Striking Out

We had plans to go to the Braves game today. We had tickets and everything. We left a little early - and followed the signs like good drivers should. Exit 248A.

We slowly followed the crowd down the tiny roads that police were directing us, bumper to bumper all the way. Only the parking lots where they were sending us down to were full. Crawling down the street, the mass of cars then continued passed the stadium, where Madison would get her only view of the game.

"BASEBALL!" she cried out.

Yes, there's the Braves game, Madison. We'll be going there soon. Want to go?

"YEAH!"

So all the cars like mine continued past the stadium, as directed by the expert helpful traffic coordinators. This was probably the worst thing we could have done.

Again, bumper to bumper, we made a right on Ormond Street, or something like that, and officers were directing us away again down a street to the point where we actually made a loop and found ourselves right where we started again. By this time, it was 9:00. We'd already missed an hour and a half of the game.

The game started at 7:30. We left at 5:45 or so, thinking we'd get there a little early.

We just never made it at all. Seriously, it was a little after 9:00 that we had given up hope of finding a parking spot at all. The officers seemed to be deliberately leading us into places where everyone would be stuck. No one was helpful at all.

It's hard to shake this one. We were so excited about a family night at a Braves game, meeting up with our friends from church and spending some time with Madison singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." I had images of Daddy rubbing Madison's hair, or getting her a jersey and a big hot dog. I thought she'd have fun playing with her friends from church there.

Instead, we made the long drive home, completely frustrated that there wasn't even any place to park.

Amazingly, Disney has a similar amount of people attending their events, every day. Just like Turner Field. But Disney manages the traffic just fine. You may find yourselves walking a bit, but at least there is some semblance of order, and safety.

Tonight, however, there was chaos. It was as if they weren't expecting people to show up, and we surprised them. I can't count the amount of other cars that were endlessly trapped in a slow motion carousel of complete and utter frustration. You'd think that with the ticket prices as they were, someone would have figured out a way to deal with this sort of thing by now.

Apparently not.