Day 21

The first few hours of our day were spent driving to Tampa from Atlanta. It isn’t too long of a drive, and we probably could have gotten a hotel in Atlanta for some sleep. But, we drove though. We made it in about 7 and a half hours, and it wasn’t even 6am. We have slept in the car as it was driving though the night before, but this was the first time that we actually all slept in the car at the same time. We pulled off at a rest stop and took a 3 hour nap. 

Our next stop was Andrew’s grandmother’s house. She welcomed us with a huge breakfast spread and sent us on our way to the beach. 

  We spent the afternoon at Clearwater Beach swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. We put on sunscreen, but still got a little pink around, well everywhere. We had a great time in the water and technically got to swim with a dolphin. We took a long walk down the waterfront and went back to Andrew’s grandmother’s place for a late lunch. It doesn’t matter whose grandma is cooking, but nothing beats a home cooked meal by a grandma. 

  We drove into St. Petersburg, checked into our hotel and walked over to the park. We were conveniently staying a mile away. Tropicana Field is a dome, which is good for the hot and rainy Tampa climate. It is pretty funny looking, as it has a tilted roof, which makes it look like it could be sinking. The field is turf, and a little patchy, and the fan base could use some work. 

  Megan and Andrew set on this trip determined to count the number of balls used during a single game, so they chose Tampa to count. The total number of balls used during the Rays-Angels game was 111. We almost caught one of the foul balls, but it was just a bit out of reach. Hopefully we have another chance at one of our remaining 12 games. The game moved pretty slowly and the two ball counters have decided they will need to count at another stadium as well to see compare the numbers. 

This was the second game that we almost saw one batter hit for a cycle (a single, double, triple and home run [in any order in the same game]). Mike Trout of the Angels was very close, but couldn’t get the triple. We will keep hoping to see someone achieve that, and a perfect game. 

  We made up four of the 10,000 fans that came out to the field and it was a pretty quiet experience. Most of the teams have great sound crews that pump up the crowd and we didn’t really get any of that here. Regardless, we cheered on the home team, and the Rays inevitably lost to the Angels 6-2. 

After the game we went back to the hotel, where we did what we could to help our sunburns and most of us looked forward to a good nights sleep before continuing on to Miami.