Posted By Jeff Fletcher on October 8, 2009 11:23 pm

I’m trying to strike a balance with this Travelogue between being too positive or too negative. I don’t want to come off as if I’m bragging that I get to travel all over the country watching baseball, and I don’t want to complain too much about the traveling all over the country part. Anyway, today is going to have some of both extremes.

As I was watching Game 2 of the Dodgers-Cardinals game this afternoon — by now I’m sure you know about the fantastic finish — I kept thinking: “Wow, I’m getting paid to watch this game. This is what the playoffs are all about.” It was truly a great game, from start to finish. Then after the game, I had just enough time to get to the Cheesecake Factory for one of my favorite dinners: shrimp scampi, followed by a piece of chocolate mousse cheesecake. Mmmm. The day could not have been going much better.

And then, to the airport…

LAX stinks. It’s just too damn big. The rental car offices are too busy and too far from the airport. I was on my way back to the Enterprise return center when I noticed the small print on my paperwork that said it was only open until 10 pm. Looked at my watch: 9:58. Great. I had to find my way to the Westin LAX, stick the car in the parking garage, leave the keys at the concierge desk and then wait for the a hotel shuttle bus that would take me back to the airport, after stopping at three other hotels. Awesome.

So now I’m at the airport, ready to board my red-eye to Houston — a brief stop on the way to St. Louis — and the flight seems to be overbooked. I’m certainly not giving up my seat, but it means there is no chance of having an empty seat next to me. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep. Got some Sominex, so we’ll see how that works.

The good news is that the workouts and press conferences in St. Louis on Friday won’t start till around 3 pm, at the earliest, so I’ll be able to get some sleep after checking in to my hotel in the morning. Assuming my room is ready.

But I said I’d try to minimize the “oh boy, traveling is hard” stuff, so enough of that. You don’t care.

The other good news about the Dodgers victory is that I have a pretty decent shot at getting home on Sunday or Monday, assuming they can win one game in St. Louis. That would mean the end of that series, and the NLCS starting on Thursday in LA.

Night night everyone. Hopefully I get some sleep on this flight.