Opening Day: Dash Roots for the Home Team

The day Dash and I graduated as an official team, I had the opportunity to meet and eat lunch with his puppy raisers, Jim and Sandy. Sandy made me a beautiful "baby" book, and we looked through it together as they described Dash's puppyhood. One of my favorite pictures in the book is of Dash at a minor league game, getting some face time with the mascot.  I immediately envisioned Dash lunging up to catch a home run ball at Progressive Field!

He's more of an observer than a "lunger"!

Sure enough, Dash has joined me at a number of games over the past two years. But after this past winter of wickedly cold weather, I had no intention of bundling up for the Indians Home Opener. It's funny how just one day of sunshine and warmth can change one's mind and attitude, though. So, high on Tuesday's sunshine, I jumped online and got tickets for my mom and I. Somehow I allowed myself to only see that Friday called for temperatures in the 60s, and not the part about there being an 80% chance of rain!

Still hopeful (and in denial!), we gathered our things on Friday and headed off on our adventure. Thank's to last year's day in Cleveland with our Northern Ohio Volunteer Group for Canine Companions, I knew I would have no problem riding the RTA downtown with Dash. What a great way to avoid the traffic and expenses of parking downtown on game day!

After an unexpected setback due to an out-of-order elevator at Tower City (I'll just pretend that's all I have to say on that matter! Grrrr...), we made it to our seats around 3:45. We were slightly disappointed about being tardy to the party (game time was 3:05), but quickly realized nothing had happened yet. This was surprising as the sun was shining and after hiking from Tower City, Dash and my mom was actually pretty toasty!

A long-sleeved shirt was plenty!

We were informed that the reason for the delay was, as every Clevelander would expect, a fierce storm was coming through the area, bringing cool temperatures in its wake. Sure enough we looked up to see a dark bank of clouds rolling in. Although our seats were technically under cover, the wind in our faces made it clear that we were not in the splash-free zone! We, along with basically everyone else in the stadium, sought cover and protection from the wind.  Within moments we went from feeling overheated to bundling up in every item we had (thankfully) brought with us!

There comes a point that one doesn't care how foolish she looks, so long as she is warm! Clearly, Dash has a bit more dignity that I do!

After about an hour, the storm had passed and we returned to our soggy seats to finally see the Opening Day ceremony.  It was great to welcome the team home and, as always, I teared up during the National Anthem.  And then the moment we'd all been waiting for ... PLAY BALL!

Unfortunately, by this time I was chilled to the bone! After the first two hitters I relented and called it quits, knowing we still had to trek outside (stupid broken elevator!) to Tower City. We were home in plenty of time to watch the Tribe bring home a W, 7-2! 

It will be a Home Opener to remember, but we are really hoping for more memories like this one from last year:

We were made for sunshine!