Home > The Four Horsemen > Archives > 2008 > May > 20 > Entry
ATL, Arlington, and home again!
We have made it back to the promised land known as Texas! We arrived back in Longview last night tired, hungry, and emotionally drained from two weeks of awesomeness.
After our minor league experience in Durham we made our scheduled stop in Atlanta to see the red-hot Chipper Jones and the Braves take on the A’s in their first interleague series of the year. Thanks to Mindy, our GPS system, we were on time to every game on this trip… except for the game in Atlanta. We left Durham in plenty of time to arrive at Turner Field for the game, and to meet the P.R. lady who was helping us, but we ran into traffic and our journey became a little more interesting.
Because of stand-still traffic on our way into town, we turned Mindy off and decided to exit off I-85 and take the backroads to the stadium. After driving around the downtown area and not making any progress, we turned Mindy back on and plugged in the address for Turner Field. She began to give us directions which we blindly followed without asking questions. Apparently, this was a bad decision.
We ended up somewhere on the outskirts of Atlanta, on a dead end road on top of a hill overlooking a construction site of some sort. Needless to say, Turner Field was nowhere in sight. We backtracked and plugged the address in again. This time, Mindy took us straight to the ballpark. We found a parking spot for $10 and sprinted the half-mile distance to the stadium. We definitely could tell life on the road had taken a toll on our aging bodies as we huffed and puffed our way through the turnstiles and into Braves territory.
Despite the hitch in our E.T.A., the game was exciting to the end as the Braves, who trailed 5-1 going into the last inning, staged a late comeback to make it interesting. After scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the ninth off A’s closer Huston Street, the home team was unable to push a fourth run across the plate and fell 5-4.
As soon as the game was over we made our way back to the trusty Tahoe and began our overnight trek back to Texas. Because VanZandt and Ed had already logged long hours on the road, Ethan and I rose to the occasion and kept each other awake on the 11-hour marathon drive down I-20 back into Texas.
At 8:30 on Sunday morning we stumbled into Longview, where we stopped by the house, showered, and took a short nap before driving to Arlington for game three of the Silver Boot Series between the Astros and Rangers.
The sun was glistening off the Rangers white uniforms as we found our awesome seats behind home plate that the Rangers had graciously offered us.
Unfortunately, the Rangers came up a little bit short against their in-state rival, but they won the first two games of the series which allows them to lay claim to the title of the best baseball team in the great state of Texas.
With heavy eyelids and sunburned faces we completed the last leg of the monumental journey, back to Longview. As we have unpacked and sifted through all of our pictures and videos today it is hard to believe the trip is really over.
Throughout today we have tried to decide on the top three moments of the trip. While lots of different moments have been discussed, several memories that have really stuck out are the stop at the Hall of Fame, where we took a private tour of the basement; our visit to the memorials in Washington D.C., specifically the WWII monument which personally left me with a greater sense of pride and responsibility towards this great nation and the millions that have died for our freedom; and seeing three of the most historic places in baseball: Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, and Wrigley Field.
The last two weeks have been so surreal and amazing as we have all fulfilled a life-long dream to visit major league stadiums, and we have been able to raise money for a great cause. Currently, our fundraising totals for Susan G. Komen for a Cure in Tyler stand at just over $2,000. This is short of our goal but is still a very respectable amount of money. The donation link at http://www.active.com/donate/tylerkomen08/4horsemen will be open through the end of the month, so you can still donate and help us reach our goal!
Also, CBS19 is planning to air a story on Tuesday about our trip that will contain exclusive Four Horsemen pictures and video. Check it out to get a visual recap of the trip!
Although we plan to do so in a more personal manner within the next few days, we would like to thank every one who has donated or helped us in some way on the trip. Some of these people include: The Longview News-Journal (Jack Stallard and Gabe Brooks), MLB. com (Barry Bloom), Big D & Bubba, CBS19 (Eric Sullivan), KLTV7 (Reid Kerr), Best Buy in Longview, the Waller family, Sylvia Martinez, the Tyler affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the Kansas City Royals, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox, Clay Buchholz and his sister Ashleigh, the Boston Red Sox, the New York Mets, the New York Yankees, the Baseball Hall of Fame (Brad Horn), the Philadelphia Phillies, Ray at the White House, the Atlanta Braves, the Durham Bulls, and the Texas Rangers!!
I know I am leaving people out but THANK YOU to everyone who has helped make this trip a success. We raised money, learned a lot about life in the real world, and had tons of fun with our best friends!
Thanks for donating, thanks for reading over the last two weeks, and most of all, thanks for supporting the Four Horsemen as we have ridden across America on our TRIP OF A LIFETIME FOR A CURE!
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