Tumbleweeds

The Lake County Captains won the Midwest League Championship! I can't even begin to explain how exciting it was for the team to play so well and pull it through in the final game! Chase has never won a championship at any level so for his team to win one in his first year as a professional player is a huge deal and the perfect ending to a wonderful season of opportunity. Everyone was on the edge of their seat until the final out and as soon as it came, the celebration erupted. I am so proud of Chase and he is sooo excited to finally get a championship ring! It's still hard to believe that it really happened!






A celebratory milkshake moustache at Steak 'n' Shake after the game : )

This article is about the championship game and has a video of an interview with the head coach:
http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2010/09/21/sports/nh3063693.txt

This article is about the game/season and has some really nice things to say about Chase. It also has a video of the last out and celebration:
http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2010/09/21/sports/nh3063213.txt

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Well, the morning after their amazing win, we packed up the car and were on the road by 5:30. With all the excitement, it was hard to settle down to fall asleep so we both were going on 4 hours of sleep. Since the team went all the way into the playoffs, Chase was very late for the Arizona league. He was supposed to start on the 15th but the team didn't even finish playing until the 20th. And it is a few days' worth of traveling from Ohio. Accordingly, they have asked Chase to stay until the 14th of October since he has missed so much.

Our first day of travel, we drove 14 hours and stopped in Searcy for the night. It was really nice to get to see our good friends and family! I wish we wouldn't have been in such a hurry. It would have been nice to spend some time on campus, go to chapel, and stop in and see some of my professors. Maybe we will be able to fit that in on our way back to Georgia.

The next day, we were up by 6:30 and after an oil change, on the road again. We drove ANOTHER 14 hours to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Chase actually saw a tumbleweed blow across the interstate while we were in Texas...haha. By the end of this day, we were both a little stressed and a lot tired. I'm surprised at how well we did not to be pulling our hair out (or each other's). Albuquerque was beautiful. I wish we could have spent some more time there.

Our third and final day of travel was only 8 hours and seemed like nothing compared to the others. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking and I think that made the time pass even faster. Here are some pictures from our drive out west. However, they don't truly do justice to what we saw. Chase gets credit for some of these. I made him take pictures while it was my turn to drive : )







I can't wait to actually do some sight-seeing! We went straight to the Indians/Reds complex in Goodyear so Chase could "check-in", put his stuff in his locker, figure out the schedule, etc. Then we checked into our hotel and took a nice nap!

Today is Chase's first day with the Instructional League. I'm looking forward to hearing all about his day when he gets done. Tonight, we are getting to go to a Diamondbacks game with the Oberts and their church! It will be so nice to see them and I always enjoy getting to watch baseball games WITH Chase; which doesn't happen very often : )

Thanks for reading! Until next time,

Cait