Day 20: Tampa Bay

Well, we went from the "House that Ruth Built" to the "House that Needs to be Re-Built" as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays hosted the Atlanta Braves at Tropicana Field today. Both pitchers were excellent, but Chuck James was the victor for the Braves, going 8 innings and allowing only 1 run. Since I hadn't lost with them yet on the trip, I had picked the Devil Rays, but their 4-1 loss ended my winning streak, so Ben only trails 11-4 on picking games on the trip.



One of the very nice things about the D-Rays game though, was that the stadium had free parking. They are the only organization to offer that, which was a very nice perk. Actually, that allowed us to purchase some food in the stadium, so I had a foot long hot dog that was absolutely amazing, while Ben enjoyed a 1/2 lb. burger from Checker's.



We left Jacksonville at 8 this morning, and after about 3 and 1/2 hours, made it to the stadium for the game. Afterwards, it was about 4 hours to Coral springs, where we are staying with my brother Al, and his family. Special thanks to the Henderson family for giving us a place to stay last night, and also for the lively baseball conversation.

We also had our 1st casualty of the trip, as a small, black bird flew into the lower left side of the windshield while we were doing about 75 mph on the highway. I was sleeping, and the loud thump certainly made me jump. Ben looked in the rear view mirror and saw it bounce along the side of the road after ricocheting off the windshield and caromming onto an adjacent slab of concrete.



Driving to Coral Springs was a bit of an adventure, as a strong rain storm prevented us from going top speed through Alligator Alley in the Everglades. Other than the frequent tolls in South Florida, we have decided that Florida has some of the best interstate systems on the East Coast. They have a consistent 70 mph speed limit, mostly flat and straight roads, and very little construction compared to the other highways East of the Mississippi.

Here are the statistical updates:
1-end of day odometer: 23,927
2-miles traveled today: 515
3-miles traveled total: 7,284
4-states traveled in today: Florida
bonus stat: if the visiting team scores at least 1 run in the 7th inning, they are 4-0 on our trip
*Pictures are now up for Days 16-20!