How to Survive the World Cup of Softball

Wednesday, July 11, my fifteen-year-old daughter, Becca, and I drove the 480 miles with pop-up camper in tow and our drive down went great. When we got there, that's a whole other story.

It began six months ago, in January, when my daughter, Becca, who is in her own right a rather talented athlete and an avid sports fan, came to me telling me the only thing she wanted for her birthday in July was a trip to Oklahoma City to see Team USA play in the World Cup of Softball. Being a reasonable mother, I told her I'd take that information under advisement and look into it.

After investigating ticket prices (not wholly unreasonable...reserved seating for all sessions ran $60.00, general admission for all sessions was $30.00) and the other expenses involved, I told her sometime in February we'd go ahead and make the trip.

Now, my husband and I own a "vintage" 1978 Starcraft Starliner 8 pop-up camper, which is to say that this spring, it was a real "fixer-upper". My husband, Todd, the saint that he is, spent all his spare time refurbishing wiring, plumbing and reinforcing the roof. My job was to take a completely mildewed-through roadside canvas panel and find a replacement. I ended up making my own. I couldn't find a company that would replace just one panel of canvas without ordering all five panels to the tune of around $900.00. So, I purchased $50.00 of indoor/outdoor canvas from JoAnn Fabrics, made my own pattern and in a matter of hours had a new panel that didn't quite match the color of the rest of the canvas, but added to that "vintage" (read "piece of crap") flavor!

All this work, all this time, energy and effort directed at saving a couple of dollars because I thought my daughter and I would spend three to four times as much on hotels as we would at a campground...and we'd be using the camper again, right? This was a time, energy and effort investment. Riiiiight.

While we were in town, the Remington Inn, a mere 1 mile from the ASA Softball Hall of Fame and Museum and Softball Complex, was running a $34.99 per night special. The Guest House Inn, mere minutes from the fields, rented at $44 per night. And the Executive Inn, three miles from the complex? $36.00 per night.

Now, let me remind you, this was a (what I thought) thoroughly researched trip. I made reservations months in advance to stay at Arcadia Lake, but with all the rain Oklahoma has had this season, the lake is 13 feet higher than normal, thus all the campsites are flooded. So, I got on the Internet the week before our trip, called several RV parks in the Oklahoma City area, none of whom were taking reservations. Everyone I talked to said, "Come on down! We have plenty of open sites!" This, apparently, is Oklahoma City code for "nobody in their right mind wants to stay here!"

When the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors' Bureau lists a campground or RV park in it's advertisements, it assumes you understand the code these advertisements are written in. "Stay one week, receive deep discount" means "this is where you stay when you're evicted from your apartment". "Low monthly rates" means "this is where you park your 1954 Airliner and call it home". Briscoe's RV and Fun Park, although conveniently located near the Softball Hall of Fame and Museum, is also located about a half-mile south of a strip club and in the heart of a demilitarized zone. One can only guess the kind of fun one can have at Briscoe's. This RV park was the most neglected, run-down establishment with the saddest pool I daresay I've come across in my 38 years of existence. However, being located directly behind a gas station/convenience store did give it a certain character I'd never seen in an RV park either. Not a place to sleep in a pop-up with my fifteen-year-old daughter.

Six miles down the road, there's Rockwell RV Park. Their advertisement should've been a clue. "Instant telephone sites are available for an additional $24.00." In other words, "you can come and live here too!" And people do. As my daughter and I drove through the campground, we saw fifth wheel trailers with porches added on, not a pick-up in site and an elderly woman in a housecoat on her porch watching an 8-inch black-and-white TV that was sitting on her porch railing. By the way, this RV park is located directly south of a rent-by-the-hour hotel, conveniently located across the street from a traditional trailer park. Apparently, this RV park is geared for those who can't afford a single-wide. Not much by way of a view, either, unless you count the crackheads and hookers. Not the kind of cultural ambiance I wanted for Becca either.

After knocking off a couple of other RV parks from our list, we came across Twin Fountains RV Park. If planning an RV trip to OKC, staying at the Twin Fountains is a MUST! The place is owned by Mr. Dow McCarty, who is just about the nicest man on the planet. When you visit their web site, the pictures you see are accurate. This is the nicest full-service RV park we've ever stayed in. Twin Fountains is located about one mile north from the entrance to the Softball Hall of Fame and Museum Complex, the Firefighter's Museum and Hall of Fame, Remington Park and Casino and the Oklahoma City Zoo. Mr. McCarty even shuttles his guests back and forth from various attractions for free and you can count on him to pick you up, no matter how late you stay out.

Although Mr. McCarty does have guests who stay on a weekly or monthly basis, the bulk of his business is vacationers, such as ourselves. He and his staff made us feel so welcome and so comfortable and, most importantly, so safe, we'll be staying at Twin Fountains the next time we visit the OKC.

By now, however, my daughter and I have turned what should've been an 8-hour trip into a 10 1/2 hour epic journey, wandering from place to place, looking for a safe place to spend the night. Thank God for Dow McCarty and Twin Fountains.

Now, back to the hotels. At Twin Fountains, Becca and I spent $28.00 per night for a full hookup site with no picnic table or outdoor grill and with a hike to the bathroom and showers. Now, Mr. McCarty has a beautiful pavilion guests can use with both gas and charcoal grills, which is great and there are firepits at every site. But half a mile down the road, Becca and I could've stayed at the Remington Inn with air conditioning (a necessity for those July days in OKC, but we'll get to that) for around $35.00 per night. We only saved $7.00 per day by camping when we could've stayed at the hotel and tailgated at the stadium.

Do I regret staying at Twin Fountain? Absolutely not. Everyone we met there was so accomodating and so wonderful to us, like I said, I'd go back.

Now, July days in Oklahoma City, especially this year with all the rain they've gotten, are especially humid. My daughter and I spend 5 days crammed into the ASA stadium with 6 or 7,000 other people, waiting to see Team USA, sitting on aluminum benches above white cement. The average temperature outside was around 93 degrees and on Sunday, the heat index reached the highest at 115 inside the stadium, the scoreboard reading a temperature of 97 degrees.

Bring sunscreen. Lots of it. The newer the better. The higher the SPF, the better. We roasted! It turns out, our sunscreen was a couple of months old and had been stored in the back of the truck at exceedingly high temperatures which lessened it's effectiveness. My daughter and I are now candy-apple red and our faces are peeling off.

The security staff will not allow you to bring your own water bottles or cups into the stadium, but one thing we found handy was bringing hand towels, dampening them in the water fountains and wrapping them around our necks. We saw more than one person leaving the stadium by ambulance due to sunstroke and we prayed not only for them, but for ourselves. Were we next?

What I learned? When tickets become available at the box office, do not buy the $30.00 All-Session Reserved Ticket. It is not reserved seating. It's general admission and if you want to see Team USA play and have decent seats, you'd better get to the stadium two hours early because people are, in a nutshell, crazy.

Rather, when tickets become available, spring for the extra $30.00 per All-Session pass and get the Grandstand Reserved Ticket. These tickets have an actual seat assigned to them, so you can arrive anytime you like, thus avoiding heat stroke and sunburn.

As a caveat, when you buy your tickets, buy them over the phone and not on the Internet. Sections six and fourteen are right behind third and first bases, respectively. Do not buy a ticket in these sections. The ESPN cameras and camera men block your views of those bases, so the people who hold those tickets are also jostling for space in General Admission. The best value, really, is the $100.00 All-Session Premium Reserved ticket where you can sit under the stadium overhang and be in the shade all day. And, chances are good you'll be sitting next to Chrystl Bustos' mom and dad. Or Natasha Watley's aunt.

Lastly, if you want autographs, show up at the stadium a day early and watch the players practice. After practice, they're more than happy to sign autographs and mingle with fans...at least this is what I got from fans around us who had been to previous World Cups and had seen Team USA before.

The first night of games, there is a general autograph session and since the first games are played on Thursday, the stadium is only about half-full. We had ample opportunity that first night to get six prized autographs in the half-hour allotted by the ASA. On Monday night after the championship game, however, there were twice as many people trying to get autographs in the same time frame. We were fortunate enough to get autographs from the three players we really wanted and all the players we met were so kind and gracious and seemed to be truly genuine people.

Now, like I said before, people are, in a nutshell, crazy. During these autograph sessions, they will trample you to get to Jenny Finch's autograph line first. If you're going to the stadium with small children, hold on tight because you WILL get separated. And bring a linebacker to walk behind you and protect the kids or to walk in front of you and clear a path. These Team USA fans will stop at NOTHING short of death or dismemberment to be first in line and they have NO qualms with cutting in front of you and having Taria Flowers sign something for them, their mom, their cousin and their six children. I even met a guy holding an "Ultimate Fan" pass that creeped me out with all the information he had on the team. He knew at which hotel they were staying, where they ate for breakfast that morning, where Jenny Finch went shopping the day before and what time and day the team is leaving for their next tournament. Even though he had already gotten eight or nine softballs and authentic jerseys and posters signed by the team at the Ultimate Fan dinner with the team, he was still standing in the autograph line to get one more.

But, if you are a true autograph hound, come to the stadium on the first day and watch as many of the games as you can. Keep an eye open during and between games because other teams watch the games too in order to prepare for their match-ups. It's very easy to have your entire program filled with complete team autographs from every national team in attendance. They have formal autograph sessions as well, but it's so much more fun to talk to them one-on-one. Remember, all these athletes are world-class softball players and most of them will be going to the Olympics next year. And most of them that we talked to were very flattered that we wanted their autographs in the first place. They were more than willing to give my daughter pointers on how to get to their level of play.

To sum up, if you want to go to one of these major events at the ASA stadium, plan ahead. Learn the code for the RV parks and read between the lines in the advertisements, no matter how reliable the source appears to be. Given the heat and humidity and the fact that if you want air conditioning, you'd better be prepared to go to the mall or to the movies (we went to Tinseltown and had a great time!). Otherwise, just get the hotel room. It's not that much more expensive and you can fire up a portable grill behind your car in the stadium parking lot.

Buy moderately priced tickets. If you want to be on TV, get third baseline seats. If you don't, get first baseline seats. ESPN's sky cam flys regularly over the third baseline seating. Ticket selection is very important and you DO NOT want General Admission if you can AT ALL help it.

Prepare for the sun and the heat. Cover up and keep cool. Bring a misting fan and a damp towel to the stadium and lots of cash. Thirty-two ounce pops were $4.00 this year. ATM's were available in the Hall of Fame and Museum and outside the stadium. Keep a cooler full of beverages in your car and don't be afraid to tailgate between games. Pack sandwiches and fruit.

If you are an autograph hound, don't make a big fuss when the bigger autograph hound cuts in front of you. Again, people are, in a nutshell, crazy. Voicing your disdain can easily start a fight at least (which we saw) and a riot at most (which, thank God, we didn't).

Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors' Bureau
http://www.okccvb.org/hotel/hotel.php
http://www.okccvb.org/special/rvparks.htm

Twin Fountains RV Park
http://www.twinfountainsrvpark.com/

USA Softball Outlet
http://www.softballoutlet.com/

Amateur Softball Association of America
http://www.asasoftball.com/complex/StadiumSeatingChart.pdf
http://www.asasoftball.com/complex/tour.asp