, the water tends to drain from one area to another and then pool there. Does that remind you of a place I know well?
A few of the Mets came out to check the field and one of the first was Mark Vientos, who was very nice in signing a few of his 2017 Bowman's.
Kelenic came out to just four graphers (three of which were me, Michael and Fred).
I had just two cards as I was getting one for someone else for Kelenic and I was third in line.
I watched him sign just one for the first person and then Michael, who asked if he could sign another ball.
Kelenic said no, so I didn't bother to ask him for a second card, he signed one and handed the other back unsigned.
It wasn't anything to be mad about, he could have signed none, but Kelenic might be an even tougher sign next year in the SAL when he sees even more graphers.
The game was delayed and we decided to move on to Tennessee and the Smokies for their game against the Jackson Generals.
As we traveled, we discovered that the game in Kingsport had been canceled, but in Kodak (an hour away) all was well and the game was on.

Arriving at Tennessee, we met up with my buddy and Southern League connection Corey White.
Corey does yeoman work for me (and some time for my buddies too) in that AA league and his help is always appreciated.
I brought some of Corey's cards that I had gotten signed for him (still some on the way buddy!) along and he gave me mine with lots of great stuff with several top 100's for my sets.
Big additions were Eloy Jimenez (that had to be tough), Dylan Cease, Dane Dunning ( On a green 100!) and Bryce Wilson among others.
Thanks so much to Corey for all of his help!
We ate inside the stadium at a "real" restaurant in the Smoky Mountain Brewery Bullpen during the game.
We were getting a little hungry and with the late hour of return to Asheville (a little over an hour away), I figured I should have something healthier and not too heavy.
I selected their house salad which added lots of meats and bacon, but plenty of veggies too (No tomato of course).
Ballpark food can get old and mundane (except Akron, which always has unique offerings), so a place that can serve a good dinner is a must stop and Corey's recommendation was dead on!

The only player that I brought cards for Jackson was Arizona pitching prospect Jon DuPlantier, who I had a top 100, Midwest top prospect and Midwest All-Star card for.
I would have been happy with the 100 and we did wait a while for the hurler outside after the game as DuPlantier charted the game from the Smokies press box.
However, the Diamondback prospect was very nice, signed all three cards and signed several minutes for everyone waiting for him-Success!

After saying goodbye to Corey, the drive back to Asheville awaited and I didn't get to actually sleep until 2 in the morning after preparing cards and lists for the next day and a 6 AM car ride to Danville Va.
It didn't work that way exactly, but that tale will wait until next time.

Part three wil wait a few days as we have the OSU preview, the PPM debut and then the recap tomorrow of the Buckeye opener vs Oregon State.

Road Trip: The Rain, A Park and Other Things..

We expected rain on day two and lots of it.
Rain that in the amount that we expected could cost us several stops on the trip.
Rain is part of the risk of baseball road trips and you know that going in, so you cross your fingers and hope for the best.

It had started to lightly rain as we checked into our hotel the night before.
When I woke up, it was pouring and when Fred and I talked, we thought there was absolutely no way the Lexington-Asheville game was going to be played that night.

We figured that the game was going to be called, but I wanted to see McCormick Field for some pictures and some shirts for my ladies here, while Fred had never visited the home of the Tourists and he wanted to put it on his list of "Been there but not for a game".
My list of those used to be very long, but I've whittled that list down to one- Myrtle Beach.

We drove to McCormick Field, where the forecast was dire and asked the Tourist employees if we could walk around, take some pictures etc and then stop at the team shop.
They said sure as long we didn't step on the field, which we were happy to follow that direction!
We wandered around the field, snapping (old school term) pictures and looked at a park that is older than Hagerstown's, yet had the charm that the Muni has always seemed to lack.
The right field wall still read Ingles just as it did eleven years ago in my first visit to Asheville with Ryan and Battlin' Bob and there didn't seem to be too many difference since then, although McCormick Field has been well maintained and shined up a bit as all old parks need to shown care for and it comes across as such a neat throwback to the past with enough of the present to get you through.
McCormick still has their concessions away from the field (nothing short of a complete reconstruction would change that) like Hagerstown which doesn't allow you to watch the game while waiting for your food.

We walked back to the souvenir area, where we talked to the employee about Hagerstown, showed them some pictures of the Muni and talked about the other stadiums in the SAL.
This is where I saw a really cool baseball with the Tourists that looked like it was made of wood (it wasn't) and with another recent baseball from Lexington (full Kentucky Blue) in mind, it hit me.
What if I bought a logo ball from each stadium that I visited?
The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea and I gave myself a few parameters.
The first was that I had to have visited the stadium and the second was that (with an occasional exemption given by me) that I would have to return to the stadium to purchase.
I gave myself two immediate exemptions-Buies Creek (last year as a team and no plans to go there this year) and Delmarva ( a real pain to get to and I'm not sure I'll get there again), purchased the ball and I was off.
I bought the ladies at home some Tourists shirts (I try to ask them before a trip which team that they would like to have an item from), so it was time for lunch for Fred and I as we laughed in the rain, but did not hold hands as longtime Battlin' Bob favorite Neil Sedaka once sang and the decision was Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack.

Rocky's was the type of local place that I always try to look for whether on the road with Fred or any of the other travel buddies that I hit the road with.
A local favorite with various degrees of heat for their chicken, I tried a sample of their hottest spice and while it was plenty of hot, I didn't find it all that flavorful, so as I do at wing/chicken place went with the second hottest chicken, ordered the daily special (jalapeno chicken pot pie) and two sides (Potato Salad and Cole Slaw).
The Potato Salad was quite good, a subtle mix between an Amish style and mustard version, but the slaw was a little bland.
The pot pie was shaped like those Hostess fruit pies and was good, but not nearly as hot as I expected.
The chicken was very good but wasn't nearly as hot as anticipated.
In hindsight, if Rocky's had combined the flavor of their second hottest, with the heat of the top-notch burner, they might really have something!
We returned to the hotel through the rain resigned to a night that would be highlighted by evening and I sat around for a while wondering where the time had gone from the first time I visited Asheville.

However, as I dozed off for a nap and woke up, I wondered about the weather in Kodak, Tennessee.
The next day, we had planned a noon game with the Tennessee Smokies hosting the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.
Fred called the Smokies (on the other side of the mountain and about 90 minutes away) and they had lighter rain throughout the day but planned to play.
With a schedule adjustment, we moved the Smokies into the evening slot and we were on our way on an hour and forty-five-minute drive to Sevierville.

Arriving in Sevierville, we sent an email to Corey White, who was scheduled to meet us the following day at Smokies Stadium about the change and hoped he'd see it.
I had cards to send to Corey and Fred wanted to meet one of the people that I trade with that he has heard so often about.
In the meantime, with an early arrival, we had time to check out the Beef Jerky Outlet.
This store has all sorts of unique jerky's, sausage's and "meat sticks" and a few hot sauces.
I settled for a package of their hottest jerky "The Reaper" (it wasn't THAT hot, but had some heat), package of maple jerky for Rachel and a package of Elk meat sticks (think Slim Jim's) that I ate some of on my trip to Charleston.
Corey called us back, said he would be at the game and had a friend of his (Again, I cannot remember his name) allow us to go in with him early with the season ticket holders.
Very kind of them to help us out and I've always thought it was so cool to be inside an almost empty stadium and just watch the scrambling and prep work to have the stadium ready for a game night.

I didn't have a lot for either team, I had sent a few things to Corey earlier, so most of the heavy lifting was finished, but Fred doing the Shrimp (Doesn't that sound like a dance from a 60's surf movie?) added former Brewers and current Marlins (acquired in the Christian Yelich trade) Isan Diaz and Monte Harrison for me.
Too bad the Top 100 was a few days away from being released because Harrison is in this year's set.
Diaz was in last season's (I added him in Winston-Salem last year) but missed the cut this year.
I worked on a few Smokies with Corey with the most important being Eddy Martinez on his Carolina League top prospect card.
The Carolina League is always the league prospect set that comes out latest and that works against getting some of the players signed.
That set sometimes is so late that graphers pass on buying it due to that fact.
It started to rain in the third inning and we watched a few innings from the concourse before we decided to make the drive home.

Back at the hotel and the closer that we traveled to Asheville, the more rain fell on the roof and we looked at the forecast for the return home, the forecast didn't look great.
Normally, I would add a final day post, but considering things with the inbox etc, I'm going to condense the final day as follows.
We expected lots of rain and got it as we traveled north, passed Johnson City, Tennessee and Fred was gracious enough to stop by and allow me to buy a Johnson City Cardinals baseball, stopped in Bristol Tennessee for another Mad Greek stop and a Yee Haw beer stop to bring home for Miguelito as we rolled towards Lynchburg, Virginia for the Winston-Salem Dash and the homestanding Hillcats.

Lynchburg is about an hour off I-81, so it's two hours of extra traveling round trip.
We were hoping to either play the game or call it early,
The Hillcats did us that favor and called it early, so we saved that time and rolled on up the road to go home.

All things considered with the forecast getting three games in the books wasn't so bad and traveling with Fred is always a good time.
Fred's a great person to travel with because he always asks for an opinion and listens to what your opinion is.
I really enjoy our trips together.

Now, I still have a day trip to Charleston for the Giants Low A team, the Augusta Greenjackets and the Giants top pick in 2017, Heliot Ramos, but that will have to wait for a little bit because we still have Cavalier playoffs (I saw the game one win on delay after returning from Charleston) and that bulging at the seams inbox to try to whittle down.

Day Three-Chattanooga and Tennessee

The trip entered its final day with stops in Chattanooga and Sevierville-the respective homes of the Lookouts and Smokies.

A quick stop for breakfast at Shoney's was an unexpected treat.
We couldn't (and didn't) stay long, but since Shoney's has left our area completely, it was cool to return there.
I never really liked their dinner menu very much, but I always liked their breakfast buffet...

Chattanooga was two hours away from Nashville and we had to move quickly because in order to do pre-game there and still make it to Sevierville for post-game, we had to keep moving.
The interesting thing about the road to Chattanooga (which sounds like a network promo for an NCAA tournament) was that we kept seeing these signs for Ruby Falls and Rock City, which I had never heard of before, but I'll not forget soon!

Chattanooga really is on top of a mountain-so much so that the team has an escalator installed at AT&T Field to bring fans from the parking lot to the field.
It's a steep climb and I bet older fans (and ones like me) appreciate the escalator, but the hill is so steep that a down escalator might be a good future investment.
When we left, the hill was pretty steep and I bet some people have fallen through the years at Chattanooga.
Upon entering, we were serenaded by the lady that gives away their programs with "Free Programs, FREE"! She was so loud that you could hear her at the bottom of the hill in the parking lot.
I still hear her mantra in my head a week later!

The team store wasn't really up to an average AA team store to my surprise and I didn't buy anything.
I might have been tempted to buy old team sets, but usually, the team sets from past years are severely discounted and Chattanooga didn't do that at all.
The concourse felt a lot older than a ballpark opened in 2000, but the field was neat and there is a raised grandstand in the right field for some seating and a party deck as well.
We graphed in an area way down the right field line where you could get both teams, which on this day were the Lookouts (Minnesota Twins) and the Biloxi Shuckers (Milwaukee Brewers).
The Lookouts came out from behind a door right beside the right field line, while the Shuckers (and some dazzling blue uniforms) arrived through a door in right center.
I only wish the Shuckers had a hat that combined the blue with the cool oyster logo, they don't and that's too bad because I'd consider buying one of those!

I didn't bring as many cards for the two Sunday stops as I did the previous days, but there were some important players.
Chattanooga's big addition for me was Mason Melotakis, but I was able to get their manager Doug Mientiewicz on two cards for Ryan's showdown set.
It always makes me feel good to get those for Ryan because it was with Ryan after all that I started this crazy hobby that allowed me to make such good friends...
The Shuckers had the biggest catch with new top 100 player Brett Phillips, who was super nice in signing all of my cards. but also added outfielders Victor Roache and Tyrone Taylor as well.

Finally, as we prepared to leave, I was able to see Josh Hader, who I had gotten in Delmarva, and at the California/Carolina All-Star game as he prepared to chart.
Hader signed all three of my cards and when I told him of seeing him in Hagerstown, he asked "That place has more than three showers that work yet"?!
Gotta love the "House of Sadness"!!
I grabbed a frozen lemonade from the concession stand that was more slush puppie than frozen lemonade but was still very good before we traversed the hill that I noted earlier and made the two-hour trip to Sevierville, my buddy Corey White, and the Tennessee Smokies.

The Smokies ballpark was different than the one that we left back in 2011.

There were plenty of decks and buildups beyond the outfield fence in both left and right fields that didn't exist in my previous visit.
Compare the picture that I took and compare it to the 2011 picture to see some differences.
The Smokies had built things up in the ballpark and the players now stay in the hotel built next door rather than the Days Inn down the road (Corey said it had burnt down).
Meeting up with Corey, swapping items, helping Corey with Birmingham pitcher Tyler Danish and getting the lowdown on the Smokies along with the visiting Birmingham Barons, and getting to see the final two innings of the game all wrapped up the prep work for the final graphing stop of the trip.
After a team shop stop for another Doug Hopkins program, we went outside to add the Barons as the teams exit from opposite sides of the stadium.
The big get for me was 2015 first-rounder Carson Fulmer on his top 100.
Fulmer was nice enough, although the signature isn't very neat and I got to see a long-time favorite in Nicky Delmonico, a former Frederick Key that is always very accommodating.
Some other Barons were added although Courtney Hawkins slipped out somehow and getting Fulmer as well as Corey's top 100 help with Willy Adames and Conor Gillespie among others in the early year made this a great stop.

The drive home was long, but fun as we did the podcast that you see below and lots of chat with my buddies.
Thanks to Kendall for all the legwork and planning and to Derreck for setting up things on the trip.
I appreciate everything and value your friendship.
Thanks for having me!

Whew! Now that the trip recap is over, I've got a large inbox to straighten out, Cavaliers this evening. a boxing challenge to do and plan for yes -another trip this weekend!
Thanks for reading and I'll be back soon....