The first full day of our trip away from home had us get up at the crack of 9:30 and head for a yummie complimentary breakfast. A friend of mine told me, "the more you pay, the less you get". Boy howdy! I am now typing this from the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Indianapolis, and you think there is complimentary anything...NAAAA.
We finally boot scooted about 11am and headed towards our next stop in Fort Wayne. We were to meet with a long-time colleugue of mine, Dawn. She is the Greenways Director for the city, and with trails in our blood, we make good friends. We arrived in Fort Wayne in time to meet Dawn at a downtown dive called Coney Island. It's "famous" for hot dogs, so that's what we ordered. Not bad. Quick too which gave us time to get to the park.
We walked down to Parkview Field, which is home to the Tin Caps. This is a fantastic stadium, with a lively fan base. It looks a lot like Gary's, but more inviting. Maybe it was the colors, but it sure seems to feel a lot cozier. Of course Gary has US Steel and the tollroad in their outfield, while Fort Wayne's downtown is shown off at Parkview's. This is the second largest city in Indiana, so the view is pretty impressive - especially with the county courthouse in the background.
The game did start on time even though the skies above looked threatening. In fact, Dawn had traveled east to her mom's home earlier in the day and it was raining. Checking my phone, it looked bad, but thankfully, it only "spit" rain for a spell...and that's all. It was quite humid however, and I did work up a sweat easily. Dawn seemed a bit miserable, but we did have some tasty libations to help refresh us.
Before the game, as I did last year, I arranged for a tour of the press box. We meet this representative named Michael during the 5th inning, and he proceeded to take us up and around the whole field. We were quite surprised at how small the press area was...the control room looked so packed as to consistute a fire hazzard! After that he took us to the place called the "Treetop" - or a special outfield section way above the concourse...great views! Afterwards we decided to sit in the outfield seats by the wall for the rest of the game, which the Tin Caps ended up winning 2-1. That's 3-0 for the hometeams we visited.
From there we bid Dawn adieu, and hit the road for our next visit in Indy. On the way the skies finally opened up, and how. While driving, I talked Sam into visiting Muncie and Ball State's campus. Being a small-time college fan, he was very agreeable. We managed to get ourselves a bit lost looking for the football stadium, but finally located it. It was off to Indy from there, where we are now awaiting a 2am visit to Steak 'n Shake to enjoy their "happy hour". Sam REALLY wants to do this, and we have nothing planned for the morning...so here we go!
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