PIMA and Major League Baseball--Day 8

Tucson, Arizona: the city of unfulfilled expectations, hot weather and oddly-spelled locations.

We all awoke in the morning to a beautiful morning followed by a fairly uneventful (and rather bland) continental breakfast on behalf of the Super 8 Motel that is nestled in the rougher part of town. With Aaron and Rick planning on driving into Phoenix for a pre-season White Sox and the rest of us planning on spending most of the day looking at classic planes, we all drove off to the Pima Air & Space Museum to part our ways—a task that took much more time than expected, thanks to Aaron's GPS system. On the route to Pima, we were all treated to a view of an Air Force field full of airplanes that rekindled our childhood fascinations: AV-8B Harrier II's, A-10 Thunderbolt (Warthog) II's and more C-130 Hercules' than we can count.

Once arrived at Pima, we were greeted to more planes that we had only seen in pictures and were eager to see and touch in person. As we had expected, the plane-related highlights involved seeing the SR-71, the A-10 Warthog, B-29 Superfortress, the B-377 Super Guppy and the numerous amounts of fighter jets—both foreign and domestic. Beyond the planes that were baking in the sun, we were able to look up in the sky and see actual fighter jets practicing maneuvers for quite a long time: real A-10s, F-15 Eagles and C-130s that were flying right above us at the museum. For some reason, all of us were fixated on the planes which were probably doing nothing more than routine flying, rather than the antiques that were within reach—but we weren't concerned at all. We had originally planned to be at the Pima museum from opening at 9 to closing at 5, but soon found out that we were tired and had finished our rounds at the museum by around 12:30, which was a far cry short of the full eight hours that we had intended on spending there.

Since we were roughly five hours ahead of schedule, we decided that we would find a way of getting back to our hotel, which seemed to be only a few miles away from us. Mike pulled out his cell and called us a cab, and we sat around creating general havoc and mischief only to find out that our cab probably wasn't going to come as we had intended. As we were heading out the museum entrance, a volunteer greeter at the museum offered us a ride closer to our hotel, and we decided that we didn't have much to lose so we gladly took it. Little did we know that this short ride would be the highlight of the day; our grateful driver happened to be a retired United States Air Force pilot, who told us more information about flying and the close-by air fields than we would have ever guessed. He told us about his days flying A-26 Invaders, F-80 Shooting Stars and T-38 Talons, and of how the USAF would let pilots borrow them for flying. We could have easily talked for a few hours, but unfortunately we had to part our ways. The rest of the day had been uneventful, with all of us getting our well-deserved rest and enjoying our relatively-cheap Subway sandwiches.

All in all, a good day with nothing to complain about.

FROM THE BASEBALL GUYS:

Anyone who knows Rick knows that he is HUGE baseball fan. HUGE in capital letters is perhaps something that is a bit too small for that sort of a statement. When we found out that one of his favorite teams--the Boston White Sox--would only be a short hop up the I-10 to Phoenix for a Cactus League game, a plan was hatched to make sure that we would be able to take it in. Major League beaseball! In temperatures that are much more than summer like! Whoo-Hooo!

Rick, for the entire trip, has been carrying along a baseball. He desperately wanted this ball signed by his favorite players, but we had a problem. We didn't have anything that would write on it! As we rocketed down I-10, we kept our eyes peeled at every interstate exit for something along the lines of a Wal-Mart or Staples. We saw one or two, but American Interstates are very different from Canadian Highways.... if you miss your turn, you are going to go a long, long, way before you have a chance to turn off again!

As we pulled into Phoenix, we decided that our best strategy was to get off the freeway, and to use our GPS to find the nearest Wal-Mart or Staples. It worked! We found that there was a Staples only a few blocks away! Armed with a pack of Sharpies, we headed for the ball park.

As we arrived, the Sox were still out on the field doing their Pregame warmup. Eager fans lined the dugout and field boxes, hoping for autographs, and Rick was no different! As the Designated Hitter of the Sox came out on to the field, a surge of fresh hopefuls lined up pens, shirts, and pennants waving. Somehow, Rick managed to work his way to the front, and Thome grabbed his ball, nodded, and signed!

"Wow," Rick exclaimed, "this is certainly on of the highlights of the whole trip!"

The Arizona sun shone brightly, and temperatures neared the mid thirties. Although it was a pre-season game, all the sounds and excitement of a full-fledged mid season game were there. We were sitting on the Soxs' side of the field, and many of the fans had traveled from Chicago to see them play in Arizona. Dedicated or what? Quite a few of them also were knowlegeable in Hockey speak, and were quite rightfully proud of the young and up and coming team that they now have in Chicago.

Unfortunately, the Sox ran into a some pitching trouble in the third, and this led to four run lead for the A's. Although the Sox starting chipping away at this lead in the innings that followed, they never completed recovered, and a two run Eigth inning by the A's pretty much sealed the deal... 6-2 A's!

However, the autographs, (particularily the one by Jim Thome!) more than made up for the shortfall on the field. The ball is safely tucked away in a camera bag, safe from the heat, and incapable of sustaining any injury!