KINGMAN, ARIZ. – This didn’t go exactly as planned.
Yes, I’m speeding through the Arizona desert in a humungous white Chevy Suburban, while my friend from college, Paul, handles the driving for now. If we don’t encounter any setbacks, we should arrive at Maryvale Baseball Park just in time for first pitch.
But let me back up a little.
After 14 years of visiting Arizona to watch the Brewers Spring Training, I felt like this year needed a change up of sorts. I’ve also visited Las Vegas each winter since 2008. Life has just gotten busier, so this year, we’re combining the two trips into one.
I’ll tell you much more about the Vegas part of this trip later, but the plan was to leave The Tropicana at 7 a.m. so we could have plenty of time to enjoy this interesting 291-mile drive.
Of course, leaving Las Vegas at 7 a.m. takes a lot of discipline, and I don’t have a lot of discipline in Las Vegas. We only had two nights in Sin City, and on Wednesday night, we wrapped up at 3 a.m. but were up by 8. The plan was to take it easy last night, and be asleep by 1.
The last time I looked at the clock before falling asleep it was 3:18 a.m.
Still, we got our bloated but dehydrated bodies out of bed this morning and hit the road at 8. The GPS says we’ll get to Maryvale at 12:48, which gives us just enough time to pick up our photographer, Eron Laber, who’s already in Phoenix, and grab our press passes before plopping down on the right field berm.
I’m so excited. Tired, but excited.
I’ll do my best to take you along on the trip with daily updates, until I collapse into my seat on the plane Monday afternoon.
Spring Training trips can all seem the same after a while. So far, this one is very different.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
