Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 7 years and 1 month old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Normally my Spring Training vacation doesn’t have a “Day 4” but this time I’m staying in Phoenix to kick off a four-day southwest road trip with my family. My brother had a later flight, as did my sister. So after checking out of the hotel we had time to actually go out for breakfast together at the Black Bear Diner.

After dropping off my brother at the airport, I returned the Dodge Challenger and picked up my next rental car (a Dodge Journey) for the road trip. Then my sister and I drove to the Peoria Sports Complex to enjoy one more spring training baseball game, the Indians and the San Diego Padres. We arrived early hoping to get Sandy Alomar‘s autograph for my sister, but he wouldn’t come over as he was walking into the stadium (oh well!). We had pretty nice seats on the first base side of the stadium and even though we didn’t end up in the shade, it was still a pleasant day. Even better, we saw another spring training grand slam (Eric Stamets this time) in the top of the 9th inning as the Indians crushed the Padres 11-3. While we were walking around during the game, I spotted “autograph alley” behind right field which seemed to be a better place to try and get a signature. So after the game I had my sister go down there while I watched for Sandy. I gave her the high sign when he was on his way and she managed to score his autograph after all!

After the game, we grabbed a bite at In-and-Out Burger (my sister’s favorite) and I drove her back to Sky Harbor for her flight. We had timed it so she’d be leaving about the time my wife and daughter were arriving and that worked out just fine (I only had to wait about 30 minutes in the cell phone lot which gave me time to re-pack and organize the car). Once they landed, I picked them up at arrivals (I had brought all the luggage with me when I came out on Thursday) and we started the drive north to Williams, AZ. It took us just under 3 hours so we were checked into our room at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel by about 10:30pm. A quick check of the internet confirmed my Dayton Flyers did make it into the NCAA Tournament for the fourth year in a row, this time as a #7 seed in the South. They’ll face Wichita State (#10) on Friday. Go Flyers!

Tomorrow, the road trip starts with the Grand Canyon!