Well, I started the day hiking at Monte Sano SP in AL. I am figuring I did about 6mi or so. Nothing spectacular, not a technical hike, just a couple of steep areas, often flat and wide-ish paths. But I would like to commend them on a fine trail map. This is the way it should be done. Have a legit map, color coded, that says difficulty ratings(although I think they overated some), and that has different blazes for different paths. It is hard when in the woods you have a diverging path, that both have white blazes. Here, choose the yellow or the red path. Although the forks here had nice signposts.
Onto Nashville- I was hoping to stay at a state park, but it is Memorial Day Weekend. TN State parks are first come first served, so that didn’t work. I called when I first drove into TN and realized this before I drove to it, so i ended up staying at Yogi Bear Jellystone Resort right near Opryland. I like state parks better, but in the big city, this was actually kind of convenient. And its Yogi Bear!
Now the game…. Nashville was playing the Iowa Cubs, our AAA affiliate. And my childhood hero, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is the manager. So that was awesome. Before the game, he had a line of fans getting his autograph. I wonder what it is like to be a player on that team, and seeing your manager sign autographs for half an hour while you are warming up. The sky was threatening, but the game got underway. In the bottom of the first, it started raining, and pretty hard. They played through it. Before the top of the second, it started to taper off. So they decided to put the tarp out then! Ryno was not happy- a theme for the night. After about 20 minutes, they took it off. It started raining again. Nice job umps. But this time it wasn’t too bad. But I was wet and cold the rest of the game.
It was neat to know some of the players, the Cubs who have been in the bigs. Like Micah Hoffpauir. He was up to bat, and struck out on a check swing. He wasn’t happy and made a gesture(which had to have been accompanied by some words) and was immediately tossed out. I was sitting in the fourth row behind the dugout, and I couldn’t hear anything. It must of been bad, because just pointing at the ump, while stupid, seems like something that could be let go. Then he got mad. Getting up in the umps face. Then Ryno, who was coaching 3rd base as most minor league managers do, came down to get between Hoffpauir and the ump. It got a little heated, but everyone went on their way. The next inning, when Ryno was in the dugout, the ump called a Nashville player out on strikes, with an unconvincing strike 3 call. As an ump myself, that sounded like the ump forgot it was strike 3 when he started the call, and then had to make it sound good at the end. Ryno must have said something, about the ump goofing, because the ump in his most grown up voice turned to the dugout and told him to be quiet. Anyway, the game continued, and the Cubs made a great comeback, and were up 5-4 when in came Brian Schlitter to save the game. Oops. After a base hit, they got a walkoff homer. Cubs lose, 6-5. The stadium was a 30 yr old stadium, not a great scoreboard(although cool shape). Not a good pro shop, or concessions. Once again, kind of empty, but I’ll blame that on the weather. The in game promotions were fine, and being able to sit where I wanted was nice. I like ushers that don’t care. And really, when 1/4 of the stadium is full, who cares?
Mileage: 94395
Tent takedown: 4:40
Tent setup: 10:31 (I spent the time and cleaned out the ends of the poles, one of which has a crack that is getting bigger)
Nashville itself seems like a fun place. I don’t even like country music, but it is neat to walk down the street and hear so much live music, regardless of the time of day. Also, you saw some places closed due to flooding rehab, and saw a lot of construction trucks around. It is hard to believe that downtown had that much water covering it.
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