Minnesota and Missouri

With trips scheduled for April, May, and July, it felt natural to plug that June hole. But where to go? I picked the weekend I liked and then looked at the schedule to see who, among my remaining teams, was home. I went about it in the manner I prescribed below. I wanted to start the trip in a hub city. I'd get a non-stop from LA and one to a non-hub city the next day. The Twins were home. Minneapolis is a Delta hub and I even had miles saved up from the Delta Amex card I got last year. After cashing in 10,000 miles, I got a ticket for $40. It's 10:50 AM - 4:33 PM, late enough I don't kill myself waking up very early and it arrives over two hours before the game.

I looked at several non-hub cities for where to go next and found that there was a game in Kansas City the next afternoon. A day game has an advantage that you have flexibility for the next game afterward but the disadvantage of limiting travel choices getting there. There were only a few choices. Only one of them was non-stop and that one was by far the least expensive. And that choice is a 7 AM flight that gets to Kansas City at 8:40 AM. The only later flight that could get me in before the game was a 7:30 AM United flight with a stop. It would be 3 hours and 48 minutes instead of 1 hour and 40 minutes and it'd cost 50% more. Yuck.

Besides waking up super early, this flight also means I'll get into Kansas City super early. At 8:40 AM I can't check into a hotel or even find anything open on a Saturday morning. I'm still a few hours early for the stadium gates to open. So I have no idea what I'll do over the next 3-4 hours.

The final game I chose for Sunday is the Phillies-Cardinals game at Busch. I chose it not only because my beloved Phillies are in it, but also because I saw that American has a 6:55 PM flight I can catch to LA after the game. I don't know much about Missouri, but Kansas City and St. Louis are only 250 miles apart. In California there'd be a a lot of flight choices. I only found one airline that flies between the cities. I'm blown away by that. Fortunately, that airline is Southwest. They always have low fares. And I have a lot of flexibility on time. I could fly Saturday night or Sunday morning. Unfortunately, Southwest has no Saturday night flight between the two cities and their only Sunday morning flight arrives in St. Louis at 12:20 PM. That's cutting it close for a 1:10 game.

What are the alternatives? I checked the train and found that it took over 5 hours and didn't leave at a convenient time. The bus took a similar amount of time. Driving myself would take half the time. That made a lot of sense until I saw the price of a one way rental in Missouri. It was astronomical! So I'm not sure which way to go here. Ideas welcome.

Game 16: Friday, June 20, 2014, White Sox at Twins, Target Field
Game 17: Saturday, June 21, 2014, Mariners at Royals, Kauffman Stadium
Game 18: Sunday, June 22, 2014, Phillies at Cardinals, Busch Stadium