Farewell to Spring Training 2017

Spring Training is over for 2017 and the baseball teams are making their way back to their home stadiums across the country full of eager hopes and dreams for the soon to start regular season. Having worked the final game yesterday between the KC Royals and the Texas Rangers, which perhaps fittingly ended in a 0-0 tie, I turned in my shirts, punched out and am heading toward my next destination of San Diego. My wife Sophie has an ASCM (American College of Sports Medicine) annual conference she'll be attending but we'll also get to spend some time together sightseeing and relaxing.

A special thank you to Chris, Danny, Bob, Larry, Griselda, Sue, Nadine, Shoey, and all the rest of the Aramark 2017 Spring Training crew. It was quite an experience! Though the names will slowly blur with time the friendliness of this great group of folks will not soon be forgotten.

At the end of yesterday's game there was a celebration for the "Sundancers", the volunteer group that act as ushers, parking attendants, and general help around the stadium during games. Founded in 2002  the group boasts more than 750 members and raises charitable donations supporting area youth-related programs and projects. In 2016 the Surprise Sundancers gave out more than $200,000 in college scholarships. I don't know if I'll ever reside in the area but if I did this is a group I'd love to be a part of. When

Sundancers pose for their 2017 end of
Season picture at Surprise Stadium

my wife was down visiting me a week or so ago she was 'adopted' by one of the Sundancer volunteers by the name of Melvin during one of the games. He couldn't have been nicer to her and for that and all the larger group does, many thanks.

They say it's a small world and yesterday I had Sara B., another Pinnacol retiree, swing by and say hi during the game. She and her family were down enjoying a couple of games and the excuse to escape the cold wet weather at home in Denver. She had retired after 30 years with Pinnacol and was looking fresh and rejuvenated as it seems a lot of Pinnacol retirees appear. Sarah had been a Sr. Underwriter at Pinnacol, something I would have loved to be if I hadn't gotten called to the 'dark side' 😉 of Human Resources way back when.

A word to the wise for future fans planning on coming to Spring Training. If you want Spring Training gear - hats, shirts, pins, etc. - try to attend games early in the season. The merchandise ordered for Spring Training's run of six weeks is gone when gone. Yesterday's final game saw all merchandise discounted 40% but fans were selecting from what little merchandise remained. Some seemed surprised at how little was left, especially of Royals gear, but a 2017 Spring Training shirt isn't worth much at the start of the 2018 season so Aramark, the retail vendor at Surprise Stadium, had been careful not to over-order.

So that's it from Surprise Spring Training 2017. Thanks for bearing with me through this chronicle and I hope to see you on down the road!

A Little Rain Must Fall...

Today's game at Surprise Stadium featured the Colorado Rockies taking on, and unfortunately losing to, the Texas Rangers.

Driving back to Lake Pleasant afterwards the weather in the distance looked a little foreboding  and soon enough the first scattered drops began to fall. Reaching the campground the skies let loose with what was my first Thunderstorm of the year complete with thunder, lightning, and even a little bit of hail. The desert never ceases to surprise. So for those where the precipitation is still white and cold this video is for you. Stay warm and dry wherever you may be!

Final Four

Last night's game featured the Texas Rangers versus the LA Dodgers with the Rangers winning with a 10th inning home run after 9 innings of scoreless play. Temperatures were in the 70's and low 80's under clear blue skies. In other words another perfect day for a baseball game. It was also the last weekend game of the 2017 Spring Training season and was the fourth to last game on the schedule for Surprise Stadium.

Phoenix is also hosting some of the March Madness basketball games. I'm not much of a basketball fan but Larry, the coworker I've mentioned in prior blogs, is a devout fan of his almamater's team the South Carolina Gamecocks. The Gamecocks have made the Final Four, having not been in the "Sweet 16" in the modern era before this season. I know he'll be rooting them on in style as he makes his way cross country to West Virginia for his next 'workamping' gig.

With the season coming to a close there are things I'll miss about Arizona and some things I could have done without.

I'll miss Lake Pleasant on a quiet and peaceful morning. It really is a very beautiful place. I won't miss the weekend and the occasional mid-week rowdy campers who bring the term noisy campground to a whole new level. I've mentioned before Lake Pleasant seems primarily a locals Park and they seem fine with the rowdiness but if you like tranquility in a beautiful desert setting stay far away from here or bring a good pair of ear plugs.

I'll miss the flowers. The desert in bloom is amazing.

I'll miss the sound of wild burros as they make their way not so stealthily through the campground in the middle of the night. Last night, being Sunday, the campground was as quiet as it ever gets and the burros seem to know when to come and nibble on the grasses that grow in the tent sites. Last night I had a burro eating about fifteen feet from my camper at 12:45 am. He had made quite the ruckus as he came into camp which gave me time to grab my camera and attempt to take his picture.

My apologies that the pic didn't turn out better but the ghostlike quality gives a hint at the elusiveness of these beautiful animals.

I'll miss the beauty of a quiet baseball stadium before the crowds arrive. There is a serenity of a well-kept but empty ball field that hints in anticipation of what is to come.

I'll miss the playing of the National anthem before each game. As divided as our country is these days it's one remaining instance that allows us to remember that beneath the animosity we are all still Americans.

I'll miss the uncrowded drive to the stadium on the 303. The lack of congestion is something Colorado drivers can only vaguely remember, if at all. I won't miss the aggressiveness of Arizona drivers who think nothing of going 20-30 mph over the speed limit. They also have a penchant for not tolerating being behind an out of state car for more than thirty seconds so beware they'll try to pass no matter how fast you are going.

I'll miss the weather. Who could complain about sunshine and warm conditions in March? Even for the couple of days it was already approaching triple digits it was better than the cold snow and slush much of the country was dealing with.

I could go on and on but suffice it to say there was more good than bad, more happiness than sorrow which to me is the hallmark of a good trip... May all your journeys be so favored.

Stayin' on the trail...

Stayin' on the trail.... Or not. With five days to go until the end of Spring Training I'm starting to collect quite a stash of memories from this trip. In the last week I've had two visitors join me at "Camp David". The love of my life, Sophie, flew down for her Spring Break to enjoy the Arizona heat and she got a full taste of what temps in the high 90's in March feel like. While I was slaving away at the old ballgame she was out hiking and biking. I did get a chance to take her to old town Scottsdale one day and another day we rented a boat on Lake Pleasant to see its pristine waters in style.

My wife loves to captain the boat so most of the time I sat back and relaxed while she took me bouncing over the waves (she really likes the waves - the bigger the better!).

I also was visited by Tim from Denver for a couple of days. I worked with Tim's wife for many years at Pinnacol and have gotten to know Tim as well. He was nice enough to take me out to a ballgame and dinner while here and he's flying back to Denver today where apparently snow fell overnight.

We took in the Mariners/Angels game at Peoria Stadium and had great seats along the third base line. I took Tim on a flower-filled walk on a short section of the Wild Burro Trail at Lake Pleasant. Both he and Sophie picked a great time to come as the desert is really in bloom.

At my work some of the folks are leaving for other gigs around the country. When this is all done I'll miss working with Bob and Larry who were with me most days at the 3rd base tent. Larry is quite the free spirit and really made the time fly by. His ability to connect with almost anyone (he was especially fond of those of the female persuasion) is something I wish I had.

As I mentioned, the desert is in bloom. A lot of the snowbirds are readying their rigs in anticipation of heading north when the weather gets too hot here. As one RV'er told me, he leaves when the non-4 legged critters come out to play. Well, that time has definitely come. I'm hearing the rattle of snakes on my mountain bike rides now and the library now sports a sign warning folks to stay on the trails.

And in the Park office you can view live specimens of what you don't want to encounter up close and personal outside.

I'll leave you with a couple of baseball images to get your mind off snakes and the like. A lot of fans go to great lengths to dress up in their team apparel. I caught this fan sporting a great pair of boots the other day.

And finally, while Surprise Stadium really doesn't have a bad seat in the house this young fan at last night's game really did have a fantastic view.

A Bird's-eye view of Surprise Stadium

I've got 9 days left until the end of Spring Training. The time has flown by as quickly as the heat has risen. Yesterday's game between the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners saw temps hit 97 degrees and the folks who had flown down from the Pacific Northwest were paying the price. Lots of creamy white skin left the stadium deep red  and I don't think there was enough sunblock in the stadium to go around. There was though enough beer, brats, hotdogs, and all the other goodies folks consume at ballparks so they all seemed to leave happy and satisfied.

Surprise Stadium was built 15 years ago in 2002. At yesterday's game they honored the Sundancer volunteers who have been helping with games all of those years. These folks, clad in yellow shirts are all volunteers and act as ushers, parking attendants, and all sorts of other duties required to keep upwards of 10,000 fans happy. Each game fans can buy raffle tickets for $5 with the daily winner taking home half of the pot with the reminder going to help fund local charities the Sundancers support. Best known as the spring training home of the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals the stadium also hosts the Arizona Fall League team, the Surprise Saguaros. The stadium sits in the middle of the Surprise Recreation Campus which is also home to swimming pools, library, ball fields, tennis and pickleball courts as well as a small lake and playgrounds. As is the stadium, everything seems to be immaculately maintained and the people of this Phoenix suburb really have something to be proud of. The drone video above gives a quick bird's-eye view of the stadium. Not quite the same as the pilots of the F35's and F16's from Luke Air Force Base get as they zoom over the stadium on a daily basis but not bad...

Desert in Bloom

My wife Sophie is down visiting me for her Spring Break and this morning we took a hike along the Wild Burro Trail. The round-trip of 7 miles took us along the lakeshore, up and over some rolling hills, and through some beautiful wild flowers. When I first arrived at Lake Pleasant everything was pretty much still brown but just a couple of weeks later the desert is now flowering. Thanks to some February and early March rains the flowers appear to be ready for the warm weather to finally arrive.

Along this morning's hike I took the video above . For those still locked in Winter's icy clutches it's a sneak peak of what you'll be experiencing in another month or two. Enjoy!

Odds and Ends

Yesterday the Kansas City Royals hosted the squad from Venezuela as part of the World Baseball Classic. These international teams are primarily made up of MLB players who hail from particular countries. As one KC fan told me, the Royals would be lost without Venezuelan players as a couple of the KC stars were playing for their country team as they whooped the Royals 11-0. Ouch! Guess if we build a wall we need to still find a way to let great athletes across the border but I'd hazard a guess they don't get here trudging through the desert or swimming the Rio Grande.

Team Venezuela plays at Surprise Stadium again today, this time hosted by the Texas Rangers. We'll see if the domestic team does better than the hapless Royals. Tomorrow is the first game under the lights and we've been told to bring some warm clothing as when the sun goes down behind the mountains to the west the temperatures plummet. Plummet being a relative term of course as the day time temps now are pushing the low to mid 80's. Still a 20 degree drop is noticeable and can feel downright cold after sweltering in the Arizona heat.

I'm still camped out at Lake Pleasant which I've concluded draws more of a local crowd than some of the other parks I've stayed in. It's a louder Park for sure as folks don't quite seem to grasp the notion of "quiet hours".  Most of the folks I'm working with are "workampers" (www.workamper.com) and are staying in RV's in local RV parks. Monthly rates at these parks appear to range from $350 to $800 a month. I'm paying $20/day at Lake Pleasant or roughly $600/month but despite the sometimes noisy neighbors I'd still rather be out at the lake than parked close enough to the next door RV to shake hands when stepping out the door.

There is a broad mix of folks working Spring Training. A fair number are my age and are retired but interestingly there are some young folks in their late 20's and early 30's who have opted out of the corporate grind and travel the country working one workamping gig after another making ends meet. For me it wasn't the money that drew me but rather the chance to do something new in the warm Arizona sun. As long as what they pay me covers  my camping costs I'm pretty good to go. A lot of the other workampers are still working to live so they talk about working at places at Amazon fulfillment centers, Walmart, etc. clearly there's no fun in that but I respect that people have to earn a living. I also admire their alternative lifestyle and the ability to lead a nomadic way of life (heck, the name of this blog is "The Road That Beckons") but I believe these folks in their quest for freedom end up working far harder than the average cubicle jockey in an office.

I'm stationed in the store along the 3rd base line and get to work on a regular basis with two guys that's present the spectrum of workampers. Bob  is in his 75th year on this planet, has been retired for many years and has worked post-retirement in places like Yellowstone as well as Spring Training. He and his wife own a home in Sun City which is just  north of Surprise but spend their summers working and living in nice places across the western U.S.  Larry is 30 years younger than Bob, is twice divorced and apparently gave up a corporate banking job to roam the country. He's a baseball and sports fanatic and can recite trivia about many things ("who sang that song?", "name a MLB player who played every position in one game..."). Not independently wealthy he's also working at Walmart on top of the Spring Traing job so Larry is putting in some long days to make ends meet. One thing that all these workampers share is that they all seem to be very nice people. I've concluded that taking people out of the pressures of the typical corporate job really does allow people to be themselves and in most instances their innate goodness will come through. Hey, maybe we need to elect some workampers and send them to Washington. Spring Training ends in just a couple of weeks and their looking for a new opportunity...

Lake Pleasant

While I'm working Spring Training I'm camping at two of the Maricopa County Regional Parks. I was at White Tank for a week and for the remainder of my time here I'm at Lake Pleasant. White Tank is about 14 miles from Surprise Stadium and Lake Pleasant is roughly twice that distance at 30. At White Tank their campground has electrical and water at each site and they charge $30 a night for those amenities. At Lake

Pleasant I'm in the $20/night campground which means I'm without electricity and have to walk to the spigot to get my water. I have solar for my camper which handles most of my needs which consists of charging the inevitable electronics like my phone, iPad, and Kindle. All these devices are power hogs but the solar seems up to the task thanks to the constant and reliable Arizona sunshine. Last summer we took solar on our trip to Alaska whithout remembering from our prior trip that Alaska is cloudy and rainy - not very conducive to generating solar power!

Thus far I'd give the nod to White Tank as the nicer of the two campgrounds. The facilities seem newer and better maintained. The nice thing about White Tank and having electrical is not having to listen to the roar of generators that I'm getting used to at Lake Pleasant. In both places I'm one of the few tenters with most folks rolling up in their RV home away from home. Last night on my stroll around the campground I even saw a couple sitting by their campfire watching, I kid you not, their big screen TV outside powered by the ubiquitous generator. That sight made me yearn for the wilds of the Yukon as I don't think the local fauna (bears) are into CNN. At White Tank most of the license plates appeared to be from out of state while at Lake Pleasant most folks are sporting Arizona tags. Fortunately by around 10pm the campground settles down and you can get some sleep.

While Lake Pleasant is farther away than White Tank the drivetime is about the same at 30 minutes. From Lake Pleasant the roads are not very busy and the main highway - the 303 - is uncrowded as this neck of the woods is still fairly undeveloped with urban sprawl. I can only imagine what it will be like in a couple of years though. This

morning driving in there were hot air balloons all over the sky and road cyclists  were out for their morning rides. Both are signs of still being in a primarily rural setting as you probably don't want to land a big balloon in a residential neighborhood.

One thing that both campgrounds lack is access to wifi and for that I've been making good use of the Maricopa Public Libraries. There's one within walking distance of the stadium and that's where I am today pounding on the keyboard.

The weather today is clear and sunny with highs near 80. It's getting warmer as each week goes by. That's fine for now but they tell me they'll have at least a day or two over 100 degrees by the end of March. Just in time to pack up and head for cooler climes up north!

Well, it's off to work I go slaving away at the ole' ballpark. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it...

When the Cubs Come to Town...

Yesterday the World Champion Chicago Cubs rolled into Surprise Stadium and their fans flocked to the game. The weather cooperated with a glorious sunny day for a baseball game. Surprise Stadium has a capacity slightly north of 10,000 and my understanding is that the Cubs games are more often than not sold out. One thing was evident - there were a lot of very white folks itching for a sunburn and the Arizona sun delivered.

The Cubs won handily as they beat the hosting Royals and in the midst of  all the activity I thought I'd capture some sights from around the stadium. I think every baseball fan at some point should make the pilgrimage to Spring Training. Win or lose it's tough to go wrong. There are seven stadiums in the Phoenix area so the choice of games to choose from is huge. Surprise Stadium apparently has some of the lowest ticket prices in the Cactus League. Me, if I wasn't working during the game, I'd be parked out on the outfield lawn. You get a great view of the action and at only $8 the price is hard to beat.

So to all those still stuck in the cold and snow make a plan to head this way. The good folks in Surprise would love to see you!