Third in the Line Up: Our Visit to Chase Field

On Friday morning, before our visit to Chase Field, we hitched up the trailer and drove to Chandler, Arizona to We Are Airstream. We were so grateful to the dealer for making space for us on relatively short notice! While we went to the local Starbucks for some coffee and breakfast, they rehung the vanity cabinet that had fallen off the wall on our drive south in California. They also diagnosed the refrigerator issue. As expected, it wasn’t working properly. They said the fan had failed and needed to be replaced. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the part, and we didn’t have this information until late on Friday afternoon.

We picked up the Airstream just in time to get back to White Tank Mountain Family Campground, get ourselves hooked up to electric and gas, turn on the air conditioner, and head back into Phoenix for the game.

The Game: A Win for Our Hometown Heroes!

It was thrilling to see our hometown heroes win against the Diamondbacks in our third stadium visit! Despite the rather annoying fans in front of us, who continually heckled Dylan Moore (#25), the Mariner’s left fielder, we enjoyed the game. Especially since the Mariners won 5 to 2.

We were surprised to see the number of Mariners fans at Chase Field. I would estimate that a good 25% of the jerseys we saw proudly advertised a Seattle connection. While we sat on the Diamondbacks side of the stadium, we had a good view of the mass of Mariners fans on the first base side.

Heather Catches a Ball

Because we had some time, we headed out to the outfield to watch batting practice before the game. Ryan went over to watch the pitchers warming up in the bullpen, while Brad wandered over to see the swimming pool suite. Yes, a swimming pool. And for a mere $6,000, you and your friends can hang out and watch the game while floating on the top of an innertube.

But I digress. I had just finished texting Emma to tell her about the stadium. When I looked up, one of the Mariners was at bat and I was musing about how great it would be to catch a ball. As the thought was crossing my mind, he smacked one toward us. I watched it come up and toward me, hitting off the glove tip of the man two rows in front of me, then bouncing off the glove of another fan, before coming to a stop at my feet!

Thank Goodness for Air Conditioned Stadiums

With external temperatures well over 100 degrees, we were thrilled that Chase Field is air conditioned! We arrived just before the doors opened and walked around the stadium to explore. The Diamondbacks have a nice Hall of Fame on the outfield side of the ballpark. While wandering around we were approached by someone who noticed our jerseys. It turned out to be Kenneth Lee, one of the administrators of the Ballpark Chasers group on Facebook. Since they were a great source of information in my research, we were delighted to meet one of the faces behind the group!

Our Impressions of Chase Field

Our Seats: We were at field level again for this game, in Section 133, Row 2, seats 5 through 7. While we were close to the action, the seats were not well configured for the game. We were constantly looking over to the right to see what was going on. This also meant that I had to lean back to make sure Ryan had a good shot with his longer lens without leaning out in front of Brad to be able to see. We definitely wouldn’t choose those seats again.

The Food: Brad and Ryan enjoyed the foot-long, bacon-wrapped “Sonoran Dog,” topped with chili. They said was the best hot dog yet! (Available at Taste of Chase, Section 130.) I had a Hungry Hill Italian Beef Sandwich from Hungry Hill Sangwich (Sections 112, 134, and 316), with freshly roasted meat in a tender bun with sauteed onions and peppers and a drizzle of au jus sauce. It was amazing! We wrapped up with dessert, the iconic Churro Dog. In this messy concoction, a churro is stuffed inside a donut, topped with ice cream, whip cream, and chocolate sauce. We asked for and needed spoons! (Available in the Sweet Treats, Section 123, and at Taste of Chase, Section 130.)

The Taste of Chase offered a 25% discount if you used a Chase credit card, which I did. I was telling Brad about this deal, and the person in front of us turned around in surprise. He said that this is a better deal than the 20% discount offered to season ticket holders!

Non-Alcoholic Beer Review: The only option at the ballpark was the Coors Edge, which was refreshing in the heat. Unfortunately, the only place that sells it is DoubleHeaders. However, at least this park has several Doubleheaders locations! The price was also more closely in line with what we paid in San Diego.

No Home Runs for Housing

Unfortunately, we didn’t generate any new funds for the Employee Stability Program at Wellspring Family Services. Thankfully, several donors have made fixed amount pledges! Thank you to everyone who has already pledged in support of our fundraising goal. If you haven’t, it isn’t too late! You can make a donation on our Home Runs for Housing page.

After the Game

We left Chase Stadium thrilled with the Mariners win, but disappointed not to add any home runs to our tally. We were tired from the heat and ready for bed, so when we opened the door and found the trailer was almost as hot as the temperature outside, we were alarmed.

Brad climbed back on the roof to check on the air conditioner, as he had the night before. This time, he was less optimistic when he came back down. The inside of the housing was covered in a clear, oily substance, which we are guessing was freon. This is not good news.

At 106 degrees, the temperatures were too high to get any sleep. It was now around 1:00 a.m., and we sat down to discuss our options. We could try to stay here overnight using just the fans, but that seemed like a poor choice. We could try to find a hotel to check into at 2 in the morning, but we knew we needed to leave early to head toward Houston. Ideally, we now wanted to get there early enough to get to yet another Airstream dealer on Monday. The third option was to set out on the way now and stop somewhere en route to purchase an air conditioner. That seemed like the best choice, so we unhooked the water and electric, secured everything inside, hooked up the trailer, and left camp at 1:45 a.m.

Up Next: Travelling from Phoenix to Houston

Join me on tomorrow’s post to hear about the trip from Phoenix to Houston, through New Mexico. We’ll travel over 1,200 miles in two days, towing our Airstream with a non-functional air conditioner and equally non-functional refrigerator. Sigh.