Sunday, September 28, 2008

Days 49 & 50, Cooperstown, Rhode Island & NYC, The Finale


The very cool town I wake up in is Cooperstown, NY, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. I wish I could say the hotel I wake up in- the Red Carpet Inn- is very cool too, but that would be a lie. Don't get me wrong, the Inn tries, but ultimately loses me with the fruit fly convention and long blond hairs on the sink that clearly are not mine. But heck, I'm not hear to take a long bath or to write a review for a travel magazine, I'm here to see history. The Red Carpet Inn scores big in two important categories, however: proximity to the HOF (about 3 miles) and cost (approximately $60). I've been to the Hall twice before but not at the end of an amazing trip to 30 ballparks and certainly not since the most recent Yankee dynasty. The Hall is loaded with Yankee artifacts (big surprise) with one of my favorites being the original bill of sale of Babe Ruth when he was sold to the Yankees by the Red Sox for about 25 grand. This deal comes in a CLOSE second to trading Manhattan for a couple of strands of beads in the all-time 'worst trades' category. The HOF also has an exhibit on stadiums and fans which I find quite interesting, especially the exhibit highlighting trips just like mine done by other fans! (mine is cooler, of course, because I did it twice AND drove an amazing Jeep both times). I get suckered in to becoming a Hall of Fame member by a very nice women at the gift shop and part with even more money and get more things in return that I will both never read or use. Other highlights will visiting the Hall include having AMEX call me to tell me they "like how I handle my card (i.e. use it A LOT) and want to upgrade me to a platinum membership, posing for a picture with a Yankee 'holy cow', seeing Babe Ruth's 60th HR ball and having an amazing cajun cheddar burger at the Triple Play luncheonette before skipping town. I leave about 2:30 as I have semi-ambitious plans to catch Yankees/Red Sox at Fenway, which is a four hour drive. Rain threatens to wash away the whole weekend, but I figure it would be a great way to close the trip if I can pull it off. The rain comes down hard as I travel on the back roads and then eventually Route 90 towards Boston. I decide the game in this weather will not be fun and head for Westerly, Rhode Island instead to pick up my little buddy Sammy, the Pomeranian. My friends- Janell and Drew- are glad to see me and to also give me back my 14 pound garbage disposal who has eaten nearly everything in their apartment over the last 7 weeks. We have dinner at the 99 Grill (something like that) where the waitress, Justine, takes great interest in both my camera and some of the stories she overhears me telling Janell and Drew. We catch the end of the Yankees 19-8 blow out of the Sox and I fall asleep about 1:00. I'm up by 7:00 on Saturday and on the road by 8:00. I'm back in New York by 10:30 and am happy that I have officially made it. I have just enough time to drop Sammy off at the dog sitter and make it to Rye, New York where I am scheduled to film a wedding. (Photo with thumb up). The trip is finally over. Done. Kaput. Complete. Quite frankly, when I left, I was not so sure I would finish. I had no time to reschedule rain-outs, no back-up plan if the very old Jeep broke down, no spare key if I lost or broke the key and no idea if I would have either the stamina or interest to finish the trip a second time. Well, I did. And I had a hell of a time doing it. I met a lot of amazing people at the ballparks and other places. I filmed a lot of great stuff and unique people that I hope will make an enjoyable movie. No matter what happens, thanks for reading and thanks for riding along. Please keep in touch and pester me often so that "Twice in Lifetime" will be in theaters near you sooner rather than later! I will try to get something up on here every week or so with updates on book/movie progress and/or any other exciting developments in my rather mundane normal life. Stay tuned! Tim..... PS, if you've been reading regularly, please shoot me an e-mail to the address above as it's hard for me to track and I would love to hear from you!









3 comments:

Johngy said...

Great blog. Great trips. Shoot me an email if you get a chance. I have a website and would like to do a quick feature on your trip. I will explain more in email, if you'd like.
Johngy1@aol.com

Larry said...

Hey dude...nice game the other night. No contact info on your blog? I had to go through Jorge to get to you. Imagine. Check out my latest http://bit.ly/bvRk9F and get in touch.

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