Hockey Road Trip, Fall 2004

Week One - Southwest - Sat, 10/16 - Fri, 10/22
Week Two - Texas - Sat.,10/23 - Fri, 10/29
Week Three - Southeast - Sat, 10/30 - Fri, 11/5
Week Four - Southeast - Sat, 11/6 - Fri, 11/12
Week Five - Mid Atlantic - Sat, 11/13 - Fri, 11/19
Week Six - Long Island - Sat, 11/20 - Fri, 11/26
Week Seven - Midwest - Sat, 11/27 - Fri, 12/3
Week Eight - Midwest - Sat, 12/4 - Fri, 12/10
Week Nine - Las Vegas - Sat, 12/11 - Fri, 12/17
Week Ten - California - Sat, 12/18 - Fri, 12/24
About Me

Saturday, 12/18

Drove from Fresno, CA back to Bakersfield, CA. Visited the Kern County Museum and will attend a Condors game this evening.

The drive was fog, fog, fog, and more fog. Visibility was .1 (in some places .05) miles. To look at the bright side, as I always like to do, at least it wasn't snowing or raining.

Here's one thing I always wondered .... Why don't ALL drivers put their headlights on when there's fog?

I'm convinced it is a beautiful countryside in these parts. I saw glimpses (is that a word?) of farms, freight trains, cattle, vineyards. I'm sure it's a beautiful area. I'll make a note to come back some time when there's no fog.

The Kern County Museum is a historical 'village' dating from the late 1800's/early 1900's. It contains 40 or 50 buildings to visit, as well as a 'Black Gold' Museum. It was decorated well for the Holiday Season.

Most of the Kern County Museum was outside. You strolled down these dirt paths and visited the restored houses/buildings along the way.




Here's a Victorian home I got to tour and visit.

Turned out to be quite a nice day after the fog lifted.



Here's an old oil drill. There was a musuem on oil drilling in California. It contained a movie, a simulated ride, and exhibits. I didn't go on the ride.

Turns out today was a special day at the museum. Cookies with Santa. Lots of kids around. A very nice place to take them for the afternoon. Lots of open spaces to run around.


Bakersfield, CA

I watched the Bakesfield Condors play the Idaho Steelheads (both great names) at the Bakersfield Centennial Garden.

Notes:

• Centennial Garden seats about 9,000 yet it felt much more intimate than that.
• I noted it was very much a social gathering amongst the fans here.
• The players seem to skate faster than in other ECHL teams I've seen.
• It was tied 0 - 0 at the end of regulation. The Steelheads got a goal 42 seconds into OT.
• It was pillow fight night. Apparently, they were trying to beat the world's record for the number of pillows used in a pillow fight. Think they needed 3,000 to beat the record. No story on their website to see if they made it. All the pillows were being donated to a homeless shelter in the area.

Here's the outside of Centennial Garden. Nice water fountain display.



And the inside. Two levels of seating with sky boxes at the top of the first level.

The concourse was a bit narrow causing some people flow issues.

All in all, however, a nice place to go for a game.



Pillow fight!!!

This was a great idea and for a good cause. They even sold pillows on the concourse for $2 if you forgot to bring one (or wanted more).


Game Twenty Seven - Centennial Garden
Bakersfield Condors vs. Idaho Steelheads
Score: Steelheads 1 - Condors 0

One last thing...

I did get an email from a fellow sports traveler. He listened to my radio broadcast interview and said 'well done'. That made me feel good.

Check out his and his friend's site. They've done a lot of traveling to different sporting events and write up a nice description on each venue. In fact, they're known for visiting all sports venues for the 4 major league sports in the U.S. The Ultimate Sports Road Trip.

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