I'll finish the 2014 season this weekend in Chicago, for the White Sox, and Phoenix, for the Diamondbacks. Since the season is over, the quest will come to an end for now, three stadiums short of all 30. I'll have gone to 21 stadiums this year, 20 that were new to the quest and a repeat of Dodger Stadium. You might be wondering why I'm going to fall three stadiums short of all 30. Surely, I could've found a way to fit them in. Yes, I could have. But I wanted to prolong the quest, give myself something to look forward to next season. If anything I regret that I didn't do less games this year and save more for next year. I don't regret any of the trips and don't think I overdid it. Each trip was at least three weeks apart. It's just that if I had more stadiums I'd have more to look forward to.
You might ask, so why don't you go to the stadiums again if you enjoyed it so much? The quest was about the novelty of going to the stadiums, mostly for the first time. Discovery was a lot of fun. While I did use a lot of airline miles and found other ways to save money, I still spent a lot more to go to a ballgame than most people would spend. I also did the trips with little down time. There was a lot of fly in, go to game, and fly out. I was fine with that and that was part of the appeal. I must admit though that there were a few cities I would've liked to spend more than a few hours in and aim to do that if I'm ever in them again. Don't get me wrong. I will go to some of these ballparks again. I'm just unlikely to take these weekend jaunts again.
Why not do it for the NFL? My brother suggested doing all 32 stadiums in 17 NFL weekends, Sunday and Monday. I don't know if that's possible, but it really doesn't interest me. I enjoy the NFL but I don't have any interest in going to all the stadiums. Ballparks have their unique dimensions. NFL stadiums have their sameness. The NFL is all about tailgating and camaraderie. I went to a number of baseball games on my own and always met nice people at the ballpark. I have a saying, "everybody is your friend at the ballpark." The NFL is something you share with buddies. And I have gone to Philadelphia Eagle road games in the past.
This quest has opened a freedom for me. I feel like I should've done this years ago and I don't know what held me back. So, yeah, I want to come up with another travel quest but it'll be something that appeals to me, not something for the sake of doing something.
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