W-O-W! Wild Omaha Weekend!!
Ok gang, back in humid sticky Philly, ugh, Omaha was soo nice 75 sunny by day, 60 nice breeze at night. Philly @ 8:30 PM on sunday night...93 degrees and 112% hunidity, I swear you could slow bake cookies on the sidewalk here.
Anyways, another road trip in the books! I've BEEN TO NEBRASKA! And Iowa! Eek!
Two places I never thought I'd visit but I've now been there.
The highlights - first Ride the Lightning! I flew Midwest Airlines, which has the nice wide cushy seats, built for big guys like me, I love this airline for this reason alone, ALL airlines should have big, cushy seats. Anyways, I was routed thru Milwaukee, no big deal, we land in MKE, they let us off the plane to stretch are legs before reboarding for Omaha, cool, we get back on the plane [seat 9A - left side window] and the pilot as we're taxing says "due to the t-storms, we can't fly direct line MKE to OMA, that we would be diverting alittle further north into Lower Minnesota and then descending due south into OMA [check a map and you'll get the idea]. I'm like OK, whatever.
The pilot then gets on again about 30min into the flight and he says "If you really want to see a show, and you're on the left side of the plane, you can see the Lightning from the storms we're flying around to our south" I was in prime position, I had the BEST view!! Everyone should see that much lightning from 36000 feet at night from miles away! It was like watching God in action! So, so, beautiful. I for once really wished I owned a camera :(
Next highlight - KAAAARREEEEENNNNNN!
It was sooo cool to just visit, chill, chat, bring her cookies, and make us both smile! I got to drive around in Karen's Mazda tribute. [very nice, very comparable to my Ford Escape.]
My impression of Omaha, its nice, its not really a city, its like one giant sprawling suburb that wants to be a city. Two bldgs > 10 stories, dont make you a city. Cities need things like crime, bad neighborhoods, trash. Omaha doesnt have those apparently. The airport is small [ten-fifteen total gates], all in one terminal, sorry not a city. They also apparently just continue to annex the next cornfield when they need to sprawl some more, I mean come on, only NYC needs 180th St. Philly only goes to 84th St. 85th St is a little thing we call the Delaware River! As such, these folks have no concept of crowded housing. But they're nice and friendly, and oh, they sing country Karoake REALLY well. [Starskys!]
Watching Karen's work - I also got the chance to see Karen at work, which was very fun, again, I wish I had brought a video camera, I could have shot a neat documentary..."A Day in the Minors". What was cool about the Omaha Royals? The stadium is nice, if yes, oversized for THEIR needs. Its really the NCAA's stadium, which is sad to see the O-Royals treated like the 2nd class citizens. Another reason Omaha is not a real city. The other thing that surprised me is the number of people it really takes to put on a minor league baseball game. Figure groundscrew [20], concession stand folks [20], press box/announcer types [10], front office/ticket booth folks/tickettakers/ushers [30], and then there's Karen's promotional crew [20], thats like 100 people [from full time, old timers, to college interns]. None of whom make much more than dirt. But yet, they have to be there for 40 guys to play a game, potentially in front of no one. The O-Royals drew like 3000 on a Friday night for fireworks, only 1500 [if that] for Sat night, which was a give away no less! Again, not a real city. 1500 people on a Sat night?!
That was a mild shock. Maybe, cause I'm used to Reading, PA or heck even Wilmington, DE who with much smaller fan bases and stadiums, easily draw 1500 a night, and 5000 a night on weekends. I dont know, but it was interesting to watch all this frenetic behind the scenes stuff [like hanging corporate signage & changing the "Standings Board" at the stadium entrance]. Plus the choreography of all the between innings giveaways, fascinating.
And with Karen....fun! You should see her get mauled by a furry blue lion, the kids love it.
Friday night Omaha beat the Iowa cubs won 7-2. Fireworks afterwords, saw them from the pressbox which is nice.
Sat night Omaha won 7-5. Went to the bar with a handful of Karen's co-workers, listened to some bad, some good, some surprisingly good karoake.
Sun [sniff] woke up went to airport, began like 10 hour odyssey to get home and give you this report :)
More to come soon...
Cyas
Anyways, another road trip in the books! I've BEEN TO NEBRASKA! And Iowa! Eek!
Two places I never thought I'd visit but I've now been there.
The highlights - first Ride the Lightning! I flew Midwest Airlines, which has the nice wide cushy seats, built for big guys like me, I love this airline for this reason alone, ALL airlines should have big, cushy seats. Anyways, I was routed thru Milwaukee, no big deal, we land in MKE, they let us off the plane to stretch are legs before reboarding for Omaha, cool, we get back on the plane [seat 9A - left side window] and the pilot as we're taxing says "due to the t-storms, we can't fly direct line MKE to OMA, that we would be diverting alittle further north into Lower Minnesota and then descending due south into OMA [check a map and you'll get the idea]. I'm like OK, whatever.
The pilot then gets on again about 30min into the flight and he says "If you really want to see a show, and you're on the left side of the plane, you can see the Lightning from the storms we're flying around to our south" I was in prime position, I had the BEST view!! Everyone should see that much lightning from 36000 feet at night from miles away! It was like watching God in action! So, so, beautiful. I for once really wished I owned a camera :(
Next highlight - KAAAARREEEEENNNNNN!
It was sooo cool to just visit, chill, chat, bring her cookies, and make us both smile! I got to drive around in Karen's Mazda tribute. [very nice, very comparable to my Ford Escape.]
My impression of Omaha, its nice, its not really a city, its like one giant sprawling suburb that wants to be a city. Two bldgs > 10 stories, dont make you a city. Cities need things like crime, bad neighborhoods, trash. Omaha doesnt have those apparently. The airport is small [ten-fifteen total gates], all in one terminal, sorry not a city. They also apparently just continue to annex the next cornfield when they need to sprawl some more, I mean come on, only NYC needs 180th St. Philly only goes to 84th St. 85th St is a little thing we call the Delaware River! As such, these folks have no concept of crowded housing. But they're nice and friendly, and oh, they sing country Karoake REALLY well. [Starskys!]
Watching Karen's work - I also got the chance to see Karen at work, which was very fun, again, I wish I had brought a video camera, I could have shot a neat documentary..."A Day in the Minors". What was cool about the Omaha Royals? The stadium is nice, if yes, oversized for THEIR needs. Its really the NCAA's stadium, which is sad to see the O-Royals treated like the 2nd class citizens. Another reason Omaha is not a real city. The other thing that surprised me is the number of people it really takes to put on a minor league baseball game. Figure groundscrew [20], concession stand folks [20], press box/announcer types [10], front office/ticket booth folks/tickettakers/ushers [30], and then there's Karen's promotional crew [20], thats like 100 people [from full time, old timers, to college interns]. None of whom make much more than dirt. But yet, they have to be there for 40 guys to play a game, potentially in front of no one. The O-Royals drew like 3000 on a Friday night for fireworks, only 1500 [if that] for Sat night, which was a give away no less! Again, not a real city. 1500 people on a Sat night?!
That was a mild shock. Maybe, cause I'm used to Reading, PA or heck even Wilmington, DE who with much smaller fan bases and stadiums, easily draw 1500 a night, and 5000 a night on weekends. I dont know, but it was interesting to watch all this frenetic behind the scenes stuff [like hanging corporate signage & changing the "Standings Board" at the stadium entrance]. Plus the choreography of all the between innings giveaways, fascinating.
And with Karen....fun! You should see her get mauled by a furry blue lion, the kids love it.
Friday night Omaha beat the Iowa cubs won 7-2. Fireworks afterwords, saw them from the pressbox which is nice.
Sat night Omaha won 7-5. Went to the bar with a handful of Karen's co-workers, listened to some bad, some good, some surprisingly good karoake.
Sun [sniff] woke up went to airport, began like 10 hour odyssey to get home and give you this report :)
More to come soon...
Cyas
posted by FINN @ 10:12 PM
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