This week I am back on the road, an East Coast swing from Norfolk, Virginia to Philadelphia, PA. I flew into town early so I could settle into East Coast time and get set for my busy week. I had some time to kill on Sunday, so I decided to tour around Norfolk. I have to tell you there was not much to Norfolk, but it was lunch time so I pop into AJ Gators a local sports bar.
Sports bars are always a good default for me, I grew up a big sports fan, even got paid to write about sports and worked in media relations for a major university, but on this day I got a new lesson in sports and drinking.
Growing up on the West Coast NASCAR has no meaning. The closest the racing circuit got to the Bay Area is when the drivers take a detour to Sonoma, from the South. So, when a couple of boys rolled into Gators they asked what the drink specials were. The bartender rattled them off, and all of sudden I felt like she was speaking a foreign language, NASCAR.
See all the drink specials were related to the race. Green flag $2.25 on bottle domestic (of course no race fan would drink anything else) beers, Yellow Flag $1.25. All of sudden I had a little interest in the race. So the question was when would the first Yellow Flag appear?
Twenty-eight laps in the first Yellow Flag was waved and the beer price dropped. The race had a total of 10 caution flags. Had to look that fact up, I did not stay long enough to watch them all. NASCAR still does not hold much interest for me, but in Norfolk with cheap beer it was worth about 30 minutes.
Later in the evening, I had a more traditional sports evening watching AAA baseball at Harbor Park. The Norfolk Tide (Baltimore Orioles affiliate) took on the Richmond Braves (Atlanta Brave affiliate) in a good game. My seat at Harbor Park was three rows from the field for $12. What a bargain! A beer was $7, but it was more than 24oz, try that at AT&T park. The food was very good.
I had a great time at the game; the crowd went home happy with a 5-3 Tide win.
More stories from the road tomorrow.
