Thursday, September 25, 2008

Days 47 & 48; Toronto & Beyond: September 24 & 25

The journey continues.... I hoped that I could end the blog with the last game of the 30 ballpark adventure, but there is still more work to do. I have to get back to New York to REALLY make this official. Not to mention that some of my readers sent me angry e-mails when their daily trip to ballparktag.com left them with the same story as yesterday. I will get you a few more days of this thing as I still have a few things up my sleeve. And for the hardcore readers, I will try to publish at least one post a week about whatever problems (mostly) and successes (hopefully a few) I encounter on a daily and weekly basis in my "normal life" if in NYC. Waking up yesterday was not easy. I could have slept all day with all the traveling and running around I have been doing, but Dave makes me get up to go to his Digital Dreams Photo/Video Studio in Toronto. A highlight is meeting Junior Feather World Champion, Steve "The Canadian Kid" Molitor, who is at the studio filming a commercial. "You're a big dude," he says to me. "Do you box?" I call the Blue Jays media relations to tell them of my trip and ask for a free ticket to the night's game. They tell me they will leave a ticket at will call for me. Before the game, I pick up a few pieces of poster board and a very fat, black magic marker to make up some signs. (See photo) Clearly Picasso is not worried that my art will one day send his to the toilet. My seat is great but I move down to the first row where I sit for most of the game. Highlights include talking to Yankee pitcher Phil Coke (pictured), getting great photos of the Yankees, not having to interview anyone for the documentary and drinking two $10 Bud Lights. Phil Hughes out-pitches A.J. Burnett (double wow!) and the Yanks win courtesy of a grand slam in the 10th inning by Bobby Abreu. Without a working GPS, I take a good hour to get back to Jason and Dave's house and am asleep by 1:00. I'm up by 6:30, though, as I have a LONG day ahead! I stop in Niagra Falls first thing for some photos and mist. It's a good way to end my stay in Canada, but I'm pissed that it takes almost a half hour to find the bridge to get out of Canada! The way the signs are set up I feel like the Canadians are trying to steal Americans by making it impossible for them to find their way home. Once I finally cross the bridge (with my duty free booze safely in hand), I cruise on 90 East with the goal to get to Cornell to visit my cousin, Erin, a freshman. I meet Erin about 2:00 and we find a reasonable restaurant for lunch. I drop her off at class and then venture to the bookstore to buy some boxers as I have just run out of clean underwear. The $18 boxers are not what the doctor ordered, but I buy them anyway. The very helpful girls at checkout insist that they are high quality and worth the price. I get suckered in by a fraternity to play their version of a "Price is Right" game, in which I climb a ladder and drop whiffle balls. Although they are impressed with my high score, all I walk away with is a 50 cent bag of M & Ms. I hope my $3 goes to a worthy cause. I drive three hours east where I settle in at a very dodgy motel in a VERY cool town, that I will keep secret until the next post!

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