Why didn't we rent a Car?

Last night we survived a five hour trip to and from Baltimore to be a part of the largest collapse from the Red Sox in the past 20 years. Awesome! Here are the gory details:

We left at 4:00 for a 7 pm first pitch in Baltimore. Now DC is only 50 miles or so from Baltimore so it should take about 1.5 hours to get there. Plenty of time. Now I researched for instructions on how to make the trip a few months ago, so I was going purely off of information from the Maryland Transit Authority. It involved a subway, a bus, and a train.

We rode the subway for about 25 minutes to get to the end of the line where we'd be able to catch a bus. Everything was going well as we exited the subway and headed towards the bus stop. We got to the stop and checked the schedule: Bus at 4:40 headed to BWI (our destination). Great - what time is it? 4:43. Oh CRAP! When is the next bus? 5:20. Oh SH** (I didn't say it, but that's how I felt). We sat around for 40 minutes waiting for the bus and making friends with an attorney from Virgina named Scott (he's my new best friend).

At 5:20 we boarded the bus and rode for the next 50 minutes (we were now in rush hour). The bus leaked, the seats were wet, and trip was slow. As we arrived at our stop, we exited the bus to see our light rail train pulling away from the station. Next train in 25 minutes. At this point the start of the game went from a target to a pipe dream.

We finally pulled into the Camden Yards stadium at 7:10 and by the time we got to our seats it was 2-0 Sox. I didn't even care that I'd missed a Youkilis homerun. We had made it. It took 3 hours, but I was in my seat. The ballpark was great. The weather was nice. The Sox were ahead.


Over the next hour things couldn't get any better. Boston was pounding the ball and cruising to an easy win. It was 9-1 in the 4th inning. Then the clouds built up and the rains came. At first it was pretty light. Then it got harder, and harder. The tarps came out and the fans scrambled for cover. It was 9 pm and we needed to get back to the bus by 10:45. I knew the chances for us to watch any more of the game was gone.


We headed back to the train, then the bus, and finally the metro. It was 11:15 when we got back to DC. I decided to google the score of the game and realized that the Sox gave up 10 runs in the 7th and 8th innings. It was the greatest comeback for the Orioles and the second largest choke in Red Sox history. I can't even tell you what a fitting ending it was to a terrible night.

And we didn't want to rent a car....