Take me out to the ball game...

Day 65: Chandler, AZ (Off Day)

I awoke this morning bright and early covered in Arizona dirt after spending the night outside. Apparently I’d rolled off of my sleeping mat in the night leaving me covered in a nice coat of Arizona dust! All is good though as it is day 65 and a little dirt isn’t going to hurt me. With the luxury of having showers at the Temple the first thing I did upon waking was head for the shower. Alex was up and talking with Malcolm but it was still early and everyone else appeared to be sleeping. After my shower a few others had awoken and were in the kitchen helping Malcolm prepare breakfast so I joined Alex, James and Anish as we made tortillas and some kind of spicy rice.


After breakfast a group of us decided we were going to venture into Phoenix via public transportation to go watch the Diamondbacks play the Braves. We headed to the bus stop about a half a mile from the Temple where we boarded a bus and after one transfer made it to Chase Field a little over an hour later. On the second bus I met a guy who actually knew where Oneonta was and told me that his daughter had been shopping in Oneonta the day before. Apparently he had spent some time working in nearby Greene and his daughter is still in the area – it’s a small world! Once we got to the stadium we purchased $11 tickets at the window outside the stadium for the upper leftfield section. It was Carlos Quentin bobble head day meaning they gave each person who entered the stadium a bobble head doll of outfielder Carlos Quentin. Alex and I wandered around the stadium for awhile before finding our seats. Keith, Brandt, Sehee and Drew were already seated when we arrived while Dan and Andrew had wondered down to field level to try and snag some seats. In the middle of the fifth inning we suddenly heard “And now we have Andrew here…” announced over the PA system. We look up and there on the jumbotron is none other than ANDREW BARFIELD! Next thing we know we look down on the field and there he is out running around in the outfield after having been selected for a “between innings” promotional game. He had three chances to catch three fly balls, if he caught two of the balls he would win 3,000 US Airway miles and if he caught all three he would win 5,000 Airway miles. He ended up catching all three baseballs and came away with the 5,000 air miles, a t-shirt and a baseball. The game ended up going into extra innings with the Diamondbacks winning in the 10th inning 4-3.

After the game we took the bus back to the Temple where we had dinner donated by Keith’s cousin from Old Chicago Pizza of Chandler. Old Chicago gave us each an individual salad along with enough pan pizza’s to fill everyone. (Thank you to Old Chicago and Keith’s cousin for the delicious meal!) After dinner we had a team meeting to discuss some things before heading to bed. Tonight I’m opting to stay away from the dirt and sleeping on the sidewalk!