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The Rant Californian
With a successful sports trip under our belts, KP and I are currently returning to Dallas via Oakland International. As much as sports fans can stand so many different venues in only 4 days, we stuck it out. With only a few minor glitches on our trek, we give this trip two thumbs up. So sit back on the pot and check out our daily digest of the Rant Californian. Beginning today, we’ll offer up a one day diary of our trip for the next five days.
Thursday September 15, 2005:
This was the day that both of us pondered over since early March when we set these plans in motion. Departure was upon us, victory in our minds. Arriving at DFW international two hours early, we were set, ready to depart on the ultimate sports trek. As the plane taxied down the runway, the thoughts of nothing being able to stop us now entered our minds. BUT wait a moment, NO, it was not meant to be, delays, delays, and more delays. 1.5 hours into the flight, the captain’s voice interrupted our thoughts and slumber, “We are having trouble with some circuit boards that control the lights in the galley and lavatories, and we have to return to Dallas!” This could not be! Was someone sabotaging our trip? Upon returning to DFW, we deplaned and awaited our fate. All KP was interested in was making the UCLA/OU game and all Mike was interested in was the Giants/Dodgers game. So, we figured if it took a couple days to fix the plane, oh well. We were off work, away from the day to day grind….shoot, we could just sleep for two days if we had to! After about 30 minutes we returned to our seats when the corrections had been made, eager to take to the sky once again. The captain took to the intercom, with the entire plane figuring he was gonna tell us how long it would take to get to Long Beach and how late we were gonna be. Uh, we got the exact news we didn’t want. “If you look out to our left, you’ll see an approaching thunder and electrical storm, which has caused the grounds crew to take cover.” This virtually shut down airport operations until the storm passed. We sat on the plane, which sat on the tarmac, for over an hour. Our regular departure time was 12:30 PM, with delays, we departed 5 hours late, arriving in Long Beach at 6:15 PM.
Our first game was the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim versus the Detroit Tigers, scheduled to start at 7:05. Our plan was to arrive in Long Beach, drive to Anaheim (about a 30-40 minute drive), find a hotel, catch a nap and then head to the ballpark. Well, due to the delays getting out of Dallas, we needed to get to the stadium immediately. We were supposed to meet KP’s brother and nephew at the game. Tired, frustrated and not wanting to deal with Orange County rush hour traffic, we sucked it up and made the ballpark just after the end of the first inning. Of course, Vlad Guerrero decided to hit a home run in the first inning. We heard it on the radio, but KP was a little bummed by not being able to actually see it. Anyway, we finally settled in to our second row seats right next to the right field foul pole. We had a great view of the field on a clear, crisp southern California night. A couple innings later, we were able to see Bad Vlad the Impaler launch another rocket in to the Anaheim sky. Alas, Bartolo Colon, gunning for his 20th victory of the season and all but securing his CY Young award, chose this night to have his worse outing in a month. The Angels fell to the Tigers, their fourth loss in a row, allowing the Oakland A’s to creep up in to a tie for first. The ultimate sports trip was not starting off on a good note for KP. The highlight of this night was meeting Wizarium, the Rant’s computer expert. Keith showed up about the fifth inning and hung out. Although he is a professed Dodger fan and Angel hater, it was good to meet him. However, little did we know our first night in LA would get a bit worse!
We decided to not stay in Anaheim so we drove the 45 minutes to Santa Monica in search of a cheap motel to stay in for the evening. Arriving around 11 pm we were just looking for pretty much anything since all we needed was a place to sleep and shower.
We stopped at two or three different locations and they were either sold out or extremely expensive. Go figure….trying to find a hotel in Venice or Santa Monica was not gonna be easy. Well, driving down Ocean Boulevard in Santa Monica, the Pacific Ocean to our right, we found a place that had available rooms. Hmmm, “Why would THIS place have vacancies?” Getting tired, we decided to look in to it, the Paradise Motel. Other names for this one star location could have been the No Tell Motel or, as Mike coined, “The Shit Hole Motel.” This place, for the discounted rate of $75 per night, was about the size of a large bathroom in a 1,500 square foot home. The two double beds in the room made walking to the outhouse type of bathroom like squeezing through the aisle trying to get out of an airplane. Ahh, the bathroom. Stray dogs would think twice about pissing in that place! There was mold throughout the shower and the seat of the toilet. We both decided we didn’t stink bad enough to take a shower here, opting to wait until we checked in to our reserved Courtyard by Marriott in Marina Del Rey. Crawling ON, not in, to bed, KP couldn’t help but notice the applicable wall/ceiling décor. Large cobwebs adorned the place, offering the final touch to our first day. We wanted cheap and we found it. Except the cheap we hoped for was of the monetary kind, not environmental.
The next few days there will be more to add and tons of pics, so let us know your thoughts
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