Why? Why not!

Philly and Ralph’s

August 14, 2010 8:37 pm – 8:37 pm

We’re at the Embassy Suites near the airport in the Philadelphia area. We came north to see the Late Renoir exhibit at PMA. We got a late start, and stopped for lunch at Chap’s Pit Beef in Baltimore. We were pleased to see that they’d added a generous outside eating area… and they now have rest rooms! The pit beef sandwiches were excellent, as usual.

Because of heavier-than-expected traffic, we arrived at the Philadelphia Museum of Art at 2:45—our tickets for the exhibit were for 2:30. Fortunately, our window of time was still open. The exhibit was crowded, but because of the ticketing system, it wasn’t unmanageable.

After art, we checked into the Embassy Suites. We’re using Hilton Honors points to get a free room. Unfortunately, though, the internets aren’t free. We’re springing for 2 x $10.95, since we’re both net junkies.

For dinner, we decided to try Ralph’s—the oldest family-owned Italian restaurant in the U.S., so they say. We enjoyed half a liter of chianti, along with large entrees. Karen had the spaghetti with meat balls, and I had veal parmigiana. Both were good, although I found the sauce a little boring.

We’re undecided about church for tomorrow. None of the area services look very compelling. I guess we’ll see how awake we are tomorrow morning, since it would mean leaving the hotel a good deal earlier than we usually check out.

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Thai Square

August 1, 2010 2:51 pm – 2:51 pm

Karen & I decided to try a Thai restaurant in Gaithersburg for lunch today. Alas. When I called to verify their openness & hours, the phone was answered with just air after 3 rings. Strike one.

So, we next decided to try Tara Thai in Arlington. We didn’t bother to call to verify openness. There was a parking space right in front! Perfect. Not so perfect was the fact that no lights were on and the chairs were neatly sitting atop the tables. Turns out that it’s not open for lunch on Sundays. Strike two.

So, I asked my Garmin to show me other Asian offerings with Thai in their names, and Thai Square appeared on the list. Karen recalled having read good things about it. So, I called to verify that they were open, and they were! So, off to Thai Square we went. No strike three!

Thai Square is the real deal. Tom Sietsema says it “might be the best Thai cooking in the area.” Tom might just be right. It’s not quite as sublime as Tarntip Thai in Fredericksburg or the wonderful Thai restaurant where we dined with fellow UUs in Minneapolis during GA, but those aren’t “in the area,” so they don’t count.

We started with an order of the crispy spring rolls. They were top notch. Actually, what came first was the cabernet sauvignon, which sells for a mere $3.95 per glass. I didn’t see what kind it was, but it tasted French and had definitely seen the inside of French oak barrels on its journey from grape to glass. It was smooth and complemented the spring rolls and entrees perfectly.

For entrees, Karen ordered seafood—I was tempted by it, too. She had the Pad Gra Prow Talay, which is shrimp, scallops, and squid sautéed with fresh chili peppers, mushrooms, and basil leaves. It was yummy!

I ordered the Nua Padprick Kraprao, which is beef sautéed with chili peppers and basil leaves. Both entrees were excellent.

Thai Square goes onto our “repeat business” list.

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Portland to Boisé

July 3, 2010 11:42 pm – 11:42 pm

We’re in Boise, Idaho, at the Comfort Suites, Airport location. It’s a fairly new hotel, and therefore clean and bright. The internets are a par slow for the course, however. We’ve come to understand that “high speed” is relative. The speed is high speed relative to dialup, but not compared to FiOS, and not even when compared to standard DSL. I won’t be doing a lot of bandwidth-intensive stuff.

Today, we drove from near Portland to Boisé, as the French named it (because of the trees). The ride was mostly uneventful because I checked with AAA to find an alternative to I-84, which had delays of 1-2 hours. So, our first 50 miles or so were spent on Washington’s SR-14, which parallels the I-84 on the other side of the Columbia River. I wish I’d gotten a picture of the state route sign—it uses a silhouette of George Washington as the backdrop. The views along the Columbia River and Lake Umatilla are breathtaking. Unfortunately, I was taking breaths, not pictures.

We began the day by driving back into Portland to see the First Unitarian Church—where Bill Sinkford is now the senior minister. As you can see, it’s huge! It covers most of a city block.

According to uua.org, their membership is 1,050. With Sinkford at the helm, I expect it to grow—but I hope it’s not at the expense of other local UU churches.

Unfortunately, Karen seems to have acquired a virus of some kind at the Westerns in Portland. She’s pushing vitamin C and zinc—I hope she doesn’t get any worse. Depending on how she feels tomorrow morning, we might visit the Boise UU church, which has a 10 am service. That would mean, however, getting the car packed and out of here by 9:30… which is a tall order for this branch of the Tyson family, particularly when one of us is under the weather (and beautiful weather it is—a clear sunny day today with temperatures in the 50, 60, and 70s).

For lunch today, we stopped at a little place called Little Viking Drive-In. To begin with, it’s not a drive-in. Karen had a grilled ham & cheese on wheat. It was passably good. I had fish & chips—hot & crisp fish, but the breading ratio was way too high, and the cod was almost certainly frozen many weeks ago. It was okay, but it gave me heartburn an hour or two later.

For dinner tonight, when we were 20 minutes away from Boise, we called the Casanova Pizzeria to order pizza & salad for dinner. A little bit of internet research en route, courtesy of Karen’s Droid, told us that Casanova was supposed to have excellent pizza, cooked in a wood-fired oven. The reviews were right on target! It was some of the best road pizza I’ve had. Alex of Biddeford, Maine, still wins the prize, but Casanova definitely goes onto my top 12 list. (Note to self: make a top 12 list.)

I just now had the unpleasant surprise of learning that contrary to what my computer says, it’s really 10:35 pm, not 9:35 pm. <sigh> I hate time shifts. Tomorrow will be a shorter drive, hopefully with some interesting scenery as we go through western Utah to SLC. Karen’s due to fly to Dulles on Monday.

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Spokane Valley to Portland

July 1, 2010 11:18 pm – 11:18 pm

I drove from Spokane Valley to Portland today, and am now safely ensconced with my honey at the Hilton. Unfortunately, they charge $9.95/day for the internet, and that’s PER computer. Oh, well. That’s less than we occasionally had to pay when we were in Europe. And, it’s slightly faster than T1.

The trip was pretty uneventful—lots of pretty scenery, particularly coming thought the Lake Umatilla and Columbia River areas. In Lake Umatilla, there’s something called Crow Butte State Park. Okay kids, it’s spelled Butte, not Butt.

Through the Columbia River valley, it was beautiful… but about 50 miles east of Portland, I ran into construction. Logically, traffic should have slowed to about 45MPH. But, instead, it slowed to 5 to 10 MPH, and sometimes sat completely still. So, instead of getting to downtown Portland at 4:30 slightly ahead of rush hour, I got here at 5:45, in the middle of rush how. Even so, Portland’s rush hour isn’t nearly as bad as DC’s.

Our plan is to check out of the Hilton tomorrow morning, see a little bit of western Oregon, and then begin the trek east.

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From Minneapolis to Glendive, MT

June 29, 2010 7:39 pm – 7:39 pm

Written at 9 am 6/29/2010, posted at 6:30 pm the same day. I’m actually in Butte, Montana, now.

I’m in Glendive, Montana—having driven about 620 mile yesterday from Minneapolis after dropping Karen at the airport. My plan is to take my time heading across Montana, and to spend tonight in Butte, about 450 miles to the west.

General Assembly was one of the most bittersweet experiences of my life. A year ago, I was looking forward to Minneapolis GA and being there with Katie, and sharing her excitement and enthusiasm. Never having been a conference and meetings person, I was anxious to discover why GA is so often a life-changing experience for so many of UUs. What is it about GA that makes people end up wanting to go into the ministry? I think I have a sense of what it is about GA that inspires us to service and ministry now, even if it’s ministry with a lowercase “m”.

It was wonderful seeing so many people who love Katie and who share our loss of such a great and loving UU leader. It was also nice to share one of my UU anthems with other UUs. I hope to be able to take my music to UU churches in the coming months. If anyone wants to share “Heart of It All,” drop me a message on Facebook (with your email address), and I’ll send you a pdf of the lead sheet (lyrics, melody, and chords).

In any case, I’ve now entered the vacation/photography phase of what’s turning out to be my annual sojourn across North America. Jesse the clean-fuel Jetta TDI is averaging in the low 40s. Until ND, I was getting about 43 MPG, but the 75 MPH speed limit through ND and Montana (need to go that fast to keep from getting run off the road) drags it down to 39. Once I hit the Pacific states, it’ll go back up.

On my way across North Dakota, I ran across the start of the Enchanted Highway. Sometime, I’ll have to drive more of it. But, a very large scrap metal sculpture call Geese in Flight marks the beginning of it.

A little further west down the road, I came to one of the entrance points for the Teddy Roosevelt National Park—the Painted Canyon. So, I stopped and snapped a few pictures, including one of Lawrence W. Elk (Karen’s name for him, I guess because this is sort-of LW’s part of the country). This picture was shot from almost a mile away. Thank you zoom lens.

The painted high desert is breathtaking. The crevices are teeming with rattlesnakes!

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BGR The Burger Joint: No Thanks!

June 12, 2010 2:17 pm – 2:17 pm

Karen & I decided to give BGR The Burger Joint a try for lunch today. When I saw the flames caressing the ground beef patties, I thought I’d found a winner for sure. That thought persisted right up until the first bite.

Bottom line: well below average. For my tastes, their burgers were too dry and effete–BGR apparently is under the mistaken impression that burgers need to be low fat. Maybe that’s the difference between ground beef and hamburger. Hamburger starts to become too much like health food when the fat content drops below 15%. Even 20% is pushing it, in my book. But, it seemed like they were going for 98% fat free.

Their method is basically sound–flames & ground beef–but they need to use higher fat beef to get the right mouth feel and taste. Also, they need a processed American cheese option–I sometimes like real cheese, but seldom on a burger, and especially not on one that’s already too dry. They offered a choice of provolone, Swiss, cheddar, and one other. Fine options, but sorely lacking for the perfect cheeseburger to this beefeater.

There were other flaws, too. Their onions were undercooked and the pieces were way too big. They dominated rather than complemented. They also got my order wrong (a BGR standard feature, apparently). I asked for lettuce & cooked onions. But, the bottom bun was saturated with dill pickle juice–I hate dill pickles–and I was explicit about only lettuce & cooked onions–so discovering several dill pickles drowning in a swamp of pickle juice was not a happy surprise.

Their fries were also a disappointment. They apparently missed the “you don’t need to peel potatoes” memo. Their fries, in short, seemed over-processed. About a quarter of them had been overcooked, as well—to the point of being potato sticks, rather than fries.

Five Guys is still the contemporary burger winner in my book, although the best burger I ever had anywhere was at Marty’s on the Potomac at Georgetown University in 1970. Nutritious it wasn’t, but delicious it was. BGR, alas, comes in well behind Five Guys, Wendy’s, Burger King, and even McDonald’s (I haven’t had one of their burgers in over a decade).

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Shell Begins Alaska Coast Cleanup (Satire)

May 18, 2010 8:59 am – 8:59 am

Officials at Shell Oil today announced the start of a massive cleanup on the northern coast of Alaska, well ahead of drilling slated to begin this summer, far out in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The cleanup area spans over 1,000 miles of coastline from Point Hope at the west to the Alaska-Yukon border—the boundary between the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Canada’s Iwavik National Park.

What is most remarkable about the cleanup, however, is that the spill hasn’t happened—yet.

“We like to stay ahead of the curve,” said Richard Palin (no relation to Sarah), who is supervising the unprecedented cleanup effort. “We see ourselves as stewards of the environment.”

When asked what they’re cleaning up, Palin said “Oil futures. We look at it this way. If we wait until there’s an actual spill, it’s going to be a lot harder. I mean, hell. Have you ever seen what crude can do a coastline? You don’t want to deal with that crap. If we clean it now—before the spill—it will take just a month and will cost only manpower and transportation to clean up 1,000 miles of coastline. If we wait for the spill, it will take equipment and technology we don’t even have, and years to clean up just a tenth of that.”

The cleanup plan includes over flight of the area in small planes and helicopters, and the use of satellite images. When oil is spotted, a crew is dispatched to the area for cleanup. In the first leg from Point Hope to Point Lay, which has already been completed, no newly-spilled oil was found. While they are finding crude oil and tar still remaining from the Exxon Valdez spill from 21 years ago, they will not be cleaning that up. “That’s Exxon’s problem—not ours,” said Palin, who pointed out Exxon’s folly in not doing a preemptive cleanup.

Shell has also begun water cleanup to remove oil that is expected to gush from drilling sites in the seismically active area. Palin showed a PowerPoint presentation that included pictures of a mile-square filtration net—”a giant strainer”—designed to filter seawater. It catches seaweed, fish, and sea ice, which Palin said “demonstrates the effectiveness of the technology.” Palin declined to respond to Greenpeace criticism of the plan, which labeled it as “full of holes.”

The drill sites are home to endangered whales and other animals living in the area. Palin also declined to respond to reports that Shell will begin to relocate endangered whales, walruses, and other animals to the Antarctic, referring reporters to Shell’s director of wildlife management and preservation, Pablo Palin (no relation to Richard or Sarah). “Our goal is to protect Mother Nature and her children, while preserving our energy independence—the costs be damned,” Pablo Palin said. “We’re not in this for the money.” The cost of relocation efforts will be funded in part by sales of ivory harvested from walruses and narwhals that are expected to die during the relocation effort.

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XO Taste (and not enough taste)

May 1, 2010 8:01 pm – 8:01 pm

My verdict: Exceedingly bland. I won’t be going back.

XO Taste is hard to find. It’s at 6124 Arlington Blvd., but actually it’s on Patrick Henry Drive. Once you know that, it’s not so hard to find. But, even after you’ve been told “turn right on Patrick Henry,” you’re still drawn back to the buildings lining Route 50, and you’ll search each strip, and only venture to the right location after you’ve satisfied yourself that it really shouldn’t have an Arlington Boulevard address.

We probably ordered off the wrong page of the menu. Except, the entrées weren’t the only bland items. We both had the spring rolls. Karen liked them, but I found them very bland and utterly uninteresting.

Karen had egg drop soup–which I never order because even the best egg drop soup is still very bland. I had the hot and sour soup. It had no bite to it. None at all. And it was just barely sour. Hardly worth its name. House of Dynasty’s hot & sour soup puts everyone else’s to shame, true. But, XO’s doesn’t even put up a good fight.

Then came the entrées. Karen ordered the sizzling scallops. It was okay, and it was indeed sizzling, but it was very bland. Mind you, the sauce was a perfect texture and was very delicate and the scallops and broccoli were cooked perfectly. It’s just that that’s all I tasted. If I’d been blindfolded, I wouldn’t have known we were in an Asian restaurant.

I ordered the chunks of beef with broccoli in black pepper sauce—mostly because I love broccoli in Asian dishes, but also because I harbored the hope that their black pepper sauce might bear some resemblance to Taste of Saigon’s black pepper sauce.

Not even close. Worse, my dish had a little red chili pepper next to it in the menu, meaning it was supposed to be spicy. Not even close. The food was okay, but not what I want from a place called XO Taste.

Karen says she’ll try some of their other stuff for lunch sometime. Personally, there are hundreds of other places I need to try before XO gets a second chance.

The best part of the meal, in my opinion, was the 337 Cabernet Sauvignon wine. It was excellent, even if the amount they poured was on the stingy side. Oh… and the ice water was quite good. Ice and water are very hard to get wrong, although many restaurants do manage to screw even ice water up.

Their tea—which they bring out at the beginning without your asking for it—set the tone for the rest of the meal. Like everything except for the wine, the tea was bland—way too weak, even for Chinese tea.

At the end of the meal, there were no fortune cookies. Instead, they brought orange slices. The orange was okay… but it was a California orange. To this Indian River Florida orange lover, California oranges don’t measure up. They taste like they came out of a factory rather than off of a tree. Still, it was impeccably sliced. I’ll give ‘em that.

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Tree Pollen is Here

March 9, 2010 10:49 am – 10:49 am

Okay, self. This is an official brief note that today, March 9, 2010, is the official start of “my nose is driving me crazy” season. The tree pollen has arrived. I’m not providing pictures.

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Brunswick to Rocky Mount

February 14, 2010 9:37 pm – 9:37 pm

We’re at the Comfort Inn in Rocky Mount. After a nice dinner at Chico’s, we settled in for the fastest internet of our trip—over 9Mbps up and down! Not as fast as at home, but pretty damn good.

The drive from Brunswick to Rocky Mount was uneventful—fortunately. We’re listening to “Dead to Rights” by J.A. Jance, and enjoying it. I’m also listening to Kay Hooper’s “Chill of Fear,” when Karen dozes off. It’s about the FBI’s psychic unit… which I’m assuming doesn’t exist. I’m enjoying the book, and perhaps I’ll do some research to see if any of it is based on reality. A few quick Google searches, however, suggest that it’s pure fiction.

Karen & I ate at Chico’s for Valentine’s Day. I hadn’t planned on having dinner & drinks for under $30, but that’s how it worked out. I had beef fajitas, and Karen had the Toro el Bravo-which included a mini burrito, a mini soft taco, and a mini-something else–all beef. Two had shredded beef–and lots of it, and the other had ground beef. All of her main items and my fajitas were delicious.

Their salsa is especially good, and their XX on draft was nice and cold. The bill came to a little over $28 for the two of us, and with tip, the night cost just $33.

My only complaints would be that the chips were a little overdone, and they use refried beans rather than actual beans. We’ll definitely eat there again the next time we stay in Rocky Mount. Karen’s also came with dessert—fried ice cream, but I’m not factoring it into my review since it wasn’t a main course item. Karen thought it was okay, but I find the whole concept and the implementation revolting. Ice cream requires chocolate and nuts. The coating around the ice cream did not endear itself to either of us, but Karen wasn’t as revolted as I was. For me, the only acceptable dessert for Mexican food is sopapillas, but I’m not doing dessert these days, so I didn’t get a chance to assess their sopapillas—I didn’t even notice if they were on the menu.

Tomorrow, we make the last leg of our journey to home. I’m hoping we don’t encounter icy roads on the way. Happy Presidents’ Day weekend! By the way, officially, tomorrow’s federal holiday is called “Washington’s Birthday,” not Presidents’ Day, since that’s what it’s called in the U.S. Code. See http://www.opm.gov/Operating_Status_Schedules/fedhol/2010.asp for their justification. Of course, GW’s actual birthday is February 22, but who’s counting?

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West Palm Beach to Brunswick, via Stuart

February 13, 2010 10:01 pm – 10:01 pm

Before leaving the south Florida area, we hit a couple of banks and went to the Sterling Elliott Museum in Stuart. I’d been to that museum many years ago. They have several rooms of nice art, as well as many rooms of historical artifacts. They have a large garage filled with 30-40 antique cars, as well. I didn’t know it was possible to buy a Mercedes for only $4,500. Yet, in 1959, had my piggy bank been filled enough, I could have bought one.

After the museum, we went to Don Ramón’s for lunch. Karen had read that they made a decent Cuban sandwich. And she’d read correctly. I ordered the vaca frita (thin-sliced fried beef and onions), which was decent. I didn’t care for the yellow rice or black beans side dishes, though—both had unfamiliar flavorings that didn’t quite do it for me. For yellow rice, I expected saffron… but the yellow came from something else. And, I’m definitely not a fan of fried plantains. Still… they had enough Cuban and French items on the menu that I would go there again. I would order their veal Normandie next time, though. It looked really good.

After the Don’s we got onto the road for Brunswick, GA. For dinner, I asked the guy at the desk of the Country Inn & Suites where he’d recommend for seafood. He told us to go to Captain Joe’s, which is off of I95 Exit 36B. It was a good recommendation. They have a very complete salad bar, two kinds of soup (the one I tried was some kind of seafood soup with small shrimp in it—it was top notch). For entrées, we both had combinations—Karen had wild Georgia fantail shrimp and scallops (bay scallops, unfortunately, but they were good nonetheless). I had the same, plus oysters.

And GUESS what I found as I was chewing one of my oysters!!! An actual pearl! That’s a first for me. I wonder if frying damages pearls.

Tomorrow, we’ve decided to drive another 400 miles or so to Rocky Mount, NC. That way, we should arrive home in the early afternoon on Monday—hopefully before any additional snow accumulates, but more importantly so that we can deal with the shoveling in the daylight. Monday’s home forecast calls for snow and then rain and snow. Shoveling snow is oh-so-much-fun in the rain.

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Singing Bamboo in West Palm Beach—Off Key

February 12, 2010 9:37 pm – 9:37 pm

I ordered scallops & shrimp with “hot” garlic sauce. Actually, I ordered scallops and shrimp Hunan style, but they brought the other dish instead. I’m not sure what “Hunan Combinations” meant in their menu. Again, the food was very bland—with an almost-medicinal flavor to it. There was no hint of heat, and the shrimp was cooked to within an inch of its life. The scallops had been thin-sliced for some reason, and they, too, were overcooked.

The shrimp rolls were so-so—kind of greasy and not at all crispy. The fried chicken wings had no crispiness at all, but were otherwise flavorful. Unfortunately, they had fried rice rather than white or brown, and it, too, wasn’t worth the calories.

All in all, if you’re looking for good Chinese food in the West Palm Beach area… let me know if you find any. Maybe Singing Bamboo was having an off night. However, since it’s Friday night, I would think they’d have their better cooks on duty, not taking a breather. For whatever the reason, Singing Bamboo was definitely flat.

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West Palm Beach Area

February 12, 2010 9:30 pm – 9:30 pm

We began our outing today by going to Tacos al Carbón in Lake Worth. I’d read that they had amazingly good & cheap Mexican food. They do! I had a shredded beef taco and a steak burrito. Karen had two tacos—one beef and one pork. We’re putting TaC onto our “go there again anytime we’re anywhere close to Lake Worth” list.

Unfortunately, we’d gotten a pretty late start this morning, and had time for only one major sightseeing thing, so we went to the Henry Flagler Museum. It’s a lavish mansion that 71-year-old Henry built for his 34-year-old bride. To hear the audio guide tell it, Henry—who “built Florida,” according to the folks at the museum—gets much of the credit for making Florida everything it is today. Carl Hiaasen, the Seminoles, and a few others might choose the word “blame” rather than “credit.”

Amusing story: A woman who reminded me of the late Al Searle was ranting in the museum gift shop about Henry Flagler being a robber-baron. After looking at a photograph of him, she pronounced him someone who looked really harsh and evil—not someone she’d ever want to have dealings with. To the contrary, asserted one of the shop staff, he was a very nice man who did lots for Florida and the people of Florida. To hear her tell it, Flagler was another Albert Schweitzer. They went back and forth several times. I suspect that the Al Searle-esque woman might’ve been a UU. I didn’t ask. I also didn’t disagree with her assessment. I just found the confrontation amusing and refreshing.

In any case, the mansion is indeed impressive. They allowed pictures, but I’m not that fond of taking pictures inside mansions, so I left my camera in its case. There was a very interesting statue of Venue with four leering satyrs at her feet. I snapped a couple of those with my cell camera, but I’m too lazy to retrieve the pictures.

After visiting Henry, we decided to drive up the coast and take a look at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, in Jupiter. Their mission is to rescue hurt and stranded sea turtles. Among other things I learned is that each turtle egg has the capability of becoming male or female. Temperature controls what sex the egg becomes.

At the moment, we’re sitting here waiting for Chinese delivery from the Singing Bamboo. We ordered almost two hour ago, and it’s not here yet. I think they’re not coming. L Well… moments later, they came. I’m posting a short review in another blog post.

There were really good reviews of Singing Bamboo on the Internet. But, I’m singing a different tune. Karen ordered beef Hunan style. It was bland—no spiciness at all. Are they afraid to actually make those asterisks mean anything? It was decidedly lackluster. I ordered scallops & shrimp with “hot” garlic sauce. Actually, I order scallops and shrimp Hunan style, but they brought the other dish instead. Again, it was very bland—with an almost-medicinal flavor to it. There was no hint of heat, and the shrimp was cooked to within an inch of its life. The shrimp rolls were so-so, and the fried chicken wings had no crispiness at all. Unfortunately, they had fried rice rather than white or brown, and it, too, wasn’t worth the calories. All in all, if you’re looking for good Chinese food in the West Palm Beach area… let me know if you find any.

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February 12, 2010 10:47 am – 10:47 am

We’re at the Springhill Suites in West Palm Beach. This is a fairly new hotel—too new for AAA to have rated. The room isn’t huge, but it isn’t tiny, either. It would be better if there were two workspaces instead of one, but we’re making do. There’s a small “kitchen” area with a mini-fridge, sink, and microwave.

The climate control doesn’t make you choose between heat and cool. Instead, if the temperature is higher than desired, the AC comes on. If the temperature is lower than desired, the heat comes on. What a concept! Although, it literally blows hot and cold. There are long periods of stasis, though.

The Internets aren’t all that fast here—about 400K using the wired, and about 1.4M using the wireless. Go figure. Firefox keeps giving this damnable “Server not found” message when trying to upload photos. Google Chrome is a lot more compliant, but it too balks. I’m guessing it’s a Facebook issue.

For dinner last night, we went to Shells, a promising-looking seafood restaurant with good reviews. Shells is a chain with a number of “convenient” locations around Florida. The location where we went last night had ample parking. That’s because it was closed. We don’t know if that’s a permanent condition for that Shells, for all Shells, or just what. But, the nearest other location was 32 miles away—not that convenient. So, we did some research in the car and decided to go to Spoto’s. Karen is quickly becoming attached to her Motorola Droid.

Spoto’s is a hard-to-find pretentious trendy-chic place on PGA Boulevard. Almost all of the available parking is reserved for valet parking. Apparently, rich people can’t be troubled to park their own Mercedes and Porsches. That’s understandable. After all, it does sometimes get down into the 50s and 60s, and we can’t have them getting a chill on the way to their $45 appetizers.

In any event, we’d called ahead for the priority seating arrangement, and had to wait only an additional 10 to 15 minutes, rather than the 50 minute wait we might have had otherwise. We both had the house cabernet, which wasn’t bad for a California wine. It had a smoky flavor, which suggested it had actually spent part of its young life in a barrel.

For appetizers, we both chose the $6.95 conch chowder. It was a tomato-based affair, and the conch had been food-processed a bit. I couldn’t tasted the advertised sherry. But, it was pretty good nonetheless. Worth $7? Meh. But, the hot appetizer sampler at $45 didn’t grab us.

For main courses, Karen had the pan-seared panko scallops with rice. She said the rice was way too lemony. The scallops were good, but I would have liked the flavor better if they hadn’t tried to Asian-ify it. In my experience, American restaurants fail at Asian flavorings, and should leave them to the experts.

I had the bouillabaisse. It featured half a lobster, mussels, salmon, and clams in a tomato-based broth with onions and various other hard-to-decipher vegetables. Unfortunately, the chef went overboard with the fennel and some other licorice-flavored spice. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t what I expected, either. Having half a lobster still in the shell made it messier than it should have been, and much more time-consuming given the inadequacy of the implements provided. At home, we use lobster shears, which make tackling lobsters a lot less daunting. By the time I’d dispatched with the lobster, the soup itself was getting cold. All told, plain lobster without fennel tastes better. On the culinary scale, I’d give their attempt at bouillabaisse a D+. Shrimp instead of lobster would have brought the price down and would have made the dish more manageable.

We begin the march northward tomorrow. We’ll break it into three segments—here to Brunswick, Brunswick to somewhere-in-NC, and from there to home, putting us home by mid-afternoon on Monday, possibly, assuming there isn’t another blizzard or other calamity.

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From Melbourne to Fort Lauderdale

February 10, 2010 10:25 am – 10:25 am

Yesterday was a travel & cell phone day. We stopped at two art galleries in Melbourne—the Cuba! Gallery and LoPressionism. Both are commercial galleries. The first features only art from Cuba. The owner has a permit to travel to Cuba. So, she goes there to meet with artists, see art shows, etc. She buys Cuban works and brings them back to the U.S. The second features art from local artists, hence the “lo” in LoPressionism.

Karen’s new-every-two came due on February 7th, and she’s been eying the Motorola Droid. So, last night, we bopped into the local Costco, where she bought one. Not only does Costco honor the new-every-two, but their price was $20 cheaper than Verizon’s price, and they threw in a case and a mobile charger, as well. She’s playing with her Droid as I’m writing this… trying to get learn how to use it. She has 30 days to decide whether she wants to keep it. Her current challenge: when reading an email, how do you easily go to the next message without deleting the one you’re reading. The “forward” button doesn’t seem terribly pushable, and is mostly frustrating. Apparently, cursing the Droid doesn’t help. We’ve both tried that.

After Droiding, we went to Flanigan’s. It’s a local chain (by local, I mean Florida) featuring standard fare. While we thought they were going to be mostly seafood, their seafood offerings weren’t all that extensive. I had the baby back ribs and shrimp combo, and Karen had the surf & turf combo. Both were quite good, although the baby back half rack was the smallest half rack I’ve ever seen—not even enough meat for a small BBQ sandwich. Don’t go to Flanigan’s if you want to leave full. Fortunately, I wasn’t looking to get stuffed, so it worked out okay for me.

Today, the forecast is for the upper 60s, windy, and sunny, with a red flag warning for fire danger. Apparently, even though Florida is slightly more humid than the average steam bath, there are dry spots, and that means brush fires. A bit of rain came through yesterday, so it’s not all that dry, but the red flag warning is out nonetheless.

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From Palm Coast to Cape Canaveral

February 8, 2010 10:25 pm – 10:25 pm

We’re at the Country Inn & Suites in Cape Canaveral. We’re hoping to see a launch tomorrow morning. The Endeavor went up early this morning—way too early for us (4:15 am). But, the first Space Weather Research Network mission in the Living With a Star, or LWS Program of NASA is schedule to launch tomorrow morning between 10:26 and 11:26—which is much more our speed. So, if possible, we’ll watch it.

Our first stop on the tour today was at the Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens in Ormond Beach. They have changing thematic exhibits. “We have a video on NASCAR that runs an hour and fifty eight minutes. For the exhibit, it begins with the earliest NASCAR events on that wall there, then continues to the present date if you follow the wall. Would you like for me to start the video for you?”

I think to myself “You lost us at NASCAR,” but I ask “Is the entire exhibit about NASCAR?” I swear, she pumped out and enthusiastic “Yes—and it’s pretty great.”

Our time at the museum took a little less than 10 minutes. The gardens were much more interesting for us. I’m sure there are people who enjoy stock car racing… but we aren’t among them. I frankly fail to see the point…, but I don’t care for football, either. So, what do I know?

In the garden, there’s a small gallery featuring local artists. The art wasn’t wonderful, but some of it was quite good, and none of it was pictures of race cars. Outside, there was a pretty tiled work that was dedicated to one of the founders of the historical society (I think that’s what the attendant said).

Some of the items in the wall were things that had belonged to his wife and children.

The garden was very tropical.

A building outside the grounds had some very interesting columns—I’ve never seen twisty columns like it before

The garden also had some huge bamboo.

And a waterfall.

Leaving there, we wanted to drive by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune‘s house at Bethune Cookman University. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find her house—it’s being renovated.

Next, we made our way to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. We had been there before, but wanted to go back. Here’s what I remembered most from our previous visit.

There’s a seven-mile nature drive that we took. There are lots of places for photographic birds along the way. My favorite is the roseate spoonbill.

Parts of Merritt Island look very much like pictures I’ve seen taken in parts of Africa.

We left Merritt Island at about 5, and headed towards Cape Canaveral, where we checked into our hotel. After a brief bit of research on the Internets using The Google, we decided on Papa Vito’s for dinner. The food was good, although, strangely, my favorite part was the antipasto salad. For starters, we split a piece of pizza to see how it was. Karen really liked it, but I thought it was average. Alex of Biddeford is still the winner. For entrees, Karen had the beef ravioli—which I thought was really good. I ordered the seafood trio, which was supposed to be shrimp, scallops, and mussels over fettuccini, in a red sauce. Unfortunately, they were out of shrimp, and they really skimped on the scallops, which I said they should substitute. They also were bay scallops, rather than sea scallops, and were therefore very small. Don’t get me wrong… the food was good. It’s just that it wasn’t quite the experience I wanted.

It was in the mid-60s today. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to be warmer, but with a chance of thunderstorms. I hope the weather doesn’t interfere with the launch, but it probably will. After that, we’re going to make our way down to the Fort Lauderdale West Palm Beach area, where we’re reserved at the Comfort Suites.

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Around Palm Coast

February 7, 2010 11:39 pm – 11:39 pm

Yesterday, we drove from Savannah, GA to Palm Coast Florida, via Fernandina Beach and St. Augustine. I posted pictures on Facebook. Among our more interesting discoveries is that Zaxby’s has hot chicken wings that are way too salty, but has a grilled chicken Caesar salad that is top notch. For dinner yesterday, we went to O’Steen’s for their world famous fried shrimp. They’re good, but not the best we’ve had. Hingham Lobster Pound’s are still the winners for places still in business, and Drunken Jack’s easily beat out O’Steen’s. But, still, they were pretty darn good. The best I ever had came from the Peter Pan restaurant in Urbana, MD… but they stopped serving them in the 1960s.

Last night & tonight, we’re at the Fairfield Inn & Suites. We’ve never stayed at Fairfield before, and I was pleasantly surprised. Their weekend breakfast hours suck (7 to 9, and very crowded due to reduced hours). But, that’s okay—their high-carb offerings weren’t to my liking in any case. I had some of my own low-carb light Activa yogurt from our ice chest.

Today was cooler than yesterday—highs in the 50s. It was pretty cloudy most of the day, but the sun began to peek through after about 4 pm… just in time to set.

Today, we got a late start, had a quick lunch at Subway, and then went to Washington Oaks Garden State Park, near Palm Coast, which is where we’re staying, at the Fairfield Inn & Suites.

I posted pictures a-plenty on Facebook. After leaving there, we headed immediately for the Bulow Planation Sugar Mill Ruins. Bulow was a sugar plantation. The sugar mill stands in ruins, and it reminded both Karen & me of ancient church ruins in England & Scotland. I posted more pictures on Facebook, but here are a few for context.

While there, I heard a sound in the brush. It was a friendly local armadillo!

For dinner, we’d planned on going to La Piazza Café. But, they closed early because of some football game or something like that. So, we went to Golden Corral, instead. Their food is always good, but I think I ate too much.

Tomorrow, we’re heading down to the Cape Canaveral area… hoping to see a launch the morning of the 9^th, assuming it doesn’t get scrubbed. There was a launch scheduled for 4:59 this morning, but it was postponed until tomorrow morning… about 4:15 am. I suspect that we’ll sleep through it. The one on the 9^th is between 10 and11 am, so we stand better chance of being awake for that one. Speaking of awake… I’m going to post this without proofing carefully because I’m very sleepy. I’ll worry about typos tomorrow.

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The Indiana Girl, by Marty Cooper

January 15, 2010 9:05 am – 9:05 am

In late 1972, I was a senior at Georgetown, and occasionally strayed from WMAL’s and WTOP’s traffic reports for my daily commute to school. It was while driving to school that I heard Marty Cooper’s The Indiana Girl on the radio for the first time — I don’t remember what station I was listening to. But, it was my kind of song, and so I immediately proceeded to learn all the lyrics I could understand.

One key phrase, however, has eluded me for almost 38 years. To me, it always sound like “Second wave up moving down life’s highway,” which made absolutely no sense. I searched through anthologies in music stores, but always came up empty. Was I the only person who wanted to know the lyrics to that song? For the past 15 years or so, I’ve done occasional Internet searches to try to find the lyrics. The only lyrics I could find were the partial ones I myself had posted to several newsgroups where I had gone searching.

So… yesterday, when I was trying to remember the rest of the words to a song that was going through my head — Rita Coolidge’s All Time High — I found it on lala.com. On a whim, I decided to look there for Indiana Girl. The only match for a song that might have been it was by Pat Boone. Skeptically, I listened, and to my amazement, it was it! It was not a version I’d ever heard before, but it was the same song. While I’ve never been a fan of Boone’s singing, he does enunciate clearly, and I was finally able to make out the missing phrase! “Second wave up” was really “Silky way of”. Finally!

I continued looking on lala.com for Marty Cooper’s version of the song, but Boone’s was the only one I found. Then, I decided to hit the Internet once again in search for the lyrics to see if they had finally appeared in the year or so since my previous search. I didn’t find them. However, the very first match was a YouTube recording of Marty’s version! No video of Cooper, but the song is there. Almost 38 years later, I can finally sing all the right words.

Amusingly, I also found a compendium of Olympia beer commercials from 1972 that features Marty Cooper singing several Oly jingles — including one based on The Indiana Girl.

In any case, here are the lyrics to The Indiana Girl for anyone else who might be looking for them. These are my own interpretation of the words based on listening to Pat Boone’s and Marty Cooper’s recording. Although I think they are correct, they might still contain an error or two.

The Indiana Girl

Words and Music Copyright by Marty Cooper

I can almost see you runnin’ through the summertime
The Indiana grass above your knees.
With the leaves and the water mocking you in pantomime
“Can I go swimming, can I Daddy, please?”

It’s a long long way from the Wabash to the Hudson girl,
And the first place that it shows is in your eyes.
There within I see the dim reflections.
Of long forgotten dreams and summer skies.

Come on in and a-kick-a your dusty shoes off.
Sing-a sing us a song of way back when.
Sing-a sing us a song of Indiana one more time.
And you can be your daddy’s girl again.

That silky way of moving down life’s highway,
Forever seeking what lay round the bend.
One day somehow she chanced to happen my way.
For a girl it seems can always use a friend.

And I lend just a little bit of shelter Lord,
To one of God’s own creatures gone astray.
Some lovin’ and another cup of coffee.
To pass the time until she’s on her way.

Come on in and a-kick-a your dusty shoes off.
Sing-a sing us a song of way back when.
Sing-a sing us a song of Indiana one more time.
You can be your daddy’s girl again.

Come on in and a-kick-a your dusty shoes off.
Sing-a sing us a song of way back when.
Sing-a sing us a song of Indiana one more time.
You can never be your daddy’s girl again.

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Hotel Peeves

December 30, 2009 11:13 am – 11:13 am

The bathtub floor should be at the same level as the bathroom floor. Few humans are built like giraffes.
Walls and ceilings should be thick enough that guests don’t need to travel with white noise generators. Yes, I would still have mine with me. But, it shouldn’t be necessary.
Bathrooms need vent fans. If you don’t understand why, then you are very fortunate. In addition to the obvious, they help in clearing steam out after showers, too.
If the room has a loud fan-based climate control unit, then the fan should stay on all the time while the heat or a/c cycles on/off as needed. Hint: when the system cycles on or off, it should not wake the guest up.
If rooms have adjoining doors, smoking and non-smoking rooms should never be connected. We non-smokers don’t want our clean air to offend those who prefer smoke.
If hotels have smoking rooms, they should be in a different hotel. See #4. Guests should not have to walk through clouds of smoke on the way to their rooms (this includes on the way into the hotel—so employees who smoke should have designated areas that the public doesn’t have to encounter).
Bars of soap should be big enough so that they don’t break when you try to use them.
In-room coffeemakers are fine. Hot water kettles would be better. Few tea drinkers like coffee-flavored tea, and coffeemakers don’t get the water hot enough anyway. Teabags are needed, too—and more than just one. If the room accommodates two people, why should they have to flip a coin to see which one has to have the decaf?
Guests need supporting surfaces or luggage stands for at least two standard pieces of luggage.
If you’re going to have a table in a room for two people, then the room should have at least two chairs. Plus, the table should not be chin-high when you’re seated. The furniture should be functional—not merely decorative.

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Mostly Columbus, Indiana

December 29, 2009 10:38 pm – 10:38 pm

We’re at the Country Inn & Suites in Sharonville, OH, just outside Cincinnati. We dined at Skyline Chili (okay, but not stellar). I’d put Tony Packo’s chili at 8 on a scale of 1 to 10–Skyline comes in at about a 3. Hard Times gets a 9. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a 10 in a restaurant.

We had a whirlwind photo tour of Columbus, Indiana today. I’m not sure what all the pictures we took were—I’ll have to ask Karen, who did the research and fed me the addresses for our Garmin. While there, we had lunch at TC’s Memphis BBQ, which had been closed last night when we tried to have dinner there. We should’ve read that as an omen.

TC’s is decidedly so-so. We go there shortly after 1 pm. I ordered a two-meat platter with pulled pork and rib tips. The rib tips weren’t ready. Excuse me? Aren’t you open for lunch? Anyway, I substituted “I have some ribs ready” for the tips. Of course they were ready. They’d been ready since last night, I’m guessing. They were definitely reheated, and not fresh. The pulled pork was dry and hard to chew. The green beans were way too salty. Yes. I’m hard to please. But, I expected a lot better from the “top rated BBQ in Columbus, Indiana.”

On the way to Columbus, we paused in Piqua, Ohio to take a look at the Ft. Piqua Hotel, which is now a library. It’s famous for all of the faces that are carved into its façade.

We spent last night in Columbus, then headed for the visitors’ center this morning. We came to see the building. They have a driving tour that takes you past 71 remarkable building. We didn’t see all of them, but we saw quite a few. Here are some.

These are some of the colorful bike racks that are on the grounds of the visitors’ center.

And, here’s a random weird guy standing at the side of the library.

We poked our noses into the library, which itself is quite an attraction, with high ceilings that are an aesthetic treat.

I’ve never regarded ice melt as a propellant. Someone will need to explain that to some arsonists I know. I think there are better ways to remove snow & ice than to set the town on fire. I’m just sayin’…