I made the trip down to Peachtree City last weekend — on two and one-half hours of sleep, mind you — to watch my daughter play softball.
On a side note, we didn’t get home from Macon until 2 a.m. and I didn’t fall asleep until 2:30.
Anyway, it was supposed to be an off weekend for travel sports, but she was asked to play for a team other than her home team. If you're not familiar with this practice, it happens often in travel softball.
So, as the best dad in the universe, I get my unhappy, tired, sleepy butt out of bed and head an hour and one-half south to the home of the National Weather Service for an all-day travel softball tournament.
As I was writing this blog, sitting on top of a picnic table underneath a pavilion, I observed several parents gliding by tugging those outdoor collapsable sports wagons, filled with chairs, coolers, snacks, blankets, toys for the little ones, tents... basically whatever you can load into the little collapsible wagons. We also have one of these outdoor collapsable sports wagons. I will say, they come in handy. They're also good when you need to carry a stuffed, heavy cooler and chairs to the beach.
In my observance of these outdoor collapsable sports wagons, I began to wonder exactly how many different types of these handy little wagons are made.
I saw some with big wheels — those would work well at the beach. One guy had a bulky metal one with rubber tires – It was the Big Foot of all-terrain wagons. There are wagons with the hard plastic wheels with the hard rubber-like treads — like the one we have. Those are OK on a smooth surface, but not much on gravel, bumpy surfaces. I saw blue, red, yellow, lime green, green, purple and black wagons.
If you haven’t been to a travel softball tournament lately, you should go just to people watch. You'll notice the many different ways moms pack the snack bags or Rubbermaid storage containers. You'll see a player eating a snack you've never seen before. You'll see all types of hitting nets, softball tees, gloves, bats, cleats and, my all-time favorite, portable speakers, which brings me to my next musing.
It started many years ago, the dreaded player walk-up songs and a portable, Bluetooth speaker was needed to blast these songs across the field. The walk-up songs are slowly going away, but a few teams still use the portable tailgate speakers.
What happened next, however, was like the moment you find Waldo. I found the speaker of all portable speakers on the ground in front of me. My brain immediately started repeating, I needed that speaker, I had to have that speaker, I wanted that speaker. This portable Bluetooth speaker on wheels had a million different settings and it was loud – with a bump. So, I search Amazon frantically and, boom, sticker shock slapped me in the face. It was almost $300.The letdown was real and the price tag quickly squashed my drooling love of this speaker.
Through all of my musings on this day, it was overwhelming to think about the money parents spend on their kids, myself included. It's also crazy to see how much extra stuff it takes to spend the day at a ballpark. However, anything that makes my life easier from the parking lot to the field, I'm all about. But, some folks go way overboard – not me.
