Today I’m no homebody – I’m a roam body!  I landed in Tampa yesterday afternoon, had dinner with my grand kids at Red Lobster, and spent the night in North Port in my grandson’s new bed.  This is the point in life when young people begin to resent their elders, as he was forced to sleep on the couch while I had the privacy of his room. This morning, we’re headed to Miami, without him, about as far away from Portland and home that I could possibly get in the continental United States.  My son will be with me, as well as some old friends, as we participate in all the M.L.B. All-Star events over the next three days.  The kids are left behind, but at least sleeping in their own beds.

I couldn’t get any writing done on the plane.  The woman in the center seat must have been a discus thrower for the Russian National team.  She had the widest shoulders and biggest arms that I’ve ever seen and spoke in broken English.  Having fairly wide shoulders myself, I had to lean out into the aisle where I was constantly bumped by anyone passing by our row.  I have bruises from the beverage cart to prove it!  It was uncomfortable as I’ve ever been on a plane, so I read a book and watched the movie “Morgan,” about genetically engineered human beings.  I wondered if maybe my seat-mate was one of these creatures.

It was great to see my son’s family.  The last time we all got together was for the Daytona 500 about five months ago.  We’ll get together again next month in San Francisco, so my grand kids can explore another baseball stadium city that already include Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Miami, and Atlanta.  They all follow the Cubs, their favorite team, and visit a different city each year to watch them play.  I try to join them whenever possible.  Maybe the Cubs need some genetically engineered players to aid their losing record this year?

We had dinner at Red Lobster and the breakfast buffet at Golden Corral, two restaurants that I would normally not frequent.  As a grandparent, I try to be as flexible as possible and go along with the preferences of the kids.  I especially detest eating at buffets, since I like being waited on, but they were intrigued with the chocolate fountain, where you could enjoy chocolate-covered anything.  Even scrambled eggs!  The was a chubby man sitting at the table next to us that reminded me of a character from “Alice in Wonderland.”  The Cheshire Cat could have been sitting on his shoulder, with a grin circled in chocolate.  My son’s wife then packed me a cooler of Diet Cokes, Gummi Bears, and Uncrustables for the road trip to Miami, so I could continue to be a kid without them!

My son and I, after cramming our two other friends and their luggage in his car, arrived in Miami to a traffic nightmare.  Exit ramps to our hotel were closed, so we had to navigate well out of our way.  We had just enough time to check-in and call Uber for a ride to the first night of activities, the Futures Game and the Legends & Celebrities Softball battle.  As we were driving to the stadium, my friend suddenly discovered that he had left his two tickets back at the hotel.  This is where my planning payed off, as we all learned a valuable lesson.  I had taken photos of all the pricey tickets in case I lost any of them in transit.  I had heard that the bar codes could be scanned from a photo, and this is why you shouldn’t post tickets on Face Book.  Sure enough, the photos of his left-behind tickets got them in the game, and saved the Uber expense of having to go back and collect them.  The joys of modern technology!

Roaming will continue…..