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Category: priceline
Fort Myers
5/17/13 – 5/18/13 Miles MPG Average Speed 458 44 49 Driving listening:
5/17/13 – 5/18/13 Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Crowne Plaza Fort Myers (3.5 star) $68.81
($58 bid)$104.16
($93 base rate)$35.35 34% Friday
I drove down early Friday and was on the Sanibel causeway by noon to do some kayaking (details on my kayaking blog).
After kayaking I was very hungry. Runkeeper said I burned 1100 calories on that paddle, but Runkeeper can’t take into account the wind and currents. I’m thinking the mile and a half from the point to the causeway into strong winds and out-going tide counts as 3x. So I felt entirely justified in having a big dinner.
Lee Roy Selmon’s is a southwest Florida chain, and I prefer to avoid chains when traveling, but it had a big advantage when it came up in the Urbanspoon app’s random selector: It was really, really close to my hotel. After 8-miles of paddling and the discovery
that my sunscreen was defective, I was not in the mood to drive far. I wanted pretty good food, close by, and a lot of it. The second advantage was that it was Happy Hour.
The server brought me some BBQ rolls to start. These are warm, tasty, yeast rolls covered in butter, garlic, and BBQ sauce.
These were really good and I followed them with soft pretzels and cheese sauce with bacon ($3 for Happy Hour).
Good pretzels covered in coarse, crunchy salt. The cheese sauce was a little thin, but good. And for the entrée, I had their pulled pork with sides of baked beans and maple-bacon creamed corn.
The beans were really good, sweet with a hint of molasses, but they also had green peppers, which I’m not fond of. The creamed corn was good, but a little too sweet – which is an unusual thing for me to say. It’s normally served with the fried chicken and waffles, so that may be why – I think the maple syrup is overused, making it too sweet and thin, but it could go well with the fried chicken and waffles.
The pork itself was excellent and the sauce was a good compliment – sweet and sticky, without being overpowering. It was well-trimmed, with very little fat.
For dessert, I got the bread pudding with praline sauce and ice cream to-go and ate it back at the hotel.
So after an eight-hour paddle that afternoon, I was discovering that 1) I was out of shape and starting to hurt, and, B) my sunscreen had expired and I was the proud owner of a nasty, if oddly shaped, sunburn. So I stopped by the front desk sundry shop to get some pain killers … only to find that they were out of stock until Monday. Well, not entirely out of stock.
The three girls working the front desk assured me it would be effective and have no ill-effects.
Prius & Priceline: A Year in Review
So it’s been a year since I got the Prius (April 2012), and I thought I’d review some statistics … because I like numbers and have geeky friends.
First off the numbers for the last twelve months for Priceline (source in Excel or CSV). This data includes what I bid vs. what the hotel’s web rate was for the night, as well as what I actually paid (bid + taxes & fees) vs. the hotel’s rate plus an estimate of taxes (12%). I did this because comparing the base bid/ask numbers skews the savings higher, as it doesn’t take into account Priceline’s fee.
So based on those more accurate numbers, I’ve spent 50 nights in Priceline hotels over the last twelve months, paying an average of $67.23 a night with taxes and fees included, and enjoying an average of a 3.32-star hotel.
That’s $3294.37 I’ve spent on hotel rooms that would have been $6648.70 if I ‘d paid retail – a savings of $3354.33, or 50%.
Dude, some say, you spent three grand on hotels? That’s insane!
I can understand that perspective, but there’s another factor at work here – the Prius.
In calendar year 2011, driving a V8 Mercury Mountaineer, I spent $4407 on gasoline. In the last twelve months, driving the Prius, I spent $1985 on gasoline, including a 9000-mile trip around the country. So even with that trip and all the others, spending weekends in 2013 visiting DC, Atlanta, Raleigh, Savannah, New Orleans, Denver, and Greeneville, I still saved over 50% on my fuel bill.
Rather than spend that other $2400 on gas, I spent it on hotels – that’s a lifestyle change I’m glad I made.
Thinking of it that way, applying the gas costs that I’d been incurring anyway to the hotel stays, the delta is only $872.
Think about that for a moment – I had been spending $4407 on gas, but the last twelve months I spent $5379 on gas and hotels.
Fifty nights, $872 difference – that’s $17.45 per night. I’ll call it a bargain.
“In the cherry blossom’s shade there’s no such thing as a stranger.” — Kobayashi Issa
4/10/2013 – 4/14/2013 Miles MPG Average Speed 1810 48 60 A Note About Mileage: I ran a little experiment on this trip. Usually I drive a bit over the speed limit – so around 74 MPH on the 70 MPH stretches of the interstate where traffic is light.
This time I set the cruise control at 65 MPH from Orlando to Savannah – and averaged 53.8 MPG for that stretch.
Driving listening:
4/10/2013 – 4/14/2013 Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Inn At Mulberry Grove (2.5-star Savannah) $46.11
$34 bid* * * Sheraton Reston (3.5-star) $43.88
$36 bid + $10 bonus cash$138.88
$124 base rate$95 68% * I’m not counting any savings for the Inn at Mulberry Grove. As I describe below, the hotel was so bad that I can’t view it as a bargain.
Dining
Panera J. Christopher’s Luke’s Lobster
Wednesday
Wednesday was a travel day – I left town after work to drive part of the way to DC, planning to stop in Savannah for the night and have a shorter drive on Thursday.
So normally I wouldn’t even right anything about Wednesday, but I had dining and hotel experiences so bizarre and unacceptable, that I decided to relate them. If you don’t want to read my complaints, just skip to Thursday.
After a while, I looked at the time and saw that it was 7:27, so I pulled out my receipt and checked it. When I saw the time on the receipt was 7:01, I actually assumed their register was wrong. A few minutes later, I walked up to the pass where they were delivering the food and saw that they had an expediting screen that listed ticket numbers and how long they’d been waiting. My ticket was #13 and I’d been waiting thirty-seven minutes.
So I went back to my table and stood there for a bit, watching the pass. Food was coming out and no one else had been waiting as long as I had. I was more curious as to how this had happened and what would happen next at this point. When servers picked up food, they checked the screen – I assume to find which table a guest was sitting at – so I was really curious as to how no one had figured out that someone had waited thirty-seven minutes.
After a bit, I went back to the pass and took a picture of the screen, because I figured no one would ever believe that I’d waited forty-five minutes for food at a freakin’ Panera Bread, and went back to my table which was quite near the pass.
At this point, one of the servers saw me take the picture and I heard him point this out to the manager and tell him that I’d taken a picture of the screen.
Now, put yourself in this manager’s position. You’ve just been told that a customer in your store has been waiting for forty-five minutes and took a picture of the screen that proves that. What do you do?
A) Immediately go to the customer’s table and apologize for the wait, assuring them that they’ll receive their food shortly.
B) Send the guy who pointed it out to you, whose job is to drop off full plates and pick up empty plates, to apologize to the, probably irritated, customer.
If you chose B, then you’ve been to the same customer service school as this guy.
I thanked the server for telling me, assured him that I didn’t think it was his fault, and told him that I would like to speak to the manager. I watched as he returned to the pass and told the manager this.
Now, put yourself in this manager’s position. The customer who’s been waiting forty-five minutes for food as specifically asked to speak to you. What do you do?
A) Immediately go to the customer’s table and apologize.
B) Wait until the customer’s food is ready, deliver it yourself, and apologize.
C) Stay behind the pass and send the server to tell the customer you’ll refund his money, visit him soon, and his food will be out shortly.
Do I have to tell you? Yeah, C.
So a few minutes later (at the fifty-eight minute mark), the server brought my food. I thanked him for it and he told me the manager would be coming. So I ate my food.
When I had finished, I had still not spoken to the manager. I stood up – he was still working at the pass. I looked around and decided that $12.50 was not worth the time it would take me to walk over there, get his attention, and get the refund – especially when he had made it rather clear that what he was up to was far more important than dealing with me. So I left.
Once on the road, I called the store and asked to speak to a manager. The woman who had answered told me she was the manager and I became confused – I’d thought the guy at the pass was the manager. Maybe I had misjudged things.
I explained to her what had happened and found out that they had two managers working. I was … shocked. Two managers on duty and neither had bothered to come to my table? Wow.
She explained that she hadn’t known about the situation and the other manager was very busy, but she was sorry and would be happy to refund my money. I explained that after waiting an hour and facing a long drive, I had left because I didn’t want to spend more time on the issue.
So, next management training quiz. A customer has just called you, told you they waited an hour for food, had taken a picture of the expediting screen at forty-five minutes, asked to speak to the manager and then waited twenty minutes without getting to speak to one, and left rather than waiting for a refund because he had a long drive. Do you?
A) Apologize again and ask for his address so you can refund him via a gift card.
B) Say you can understand him not waiting and reiterate that you didn’t know about the situation and the other manager was very busy.
Just … wow.
So let me make it clear: I was more amused than angry at waiting an hour for my food. If the manager had showed up when it was pointed out to him and apologized, I’d have had a good laugh with him about it. I waited fifty-eight minutes for food at Panera Bread … come on, that’s funny!
But he didn’t know that. Most people would have been irate. A lot of people would have been spitting-pissed at that long a wait. And he sent some poor kid out to deal with that possibility.
Dealing with your store’s mistake is the job of the manager, not the kid picking up dishes. And with two managers on duty, there is no excuse whatsoever for one of them not to be dealing with the issue. Unacceptable.
Anyway, I got back on the road and headed for Savannah. I’d booked the hotel in Savannah only that morning – up until then I’d been trying to get a room somewhere in South Carolina for the night, but couldn’t find anything at my price point. I switched to Savannah, figuring I could get a pretty good deal near the airport again and wound up with something off I95 at Savannah North.
I arrived at the Inn at Mulberry Grove a bit before 11:00 PM and checked in. After 10:00 PM the front desk is behind protective glass, which did not give me a warm-fuzzy about the neighborhood – but they did have a young girl working the desk, apparently alone, so I can understand wanting to be safe.
Along with the keycard came the TV remote … I’ve never seen that before, but apparently it’s how they keep track of how many rooms they have left. Okay.
The first thing I noticed about the room was that it had an odor. Nothing really identifiable, but vaguely unpleasant. I was disappointed, but knew I’d get used to it in a few minutes, so not that big a deal – then I drew back the bedcovers and noticed some dark stains through the sheet, so I pulled that back too.
I can understand not being able to get juice stains out – but maybe put them at the foot of the bed? (I didn’t check that – afraid.) And, yeah, the yellow stains maybe mean it should be replaced. I checked the other bed, which half of it was okay, but the pillows …
Between two beds and six pillows, I did manage to find two pillows and half a bed that I wasn’t entirely uncomfortable spending the night with. Yes, I could have gone back to the front desk and complained. That would have taken time – at least half an hour. Go to office, explain, get new key, move bags, return old key and TV remote, etc. If I’d been staying multiple days, then I would have asked to be moved, but could live with it for one night, in favor of getting some sleep before my 6:00 AM wakeup. So I went to take a shower …
My first thought was that a previous guest, so despondent at the thought of sleeping in that bed, had slit his wrists in the tub and grasped the curtain with one bloody, claw-like hand in his final moments.
Then I stepped into the tub and realized that a far more plausible explanation was that a previous guest had simply slipped in the damn thing, split his head open on the side, and left that mark with his final, dying efforts to reach help.
Please note: I have no personal knowledge of death, by suicide or misadventure, at the Inn at Mulberry Place. I merely speculate with the available evidence.
Much as I speculate that the mirror frame in that room has not been cleaned since those damn Yankees sank the CSS Georgia near Old Fort Jackson.
There were a lot of other maintenance issues with the room – chipped paint, wall stains, etc – but these were the worst. I called the hotel Monday when I was home and also emailed them the photos. During the call the manager seemed to be more interested in making this about me not having asked for a change of room that night than addressing what is clearly a fundamental problem with maintenance at her property.
Even after I stated clearly that I wasn’t looking for a refund, she seemed intent on justifying not giving me one. I don’t care about a refund for one night in that hotel – I care that it’s represented as a 2.5-star on Priceline and clearly isn’t deserving of that rating. I care about the possibility of winding up in this hotel next time I go to Savannah. And I care about trying to bring these type of things to a hotel’s attention and being asked if, maybe, the pillow was yellow from bleach stains …
Now, I’m not a chemist, Miss Hotel Manager, but … oh, hell, never mind.
Thursday
By coincidence, my mother and step-father were in Savannah for the week, so I met them for breakfast early the next morning.
healthier; the tomato added the acidic bite that compliments the richness of the Hollandaise; and the bacon … well … it’s bacon. Bacon doesn’t need a reason. This was a really good dish, well-prepared with just the right amount of Hollandaise.
I also tried some of the blueberry-granola pancakes my mom ordered and they were good as well.
Back on the road, I made it to the DC area around 5:00. I was staying in Reston, VA and planning to take the train in to the city. Given the time, I went straight to the station at Dunn-Loring, one stop from the West end of the Orange line.
DC has a wonderful subway system. The trains are clean and comfortable, with padded seats; they run frequently and on-time; and you can virtually anywhere you want to go and be within a couple blocks of your destination when you leave the train.
Thirty-some minutes after getting on the train in Dunn-Loring, after changing to the Red line at Metro Center, I exited at Gallery Place – about 100’ from the entrance to the Verizon Center where the Capitals were about to play the Carolina Hurricanes.
Up I went. Past the 100-level, lower-bowl seats. Past the Club seats, where’d been in Raleigh for the Hurricanes home games there. Past the Skybox level. Past, in fact, everything – to the highest, cheapest seats available, above, even, the freakin’ Jumbotron itself.
The Jumbotron which, ten minutes into the game, displayed the bewildering statistic that the Capitals had managed to play ten minutes, at home, without a single shot on goal!
Not being a particular fan of either team, though, I was able to just enjoy the game and not worry about who won, although I do tend to root for the home team, just because.
After the game it was back to the subway and out to Virginia to get my car and head to the hotel – which the Sheraton was much, much nicer than the Inn at Mulberry Place and only $2 a night more.
Friday
I actually had a purpose other than vacation for this trip, so Friday morning was spent taking care of that, and I wound up getting into the city-proper around noon. I exited the subway at the Farragut West station near Farragut Square.
This is a congregating spot for food trucks and I was hungry for lunch.
Two sides of the Square were bumper-to-bumper with trucks serving food of all kinds. I went with a Korean truck and bulgogi two-ways, regular and spicy.
I chose double-salad instead of salad and kimchi. I’m willing to get a bit more adventurous with my food choices as I age, but I draw the line at recipes that involve burying your jar of cabbage in the ground. Maybe in my fifties.
The food was good. The spicy had both heat and flavor, but the heat wasn’t overwhelming. But after a few bites I was interrupted.
An older woman sat down next to me, mentioned that the food looked good, and asked me which truck I’d gotten it from. I told her and confirmed that it was good, but I could tell from her appearance that she was probably homeless.
We talked for a few minutes about Orlando – her asking if Disney had much different rides than when she’d been there years ago, me mentioning that Orlando had grown a lot and how ridiculous the ticket prices were now. I said that the food was pretty good, but a bit spicy for me, closed the container and put it on the bench beside me.
A few minutes more conversation and I checked the time, made my excuses, and left, leaving the food on the bench. When I looked back from the edge of the park she was eating it, which is pretty sad to think of in our nation’s capital.
I walked toward the Mall, detouring along the front of the White House to see who might be protesting.
There was only the guy who’s been there forever and one other group – so, politics aside, what’s really changed so much from the days when there were crowds of protesters in the park all the time and why aren’t they still there?
Once on the Mall, I walked through the World War II Memorial, headed along the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial. Most people don’t know that everything West of the Washington Monument was originally part of river and swamp – there was a wharf along Constitution Avenue.
They’re doing work on the Monument’s facings with some serious scaffolding.
Say what you will, you will never convince me that these are not the greatest speech ever given by a President.
From the Lincoln Memorial I went through the Vietnam Memorial and then over to the National Academy of Sciences.
The Einstein Memorial outside the NAS is so different from the others in DC, and, having just read a couple biographies of him, I think it would make him smile. The floor in front of him is set with metal buttons in a star map centered on Polaris.
The NAS doesn’t have a lot of exhibits and is as frequented as other places, but they do have some interesting things. Like a map of the technologies necessary to get to the VCR and an example of pre-RADAR aircraft detection.
I crossed the Mall to the Tidal Basin and headed along it toward the Jefferson Memorial. It was a nice walk underneath the cherry trees, which were still mostly in bloom.
I’m probably on a list somewhere for taking a picture of the helicopter …
Back to the Mall, where headed toward the Capital and stopped at the Hirshborn Museum – most of the Hirshborn is modern, but they do have Rodin’s Burgher’s of Callais properly displayed.
Some museums display each of the figures separately, but they’re meant to be together as a single piece.
From the Hirshborn, I went to
my Meccathe Air and Space Museum.That’s not a model … that thing went to the freakin’ Moon. Air and Space is one of the most awesome places in the world.
That’s the beginning of commercial space flight right there, which means it’s the beginning of real, serious travel into space and beyond.
From Air and Space I walked to L’Enfant Plaza and caught the Green line to the Navy Yard-Ballpark station for a Nationals game. I have never before been to a baseball game. I know … but I wasn’t a sports fan growing up and Orlando didn’t have a baseball team anyway.
I had a hot dog and Cracker Jacks because I was at a ballgame. No peanuts except the ones in the Cracker Jacks, though … which the prize in Cracker Jacks kind of sucks these days.
I learned that baseball is the exact opposite of hockey, but it’s interesting enough in a strategic-way for me to want to go to another game. Sitting somewhere other than the outfield, I think.
It definitely is more conducive to socializing than hockey, with the breaks spread out instead of long breaks between periods. And, from what I observed, there’s far more beer consumed … at least in the outfield.
I still think it would be more fun if the players were allowed to check.
Saturday
Back to the Mall early to go to the other Smithsonian buildings. There was a large crowd from the Cherry Blossom Festival going on.
I started in the Natural History Museum for the dinosaurs and the Hope Diamond.
From there I wandered around the Mall for a bit.
And then made a brief stop at the American History Museum to see the Philadelphia gunboat and the Star Spangled Banner. No photos of either due to exhibit restrictions, but worth the visit.
I don’t care much for the tune, but the Star Spangled Banner itself is moving. To fully understand the meaning of what Francis Scott Key wrote about it, you have to understand the context of the time – when lowering the colors (flag) meant surrender of either the ship or fort. For the flag to remain flying while the British ships withdrew meant something for a young country.
From there I had time to go through part of the National Gallery, certainly not all of it, before that night’s hockey game.
Sometimes at work I know just how this guy must feel …
The nice thing about art museums is that they typically have a lot of comfy seating, which makes for nice break. Even gangnam-style.
I got the “Taste of Maine”, which is a sampler consisting of half each lobster, shrimp, and crab rolls.
These are served “Maine-style”, with the bun toasted, just a bit of mayo on the bun, cold seafood, and a lemon butter drizzled over it. Simple and delicious. The crab was the best of the three, with the lobster a close second.
For dessert I had their Cherry Blossom Ice Cream Sandwich – cherry ice cream between chocolate chip cookies.
For entertainment while waiting for the Verizon Center to open for the game, there was these guys outside the Gallery Place subway.
And then another band showed up around the corner.
The Capitals have some odd fans, but I had a better seat for this game.
That’s “Crosby Sucks”, which is taking a rivalry with the Penguins a bit far, in my opinion.
A long way to drive to see Stamkos and the Lightning play, but that’s how it worked out.
After the game, it was back to the hotel for a few hours sleep and then the drive back to Orlando.
Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.–Sir Walter Raleigh
4/4/2013 – 4/7/2013 Miles MPG Average Speed Raleigh-Durham, NC 1416 44 56 
Driving listening:
4/4/2013 – 4/7/2013
Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Radisson Hotel Research Triangle Park (3.5 star) $51.96 (inc. tax & fees)
Bid: $41 + $10 bonus cash$108.11 (inc. tax) $56.15 52%
Thursday
It was raining at 4:00 AM when I rolled out of bed. Raining at 5:00 AM when I got in the car for the drive to Raleigh. And raining nine hours and six hundred miles later when I pulled into the hotel. A nasty, drizzly rain that came with a temperature drop to the low forties in North Carolina.
Yes, a disgustingly early start, but I had a ticket to the hockey game at 7:00 that night and didn’t want to be late.
I checked into the hotel and settled into the room for a brief rest before the game. I don’t usually say much about the hotels unless there’s a problem, so consider this foreshadowing.
The hotel’s older and used to be The Governor’s Inn, hence the suite next to my room.
I actually doubt that he stayed there, considering the rather nice house he has about twenty minutes away.
In the room I found the typical flyers and handouts waiting for me, along with a rather stern pamphlet warning me not to steal the towels and giving the price of virtually everything in the room should it turn up missing after checkout. Now, a lot of hotels have such a price list, but they typically phrase it as “if you wish to purchase”, not “housekeeping counts everything”.
So right from the start this left a bad taste in my mouth. It’s the hotel equivalent of showing your receipt on the way out of some retailers: “Thank you for shopping with us. Please prove you’re not a thieving bastard. Have a nice day!”
Anyway, I used the Urbanspoon app to find a random BBQ place and headed for Backyard Barbeque Pit. It was close and had really good reviews on Urbanspoon.
Now … here’s where I have to admit some culpability for my experience at the
restaurant: I was in North Carolina. I knew I was in North Carolina. I am not a stranger to BBQ in North Carolina. And … I ordered brisket in North Carolina.
I know, I know. North Carolina BBQ is about the pig, only about the pig, and all about the pig. But I ordered brisket.
So on a future trip, I feel that I owe Backyard Barbeque Pit a second visit, but for this visit I had the brisket. It came covered in gravy, which greatly confused me. Brisket shouldn’t come with gravy … brisket with gravy is … pot roast?
But, brisket or pot roast, it still wasn’t very good. Fatty and some pieces so veined with fat that hadn’t cooked out that it was chewy. The gravy, or sauce, was good neither as gravy nor sauce, but did manage to cover the meat and preclude me from getting any of the other sauces to stick. So not good.
The sweet potatoes were very good, though, and clearly homemade. I’m not sure if the beans were entirely homemade, but they didn’t taste of a can and were good as well. The hushpuppies, which were more what I’d call corn fritters, not as grainy and sweeter than what I’d call a hushpuppy, were very good.
It was still raining when I finished dinner and headed for the game at PNC Arena.
Carolina was playing Tampa and I am not a Tampa fan, so I was hoping to see the Lightning get trounced. Unfortunately, other than a first period goal disallowed for the Hurricane player kicking it (which I didn’t see a kick), it was all Tampa Bay.
It was raining when I left the game.
Friday
No rain or clouds in the morning, just a beautiful spring day.
After sleeping in a bit I headed for the North Carolina Museum of Art for the afternoon. Quite a few of the exhibits don’t allow photographs, so none of those.
The museum’s made up of two buildings. One (West) for their permanent collection and the other (East) for special exhibits. Most of the museum is free admission, but there’s a charge for some special exhibits – I sprang the $10 for the two that were currently there and started in the East Building.
The upstairs was mostly contemporary art, mostly an exhibit of pieces by two artists, a photographer and a painter. They each did normal, household still-lifes, but were exhibited alternating: a photograph and a painting next to each other.
What would have made this exhibit really interesting would be if they’d each done the same scenes and been displayed together. A photograph and a painting of the same thing would have been intriguing. But that wasn’t the case. Mostly I preferred the painter’s work.
There was an interesting video exhibit. I don’t normally care for video as art, but this was intriguing. It was five actors reacting emotionally – different emotions for each one – and it was sixty seconds of video slowed down to fifteen minutes. Bill Viola, Quintet of Remembrance. Most interesting if you see it from the beginning, not coming in halfway through.
From the beginning, the actors aren’t very expressive, so there’s a sense of discovery as they begin reacting and you realize that they’re each doing something very different. Pretty cool, all in all.
Last upstairs was a gallery of high school work. Framed and displayed with as much care as everything else. The assignment had been to create artwork based on a word or phrase, and some of the pieces were very well done – others were clearly high school, but some I would have been happy to see there on their own merits.
Quite unlike the first of the special exhibits, 0 to 60: The experience of time through contemporary art.
This is one I paid for. Schmuck.
So first is a piece where someone took several clocks, cut them into pieces and glued them back together. Meh, but not painful.
Next were two clocks, side-by-side, but showing different times. Okay, I said to myself, there could be something here, but I’m not sure what it is.
So I read the card and found that the clocks had been installed set to the same time, but went out of synch as the batteries wound down. It’s entitled Perfect Lovers. Ooookaaaayy … could have been something there … but … I shouldn’t have to read the damn thing to understand what the artist is getting at.
Now, next, was a board.
Wait, wait … it’s an unfinished 1”x4”, just like you get from Home Depot and, wait for it … the artist has cut out one of the knots and attached it to a clockwork motor so that the knot rotates like clock hands.
We’ll pause while you catch your breath from that one.
Next: Clock motor with a rotten banana peel attached.
No comment.
There was a hundred foot roll of paper with a line made out of hair down the middle.
An air compressor attached to about thirty feet of hose that inflated and deflated a paper bag attached to the end of the hose.
An artist who saved all of his receipts for a year and then duplicated them on to a roll of paper, by hand, with colored pencils. This was interesting … especially the checks he duplicated complete with MICR routing and account numbers … and signatures.
An exhibit that consisted of a letter from the artist stating that he intended to do a performance art piece consisting of punching a time clock in his studio every day and taking a picture of himself. And a letter from someone stating that he would sign the artists timecards to ensure there was no “cheating”. Along with the timecards and a timelapse video of the artist standing next to the time clock for a year.
Punching a time clock every day for a year is not art. It’s called a job. Get one.
My favorite, though, was the pile of candy. Big pile of cellophane wrapped candy in the corner. The “art” is interactive, in that the viewer decides whether or not to take a piece and staff refreshes the pile from the 175-pounds supplied by the artist.
Apparently there’s “art” at the cash register of every diner in America.
From there I went to the other special exhibit, Object of Devotion, which was a collection of 13th-14th century British alabaster. All religious works, so not thrilling to me, but I guaran-damn-tee that nothing in the other exhibit will be touring museums 800 years from now … so there.
Then over to the other building for the museum’s permanent collection, which spans virtually everything from African folk art to Egyptian to Classical Roman statutes (sans penii, thanks to time and chisel-wielding Popes) – all the way through 19th century painters. Something for everyone, really.
But mostly I was there to see the Rodins – one of the largest collections of Rodins in the country.
The Rodins took up the rest of the time I had for the museum. I left there and headed for the Duke University campus, stopping for dinner at another random BBQ place on the way.
Bullock’s does not take credit cards, but there’s an ATM in their lobby. The lobby walls are decorated with celebrity photos, all of whom seemed to have been happy with the food. The menu is huge – much larger than I’d
expected, including such BBQ classics as quesadillas. That made me a little hesitant, but the place was packed at 2:00 in the afternoon, so I stayed to give it a shot.
Bullock’s does not appear to engage in any pretense that BBQ means anything but pig. Specifically pulled pork. The menu doesn’t even say pulled pork, it just says “BBQ”. BBQ with other things, maybe, like BBQ with catfish, BBQ with Brunswick Stew … but, ultimately, the BBQ part all means the same thing.
There is “sliced BBQ”, if you don’t want pulled, and “ribs”, but it’s clear that the focus is on the pulled pork. I got the BBQ with Brunswick Stew, which came with coleslaw and hushpuppies.
There were no sauces on the table, so I asked if they had any when my food was served. Apparently Bullock’s believes that their BBQ is perfectly sauced as-served, and I got a “look” for my heresy. The server was still smiling and pleasant, but there was still a look … sort of like the look a Borgia Pope might give Martin Luther at a dinner party.
She did bring me a small bowl of a sweet, vinegar-based sauce, though.
The hushpuppies were very good and the Brunswick Stew was excellent, but the BBQ was possibly the best I’ve had since I started these trips. As-is it was flavorful and spicy, tender without being fatty. The sweet sauce was good, vinegar-based as well, and added a nice contrast, so I alternated between the two.
I asked for a desert recommendation and wound up with the “lemon icebox”. Homemade and delicious, it was a good end to the meal.
From dinner I headed onto the Duke University campus, a beautiful place, for a lacrosse game.
Lacrosse is much higher scoring than hockey and, as near as I can tell, the goalie is just there to take up space. Shots seemed to either miss the net entirely or score. Duke won handily, 17-6, and I froze my ass off on the aluminum stadium bench. 40-degrees in April.
Saturday
I started the morning on a sour note, because I discovered that the hotel had charged my credit card over $200. This was a prepaid, Priceline room, so there should have been only a $50 authorization for incidentals, if that. Instead there was a $150 authorization and one for $52.16.
I spoke to the front desk about it and apparently the hotel has a policy of charging $50 per day instead of the $50 per stay that most properties authorize. They couldn’t explain the $52.16 and said they have no record of it.
I then spoke to the manager, because even though this isn’t a charge, it’s quite a large authorization. I really didn’t like the justifications he tried to make. First, that some people smoke in the room … well, fine, but I can smoke in a room on one night just as well as three, so why a per night authorization?
Then he made a comment about prepaid guests and not having any recourse against them. Again, I can clean out everything in a room in one night just as easily as three. And it was another example, like the “don’t steal the towels”-note, of being asked to prove I’m not a thief. Not the experience I want from a hotel.
Around noon I arrived in downtown Raleigh. I’d scheduled a walking, tasting tour with Taste Carolina for the afternoon. While I was waiting for the tour meeting time, there was a Lebanese festival going on, so I watched some performances.
And some halawat el-jibim … I think. It was a sweet-cheese and semolina topped with pistachio.
Served cold, it was sweet, nutty, cheesy and chewy.
Also a sweet Arabian coffee – both very good, and I would have tried some other things from the food booths, but it was time to head for the Raleigh City Museum and meet the tasting tour.
The tour was several miles walking, with a little bit of history mixed in with stops at five different restaurants.
The first stop was Centro, a Mexican restaurant downtown. Like several other places on the tour, this is not a place I would have chosen for myself and, also like the other places, it’s someplace I’d now like to return to for a full dinner. 
Our tasting here was Chilaquiles Verdes … I have no idea what that is. It was a creamy sauce that started sweet and then became a little spicy, finishing with the rich taste of the beef. This dish was tied for my favorite of the tour and I heartily recommend it.
We also got an interesting drink – “hamicha”, I think it was called – a sweet, flowery tea made from hibiscus. I recommend that as well.
Gravy is an Italian place that served us the best gnocchi I’ve ever had. The individual pieces were larger than I expected and perfectly cooked. So often gnocchi can be gummy, but these little tidbits melted under the least pressure and
melded with the sauce beautifully.
The sauce was cream, garlic, spring onions, and spring artichokes, with a hint of parmesan on top. It was sweet and creamy, but the parmesan brought just the right amount of saltiness to each bite. Tied with Centro for my favorite dish of the tasting.
Gravy paired this with a really nice white wine from Italy that I don’t remember the name of.
PieBird sells pies. I like pie. The make both sweet and savory pies, but the tasting was all sweet.
I sat down and looked at the slice in front of me to find lemon icebox … which I’d
I’d just had a pretty good one at Bullock’s. But one of the other tourers suggested we cut each slice into bites and all try each kind, which went over well.
So we each wound up getting a bite or two of: lemon icebox, peanut butter cream, honey (local honey), something that was all nuts, and one that was made completely from sugar. All of them were good, but I think the sugar and honey ones were the best.
Tyler’s Tap Room is a lot about beer. I don’t care for beer at all … it seems like a waste of good grain. Things were on their way to becoming a perfectly good whiskey but went horribly awry … The tasting was in their bottle store, which sells
the regional brews they feature.
I tried the beers they had for us to sample, including one that they infused with other flavors. They take a featured beer and then enhance some of the flavors already present by running it through an infuser system – this week they featured one that they infused with chili, basil, lemongrass, lime, and ginger. We tasted both the before and after versions and I could understand what they were doing. The before-version definitely had the flavors they mentioned and the after-version was much bolder.
I still don’t like beer.
The food tasting was pretzel nachos and pork sliders, both of which were good renditions of typical American pub fare. My pork could have been pulled a little more, as there were a couple large chunks, but it was very tasty. The pretzels were fresh, hot, and tender, and the nacho cheese had just the right amount of heat.
The last stop on the tasting tour was Kimbap, a Korean restaurant almost across the street from Tyler’s. I liked Kimbap immediately, just because of their beverages – any place that goes out of their way to advertise soda with cane sugar instead of
corn syrup gets points from me right up front.
Our tasting here was some sesame greens (which I ate before the photo) and a shrimp fresh roll.
The greens were really good, with just the right amount of oil, which is why I ate them before taking the photo. The roll had a bit too much lettuce for me, but after I took a bit out it was quite good. The sauce wasn’t too spicy and added a lot of flavor.
Also on the tour, we saw the Governor’s Mansion. Nice place.
And a pair of racing Trolley Pubs.
As near as I can understand this, your group pays to rent the trolley, brings its own booze, and then has to pedal around town … drunks are weird.
After the tour, the operators provided rickshaws back to the starting point, with a rather interesting restaurant ad on the back.
From downtown I was back on my way to the PNC Arena for the second hockey game, this one against the Rangers. I got there a little after 5:00, almost two hours before the game, the parking lot was half full and the grassy areas were covered with awnings and grills.
For the Tampa game, the arena had been a sea of red and black, Carolina’s colors, but the crowd pulled out the blue for the Rangers.
There were so many Rangers fans that they managed several “Let’s go Rangers!” chants during the game – they were drowned out by “Let’s go ‘Canes!” after the first few verses, but they didn’t give up. The Rangers’ goals, and there were many of them, got as much applause as Carolina’s one goal did.
After the game I hurried back to my room to catch a few hours sleep before heading home at 5:00 AM, but the manager of the hotel had left a gift for me in the room.
Once I went to bed in Orlando and I woke up in Atlanta. I have no idea how that happened.–A. J. McLean
Miles MPG Average Speed 1138 44 55 
Driving listening:
3/14/2013 – 3/17/2013 Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings The Westin Atlanta Airport (4-star) $50.96
$40 bid + $10 bonus cash$88.48 ($79) $37.52 43% I spent a lot of time and effort trying to go to Tampa this weekend – a couple Lightning games, a Friday of kayaking, and days at the Tampa Ren Faire. Two weeks I tried every day, but Priceline didn’t cooperate. Successful bids on 3-star hotels were still running $79 / night on Wednesday (3/13), so I tried some other cities.
Atlanta proved amenable, as I won with my first bid of $50 ($40 + $10 bonus cash) for a 4-star near the airport. It’s a side-effect of success with Priceline and BiddingForTravel that my first reaction was: “Damn it! I bet I could have gotten that for $36!”
Even if I did overpay a few dollars for the hotel, though, my total travel costs (hotel and gas) wound up being less to drive the 400+ miles to Atlanta than the 90 to Tampa would have been with this weekend’s hotel rates. So flexibility is good.
Thursday
I left home around 8:00am for the roughly 7-hour drive to Atlanta. A bit less than that for me, because I was staying near the airport on the south-side of the city. Less, at least, to get to the hotel, but my plans for Thursday and Friday nights would take me an hour further north to the suburb of Duluth in Gwinnett County.
The Westin is just off I85 near the airport and has some nice touches like leaf-shaped soaps.
See, this is the sort of little, special touch that makes me feel really, really glad that I didn’t pay full price for the room …
This, on the other hand, might make full-price worth it:
That is the Westin Heavenly™ Shower Head. I now want one of my very own.
I had just enough time to unpack before getting back on the road to head for Gwinnett County for a hockey game between the Gwinnett Gladiators and the Orlando Solar Bears. Once I got to the area I used Google Maps to search for BBQ restaurants.
I headed for the closest and wound up at Jim ‘n Nick’s BBQ. Unfortunately a bit of a chain.
The sweet tea was a bit weak, but this was Georgia and I prefer the teeth-aching brew of South Carolina. The brisket was pretty good – tender and tasty without being too salty. They offered the option of sourdough for the brisket sandwich, was a nice change from simple buns.
Jim ‘n Nick’s offers only two sauces. The regular sauce is pretty good, with a nice balance of sweet and spicy. The other is a spicier ancho sauce.
The best part of the meal was the little corn muffins, which were really good and made me wish I’d gotten more than two.
After dinner I was off to the Gwinnett Arena for the game where I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of a parking fee. Driving there made clear that Gwinnett County is a fairly affluent suburb of Atlanta and the arena touches showed that, with carpeted walkways and premium food options.
Thursday’s game was all offense, ending with the Solar Bears losing 4-5 and the winning goal being scored only three minutes before the end of the game. Although I normally sit high in my team’s attack-twice endzone, for away games I like to move around a bit and chose to sit on the glass for this one.
Friday
On Friday morning I went to Ria’s Bluebird for breakfast. The Urbanspoon app has a cool “random” feature, and this is what it picked nearby for breakfast/brunch.
The place had high ratings on Urbanspoon and their chef is apparently competing on Chopped right now, which gave me high hopes that were only raised by the busy parking lot and waitlist at 10:30am on a Friday morning.
I sat at the counter and ordered the Nutella cream cheese French Toast with an orange juice and sides of bacon and “sweet potato cake” – something that sounded interesting.
The Nutella cream cheese mixture was pretty good – the cream cheese added some tang that cut the sweetness of the Nutella. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to taste much rum in the “Myer rum dipped brioche”. In fact, I got little flavor from the French Toast itself other than burnt – at first I’d thought it was the batter that made it so dark, but, no, it was simply over-cooked. As was the otherwise bland sweet potato cake. Char does add flavor to some foods, not, alas, to French Toast or sweet potato.
I did finish the bacon and orange juice, though. They were good.
After breakfast I headed for Zoo Atlanta where I watched pandas do what pandas do best.
Eat.
Sleep.
And be unabashedly merchandised.
Also at the zoo, in addition to sleeping pandas, were sleeping warthogs.
Sleeping lions.
And sleeping honey bears.
Say what you will about animals in the zoo, but I’ve become more and more convinced that the vast majority of Americans would, should the Aliens ever take over and set up their own amusement parks, be perfectly happy as zoo animals. Think about it.
By late afternoon it was time to head north to the next hockey game, so I once again used Google Maps to search for a BBQ place near the arena. The Honey Pig showed up, so I headed there.
As I parked, I decided that Gwinnett County has no decent BBQ restaurants, since it’s not possible to have good, real BBQ in a building that looks less than a year old. A real BBQ place should have … let’s call it character.
Good, real BBQ should also not be a Korean place where you cook at the table … which is what The Honey Pig is. Damn you, Google Maps!
I’d left time for BBQ, which is all precooked, not for raw food to be delivered to my table and cooked by me, so I had to forego The Honey Pig and head for the arena. So dinner wound up being an arena hamburger … which was actually pretty good.
The Solar Bears lost again, 1-3, so another road trip following the team and seeing no wins.
Saturday
I planned to spend the entire day downtown, so left my car at the College Park MARTA station and rode the train into Atlanta to the Civic Center station. I really like trains and subways … I’m not sure why. I don’t like buses at all, but if I’m in a city with a train, subway, streetcar, whatever, I’ll happily use that for as much of my transportation as I can. At $10 for the day, it’s a bargain compared to driving and parking in a downtown area.
When I got off the train, I found that I was in the middle of the staging area for the Saint Patrick’s Day parade – including the traditional(?) Llamas of Saint Patrick.
And got to watch the warmup of a traditional Saint Patrick’s Day musical group.
Okay, so drum corps isn’t so Irish, but damn they’re fun to watch. The wind was heavy and messed up the sound, but they were pretty good. Right in front of the drum corps was a traditional marching band and I felt sorry them with their tubas, trombones, and pansy-ass flutes. That can’t compete with some good bass drums and competent snares.
I’d skipped breakfast, because I knew where lunch was going to be.
The Varsity’s an institution and proves that burgers and such can be fast, good, and reasonably priced.
For the cost of a typical “value meal” ($6), I got a good quality burger, handmade onion rings, a drink, and peach pie (fried, as god intended). This was the best meal of the trip and the cheapest.
I spent the afternoon at the High Museum. They have a wide-variety of exhibits, ranging from 17th century European to American folk art to African. All of which is good and interesting, except for the top floor … that’s where they keep … <shudder> … the “modern”.
It’s hard to go from compelling sculpture and intricate furniture pieces. (I would so furnish my house with baroque … )
To … well … whatever the hell this is …
Seriously? A whole damn room for this? Ew … just, ew.
I had to go look at the Rodin’s again just to get the stench of that floor out of my eyes.
So after the museum it was time for the evening’s event, which was Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare Tavern.
The production was wonderful, which is nothing but what I’d expect of this company. If you’re in Atlanta and have any interest in live theatre, you should make every effort to attend one of their performances.
After the show it was back on the train for the ride to College Park station and the short drive back to the hotel.
Good trip, all in all, but I really need some good BBQ.
Rocky Mountain High
Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Delta – Melbourne to Colorado Springs $280
$230 bid
$50 tx&fee$339
$309 base
$30 tx&fee$59 17% Alamo Compact Car $14.64 / day $19.53 $4.89 25% Courtyard by Marriott (3-star) $42.20 / day $61.60 $19.40 31% (3-star)
$57.22 / day $87.69 $30.47 35% Didn’t drive this trip – wouldn’t mind driving to Colorado, but it would have meant an extra travel day on either end. The gas estimate was $310 – that would have been a wash with the flight and car rental, but I would have needed two extra hotel nights somewhere. So in this case, flying seemed the best choice.
I’ve been planning to go to Denver for some time to visit friends, but so much of my travel is last-minute that the flights have been too expensive.
My price-point was to get the flight, with taxes and fees, under $300, but with the lowest retail price for these dates being $309, I didn’t really expect my $230 bid to be accepted. Surprise.
I had some unused Priceline Bonus Cash available for both the hotel and car. So I bid $7 a day for the car, which the Bonus Cash added an extra $5 to. So, really, with taxes and fees, I got the car for the retail price less the Bonus Cash application. But even so I still saved $20 over the time I’ll have the car.
The Bonus Cash for the hotel was $10 a night, so my $34 winning bid was made $44. The savings for this trip aren’t as significant as some of the others, but it’s still a 3-star Courtyard for $42 a night real money. Considering the Motel 6 is probably advertising $39.95 plus tax, I think this was a pretty good deal.
The trip started with a drive from Orlando to Melbourne to catch the outgoing flight. All of the flights out of Orlando were $150+ more, so the hour drive to the Melbourne airport seemed worth it. It also gave me a basis for a new game I invented to play while flying somewhere: “I’d Drive an Hour to Avoid That”.
The rules of the game are simple. When you fly somewhere instead of driving, you add up all the things you’d gladly drive an hour to avoid and add that to the flight travel time … if the total is still less than the driving time, then you made the right decision in choosing to fly. Let’s play!
Starting parameters, door-to-door travel times: Air=12-hours, Car=29-hours.
I’m going to take a step back to the act of purchasing the plane ticket now, because it’s applicable to the game. $280 was a decent price. I’m happy with it. Of course, once you buy the ticket, it’s time to then buy the ticket again, by dealing with the a la carte items.
Yes, much like dining at a fine steakhouse, where the price you pay gets you a slab of beef and everything else is extra, the price of the ticket gets you a seat with lots of extras for you to ponder on. The difference, of course, being that the slab of beef is generally quite nice and well worth the price, while the basic seat on an aircraft is … not so much.
Yes, sir, thank you for being a valued customer, sir, here’s your ticket.
Will you be wanting to actually change clothing at your destination and need to check a bag, sir? There’s a slight charge for that, sir, but I’ll be happy to take your credit card now.
You’re absolutely right, sir, it’s a short trip and you can manage with just a carry-on. Now, sir, I see that you’re a
lower-classeconomy traveler and you’ll be boarding the aircraft in Zone 3.No, we don’t divide the actual aircraft into zones for boarding, just the passengers. First we’ll board those who
say theyneed special assistance, then First Class passengers, then all of our frequent flyers who’ve actually flown frequently, then Zone 1 passengers, Zone 2 passengers, and, finally,the dregs of the flying publicyou.But I’ll be happy to take your credit card now and upgrade you to preferred boarding, where you’ll be
at the top of the lower-classesboarding with Zone 1. Thank you, sir.Now, sir, I see that you’re 6’-2” and would you possibly want a seat where your patella is not actually in contact with the seat in front of you for the entire flight? I do have to warn you that we are not responsible for the cost of surgery to repair damage when the passenger in front of you reclines, crushing your kneecap.
Yes, sir, an exit row would absolutely give you more legroom, but we now reserve those seats for members of our frequent flyer program – not all members, you understand, but those who’ve managed to total up some actual miles. If any exit row seats are available 24-hours before the flight, we’ll open those seats up for
cheap bastardsanyone to select. All you have to do is select that seat at check-in and insert your credit card for the slight upcharge.Of course, sir, that’s assuming that any of those seats are available 24-hours before departure. If you’d like to be assured of
unbroken kneecapsa preferred seat, we do have larger seats with more legroom available to anyone for an upchargetwiceslightly more than the exit row would be.Oh, no, sir, I’m sorry,
you’re a fucking idiotyou misunderstood. The upcharge isn’t to upgrade your seats for the entire flight, it’s for each leg of the flight. Yes, sir, a separate charge to upgrade the seat each time you step onto a new plane.Thank you, sir, I’ll run that charge through right now and thank you for flying Nickel & Dime Airways.
Now, I understand the business process behind this and I actually do agree with it. It lowers the price of the basic ticket so that someone who doesn’t want any of those extras can get the lowest price and those who value the extras can pay for them. This is good business and good for the consumer, in general, but I hate it.
I hate it not because I object to the fundamental practice or find it deceptive, as some do. I’m a big boy and I can do addition real well, so I can calculate the actual cost of the extras and make an informed decision. I just don’t like it – I prefer not to make that many decisions about what should be a simple flight.
Guess how many decisions I have to make about where to sit when I drive somewhere.
So, a la carte options on the flight? I’d drive an hour to avoid that. (1)
TSA screening. Yay. First I hand my boarding pass and ID over. He looks from it to me three times. Little hint for you guys at TSA: If the driver’s license picture looks like the guy in front of you, it’s fake. He asks me if I’ve lost weight … yeah, thanks, gained weight since then. Divorce makes you happy and you enjoy things more. He laughed.
Shuffle forward. Shoes off. Guy in front has two carry-ons, needs three bins for his laptop, shoes, coat, etc. Yay, waiting.
My turn now. Shoes in the bin, plus my little ziploc of toiletries, then my big ziploc of electronics. I don’t have a laptop with me, but I know that between the camera, gps, charging cables, etc., there’ll be an issue if I leave them in the bag.
Into the scanning chamber … feet on the special places, hands up, wait for the radiation exposure. Or get felt up by the TSA “officers” … yeah, because if I saw them at the last place they worked I totally wouldn’t feel it was necessary to check my order twice before driving away.
Having to buy quart-sized bags and special-sized toiletries? I’d drive an hour to avoid that. (2)
TSA screening in general? I’d drive an hour to avoid that. (3)
So now it’s time to wait at the gate. I don’t like waiting. It’s just a personal preference where I prefer to be in motion and making progress, rather than sitting still and waiting. Faced with a traffic jam, I’d rather drive more distance on a different route, even if it takes the same amount of time, than sit still.
Having to sit still and wait before every flight? I’d drive an hour to avoid that. (4)
Next they start calling for boarding.
Lying bastardsPeople who need assistance, First Class, Frequent Flyers, and then I’m up … Zone 1. Which I can start boarding as soon as I edge my way through all the Zone 2 and 3 people who cluster around the gate under the misapprehension that staring at the gate attendant will make her let them board earlier.Down the jetway. Wait in line. Onto the plane. Wait in line. Slowly make my way down the aisle. Wait in line. I don’t like waiting in line any more than I like sitting and waiting.
Jetway, aircraft, and TSA lines? I’d drive an hour to avoid that. (5)
So I’m safely ensconced in my seat, happily reading a book on my Kindle, when the aircraft pulls away from the gate and the
stewardessflight attendant tells me I have to shut my Kindle off during takeoff and landing.Now, never mind that the Kindle’s in airplane-mode, which means that all of its antennas are off. Never mind that it has about the electronic signature of an LCD panel, twenty of which are still operating in seatbacks. Never mind that there is absolutely no evidence that cellphones, tablets, Kindles, or MP3 players have any effect whatsoever on aircraft. Never mind all that – let’s look at a different fact.
Follow me on this, FAA-people: There are 200+ people on the aircraft. You’ve asked them to turn off their electronics. This presumes that all 200+ of them have complied, since you don’t check or force them in any way. This presumes that of all 200+, no one, through malice, oversight, or obstinacy, has a phone on in their pocket, carry-on, or checked bag. No phones, tablets in sleep mode, etc. None. On any flight, ever.
Because if we accept that some percentage of people … 1%, 0.1%, 0.01%, whatever, but some percentage of people will leave their device on. And once that percentage is accepted and applied to all flights everywhere, we see that dozens of flights a day, hundreds a week, thousands a year, tens of thousands in the decade since this silly rule went into place … have all flown with “electronic devices” running and have had no incidents whatsoever. Making your rule … absolute bullshit.
Not having to comply with a rule I know to be absurd and useless? I’d drive an hour to avoid that. (6)
I get to change planes in Atlanta, which is always fun. Luckily, my connecting flight is on the same concourse as I arrived at, which makes it easier, but it’s also at the far end of that concourse. So I shoulder my duffel bag and take the long walk from one side to the other.
Yes, a rolling carry-on would be easier. And over the years I’ve accumulated no fewer than four of them … but the ex “needed them” and at $300 an hour for the attorney it wasn’t worth arguing about. So now I have a duffel bag until I’m willing to buy a carry-on with wheels.
Changing planes? I’d drive an hour to avoid that. (7)
It was well past lunchtime, so I figured I’d get something to eat while I waited. There wasn’t really enough time for a sitdown meal, so I headed for the food court.
Unfortunately, none of the food court vendors had fewer than fifteen people in line and there were no tables available. So faced with the prospect of a long wait in line with a carry-on and heavy jacket to juggle, then trying to find an empty table with that plus a tray of food, I opted for a prepped sandwich from a sundry store.
I walked up to the register with a turkey sandwich, a bottle of Sprite, a small package of cashews, and a candy bar. I handed over $20 … and actually didn’t understand that the clerk was asking for more money.
I ate half the sandwich before I couldn’t stand the soggy roll anymore and gave up.
Eating in an airport? I’d drive an hour to avoid that. (8)
On to the next flight, where I had a preferred seat ($) with extra legroom on the aisle. Which would have been perfect except for the big guy sitting next to me.
He was not fat. He was big. Dude’s shoulders were wider than his assigned seat and I’m pretty sure there was chemical enhancement involved in his physique and his biceps encroached past the arm rest by at least two inches. This was not only physically uncomfortable as I tried to avoid three hours of touching a strange man, but mentally uncomfortable as those rock-hard muscles were a constant reminder of certain inadequacies on my own part.
Bo Beefy’s bulging biceps? I’d drive an hour to avoid that. (9)
And there was the traditional crying baby on this flight, so it was a two-fer.
Crying baby? I’d drive an hour to avoid that. (10)
Finally on the ground in Colorado Springs I was able to pick up my rental car keys without any trouble and headed out to the lot to be on my way.
Seventeen degrees when I landed, with lots of snow on the ground. Curiously, I didn’t feel a need to blast the heat in the car. Only once, the morning I left, did I turn the car’s heater past the first speed. And it really wasn’t until that last morning that it seemed cold to me … for the rest of the stay it seemed cold, but no worse than it gets in Orlando during a cold-snap.
I had a nice, hour-long drive to my hotel outside of Denver – a drive that was actually a relief after the sitting on the airplane for so long.
The next morning I had some free time before meeting a friend in the evening, so I headed a little ways out of town to do some hiking. The spot I chose was just an open-space park with walking trails, not a huge state park, but it was a nice walk, with good views.
I took one of the less traveled trails up onto a ridge.
There were flocks of geese all over town, including people’s yards.
And a few fields of prairie dogs.
Friday evening and Saturday morning I spent visiting an old friend who I haven’t seen in too long.
Saturday night I was planning to drive to Loveland to see a hockey game – the Avalanche were away, but the ECHL Eagles were in town. But Saturday afternoon the weather forecast called for heavy snow overnight, and I didn’t want to be an hour away from my hotel after the game and have to drive back in the dark with snow falling. So I skipped the game and stayed in.
Dinner wasn’t incredible, but Denver has a couple chains that I really like and don’t have in Florida. Tokyo Joe’s is upscale, fast-food Japanese – think a Japanese-version of Chipotle. Build your own bowl of meat, vegetables, sauce, and rice or noodles. Tasty and affordable.
I had chicken with brown rice, carrots, broccoli, snap peas, bean sprouts, and teriyaki sauce.
Sunday morning there’d been a few inches of snow overnight and the forecast had changed from “heavy snow” to “blizzard warning” through 11:00PM.
My return flight was at 6:00 Monday morning from Colorado Springs, an hour away from my hotel. To arrive in time I’d have to leave the hotel before 4:00AM – not a problem, unless there was, say, a blizzard during the night.
Rather than risk that, I decided to move to Colorado Springs on Sunday morning. After breakfast I got on Priceline and got the Springhill Suites for $45. I did have to eat the Sunday night stay in Denver, but, even so, I still saved money on hotels for the whole trip.
Leaving the hotel I got a look at what had happened overnight. Mine’s the white one:
There were a lot of cars moving on the interstate, but the area around the hotel was covered with ice and snow with very few cars. I drove very slowly in the area, but the last turn before getting to the cleared roads was on a slight downhill slope. As I was making the turn, I felt the traction go and the car slid like a bumper car. I hit the far curb broadside.
It cracked the hubcap and messed up the alignment a bit … so I figure I’ll be hearing from Alamo. They were closed when I turned the car in, so I just dropped the keys off. That $11 / day for full coverage is looking pretty good right about now …
Now, here’s where people might say that this was an advantage to flying over driving. After all, if I’d driven, then it would be my car that had been damaged.
No, I reply. If I’d driven I would not have been on the road at all, because I wouldn’t have been facing a 6:00AM flight the next day. I would have had options.
I could have left Saturday afternoon and been safely ensconced at a blackjack table in Vegas by the time that storm rolled in.
I could have decided to wait it out, curled up in my room with Chinese take-out until the roads were well-cleared and I could safely leave.
In other words, I would not have been faced with the decision to drive in unsafe conditions or miss a flight. Instead I spent thirty miles like this:
I’d drive an hour to avoid that decision. (11)
I settled myself into the slow lane behind someone who seemed to know what they were doing and trundled along at 30-35 MPH. About halfway to Colorado Springs we got to an area that the plows had been through and things sped up to 45.
Colorado Springs was getting light snow, but had 15-20 MPH winds. With that and a damaged car, I decided not to try going anywhere except a short trip for dinner.
This was at HuHot, another upscale, fast-food place, this time Mongolian grill. I really, really love this place and was very disappointed when the one in Orlando closed. I think it had a horrible location, nestled into a tiny strip-mall near the Florida Mall. Very sad. If I had $1,000,000 for a franchise I’d open one.
I got to bed early and up early the next morning. No new snow had fallen in Colorado Springs and the roads were clear, but 166 flights had been canceled the day before in Denver.
The return flights had enough turbulence that the flight crew had to remain seated and both legs (COS->ATL & ATL->MCO) had no beverage service. Except in First Class … apparently First Class people can handle turbulence without spilling their drinks, but the peons can’t. It’s an acquired skill, I suppose.
In Atlanta I had time to eat — got a mediocre chicken sandwich with a stale bun, frozen chicken, and plastic silverware … because of all those times someone’s hijacked a plane with a butter knife and a fork.
And home … with the beginnings of a cold, that I’m sure is the result of sitting on a plane for four hours breathing recycled air.
Getting sick when I travel? I’d drive an hour to avoid that. (12)
And in my next post, we’ll have the game results and post-game analysis.
Saint Petersburg–Don’t Eat the Chicken
Miles MPG Average Speed 248 39.2 56 Mileage dropped for this trip because I had a 14’ kayak on top of the car. But still superior mileage to what I’d get with the same boat on top of my Mountaineer – or just with the Mountaineer.
2/8/13 – 2/11/13 Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings St Petersburg Marriott Clearwater (3-star) $53.85
$54 bid
($44 + $10 bonus cash)$196.75 $142.90 73% I decided to spend the weekend on the west coast of Florida this weekend for some kayaking during the day and to follow the Solar Bears to play the Florida Everblades on Saturday night. Yay, hockey!
My preferred plan was to stay in Fort Myers / Sanibel Island, but couldn’t get a hotel at my price-point – three nights for $150 total for a 2.5-star or $200 total for a 3-star. I could have kept trying, since it was only Monday, but decided to try the St. Petersburg / Clearwater water area as well. Either area would work, provided the price was right.
On biddingfortravel.com I’d seen a 3-star in St. Petersburg Beach go for $46 a night for the previous weekend (2/1), so used $40 as my starting point plus the $10 Bonus Cash from Priceline. Nothing at $40, but a couple rebids later I got this Marriott.
Booking this through the hotel’s website would have been $159 a night for Friday and Saturday, then $209 for Sunday night. The total would have been $590.24 with tax … my Priceline total was $161.55 total.
The hotel’s location is a little odd, hence the name incorporating both Clearwater and Saint Petersburg. It’s about midway between the two cities on the bayside of the peninsula.
I was good with the location, because I planned on paddling in Dunedin and Fort DeSoto (St Pete Beach), so it’s centrally located for me. I thought I might also do some paddling in the Bay north of the 60 causeway, since I’ve had good luck spotting dolphins there in the past.
Unfortunately, none of those plans worked out. I got to the hotel around 10:00 Friday night and ordered room service for dinner. It was a pretty bad chicken piccata – piccata is supposed to be a light, bright sauce. What I got was almost a cream sauce, so thick with butter that it was solidifying by the time it was delivered to my room.
Worse, about six hours later I got hit with some significant digestive issues that kept me up until dawn and still feeling weak and unpleasant.
Since I wasn’t feeling well and felt it was unlikely to get better any time soon, I headed home. I stopped for a bit of poker at Hard Rock, but my heart wasn’t in it.
This is where Priceline becomes an iffy proposition, because I’d prepaid the hotel. So getting sick and canceling my trip doesn’t get me a refund (they offer some travel insurance, but generally it’s not worth it, in my opinion).
Now one way of looking at this is that I lost $100 for the two nights I didn’t stay. On the other hand, if I’d booked through the hotel and not Priceline I’d have paid $159 + tax for the single night I stayed … which is about the same.
So for this trip, I call it a wash.
Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler
Miles MPG Avg. Speed 1326.8 42.1 60 
Priceline* Hotel* $ Savings % Savings New Orleans Downtown Marriott At The Convention Center (4-star) $73.46 ($61) $178.08 ($159) $104.62 59% * New hotel data format. Priceline amount includes all taxes and fees paid while hotel amount includes the hotel’s web rate plus an average 12% room tax. In parentheses is the hotel’s base-rate from their website and my Priceline winning bid, respectively.
Friday – Arrival
Within minutes of arriving in New Orleans I learned a Cardinal Rule:
Thou Shalt Learn the Parade Schedule and Keep It Holy
As I blithely followed the directions given by my GPS app toward my hotel, I discovered that someone had dumped a big ol’ party in the way.
Worse, it wasn’t just one parade, it was two – following much the same routes but with staggered start times. The GPS offered the suggestion of cutting through the French Quarter … via Bourbon Street … on a Friday night … during (albeit oddly scheduled due to the Super Bowl) Mardi Gras. Yeah … that would end well.
So I backed and filled my way down the city looking for a way through and, eventually, made my way around the crowds at the starting point of the parade and got to the river. Once there I had a clear shot to my hotel, but the traffic and crowds had turned the ten-hour drive from Orlando into something closer to twelve.
My plan had been to drop my things at the room and then park at the Harrah’s garage down the street, since they offer 24-hours of parking with thirty-minutes of gambling. Since I was going to gamble over the weekend anyway, this was a much better deal than the $31/day the hotel wanted. But with the drive and stress of getting past the parades I decided to call it a night.
So I got a mediocre shrimp po’ boy from room service and called it a night.
Saturday
I started Saturday early by walking into the French Quarter and having First Breakfast at Café Dumonde – beignets and black chicory coffee. Then I spent some time walking around the Quarter early enough to be out before the day’s bread deliveries were brought in.
The GPS turned itself off early that day, so no track, but I walked down through the French Market to the Old Mint, then farther up into the Quarter before heading back through it to Canal and then took a stroll down Bourbon Street.
Bourbon Street was empty, but those who were out … including these guys and their eight friends who passed me … were already hitting the Bud Light at 9:30 AM.
After browsing through some galleries and shops, it was time for Second Breakfast, which was a bacon, egg, and cheese po’ boy at Johnny’s, followed by more wandering through the Quarter.
Apparently New Orleans turns me into a Hobbit, because it was soon time to combine Elevenses and Lunch with another stop at Johnny’s – this time for a shrimp po’ boy that was significantly better (bigger shrimp and not as powerfully seasoned) than the one I got at the hotel the night before.
I caught the streetcar to the cemetery district and spent a peaceful afternoon touring the tombs.
On the way back from the cemeteries, I got a second lesson in learning the parade schedule when the street car stopped and it was announced that the rest of the line was closed and we all got to walk from there.
If you look closely, way far in the distance, past the last, tiniest palm tree, you can see Harrah’s, my destination.
So I went back to my room, showered, and moved my car to the Harrah’s parking garage to avoid further parking fees, then spent the evening at the tables.
After gambling I wandered around the Quarter for a bit, but the average blood-alcohol level was too high for my taste, so I headed back to the room for the night, stopping at Mulate’s near the hotel for dinner.
The BBQ shrimp were average, with more heat than flavor, but the fried crawfish tails were wonderful.
Sunday
The GPS worked Sunday and I wish it had been working Saturday, because I know I covered more ground Saturday and I’d like to know how much more than seven miles it was.
The morning started the same, with First Breakfast at Café Dumonde and then a stroll through the Quarter. Sunday’s Second Breakfast was at Stanley near Jackson Square where I got an Eggs Benedict po’ boy.
Such a simple change to replace the english muffin with french bread, but it made a very tasty difference.
Full of food, I headed for the National WWII Museum.
WWII Medal of Honor Recipients Wall
Monday
Up at 6:00 AM to get out of the hotel and retrieve my car from Harrah’s, then into the Quarter for breakfast – driving this time. Parking was difficult even this early, because much of the parking lots were covered with equipment for the Super Bowl the next weekend.
All of that enclosed by the temporary wall and cones should have been open parking spaces. Even Jackson Square was mostly closed to the public while they built the CBS event spaces for the game.
I finally found parking near the French Market before walking back for beignets, coffee, and a final eggs benedict po’ boy to tide me over for the drive home.
They Shoot, They Score
January 11, 2013 – 1900 miles – no mileage data
Priceline* Hotel* $ Savings % Savings Hyatt Place Greenville/Haywood
(3-star)$55.95 ($46) $99.68 ($89) $43.73 44% Crowne Plaza Hotel Dulles Airport
(3.5-star)$61.77 ($49) $151.20($135) $89.43 60% Wyndham Virginia Crossings Hotel
(4-star)$71.05 ($56) $100.80 ($90) $29.75 30% * New hotel data format. Priceline amount includes all taxes and fees paid while hotel amount includes the hotel’s web rate plus an average 12% room tax. In parentheses is the hotel’s base-rate from their website and my Priceline winning bid, respectively.
This trip started as a weekend of following the Orlando Solar Bears to two games against the Greenville Road Warriors. Yay, hockey!
But since I was halfway there already, I extended the trip with a run up Skyline Drive in Shenandoah and a day in DC.
Friday – Greenville, SC
The drive from Orlando to Greenville was mostly uneventful, although I did pick up a hitchhiker at the Georgia-Florida border and had an interesting chat before he fell asleep. He was traveling to the truckstop at the Savannah exit in search of work.
I got to Greenville with about three hours to spare before the game, so I had time to check-in to the hotel and rest after the drive. Then I headed into downtown Greenville for dinner before the game.
It was raining steadily, so I didn’t have a chance to see much of downtown. What I saw was pretty nice, with a lot of shops and restaurants. I had an adequate dinner at a regional BBQ chain, nothing spectacular, then headed for the Bi-Lo Center for the game.
I’d given myself time to look around downtown, but the rain nixed those plans and I wound up at the arena pretty early and mostly had it to myself.
The crowd, after it showed up, was still pretty small. I’d gotten my tickets online the week before and chose the small upper-bowl, on the rail, behind the goal the Solar Bears would attack twice. This is my favorite place to sit for hockey – being able to see the attacking plays develop with no one in front of me and with a little height to give perspective.
If I’d known my section would look like this even mid-game, I’d have waited until I arrived and gotten tickets at the box office to save the Ticket Bastards service charges – which doubled the cost of the $10 tickets.
Sadly, the Bears got trounced pretty bad in the first game of the set and it was still raining when the game let out, so it was time to call it a night.
Saturday – Greenville, SC
I slept in Saturday and then headed out of town to spend the day at Table Rock State Park hiking.
I spent a few hours hiking and then headed back to get ready for the game. Greenville does something pretty cool when they have the Mites play between periods – they let the kids who are going to play on the ice with the teams for the National Anthem.
The Bears lost again, making the hockey portion of this trip a bust.
Sunday – Shenandoah
Up early and on the road to make it to DC. I called the Shenandoah National Park hotline to find out if Skyline Drive was open. The northern 3/4s of the drive were open, but the southern part was still closed from a snowstorm the week before. Once I got on the drive, it looked a lot different than the picture the National Parks Service had tweeted the prior week.
So a nice drive and some hiking took up most of the day before arriving at the hotel.
Monday – Washington, DC
I had trouble with my phone, so no pictures. The hotel was outside DC, near Dulles. I drove to the metro station in Fairfax, VA and parked there to take the train into the city. This is a lot cheaper ($5 to park) than trying to get a hotel in the city and paying the hotel’s parking fee ($30 and up). Plus the hotels are cheaper. From Fairfax, it’s about a forty minute ride on the train into the city.
I had a late lunch at Ping Pong Dim Sum after a morning at the National Zoo and Smithsonian, then took the train back to my car and getting back on the road. I had planned for a two or three hour drive after leaving DC to cut down on the final drive home Tuesday.
That put me near Richmond and I wound up staying at a 4-star Wyndham property.
The photo’s not mine, but it’s what the place looks like and it was a really gorgeous place with nice rooms and lots of hiking around, so I think I’ll keep it in mind for a future trip that involves more than an overnight stay.
Interlude–San Francisco Hotels
If the Vegas hotel question bothered me, San Francisco worried me to the point of denial and not wanting to think about it. I’ve been watching the rates for weeks and they’ve kept going up – but I couldn’t book anything, because I didn’t know exactly when we’d get there.
When we arrived in Vegas, I could better predict that, so thought that we’d try to leave here (Vegas) tomorrow (Tuesday). The original schedule called for us to spend two nights between Vegas and San Francisco – somewhere around Sequoia and then around San Luis Obispo. Because of the unscheduled stop in Austin and the extra nights in Albuquerque, I hoped to change that and make up a day on that leg, arriving in San Francisco on Wednesday (7/11), staying two nights.
When I checked Priceline, I freaked out – 3-stars were $200, $300, even $400 a night. 2-stars ranged from $160 to over $200. Most 1-stars were over $100. I had a half-joking backup plan to stay near the airport and take BART into the city every day – it was looking like that might be necessary.
I checked BiddingForTravel and found out there’s a convention with 30,000 attendees in San Francisco through the 12th. So I changed my stay to arrive 7/12 – we’ll keep the extra day on the road and take it at a more leisurely pace.
Rates for a 7/12 arrival were still pretty high, with 3-stars still in the $200-$300 range.
Priceline has a huge number of zones for San Francisco, ranging from the city to the airport. I wanted to stay in the city.
So I started bidding for 4-stars in the zones I really wanted, one at a time (13, 12, 9, and 3 or Union Square West, East, Moscone Center, and Fisherman’s Wharf, respectively). I started at $70, just in case there was some amazing deal out there – everything was rejected, which left my max bid at $76. I raised it to $78 and added 3.5-star as an option for those zones. Still rejected.
This was on Sunday, so I wasn’t too concerned, as I could keep bidding every 24-hours until we arrived there – which is why I started with such a lowball bid. If I got something, great, if not, try again tomorrow.
But to see if I could get something in my budget now, I kept going. I had all the zones I was willing to stay in selected and at 3.5-stars, so I started adding zones that only have 3-stars – this let me continue to raise my bid, but guaranteed I wouldn’t get an unwanted location.
When my bid got to $84, it was accepted. Two nights at the Marriott San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf – showing a rate on the Marriott website of $249 a night for those dates.
