2011 USTSA World Series Day 1

Up at 4 a.m., Jack and I had the car loaded and were on the road by 5:30 a.m. Jack's baseball team is spending the next few days playing in a tournament in San Diego. My goal for the morning was to try and chase down Rod and Scott. They had left at 4:10 a.m. By the time I had reached the Grapevine, I had closed the gap to about 25 miles.

We stopped for about an hour to have lunch with Drew and see his apartment and I lost any chance of running down Rod and Scott. I really enjoyed the opportunity to visit with Drew. His new band is taking off. I am very proud of what he is accomplishing.

We got to the hotel about 2 p.m. At almost 500 miles, this is the longest drive that I have made in a long, long time. It went fast, but about 30 miles from San Diego I was ready to be done.

We connected up with the Rod's family. After hanging out in there room for a bit, we took off for the opening ceremonies. Unfortunately, many of the boys had the Cooperstown opening ceremonies in mind and they were disappointed. The gathering did give them a chance to trade pins with a number of teams. After an hour plus wait in line, the food was not bad (taco plate plus I purchased a couple of tamales). In general, the opening ceremonies were something that could have been skipped...

We headed back to the hotel. Rod and I finished the evening in the hotel bar trying to solve the world's problems.

There is one footnote to the trip to Southern California. Between my junior and senior years in college, I drove tomato truck up and down the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys for a a company called The Morning Star Trucking Company. Along I-5, I must have passed almost a dozen Morning Star Trucks. They rent truck tractors from Hertz and slap their name on the doors. At the time, it was a small company with two owners. Seeing the truck brought back a lot of memories.