[RTK]

Just got back from Cooperstown. What a great road trip. Drove from the northern Chicago Burbs through Cleveland, met Carlos Baerga while walking around Progressive Field. Spent a few hours at the Rock HoF...pretty cool too. Then to Niagra Falls near Buffalo, toured The Frank Lloyd Wright Darwin Martin House....awesome!

Being it's still the off season, hotels were easy and relatively cheap ( Holiday Inn Express). Stopped at Brewery Ommegang...a must for beer folks.

It was incredible being able to park anywhere we wanted in town...parked in the Double Day Field lot. We spent three days in town toured the Hall two days. I think two is a must, the hours are shorter this time of year, so we arrived at the Hall's opening. The third day I just popped into the gift shop and hit the stores in town. They had shorter hours too. Yaztremski's seemed to be the only one with any amount of pre war cards. I really wasn't card shopping or spending time comparing prices between stores. Frankly, I'm just not that knowledgeable to know what are good deals. I did find a store with a good selection of books and bought several. The HoF is wonderful, the workers are very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. The original portion of the building was shown to us and the steps from the first induction. The hall itself seemed smaller than I expected knowing they have so much many more artifacts in storage is kind of a bummer. I'd like to see it all. Early April is a couple months before the busy season starts. We had the place almost to ourselves but what fans we saw, fans of many teams, put a smile on my face,especially the Kids in jerseys. My wife, an emerging Cubs fan,enjoyed our days too. She read almost as much as I did at the displays. It snowing was the only bummer. I'd really enjoy going back, driving around the area more and hitting some of the vineyards. Induction weekend would be great but a totally different type of experiance I think.

I did mention they need some of Graig Kreindler's work in the small art room. I wish I could buy a few and donate them.