Well, I have a new partner in my travels, Ms. Stephanie Gagnon. Thanks for indulging me, dear! So Salem… Due to the Memorial Day weekend, I get a three day weekend! We left early, since we didn’t know for sure where we were going to be camping that night. Roanoke Mountain Campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway was our goal. We got sidetracked by the Booker T. Washington National Monument, which was somewhat of a recreated farm where he was born into slavery. Good little museum, worth a 13 mile jaunt off of the main road. When we got to Roanoke Campground, apparently they have closed it. National Park cutbacks I’m guessing.
Anyway, we find another campground and then head into Salem to the Red Sox. This is a high-A level farm team for the Red Sox. Going to the stadium was easy to find, and ample onsite and free parking! A bit concrete looking from the outside, but it looks like a nice big stadium. The tickets are higher priced by 2 bucks if you buy it on game day. I think that is kind of lame, but I think that is starting to be more common in minor league parks. The ticket windows seemed small as well, though there ended up being 8 cashiers. The line was long, by moved along nicely. Only four ticket takers though. We got into the park and first noticed the mountains past the right field fence. I am a sucker for mountains, and especially as a backdrop for a baseball game. The stadium seemed quite clean, with nice blue fold up seats and ample leg room. It looked huge, but the listed capacity was only 6400. There are no lawn seats, all general admission is just the upper level seats. The bull pens were located in a funny spot, rather hidden from half the spectators. The food was good, I had a Midwest Twister Dawg, which was hot dog with barbecue sauce, wrapped in bacon with cheese on top. As awesome as it sounds. Except it too us an inning and a half to get it! Their food selections, while tasty, did not have enough capacity to handle a crowd of 6100 The beer selection was not bad, and 6.25 for a craft draft, not abnormal for a ball game these days. They had a really nice open are behind home plate, under the skyboxes. It had a brick bar, and some tables you could sit at or stand at while still watching the game. It made it feel nice and open when you entered the park. The Team store was nice enough, but also another slow moving and long checkout line before the game. We went back in the fifth inning to get the hat, and they only have the 59fifty NewEra fitted hats that I don’t really like. Bummer. Basic hat, a red S in the Boston Red Sox font on blue back ground, red brim.
The ball game was back and forth, with Salem tied 5-5 going into the ninth. Potomac scored a run in the top of the ninth, making it 6-5 Lynchburg got a runner on, got him to third with one out. I then made a comment to Stephanie that she should work on learning to tell if the ball was a homerun of the bat, without having to look out in the outfield at the rest of the play. Right on cue, walkoff homerun!!!! Salem wins, 7-6. After the game, they were showing a movie on the scoreboard. It was SUperhero night at the ballpark, so it was The Avengers. The scoreboard was really small, and we didn’t really feel like staying. It looked like only a few hundred were staying for the movie.
Overall, a nice experience
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