And We're Off...

Well, I'm off, at least. As I type this, I am sitting in seat 38 of the 2PM BoltBus from New York to Washington, DC. Technically, I guess this weekend isn't part of the official road trip, since it doesn't officially start until I meet up with Andy in Cincinnati, but I'm considering it an undercard to the 2-week main event. You can look forward to at least one ballpark review and maybe a restaurant review coming out of it.

So, I'm on a bus. Never thought I'd be on a bus...with wifi. BoltBus definitely gets points for that. It also gets points for hiring Kelvin as a driver. If you were casting a movie and wanted a friendly, black, bald bus driver, he'd be your guy. Before we left, he gave his little spiel, told us that until we got to DC, we were "his family," and then said that we should tell him if it was too hot/cold on the bus, if the wifi was out, etc. Kelvin then added, "If you want my attention, just say hey, Kelvin. Not hey, you. Not hey, baldy. Not hey, Montel."

If he had kept going with that thought and moved onto hey, Hootie, I might have had to quote another digital short in this post. Luckily for me, and more importantly, for the people sitting around me, he didn't.

Meanwhile, while BoltBus was gaining points, the state of Delaware was losing them just as quickly. We were stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes only to see that the delay was caused by about 10 dudes in neon vests standing around doing nothing. Understandably, if you're a state with some clout, you can close two lanes of highway for no good reason at 5PM on a Friday afternoon. But not if you're Delaware.

Thanks to those of you that I've gotten feedback about this trip from. If any of you have suggestions for the blog, or for things we should do on the road, let me know. Just say hey, Sam. Not hey, fatass. Not hey, jewbag.... 

Crisis Averted

When facing an opponent as formidable as the Pointersaurus, one must engage in all the necessary preparation. This involves both physical training, and doing research on other peoples' experiences with eating it, which, most of the time, turn out to be huge embarrassing failures.

So it was while reading about a failed attempt several weeks ago that I came across this little tidbit: 

We told the guy we wanted to do the competition the following Friday, and he said, “The earliest opening I got is the 21st.” Wow. They were booked solid for two weeks, and there wasn’t a Friday open for weeks after that.

Uh oh. We were planning on eating the Pointersaurus on May 22nd, and it was already May 13th. Initially, our plan was to call sometime next week, a few days before eating it. Big oversight on our part. Honestly, we didn't think there would be that it would be a problem. We were wrong. Frantically, I called Pointer's Pizza hoping that by some miracle of the pizza gods, our date would still be available, but I wasn't feeling optimistic.

Two rings and an then answer. "Hi, I'd like to schedule a date to do the Pointersaurus challenge," I said apprehensively.

"When would you like to do it?"

"Is Friday, May 22nd open?" 

A long pause. The sound of paper shuffling in the background. "Sorry, we already have a group coming in that day."

Crap. "Okay, well what about the 21st or 23rd?"

Deep breath. If these days were taken, I didn't know what else we could do. Our plans would be in serious jeopardy. "Well, we're closed the 23rd........but yeah, we don't have anybody signed up yet for the 21st."

Sweet relief. So our eating date has been moved up a day. No biggie. Watch out, pizza. Here we come.

Syllabus Day

What: A road trip.

Who: Sam and Andy. We both like baseball and we both like food. While watching an episode of Man v. Food, we came up with the general idea of this trip. Additionally, I've been wanting to do a Midwest stadium tour for a few years now. We combined the ideas, and boom...road trip.

Where: Cincinnati to Columbus to Cincinnati to St. Louis to Chicago to Milwaukee to Chicago to Ann Arbor to Cleveland to Pittsburgh. Or you can just look at the map. We will travel approximately 1600 miles over two weeks through eight states, including stops at seven ballparks. 

View Larger Map

When: The fun starts May 18th. It will end when we eat ourselves to death, or May 31st...whichever comes first.

Why: Why not? Andy just graduated and has free time. I'm on sabbatical (read: unemployed). 

Oh, yeah....we'll also be attempting to eat a gigantic pizza for some cashmoney. 

This will basically be a way to record and share our experiences on the road. We'll be bringing you food reviews, ballpark reviews, and most importantly, play-by-play as we attempt to conquer the Pointersaurus. Stay tuned.