June 22--The Home Team Wins Again

The stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me.  --Haruki Murakami

    Have fun pondering that quote!! I do believe the whole Universe is alive, one energy in infinite forms. I'm not so sure about the "watching me" part.

    Operating on little sleep, but with an excellent audiobook ("The Echo Man" by Sam Holland), I left for St. Petersburg before 6am on Tuesday. I made much better time driving 500 miles than I expected. Once I was away from Atlanta, the traffic wasn't bad. Once again I arrived early for check-in. Having just driven for over eight hours, I elected to wait in the hotel lobby. 

    I settled into my room, relaxed a bit, then headed across the highway (by elevated walkway) to Tropicana Field to see the Yankees-Rays game. 

    While "The Trop" was opened in 1990, it feels way older. It's pretty surreal watching baseball there. I kept looking at the ceiling wondering if it really would stay up there. I've been in stadiums with a retractable roof, at least you know sunshine gets in there at some point. No sun gets into The Trop. The video boards were small and not hi-def. When folks say the Rays need a new stadium, they are right on. However, I was exceedingly grateful for the air conditioning! 

    Oh, yes, the game! The Rays hit four home runs, 3 by the same player. I was surrounded by Yankees fans, and they went nuts when Aaron Judge came up to pinch-hit with two outs in the 9th and the Yankees down 4-5. His home run would have tied it, but he merely hit a very long fly ball to left field, and the Rays won 5-4. I love seeing the Yankees lose!!

    Today's drive to Miami is relatively short, so I caught up on some sleep this morning. Now I'm headed further south for the Rockies-Marlins game tonight. 

    So much fun!!

        Leta

I will post some of my photos later...