Baseball and BBQ Tour 2018 Day #1 “Houston, Houston, Houston”

Today we were up early to catch our plane to Houston.  We were early but the plane was delayed.  Apparently one of the pilots was late.   I make a rule to never fly without a pilot up front.  I got a gander at the pilots upfront and it looked like we had a 50 year old crew.  Each looked about 25 years old.  One was a female which made my daughter-in-law pleased.  Male or female I don’t really care.  I just care about landing on the plane’s tires at the intended landing strip.  Luckily things worked out fine in the air.  Things on land were a little more difficult.

We picked up our rental car without any problems.  We opted to not rent a GPS equipped car since our cell phone maps have worked just fine all over the world (including Ireland where we were warned we might have problems).   We got out of the airport without any problems but quickly saw a traffic jam.  Our phone directed us out of harms way to a wide open lane toward our hotel.  What it failed to tell us was that it was a toll road that required a car equipped with a toll payment system.  Our car has Florida plates and does not have the needed Texas toll paying device.  I kept the car to the right side of the road waiting to see a toll booth but instead I saw a sign saying “EZ Tag payment only, no cash”.  At this point I knew we were in trouble.  I realized this would be costly but then I saw a sign that said “Warning Violators Will Be Prosecuted”.  I read the sign aloud to Patrice who seemed unmoved.  Then in a louder and higher pitch I said, “This is a state with the death penalty and they like to use it!”   She still seemed unimpressed when she said, “I am not the one who took us this way”.   Is this my wife?

We survived the toll road and the police have not contacted me as yet.  My mood was quickly changed when we entered the hotel.  We are staying in the JW Marriott Houston Downtown and this place is amazing.  I was immediately reminded of the JW Marriott in Austin which I think was the best room we have had in any hotel.  Well maybe the Hilton on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls had it beat.   Doesn’t really matter, you get the point, I could spend the rest of life in this place.  At least if I didn’t have to go outside.

Like I said, I could live here as long as I didn’t have to go outside.  Today was a gorgeous day in Houston.  By Los Angeles standards it was a day in hell.  Sorry but humidity is my kryptonite.   After a shower and a quick bite to eat we headed to the stadium.  Minute Maid Park is the home of the Astros and a beautiful stadium.  The staff were great and actually knew where we needed to go to get our tickets.  I don’t think I mentioned that at the Oakland game on Wednesday no one (I am not exaggerating) knew where I had to go to get our tickets.  I guess I did exaggerate, I did finally found one person who did know my tickets could be found.  She said, “This is not the right place, give me your ID and I will get them for you”.

We had great seats and enjoyed the game except the Astros who slugged the A’s into submission on Wednesday only got one hit and lost 1-0.   The good news is that I have now been to 16 stadiums and only have 14 left to go.  Some side notes, we sat next to one of the Astro player’s dad who flew in from Pennsylvania to see his boy play.  Unfortunately the kid struck out in a pinch hitting role.  We also sat two rows in front of “Manny” from Modern Family.  Apparently he is a big Astro fan.

Tomorrow we are going to have lunch with an astronaut.  More about that tomorrow.