To Tucson and back again (more Spring Training?)

I got up at 7am (6am OK time) on a Saturday to go rent a car so that I might make a trip from Phoenix down to Tucson to see my ailing grandmother. I couldn't personally allow myself to be less than two hours north of my grandmother without making an effort to visit her. Of course, while we were in Tucson, the idea was to also catch another Spring Training ballgame, weather permitting (and it didn't seem like it would).

The rental car process was tedious at best (we had to go to the airport because the neighborhood rental places were out of cars), but we got on our way in ernest, only to encounter rain for much of they way. Where there was not rain, there was dust. Dust blowing so thick it was hard to see the car in front of us. And where there was no dust, there was a barrage of tumbleweeds, practically attacking the car, making me nervous of noticeable damage since I did not purchase the damage waiver insurance.

We fortunately found Tucson to be largely dry, though not dust or high-winds free. The occasional splatter of raindrops kept us nervous, but, though it was unseasonably chilly as with Phoenix, it seemed like okay baseball weather.

The first order of business was quick family visiting. I got to visit an aunt, a couple uncles, a cousin, a couple family friends, and, of course, my grandmother. She looked quite bad, nothing like she did when I last saw her in November, but I'm told she's looking and doing better than she was a month ago. She's hanging in there. We're not sure for how much longer, but she's hanging on.

So what about the ballgame? Well, we missed a few innings because of the visiting, thought that was okay by us. We got to see the meat of the game, the 3rd through 7th innings. Well, we thought it was the meat, as the Arizona DiamondBacks were winning when we left. Not five minutes after we left, while listening to the radio, we learned that the DiamondBacks had already lost their lead, which they never got back.

The drive back to Phoenix was tense, because it was raining even worse than the morning. There were many accidents, and at times the rain was so heavy that I had to drive quite below the speed limit. It didn't help that we had a time crunch, but the fact of the matter was that we had yet another sporting even to attend in the evening, all the way back in Phoenix.

We got to Glendale, Northwest of Phoenix, just in time for our Phoenix Coyotes NHL hockey game, but we had to park seemingly a half-mile away, which meant we got drenched by the rain during the trek inside. Even so, we only missed a few minutes of the game.

Our view was pretty good...



... I even got a distant glimpse of the coach, Wayne Gretzky...



But the Coyotes lost. While the overall experience was definitely better than that of an OKC Blazers game, the fans were nothing like those in OKC. Plus there were a lot of Mighty Duck fans, so it wasn't exactly a unified crowd.

Fortunately, the rain lightened-up enough to make the walk back to the car less miserable, though the temperature had dropped, so it wasn't exactly a pleasant walk.