Take Me Out To The Ball Game?

Some how over this last trip in 2017 I have become a ball cap collector. I am not sure how. Back a few years ago we got 2 or 3 ball caps from Cabela's on sale as they were comfy and made good sun shades when I didn't want to switch to sunglasses. When we first got Timmber Wolf, we needed to figure out how to communicate and I blogged about that first in Can you hear me now? and then in I can hear you! about our final solution.

It took some trial and error and fussing around but we finally came up with attaching the unit, earpieces and microphones to a black ball cap with a wolf patch on the front that we had gotten with the name Timmber Wolf.

Had I but known where THAT was gonna lead ... anyway, our first trip in 2016 I picked up a number of souvenirs as we traveled, mostly stuffed animals. I think that entire trip I only got three hats, a black US Marine Corps cap at the USMC Museum in Virginia, a burnt orange one in Monument Valley, and a burgundy one in Grand Encampment, Wyoming, shortly before the windshield disaster of which more is said in What did I say about adventures?

Two or three more hats appeared either before or after that trip. For Super Bowl 50 in 2016, I had to get myself a Broncos hat so I could wear it at work like any self respecting fan.

One was a Subaru hat that came with my 2016 Outback before we were traveling, in fact before we even had Timmber Wolf.

Earlier in 2017, my sister Dory had been down for a visit and of course I toured her around through the St Augustine area. We managed to run into a good bit of rainy weather that day so I picked up a hat at the St Augustine pier.

At some point in my wanderings around I saw someone with a dark olive hat that had an oval patch on the front that had SURVIVOR emblazoned across it. On the top of the oval it read Shit Creek and along the bottom of the oval it said Canoe Club. Knowing the feeling very well of being up Shit Creek without a paddle (thus in a canoe) I had to find one which I eventually located online.

At about this point I realized that I had inadvertently and unknowingly become a cap collector! So, when we made our trip in 2017, my principle souvenir became caps. The first to join the collection was a lovely beige USMC hat bought at the Pacific War Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas. This was followed soon after by another beige cap, this from the Pima Air & Space Museum with their logo on the front.

Next came the burnt orange cap from the Sonora Desert Museum and then a lovely soft blue color from the Verde Canyon Railroad. A cap I really love from a wonderful day! After this I got the rattlesnake cap that says Tuzigoot on the back and the black Ft Verde cap. This was followed by the pink cap from the Pink Jeep tour. Heavens, three caps from the Verde Valley area!

After we left the Verde Valley area, we stopped at the Petrified Forest where I found a nice brown cap and down the road a ways I got a dark grey New Mexico cap with a Rte 66 pin attached to it. Of course I got it right on old Rte 66! The last cap on the trip was a yellow one at Ft Smith National Historic Site.

You would think the caps would quit piling up now that we were home again but first I had to get an H&R Block cap because, of course, I work there during tax season anyway. More about that in a later blog. I was now running into a problem as to where to put them. As much as I enjoyed choosing different hats to wear with different clothes and occasions, digging around in a shopping bag was getting difficult with so many.

We don't have much wall or shelf space in our house so finally I got a bunch of stick-on hooks and put them on the door into my computer room. The hooks plus doorknob hold 19 caps and doubling up helps but again I need more ... who knows where though!

Since our return I have also gotten a navy blue Family Tree Maker cap when I ordered the software update.

Then, as I was coming out of the local Publix supermarket, there was some veterans group raising money by you guessed it, selling caps. I got myself a great red USMC cap with a beautiful eagle on the back and an equally nice Army cap for Geoffrey that he has up on the wall in his computer room. I also got us both caps from Scott-E-Vest that has 2 small hidden pockets for a key or cash or other small items.

Then, the other day, I went into a local Walgreens for something or other and there at a huge sale price were these very nice St Augustine ball caps so I had to get two, one with dolphins in blue and the other in a soft light burgundy with palm trees.

I've also had to order some new Timmber Wolf caps for us as the old ones with the communication equipment attached are simply too dirty and sweaty to keep using.

And finally, the most recent cap is all the fault of catching up on this blogging. When I was writing about the part of our trip after Ft Smith I mentioned the Red Hat Society and as I usually do, went googling for a link to add to the blog mention. Of course, what do I find? A bunch of red hats on sale! Now, most of them were other sorts of hats, not ball caps at all but then ... there it was a sparkly red ball cap! And ON SALE even! So, of course one has been ordered and I suppose I will have to find a local Red Hat chapter. At least I learned the difference between the pink hats and the red hats, red hats are for those over 50, pink hats for those not yet 50. Hmmm, what if you are exactly 50?