Dave is…
just south of Richmond VA.
I woke up about as tired as I was when I went to sleep. I figured it took me about 12 hours to get from the DC area to Orlando on Monday so I wouldnt have to push myself quite as hard on the return trip. That was good because for whatever reason I was just not making the same time I made on the way down. Though I did get to see a trailer on fire on the side of the highway which was cool, and I made it out of Florida without being shot to death which is more than at least one family of four can claim today. Despite only two stops though at 3pm I still wasnt matching the pace I had on Monday and what was worse was I was so tired I felt like I was about to fall asleep at the wheel. I have never felt that way in midafternoon before. I ended up having to pull over and take an hour and a half nap at a reststop a trip first. I didnt even use the bed in the back, just slept in the front passenger seat.
The nap helped enough to get me back on the road and I powered on passing South of the Border from the opposite side. I stopped this time thinking that I would see what this ludicris place had to offer but when I pulled in I realized that it is a complex of shabby buildings half of which were closed and none of which looked interesting. So after a brief driving tour I was back on the highway.
I finally stopped north of Rocky Mount North Carolina to get some food and get out of the car. I also entertained the idea of watching a few innings of the Mets/Cardinals game. That idea was quickly disabused as the Lone Star Steakhouse had a dozen tvs and every single one of them was showing the Virginia Tech game. That was disappointing but the food wasnt, in fact it was so good I was practically in a food coma when I left and as such only made it another 45 minutes down the road before I decided to pull off at the same overnight-parking friendly Walmart I had stayed at on the way down. I fell asleep listening to Beltran hitting a two run homer and woke up in time to turn the car off before the battery died. I didnt make it as far as I wanted to but I was still in easy striking distance of DC.
I would like to officially announce that I am supporting the Mets in this series. Raised with little real interest in baseball my team was nominally the Cardinals because more of my friends were Cards fans than Cubs and if I did somehow end up going to a game it was inevitably the Cards. However my interest in baseball, which is still wildly behind my interest in football both American and European didnt really develop till college when I began following the Mets due in no small part to Jay’s love for them and the fact that it took far less time to go see the Mets then it did to drive to St Louis to see the Cards. The Yankees were never an option as they suck. So I started rooting for them a season or two after the subway series when they were atrocious. I like losers.
Well I still like the Cardinals too but given my proximity to the Mets and the blanket coverage NY sports get in NY at this point I know more about the Mets then the Cards. This began to cause problems in August when late one drunken evening, Joe decided he had had enough of me bringing up the Mets in the context of Cards discussions and launched a 45 attack on me and my bandwagon jumping. Risse and I tried to explain that it wasnt bandwagon jumping to no avail and Joe has remained bitter on this point since then. So true to form I sent them a text during the game letting them know that space remains for them on the Mets bandwagon and Joe responded with a blistering voicemail which really cant be repeated here.
But in my magnanimy I would like to offer Joe one last chance to give up on the redbirds and beg a little bit, and Ill let him hop on the Mets wagon just in time for the World Series.
(In actuality I am counting on Joe’s computer illiteracy keeping him from ever reading this post, cause if he reads it and the Cards lose the NLCS then I cant ever go home.)