Carrie-Anne and I put the finishing touches on our summer vacation with a long weekend in the Bayou City. Of course, nobody plans a trip to Houston in July, but C-A had her one-year check up scheduled at M.D. Anderson. Yes, it’s been a full year since Carrie-Anne completed her last chemotherapy treatment and was pronounced cancer-free by our surgeons and doctors in Houston. The appointment was already on the books and, as our great fortune would have it, the Rangers were also in Houston at the same time to play the Astros at Minute Maid Park. So, our one-day trip turned into a four-day trip so we could take in a pair of games in one of baseball’s best rivalries.
Upon our arrival in H-Town Thursday evening we encountered a significant hurricane-related issue: our hotel was without power and totally shut down. Five days after Beryl, and there were still almost a million people without electricity, including at our Hampton Inn. There was no one there to help us, no one to talk to about our reservations and next steps, no one answering any phones–just two handwritten signs on the doors that said “NO POWER.” We learned over the next three hours that lots of hotels in the Houston area were down and the ones that were operational were all full with Houston residents looking for some relief and utility workers who had streamed into town to help restore the power. We got on two waiting lists and finally secured a room for Thursday evening at one place and for the next two nights at another.
Praise our God, C-A’s appointments were great. All clear again! If nothing happens of concern–it shouldn’t–we’ll do two more of these over the next two years and be totally done with all of it. Thank our Lord! Her surgeons and oncologists have been so wonderful to us, a true source of encouragement and confidence through this whole thing. We are grateful to God that we got hooked into M.D. Anderson the way we did. We praise him for C-A’s healing and recovery and good health. And we continue to pray faithfully for all those who are dealing with this horrible disease.
Before and after the baseball games, we did some sight-seeing around downtown Houston, mainly around the convention center and the shopping district on Main Street. We took in some of the funky art around the Chase Tower, ate at the downtown Pappasito’s (of course!), and found Biggio’s, a perfectly spread-out two-story sports bar that bears the name of the legendary Houston Hall of Famer.
As for the baseball games, we scored some wonderful seats about 30 rows up from the third base on deck circle and experienced a blowout win by the ‘Stros and a dramatic extra-innings win by the Rangers. We saw the Rangers’ season-long offensive woes up close and personal–nobody on this team outside of Semien and Seager are doing anything. Whereas the booing seemed to motivate Adolis Garcia last year, it’s having the opposite effect now–the Rangers playoff MVP looks lost. Andrew Heaney gave up a couple of bad homeruns and Rangers-killer Jose Altuve did it to us again. We wore our rally caps dejectedly for most of Friday’s game, but then delighted on Saturday when Nathaniel Lowe won the game with a two-out RBI single in the 10th. This was right after Carrie-Anne got really worked up screaming for Mauricio Dubon to get tossed for arguing an overturned call at first base in the 9th. Big Game Nate did what he needed to do to keep the Astros in check and the bullpen was marvelous, highlighted by Yates’ 1-2-3 10th. The win was truly satisfying and led to some unexpected celebrating with several tables of other Rangers fans at Biggio’s after the game.
We listened to Sunday’s rubber match on the drive back to Midland, a Rangers win that featured another good start by Mad Max and two two-run homers by Josh Smith. Texas took the series, evened up the Silver Boot standings, and heads to the All-Star break one game back of Houston and five behind the M’s in the AL West. And maybe with some momentum. Hopefully.
Peace,
Allan
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