Rain and Shine
I’m taking a slight break from writing about the deeper aspects of the Kansas City Royals today to bring you a slice of my life that you might get a kick out of. I must admit, I lead a pretty typical life, but this past weekend I found myself in the midst of some safe, though thoroughly annoying, chaos. And I hold nature to blame.
But first, some background. I’m the second of five children in my family. My older sister Connie lives in San Francisco, while the other three siblings (all sisters) live back in my hometown. I live in Lawrence, a significant trek from California and still three hours or so from back home. Visits from my family are scarce, though the oldest makes it back to Kansas usually twice a year – once for Christmas and once sometime in the summer. This week happened to be the summer visit, and as part of it, my sisters decided to head up to Lawrence for the first time in four years.
The plan was for Thursday to be a trip out to Oceans of Fun. For those of you in Kansas or near Kansas City, I’m sure you’ve made a few trips out that way yourself. I remember school field trips that included a trip to Worlds of Fun that were the most anticipated events of the year. And while our parents had taken Connie and I there in the past before the three youngest came along, the time had never been there to take the others after we’d moved out. With the temperatures being so oppressively high this summer, we felt we’d give Oceans of Fun a shot and save Worlds of Fun for another day.
As we started to navigate through Kansas City, we saw the big blue clouds on the horizon and but saw nothing big on the radar and pressed on. We felt like a snack beforehand and stopped at a Wendy’s about two blocks from the entrance, ate on the small remaining drive, and paid the parking fee. As we walked to the admission gates, we heard a small rumble of thunder and saw people walking out from Ocean’s of Fun en masse. Okay, we thought, it happens that they may want to clear the park out for now and re-admit people, or these people could just be more cautious and want to leave, so we continue on the idea that we’ll wait and see.
We go to the window just to check for ourselves and the woman at the admission gate said “We just see a small blip, so it shouldn’t be any more than fifteen minutes.” Having already driven about an hour or so through construction and traffic, we figured another fifteen minutes wasn’t going to be much of a big deal, so we took a seat at a picnic table and waited for the storms to pass. It appeared that the clouds were going to cooperate as it seemed like they were moving eastward. Sure, there was some lightning, some thunder, even a few raindrops, but nothing too bad. With the oppressive, constant heat of the past month, it was kind of nice.
Then the wind started picking up. Leaves swirled around like at old Candlestick. The rain persisted, increased.
And all hell broke loose.
We were near one of the fences by a rollercoaster (don’t know which one) and saw a web of lightning up around there and decided we could wait in the car instead of the current setting. As soon as we stood up, the bottom fell out of the clouds and big fat heavy drops started attacking us, first from above, then, as the wind shifted, from the side. Running through the parking lot, we collectively missed where we’d parkekd by a couple rows as water pelted us from all over when we heard a thunderclap that sounded like it was a foot above our heads. My 15-year old sister Laura jumped and I looked up to see lightning again stretch across the sky. Meanwhile, we still didn’t see the car, and in the sheets of rain, it wasn’t any easier to do so. We got split up somehow, and even when the middle sister found the car, Connie (who had the keys) was three rows over while the rest of us were drenched, dripping wet.
Even when she finally emerged and activated the keyless entry, we had to toss bags and towels into the back before leaping into the seats. Once inside, the rain was so heavy we couldn’t even see out the windows, so we didn’t go anywhere for a bit. The sudden temperature change had fogged up all of the windows so in the middle of August, we had the defroster going. Then we heard the telltale ticking of hailstones – merely pea sized – tap tap tapping upon our vehicle door.
The rain finally let up enough for us to start away as we wrote off the parking fee and got the hell outta Dodge. Despite the heaviest rain already passing, the ten minute deluge was enough to leave shallow standing water in parts of the highway leading out, and we passed through it slowly.
A mile later, the sun was out, the road was dry and there was no rain in sight.
I love the midwest.
Here’s the lucky thing about the whole ordeal – had we not stopped at the Wendy’s beforehand, we’d have made it to the gate five minutes sooner, possibly paying the non-refundable admission charge, only to get ten feet into the park before being turned away. That 99 cent chicken sandwich is more valuable than you could imagine.
Following that episode, once we’d returned to dry land, my sisters just HAD to go shopping. So our rerouted destination was the majestic Oak Park Mall.
I’ve been in some odd situations here and there, but I still didn’t feel like anything but a huge dork walking through a mall in a still damp t-shirt and swim trunks (I’m smart and didn’t have a change of clothes). So while my sisters careened through the mall, using almost three hours to buy two things apiece, I took a seat in a Barnes and Noble, getting about three quarters through a book about “The Code” in baseball. When they’d finished their browsing and purchasing, we headed back for Lawrence.
On Friday, we decided to be enterprising again, giving Oceans of Fun another shot. Checking the radar beforehand, we noticed nothing of concern and headed out. Our only bad luck once we arrived was that our parking pass from the day before wouldn’t be honored despite our early departure due to rain, but we’d expected that much, so it wasn’t an issue. We got into the park and made it through the entire day without incident, though the elements were still toying with us, as the concrete pathways between slides and rides had absorbed every bit of heat from the sun and released it with every step. Meanwhile the SPF 50 I’d applied on three different occasions was showing itself to be unreliable, since, while I missed a spot or two, even the spots I’d slathered lotion onto were turning pinkish and the early stages of red.
Beyond that, though, no rain, no hint of it, and all was well.
Oh, but we had also made plans to go to Kauffman Stadium to watch the Royals take on the Yankees. After bustling through traffic once again, we made it to the parking lot just as the national anthem was being sung. However, as we started up the escalators to our section, we’d noticed an old friend that we hadn’t seen in the rush to get to the stadium.
On the horizon loomed big blue storm clouds, an ominous sight.
I got a bit worried that we’d come all the way out to the stadium and the game would get rained out. My two youngest sisters, Laura and Kacie, had never been to a major league game before and while Laura kept saying “This is SO cool” at everything on the main concourse, I had an eye on the clouds. We hadn’t eaten since before Oceans of Fun, so we redeemed the loaded ticket value to get some ballpark grub.*
*Hey, my forst Posterisk. I don’t think I’ve endorsed them before, but my favorite stand in Kauffman is the KC Cantina. I’d literally have the chicken nachos grande every day if I could.
After we’d gotten the food, the wind started howling as it went through the section entrances in the HyVee level. The first rumbles of thunder echoed off the suites behind home, and it seemed like we were going to get nailed just as the game started. We didn’t – though it got us soon after.
The Royals staved off the rain long enough to plate three runs in the bottom of the second while, even in row WW (three rows from the very top of the stadium) we had a nice vantage point of everything on the field and a nice panoramic view of everything behind the stadium (Hello Drury Inn!). But after the top of the third, when Kyle Davies let the Yankees tie it up, the rains started.
Our section was so high up that we were covered, but that didn’t help the conditions on the field. When the grounds crew came out and took the cover off the tarp, Laura asked me what they were doing. I explained how they had weather information and how when the grounds crew does that, they expect rain soon – and they were right, as they got the tarp on the field just before the heaviest rain started coming down.
So in their first baseball game, my sisters also got their first rain delay.
I’d checked radar on my phone and to me it seemed like there was only one cell coming through. I made the (incorrect) assumption that after the storm passed, there wouldn’t be any more problems.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The weather permitted us to get two more innings in – just enough to see Billy Butler‘s go-ahead homer to the right field corner – before reappearing.
My personal philosophy is that if you go to a sporting event, unless there are significant factors dictating otherwise (e.g., you’re getting married at 7am the next day), you stay at the stadium. Period. My sisters, however, I wasn’t so sure about. But they waited through two hours of rain and lightning, though, and even wanted to stick it out. We went to the Majestic Team Store to look around, and if I had a few hundred bucks to spend, I would have liked to have gotten a few things.
Instead, we stood around the third base side at field level to wait it out. We gave ourselves a deadline: if, at 11:30, the game hadn’t resumed, been called, or if the tarp was still on the field, we’d leave.
And like that, we saw the grounds crew come back out to remove the tarp, prompting us to go up the winding walkway to row WW again. Upon arriving, the crew was reapplying the tarp. And we waited still.
Finally, though, they removed the tarp, this time for good (even re-covered it) and we decided that while they were applying drying compound and readying the infield, we’d take advantage of the lower attendance at that point and move down.
The three youngest decided that they needed to point out every usher, guard and employee, as if they were all watching us, knowing full well what we were trying. My goal was somewhere that might be the target of a foul ball. We were headed for the dugout box on the first base side.
Walking by that part of the seating, a few ushers had stationed themselves right in the stairways, and I wondered if they might have amped up their vigilance under the rainy conditions. We found a spot with no usher at the top of the steps on either side, so we went for it and found an empty row and sat down without incident.
You know the rest of the story. Blake Wood danced around an error by Wilson Betemit, a misplayed pickoff rundown by Billy Butler and the vaunted Yankees lineup to preserve the one-run lead and get it to Joakim Soria. My sisters were impressed by the whole Soria entrance, while I was air-drumming at 12:30 in the morning at a baseball stadium. They were less impressed by that.
Soria made it interesting, but managed to hold the lead and get the save. It was a satisfying win, both to beat the Yankees, but also under the circumstances. Three rain delays, six hours from first pitch to last, but it was over. I was glad that everyone had enjoyed the game, the stadium, and mostly, that they hadn’t complained once about being bored. There really isn’t anything like a baseball game, even if you’ve seen dozens all year, or just one all your life. It’s a nice reminder that among all the labor disputes and bickering about lineups and which players deserve what playing time and calling this guy an idiot and that guy incompetent, that you can whisk yourself away to the ballpark and just enjoy. Despite about three hours of rain, we’d all enjoyed it. And at just before 1am, we could head back…
But first we had to watch the fireworks. I’m sure the folks who live anywhere near Kauffman enjoyed that at that time of night.
But, if they didn’t, we sure did.
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