I spent Monday at the American History Smithsonian Museum. 

  On my way to the museum.

  Across from the American History Smithsonian.

  A sign near the Julia Child exhibit.  My mother may have snuck this in.  Sad, but probably true sentiment.

  An exhibit on travel.  It states I-10 goes for 2500 miles.  I think I only did about 1500+ of them on this trip!

  Not the normal picture of George Washington I am used to seeing.

  Would someone please show this to out presidential candidates, or better yet, the American electorate!

  I walked out of the museum and saw the Good Humor truck and thought an ice cream would be great.  Alas, it is just another exhibit for the museum.

  Who is the true thinker here???  The most intriguing item in the sculpture garden to me.

Tuesday, a tour and the Air and Space Museum before the Washington nationals game.  Thanks to Ed for arranging the ticket, even though he cannot join us.   I leave town Wednesday morning as the trip is now 9 weeks old and is winding down.

Friday through Sunday were spent at the National Convention.  I actually spent less at the show than I think I did at all the card shops along the way.  It was still great to catch up with a bunch of old friends and dealers.  I also got to meet a handful of OBCers I had not met before.

  Nick who previously hosted me in Minnesota area must be the sweet one.

  Joel Freedman needs to say cheese(cake).

  The Champion (card collector!)

After the show I drove Mac Wubben back to Washington DC, where we will go to the Nationals game on Tuesday.

Army orders to report to Richmond!

I always had concerns about registering for the draft.  I finally received orders from the army to report to Richmond, VA.

  Army Maj. Joseph and LaShell Denning treated me to lunch.  With Joe hobbled after recent knee surgery, I was afraid I would be activated.  Fortunately for the country I was not.

This is for my dad.  Joe is no longer a fish, because ...

he no longer has 2knees.

  I then drove straight through (if you can call being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, straight through) to Atlantic City to meet up with my OBC brethren for the National Sports Collectors Convention. 

No Bull it was almost a perfect nite

I left Georgia and headed to Raleigh to meet up with Bob Neill.  Timed it almost exact for him to get home from work.  After some nice BBQ burgers we headed back to see the Durham Bulls. 

  Calling a little leaguer out.  You got to get the bat off your shoulder to get a hit!

  There was a real Crash Davis, not just Kevin Costner in the movie.

  Another small crowd, but this was well before the game.

  The mascot Wool E Bull

  I hit the bull, but I did not get a steak!

  Ignore the spelling error of the number 6 hitter and notice who is leading off for the Norfolk Tide.  Yes, that is Carl's grandson.

Norfolk changed pitchers a couple of times but had a combined PERFECT game going into the 9th inning.  They then brought in former Detroit Tigers reliever, Tom Gorzelanny.  After 1 out, a sharply hit ball to the 3rd baseman was misplayed for an error to break up the perfect game.  The next batter got a single to end the no-hitter.  I was rooting for the perfect game as I have never even seen a no-hitter.

Home of the Brave(s)

I left Florida and started the trek back north(west).  As usual, I found a Museum on the way to my ultimate destination.  Atlanta was the destination.  I remembered I had a 1996 Olympics T-shirt,, which were held in Atlanta.  First up was the Museum of Aviation.  I wish I had more time to spend there as it was an excellent museum with lots of stories of flyers, especially from WWII.

  At least this time I did not have any trouble getting to the museum, as it is located adjacent to, but not actually on the base.

  Hundreds of models of planes.

  I have seen movies of Maj. Scott before.

  It was easy to remember where I parked as I was only 50 yards from the Olympic Rings that are still there from 1996.

  The Braves mascot, HOMER.

  The Braves Museum for only $2 was a bargain to me.  Yes, I have each of these cards.

  Giving hitting tips to Hammerin Hank Aaron.

  Just hanging in the dugout until the game starts.

  There were more Pirate fans than Braves fans at the game.

  While not that old, this is the last season for Turner Field, so I am especially glad I got to see it.  You could tell they stopped maintaining it, as little things were not done. 

Tomorrow, on to Raleigh-Durham area and that is no Bull.

8 weeks completed

Today was a R&R day with Larry Tipton in the Jacksonville, FL area.  We just hung out most of the day, before heading to a local card shop late in the afternoon. 

Turns out the store manager is on his way to the National and just about anything I would be interested in was taken with him for the show.  I therefore did not get anything at the card shop except for some free schedules of the Jacksonville Suns and Jacksonville Sharks Arena Football.  Larry also had some free passes to exchange for free tickets to the Jacksonville Suns v Biloxi AA baseball game for tonite. 

  We left the card shop and headed to the ballpark.  The Suns play next door to where the Jacksonville Jaguars play.

  It rained most of the afternoon and the tarp never came off the field.  There was also impressive lightening in the area. 

  There were probably more employees than fans that showed up.

I did pick up a "First Game Certificate" but the game was rained out.  Does the certificate count?  A question that will be debated in baseball circles for years to come.

  These statues are across the street from the stadium.  They are to symbolize lights of peace for all the inhabited continents on earth.  They were just starting to ligh up as we left.  Originally there were 6 of them, but 1 had to be taken down.  My question, which continent is longer supposed to be a beacon of peace???

The sports bar across the street was closed for some unknown reason.  We headed to the Ocean and ate at a restaurant that we had excellent fish and chips.

A very relaxing day overall for me to rest up for this hectic week.  I have now concluded a full 8 weeks on the road.  The trip is scheduled to conclude in 16 more days.  Will I survive this furious finish?  Stay tuned.

 

Florida is a long state

I had driven to my folks condo in Deerfield Beach after the Marlins game.  I then got up and aimed to drive to Hilliard, FL, 20 minutes from Jacksonville in the northeast corner of FL.  So from the bottom to the top, made for a long day of driving.
I kept debating where to do my usual stop.  I had thought about a botanical garden but it was hot and humid.  I actually had some more rain periodically and had to use my wipers again for a few minutes.  The audacity of the weather!  While at a gas stop, I decided to shoot for the Arts and Science Museum in Daytona Beach.  I was chatting on the phone and missed my exit.  Usually I would just keep on going and find something else to do.  For some reason I decided to get off at the next stop and made my way back to the museum.  Great move.  I really enjoyed this museum. 

 My back is still slightly stiff, but I was still surprised that I was seeing stars.  First up was another planetarium show.  

  Of course being in Daytona there were race cars.  Car on the left was the one that won the pole for the 1957 Indy 500.

  The major donor for the museum is the guy who owned a bottling company..  They received the patent for the design of the Coca-Cola bottle.  There was an entire section of the museum dedicated to Coca-Cola items.  (are you looking at this Rosemarie and also Mark???)

  Two full size old fashioned Coke delivery trucks.

  They also had a section of the museum dedicated to teddy bears. 

  a 10 foot tall doll house filled with teddy bears.

  This is 1 of about 8 showcases stuffed with teddy bears.

  They also had 2 full size train cars and a section on trains.

  The obligatory dinosaur in the museum. 

  I had never seen this ancestor of sloths before. 

They also had a kids section, that I got to play with some experiments.  Unfortunately, most were ones I had seen at the previous dozen or so science centers I had been at.  I am so glad I went back and found this museum.  It was a true pleasure and highly recommended if you are ever in the Daytona area.

  I finally made it to Larry "Guru" Tipton's at 5:30.  At 5:40 it started raining.  At 6:00 the downpour started.  It knocked out power to Larry's and we had to look at baseball cards via flashlight and oil lamp!  All told we had 2.43 inches of rain in about 2 hours.  It waited until after I was inside. 

Monday is an R&R day, before heading to Atlanta on Tuesday.  Due to all the driving this week, I may not be able to blog again until next Monday, when I plan on being in Washington DC.  Even then I hope to see a Smithsonian again, and will not spend much time blogging.  I may only have another 40 or so hours of driving to do on the trip, but it will come in clumps.

Come on Ichiro

On Saturday afternoon I received a call from Larry Tipton reminding me that Ichiro had 2998 hits and depending on how he did that nite, may be going for 3000 while I was at the Miami game.  The Marlins were facing the Cardinals.  I was now worried about getting a ticket at a reasonable cost.  I immediately went on line to buy a ticket and my first choice was sold while my order was processing.  I ended up getting a nice ticket in the Lexus Level.  I did have row 1, seat 1, but ended up moving over to a mainly empty section next door and found Lenny who was sitting by himself.  Lenny is also doing a baseball stadium tour, although mainly minor league parks.  he is a BIG Cardinals fan and had been there the previous 2 nites as well.  Unfortunately for both of us, the Marlins whipped the Cardinals 11-0, and Ichiro did not start the game.  He did get into the game and went 0 for 2. 

  Every time the Marlins hit a home run, this lit up and the marlin flew.

  They had a great bobble head display at the park.  Notice the Tigers Paws 2nd row from the bottom.

  It was "Zombie" nite at the ball park.  Here they are dancing to the Michael Jackson Thriller.

  Ichiro at the plate.  An 11-0 game and virtually the entire crowd was on its feet.

  The post-game parade with big heads of Marlins.

While the game was a blow out, and I was by myself and Ichiro did not get a hit, I still had a good time.  The Marlins did not do a good job in customer service though.  Guest services was out of First Game Buttons, and also out of schedules.  I signed up for designated driver but they ran out of coupons so I did not get my free drink.  Considering they should have known they would have a larger crowd, they should have been better prepared.