Thursday, June 17, 2021
Before we start recapping today's adventure, I have a couple of things to share from Wednesday.
First up is a photo that our good friend Julien Urgenti from Lyon, France sent me from a shop he recently saw in Paris.
No argument from me
Even with all of this driving,
Physical Fitness is still a top priority
as this total from Wednesday shows
As soon as I wake up, I go for a two mile walk to get my juices flowing.
Then, during each of my breaks after two-plus hours of driving, I try to walk a bit more.
Finally, once I get to my final destination for the day, I take another longer stroll to acquaint myself to my new surroundings as I try to reach my minimum goal of 10,000+ steps per day.
So far, so good!
Let's take a look at some of the sights of Davis from this morning's walk.
It's a nice city from all that
I could see today
If you have a Vito's Pizzeria
then all is right with the world
Davis is an artsy town
as it turns out
"No time to talk now,
we're both late for work!"
Not quite sure why this old
school bike is Davis' symbol
Zia is "Aunt" in Italian
I walked for about 45 minutes starting at 7:00 a.m. but nothing was opening until at least 8:00 a.m.
No breakfast for me in Davis this morning.
More of the general
Davis bicycle motif
Interesting pedestrian tunnel but
it looked a tad dodgy to me
I liked the bright colors of this mural
Is it a fish?
Or is it a surfboard perhaps?
Fixer-upper for sale for only
$375,000
Is that an iron maiden?
Another vision on the
mean streets of Davis
 One BIG cat! Or is it a dog? |
A large butterfly at the end
of this morning's trek
I had to get going as I had a long drive to my goal city today of Eugene, Oregon.
Besides that, the temperatures in Northern California this afternoon were predicted to be scorching!
I needed to BEAT THE HEAT!
My first stop of the day was in
this NorCal outpost
My early morning start was working on a relative basis.
While it was a hot 95°F/35°C, that is still much better than the expected high of 108°F/42°C at 4:00 p.m.
This fun little spot in Shasta Lake
served an excellent . . .
. . . strawberry salad for lunch
After this exceedingly healthy meal, I pushed on but I do need to relate a new observation.
When driving in SoCal, I long ago programmed my car's radio to my favorite AM and FM stations.
On the road, none of these pre-selected stations work so I'm constantly searching for stations to keep me company on the journey.
If my interests leaned towards country-western music, Mexican pop sounds, evangelical Christian doctrines or political pundits placed far to the right of Rush Limbaugh, then I would have had a myriad of options.
But they don't and I didn't.
A random I5 Rest Stop view
of Mount Shasta
Today's second stop was in
Grant's Pass, Oregon
Nice shoulders, big fella.
This city is infatuated with cavemen as this statue at the Visitor's Center might suggest.
More of this pre-historic theme
at Grants Pass High School,
Home of the Cavemen
Another Caveman at GPHS
On to Eugene where the the weather was . . .
. . . WONDERFUL!
A balmy 81°F/27°C when I arrived and getting cooler by the hour, AWESOME!
In the evening, I opted to attend a Eugene Emeralds High-A level minor league baseball game.
The Emeralds are an affiliate in the San Francisco Giants organization and entered the game in second place in the six team Northwest League with a record of 22-15.
Their opponents were the Hillsboro Hops (HOPS?) an Arizona Diamondbacks farm team who were in fourth place suffering through a 16-20 campaign.
The game was being played in
a new University of Oregon ball park
next to Autzen Stadium, their football palace
PK Park
PK as in Phil Knight, U. of O. alumni, owner of the Nike shoe/sports clothing empire and big time contributor to Ducks athletics.
It is a beautiful facility for both the Oregon Ducks baseball program and the minor league Emeralds.
My initial view upon entering
PK Park
To buy a ticket to the game, you had to show proof that you were fully Coronavirus vaccinated.
I was packing my vaccination card, so I was good with it. In a totally cavalier attitude asked for the best available ticket and the ticket vendor said, "No problem but it will cost $11."
SOLD!
Because of the mandatory vaccination, wearing a face mask was 100% optional, YAHOO!
Now, where's my seat?
I was in Row 1
for goodness sakes!
Row 1 had nine seats and I was in
Seat 5 in the middle placing me
DIRECTLY behind the catcher
and the umpire
If had this seat at Dodger Stadium, I would be wearing a white Panama hat and holding a radar gun to check the pitcher's velocity on every pitch.
The Hops got off to a quick 5-0 lead and I started to get restless so I checked out the park from different angles.
PK Park is cozy
I came upon two busts resting just behind where I took this photo.
Don Kirsch
Oregon's Head Baseball Coach
1948-1970
Mel Krause
Oregon's Head Baseball Coach
1971-1981
Major League Hall of Famer
Mike Schmidt was once an Emerald
At the end of the fifth inning, with the Hops still ahead 5-1, I opted to leave the game to explore more of the University of Oregon's campus.
As for the game, I missed all the action as the Emeralds came back to win 10-9.
NUTS!
I entered the old sports
facilities area of the university
New Hayward Field is the Mecca for
Track and Field enthusiasts in the USA
The USA Olympic Track and Field Trials will be held there this weekend to determine America's team for this Summer's Tokyo Olympics.
McArthur Court
The Duck's hallowed indoor arena
A tough place to play back in the day. It was replaced as the home of Oregon indoor athletics in 2011 with the new Matthew Knight Arena.
WHAT A DAY!
All of these adventures and I still got in a good workout in as well!
