TEAM LYMAN: HoHoKam

The Plan was simple, with an emphasis on fun . . . faced with a combination of opportunity and willpower, T and I made a last-minute trip to Mesa AZ to catch a couple of Cubs Spring Training games. For me, the last time I was here was years ago with Dad where I collected autographs from Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, Schwan Dunstin, Ron Cey, and many others. In fact, it was that trip that inspired me to go on to play ten years of professional ball . . . in my mind. For T, this was the second annual trip . . . a number of her old coworkers from Wrigley spend time in Mesa every summer. The life of a Cubs fan!

In our attempt to keep the trip on the cheap, we opted against Hotels, and in an effort to keep it slightly civilized, we also opted against the bohemian couch-hopping that Tanya took advantage of last season. The middle ground: Camping at the Lost Dutchman State Park! What an awesome choice. The Lost Dutchman is the name given to the monolythic rock formation that allegedly holds hidden gold. Though folks have been searching for the hidden treasure in the shadows of the Lost Dutchman for the past hundred years or so, I was fairly certain that we would stumble across it during our couple of days there.

We arrived in the afternoon to learn that all of the campgrounds had been filled. Bummer. But there was room in the overflow area. We wound our way into the park, and pretty quickly found a great spot to set up the tent. Funny, even in the camping areas, the place was filled with RV's. We were the only people there without a vehicle to sleep in. Memories of the van . . .

I'm actually running out of time with this blog, so I'll leave you with the highlights and pictures-We saw two games, the "A" squad won, the "B" squad lost. We Tailgated with the Wrigley crew, and had a blast. We Camp-cooked several great meals. We spent an afternoon saving a lost dog (it had to happen). We saw some roadrunners, and heard some coyotes. On the Drive home, my car died on the highway, and had to have a new alternator put in. Ouch. We had a blast.