Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 5 years old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

It was barely Sunday morning (3:00am) when we left the hotel and drove back to the rental car facility at Sky Harbor Airport. By 3:30am we had returned the car and were waiting for the airport shuttle to the terminal. People were lined up (as they should have) for the various shuttles to specific terminals (1-4) but it turned out there were only a few shuttles running and they were servicing all terminals. This caused some problems as people patiently waiting in the line for terminal 4 realized the bus kept stopping at the terminal 1 line and filling up quickly. We finally got onto a bus with other exasperated passengers.

At the Terminal 2 stop, my sister and I bid farewell to my brother (who was going on to the much nicer Terminal 4). The one benefit of the smaller (crappier) terminal, however, was the lack of lines. There were no lines to check our bags (Alaska for her, United for me) and we were the only two in the TSA PreCheck line (which amazingly was open at 4:00am). Unfortunately, once through security, nothing was open yet. I waited with my sister until she boarded her flight at 4:45am and then sat around for another 45 minutes before boarding my own flight to Houston. I landed in Houston around 11:00am and had a normal length layover before my connection home to Tampa. By 3:45pm I was back in my car and then home unpacking half an hour later. Another Arizona Spring Training trip in the books!

Final trip notes:

• my favorite Indians player this spring was catcher Kevin Plawecki (who I kept calling “chrusciki“)
• the home team of every game we saw was the winner; that made our trip record 3-1 (or 4-1 if you count the Cubs winning the day game on Friday)
• opening day is this Thursday, March 28, a little earlier than usual
• like last year, the Indians don’t come to Tampa until late in the season (Labor Day Weekend)