Spring Training – Day 14

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Arrival in Palm Beach Garden- Wednesday – March 14^th



Today we slept in until about 8:00, following yesterday’s long adventure. We got up and dressed, and then had breakfast in the hotel. We packed all our belongings and checked out from Ft Lauderdale and headed off to Spring Training. This is actually only about an hour up Interstate-95. We arrived at the Embassy Suites about 10:00. We couldn’t check into our room yet (nothing cleaned up yet), but they allowed us to check our bags into their luggage room, and we were off to Roger Dean Stadium for our first ball game.



We actually had some time to kill since the stadium is only about 10 minutes from the hotel, so we drove around and saw what had changed since the last time we were here (at least 5 years). There have been some additions and a few closures, but a lot looks as we remembered.



We drove over to the stadium and parked in their garage. Another pleasant surprise is that garage parking is free here (wish Busch Stadium was as generous). We were still too early to get into the ball park, so we sat on a bench in the shade and just enjoyed the comfortable weather. Janet checked her smart-phone and found that it was actually hotter in St Louis today than where we are. But it was very comfortable for us here.



When we could go inside, we found that we had seats in the shade. The couple sitting next to us was from Farmington, Mo and are on a lengthy vacation where they are sailing their own ship along the gulf coast and then up the east coast. They had stopped to watch a ballgame before moving further up the coast. That sounded pretty adventurous but not something we really think of when we say “cruising”.



It was good to see a ballgame again, although the Cardinals did not win today. Over the next week we will see 5 more games and we should get to see a lot of the players who will make the team. There were just fewer than 6000 people at Roger Dean Stadium today, but that filled most of the seats. Since this ballpark is substantially smaller than a major league stadium, all the seats are much closer to the field and we had great views from behind home plate.



We went back to the hotel after the game, and registered for our room. However when Janet tried the key in the door, there was already a lady sitting on the couch – she was not too happy about getting roommates. We got another room, and are actually in room 217 while we are here. For the first time since we packed everything, we have fully unpacked all the bags today. A week from now it will all have to go back into the bags, but temporarily everything is available to wear. Our new Spring Training T-shirts, hats and knapsacks were waiting for us.



The rest of the group flew in uneventfully and we met up with a few of them after they arrived. There is a “manager’s reception” each evening, so many of the folks gather at the bar each evening (including today) for an hour or so. We will probably get to know many of them before too long.



We had a quick dinner of tacos and burritos at a nearby restaurant. Now we are catching up on posting blogs and getting ready for the rest of the week.

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