15 Down, 15 To Go.

I spent Friday in Honesdale with Jack Fives. Honesdale is east of Scranton and is a nice town with lots of history. Coal used to be mined there and the coal was delivered from the mountains by a gravity railroad. Empty cars would be hauled to the top of the mountains, filled with coal, then coast downhill to the regular railroad. The first commercial locomotive in the US was put in service at Honesdale. Jack was kind enough to set up a date for Shirley. She has done almost 5,000 miles so his mechanic is doing a service and fixing a couple of things. The cooling system is still not 100% so they are going over it with a fine tooth comb. It seems there is no exchange of coolant between the plastic reservoir and the radiator which indicates a vacuum leak somewhere. She doesn’t have to travel again until May 15 so now is a good time to get her checked. This is the last real layover of the trip which has now passed the halfway mark in days and ballparks.

I rented a car so I could visit the Mid Atlantic and New England area in style. My first stop was in NYC for a Mets game. I used two toll roads and three bridges on this leg of the trip and had to take out a second mortgage on the house to pay the tolls. Sure is expensive just getting in and out of NYC.

The Mets play at Citi Field which was brand new last year. The park is very nice but has no distinctive characteristics. The game was a good one especially after the Giants’ starter left the game. The guys name is Todd Wellemeyer but it should have been Ballenmeyer because at one point he had thrown 75% of his pitches for balls. He seemed unclear of the pitching concept and must have thrown 30 pitches to first base. Did he really think the back-up catcher was a threat to steal? My Giants came from behind and tied the game in the eighth. It stayed tied until the 11th inning when Henry Blanco, catcher for the Mets, hit a walk-off home run. That is two games in a row that the Mets won with walk-off homers, and interestingly both players are catchers. My Giants cannot be doing this if they want to contend in the National League West.

As usual my seat mates were great. Maybe baseball brings out the best in folks. Robert and Lou attend quite a few games and have been to a number of parks. Lou is pretty vocal which surprised me because New Yorkers have such a reputation as quiet, mild mannered folks. Oh, wait a minute; I guess the quiet, mild mannered folks are from Maine. Lou should manage the Mets because he second guessed every move Manager Jerry Manuel made and was right more often than Manuel. Robert is a little less vocal and obviously loved his Mets. They were both very excited when Blanco won the game but didn’t rub it in about my Giants losing.

I had a moment of panic after the game. I didn’t want to jump right into the New York traffic so I fooled around and let some of the cars leave the parking lot. When I got to the parking lot I suddenly realized I didn’t know where I had parked the rental. I was very focused on getting to a parking lot, then buying a ticket to the game and forgot to establish a landmark. “Oh poop,” I said, or something like that. I remembered I was close to the park, I was close to the ticket windows and I was on the left field side of the park. I knew the car was grayish blue and had Pennsylvania plates HLT 4348. I stood around in the general area and tried to look like I was waiting for someone rather than a fool who had lost his car. Finally enough cars left that I was able to locate the rental and leave the park.

I finally escaped the city and drove up to New London, Connecticut and spent the night. Sunday I will go up to Boston, sightseeing and Monday night, go to Fenway.