My dream is to go to all the baseball stadiums before I die. When I heard Yankee stadium and Shea stadium were getting torn down after the season, I knew I needed to book a trip quickly. So, mom, dad and myself took an unforgettable trip to New York.
It began on Tues, we flew out at 11:15. We had a connection in Atlanta and literally sprinted through the airport and made it to the terminal only to hear you have 1 minute to board the flight to New York. We made it, barely. Then, we get to the hotel only to hear they do not have our reservation and they are over booked. You must be kidding?!?! They found us a room and an upgrade, actually. We made it to the Mets game Tues evening. It was awesome. The fans are the best, they love the game. The chanting never stopped from the first inning to the ninth inning. When the pitcher had thrown 2 strikes and there were 2 outs, every person stood and clapped for the next pitch. They cheered on their team like they were good friends with every player. The next day...Yankee stadium. This is what I had been waiting for, do not get me wrong I love the Mets, I mean my middle name is Shea after the stadium, but the Yankees come on. The game was at 1:10 and we arrived at noon. It was like sitting in history. I just kept thinking how great it was that the babe stood on the same field and hit a home run, Mantle ran the bases there, etc. Again, the fans cheered and were passionate about every call. It was something I will never forget. I cannot even put in words how awesome it was to watch games at those stadiums. We were scheduled to fly out that evening at 7:29 and arrived at the airport around 5:00only to find out that our flight was delayed. After we made it through security we found out that many flights had been cancelled and ours was delayed some more. At 1:30 in the morning our flight was cancelled. We had to then go back downstairs and stand in the 1 hour line to reschedule. I needed to be at work the next morning at 9 and that was not happening. So, we get to front of the line to find out there are no flights to Atlanta until after 5 the next day. So, we do it. Then, we find out the first available from ATL to DFW is at 8am the next morning. Joy to the world. At this moment every rental is taken and every hotel/motel is taken from NY to New Jersey. Crazy. You know what happened then, find as comfortable of a spot you can in the airport and try to sleep. haha, yeah right. Mom and I noticed them handing blankets out about 3, so we went over to get one and the man said, "you must be sitting down to get a blanket." What??!!!! You have to be kidding, are we in first grade? So, we ran in front of him and sat down and he handed us one when he got to us. Awesome. After a thirty minute nap, civilians began making their way in the airport to catch there flights out the next morning. Cool, just imagine over 100 people with huge sky blue blankets all bundled up in various parts of the airport and men and women coming in with suits and nice clothing on. We truly felt homeless. It was great. We met a ton of people and had a blast. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:00 that evening. Well, we needed to get out of the airport and heard of a bus that you can ride for 2 dollars to manhattan and it brings you back to the airport, sweet. We get exact change for our joy ride and go outside with backpacks and homeless blankets and wait for the bus. We get on and ride it to manhattan and when it stops there the driver says ok, that is the end everyone off. Wait a minute, they said it takes us back to the airport. The driver says it was no joy bus and we have to get off. So nice. We get off and walk through manhattan with blankets and backpacks. I was sure someone was going to hand us change or something. We ate lunch and caught another bus back to the airport, it only made our day better. We get back and realize our flight was delayed again. Now it is going to leave at 7 instead of 6. Alright, our flight shows up around 8, everyone gets off and we all stand there for 30 minutes. A man then comes out and says one of the crew members just checked out, so we have to wait on another flight and it will land around 9:30. We finally board our plane to ATL at 10:30. Then, spent the night in ATL and headed to DFW the next morning at 8am. Man, it was a long trip and two nights in the airport later we finally got home. I will say, if you are still reading, I would not trade it for the world. Baseball is truly an american tradition in New York.
