At the Birthplace of Babe Ruth, Baltimore

The RFA team arrived in the Baltimore area after a relaxing afternoon at only our third house of the trip. The Bowles family, of Columbia, Maryland, was gracious enough to allow us to stay at their home for the evening and enjoy the amenities of a good home cooked meal for a change. Being a dog person myself, I had the pleasure of playing with their dog Elmo who has one obsession, tennis balls. He will chase the ball wherever it may go, even if it involves him going for a swim across the deep end of the pool to get it. While enjoying the surroundings of the Bowles household, I enjoyed watching Carson get badly beaten by Elaine at tennis while Striker and Tatar got some computer work done inside the house. After their tennis match, I decided to try my luck at tennis with Carson and realized beyond any reasonable doubt that tennis is NOT my sport and I know to stay away from the tennis courts from now on.

The next morning was one of the more confusing mornings since the trip began because we couldn’t find exactly where the trail connecting Annapolis and Baltimore began. The guys initially began heading in what we thought was the correct direction, but proved to be completely the wrong direction. Instead of heading towards Baltimore, we began heading towards Annapolis and the U.S. Naval Academy. I have to admit, even though we didn’t stay long in Annapolis, I thought it was one of the nicer cities we have traveled through. So after we realized our error or direction, we turned around and headed back to the starting point and headed in the correct direction along a bike path that connected the two cities. We even had the distinct pleasure of watching Vicky skate for the first time in her 5 days with us. It was hot day, reaching up into the mid-90’s and the skaters were all exhausted and sweaty when they finished up the thirty plus miles that they racked up on the day.

We then drove from the point on the path where we parked the cars into downtown Baltimore to go to the hotel. We drove past M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore Ravens) and Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles) to get to our hotel, which was about two blocks away from the latter. After checking into the hotel and getting everything settled in, we showered up and Strike, Carson, and myself headed to the local Mexican food place for some burritos. While there, however, Carson and I decided to sample some of the thirty or so varieties of hot sauce that were there. Needless to say, I didn’t taste much of my dinner after that since my taste buds were spent after the hot sauce shocking. Some meandering around the hotel, seeing the sights, and taking in the ambiance of the inner harbor in Baltimore followed dinner. Being as tired as I was from the day’s events, I opted to call it a night early and relaxed while watching “Good Will Hunting” (one of my favorites movies of all time).

Just an update for everybody out there reading the blog, we are going to be on Good Morning America next Wednesday morning.

Keep on reading
Jason O.