May 20th, 2013
Milwaukee- the day between the Chicago Days
This morning we
woke up to the smell of bacon, eggs, and pancakes. Sister B has been treating us so well. Last
night when they got home from church functions, they came down stairs and talked
to us for a bit and gave us suggestions for our trip to Milwaukee. Then she made us breakfast and when we headed
out, she had already left for the day, but she wrote us a note and left it on
the door. She is the best. Also when we were heading out, Taylor decided
to grab something from the car and set off the alarm in the process. Luckily we had been told how to handle the
situation when the security company called, but we were warned that someone
would be the idiot to do that. It was Taylor.
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| not sure where Hay is... |
We headed up
towards Milwaukee, and just after crossing the boarder, we pulled off to visit
the jelly belly factory that Sister B suggested and that was fun. We arrived and went to catch a tour, but the
next tour wouldn’t be for 25 minutes. So
we went to the jelly belly store while we waited and tried out a few random
flavors, etc. Garrett convinced me to
try the Dog food flavor, which in reality shouldn’t be all that disgusting,
right? Its just a sugary piece of candy that has an interesting flavor, but it
isn’t like I am eating whatever the flavor is.
But it is trippy because your mind still thinks it is disgusting. The dog food tasted just like you would
expect, by the way. We caught the tour,
which was kinda cheesy. We had an over
enthusiastic tour guide who drove us around the factory on a little train,
showing us videos about jelly belly’s. It
was neat-o, but the real treat was the free sample bag of jelly belly beans and
the bags of jelly flops- the beans that aren’t worthy of getting the company
name stamped on them (because they were too small, big, misshapen, or doubled
up). They taste fine though, and they
are sold at a discounted price. I had
noticed their walkie-talkie channel while we were in there and on the way out,
we grabbed our walkie-talkie and started to have fun with them on their
channel. Unfortunately, no one answered
and Eric even went in to see if he could hear me on their radios, but he
couldn’t. So it probably didn’t match
there channels, but it was still fun.
After the jelly
belly’s, we headed a few miles down the road to the cheese castle. It was just a little diner/ grocery store/
fine cheesery. Haha The 3 of us who
served in France were looking at getting some Camembert, (a delicious cheese
that is possibly the thing I miss the most from France) but it was way
overpriced, so we passed.
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We found the MLB
Commissioner's plaque! |
We soon made it
to Milwaukee—it was only an hour-15 min drive without the stops—and immediately
looked for somewhere to eat. Well this
city was dead. Seriously. We drove block after block without seeing
people. It quickly turned into a
joke. Milwaukee was super lame. We asked for recommendations on places to eat
when we could find people and got nothing worthwhile. Finally, we found a Greek place that had
really good Gyro’s. We realized quickly
that there was almost literally nothing to do in Milwaukee, so I suggested
going to the Bradley Center where the Bucks play NBA basketball. We got there and it was locked. We asked some guys in a delivery truck outside
the arena what there was to do in Milwaukee, and they had nothing. We went to the service entrance to the
Bradley Center and were surprisingly let in.
We asked about a tour and were told that there weren’t enough people or
weren’t the right people there to give a tour.
We asked him for other recommendations, and Garrett said, “yeah, cause
it seems like everything around here has been closed since,” and he paused,
checked the time, “I don’t know, since Sunday?” haha it was so funny. The guy agreed that nothing is opened and
only suggested touring the brewery down the road. The only problem with that
was when we checked, they had given their last tour for the day an hour
earlier. Typical. So we strolled around the block, found the
Wisconsin sports sidewalk of fame, then got in the car, drove through the
Marquette Campus, then headed to a place called Mitchell field where there were
some tall green house-place-thingies.
They cost money, so we decided against it and just headed to the
stadium. It was 5:00.
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| Kershaw in the bullpen |
The gates didn’t
open until 5:40, but we noticed there were people eating at a restaurant beyond
the left field wall, but inside the ballpark.
We decided to give it a try and sure enough, they were scanning people
in if they came to go to TGIFs. We sat
down and ordered a couple of drinks and some appetizers, but as soon as the
park ‘opened’, I headed to prime batting practice seating. I ended up catching a home run ball, hit by
Andre Ethier of the Dodgers. I had to
reach around a fence into the bullpen, but easily made the catch. So clutch.
The other guys and Hay soon finished their food and joined. We watched Clayton Kershaw warm up in the
bullpen before we headed to our seats.
They were way upstairs, in the last section before getting to the slide
the mascot uses when they hit a homerun.
We lasted there like 2 innings before we headed down stairs, once again
sitting straight behind the left field foul pole. We stayed there for another couple of innings
before making another move.
 |
we were RIGHT next
to the slide |
Now this was once
again something that I want to take credit for.
I don’t know if Bill was a nice man, and I don’t know if Bill even
cared, but I think I swindled Bill pretty good.
We went right behind home plate to take a peak and eventually a picture,
and I noticed the 70-year-old usher, Bill, had his back turned and was helping
a fan. I snuck right past him and sat
there for a few minutes, shooting texts to my willy counterparts to come and
join me. They declined and told me to
come up to take a picture in the next section over. So, being the nice guy I am, I got up, but
with a plan in mind. I headed over to
Bill, (now note, I am wearing a Bright orange polo with green pants and Bright
Blue kicks—hard to miss) called him by name a few times, and made sure he would
remember me. I simply asked him where
the nearest hotdog stand could be found, and he directed me not 50 feet behind
us to the clearly visible hotdog stand.
I walked away laughing at how stupid that question must have seemed with
the answer in such plain sight, but I knew the plan would work if I needed it
to.
We tried to take
a picture directly behind home plate, but the usher there said we couldn’t go
down the walkway even 5 steps because it would clog things up and he couldn’t
have that in his aisle. So, Plan B was
now in effect. I headed and got a $1
hotdog, and walked back towards Bill. I
said, “Bill, thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction!” He joked with me because I only got 1 dog on
dollar dog night (I was thinking, “jokes on you, Bill!”), and then I asked him
if he could take a picture for my buddies and me. He happily did that, and then we grabbed the
camera and kept on walking into the stands.
Bill didn’t think twice about this because he had seen me walk out of his section only 3 minutes earlier. He didn’t need to check our tickets! So we found some good seats and enjoyed
the rest of the game from there.
Swindled. We decided Bill was a
great man. Probably because he failed at
his only task and it benefited us, but mainly because he was an innocent old
man that I would have liked to talk to for a few more seconds, at least. True
American Hero.
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| Picture after the roof was closed |
So in the end, we
got great seats and the Dodgers won 3-1.
Kershaw pitched a complete game, and we headed towards the car, stopping
in centerfield to take a coupe of pictures.
We noticed they were closing the roof, too, so we took another couple of
pictures with the stadium roof closed.
We headed acrossed the bridge back to the parking lot (so THIS is where
everyone in Milwaukee is?!) and after not moving for 5-10 mins, I suggested
busting a U-turn in the parking spot and heading out another way. Hayley commented that it was “Mitch’s
Obligatory questionable driving decision of the trip”. Haha but it was genius.
Out of there in 2 minutes. Easy. We hit the road, and I literally said one
last goodbye to Milwaukee with the note that I had no intentions of ever making
it back here again. I have since
realized that if I ever make it to Green Bay, which I want to do, I will have
to go through Milwaukee. But I have zero
plans of taking my eyes off of the freeway when I pass through. That’s for sure. Such a lame town. But it got me a nice and clean MLB BP
baseball, a good time and a good game. We also met Bill, so maybe it wasn’t all
too bad.
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| my Ethier ball |
I also need to
note—Andre Ethier, the guy I caught the Homerun from, hit a homerun and a
triple in the game before getting ejected.
I am not sure how often someone hits a homerun, triple and gets ejected,
but it has to be pretty rare. If it is
the first time that has ever happened, or atleast the first time a dodger did
it at Miller Park, I am taking that Tim Kurkjian stat to the bank and claiming
it is because I caught his ball. Just
saying- it can’t be coincidence.
Last fun facts: We
headed home and hit the front edge of the Storm that has done so much damage in
the Midwest today. Prayers to them. But, it did make for a fantastic looking
thunder storm on our drive back to the Bourgeois home. And Milwaukee had quality stoops, as Eric
pointed out on our way out. Always
finding the golden lining.
Stats:
Miles Traveled today: 130
Hours in the car today: 3
Miles traveled total: 1945
Hours in the car total: 34.5
Narcotic searches: 2
Jumbotrons: 1
MLB Baseballs: 1
Scoreboard*:
Garrett 3-0
Mitch 2*-1
Eric 2-1
Hayley 2-1
Taylor 2-1
*Correctly predicted the Dodgers beating the Brewers 3-1
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