Saturday, March 1st - Oh Those O’s!!

Today, we drove to Sarasota to attend the Baltimore Orioles spring training home opening game. On our way, we passed through a few miles of road construction. I thought it was sad to see piles of palm trees that had been cut down. I also saw some cranes with items hoisted from them. One had an air compressor, another had a large metal tool box and the third had a boat suspended in the air. I could not figure what a boat was doing in the middle of the highway when I didn’t see any lakes, ponds or rivers anywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

This drive normally takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes; but we, not surprisingly, stopped to look for two geocaches before the game started. With help from Jim and Corinne, puzzles had been solved and we had the final GPS coordinates in hand.

 

 

 

As happens with most of the puzzle geocaches, the actual hunt is much easier than solving the puzzle. However, we were a bit concerned when we stopped at the first cache site because the last cacher had not been able to find it. We had not read the log before we arrived and he posted that he thought the cache might be gone because a construction worker approached him and said, "I don't know what you're looking for but if it's any help a bulldozer came through last week and cleared this whole area.” I was thinking that all the time we had spent trying to solve this puzzle before getting help from Corinne might have been in vain. But, Cordell was able to find the cache fairly easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ed Smith Stadium is a beautiful facility and in a pretty town. All the people associated with this operation are outgoing and helpful. It did seem a bit strange to me to see the players on the field with palm trees in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the beginning of the game, the PA announcer told us that the temperature in Baltimore was 34°, in Toronto (the opponents) it was 25° and in Sarasota it was 76°. A rousing cheer went up from all the fans. Our seats were in the sun and there were some people from Toronto sitting beside us. During the game, they went somewhere else to cool off. Then they returned to their seats and before the game was over they left saying it was just too hot for them.

 I realize these Grapefruit League games are about getting in shape and putting a team together. Even though it is not about winning games, it still was exciting when our team came from 5 runs down and scored 7 runs in one inning to win the game. I hope it is a sign that the Orioles will continue to not give up until the last out.

 We did hunt and find two more geocaches after the game and then stopped for dinner in Sarasota before driving back to Fort Myers.