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An Interesting Trip
By Gooch | July 29, 2007
Back from the Baltimore trip and this is how I can describe the trip: interesting. Having never been to Baltimore, only passing through it on my way down south, I was curious to see how this would turn out. The main goal was a following the Yankees on a road trip but being that we had some time before the game I also wanted to explore a little, since it’s my thing. So without further ado . . . the highlights!
Friday Afternoon/Night: I pick Jo up from the train station in Metuchen, which allows easy access to the NJ Turnpike. The trip down took longer than it should have. We hit rubbernecking for an accident on the other side for what seems like 15 miles. I-295 and the Delaware Turnpike are a mess because of the construction they’re doing on the Turnpike. Then there’s NE Maryland. Heading south I can see the most ominous clouds in the sky. Lightning flashing in the distance multiple times. Behind me is hazy, and slightly cloudy but sunny weather. The more I go into MD, the darker it gets. Then we start to get underneath the thunderstorm and the thunder was quite loud and I could feel it in my accelerator pedal. Next thing you know, traffic slows down bad and the skies open up. It was a downpour of major proportions. Eventually we get past the storm and the rest of the way is rain free. Total Trip Time: 3h 45min We get to the hotel, a Motel 6 by BWI Airport and well it’s quite interesting. We had a pretty scary looking manager. Get our room and it’s a small room. We drop off our bags and decide to do some exploring of the area to find a 7-Eleven type place. Well, the town that we’re in, it’s like you find a couple of places (local restaurants and gas stations) and then you basically go into residential areas for miles. We end up driving around for like an hour until we find Royal Farms which is a 7-Eleven type place. We get some stuff then head back to Hardee’s which is across the street from the hotel. Jo had never had it so that’s why we go there. I’m happy because they have REAL sweet tea. We go back to the room and retire for the night.
Saturday: We get up and head to the Light Rail station (we decided to take that in since the highway I wanted to take is way under construction so traffic would have been horrendous). One thing about the hotel was that there’s a truck (minus the trailer part) sitting in the corner of the lot just idling away since we got there the night before. Another thing is as we’re walking to the car, we see 2 county police cars in the lot and we see the officers waiting to go to a room. We get to the station and take the train into Baltimore and get off at Camden Yards. We start walking towards the Inner Harbor which is very nice. The Visitor Center has lots of things to do and maps (so you know I grabbed a bunch). The Maryland Science Center is also there so we decide to go there. It’s a VERY cool place. Lots of fun exhibits. One thing they also have are Segway rides. I saw that on the way in and I knew I had to do that. Once we were done with the center, I get my Segway ticket and wait. I finally get on and at first it’s a little scary. There is a person who trains you on how to use it. Eventually I get the hang of it and start tooling around . . . until my Segway dies. The trainer comes running over and I tell him what happens. He goes in and gets the fully charged one and I get back on. I enjoy my 10 total minutes and by the time I’m all done, it’s time to head toward the stadium. We see a LOT of Yankee fans there, but we also figure that a lot of Orioles fans are at Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame Induction of Cal Ripken Jr. We enter the stadium on Eutaw Street. We get some of Boog’s Barbecue and make our way to the seats. Camden Yards is very nice. You can definitely see the old time style. The game starts and Yankee fans are totally in the house. One thing that Jo and I both noticed as the Game went on was how there were no vendors in the seats, well at least in the upper deck. We see one vendor in the 6th inning selling beer and that’s it. We just found that very weird. Being that the Yanks are getting somewhat blown out, we leave before the top of the 9th and go in the SPorts Legends Museum store. Well we start seeing the Yankees come back on the screens. They still lost but it just sucked that we missed the good part live. Back on the Light Rail and to the hotel. Grab some food and retire.
Sunday: We get up and get ready to head back home. The truck is STILL idling. We figure someone must know, so we load up and hit the road. It took a while to get home as it seems that EVERYTHING was backed up. Maryland isn’t so bad. Delaware sucks and the NJ Turnpike also sucks. Eventually get back to NY. Drop Jo at home and then I’m back here. Total Trip Time: 7h (which included a stop to eat)
All in all it was a nice trip. The hotel was scary. The stadium was cool (except the vendor issue). We both had a lot of fun. All the pictures from this weekend can be found here.
Topics: Driving, Jo, Roads, Trips, Yankees | 1 Comment »
One Response to “An Interesting Trip”
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August 16th, 2007 at 12:23 am
The stadium was cool – except for the vendor issue, and the fact that the bathrooms were as hot as a sauna! People should not be at the sinks pouring water on themselves as they wait in line for a stall. LOL
As for the hotel, you forgot about chickie with the teeth that literally looked like they were made of bleachd wood. LOL And how the “lobby” had no air conditioning, but the little section across with the vending machines was freezing. LOL
Overall though I would still stay there again. We basically only used the room to watch tv for a bit / eat dinner and sleep. The room was clean (especially the bathroom) and the bed wasn’t bad – so it fulfilled it’s purpose. (Still trying to figure out though why there was that copper scrubbing pad inside the lamp though. LOL)