Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 13 years and 1 month old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

It’s that time of year again! The Ides of March have just passed which means it’s time for me and my brother to head out to Arizona and take in some Cactus League baseball.

Like last year, my tech arsenal this year consists primarily of my iPhone and GPS. New on the trip this year is my iPad (since I sold my EeePCs). I have my Bluetooth keyboard for the iPad so I can type e-mails, and I also bought the camera connection kit on eBay so I can offload the photos I take from my camera. My new apps for the trip are:

• Scenic Map Grand Canyon: we’ll be hiking the Grand Canyon tomorrow morning and might use this for map and GPS information.
• Photogene: for photo editing and batch uploading to Dropbox.

No March Madness apps this year since my Dayton Flyers lost to Richmond in the A10 championship game and then were eliminated by Charleston in the first round of the NIT. But forget basketball … it’s time for some baseball!

5:40am (EDT): I’m at my gate in the Tampa airport waiting on my flight to Atlanta.

8:00am (EDT): I’m getting ready to board my next flight here in Atlanta … got to watch the sunrise from my last flight:

I’ve got the exit row all the way to Phoenix. Ahhhh, leg room!

9:20am (EDT): they were having problems with the in-flight entertainment system on the plane so they had to restart it. Heh, it runs Linux!

9:40am (EDT): apparently there’s a famous bald eagle named Challenger on our flight (down in the cargo hold, nice, no first class for him).

10:30am (MST): found my brother in the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport and am waiting for my checked baggage. I spotted Challenger waiting too:

11:30am (MST): we’re at Goodyear Ballpark! The weather and view is fantastic, as usual.

Bob Feller is being remembered with a big banner out in center field. I’ve also read the team will wear commemorative patches on their sleeves during the entire regular season.

3:38pm (MST): the Indians lost to the Reds 5-1. Today’s attendance: 5,181. They let everyone go down on the field to “play catch” after the game, which was pretty cool.

We’ve got a long 4-hour drive ahead of us to our hotel at the Grand Canyon, so it’s time to hit the road!

7:00pm (MST): we stopped at Freddy’s in Flagstaff for dinner. Then we hit the Wal-Mart next door to get some supplies for the Grand Canyon tomorrow. We also picked up some running pants because it is cold up here! There’s even snow on the ground in places.

9:45pm (MST): we’re in our hotel room at the Maswick Lodge in the Grand Canyon National Park. It’s been a long day (I got up at 4:30am EDT and it’s now 12:45am EDT back home) and we want to get up early tomorrow to see the sunrise, so it’s time for bed.