Game On

Tuesday I drove about 250 miles to Houston in the rental car. I didn’t realize Houston was so big. It is the 4th largest city in the US. The downtown area is a mass of skyscrapers. There is a lot of renovation going on in the downtown area and it is looking pretty good. The Theater District is very nice with lots of modern buildings.

I found a parking space on the street in downtown and was able to keep it until 6 p.m. when parking is no longer metered. The spot was about four blocks from Minute Maid Park, home of the Astros. I got to the park when the gates opened so I left a ticket at Will Call for my friend, Chris Morales. Phyllis and I met Chris and his wife Kim when we took a cruise a few years ago. They were table mates and a very nice young couple. We have maintained casual contact over the years so I invited Chris to the Astro game.

I was inside the park watching batting practice when my phone rang. I looked at the number and saw it was Chris. “Oh, crap,” I thought, “Chris can’t make it!” I answered the phone and he said “You don’t have to stand up for me.”I turned around and he was standing right behind me. It was really good to see him again.

Chris is now a Daddy to Maddy and the family has moved from Austin to the suburbs of Houston. He is a geologist for Schlumberger, pronounced Schlum-bear-jhay according to Chris. Schlumberger is a global oilfield and resources information services company. It is the largest company in its field in the US. Kim works for the State of Texas Environment Protection agency. Aren’t these careers mutually exclusive?

Minute Maid Park is gorgeous, even nicer than Coors Field in Denver. It has some quirks like a real short left field porch and an uphill pitch in center. It has a retractable roof which was open because it was perfect baseball weather.


The game was the best of the trip so far. The Marlins started fast but the Astros kept pecking away until the 8th when they broke the game open with three runs. They ended up with 7 runs so the 6-run streak has started again.

Chris suggested I go back to Arlington via Austin. He suggested I stay overnight in a town called Bat Droppings or something like that. I took his advice and drove to Bastrop. Wednesday morning I came back to Treetop RV park via Austin where I saw the State Capitol, the University of Texas Tower, and the UT stadium where the Longhorns play. Chris and I have this Longhorn-Trojan thing, hence the ugly burnt orange ball cap.

I got back to Arlington and went to Joe’s Radiator Shop to pick up Shirley who successfully recovered from a circulatory system transplant. In addition to fixing Shirley, the guys at the shop made a case of Coors Light vanish from her fridge. (They also made a huge chunk of money vanish. Ahh, peace of mind is not cheap)

I got Shirley back to the RV park and gave her a very nice sponge bath and cleaned a week’s worth of grime off her. I would have given her a complete shower but park rules prohibit it.

Thursday’s schedule includes the Texas Motor Speedway and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.