Day 12- Pittsburgh

        We were planning on leaving DC around 10:00 this morning, but none of us woke up! We went up for breakfast around 10:00 and got off closer to 11:30. So the day before, Nico’s dad approached Eric and Garrett while I was showering and said “fellas, I need to get to work, so I’ll cut straight to it. I have this car that I need to get to Utah. I’ll pay you to get it back” etc… they both said they couldn’t, but later in the day I was thinking, 'well heck!? Why not? I have nothing to do when I get back to Provo, I might as well earn money to drive back to Provo and just cancel my flight.' So we called up his dad, and he said okay. So we picked up a car in DC! So they packed up stuff in their car and we drove off towards Gettysburg with the two cars.
        We got to Gettysburg about an hour later, went through the museum and watched their movies, etc. It was okay. We then drove around the area a tiny bit to see the battle grounds, etc, grabbed a bite to eat, then got on the road towards Pittsburgh.
        We encountered some heavy rains on the drive, and since we went to Gettysburg, we weren’t on a freeway. We drove through windy country roads that sent us over the Appalachian Mountains. It was actually a really pretty drive, especially as we came to the summit of the mountain. As we approached Pittsburgh, we knew we weren’t going to be getting there on time. I turned on the radio to listen to the start of the game, and just our luck, they said due to heavy rains, the game start was being delayed. Solid. We had some pretty bad traffic as we approached the city, but it was okay.

The beautiful backdrop of Pittsburgh

        We pulled into Pittsburgh and it was way tight looking. You have 3 rivers all meeting, but rather than what I expected- a big flat urban area- it was hilly as the rivers came down through valleys, tons of bridges- most, if not all, painted yellow- a pretty skyline, then add the not-so-urban feel of the hill sides and it all made for a pretty backdrop, in my opinion. So we got there about 8, and the game had started about 7:50. So we only missed the first inning.
         We purchased standing room only tickets as it was a sellout, but found ourselves in front row seats of the short-fenced left field. We were right behind the former Padre Ryan Ludwick. It was a way fun game. We had some Pirates fans that sat behind us for a few innings that were funny and heckling the Reds left fielder, Fred Lewis. (“Hey Fred! It’s me! From 3rd street!” followed by “watch- he really grew up on 3rd street and he’s thinking, ‘oh shoot… I owe that guy 20 bucks!’ or ‘ah man. Should I turn around? What if I really do know him!’ ” or after a man was kicked out for throwing a homerun ball back, “Apparently, you can’t throw balls back at PNC park... Who’da thought?!” or the sidekick fella just yelling “Fred!!!” at random points or my favorite, “HEY DERF!! -- that’s uh… Fred backwards… if ya didn’t know and incase he speaks the backwards language”… haha)Other than those fella’s though, I was thoroughly disappointed with the fans of Pittsburgh. I hear Steelers fans are great, but probably those very same people were there last night and hardly clapped when they had bases loaded three different times during the game, and they sure didn’t even think about standing up. I was disappointed. I was one of the best Pirate fans there. And I was even a declared neutral fan for that game, ‘just cheering for baseball!’ But… They won the award for best ushers and best stadium backdrop. When we made our tour stop behind home plate, I looked out and was stunned at the view. Very pretty with the city and bridges behind- better than it is on TV. And the ushers were very friendly and willing to take pictures and letting us take pictures.

This one is in honor of my dear roommates...

        Cincinnati won in an 11-8 see-saw thriller. Horrible base coaching, missed opportunities, and a bad decision in the 9th by the 2nd baseman cost Pittsburgh the game, in my humble (but right) opinion.After the game, we went back to the car and got on the road towards Cincy. We were gonna stop half way because we didn’t get out of the parking lot until 11:45ish, but we ended up feeling ok, so continued until 4:15 when we got to Cincinnati, then went straight to bed. OH! And important note, our drive took us through the northern panhandle of West Virginia (Mountain Mamma!) bringing our final state count up to 12.

Game prediction standings:
Taylor     6-3 (Picked Cincy in all 3 Cincinnati games and went 1-2 in those)
Eric         5-4 (went 1-1 in the games his teams played in- Col beat Cincy, and the Yankees lost)
Mitch      4-5 * (finished on a 4 game losing streak, but wins tie breaker because of picking the perfect score in Cleveland)
Garrett    4-5 (Garrett picked opposite of my pick, knowing if he picked the same he would guarantee himself sole possession of last place, and if he picked the opposite, he might tie. So he chose Cincy 20-0! :p)
*asterisks denotes a correct score prediction in Cleveland.

Scoreboard:
Jumbotron appearances: 4
Balls from the game: 5 (Garrett-DC; Taylor-DC; Nicholai- DC; Mitch-NYM; Taylor- Balt)
Promotion items: 4 (All- T-shirt in Pitt; Mich- Bobblehead in Pitt; Garrett- Hat in Cle; Mitch- backpack in Cle)
Stadium hours: 34
Rainouts hours: 5
Extra innings: 6
Car hours: 40
Miles: 2200
States: 12
Cars acquired: 1