Day 11, Major League Baseball Trip.

DATE: Wednesday, September 11, 2013. Day 11.
LOCATION: Baltimore to West Virginia to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

I got up at 7:30 AM and took a walk past Camden Yards Stadium and kept walking until I got to M & T Bank Stadium, home of the Ravens. It was only an extra block. M&T stands for Manufacturer's and Traders Bank. I asked some workers there where the Ravens practiced and they said they practiced in a facility several miles northeast of Baltimore named Owings Mills. I wanted to see them practice because Marshall Yanda, the right guard for the Ravens, is a former student of mine from my seventh grade class of 1997. When I got back to the hotel I told Brad and John where they practiced and we decided we would drive out and see if we could watch them practice - and I might be able to see Marshall. So I called the Ravens office and talked to a secretary - I told her I was one of Marshall's old teachers and I was wondering if it might be possible for me to see him. She said she couldn't say but she would be willing to take a message and give it to him. I told her to write, " Hi Marshall, this is Mr. Bungum, your old seventh grade geography teacher. If possible I'd like to see you this morning and give you a little ANAD quiz.  She laughed and I said Marshall will know what ANAD  is."
So we checked our bags and headed out to Owings Mills. Thanks to GPS we easily found it. After driving down a secluded road we came to the Ravens practice facility. But we were stopped by a little building with horizontal poles blocking off any vehicles from entering the property.  We pushed a button on the outside of the building and a guy answered. John says "I was wondering if we could see the Ravens practice." The guy says, "This is private property and there is no admittance." So that was it - no admittance meant we were out of luck. If Marshall did get my message he probably didn't want to take that ANAD quiz.


At the game the night before there were cops all over the place. I asked four cops at the stadium how many cops were on the force in Baltimore? I got four different answers: 1,400, 3400, 2700, and 3,000. I guess nobody knows, the cops don't anyway.

As we were checking out of the hotel this morning John asked one of the bellhops, "How many cops in Baltimore?" He answered, "Not enough."
Then John said, 'Half of your police force must have been on duty at the Oriole game last night."
The bellhop answered, "Either there or at Dunkin Donuts." That was good for a laugh.

We left Owings Mills and headed for Pittsburgh. We drove through Maryland, part of West Virginia and onto Pittsburgh  We arrived at 5PM. We checked into the Hampton Inn, a half mile or more from  PNC Park, home of the Pirates. All three of us were  tired so we ordered pizza from Dominoes and ate in the room.