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Monthly Archives: June 2012

#5 – Tropicana Field – Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays (St Petersburg, Florida)

I’ve been meaning to find the motivation to hit up a Rays game for quite some time. I finally found it and it wasn’t a disappointment.

To get the true Tropicana enjoyable experience, one must first partake in the pregame festivities at the local adjacent watering hole known as Ferg’s. This place gets off the chains before a home game. It’s amazing to watch the great migration that happens around 6:45 to the field.

After following the mindless crowd like a drone into the stadium on a hot summer day you find yourself instantly cooled by the 72 degrees controlled climate. The architecture of the dome is fascinating to look at and ponder upon yet many MLB fans seem to hate this ballpark. Oh well, it gives me my kicks.

I’m not sure where our seats actually were, but the piss poor geographical location of the Trop grants the ability of leisurely picking where you want to sit. We choose down by the bull pen.

After the game, all I wanted to do was go touch a ray in the petting tank. Unbeknownst to me, the petting tank closes in the 7th inning and I was not granted my wish for the night. This only led me to the conclusion that I would come back soon.

UPDATE (6-30-2012):

My boy Rich and I decided to hit up the Rays game on Saturday and check out “Throwback Night”. Now the Rays weren’t around until the late 90’s so I guess some marketing manager decided to make up some retro designs and cash in a little profit from fans. (They sold me on it). I just wish they woulda went with Devil Ray colors instead but apparently the owners are not fans of that point in team history.

Again, we partook in the pregame festivities at Ferg’s. I even capitalized on a combo coupon that included parking and a meal. Then we made the great migration.

This time I would not miss my opportunity to check out the petting tank. The rays were lively and playful as ever. I honestly think they are attention whores. But who wouldn’t be given the opportunity?

Once I got my photo opp and a few quick snaps of the rays themselves, it was time to HST the night and see where it took me.

We went and found some seats and I tried my best to capture a good photo of the throwback outfits.

Earlier in the evening we met some friends at Ferg’s who said they were heading to the Captain Morgan’s deck…There’s a Captain Morgan’s deck, ride on! So we headed up there and checked out the awesome outfield view. I was in for a treat on this particular night. As we were standing on the deck a patron decided he had had enough alcohol and that it was a good idea to hop the fence by first base and run across the outfield. It was incredible to hear the sounds of the crowd rooting him on as he tried to escape the clutches of officials chasing him down.

We decided to go catch the end of the game from any open seats we could find behind home plate. This turned out to be a terrific idea because as we sat down the elderly lady next to us offered us her wristbands. Wristbands, for what? Oh yeah, its throwback night, there is an Earth Wind and Fire concert on the field after the game. Score.

And boy do they still got it! What a perfect concert to end the evening.

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Posted by Luke Bennett on June 28, 2012 in Florida Finger-Licking Fun

Complete CIB Virtual Boy Collection

28 Jun

Finally, I have completed the elusive Virtual Boy CIB set. The Virtual Boy was the failed system of Nintendo from the 90’s that produced only 14 games. Let me reiterate, the system did so poorly that it flopped after 14 games.

Now don’t get it in your head that these are an easy set of 14 games to track down. I’ve been working on this collection for a little over a year now. I finally finished off my set with the an overpriced piece of cardboard. Mario Tennis was a game that came packaged in with the system, but oftentimes stores would have a box on display to promote sales of the Virtual Boy. To many collectors, you don’t have a complete set until you hunt down this “For Display Only” box. And now my friends, I am among those many collectors.

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Posted by Luke Bennett on June 28, 2012 in Game Hunting

My Old Kentucky Home

07 Jun

I thought I had booked a 5:30PM departure from Tampa. I thought wrong. When I rechecked my itinerary I had selected one of the first outbound flights from TPA. It wouldn’t be so bad I reassured myself. At least I can escape the bridge traffic and have some smooth sailing.

When my alarm clock went off at 3:30AM my body hated the mistake. But I pushed through and headed towards Tampa. As I was crossing the bridge I noticed to lights on the two outside lanes of interstate. They were closed. What could possibly be happening at 4AM. As I drew closer I could see that there had been a wreck. It was no big deal due to the lack of cars though. What stuck out to me were the people standing around the wrecked cars. One police office and three prostitutes. I kid you not. Three prostitutes wearing strait hooker clothes. Its 2012, I honestly didn’t think they still dressed in a way to stand out from a crowd. I mean, isn’t there some sort of app to find hookers these days? It wouldn’t surprise me.

I have never been to the airport so early that the security line wasn’t even open yet. So I had to wait for 10 minutes for the TSA people to set up shop. I will say the lines are much more efficient when everyone is fresh on the shift.

When I finally set down to wait on plane boarding a little girl and her mother came to sit next to me. While still fighting the sleep from my eyes I felt the little girl’s hand touch my arm. Being polite I just ignored it and went on with my sleep fighting. Then she put her hand on my knee. At this point the mom chimes in to inform me that the little girl must think I am her father. “Your daddy’s not here anymore,” she tells the girl. “It just you and me now.” She continued saying these things as if they were an attack at me for being a man. She wasn’t even speaking directly to me, but she was speaking so that I could hear her and feel some sort of sympathy for her while being ashamed of being a man. I was probably less annoyed by the little girls curiosity of the world than this woman’s monologue.

Great, its only 4:30 and the day has already thrown enough curveballs at me. After boarding the plane, I noticed a guy dressed as a pilot who looked younger than I sit a few rows back. It struck me as weird but later as we were preparing for our final descent and I noticed his presence had vanished I began to prepare myself for my least favorite part of the flight, the landing. It was definitely the roughest landing I have ever experienced and I would say I fly a fairly decent amount. It hard to describe an unbalanced landing but I am safe so no harm done.

I was wearing my Florida Gators t-shirt when I went to rent my car (Which by the way, myth busted, I am only 24), and some man began attacking me for wearing a Florida shirt. I have lived in Louisville for six years, worn this shirt most of the time and never been attacked. Hell, Louisville is also tied for my favorite college sports program. But I guess this was just the foreshadowing of my weekend in a town where I was no longer a resident.

Friday I had some time to kill so I went to the record store and the mall. It was cold and rainy. I was under dressed and didn’t need the reminder of the weather I had left behind. As I was driving throughout the city something was different. It took me some time to figure out what it was, but Louisville just didn’t feel like home anymore. I finally realized what it was. When you have a place you are living, no matter where you go out and about, there is a central magnetic force pulling you back in. I no longer lived at my friend Marty’s house so that gravitational force was absent and I was just a visitor in another city.

The rest of the evening included your typical Bardstown Rd. shenanigans. Something I thought i had left behind. I am too old for that stuff.

Saturday I was awoke early (with only 4 hours of sleep, 7 in the past 48 hours) and went to the airport to pick up my friend/date for the wedding. We spent the day working on my Kentucky Fried Bucket List Adventures blog at Cherokee Park before the wedding. The wedding was my reason for visiting. It was actually a reception on the boat at Captain’s Quarters.

I had never been to Captain’s Quarters but I have always heard great things. So I figured it would be a great place to snag a few photo’s.

The reception was actually alcohol free, which worked out to be a good thing since I had several hours of driving ahead of me. So I took the opportunity to knock back several virgin Mint Juleps which were very delightful. The reception turned out to be a great time and an opportunity to catch up with some old co-worker’s I hadn’t seen in months. There was some dancing and even a carefully practiced dance by the bride and the groom.

Afterwards, I had to drive to Georgetown and then back to Louisville. By the time I finally had the opportunity to lay down it was 3:45AM. I needed to be at the airport early so I set my alarm for 6:45. (10 Hours of sleep for four days, love it!)

Just as the plane is pulling onto the runway guess what? The front wheel breaks.The captain comes on the speaker to tell us that apparently some safety mechanism for managing the load of the plane snapped off so we had to sit there for an hour. Some guy in front of me is complaining on the phone to someone about how the flight carrier is Delta and they have to go through several safety checks before the plane can continue. I am sorry, but I appreciate that. I didn’t purchase a Southwest ticket for a reason.

Then as I am asking the attendant (mainly cause she was smoking hot) if she had ever experienced anything like this, some know-it-all alpha male steps in to tell me “yeah, there’s this safety clip on the front wheel for checking the load of the plane and it snapped off.” Thanks captain obvious, I heard the pilot say that 30 seconds ago.

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Posted by Luke Bennett on June 7, 2012 in More Interesting than the Most Interesting Man in the World

#22 – Cherokee Park (Louisville, KY)

02 Jun

Visiting Kentucky for the weekend, I knew that it was a requirement to set out and find an adventure. With hours to spare and a cheery companion at my side, we decided to take a stroll through the park. Now I’ve been to Cherokee Park several times for different occasions, mainly to just shoot my bow at the archery range, but I have never taken the time to leisurely explore the park. The wooded road entrance is just a precursor for some of the enjoyable experiences to be had in this park.

We parked the car the first opportunity we found and immediately found a dragon looking statue that I knew would be perfect for a picture opportunity (plus I am a sucker for people pictures). Then we chose a random direction and started our excursion.

It didn’t take long to find a trail off the beaten path and fortunately for me my partner in crime was subconsciously drawn to it before I could even make the suggestion to check it out. Just a few steps in and we found ourselves surrounded with some Kentucky summertime wilderness.

Cherokee Park is the perfect place to forget about the troubles of everyday life and take a moment to yourself to unwind. We stumbled upon a fallen tree hollowed throughout. I’m quite confident it could possibly be a portal to another dimension or an undiscovered labyrinth but I feared the vermin that might call the entrance home to fully emerge myself.

Afterwards, we continued down the path and the squirrels began to scurry and the birds chirped. Just as I started to pay close attention to mother nature my white pair of tennis shoes landed right in a big puddle of mud.

Although uncommon, you will cross the path of others on such a beautiful day but it is no problem to smile, say hello and continue on your way. Another beautiful site of the park is the wooden bridges crossing over Beargrass Creek.

Being rushed for time we didn’t get to explore all that there was to explore which was rather disappointing. Although in hindsight, it is actually exciting to know that there will be more for me to do in the park next time I make a visit.