The End of Day 2: Rain Delay

There are more people in the stands than this photo
may indicate.  At least four others, I swear.

There is a lot of Route 66 in Missouri that lies under the pavement of I-44.  So, we zipped along much of the way at about 75 miles an hour.  We got to Joplin, MO, about an hour prior to a ball game between the home team Joplin Blasters and the Gary Southshore Railcats for whom we often root back home (in the Chicago suburb of Gary, IN).  The Blasters are a new edition to the same league as Gary (obviously) and the Saint Paul Saints (for whom we used to have season tickets, and who may be the most entertaining minor league team ever, but I digress).  Anyway... Joplin's ball park is adorable.  If it were full it would hold about 3,000 folks (maybe...).  On August 4th, there may have been 350 people there.  It is an expansion club, so I guess it's not terribly surprising.  We saw what was a good game, if damp.  It was sprinkling off and on for most of the game, not quite able to decide if it would rain for real or not.  But, then in the top of the 4th the sky opened up.  They finished the half inning, but stopped half an inning too early for the game to be considered official.  Nevertheless, it was fun.  We had our hot dogs for dinner.  I got a lovely hat (The Blasters' colors are black and gold).  We kept score until our book was drenched.

We then went to our hotel and slept, and slept, and slept, which is largely why I'm still typing about Day two at this point.  We're trying to be more diligent about finishing our entries.