Roundin' Third and Headed for Home is a Brown-Eyed Handsome Man

Day 13:

Today was a relatively simple day. A simple two hundred mile roound trip that we had just made the day before to take in a ballgame at the Metrodome between the Twins and the Blue Jays.

Watching a ballgame in the climate controlled Metrodome is very different from watching one back home. We didn't have to truck in the tradional hats and sunscreen or the blankets for after the sun went down. The goldilocks not-too-hot, not-too-sunny environment might not be traditional in a game replete with tradition but it was just fine with me. For balance, the food was a little more traditional that the Bay Area parks; there were no garlic fries or churros. There was just normal ballpark food: hot dogs, brats, barbeque and popcorn.

We came in during the top of the first, delaying our lunch in favor of getting the kids settled in the seats. We walked up the stairs to the second deck in this unfamiliar stadium only to be greeted by a kindly gentleman who asked us to wait in the tunnel until between batters. This courtesy is traditional at hockey games and I really appreciated it. As it turns out, we were released just in tiem to get to our seats (228, row 5) to see Frank Thomas hit his 500th career homerun! It took me several batters go get used to the scoreboard setup. When you've been going to the same ballparks all your life, you often take for granted the positioning of all the informational scoreboards. It's very disconcerting when you can't find things as simple as balls and strike count. Luckily, the ladies who sat in front of us were as friendly as most people I've met in Minnesota and helped out a lot. It turns out that one even had a grown son in my hometown!

We had more of my mother-in-law's friends over to visit in the evening. One of the things I've appreciated the most during this trip were the glimpses I got into the younger lives of persons who came to visit. I heard from these wonderful people, all approaching seventy, stories of de-tassling corn to make money and throwing apples at the grumpy old man whose name had long been forgotten and replaced by a nickname. They spoke of leaving on a train at the age of twenty for a place they'd never seen before with only eighty dollars and a trunk full of clothes; two friends crying on the train all the way to Montana. One told me of a car rolled over into a ditch days before she got her license and the subsequent cover-up by her boyfriend-now-husband of fifty-five years. Our parents often tell us stories like this but we do not hear them. OUR parents couldn't possibly be that interesting; the eventual retellings dulling any possible impact until all they elicit are knowing glances between the trapped listeners.

Highlights:
1. Getting out of the city center after the game was a breeze. I'd say it was easier than San Jose Arena, which I count as one of the best I've ever seen. To be fair, it was a day game that let out at 3:30.
2. No lines at the concession stands!
3. We dropped by Latte Da Espresso again. The "bikers" out front that I was trying not to look at turned out to be two of the people I met the previous visit. I got to introduce them to all the kids.

Quirks:
1. Twingo, or Twins Bingo. People bought (I presume) bingo cards with baseball scoring events in the squares. Anything you could put on a score sheet might appear on a Twingo card.
2. A lot more emphasis on saving money here. There seem to be Dollar Stores everywhere, and many of the independents are named something with "Sav", "Less", or "Valu" in their name.