M.E. and Rons, Anniversary Adventure..
2006-05-01

I am sooooo tired this morning. That's what happens I guess when you try to cram a weeks worth of stuff into a weekend. We managed to do it though and except for a few semi-major incidents came out mostly undamaged.
From the begining... We got to the airport early like we always do and made it thtough the check in painlessly. We wandered down to the gate on a perfect day to fly only to find we were delayed due to mechanical problems... Ugh... SO we found some food and drink and killed a bit of time and waited and waited and waited. Three hours after our scheduled departure we finally took off. Wonderful. We arrived in Tampa a bunch after 11:00 tired, cranky and impatient.
We found the rental place, got the car and then the fun really began. The hotel was only three miles from the airport. How tough could that be right? We had Map0uest. Um, no... around 12:15 after a senic tour of the surrounding communities we finally arrived.
The bar was already closed so we couldn't even get a drink. My body was beat, but my mind was still moving 100 miles and hour. I finally fell asleep I guess. I'm not sure when.
We both slept very, very late. M.E wanted to go to the beach so we headed for C1earwater. In the day time the layout of the area was pretty easy to figure out and we made to a beach with the softest sand I've ever walked on. It was as white as powdered sugar and felt the same under your toes..(Note not that I've ever walked on powdered sugar, this is just a guess).
We we walked most of the beach, waded in the Gu1f of Mex1co and took a bunch of pictues. Then we headed out to find lunch and poster board for our sign for the game. We found both in a mall type place right along the highway. Sweet.
We headed back to the hotel made our sign and showered. There wasn't time for a nap so we jumped into the car and headed for the Trop. The DRays play in a Dome in St Pete. The ride was easy, twenty minutes, all highway and even free parking.
The building looks really weird from the outside and a bit strange from the inside too, but it was pretty cool. There were Sox fans EVERYWHERE. On Saturday I think we were the majority. We went looking for our seats and they were AWESOME. We were sitting 7 rows back from home plate. Sweet!!!
We went looking for some place to eat dinner and ended up in the outfield at a place that has an all you can eat buffet. They had everything you can think of an the price was decent. I ate too much and had a grapes or two. After dinner we watched batting practice, took a lot more pictures and went to our seats.
The game itself had a lot of ups and downs. For the first four innings they did absolutely nothing against this junk balling lefty who couldn't break a window with his fastball. We were behind four to nothing. We hold up our sign every time the camera is in our section. The people around us are mostly Sox fans. Some there are Rays fans too, some of which aren't too happy to have their building taken over, but they are mostly pleasent. I never felt uncomfortable.
Both pitchers are throwing so slow that the radar gun that clocks the pitches apparently has a seizure and stops working. The Sox bats lead by a Big Papi homerun begin to heat up. First it was 4 -2, then 4-4. Of course the bullpen coughs up 2 more in the 8th and we're down 6 -4 going into the nineth.
It doesn't look good... A fight breaks out right next to us and a drunk Sox fan throws a full beer on a Ray's dude after a nasty exchange of words. That is a $6.50 beer. Talk about alcohol abuse. Next thing you know punches are flying and they are wrestling on the stairs. I have pictures of that too. They threw the Sox fan out, and yelled at the other guy. Interesting....
Then the Sox bats finally come alive. Hit, hit, hit... Tampa's bullpen, um, is not good. We score five runs and the place erupts. Papelbon comes in and strikes out the side. A 9 to 6 win. All the Sox fans leave happy. There is a big party going on in the parking lot. We can't find our rental and wander a bit before we do.
Getting out of the lot and the drive back to the hotel are relatively painless. We have one drink at the lobby bar that is filled with Sox fans. Did everybody have the same idea? We finally head up to watch the news. We don't see ourselves on TV.
By midnight I am out like a light... To be continued...

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