Follow Me to Wrigley Field – A Day of Fun, Airports, Trains, Buses, and Cubs Baseball

Today is a special day. It’s the first day the Cubs can clinch the National League Central title. Oh, and I’m Jon Strong, the lead writer, editor and founder of Cubs Kingdom. I don’t spend much time talking about myself here but today I thought it would be fun to share my adventure to Wrigley Field for what I hope to be the Cubs division-clinching game, and for what will certainly be a party in Wrigleyville once they do clinch.

So, here goes.

In advance of this week, and in anticipation of the Cubs clinching this week, I actually bought a single ticket to every game of the week. Yes, I had tickets to all three Cardinals games and I also have a ticket to each of the next three games against the Brewers. I got the tickets a couple weeks ago when, doing the math, it seemed perfectly reasonable that the Cubs would clinch at some point this week.

I live in Phoenix, Arizona. I’ve flown to Chicago several times this year for games and other Cubs related events, like the Cubs/Sox Charity softball game last weekend. I’ve even gone to a few other cities to watch the Cubs play this year – Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and, of course, Phoenix. I’ve been fortunate to be there for a lot of games. Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of my incredible wife – hi, honey – who takes care of our two boys, ages 4 1/2 and 3, while I’m away. Oh, and let’s not forget about the flight benefits I use to go see these games; my wife works for an airline.

Right now I’m typing away at my computer in Phoenix and I’m getting ready to head upstairs, grab my backpack, my camera and call an ‘uber’ to bring me to the airport. My flight leaves at 10:30 am and gets in around 4 pm. A little closer than I’d prefer to game time but all the flights were packed so last night, in a moment of desperation, I booked a flight using my airline miles instead of risking it flying standby.

I usually start my mornings by waking up early – Phoenix is two hours behind Chicago, for now, until clocks move forward and then we’ll be only one hour behind – and grab a cup of coffee before settling in at my computer. Today, I did just that. I heard the pitter-patter of my youngest son’s little feet on the floor above me. He was up early. Moments later I heard a bunch of coyotes howling. Fortunately, the two events were unrelated.

We live in the desert and our home is next to South Mountain preserve. That means there’s wildlife very near. I ran upstairs to grab my son so he could see the coyotes. We went outside and looked around but there was nothing there. Hmm. As we stood looking around suddenly a pack of coyotes came out of the bushes (we were far enough away and on a second floor balcony so not anywhere near any possible trouble).

I pointed them out to my son, who is three and loves coyotes. All of a sudden, they started to run around, almost in circles, like they were chasing each other. I’d never seen that before. And then, out of nowhere, I saw a rabbit jump high into the air. A coyote lunged quickly and in mid-air grabbed the rabbit. It was a scene out of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, I swear. The coyote ran away with the rabbit and the entire pack went crazy. I’ll leave out the gory details but you get the picture. Needless to say, my son thought it was awesome. Heck, it was awesome.

So that is how my day started. A little crazy, huh?

The Wife has taken the kids to school and I’m finishing this post up. I’m off to the airport soon and will be back here to update you all more on my adventure to Wrigley Field today as it unfolds. I’m hoping it’s not too crazy. Be sure to check back because I’d love to have you along as I head to see the Cubs one more time. This time, I’m hoping, will be for the National League Central title.