Category: Sporting Events

May Road Trips and Other Adventures

Posted in Celebration, Entertainment, Road Trip, Sporting EventsTagged , , , , , 18 Comments

This May our wandering took us to the countryside in Georgia, to a baseball game, on a road trip to Virginia, and around our own neighborhood.

Georgia road trip

Our first trip was to the Georgia countryside. On the way to our destination we discovered a new to us barbeque restaurant in Portal where we tried their pulled pork and fantastic spare ribs. We enjoyed our time in the country where the wildflowers were blooming and the trees were showing off their new green leaves. We fed carrots to my brothers donkeys, walked in the woods, and had a fun visit with our 12 year old granddaughter.

Celebrating Henry’s birthday at a Savannah Bananas game

The Savannah Bananas sell out every home game so when I had an opportunity to buy two tickets for a game on Henry’s birthday I jumped at the chance.

We saw the team owner Jesse Cole outside the stadium so of course we stopped to meet him. Henry shook his hand, he posed for a photo with us, and wished Henry a happy birthday. The Bananas play a different kind of baseball called Banana Ball. It has different rules than regular baseball and the night is filled with entertainment during and between the innings. We were laughing and entertained the entire night.

Wandering Dawgs meet owner Jesse Cole
The team mascot Split
Never a boring moment at a Bananas game
Historic Grayson Stadium

Around my Neighborhood

Flowers were blooming all around our neighborhood and in our own backyard. The header image is one of the gorgeous white blooms I captured one morning as I walked by the giant Magnolia tree in a neighbor’s yard.

In our backyard the Painted Buntings fed at my bird feeder almost every day. The resident lizard likes to hang out on the railing on our back deck.

Road Trip to Virginia

We traveled to Virginia to visit our daughter’s family for Memorial Day weekend. We spent the first night in a motel and had a nice visit with my cousin and his wife when we met them for lunch at a Cracker Barrel by the interstate before continuing on to our daughter’s house.

Being with our daughter and her family was the highlight of the trip. The weather was overcast, chilly and sometimes raining but we didn’t let the weather spoil our visit.

It was wonderful to see our Grandson who just finished his first year of college and our Granddaughter who just finished her junior year of high school. My daughter and I enjoyed a trip to the local farmer’s market where I picked up a frozen smoked trout to bring home and she brought home some beautiful fresh produce. Later that day we drove into the mountains, had lunch in the small town of Floyd, and took a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Chateau Morrisette Winery.

Books

Our Book Club book for May was “The Measure” by Nikki Erlich. It was a very interesting and thought provoking story.

I also enjoyed reading “No Plan B”, the latest Jack Reacher book by Lee Child and “Still Life” by Louise Penney.

Shared with Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Posted in Sporting EventsTagged , , , , 18 Comments

What do you get when you combine a historic baseball stadium, dancing baseball players, a team who has sold out every home game since 2016, a team who’s motto is “We make baseball fun”, a dancing first base coach, a team owner dressed in a yellow tuxedo who also is the Master of Ceremonies at the game and who puts fans first? The Savannah Bananas!

Attending a Bananas game is like no other baseball game you’ve ever seen. The fun starts when the Banana Pep Band, the players, the Banana Nanas cheerleaders (grandmas) , the young dance team Banana Splits, and the owner Jesse Cole march between the two lines of fans waiting to enter the stadium.

There are no assigned seats and all of the tickets include free food – hot dogs, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, chips, a cookie, and water or soft drink. Of course beer and cocktails are available for purchase.

The fun continued after the game started. The owner and players walked through the stands, the dancing first base coach break danced, and each time the teams switched sides at the bottom or top of an inning there was some kind of fun 60 second event. Most of the entertainment involved kids from the stands and dancing and singing.

Did they play real baseball? Yes, nine full innings. There were celebrations whenever the Bananas scored and when it was over the Bananas won 8-0.

The Bananas play their home games at the Historic Grayson Stadium which was built in 1926. Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Jackie Robinson are some of the baseball legends who have played ball here.

Lens-Artists #106: Autumn

Posted in Nature, Photography, Sporting EventsTagged , , , , 22 Comments

This July “Seasons” will be the theme for the entire month with a different season featured each week. This week the challenge is “Autumn”.

In coastal Georgia, cool fall weather is always a treat after the sweltering heat of summer. The sweetgrass (muhly grass) that grows here announces autumn with it’s brilliant pink colors.

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In coastal Georgia, Muhly grass (sweetgrass) turns a pink in autumn

When we want to see red, orange, and yellow autumn leaves we travel away from the coast.

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Fall Colors in Georgia
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Vibrant autumn colors on the UGA campus
Fall Colors at Lake of the Ozarks
Fall colors at Lake of the Ozarks
Fall Colors on Blue Ridge Parkway in NC
Fall Colors on Blue Ridge Parkway in NC

In our house, autumn means it’s college football season. We have spent many fall Saturday afternoons at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia cheering on the Dawgs.

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Sanford Stadium, home of the Georgia Bulldogs

Patti, thank you for this weeks Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Autumn

Lens-Artists #72: Waiting

Posted in Photography, Sporting Events, Tourist Attractions, TravelTagged , , 19 Comments

This week, Amy has challenged us to explore waiting. It seems I spend a lot of my life waiting. Even when traveling or doing something fun we can’t get away from having to wait.

Whenever we attend a football game, waiting in line to go through security and have our ticket scanned is a normal thing. The photo above was taken after we got through the line and had entered the stadium for a Georgia/Florida football game in Jacksonville, Florida.

Theme parks such as Walt Disney World and Universal Studios have come up with great ways to keep the crowds entertained while they wait.

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At Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, we saw a show while waiting for the gates to open

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I wish all train stations were as much fun as the one at Universal Studios Orlando where we boarded the Hogwarts Express

When traveling, waiting to get in a major attraction is part of the experience.

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Waiting to enter Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

There have been many times in our RV travels where we have waited in line to board a ferry or travel through a tunnel.

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Waiting in line to pull our RV onto the ferry to cross the Yukon River in Dawson City, Yukon

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Waiting to pull our camper onto the Alaska Ferry in Skagway, Alaska

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Waiting our turn to go through the Zion Tunnel in Utah

Many thanks to Amy for this weeks Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Waiting

 

Throwback Thursday #11 – October 31, 2008

Posted in Florida, RVing, Sporting EventsTagged , , , , , , , , , , 11 Comments

We’re not traveling as much in our fifth wheel anymore so I thought it would be fun to relive some of our most memorable days from previous RV trips.

On this day eleven years ago, October 31, 2008, our RV was parked in RV City in Jacksonville, Florida. We were there to attend the college football game between rivals Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators. The two schools have been playing each other annually since the early 1900’s and, except for two years while the stadium was undergoing renovations, has been played in Jacksonville every year since 1933.

Unofficially named “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party”, fans of both teams start arriving in Jacksonville and surrounding areas as early as a week before the game. Hotels are booked a year in advance and finding a last minute place to stay anywhere near Jacksonville is almost impossible.

We attended our first Georgia/Florida game in 1974 and it was an annual tradition for us for many years. Most of those years we stayed in a Jacksonville area hotel for the weekend. In 2008, we decided to take our fifth wheel to RV City for the event.

RV City is a large parking lot near the stadium that is reserved for RV’s. There is a limited number of parking for RV’s and at the time, in order to get a spot in the lot RV’s start lining up early in the week before Saturday’s game.

We met friends in Jacksonville early on Tuesday morning to follow them to get in line for our sites in RV City. We spent that night in line and were in our space in RV City early Wednesday morning. From Wednesday until Friday we enjoyed the festivities and entertainment leading up to the game on Saturday.

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Awning to awning in RV City

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Packed in like sardines in RV City in Jacksonville, Florida

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We had a great view of the stadium from our site.

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There were a few waterfront sites in RV City

Yes, we were dry camping in a parking lot. Yes, the RV’s were close together. Yes, there were crowds and lots of noise. Did we enjoy it? Yes! It was a great experience and great fun!

We have friends in RV City right now. Kickoff is Saturday at 3:30. We’re there with them  in spirit.

Go Dawgs!