Archive for category Travel

Officially, First Time For Something..

First… to set the scene…. I am at a Hampton Inn down here in Monroe, LA. Now, this is not the normal Hamton I stay at, this one has no inside hallways and reminds me of a crack hotel, similar to the normal Red Roof or other type of place to stay. Also, the roadways and all of the surrounding area is pretty beat up and run down, I am pretty sure you have seen this area on at least 1 episode of cops, it fits the stereo typical cops area perfectly.

So, I went out to eat for dinner and have come back to my room. On the way there was this woman standing near her pickup truck which was parked near the stairway up to the 2nd level where my room is. She is probably mid 30’s but looks to be about mid to late 40’s and is dressed kinda trashy and smoking a cig while she stands there.

So I am walking past and go to head up to my room and I hear her say…

“hey, honey, you looking for any company tonight?”

So yes, I have officially been solicited by a hooker for the first time in person!!!

Talk about a monumental occasion

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So I Am In LA

and that’s Louisiana not Los Angeles…

Not much interesting so far, but when I got off the plane, first reaction… Yup, smells like a swamp!

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I Need To Go To The Middle Of Nowhere More Often!

I am not staying in a hotel this evening like I normally do… tonight I am staying in the guesthouse of the company I am installing at. now when I first heard this I was a bit apprehensive since I have heard about other “guest houses” that other consultants have stayed it.

just like a normal hotel room, I have my own room and I have my own bathroom.

However, this place is AWESOME, the only thing it is missing is a hot tub out back.

There is a pool room with big screen TV outside of my bedroom, also has a nordic track and a lifecycle and a drum set.

Then downstairs there is a huge flat screen TV, I think it has to be 60 inches, DVD, cable, multiple couches, slot machines, big dining room, and an awesome kitchen that I wish I had.

There is also a deck out back that is cool and has a really nice grill on it.

The fridge and bar are completely stocked and I was told to help myself to a beer or wine or whatever I wanted. Plenty of snacks and everything around as well.

I don’t live this well at home!!

So I am playing pool, drinking a plain coke, watching law and order and have internet access. I like this much better than a hotel room!

The batteries are charging for my camera so I can take some pictures later on of this place.

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Nice Cool, New Toy, With Great Timing!

So I broke down and bought myself a Slingbox…

If you know what they are, they are pretty damn cool, if you do not, well here comes the techie explanation.

It is a small component that I have plugged in at home, it connects to my cable line, and then has a network cord that connects to my router for internet access.

Now, anytime I have an internet connection, I can turn on the Slingbox software, and it will connect me to the slingbox sitting at my house and I can watch tv on my laptop using that cable connection. Neat huh? So now, while I am stuck at the airport, I can watch tv, any channel I have at home, I can flip through and watch.

The key thing and first reason for buying this device is for Red Sox games. Since I am traveling all of the time I miss an absolute ton of games since they are either not nationally televised or I am in an area that has no NESN service, not to mention missing out on the day games because I am at work.

NO LONGER A PROBLEM!

Wooohooooo

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People Are Funny Sometimes…

So our flight outta Boston was delayed this morning and there were a ton of people on it who were getting connecting flights to places like St. Thomas, Montego Bay, Antigua, etc etc…

As soon as we landed, the cell phones were flipped out and they were on the phone with US Air to find out about re-booking or what they were going to do to fix the problem etc etc etc…

Geez people, why not wait til we at least park at the gate and you find out if your flights have actually left already? Are you not aware that there is always a ripple effect and they will delay flights leaving if there are a large number of people on another flight which is delayed in getting there. We are not the only flight, there are lots of other flights.

Relax, you are on a vacation! Stop stressing out!

but yeah… it is 12:30, I arrived in Philly at 10:30 and I am leaving on an 8:30 flight.

I would go rent a car and drive to Westfield, PA(Middle of F’in nowhere by the way) but that will take me 6 hours, and not like i would be able to actually do any work once I get there, so screw it…. I will sit here, eat my free dinner later on and surf the web….

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Humor… Radio in MN…

That accent you heard in Fargo, yeah, totally represents things out here.

Not to say that people do not make fun of the Boston accent, but to listen to 3 or 4 people talking about things on the radio and hearing that inflection and phrase….

“ohhh yaaaa” repeatedly over and over again while discussing pop stars and Hollywood is rather humorous to listen to, and then you throw in some uber christian sub content to it and you have a grand old time.

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ALMOST!!! I Almost Let It Happen…

I almost let laziness and desperation allow me to completely abandon my personal standards for dinner and food…. There is absolutely NOTHING around here to eat for dinner, fast food is basically it! Not even a Chili’s or Applebee’s around here!

So yeah… I ended up getting a Little Caesars pizza and some crazy bread…..

However, I almost let my standards drop due to curiosity… similar to last week when I pulled into the wrong parking lot and almost ate at a Red Lobster instead of going to the correct parking lot, tonight, I almost went to a Long John Silvers tonight.

My God I am from NEW ENGLAND, I have always refused to eat at a seafood fast food restaurant chain, and I almost let myself… I was strong though… I resisted the laziness and found something else… not exactly healthy… but something that does not compromise my own personal standards of places to eat….

I couldn’t even find a local place to eat that did not look totally rat or cockroach infested or cost $50 a plate for dinner.

RIDICULOUS!

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How Do You Start Off a Crappy Day?

Go down to breakfast, get a nice big heaping plate of fresh sliced fruit and some yogurt and a fresh made waffle with strawberries on it.

Then, on the way to your table, trip and drop the waffle on the floor with the strawberries and whipped cream down, and then when you get to the table with the fruit, you take a nice big bite and there is the very strong flavor of dirt on the fruit, the cantaloupe, the honeydew, the pineapple, and the strawberries.

and the OJ had waaay too much pulp, some pulp is ok, but when you need to chew your OJ because of the volume of pulp… that is just wrong and gross.

but the danish that I took with me out the door was tasty at least, so that slightly made up for it all.

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I Saw The Best License Plate!

“I KNOW”

that was it!

I think it would be perfect for me!!

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Crack Den Red Roof Inn

So I am in a crack den Red Roof Inn, although since this is the midwest right now, it is probably more likely a meth den more than a crack den.

The door to my room has previously been busted in by the cops or the DEA or someone since I can tell by the mark where the battering ram hit the door…..

I am pleasantly surprised at the time though, it only took me 9 hours to get here from Boston, and that included 2 stops for gas, and dropping off a kid in Hartford on my way.

That being said, i am pretty disappointed in the PT Cruiser I have as a rental, while it was excellent at doing donuts in the parking lot of the Red Roof Inn, it is very poor on gas, 2.5 tanks of gas to get here. I know my car could have done it in probably 1.5 tanks, this thing only gets about 23 or 24 MPG, pretty pathetic if you ask me!

I drove through PA on 84, and then 80 to get here. PA is pretty damn depressing to drive through in the winter. I hope it is better during the summer, otherwise I have pity on it.

ummmmm oh yeah… I felt kind bad for the girl at Subway in some PA town where I stopped for gas and got a sub for dinner, she was short and cute but you could totally tell she was pissed off at the two girls who were working the gas station register partially because they were doing basically nothing, and partially because you could tell they were the “popular girls” in terms of a high school type of thing, but that was only because they were probably ho’s, they looked like ho’s, and they had all the sleazy looking “gangsta” guys stopping by to say high and flirt with them.

I so wish I had a black light to check this bed out before I go to sleep in it… although it is probably best that I do not have that otherwise I would probably not sleep!

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