Royalty rides to Reno to see the Aces play!

After spending another night at Casa De Narry Sunday night August 11th, the King, Duck & I woke up after the Narry family left to go to work Monday morning August 12th. Tike gave me a key to lock up the house once we got ready to hit the road. They woke up early & we slept through.

Tike who now works for Amtrak as an engineer was driving a train to Reno. We arranged to meet him later in the day there. He decided to join us for the minor league baseball game we were seeing there that night.
Once we left his house we drove back to Stockton because I told the King I was going to make sure that we would go visit his sister Alice Casiano who lives there. True to my word, we did indeed. We wound up going to her home first. We saw her and her husband Miguel. After we spoke for a short time, we decided to go to get something to eat. She recommended Denny's which was nearby. We asked her is there anything else. I suggested IHOP because I know Duck likes that place. She said yes there is. So she decided to drive us all in her SUV. We wound up having a nice breakfast together. It should be noted everything we've gone to Northern California, we've also made time to see her along the way. With that being said, it was nice to see her again.

Once we got back to her house, we said our goodbyes and we continued on our way to Reno aka the Biggest Little City in the World. We got there around 4:30PM. We parked the car in the El Dorado casino garage for free thanks to Tike who told us to do so. We then walked over to a restaurant in the Casino called The Brews Brothers where we met up with Tike for a pre game meal. He told me they have amazing specials from 2-5PM. We timed it perfectly as we got there just before that ended. As a result, we got to take advantage. Even after Tike told us about a time that he and some buddies drank there for a few hours for next to nothing, the King couldn't believe the bill when the waitress brought it to us. We had some really good pizza, wings and microbrewed beers. I want to thank Tike again for another solid recommendation.
After we finished eating, we walked over to Aces Ballpark, home of the Reno Aces which was a few blocks away. It should noted that the Triple A All-Star Game was held there in June. On the way, we stopped by the Amtrak station which is right by left field. Tike showed around there. We then proceeded to head towards the box office to get tickets for the game. Before we got to do so, a guy outside said here's tickets for the game. We were all caught off guard. He just gave them to us. We all thanked him and we proceeded to go inside. We were in the right place at the right time. As I like to say, timing is everything.

View from Aces Ballpark

As for the game we saw, the Reno Aces, the Arizona Diamondbacks' affiliate were hosting the Nashville Sounds, the Milwaukee Brewers' farm team. The Aces got up to a fast start as they batted around in the first inning. They wound up scoring six runs. There were a few walks, an error, a wild pitch and a few timely clutch two out hits that resulted in the big inning. The Sounds broke the shutout with a run in the top of the third inning to make it, 6-1. The Aces answered back in the bottom of the third inning with three more runs to go up, 9-1. The Sounds came right back as they scored four in the fourth & two more in the fifth to make it a game at 9-7. The Aces responded with three more in the bottom of the seventh inning to put the game away as they went on to win, 12-7.

Duck, The King & Tike

After the game we said goodbye to Tike and thanked him again for all he did for us. We told him we'll see him again Saturday when we return to Oakland.

We drove 45 miles to Minden, Nevada where we spent the night at the Carson Valley Inn, which was another great recommendation by Tike.

Stay tuned for the next installment of this journey as I try to make time to catch up.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty officially opens the 2013 Major League Baseball season in Houston, Texas on Easter Sunday!

Live Peacock on Easter Sunday morning

Sunday morning after getting a much needed good night sleep, the King, Bryan Gilligan & I checked out of the Motel 6 we stayed at in Cedar Park, Texas. We were 175 miles from our final destination for the day that being Houston. We made some pit stops along the way before we arrived there.

Being it was Easter Sunday, I thought to myself earlier in the week that maybe I'll see a bunny hopping around for the occasion. Much to my chagrin, we had no such luck. Ironically though as we were walking out of the hotel to go to the car in the parking lot, all of a sudden we saw a peacock with a very long tail wandered around. We were in disbelief. What a way to start the day.

After we took pictures of it, we lost track of it as it disappeared into grassy area which was somewhat hilly. It was quite a scene to say the least.

After that thrill, we put our luggage into the car and we went on our way towards Houston. We drove down the road about 7 miles until we got to Interstate 35. Once we got on there, we saw an IHOP so we stopped off to have a royal breakfast. We weren't alone as there were a bunch of people waiting to be seated. We went inside and I gave them my name. They said it will be a 10 minute wait and that's what it wound up being as we finally got a table. I decided to have their split decision breakfast which consisted of two eggs, bacon, ham which I was able to substitute for sausage, a few slices of french toast and a few pancakes. It turned out to be a sound choice. It was excellent. After we finished eating we got back on the road. Shortly thereafter, we stopped again because we were right outside of Round Rock which is where the Texas Rangers' Triple A farm club plays. They're known as the Express of the Pacific Coast League nowadays. They play at a ballpark called the Dell Diamond. Back in May 2000, the King and I saw a game there. At that time, the Express was in the Texas League which was Double A ball.

After we took a few pictures and looked around, we got back in the car and we continued towards Houston. We arranged to meet up with our pal Steve Fekete aka the Padre Punk Punk who was already there because he went to the Rocket game after we met him in San Antonio on Saturday afternoon. We told him we'll meet him around 4PM by Minute Maid Park which is the home of the Astros who now play in the American League. They spent their first 50 years of existence in the National League.

As we were driving we decided to stop off at our hotel, Days Inn, which was located in a town called Humble which was 4 miles from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport and about 20 miles from downtown where the ballpark is. We wound up getting there around 2PM. Luckily our room was clean so we were able to check in early. It worked out well. We were able to get situated. Once we were done we got back in the car and we drove to downtown. Steve said he was already there hanging out in the center field area where a fan fest was being held on the street right the ballpark. They had different stands set up and there was musical entertainment for everybody to enjoy.

We wound up parking the car on the street for free like Steve did. We were a short walk from the ballpark. We went to the box office first to see if they had any tickets available for the game since we decided to wait until we arrived there since the ticket prices were rather steep online. Steve had bought a ticket online from Ticketmaster for $50 he said a month in advance. We wound up getting three tickets for $20 each that were way out in right field. They were also selling standing room for the same price which was anywhere on the first level. All we cared about was getting into the ballpark as cheap as possible.

We were all excited & relieved once we had our tickets in hand at 3:30PM. We got in contact with Steve and we met up with him. We all decided to take a walk around to see if we could get something to eat for dinner before we went inside the ballpark.

Royalty collides with Qualty Tours

After passing up a few places, we wound up going to a restaurant called the Hearsay Gastro Lounge. We all decided to get burgers for dinner. It turned out to be a sound decision after all.

Once we finished we had to dodge some rain drops as we walked back to the ballpark to go see the game. We split up once we got inside. I decided to hang out with Steve who calls himself, West Coast Quality Tours. He lives out in Anaheim, California. He's in the midst of trying to get to all 122 current venues in the four major sports that being baseball, football, basketball and hockey. He just went passed the midway mark during the week while he was in Texas. I was happy to be apart of his quality experience. We walked all around the first level and Steve took numerous pictures which he's going to share on his Facebook page. He also likes to tweet on Twitter. His handle is @rstones199 in case you want to follow him as he continues to complete his quest for 122.

Prince looking out from Crawford Boxes 

After taking the quality tour, we went upstairs to the upper level where we met up with the King. Steve went to his seat in section 420 row 1 and I joined the King who found a few empty seats in row 11. We lucked out as people didn't show up for the seats so we got to sit behind home plate like we always do.

National Anthem

We got settled in just in time as they announced the players during a special pre game ceremony, J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Shortly thereafter, American Country singer Lyle Lovett sung the National Anthem. He later sang God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch which was followed by a Lone Star State favorite called Deep in the Heart of Texas. I love hearing that tune when I go to Texas. It's a local tradition.

Bud Norris delivers first pitch at 7:08PM CT

As for the game we saw, the Astros got off to a good start as they beat the visiting Texas Rangers, 8-2 to win their first ever American League game which was historical in more ways than one as the Astros also got their 4,000th franchise win before a sellout crowd of 41,307 which was comprised of fans of both teams as people made the trip to see their Rangers play.

Some of the highlights for the Astros included Bud Norris picking up his first victory. He allowed two runs in five & two thirds innings of work. Erik Bedard got a "real" save, the first of his career as he wound up pitching the last three and a third innings of shutout relief to help secure the win. Center fielder Justin Maxwell led the way as he hit two triples & he drove in two runs. Rick Ankiel made his Astro debut in style as he hit a pinch hit three run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning which put the game away right after the Rangers cut the lead to 4-2.

Stay tuned for the next installment as we made our way back home Monday morning in order to get to Citi Field to see the Mets open their season against the San Diego Padres in their home opener. Please bear with me as I try to find the time to recap the adventure in detail. It will be worth the wait.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

 Gary Herman

Royalty goes to Lewiston, Maine for AHL hockey despite Plato!

Prince outside Androscroggin Bank Colisee

After we left Springfield, Massachusetts Saturday night after the game, we drove up to Portsmouth, New Hampshire which was 142 miles away. We got there around 12:30AM. We stayed over at Motel 6 where we got a good night sleep.

We woke up in the morning and we looked out of the window. It was snowing lightly. We put on the TV and we checked out the weather channel. They said a storm called Plato was on its way up from the South. It was heading towards Maine. Luckily they said that the accumulation was only going to be 3-6 inches after they initially said it was suppose to be closer to a foot.

I knew we may have some snow in the area so I planned accordingly. I dressed warm and I brought my boots just in case. It turned out to be the right move as I wound up wearing everything I took.

Once we checked out of the hotel we went to have breakfast at IHOP which was in a shopping center right up the road. After we had a hearty meal, we drove over to Walmart which was nearby so we could do some shopping.

We got done and we drove to Lewiston, Maine which was 85 miles away from Portsmouth and 35 miles past Portland.

We went to see the Portland Pirates, the Phoenix Coyotes AHL affiliate play the St. John's IceCaps, the Winnipeg Jets farm team at Androscroggin Bank Colisee, which is an old barn with all wooden seats at 4PM. This was one of the four games they were playing there this season.

It should be noted that this the same arena where Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali fought Sonny Liston in their rematch back on May 25,1965.

This place was the cornerstone for making this journey. Despite mother nature trying her best to derail our plans we managed to get there and back without too much difficulty. We allowed enough time so we could get there without a problem. We wound up parking the car on the street right across from the arena for free at 2:50PM.

We walked over to the box office which was in front of the building. They posted a sign saying the game was sold out. We didn't buy tickets in advance because we didn't think it was going to be a problem. With that being said, we started asking people as they were coming towards the arena if they had any extra tickets.


They're were other people looking too. Luckily after a little while I had an older gentleman ask me how many tickets I needed. I told him two. He said he had one. I told him that's better than none. He proceeded to give it to me. I thanked him and shook his hand. Now we only needed one more between us. Ironically while I continued to ask if anybody had an extra ticket, a young man came towards the box office and he said he needed a ticket too. Shortly thereafter, the King found someone who had an extra ticket and he gave it to him. He asked him if he had another and sure enough he did. So we got two together right near center ice. We took the third ticket we had and we gave it to this young man who thanked us and he said and I quote "today's my lucky day." With that being said, we all got in for free. The game being allegedly sold out turned out to be a blessing in disguise for us. It should be noted they announced a sellout crowd of 3,750 but there were a good number of scattered empty seats which makes you wonder.

Prince at Androscroggin Bank Colisee

King at Androscroggin Bank Colisee

As for the game we saw, the Pirates scored early and often as they lead 3-0 after the first period. After a scoreless second period, the Pirates tacked on three more unanswered goals before the IceCaps broke the shutout with just 29.3 seconds to go in the game. The Pirates went on to win, 6-1.

After the game, we went to have dinner at Governor's Restaurant and Bakery which was conveniently located a few miles away just before the entrance to I-95.

I got to have a great seafood dinner while the King had steak tips before we got back in the car to drive 335 miles back home to Astoria.

As for dinner, I had a haddock chowder soup to go along with broiled scallops, red skin mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables which consisted of carrots, green beans and cauliflower. It was a perfect way to end our visit to New England. Nothing beats having seafood in Maine.

On the way back home I braved the strong winds that were blowing as we wound up getting back home at 1:44AM. With that being said, another exciting and adventurous weekend was complete.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman