2 Weeks and Counting

The end of March is already in sight. It’s been a good week, the RV (now officially named Shirley) has passed its mechanical check and is almost ready to roll. I have an appointment with an electrical shop to get the dashboard coach functions working properly. The previous owner really messed up the wiring for things like the dash fans, map lights, and so on. The Electrical Technician worked at an RV shop prior to working at Tunez 4 Us in Grass Valley and says he can fix it. He can also reinstall the Pioneer radio/CD player so it works in the Accessory position on the ignition switch.

Virgin Broadband provided a solution for the internet connectivity issue by selling me a USB 3G wireless connection, that flashes as it works and 5 gigs of data for $60 a month, with no contract. I’ve tried it out and it seems to work just fine.

My friends, Sue and George, gave me a book titled "The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip." It's a guide to all the ballparks with great info on almost everything. It has phone numbers for all the ticket offices so I won't have to deal with mlb.com or its horrible on-line system.

The fine folks at Don Adams Antenna and Satellite just set me up with a dish, tripod, signal meter, and compass so I can enjoy DISH TV in Shirley. I can just take my home receiver and have all the comforts of home on the road (except Phyllis, of course).

I just ordered Dodger tickets and this will be a home opener like San Diego. They were very expensive, I got two seats in Oakland for less than one upper deck seat at the Ravine.

I received some bittersweet news this week- My youngest son Mike, will be getting married May 15, very sweet! The bitter part is, I will be somewhere between New York and Toronto at the time. I’ve been given an early forgiveness chit from them.

My oldest son, Vince, has a website, Indigo Sky Photography. That’s Mason, my grandson on the “cover.” He will graduate from high school in June and I hope it will be late enough that I will be back in time for it.

That’s about it for now. Here’s my itinerary for the whole trip. I’ll break it down in detail as the dates get closer.

3 Weeks and Counting

Preparations for the adventure continue as it is now less than a month away. My mechanic has run into personal problems so I am now scheduled into a different shop for Monday.. Thanks to Home Depot, I now have window treatments and they did not cost anywhere near $1000 and seem to work quite adequately. Again, “Sorry, Blindman!”

Another recent purchase is a new digital camera so I can take some good pictures from the trip and keep you up-to-date visually as well. It’s a Canon PowerShot A1100 / 12.1 megapixels and as you can see from the picture, it is pink. I am secure enough with my masculinity to carry and use a pink camera, especially one that was $50 less than any of the other colors!

Currently I’m attempting to find a solution to my traveling internet connection issue. I had assumed I’d simply go down to the Verizon store and buy an AirCard for my laptop computer and that would be pretty much all there was to it. Unfortunately Verizon has other ideas and would like me to sign a multi-year contract even though I only need it for 3 months. So needless to say, I’m exploring other options and will let you know when I’ve found the solution. Otherwise, my posting may be very sporadic and far between if I am limited to WiFi hotspots along the way.

I’ve started doing a little more thorough research on RV parking in and around the ballparks I’ll be visiting and found very little available in the San Diego, CA area around PETCO Park, the home of the Padres. I got their toll free information number from their website and expected to spend a good deal of time navigating an automated phone maze without speaking to a live human being or getting any usable information. I was wrong and not only got great information and advice from well-informed and friendly personnel but was asked if I was aware the game I was inquiring about was their home opener and did I already have a ticket? My answer was “No.” to both questions and they were very helpful in remedying that situation also.

A really big THANK YOU to two great people in the Padres organization, Barbara and Crystal for all your help!

Okay, I think that about covers it for now. It may be a while before my next post, my home PC is going in for some maintenance but I’ll get back on schedule as soon it’s back and hopefully working much more efficiently than it has been lately.

My Home for 63 Days

This is the motor home which will take me on my journey. I haven't named her yet but surely (Whoa!! How about Shirley!?!) something will come to mind. She is at the mechanic's place getting checked out.

My lovely wife Phyllis has been doing the interior decorating and has procured classy bedding with shams and a throw, throw pillows for the sofa, and fabric to recover some worn areas. She is also on a mission to find new window treatments (don't you love these fancy decorating terms I'm throwing out?). The blind man obviously thought he could smell money because he only wanted a thousand dollars to replace 7 window coverings!!! Sorry Blindman, I must be going blind also 'cause I can't see my sorry ass paying a thousand bucks for curtains! If anyone has some old bedsheets send them to me and I will tack them up over the windows.

RV Preparations

Preparations are going well for the motor home. I will take it to my mechanic tomorrow, two days ahead of schedule.

Here are some of the repairs I have made. I replaced the side partitions on the shower and replaced the bathroom and kitchen faucets with real ones instead of the cheap plastic RV fixtures. This include repacing a broken coupling for the kitchen faucet. The local RV place had a magic fitting that simply pushed onto the supply line and clicked into place. That was the easiest plumbing repair I have ever done.

The previous owner (PO) had a gawd-awful mess for the "home entertainment" system so it had to be redone. I removed all the coax cable and multi-device switches and went back to basics. I now have a nice flat screen LCD TV mounted on a cabinet door in the bedroom. Behind the door is a DVD player and storage for remotes, DVDs, and whatever else I might want to view. There is another TV in the overhead between the driver's seat and the passenger seat. It too has a DVD player hooked directly to it. Both DVD players play CDs so now music is only a few buttons away. The regular radio is all screwed up so my mechanic is going to sort that out. The PO had some morphodite system that would only let the radio work if the toilet seat was up and the left turn signal was flashing.

I had a blind man come out and take a look at the windows and I plan on replacing the window shades with pleated blinds, a little more modern and tasteful (The blind man had no problem seeing the windows). I can only hope the price is reasonable.

The bedroom has real tight quarters and the previous owner managed to put a foot through the lower wall next to the bed. I took some plywood and made some wainscotting which will take a little more abuse than the masonite walls.

I have a local cabinet shop looking for some T-moulding to replace some that is pretty well beat up and Phyllis took some fabric covered trim pieces with her so she could get replacement fabric.

With all of these repairs done or in progress I feel good about being ready to roll come April 8.

If I knew how to post pictures I would add them and if I knew how to copy documents to the blog I would post my itinerary. I WILL learn these skills so I can post photos during my adventure.

First Post

This is my blog for a 63-day, 30 ballpark odyssey. I am going to every major league baseball park in the US and Canada.

My trip starts on April 8 with the Oakland A's and ends with my Giants on June 11.

I am currently putting some finishing touches on the interior of my 1996 Damon Daybreak motor home. The home is 31' long and in real good shape. I hope to have the interior done by March 13 and then it will go to my mechanic for an extensive inspection to ensure it is able to go 14,000 miles without incident.

I have started buying tickets for selected games at iconic parks such as Fenway and Wrigley. I am also buying tickets for games where someone will meet me. I am meeting three friends in Philly for example and I want to make sure we are all together. I am using both Stub Hub and the MLB sites. Stub Hub is a snap to use while the MLB sites are pretty cumbersome. I can pay more at Stub Hub if I want the convenience or pay face value at the MLB sites if I have time to burn.

This is my first attempt at blogging so I am going to post this just to see what happens.