Now that I was finished with "The Gateway to Modesto", it was time to move on to Modesto. First stop was Delano, CA to do laundry and see the Verizon guy speak Spanish on a poster. Then off to Fresno, CA for lunch and a drive-through, learned that the town has one of the largest Armenian populations outside Armenia, really loves their William Saroyan and is the largest city in the U.S. without an interstate highway in its borders.

The first thing you learn about the Modesto Nuts is that their game program has the Sports Illustrated curse beat hands down. The "honored" Modesto Nut was Seth Smith, the one time backup of Eli Manning at Mississippi, who had the most bi-polar game in California League history. In the first inning and playing rightfield, he nailed a runner going from first to third on a single. In the second inning, he lost a ball in the lights (giving the scarecrow-like "I lost it" arm cue), which turned into a double. In the third inning, he lost another ball in the lights (another "I lost it" cue), but that was a home run over the wall. In the fourth inning, he got another outfield assist when he threw out a runner trying to score from first on a double. In the seventh, he dropped a fly ball (which ended up being the eighth run in an 8-7 loss), but led off the ninth with a double with a rally that fell just short.

Ballpark wise, I have a thing against all metal seating. Not because it can be tough to sit on when it's hot or cold. Not because it looks sterile. Rather, it's because people like to bang on it to make noise, which can really be annoying when it's $1 beer night. I absolutely shocked the drink station when I wanted bottled water in the 6th, apparently, I was the first to buy one all night long.

In what seems to be a common thing in California, there was wireless Internet at my hotel. However, when signing in, my overly-perky clerk said that the wirless was weak in my area of the hotel, and gave me a cable modem to use. Remember the good old days when you got into your hotel room and just collapsed on the bed? Now, you go to your hotel room, take out the laptop, find the cable splitter and put it through the modem while you hook the modem into the computer. When I was leaving, I needed to get money. I found a credit union. A credit union that didn't have an ATM.