Big Ten Stadium #4

A long time ago, but not probably very many blog posts ago, you may remember that I'm tracking my steps on a map and I'm doing a stadium tour. I'm mainly hitting Big Ten schools and the MLB stadiums but I may hit others along the way. I'm out west on the map so posts are pretty far between each other but on a positive note, I get a couple of thousand more steps a day with the new job so maybe it'll go a little faster. Although, once again, I forgot to take my Fitbit off the charger this morning so I have to guess my steps again.

Day 277, Iowa City, IA (884.5 miles)

Well if you know your Big Ten stadiums, then you know where I'm at. I finally made it to the Iowa Hawkeyes stadium (Kinnick stadium.)

I'm already on to my next stadium as I actually got to this one yesterday and forgot to post it. The next stop is another Big Ten stadium further west. Can you guess it without looking?

While I'm definitely not getting the 1500 miles like I had wanted (Sundays still kick my ass) but I'm moving right along now. I average a couple of thousand more steps at my new job then the past, plus I work 2 out of every 3 weekends so my weekend steps are way better.

I was already up around Chicago when I started the stadium tour but this is still my 9th stadium so far.

1. Guaranteed Rate Field (Chicago White Sox - MLB)
2. Soldier Field (Chicago Bears - NFL)
3. Ryan Field (Northwestern Wildcates - B1G)
4. Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs - MLB)
5. Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers - MLB)
6. Camp Randall (Wisconsin Badgers - B1G)
7. TCF Bank Stadium (Minnesota Golden Gophers - B1G)
8. Target Field (Minnesota Twins - MLB)
9. Kinnick Stadium (Iowa Hawkeyes - B1G)

The above map is a general route. When I get to a new city, I add it and it maps the most direct route and not necessarily the actual route I had mapped myself out.

Stadium Tour continues

Day 193, Minneapolis, MN (605.35)

I haven't posted about my walking in awhile. I still don't really go walking but I do still keep track of my steps and such and still track it on a map. I'm in the process of hitting all the MLB and Big Ten stadiums but I didn't start until half way through the tracking so I have some backtracking to do. Anyways, as you can see above, I'm in Minneapolis which is home of the Minnesota Twins as well as the Minnesota Golden Gophers. I passed them both earlier this week just hadn't gotten around to posting them.

I went through the Minnesota campus first and walked past the TCF Bank Stadium. I believe it was Monday of this week. Then just a couple of miles up the road I walked by this.

It look much nicer than that domed stadium they had before. Let's check out what we've seen so far.

1. Guaranteed Rate Field (Chicago White Sox)
2. Soldier Field (Chicago Bears)
3. Ryan Field (Northwestern Wildcats)
4. Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs)
5. Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers)
6. Camp Randall (Wisconsin Badgers)
7. TCF Bank Stadium (Minnesota Golden Gophers)
8. Target Field (Minnesota Twins)

I'm heading South, mainly because there isn't crap in the North West states until you get on the coast. I'm going to head a little back to the East to hit a spot that I missed before I decided what stadiums I was going to do.

Stadium Tour #6

As I said yesterday, I got a walk in yesterday and ended up with over 3.5 miles for the day. I know it doesn't sound like a lot but it was a Sunday, usually I'm lucky to get a mile and a half on Saturday and Sunday combined.

Day 90, Madison, WI - 293.8 Miles

My stadium tour continued. I'm not hitting every stadium out there, just the ones I happen to think of at the time. Mainly MLB and Big Ten college stadiums.

1. Guaranteed Rate Field (Chicago White Sox)
2. Soldier Field (Chicago Bears)
3. Ryan Field (Northwestern University)
4. Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs)
5. Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers)

I didn't show Ryan Field so you'll just have to trust me when I say I walked past it. Today, I'm adding this to the list.

Camp Randall (University of Wisconsin)

I have an idea where I'm heading next but I'm not positive. After passing the stadium, I headed South so we'll see from there.

I made it to my 3rd ballpark

I've been walking a little more, even if I haven't been posting about it. I'm trying to stay motivated to do so but it doesn't always happen. The last couple of days it's been in the 60's and I got out and walked after work for a couple of miles. Today, it dropped to the 50's, which wasn't bad, but it was windy as hell which dropped the realfeel temperature way below that. We were supposed to get gusts over 60 mph so I decided to nix the walk.

I was a little bummed because I had over 12,000 steps the last couple of days and it's supposed to be a lot colder the rest of the week. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I've debated on being a mall walker on the cold days but none of them are all that close.

Day 63, Milwaukee, WI (204.1 Miles)

I made it past my 3rd ballpark yesterday. Miller Park in Milwaukee. I'll be heading to the next one tomorrow.

An aeriel view of the ballpark. It's supposed to be a very nice ballpark and I would love to actually see a game there at some time. This would have been my view though.

North Side

38 Days. Chicago, IL (118.9 miles)

I'm still in Chicago but I'm on my way out. Of course, as huge as it is, I'm not sure how long that will take. I went by one attraction today.

Even though I am a White Sox, I've been to plenty of Cubs games as a kid. My grandparents lived outside Chicago and would take us to games. I was going to walk by their old place but I had no idea how to get there. I know we used to ride out bikes into town so I looked over the area to see if anything was familiar and nothing was. I kind of vaguely remember them telling me the church was no longer there and that's mainly what I was looking for.

Over a mile, on a Saturday?

Spent a lot of time on the laptop working on my cards today so don't expect a post tomorrow, or at least one bragging about my steps. However, yesterday I did a little walking.

Day 35, Chicago, IL (109.8)

I didn't walk a lot compared to my work days but I did considering it was a Saturday. I tacked on almost 1.2 miles which just basically moved me up Lake Shore Drive a little further. I did pass a few things though.

Soldier Field where the Chicago Bears play. 

The Field Museum. I also passed the Shed Aquarium but it was to far away from the road I was on to get a decent shot. I did end up a little closer to the city though.

Day 34, Comiskey Park

My usual Saturday consists of sitting on my ass all day, usually getting myself less than 1,000 steps for the day. To be honest, there are some weekends that I don't get 1,000 steps combined. Today, however, was a little different. I did do my best to stay on my ass throughout the morning but we ended up leaving the house after 3 pm and ran down to Walmart to pick up a few things, pop tarts, make-up, dog stuff. Just a few things, but it did get me out of the house for awhile. After that we went over to my mom's for her Birthday party, we also celebrated my niece's and stepfathers. We hung out there for awhile, had some supper then cake and ice cream and then we had to leave because my daughter had her first high school dance this evening and she had to get home and get ready.

My little girl is growing up. She didn't have a date, she was going with a few of her friends and they were all going to hang out together. It was very odd to see her in a form fitting dress, really, just odd seeing her in a dress. She generally wears jeans and t-shirts. A lot of those t-shirts are concert tee's like Slipknot and Disturbed or she'll wear Deadpool and Suicide Squad t-shirts (you can tell who raised her.) So seeing her in a very nice dress with a little bit of heal was way weird. She's a beautiful girl and it was nice seeing her making an effort to look nice. Of course, the dad in me is saying, NO! Stick to baggy t-shirts and jeans, I'm okay with that. My little girl is growing up and I'm not liking it. Except for the fact that I get another year closer to no kids at home. I'm not sure I like that trade off though.

After she got ready, I picked up one of her friends and drove them to the school, now I just sit and wait until they get home. It didn't start until 8 and isn't over until 11 and one of the other parents is going to drive them somewhere to get something to eat. The plan is to stay up until she gets home, it's a father's duty. Let's just see if I can manage to stay up that late. At least it's the weekend and I can sleep in.

Day 34, Chicago, IL (103.7 Miles)

As you can see above, I broke the 100 mile marker today. I originally planned on 1500 steps this year but at the average of 100 miles in a little over a month isn't going to cut it.

As I said yesterday, I was only a mile from what I wanted to go by so after plotting my 5.54 miles (11,230 steps) that I did yesterday, I went back and took photos of what I wanted to see. I'm a White Sox fan so I go to games every so often and when I do I have a routine. Here's the full map.

Ignore the name on the stadium up there to the right, I hate that name. I will always call it Comiskey. You see the big lot on the other side of the tracks and the other side of the road (35th), that's where I park. Usually fairly close to 35th street because I get there early enough to go strolling the neighborhood.

You see where the parking lot (Lot G) is from the stadium. A fairly quick walk under the underpass where the tracks are but that's not where we start. I park in Lot G and head the other way.

That's the lot at the top left of that picture and I walk down to the Grandstand at the bottom left.

The Grandstand is a sports store as in lots of shirts, jerseys, memorabilia, ect. and since it's only a couple of blocks from the Sox stadium so they have a ton of White Sox stuff. Since it's not the stadium, their stuff is cheaper because they overprice everything at the stadium. 

After I do a little shopping, I keep heading west down to Morrie O'Malley's there at the bottom right.

It doesn't look like much, there isn't but a couple of seats inside but they have great hot dogs or better yet, Chicago dogs and I said earlier, a lot cheaper than the stadium. I pig out so I don't have to spend much, if anything at the stadium. After eating, I head back to the car and drop off my shopping from the Grandstand and then head to the game.

I'm definitely enjoying using Google Maps, this was fun.

Since I actually walked over 5 1/2 miles yesterday, I walked all the way down to the hot dog place hung a right went down a couple of blocks and walked all the way back to Lake Shore Drive and I headed North towards downtown. I'm still a little ways from downtown but I can see it.

I headed back to Lake Shore because there are all kinds of stuff to see on the way into town. Of course, I doubt you'll see it this weekend since I'm lazy, but maybe next week.