NWL East

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After nearly a two month layoff, baseball road trips have returned. Tomorrow morning, I am leaving for the cities of Boise and Spokane to catch the two NWL East teams that reside there.

Here's the plan for this weekend: In the morning, I will catch the early AM train up to Portland and to the airport. The Southwest flight to Boise will take about an hour, landing me in Idaho at around 12:45 in the afternoon. After taking the bus into downtown and getting checked into my hostel, I'll head down to the famous Old Idaho State Penitentary to take the tour. Once that is completed, I will be taking numerous buses up to Memorial Stadium to see the Boise Hawks play host to the Vancouver Canadiens. I'm meeting up with a friend at the ballpark, and we're planning on hitting some Boise nightlife after the game.

After an early morning wake-up call, I'll board the city bus back out to Boise Airport for a morning flight north to the Inland Empire of Washington and the city of Spokane. Getting into the city around 10:30, I'm going to do a little scouting for my work and check out the Central Spokane YMCA. I've requested a tour of the facility, and I plan on taking some notes for my employment back here in Eugene. After the YMCA, I might head to the Interplayer's House and see their production of Greater Tuna. I figure that will take me up to the time I need to catch the bus out to Avista Stadium to see the Spokane Indians play host to the Eugene Emeralds.

Once the game is over, I'll probably hit up a movie and grab a drink at one of the bars by the Gonzaga campus. At around 2am on Sunday morning, I'll board the Empire Builder to Portland where I'll connect back to a thruway bus to Eugene. I'm scheduled to arrive into Eugene at about 1pm in the afternoon. That leaves me plenty of time to catch a nap before our softball game that evening.

As you can see, this trip is going to be SUPER busy. There are a lot of connections to be made with planes, trains, and buses. For the very first time, I'm am doing a road trip where I fly in-between cities on the trip rather than the initial destination. In all, I'm probably going to end up taking about eight different buses or light-rail transit during this trip, which is close to a record for me. With this in mind, I have planned out, meticulously, the logistics of the trip with respect to all these factors.

Now comes the funding. Taking off the month of June was probably the best decision I made when it came to road trips. I have a ton of money saved up and my wallet will be the least of my concerns. I have plenty of "mad money" for the trip, and I have enough saved up that I won't be flirting with bankruptcy after I come home. I am proud of my financial fortitude in saving up for the trip and for the model that I have adopted this season of shorter, but more pinpoint, excursions.

I will be updating the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and FourSquare throughout the trip. I'm very much looking forward to passing on to all of you the experiences that I will undoubtedly witness.

Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)