Backtime Road Trip Day 15: Muppet Mayhem

The penultimate day of the family journey began overlooking Cal Sr. Park at the Ripken Baseball Academy from our hotel room in Aberdeen, Maryland.

Ripken has become a brand name in youth baseball over the last several years, drawing little leaguers to the complex from around the country, and consequently filling up the adjacent minor league stadium.

Naturally the address of the hotel was on "Long Drive," and we were off on hour 3+ hour trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg for the brand name in youth everything, and a much more famous address...

The Sesame Street Forest of Fun at Busch Gardens. I don't know if I'd call it "fun for all ages," but I definitely got into the spirit on Prince Elmo's Spire.

Even Gramps got into the act, riding on Oscar's Whirly Worms.

And after several hours running around in near-100 degree heat, with never enough to drink and no nap, there was a great kiddie cool-off. Fortunately Daddy was on top of it with sunscreen, bathing suits, and towels (the ones that didn't cost $20 in the gift shop).

And speaking of the heat, how do you think you'd like to be dressed as a muppet as your summer job?

The chroma-key green background is so they can sell you overpriced pictures of your family with their favorite Sesame Street characters superimposed on some sort of background from the actual set of the show - much like how your favorite weather lady appears in front of a regional map.

I wasn't going to pay for that picture when they still let you take off-center snapshots against the green. But there was one picture that I bought, framed even, since there's no recreating the moment.

The kids took their first ever roller coaster ride on Grover's Alpine Express. I tagged along, expecting a kiddie ride. It wasn't. It was a real roller coaster, though a very short ride. I'd call it a junior coaster. The kids had a blast and rode it over and over again.

And sitting next to my 3-year old girl on her first roller coaster ride ranks right up there in the highlights of my life. But I am surely aware that the real roller coaster ride is only beginning.

Backtime Road Trip Day 14: Iron Birds

Today, our last day in NYC, had no family support. My sister had flown home and both of my folks had to work. I wasn't about to drag the kids around the city all day by myself, so we became one with the country.

Not really, more like the suburbs. Actually Paramus, New Jersey - the town with the most shopping malls per capita in the United States. But also home to the New Jersey Children's Museum. For the record, the third children's museum we've hit on the tour.

It was a pretty good way to kill a couple hours. Lots of hands-on practical things - my daughter probably manned the register at the grocery store for a half-hour. But also creative play and role play.

So after a long day at the construction site, we did what any New York-area union workers would do - take a long lunch. Burger King and Baskin-Robbins did the trick sustaining us through heavy traffic back into the city, where we packed and split.

It is 13 hours back to Savannah, so this has been planned like everything on the trip, thoroughly plotted out and segmented. Like any good producer would.

Gramps came with me and the kids as the first leg went from Central Park South to Aberdeen, Maryland. This was a good stopping point for the pivotal journey to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg tomorrow.

We pulled into the hotel in Aberdeen just as the crowd from Ripken Stadium was exiting and the lights were still on.

The Aberdeen IronBirds took one on the chin tonight against the Tri-City (that's Albany, Schenectady, and Troy New York in case you were wondering) ValleyCats 6-2 in a NY-Penn League Single-A battle. The crowd was listed at 6,550.

So it would seem that Aberdeen owner/proprietor Cal Ripken Jr. continues to work hard and do things the right way.

The Ripken work ethic will serve as inspiration for me on the last 48 hours of this family journey. It's been just one fortnight in the books which begs the question, "how did Cal Ripken do it?"