Game 5: New York Mets vs. St. Louis Cardinals, May 18th, 12:10PM CDT, Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MOGame 6: St. Louis Cardinals vs. Kansas City Royals, May 19th, 7:10PM CDT, Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO
This was our second baseball roadtrip to the Midwest Region and it was planned for us to visit the teams that we did see on our first trip: Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals, and Chicago White Sox. Since the teams that we saw during this trip were primarily to the west of Chicago, I have called this roadtrip “The Western Loop of the Midwest.” The trip lasted seven nights/eight days and during that period we saw seven games that involved seven different teams. The roadtrip was implemented as a fly and drive trip. Again, my travel partner for the trip was my brother Bob.
The cities visited on the trip were much farther apart than those on our Eastern Loop of the Midwest roadtrip. For this reason, we flew to most of them instead of driving. Even though our original flight took us through Chicago and continued directly on to Minneapolis, the hub for our trip was Chicago. This enabled us to see a home game of both the Cubs at Wrigley Field and the White Sox at U. S. Cellular Field. After seeing two Twin’s home games and a one night stay in Minneapolis, we returned to Chicago for two nights and saw one game at Wrigley Field, the Nationals versus the Cubs.
The next legs of our roadtrip made a loop from Chicago to St. Louis (303 miles), then St Louis to Kansas City (243 miles), and finally Kansas City back to Chicago (535 miles). Due to the long travel distances between Chicago and St. Louis and Kansas City and Chicago, we chose to fly these two legs of the trip. On the other hand, the route between St. Louis and Kansas City is primarily on a single highway and Kauffman Stadium is not located downtown or near the airport. For this reason, we needed a car in Kansas City to get to the stadium so we decided to drive that leg. In St. Louis we attended two games and stayed for two nights. While we saw one game and stayed just one night in Kansas City before returning to Chicago..
In each city, we included some additional attractions to add a vacation flavor to our primarily baseball roadtrip. In addition to Chicago, which we explored extensively on our first Midwest roadtrip, we enjoyed both Minneapolis and St. Louis very much. In Minneapolis, we made a trip to the Mall of America and eat at one of its numerous restaurants and in St. Louis visited the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame and International Bowling Hall of Fame. Since the Royal’s baseball stadium is not located downtown, we had to drive toward the city to visit the NegroLeaguesBaseballMuseum. One of our highlights of our trip was in Kansas City, lunch at the Original Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque Restaurant.
Fly: NewarkAirport, Newark, NJ to Minneapolis-St.PaulInternationalAirport, Minneapolis, MN.
Light Rail Transit (LRT): 25 minute trip between airport and downtown Minneapolis. Departures every 7 to 15 minutes and operates from 6:45AM through 10:45PM.
May 15th
Light Rail Transit (LRT): 25 minute trip between downtown and airport. Departures every 7 to 15 minutes and operates from 6:45AM through 10:45PM.
Fly: Minneapolis-St.PaulInternationalAirport, Minneapolis, MNto Chicago O'Hare InternationalAirport, Des Plaines, IL.
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA):Blue line light rail—45 minute trip between airport and downtown Chicago. Departures every 7-15 minutes 24hrs/day.
May 17th
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA):Blue line light rail—45 minute trip between downtown and airport. Departures every 7-15 minutes 24hrs/day.
Fly: Chicago O'Hare InternationalAirport, Des Plaines, ILto Lambert-St.LouisInternationalAirport, St. Louis, MO.
MetroLink (Metro): 30 minute light rail trip between airport and downtown St. Louis. Departures every 7-15 minutes between 5AM and Midnight.
May 19th
MetroLink (Metro): 30 min light rail trip between downtown and airport. Departures every 7-15 minutes between 5AM and Midnight.
Drive: 229 mi from airport to Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO
May 20th
Drive: 31 mi to Kansas CityInternationalAirport
Fly:Kansas City International Airport, Kansas City, MO to Chicago O'Hare InternationalAirport, Des Plaines, IL.
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA):Blue line light rail—45 minute trip between airport and downtown Chicago. Departures every 7-15 minutes 24hrs/day.
May 21st
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA):Blue line light rail—45 minute trip between downtown and airport. Departures every 7-15 minutes 24hrs/day.
Fly: Chicago O'Hare InternationalAirport, Des Plaines, IL to NewarkAirport, Newark, NJ.
Ride the “EL” (elevated trains) to the Baseball Stadiums, Chicago, ILhttp://www.transitchicago.com/travel_information/maps/htsystemmap.aspx o Wrigley Field: click on and view North Side map o The Loop: click on and view Downtown map o US Cellular Field: click on and view Central/South Side map
Attend two games at Wrigley Field in Chicago and Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Wrigley is one of the most interesting baseball environments you will every experience. Also, St. Louis is a very interesting city and the baseball atmosphere experienced attending a game played at Busch Stadium is enjoyable.
Check the schedules of the Cubs and White Sox to identify dates that will permit you to attend games of both teams at their home stadiums.
Stay at least two nights in both Chicago and St. Louis.
The Minnesota Twins will have a new stadium Target Field for the 2010 season. We saw two Twins games because we did not anticipate ever returning. But, stayed one night; instead of two. That is our recommendation.
If possible, do not have a car while staying in Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. There will be little use for the car and additional charges for parking at a downtown hotel. Public transportation is available for traveling between the airport and downtown.
In Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Louis stay downtown at a hotel that is conveniently located to public transportation. In Chicago there are stops on the EL for both Wrigley Field and the U. S. Cellular Field. While in St. Louis, we found an excellent, moderately priced hotel that allowed us to walk to the games. Finally, the Twins new stadium is on the LRT route.
Some Changes since 2006:
Hubert Humphrey Metrodome closed at the end of the 2009 season and the Twins new stadium, Target Field, opens for the 2010 season.
International Bowling Hall of Fame of St. Louis relocated to Texas.
The St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame is temporarily closed for a move to a new location. Check to confirm that it has reopened.
Some Suggested Alternatives:
Fly into Chicago, IL instead of Minneapolis, MN and use Chicago as the hub for all travel. By picking the correct arrival and departure dates, it may be possible to see both the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, one upon arrival and the other just befoe departure.
Drive the Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City-Chicago Loop: o Wrigley Field, Chicago to Busch Stadium, St. Louis via Springfield, IL: 302 miles, 5 hr 10 min. o Busch Stadium, St. Louis to Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City:243 miles, 3hr 50 mino Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO to Wrigley Field, Chicago via Des Moines, IA: 535 miles, 8hr 30 min.
Breakup up the long drive to St. Louis by adding an extra day with an overnight stay near Peoria, IL, where you can attend a Peoria Chiefs game. The Peoria Chiefs are the single A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs in the Midwest League. This stop will partition the 302 mile ride from Chicago to St. Louis into two approx. 170 mi drives. Chicago to Peoria is 171 miles and 3hr, while Peoria to St. Louis is 171 miles and 2hr 50 min.Peoria is approx 33 miles off of the direct route between Chicago and St. Louis. The MapQuest address of O'Brien Field, where the Chiefs play, is 730 SW Jefferson St, Peoria, IL.
Break up the long return trip from Kansas City to Chicago by adding two extra stops in towns with minor league teams. The first stop could be in Des Moines, IA where the Iowa Cubs play at PrincipalPark. Des Moines is right on the route suggested by MapQuest to drive from KC back to Chicago and is a 196 mi, 3hr 5 min ride from KC. The Iowa Cubs are the AAA team of the Chicago Cubs and play in the Pacific Coast League. The MapQuest address for PrincipalPark is One Line Drive, Des Moines, IA50309. A second stop can be made in Davenport, IA where the Quad Cities River Bandits play their games at ModernWoodmenPark.The River Bandits are the single A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals in the Midwest League. This stop is also directly on the route outlined by MapQuest for traveling from KC to Chicago. The ride from Des Moines to the stadium in Davenport is approx. 174 mi and takes about 2 hr 40 min. The return trip from Davenport to Chicago is completed with an approx.178 mi, 3hr 10 min drive. The MapQuest address for ModernWoodmenPark is 209 S. Gaines St.Davenport, IA52802.
Alternate choices instead of the Davenport, IA stop on the return route from KC to Chicago. Both of the following options are near Davenport, IA and a short distance off the direct route. o Clinton LumberKings, Clinton, IA, Alliant Energy Field, Single A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners in the Midwest League. o Cedar Rapid Kernels, Cedar Rapids, IA, Veterans Memorial Stadium, Single A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the Midwest League.
Roadtrip Planning Resources:
The following are the web resources used for planning a “Western Loop of the Midwest" MLB roadtrip.
Click on “Team Sites” and then click on the appropriate AL or NL home team, for instance, “Chi Cubs” for Chicago Cubs to get to a specific team’s website.
On the specific teams website click on “Schedule” and view the “Regular Season” schedule.
After graduating from New York University with a Master of Science Electrical Engineering Degree in the early 70’s, I embarked on overlapping career paths that lead me through a 25+ year career in the semiconductor/electronics industry and a 15+ year career as an educator of Electrical Engineering and Electronic Technology students.
Early on in my teaching career, I identified that my strength was in the area of course development and design. With this in mind, I created a number of unique courses on the topics of logic design and microprocessor technology in the late 1970s. At that moment in time, these areas of electronic technology were leading the way in changing the world of computing and computers. Eventually, I used these course materials as the basis for writing books on these subjects. In this way, I established a third parallel career (30+ years) as an author. Since the late 70’s, I have authored more than 25 text and reference books (including editions) for the field of Electrical Engineering. Today, I am semi-retired and teaching Electrical Engineering courses based on my textbook.
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