Next Stop- The A.T.L.

One day closer.

I put in my last day of work before camp begins today at the airport.  I work for Southwest Airlines and I have been in the industry as a gate agent/ticket agent and trainer for just over seven years.  I enjoy the heck out of it (the vast majority of the time) and today was a fairly easy day.  Last week I managed to experience the worst four days of my career ALL IN A ROW! In order of pain level, the days would be Friday, Thursday, Sunday, Saturday.  4-day runs like that are what turn airline employees into FORMER airline employees. 

But I digeress.

I leave Monday for Fantasy Camp, as I have stated before. The reason I leave a day early is much like the same logic which should be used by travelers when they are going on a cruise. My logic is that you should NEVER, EVER travel to your cruise destination on the same day which our cruise leaves.  Things happen, planes are delayed because of weather or even de-icing processes.  With this in mind, I leave for Atlanta on Monday afternoon.  Atlanta is a good stopping point as it allows me to have dinner at a soul food restaurant called Big Daddy's Dish.  It is some of the tastiest fare that I've ever had.  I don't get there very often any more as I don't have trainings in Atlanta like I used to when my paycheck was given to me by AirTran Airways.  It also allows me to not be concerned about a missed transfer and get my brain squared and ready for the week ahead.  I will get up on Tuesday morning and catch the first flight to West Palm Beach and that should get me to Port St. Lucie around noon.

The fields are open on Tuesday afternoon from 2-5 pm. This allows players to go to the locker room, see their locker locations and new uniforms.  From there I will go out to the fields and try to blend in. Last year I was totally scared by this process. Many of the players had met in prior years and were hanging out after greetings had been exchanged.  Last year, when I hit the field I was wearing my softball jersey from home.  I am the player/coach of the Bugtussle Rockets.  I started playing for this team in 1989.  I took over as coach in 1994.  The jersey I wore was our newest incarnation at the time.  Gone were the days of simple t-shirts with logos screened on and standard numbers.  I had taken the jerseys to the next level.  We had fully sublimated jerseys that were pretty cool-looking, to be honest.  Some of the coaches saw this and took a liking to it.  One coach said. "You must be a good team to look that good on the field". Well, we had won our first championship in 19 years the previous summer.  I was pretty proud to tell them this. 

THIS year I plan to do the same thing, but this year's jersey is even cooler than LAST years. We won another championship in 2013. That aside, the fact that I will know some of the guys at the field already will make this opening meeting much more fun. 

Oh yeah, why Bugtussle?  Well, the team was once known as the Bad Axe Red Dawgs.  Bad Axe is a city in Michigan, believe it or not. Roughly 600 miles from where I live.  I first heard about it on the David Letterman show back when Dave was funny and on NBC. When the team went BACK to the Rockets nickname the team "moved to"Bugtussle, Kentucky. Bugtussle sits on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. It is also the town where the Clampetts lived prior to their relocating to Beverly Hills.  Yes, it's from the Beverly Hillbillies.

One thing is new today. Apparently my body is in the process of trying to stave off a cold.  I get a cold about once every five years.  The fact that it's trying to manifest itself just before I leave for Fantasy Camp is more than a little aggravating. But no matter what happens with it, it's not going to make my enjoyment of the week ahead any less than it would normally be.

At the end of the week I drive up to Orlando and will visit my aunt Bea.  She's the Typhoid Mary of my Mets fever.  It will be great to talk to her in person.  During my last visit with her she talked about the early days of the Mets.  She recalled the 1969 season and the fact that she was at game 5 against the Orioles.  Her long-term memory is superb to this day and I once got a baseball signed by her which is proudly displayed in a case in my office next to balls signed to me by Hall-of-Famers and former players who are personal friends of mine.  SHE is the first inductee in MY hall-of-fame.

Tonight's post comes to you from Dixie. A smooth flight from Minneapolis has landed me in the home of the Braves.  I've had a tasty dinner at Big Daddy's Dish, which was just as good as I'd hoped. I need to get some sleep as the flight to West Palm Beach departs Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport at 8:55 a.m.  Or so says the schedule.

Touchdown in Florida is approximately 10:45. An hour's drive north on I-95 should put me in PSL by 12:30. A quick change and some greeting time with my hosts, Bob and Michele Skinner and off to the field I go. I spoke with Bob about an hour ago and there's rain in the forecast for the early part of the day tomorrow. Hopefully things will clear up in time to get some swings in and maybe throw on the side.

My man Phil leaves from New York in the morning. I would call him now, because I'm guessing that he's not going to get more than 30 minutes of sleep tonight. It's not that I'm not excited myself, because my sleep will be minimal as we'll, I'm sure. It's Christmas Eve for all of us!

I'm excited to see guys and ladies whom I met last year and to welcome this year's rookies.

Tomorrow, Santa pays off to a bunch of Walter Mittys wearing baseball gloves.

 I'm just glad to be one of 'em.