Month: August 2017

One hundred miles out of Tacoma WA. today I pulled over on the highway(10:21 am.) so I could witness the Solar eclipse of the sun.  A 65 mile wide path from Oregon to South Carolina. The eclipse I witnessed was said to have been not quite 100% but more like 92%. You would have to have been in that 65-mile-wide path to have witnessed the full visual feel of a total eclipse. Still it was worth it.  After all I had just Purchased a Venti-Quad-Mocha with just a half pump of mocha. There was no telling what I was capable off.  Who knows where I’ll be the next time it happens. Said to be April 8, 2024

So I’ve come full circle. I left Missoula Montana on July 2nd and headed east towards New York City. Many stops before I would arrive there but I had a plan, kinda, well not really but an Idea that could evolve into what may eventually become an assemblance of something resembling an Idea I had come up with over 8 years ago(did that make sense?). I could rewrite that but why.  What if I could go to at least 1 game at every major Pro Sports location in the United States. Why don’t I just start the trip and live one day at a time for awhile. Forty-nine days later I had traveled 12941 miles and was back in my home town. When I say my home town I always think of John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Small Town”. It will always be that way for me. I just love the song.

As I said 12941 miles in 49 days.  All 4 corners of the U.S.  Portland ME., Key West FL., San Diego CA., and Seattle WA.  19 major League baseball games in 17  M.L.B. stadiums.  Some 36 States in all, I think…  The 10 largest cities in the U.S. and then some.  Six states in 1 day. Did I mention some 10 hotdogs, countless pieces of pizza and an occasional beer. I met great people I’ll never meet again and had conversations that never would have occurred had I not taken this trip.  I also saw the epitome of over spending and indulgence (Washington D.C.), to the saddest place I ever saw in these United States(the Lower Ninth ward in New Orleans). 1091 miles is the distance between the two, and yet a World Apart.

So the question is what’s next? Only time will tell. Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis and then maybe Milwaukee. Or not. A few days to reflect, regroup and breath.

Check out INSTAGRAM :   #thats1luckycar   and/or    #theultimateyear.com

Thanks for reading.

-John Kelly

Friday night in San Francisco was a little bit disappointing at first because I had planned on stopping at Lefty O’Doul’s as I do every time I come to San Francisco(my 1st time was in 1979 with my Uncle Mike). Not this time however. Closed down. Talk of relocating this famous bar has happened in the past and it sounds like a dispute with the landlord has brought it up again. The establishment has been at this location since 1958. Anytime you try and relocate such an iconic place it never seems to be the same again. Is that even a realistic possibility.  What a disappointment.  The last time I was here was with my dad a year ago.

So about Friday nights game, Giants win 10-2 over The Phillies but loose Yesterday and today. Not the best season for The Giants. Take comfort Giants Fans in those 3 World Series trophy’s and those stunning World Series rings all on display for fans to see if they know where to look. They are there at the ballpark if you can just find out where. I did:)  To see the original trophies was the highlight of my night. More different kinds of food to eat at this ballpark than any park I’ve been to so far. That’s always a good thing. A cool San Francisco breeze in the evening was on tap. There is a line attributed to Mark Twain saying something to the affect, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”.  Sorry Twain Fans but he never said it. He just gets credit for saying it. 🙂 That’s your history lesson for the day. You want more history? Fine.  The park opened on march 31 2000. The Ballpark was the first Major League ballpark built without public funds since the completion of Dodger Stadium in 1962. What a concept. Not to get to political but that is the reason San Diego is loosing there N.F.L. team. The Public voted against funding the new stadium(in San Diego).  The Chargers are in L.A. now. This is just one example. I’ll leave it at that.

Spent last night in Brookings, Oregon(population 6336) after a drive through the Redwood Forest. I had traveled this road once before but this time I spent much more time there.  An early start on this Sunday morning is what I was hoping for and it happened. Lunch in  Newport Oregon. A thriving little commercial fishing town(featured in Deadliest catch: Dungeon Cove). I knew that.  Thats the reason I stopped and had lunch there. Nothing like fresh chowder and the best BLT sandwich I have ever had.  Arrived in Tacoma WA. at 6pm.  A hotel for the night and tomorrow its off to Missoula Montana. It will be nice to get home.

Thank for reading.

-John Kelly

Spent last night 35 miles out of the City of San Francicso and knew I would enjoy driving in today. In order to fully appreciate this city you have to see it as your coming towards it. It truly is an Iconic city in so many ways. An earlier stop in Oakland to catch up on my laundry,  get a coffee and see Oracle Arena and The Oakland Coliseum. The first Major league baseball stadium I ever stepped foot into(A double header between the New York Yankees and The Oakland A’s in 1979) . Outfield tickets for that game were $2.  Coming across The Bay Bridge and thinking back to October 17 1989. The strongest earthquake to hit this area since 1906. Tonight its the San Francisco Giants taking on The Philadelphia Phillies at 7:10 pm. Before I get there I’m gonna stop at “Lefty O’Doul’s and have a beer and maybe a bite to eat. It’s an iconic sports bar. If your ever in San Francisco stop in and look at the pictures of all the famous baseball players that have stopped in there before. Also take a look at some of the others that have stopped by over the years. Marilyn Monroe just to name one. The cost of my Hotel room tomorrow night is nearly twice what it is tonight. Driving down the highway is what I’ll most likely be doing.  As many times as I have been in the city of San Francisco I have never been to a game at this Park. The only Giants game I have been at is the old Candlestick Park.  It was 54 years old. Paul McCartney was the last to Perform there in April of 2014. The Beatles had performed their last scheduled concert at Candlestick Park 48 years earlier.

All for now.

-John Kelly

The Dodgers win in the 9th last night 5-4 over the Chicago White Sox. 9th straight win and have gone 40-6 in there last 46 games.  A Sell Out Crowd is always fun to watch. Saw some interesting things at the Stadium last night. A 14oz. IPA Beer selling for $15. I have never seen a 14oz. beer sell for $15 in my life.  Back in my high school days you could buy a 16 gallon keg for $28. Let me put this in perspective for you. You can get  forty-four  60 oz.  pitchers out of a 16 gallon keg of beer. That’s nearly 4 1/3 cups per pitcher.  That’s a $65 pitcher of beer. You could say that comes out to $2860.00 for a keg of beer. When they say “times have sure changed” this is one of the things they are talking about.  More interesting  stuff… There was a Game worn Jersey from Yu Darvish  for sale last night $9995.00 .  That was the most expensive one that I had ever seen. The person selling it said  Clayton Kershaw’s  game worn Jersey(when he threw the No-Hitter on June 18th  2014)sold for $15000.00. You gotta hand it to those “Game Worn  Jersey” people.  Just Saying. They must be in cahoots with those $15 beer people. LOL!  And  No I didn’t have one of those Famous DODGER DOGS.  One of those famous “Dodger Beers” was all I could afford. 🙂

So its off to San Francisco. The Giants are playing at home tonight and tomorrow night. Have to go to at least one.

Thanks for reading.

-John Kelly

After spending the evening in San Diego at a game between The Phillies of Philadelphia  and The Padres of San Diego it was back to the hotel.  An early start didn’t happen but I only had a 120 miles to cover before I got to L.A. so being in a hurry wasn’t on the schedule. Every city I stop in I try and get a picture of the car I’m driving in front of the major sports complexes(over 40 now). It definitely takes some planning. If you would like to see these pictures go to:  INSTAGRAM, my hash tag is,  #thats1luckycar   also  you  can go to  #theultimateyear.com

When you think of how lucky that car has been in the past 2 months(I know that’s 8 in car years) of life you can see why my hash tag is ,  #thats1luckycar.   Clearly other cars would be jealous if they knew.  I don’t care what car you are in this world , you haven’t seen what this car has seen. 🙂

A good game last between 2 teams that aren’t very good this year. I guess when your sitting in that city in that environment the score really isn’t that important. The area around Petco Park is perfect for a Game atmosphere. Walk, Eat and people watch.  I again lucked into a great seat. Row 1, right over the Phillies dugout.  Its completely different watching a game that close to the field.  I met 3 people I will most likely never see again. All three were a pleasure to sit and talk with.  Life gives you those moments if your willing to take some chances.

Arrived in L.A. at 2:30 today and will be heading to the game at Dodger stadium in a little bit. The Dodgers are hosting the Chicago White Sox.  Game time is 7:10pm  The Dodgers are the best team in the majors this  year at 84-34. Not so good for the White Sox at 45-71.  Could it be a Hollywood ending this year for The Dodgers? Time will tell.

Thanks for ready.

INSTAGRAM  #thats1luckycar

-John Kelly

After traveling 554 miles today I arrived in Phoenix, AZ.  The early start from the booming little town of Van Horn, Texas wasn’t a hard decision(population 2435).   Did I mention THEY  had a  “McDonalds” in Van Horn? Well they do(that’s all they have in Van Horn).  That translates into sausage egg mcmuffin,  Mc-apple pie and 2 mc-milks before I got on the Mc-highway. The advantages of staying in really small towns are of course the cost of your average hotel room. Not always the case as I learned first hand when A room was not available in Pecos TX. for less than $149 + tax(there 3-star rooms average  $194 + tax a night).  I looked it up its true.   This is the moment when your car stereo can have a volume you might consider exceedingly loud, mine was! I was O.K. with it though.   90 minutes of classic rock at MAX VOLUME did the trick(the last 13 minutes, Peter Frampton’s “Do You Feel Like I Do”). Thank You Peter. I never get tired of that song. Just Saying. All of a sudden…  HELLO VAN HORN TEXAS!!!(There’s no reason to yell!…what). LOL!   Home of nothing!  The people of ” Van Horn”  probably like it that way though. I can see the attraction, NOT!!    There’s a little bit of everybody that should love just a little bit of Van Horn TX. 🙂

“Misters” What are they? They say this fad started in Arizona well over 30 years ago.  Light mists of water spray down upon you when you are standing outside of a night club(they keep you from over-heating). They work too.  Arizona had to have created these. We all know it wasn’t Alaska. The first time I ever saw a “mister” was here in Phoenix back in 1993. I was here for game 2 of The N.B.A. Championship Series. Michael Jordan and The Chicago Bulls taking on The Phoenix Suns with Charles Barkley. Take a look at those 2 rosters sometime…   Moving on.

Diamondbacks win tonight 2-0 over those Houston Astros.  We were just talking about the Houston Astros a couple days ago. I nearly forgot. This is the 2nd time on this trip I have witnessed Zack Greinke  pitch for the Diamondbacks. Why you might ask is this such a big deal?  I’m going to tell you. Mr. Zack Greinke  signed a 6 year contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks this year for $206,500,000. That included a $18,000,000 signing bonus. All $206,500,000 guaranteed. That comes out to $34,416,667 a year.  Hmmmm…. Nice work Zack.

Just one comment about the stadium food tonight. I hope I never see a SUBWAY Sandwich shop in a Major League Baseball Park again. That just seems so wrong to me.  It is wrong.  Hot dogs, Pizza , Beer, Popcorn, Nachos , all acceptable, but not “Chain food”.  Please for the love of Pro Baseball, just don’t do it.  Its weak!

So tomorrow I’m thinking about heading to San Diego.

Thanks for reading.

-John Kelly

1959.  That’s the year Dinah Washington sang the song “What a difference a day makes”.  I get that all the words don’t pertain to my last 24 hours. I don’t care. Sometimes a song just works. Music has always worked for me.  Didn’t think I would go to the baseball game tonight but couldn’t help myself. Dinner was good earlier. What could I do but go by the ballpark.  I made my way to the stadium and there it was… What I like to call an “opportunity to see another Major League Game”.  A good cheap ticket to one more game at the new Globe Life Park in Arlington, (I say new but the reality is its been open since April 1, 1994).  All Major League Parks have there thing. The Texas Rangers have in the past aligned themselves with the former “President Bush’s”.  So what you might see are Pictures autographed by former players standing with the former Presidents but not pictures autographed by the Former Presidents themselves. See where I’m going with this? Just a little marketing as it were.  No kidding.  This park has it all though.  We’ll move on.   A big night for Texas Fans. They retired “Pudge” Rodriguez’s  No. “7”  That’s a big deal!  The New York Yankee’s  Mickey Mantle wore No. 7. Just sayin!(the Yankees’s retired Mickey’s  no. 7  in 1969) I’ll leave it at that.

Earlier tonight I went into a bar called “Boomer Jacks” in Arlington. Lots of T.V.s  How many I asked the bartender?  One hundred and Twenty-two!.  I started counting, It looked like he wasn’t kidding, He was probably right,… yep, I think he knew the answer before I asked. He had obviously been asked before. Now I’ve been in a lot of bars in my life and I’ve seen a lot of T.V.s  in those places but never have I seen 122  before.  I’m not including the one’s in the bathrooms either. I know he wasn’t.  Just sayin…

It looks like the best team in the American League(Houston Astros) are going to loose tonight. If they do that will look something like this in there last 10 games…, 1-9 !… That said, the first half of the season they played so well that it still is going to be hard for anyone in their division to catch them.  Let me just say this….  U-G-L-Y is what it is when you loose 9 out of 10 games for any team.  they  ain’t  got  no alibi,  that’s UGLY,… Hey, Hey that UGLY!!!!  That would be the beauty of Major League Baseball though. When they say its a long season, this is what they mean. Now listen to  “The Boys of Summer” about baseball. (written by “EAGLES” Great  Don Henley in 1984).

So tomorrow I’ll head towards El Paso TX.  618 miles.  I’ll be listening to “Carefree Highway” by Gordon Lightfoot (1974).

Thanks for reading, -John Kelly

I was 14 miles from Dallas, Texas yesterday and there it was.  Off in the distance I saw it.  Could it be a mirage?   The closer I got it started to look real.  It was real!   An In-N-Out Burger!!!  For that moment in time all was right in the world. There are only 2 food chains I would like to own, “Ivar’s”  for clam chowder and fish and chips of Seattle WA.,  and the other would be “In-N-Out burger”. Both have a unique business model. Neither place has more than 10 items on there menu. Brilliant. Easy to train staff, little or no wasted food due to spoilage and proven to just have great food.

That said, It was way hot here yesterday(unofficially, 103 degrees)!  People don’t need to experience this kind of heat but if you wanted to Dallas might be the place to do it.  The Houston Astros(best record in The American League 71-44) are in town taking on the Texas Rangers.  Rangers won last night. 6-4  Game two tonight. I think I’ll  probably go to In-N-Out burger instead.

I am at a crossroads today.  Not sure which way to go when I leave Texas.  Another night in Dallas it will be. A time to catch up on laundry and maybe go see Dealey Plaza in downtown and  “The Grassy Knoll” just one more time. A quick note about the place I am staying. They are called Candlewood Suites. They’re not all over the country but where they are they work well. Reasonably priced and free laundry facilities. A little food store were you pay on the honor system. Take what you want, write it down on a piece of paper and drop it in the box. It comes out of your bill. There’s some good stuff in that little store. Last night I grabbed some Haagen Dazs(chocolate)  ice cream on the way to my room. Yum!

All for now,

Thanks, John Kelly

I love waking up in the morning.  Its true.  The first time I ever heard that statement was from my dad.  The truth is I’m rarely in a bad mood In the morning. I’m just Thankful.

So let me just start out by saying this, WOW!  Today I found out  I am staying in the Holiday Inn Express(I knew that already). That’s not the story.  What I didn’t know is this.  A unique story for sure.  Apparently this(The Holiday Inn Express) was the first prison in San Antonio(1878-1962), the old prison bars are still on one of my windows.  I know right.  Kinda cool. Oh and I left something out,  there was a prisoner here, (we’ll call him Jack Steese)because that was his name.  He was a  knucklehead! People rarely use that term anymore(knucklehead) but if they did , this would be your guy! This guy escaped(the prison) by cutting the bars and dropping a fire hose out the window and climbing down the wall in broad daylight.  I rarely use this term but here goes, “NO SHIT?”!!  There were guard dogs. They apparently didn’t care.   Is this true?…  Yes it is.  Now I didn’t know Jack, (This is where the Phrase came from, “You don’t know Jack…”).  Apparently so.  But if I did I would have said, ” Jack…., buddy, whatever you do, don’t go to your moms house”.  What happened.., Jack went to his moms house. Yep, and where did Jack hide?..  This is not a trick question.  Jack hid under the bed,(my brother would have said, “You can’t make this stuff up). Jack wasn’t a smart man.  They found him.  They took him back to jail. Additional charges I’m guessing.   LOL!

Listed in the National Register of Historical Places and completed in 1879 as a two story structure. Additional floors were added in 1911 and again in 1926. Speaking of the early 1900’s, The 1st Lincoln Head Penny was made in 1909.  You can buy an extremely rare 1924 1c PCGS penny for sale on eBay for $11,088.00 dollars. Now there’s a smart investment. NOT.  I’m Just saying! One more thing, If your in San Antonio go up  The Tower of the Americas, 579 feet tall. A great way to see the city. While your there have a drink. The Stratosphere in Las Vegas is 1149 feet tall but it sure didn’t seem that tall when I was in it. for comparison The Space Needle in Seattle is 605 feet tall. Last but not least The Eiffel tower is 984 feet tall., 1063 to the tip. I’ve been up in all four. When I was in Washington D.C.  You couldn’t go up in the Washington Monument. Still closed for repairs 555 ft.

So here I am on this 10th day of August 2017.

Its got to be Dallas tomorrow right?  274 miles away. (Texas Rangers vs Houston Astros) Game time, Friday 7:05p.m.

Thanks for reading.

-John Kelly

Yesterday morning I departed New Orleans and headed for Texas. 425 miles later I arrived in Sealy,  Texas. Spending the night in Houston sounded like a possibly at the beginning of the day but things change and so I continued driving down the road ending up in Sealy TX.  Population 6490.

On the way my thoughts kept creeping back to Washington D.C.  Why that kept happening was because of the Freeway system and how well it sometimes works. It is truly a marvel of genius. The way a government can create such a interwoven maze of highways and byways to connect this incredible country. The internet has done much of the same. Both working together so that I can travel to places and see things in such a way that have made this journey more enjoyable or even possible. When things work in this fashion it opens up avenues and routes that ten years ago would not have been possible. My timing was certainly right.  This is what kept bringing me back to Washington D.C.  How incredible it would be if the rest of our government could function as does the highway system here in the U.S.  Don’t get me wrong, the Interstate system has its problems no doubt. That being said,  it still has made it for me an overwhelmingly positive experience.  There’s still something about being ten miles away from a major city and seeing it for the first time as your driving towards it. Much of the time you’ll  see the big stadiums or ballparks from far away. I almost always know exactly what they are when I see them. All are impressive in there own way. Old or new it doesn’t mater. They are one those things I like to call “Statement Makers”. They say Welcome to Our City!! and  It works. The Superdome in New Orleans does just that. It really is a SUPERDOME!  The Skyline of any city is good. The major city skylines are over the top.  Add a major sports arena and you can imagine the appeal. Even if you don’t care about Professional Sports Venues, you have to admit that they are impressive to see. Everybody  looks at them. The world of professional sports is a good thing. Maybe not always for the actual games themselves but more for the spectacle they bring to the area and its fans. Major cities may (in the case of NFL Football) only get 8 or 9 home games a year. This year New Orleans has 9 regular season home games. The hotels will be sold out. The bars and restaurants will be packed and of course there is The French Quarter and Bourbon St.  Major city’s can, and in most cases are progressive. If they are not, they have a hard time keeping there downtown areas vibrant.   Need I say more. That being said Austin, Texas is the 9th largest city in the U.S.(population 950,000). Four of the top ten most populated city’s in the U.S. are in Texas.  No major sports teams in Austin but life is good. That city has something else I like as much, MUSIC!

Now its off to San Antonio for a few days and then Maybe Dallas TX. for a Rangers Game for the weekend.

Thanks for reading.

-John Kelly