No mass shooting in Fredericksburg (4/17/2023)

“No mass shooting today!” Those were the first words I dared to say to my wife when I called her this past Tuesday night from my hotel room in Fredericksburg. We just had another one the day before, now in Louisville. I had driven to Fredericksburg the day before, and that Monday evening I eventually had to turn the TV off. I had enough of it! It was so depressing; I did not even go out for dinner. I bought a tray of cheeses, nuts, and cranberries to snack on, a kombucha, and a four pack of beer (oatmeal raisin cookies porter) at Wegmans. So, when I got to my room at around 5:30, I had the kombucha and by 7 pm I had my cheese tray and a beer. Life was too depressing to go out and somehow enjoy myself in a restaurant.

I had set out with grand ideas of where I was going for dinner, but good plans are there to be squashed by a nut with an assault rifle and I just did not feel like celebrating my last visit to that town. Instead, I wrote the draft for the report on my Wytheville visit.

I actually enjoyed the cheese. It somewhat reminded me of my hitchhiking days though the northwestern part of France. I did that the year I decided to drop out of high school and somehow snuck into college. Crazy to think about it. This high school dropout somehow weaseled his way into college and eventually ended up earning a Ph.D. But I still think fondly about my trip to Dieppe, France, and the surrounding countryside. Yup, the long-term memory is the last thing to go, or so they say!

Back to Fredericksburg. I had two classes there with only 15 people in each. It is nice to be able to go more one-on-one. Moreover, I am finding that I have been going more off on tangents, embellishments lately. Oh, I am not lying at all, but I like to tell stories and maybe reminiscing is a better word. I have become more nostalgic these past weeks. It makes me wonder, is it old age, or is it my way of saying goodbye? Oh my, that is what I have been doing in this goodbye series as well, haven’t I? My blog posts have mellowed.

To continue, the next days, breakfast was at Panera’s and at the hotel (Hilton), and lunch was at a Taste on Spice (Indian) and again at Panera’s. The hotel breakfast is way too expensive for what you get, and I will not do it again. For the rest no complaint.

The one dinner I had was at a local brewery (6 Bears and a Goat) and it was not bad. Service was terribly slow. When I visit a place, I prefer a table or a booth instead of eating at the bar. I had to wait 15 minutes to get service, then another 15 to 20 minutes to get two samplers and another 10 to get my beer. However, then I ordered food, and it was there in 5 minutes. No time to finally enjoy my beer, or multiple. I decided to order dessert (ice cream); that took another 25 minutes, which got me worried it had melted under the heating lamp in the kitchen. However, I could at least have a coffee stout as a second beer for dessert. The menu told me it came in 5 and 12 once servings, but they waitress told me that the menu was wrong and forced me to order a 12 once stout. Considering the wait time for the ice cream, this was not a bad idea. Suffice it to say, while I usually tip 20 to 22%, this time I tipped only 18%. While the beer and food were decent, the service was off, the place was probably way understaffed.

As I mentioned above, the classes I teach are becoming different. Folks wish me happy retirement. Some applaud, I get handshakes, and even hugs. Folks tell me that they are going to miss me, that I am the best teacher they ever had. I take it all in stride, with a grain of salt. It is all very nice to hear; but soon I’ll be forgotten. However, I will not forget my time with this program, my teaching and hopefully some of the good I have been doing for the environment.

I have been fascinated by Walmart parking lots lately.  Now I own a camper and we plan to go across the country once we retire, stopping over in a Walmart parking lot is an option.  Even here in this somewhat upscale shopping area it seems that Walmart allows people to camp out.  This is great since there are nice restaurants nearby, the Panera, Starbucks, and restrooms for early mornings.

The goodbye tour continues, Lynchburg. (3/29/2023)

Last week’s Jan’s farewell tour brought me to Lynchburg. I have written so much about this town. I speculated about good old Jerry Falwell and his kinky hobby of watching his wife in bed with younger studs. I wrote about my secret perversion of watching young female students in skimpy outfits studying the bible at Panera’s or Starbucks. I wrote about my pain of visiting Lynchburg the day we had to put Jake the dog to sleep, my visit to a new hotel, and so on.

Lynchburg has been one of my richest subjects to write about in my blogs. In other words, traveling there, “what was there to write about?” Or so I thought. Please understand, I like this town, even though it is somewhat conservative, courtesy of Liberty University and its location in the center of the state. The downtown has a great vibe, some neat restaurants and two microbreweries to boot.

My first evening was somewhat boring. Google sent me the regular way and after checking into the hotel and a brief rest, I went to grab a beer a Starhill. This brewery serves great beer, but is just not very exciting to me. But I had to visit them since this was a goodbye trip.

Another must visit was Bootleggers. This is a sophisticated burger and bourbon joint with a nice view. Lynchburg has a boardwalk of sorts, high up with a view along which there are restaurants and apartments. Bootleggers is one of them. I noticed that huge burgers still turn my stomach after I consumed about half of one. It tasted great, but it is just too much. Beer selection was fair. Desert was great. A three-and-a-half-star place for me (out of five). It was a cold walk back to the hotel; some claimed it was the coldest evening of the winter.

The second day was more exciting, at least after teaching. I met a friend for beer. He had a thumb drive for me with pictures that I want to use for a presentation that I will be giving after my retirement. Well, he ran into a friend who had heard about me and literally greeted me with “Oh my god, so you are the famous Jan.” This gentleman used to be the director of public works in the area and all his staff had gone through my classes and mentioned me. He had now gotten an even more important position iin town. A little later another gentleman showed up who turned our the be the director of the school district. We just had a fun time sitting around the table drinking a brew and talking about different things.

Once the party was over, I stopped over at my favorite Japanese restaurant for a ramen dinner and just had a very satisfying late afternoon and dinner. It was a shame that my regular companion Doug who lives in town could not be there this time. He had to teach elsewhere. But I had fun. Just a good few days to remember the times I stayed in Lynchburg.

The view from my table at Bootleggers.

Charlottesville (3/10/2023)

This week’s goodbye tour took me to Charlottesville. It has been a while. Our previous scheduler always complained that Charlottesville was so expensive for us to stay at, moreover, it was thrown in the western region of the state on our schedule, and it showed that we were having too many classes out west. I always tried to argue that the town is very central and could pull in a lot of students from everywhere. Luckily our new scheduler, Lee was easy to convince.

Truthfully, I think I was correct, the class pulled in students from Woodstock (VA), Hampton, Richmond, Culpeper, Appomattox, and the region around Charlottesville. It was good to have folks in the class that I had not seen in a while.

The nice thing was that I had a social calendar while in town. Usually during my travels, I am alone, and since I am somewhat of an introvert, I do not mind eating on my own in a restaurant and being alone. I love to people watch, or even maybe talk with folks next to me. Some trips I make with my colleague Doug, who might take over some of my classes when I retire in June. However, while I was alone on this trip, I had people to meet and talk to. The first evening I met with old friends from Newport News who moved to Charlottesville some 7 years ago. Then the first day of classes the guys from Albemarle County invited me to go out to lunch with them. That evening I met an ex-colleague for dinner. The second (which was the last day) I had lunch with a colleague who was driving through town after her appearance in traffic court nearby. Wow, what a life for a loner introvert.

I just realized that I did not take any photographs in Charlottesville this time around, so this blog will become a restaurant/hotel review. I basically have two main hotel chain brands I stay at; one is the Holiday Inn and the other the Hilton. While the Hilton is more luxurious, I find that some of the Holiday Inn allow dogs in their hotels. Since we are dog owners and now, we are in the process on buying a conversion van and are considering some serious (semi) RV-ing, I need to accumulate hotel points in a chain that allows me to bring dogs. You get it, I stayed at the Holiday Inn near the I-64 interstate highway. I have always liked the place, and it has only gotten better, except it has also gotten more crowded. So crowded in fact that it was difficult to find a parking spot. Reading about boondockers or folks that travel in RVs from free-to-free sites, I am wondering if there were a few staying here in the parking lot. Folks were having charcoal grills lit in the back of their trucks and having fun. More power to them for not getting caught by the hotel staff, if that was the case.

So where did I eat (I am not going to report on breakfast)? In order:

• The Beer Run
• Bodo’s Bagels
• Chang Thai
• Durty Nelly’s Pub

They were all different and all pretty good for different reasons. The Beer Run was difficult to find for an out-of-towner like me. There was hardly any signage and the parking appeared below the building, which I never found in the dark. As you can expect, beer was plentiful, and my eyes went to chicken pot pie. This was more or less a deconstructed chicken pot pie, but nonetheless very good. While their draft beer selection was decent, their bottled and canned beer selection was out of this world. When I mentioned to locals in my class that I ate there the night before, many told me that next time I need to try the nachos and the stout infused brownies.

I had eaten at Bodo’s before and it is still great, service is fast. I had their lox bagel. My only complaint is that it was messy. The cream cheese was a little runny.

Chang Thai was great. It appears to be a relatively new place. I actually have photographs of an inspection I did of the place when it was under construction. Good service, good food, at least what my friend and I had. I am a duck basil fanatic, so I could not skip that when I found it on the menu. They allowed us to sit there for two hours and catch up. No pressure.

Durty Nelly’s is something else. You step into the place, and it is dark. When your eyes get used to the place you figure out that it is a dive bar. The music of the day was some good old-fashioned blues: Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and alike. I was in heaven. I had a Reuben, and truthfully, it was so-so to OK, but one day, a few days after I am still alive. I got fed and I can tell you it was good. I would love to go back for a beer and just hang. The food was fair, but maybe dinner is better.

Again, no photographs this time, but all places I would go back to and visit again when I return to Charlottesville. But then there are so many other restaurants to try in this great town.

December 2022 (12/15/2022)

December: it is that time of the year again. Many of the “How to blog” websites tell you it is time to write a year in review post. Should I, or shouldn’t I? I am writing this as I am sitting in my hotel room in Lynchburg, under much better circumstances than my last visit to the area around the end of March. It was the same day we put our dog Jake to sleep, and I had a rough time driving and staying here. I drank and ate too much that evening, and it wasn’t even satisfying. Oh well, isn’t that the case that many drunks or overeaters feel afterwards? Did I learn anything from that? Tonight, I did, I just had one and a half beer and some nice Japanese food. Back in my room before 7 and now behind the keyboard.

While I am not sure if I will publish this post tonight or even during my stay here in Lynchburg tonight or tomorrow evening, I do feel compelled to write a little bit about the year and about life in general. Life this year has been good. We are back from COVID (although I read it is back in an upswing); we are wondering at times if we had it in June when we suffered from a summer cold but tested negative, once. I decided to take part in a medical experiment and took an experimental RSV vaccine. Our daughter got married and we are still paying for it. Oh well, it was worth it and fun. A week before the wedding we moved my 95-year-old father-in-law from independent living to assisted living. In other words, July was an absolute blur. It was an insane three weeks for us, but it was Nietzsche (I think) who said, “What does not kill me, makes me stronger.” We definitely gained a lot of strength in July, and we are still drinking wedding beer, or better I am using it as the liquid in some of the bread I am baking, in particular my rye bread.

From this year’s posts you can see that I still travel for work and teach. Again, today my supervisor wanted to know how long he can still rely on my or in other words, when I will retire. Loyal readers know that I struggle with this. I enjoy teaching, but then I feel I also need to spend more time with my bonsai trees. I have a greenhouse now, and it looks like that I am getting more serious about those darn little trees. Yes, I have been dabbling around with them for the past 34 years, and in a way, so little to show for. For all those years, I should have had some magnificent trees; but I have ignored them for extended periods during those years. They were pot bound and that does not help their development.

So yes, I am still kicking and screaming, working, complaining that I am getting old and decrepit, politically active, baking bread, hiking, forest bathing, and bonsai growing. I love my beers, although it seems that my taste is changing from IPAs to black lagers. I am getting bored with American restaurant food (I assume that this is because I am eating out so much during my travels) and I am starting to like Japanese food best.

While not a true a look back on the past year, I hope this is somewhat of a review of my life to-dated. As I alluded to in a similar post last year, maybe it isn’t very Buddhist to look back (and live or dwell in the past). It may be better to live in the present and prepare for the road ahead. As I recently mentioned, I am in a good place mentally, I have been feeling happy lately. Hopefully 2023 will be as good or even better. But who knows, I might get inspired to write another post this year. Cheers!

Having breakfast at the hotel (The Virginian by Hilton in Lynchburg).  This is absolutely a nice hotel.  I visited two microbreweries: 3 Roads which was OK and Star Hill, a satalite brewery from the main one in the Charlottesville area which was great.  Lunch was in Rustburg and dinner at El Jefes Tacos (good) and Mizumi Japanese Bistro (absolutely great). 

October travels and what's next (10/24/2022)

While I have been (or will be) teaching three different weeks this month, I only had one overnight trip. One trip was to Hampton, approximately 20 minutes from my home, and I am going to Richmond this week. Richmond is my home office, and although it is an hour and twenty minutes’ drive, I am not allowed to stay overnight, at least not on the boss. However last week I spent some time in Portsmouth, which is technically closer to home, but further away from the office.  Moreover, the traffic here in the Hampton Roads could make the commute 2 hours although it ordinarily may take only 35 or 40 minutes.  Hence, the need to stay overnight at that side of the tunnel. 

The Portsmouth class was not scheduled. We had some turnover at work, and I needed to pinch hit as you might call it. So, I spent 3 days helping to teach Erosion and Sediment Control Plan Review, a course I used to teach a lot, seven or more years ago. Naturally at the end of the day I need to come down and try some of the microbreweries on the path to my hotel, the Hilton in Suffolk. Both breweries were new to me.

On the first day I tried the MoMac brewing company. The beer is decent and the guy behind the bar was talkative which was great. I really enjoyed their Schwartz Beer. Their IPAs tastes good. All fine. It was here that I received the word that the assistant brewer from MoMac will becoming the brew master at one of my favorite microbreweries in my area: Capstan.

The second day was at Harbor Trail Brewing Company, not far from MoMac. Harbor Trail seems to be a very young establishment (3 months old), but boy, I love their black IPA and their regular IPA was good too. The girlfriend of the soon to-be new Capstan brew master was behind the bar, and he popped in as well, so I had a great time. Having to drive to the motel after teaching a full day, I don’t dare to drink much more than one beer and a small taster of the other.

This post serves a quick update on two breweries and my travels this month, so no literary masterpiece again. I have three more trips planned for November and December. Next month it will be Winchester and in December I will be going to Virginia Beach and back to Lynchburg. That will do it for the year. I am looking forward to Winchester. I have not been there since before COVID and I love strolling downtown and eating at some of the restaurants. Pre-COVID (four or so years ago) there wasn’t really a nice microbrewery with a good atmosphere in town (or at least I don't remember them). I remember two pizza joints with their own beer, but hopefully they have gone up in the world. I will report out.  Weather permitting, I tend to stop for a walk/hike either at Sky Meadows State Park or the State Arboretum, on the way out there.  I really love those two places.

At least there will be plenty to report about the other two towns. So, stay tuned my friends, the quest for the perfect microbrew, restaurants and just travel will continue.

The Schwarz Beer at MoMac was really tasty.  The had two IPAs that they would like you to compare.  Skeeter Juice and one for the Aussie name of mosquitos (Mozzie Juice).  Interestingly for me, I could only taste the Mozzie Juice which is made with Australian Hops on the tip of my tongue and no where else in my mouth.  I never had that with any other food or beverage.  A strange experience.

A view from the bar at Harbor Trail Brewing.  I really like this place.  Google maps had a difficult time putting me here since it is on a corner of an intersection.  Again some good beer here!

Hotels 10. More beer and Manassas (5/26/2022)

What was going to be an uneventful or even a somewhat boring training trip to Manassas turned out to be another trip where the news and therefor the television was dominated by a horrendous news story. Not long ago it was the Russian invasion of Ukraine; however, that was completely pushed out of the headlines and the news was dominated by the massacre in Uvalde, Texas and the stupid Republicans who immediately tried to close ranks and started politicizing it and calling for more guns on the street and turning schools into fortresses instead of places of learning. While at night in my room I usually watch HGTV or the Food Channel, or maybe one of my bonsai YouTubes, this time I could not switch away from the news about the carnage, really not learning much more, but just getting everything repeated over and over and over.

Enough! On a more pleasant note, it had been approximately two and a half year since I visited Manassas. Since the training venue was in Gainesville, I should have probably stayed there; however, that area is ultramodern with mostly chain restaurants stuck in strip malls and an ultra-modern town center where I was already getting lunch these two days. So why stay there? But instead of staying at the Holiday Inn Express, where by the way, I did some of my more creative thinking and writing <here> (I actually wrote that post while staying at the Holiday Inn Express), I opted for the Hilton Garden Inn. Honestly, the hotel was great. I had absolutely no complaints about it. It had the regular post-COVID things like the restaurant was closed on Monday evening, but I generally do not eat in the hotels I stay in, so that was not a big thing; no bed making and waste basket emptying between days; and the worse no coffee pod refurbishing. So I went down to the reception desk to ask more coffee pods and they did not have any! I am an addict, I need my coffee at night, otherwise I wake up with a headache. Finally, the breakfast was buffet style and fairly mediocre. I would still rate it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

A different hotel view this time, but still inspired by the Hopper exhibit.

The part of Manassas I stayed in had changed a bit. It appeared that some restaurants had permanently closed. The Giant Supermarket seemed to have closed its doors as well. It also looked like the Mexican (or Latin American) restaurants had proliferated. While during past visits I frequented these establishments <here>, I somehow avoided them this trip. I wanted something different.

Being somewhat of a microbrewery connoisseur or reviewer lately (see my Wytheville posting), I wanted to go that route. My usual issue is that most of my visits fall on Monday and Tuesday evening and a lot of microbreweries are not open on those days. Googling microbreweries I came up with a few in the area and man, was I happy that 2Silos was closed on Mondays. I just went to look for kicks, but this place is a miniature Disney land or something and absolutely not my style. It is commercial, has not funky vibe and if you are really into the microbrew scene I recommend that you avoid this place like the plague (or is it COVID). I ended up at Heritage Brewing Co. just outside downtown Manassas, and it was love at first sight. Then I tasted the beer and I was hooked. They make some good hooch. Good enough for me to return the second day. Tell you the truth, the staff was nice and personable too, and that helps. Definitely a 4.8 out of 5 stars from me here. I am not sure why I am holding back the 0.2, but as they say, only Allah is perfect, and that dude doesn’t even drink alcohol, I am told.

Heritage Brewing Co. is a must visit when you are into microbrews and in Manassas.  Absolutely worth a visit!

Dinner both evenings was an experience. The first evening I ate at a fish place. Here I was hoping for a nice healthy fish meal at “Long time no Sea” which appeared to be a chain specializing in some kind of seafood bake. It wasn’t bad, but not what I expected, 2.5 stars out of 5. The second evening; however, dinner was at Vera, an Ethiopian restaurant. I was in heaven, lamb stew, injira, and eating with your hands. Great flavors; 4.3 out of 5.

My injira with lamb stew.  I had already taken my first few bites, hence the nibbled appearance of the injira.

Concluding, except for all the news, not a bad visit, I enjoyed myself. Teaching was good, great students, good beer, decent food, and a very nice hotel room.

Motels 9. Wytheville and beer (5/11/2022)

This week’s stop was Wytheville, Virginia. I have written a lot about my visits to this town <here>, <here>, <here>, and <here>. But my favorite post is here; however, be warned that one is R-rated. Folks scheduling my travel with me always joke that Wytheville is one of my favorite places. Now, I had not been in Wytheville for probably two and a half year, and the visit would be a good illustration what happened to or changed with a more rural conservative town in the age of COVID. Not much. Actually, looking at Google maps prior to leaving, I rejoiced and told my wife “Hey they now have a second microbrewery in Wytheville (more about that later).

Trying to book a decent motel in town was somewhat frustrating. My two favorite places no longer offer state rates, which would mean that I would have to supplement my stay out of my own pocket. Since I was staying three nights that would mean something close to at least another $35 to $45 for the stay. This is ridiculous, so I was required to find a new favorite motel. The Hampton Inn by Hilton was nice enough to still charge the state rate. Rooms were clean and actually it was less than 2 minutes removed from the place I was teaching. As you have probably noticed, I do not play favorites when it comes to motels, I try to spread my stays out between chains. This is based on a number of factors, including location (in town and the proximity to the place I am teaching), past experience in the town, and the chain that I accumulate loyalty points with. However, the stay in this motel was new and I liked it. The Hampton Inn was clean, well maintained, staff was friendly; so, what was not to like? I will come here again when returning to Wytheville.

Checking my company phone for some recent emails before hitting the road.

Driving to the western part of the state has not changed much. Interstate 81 is still insanely crazy. It is one of the major connectors between the East Coast and the South. I noticed that in fall and spring the hotels in Wytheville always had a great number of vehicles with Canadian license plates parked in front of it. I guess that why they are called the snowbirds. However, the truck traffic is insane as well. Thank goodness the roads around Roanoke have been widened and more is coming. This should help a little with this bottleneck.

There is Public Radio almost all the way on the trip to Wytheville. You may need to do some searching, but you can find them. Searching by itself can be interesting. You hit the obligatory religious stations with either fiery services or pious/ glorifying music. On the AM, I found a station that read obituaries which was somewhat interesting for at least 5 minutes. You can also find sports talk (not really interesting to me), a Spanish station, and your regular right-wing talk/hate stations. I wrote about this previously as well <here>, but since the leaked documents from the Supreme Court, listening to these stations was somewhat amusing/infuriating. The craziest thing I heard was Glen Beck proclaiming that liberal men were pro-abortion because that made it easy for them to pick up women for casual sex. If abortion would become illegal, women would no longer be willing to sleep around. According to this jerk, this is the only reason men could be pro-abortion. I’ll leave it there, but as you might understand from a previous post or two, I do not agree.

Thunderstorms abound on this trip, so no walks or bike rides on the New River Trail as I was able on previous years (just look for Draper in the keywords). Oh well, so I spent more time exploring and comparing the two microbreweries in town. Now I don’t consider myself an alcoholic; however, I do like my beers and wine. In previous posts I have compared wineries in the state, and I have reviewed the occasional microbrewery. I also review the motels I stay in, as I have done above.

The first evening I visited “the Seven Sisters Brewery”. This is a large place on Maine Street and my first impression was that it was deserted. I was there alone for a while and finally two or three folks came in. Actually, the beer was good, the DIPA was my favorite, followed by the bock and the lager. This is surprising for me; I am usually not a bock or a lager drinker. The atmosphere was good, and I met the brew master, who seems very knowledgeable about brewing. On my return two days later folks who frequent the brewery were surprised that he appeared sober when I met him; probably a good sign for a brew master that he samples his beer. This brewery is new to me and was not there when I visited two and a half years ago. I did go back my third evening and there was a larger crowd; plus the beer was still very tasty.

My beer flight at the Seven Sisters

The “Seven Dogs Brew Pub” was on my agenda for thee second day. These guys have 20 beers on their menu and these beers were all brewed on premises. Truthfully, I think they overextended themselves. While not bad, some of their beers were plain mediocre at best. I often see that with restaurants as well. When the menus are large, the food is average, because they cannot concentrate on doing their best. This place has a full kitchen, and the food is ok. I visited the place two and a half years ago, and I think they have gone down a bit.

The entrance to the Seven Dogs.  Absolutely not bad, but right now not my favorite in town.

I asked what the relationship was between the two sevens in the names, and there is none. Thank goodness, the Seven Sisters has a food truck, and you can get food there as well. To me the Seven Sisters was my hands down favorite of the two. I think I will go back there on my next visit and avoid the Seven Dogs. Although, the Seven Dogs operate the pizza joint down the street, which is pretty darn good and what beer doesn’t taste good with pizza?

Hotels 7 and 8, Boy what a shower. (4/21/2022)

Traveling doesn’t stop. Ever since I wrote about my last visit to Lynchburg, I have been in Fredericksburg and the Blacksburg area. My observations are interesting; while the places are great, the hotels are marginal. But let me go into more details.

I stayed at two different chains in these two places. I stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn in Fredericksburg and a Holiday Inn in the Blacksburg area. Both rooms were clean, the beds were good, and things were fairly good. It surprised me initially that there was no room tidying any longer during the day in any of the hotels when you stay more than one night. In the old days, you came back from a long day and the trash can was emptied, the bed was made, and you had new pods for the coffee maker. Now, I am no slob, and I can use my towel two days in a row, so I am fine. However, a clean waste basket would be nice. Another thing I noticed, and this was at both hotels, the restaurants were closed on Monday night. This was not a huge thing since both places were located in an area that has a lot of restaurants nearby.

Breakfast at the Hilton was a bit below par, so much so that I skipped it the next day and went to Panera. It was just too expensive for what you got. With the current economy it saves the hotels money on staff and hopefully keeps the prices low. Thank goodness indications are that unemployment numbers are low and there seems to be a dearth of hospitality workers.

At the Hilton Garden Inn.  This time I had a better view from the 5th floor.  I actually got to watch fireworks one evening.

I had a similar experience at the Holiday Inn. Not that I ever eat there at night, but the restaurant was closed on Monday night, and the for-pay breakfast was expensive and self-service. The scariest part was getting in the shower. The floor around the down drain was soft, so soft that standing in the area made me fear that I would sink through the floor to the room below. Actually, my room was above the pool, and that would have been a riot, a nude, soapy dude falling through the ceiling in the deep end. What an entry!

Looking out of my second-floor window from the Holiday Inn in Christiansburg.  In the background you can see the Huckleberry bike trail.  I did not bring my bike because the forecast was for very cold weather.  Both photos were inspired by the Hopper exhibit I visited a few years ago

Concluding things in both hotels looked a bit run down and not maintained. Yes, I am sure that Covid is partially to blame for it, including the lack of available personnel. Overall, the visits to the localities were great. It was nice to visit areas I had not been to in 2 to 3 years. Great to try old and new restaurants, see students I had not seen for 2 years and to see spring in the mountains of Virginia. Overall, things have changed a bit, but not for the worst, just different in some places. Fun to see, as long as you don’t sink through the shower floor.

Return to the scene of the crime - Hotels 6 (3/29/2022)

It was almost exactly two years later, actually two years and nine days that I returned to the scene of the crime. On my drive into town, I dove down Concord Turnpike towards downtown. Nothing much appeared to have changed during the two years that I had been away. When the road leveled out I passed a number of cars and trucks seemingly parked on the side of the road and then I discovered my mistake, the railroad crossing in the industrial area just before you hit downtown. While turning around and pulling up behind the last vehicle was an option, the line I had passed was long and the train appeared to be just going back and forth as in it was maneuvering or adding carts. Google told me there was a work around and I went back up the hill at the crossing on Winston Ridge Street to Winchester Street. This was an adventure in itself. It was an area I had never seen before, hilly, woody and as some may describe it, definitely on the other side of the tracks.

But finally I made it downtown. Not much had changed there either. The perpetual construction was still ongoing as I made my way to the hotel. Then I noticed that one of the restaurants changed from Mexican to Japanese, interesting. Arriving at the hotel I also noticed that the road that was previously one way was converted to two way traffic, again. So things do change over time. Parking was still valet but now there were plastic sheets at the check-in counter between the guests and the persons that check you in. I do not think it was bullet proof, and not even sure how virus proof they were; when I hung my clothes hanger on it with my shirts, the darn thing moved a few inches.

I had a rough time that day. The morning we had to put our dog to sleep, after he had been my (our) faithful companion for over 13 years. Then I had to drive to this place, at times tearing up or at least with my eyes still burning. Then to think this was a two year’s anniversary of sorts; a return to the scene of the crime. So I needed to celebrate or was it commiserate? At least one microbrewery had sprouted up in the two years I had not been in this town. It was within walking distance, so here I went!

Three Roads Brewing Company in an old car dealership.  They had some decent beers a gal behind the bar who was a good listener and a puppy that came to visit that I was allowed to pet.  It was within walking distance from my hotel.

Ok, ok, what place am I writing about? Lynchburg! It was two years ago, when I came out of Lynchburg when the Governor told us that we were going on a 30 days quarantine for COVID. Yes, I have been teaching in the classroom since early February, this return after almost exactly two years felt so auspicious. I was troubled by the death of Jake, my trusty dog, and it still bugs me. I have Jasper and I love him to death, but still. I guess I am just getting old and sentimental. Oh well.

Despite all its faults, like Liberty University and its related conservatism (every Republican wannabe presidential candidate will visit that university), I really like the area, the downtown, etc. It is pleasant to teach there together with a colleague who lives in town and to meet old friends who I have taught and interacted with for 13 plus years.

In the two years Liberty has had some fun. I have written a lot about the sexual repression at the university, about my secret voyeurism when sitting at Starbucks watching young girls studying the Bible, and of course about Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s escapades in cuckoldry (at least that is what I think it is). I understand he is currently suing the University, or maybe it is settled, I am really not following it that much. I am just amazed or fascinated by the fact how hypocritical a lot of the conservatives and religious folks are. I guess they are human too.

As you can see, a lot of thoughts and feelings came flooding back to me two years after my last visit. My return to the scene of my “last crime” was not as much fun as I had hoped it would be, because of my depression about Jake, I explored too little and drank too much that first day (my poor liver and brain). But still, it is worth documenting.

The Virginian Lynchburg a Curio Hotel by Hilton.  Here I am in the lobby and you can see the plastic sheets.  Very friendly staff, I really like this place.  The doorman told me I looked like Einstein; what else do I want?  All hotels photos were taken to mimic Hopper's work. 

Me in my room.  My only complaint was the view: walls and a tiny sliver of sky and across the street.

Hotels 4 and 5. A view from the road, Fairfax and Staunton (3/11/2022)

My travel and in person teaching has resumed in earnest. Driving to the locations, in motel rooms and even in the classes there is no way of avoiding of being exposed to and talking about the stupid war that Russia is waging in Ukraine. It appears that everyone in my classes is willing to accept the higher gasoline prices and know whom to blame for it: the Russian president (more about this below). But, as I mention in a previous post it is good to be back out. Since the last post on teaching, I have taught live in Richmond (no overnight travel), Fairfax and in Staunton (all of course in Virginia, more about that later in this post, as well).

At the Homewood Suites by Hilton i  West Falls Church in Northern Virginia.  This is a great place, were it not for the view from my room which was of the back of a strip mall and dumpsters.

No this is not me after drinking a beer, but I was demonstrating how the timer on your camera works to my students in a photography class that I taught this week.

In the meantime, it has been difficult to tear myself away from the television these past few weeks to do something productive, like writing a blog post. The war in Ukraine, the atrocities that Putin and his army is inflicting on that country and its people (like bombing a maternity hospital and killing innocent women and children) is keeping me in its grip. What is really upsetting me are the falls pretexted that he is using for the war and from what I am hearing the way he is preventing the people in Russia of finding out that it is all based on a big lie.

There are no Nazis in Ukraine that are killing ethnic Russians. The president of Ukraine is Jewish and calling him a Nazi is an insult to the Jewish people. Soldiers are killing civilians, and they are slowly becoming war criminals by the order of just one deranged crazy person: Putin. On top of all this countries like China, North Korea and Vietnam are telling their folks the same shit. Honestly, the international community should issue an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes and revoke his diplomatic status. When he sets foot in any other country, arrest him and haul him in front of the International Court in The Hague!

Enough ranting. My travel did afford me some distraction, including the ability to try out some different restaurants and different beers and believe it or not, wine. For example in Fairfax, I got to eat Lebanese and Korean, while in Staunton I ate an exotic grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of tomato soup that I washed down with a glass of wine at a wine bar named the Yelping Dog. The second night an old friend and his wife took me to their favorite local pizza shop. In other words, it was a somewhat cheesy week for me but enjoyably so. I even visited a new microbrewery for me: the Seven Arrows Brewery in Augusta County (Waynesboro). They make some darn tasty beer!

The red IPA by Seven Arrow.  A very nice a good tasting one!

The final hotel photo!  This one was taken in Staunton at the Holiday Inn. A nice hotel, I have been coming here many times.  I love the view of the golf course.  All the photographs I take of me in my rooms based on an exhibit we saw a few years ago at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on Edward Hopper the American Painter. 

The one thing that I found to be different now is the room service. I always stay two nights in a room. Pre-COVID folks would come in your room to clean it, give you clean towel and make your bed. Now, probably to save money, this does not happen. I have to go downstairs to ask for more coffee for my in-room coffee maker. I think it is fine, I am sure it is difficult to get good help for the wages these hotels are willing to pay.

In both overnight travel cases; however, the drive was bad. At those times, I miss Europe and the ability to jump on public transportation like the train and zip from point A to point B. We had a big storm this week and there were many trees down on the road between Charlottesville and Richmond. This meant tree cutters everywhere and traffic delays. The week before I was stuck in Northern Virginia traffic with bad tires that were losing air. C’est la vie.

As you can see here, just a very superficial update and in the hope that this blog still penetrates the Russian sensors (I used to have a lot of Russian readers) I wanted to let them know about the big lie that they are being told about the need for this war. As I mentioned in my past post, my heart goes out to the Ukrainian people and to the Russian folks as well, especially those who oppose this insane war but are afraid to express themselves.

Hotels 2: Lynchburg (3/13/2020)

Another trip out into the hinterlands of Virginia. This time I graced Lynchburg with a visit. Lynchburg’s claim to fame of course is Liberty University which was started by the reverent Jerry Falwell. Passing by Lynchburg over the past 20 years has been an amazing sight; that university has grown by leaps and bounds and is now ready to enter the big league. 

From what I understand, the university has its religious quirks. I am not sure about it all, and I will not describe it here, but as I understand it there seems to have a fairly strict religious ethical code and people are required to go to general assembly and religious gatherings. It is really interesting and almost perversely sexy to visit the local Starbucks and watch all the young college girls studying or discussing the bible; something this atheist does not encounter in many Starbucks shops around the State; and let me tell you, I visit a lot of Starbucks stores. 

All the conservative (read Republican) presidential candidates with any ambition make sure to stop by Liberty University and give a speech. Old Jerry died and Jerry Jr. is now in charge of the University; but they still pay their respect to the president of Liberty University. Recently, Mr. Falwell was in the news when he did not like the newly democratic state legislature and in particular their stance on gun control. Mr. Falwell suggested that parts of Virginia that did not agree with their decisions should succeed and join West Virginia. This made him the laughingstock of the state. Oh well. 

I took this photograph during my walk through downtown Lynchburg.  They have a great elevated walk, almost like a boardwalk but without the beach and the boards that overlook the James River valley.  There are all kinds of warehouses along the trail that are being reclaimed for more useful purposes including restaurants, shops, offices and condos(?).  I took this picture to mock the succession talks and to show I was still in Virginia.

So here I had to spend two nights in Lynchburg. I always used to stay at the Holiday Inn downtown. It is not the best place, but it is ok. I really love the downtown of Lynchburg; it has character, great restaurants, and safe to walk. I got an email from Holiday Inn about a month before my visit that they had broken ties with that particular hotel and the hotel was no longer part of the Holiday Inn chain. Since I accumulate loyalty points I decided to look if there was a Hilton downtown, the other hotel chain that I use. 

Hilton had a hotel downtown, the Virginian. The hotel is part of the Curio chain, something I had never tried. Well, I was not disappointed! This was a great place to hang out and to stay. What luxury. The hotel has a nice breakfast (and lunch?) counter with a restaurant bar on the roof. There is a nice restaurant on the lower level. I only tried the breakfast area and enjoyed it. The rooms are luxurious. You even get a robe although I really did not need it. The bed was great and in one-word, things were good. Being in town in a taller building traffic noise was somewhat amplified but it was all very tolerable. 

My "Hopper shot" of the motel room at the Curio by Hilton that I was staying in.  Again, I was very happy and satisfied with my stay at the hotel and in Lynchburg. 

The room without me and a better view of the bed.

The first night I ate alone at Bootleggers. This was the second time I ate there, and the food was good. Thank goodness they had something else than burgers on the menu. Their beer selection was great. The Depot grill was on tap for my second night. I was joined by my friend and colleague Doug, who lives in Lynchburg.  I had been avoiding this place since a disappointing visit 6 years ago. Funny how you do that. Well, they redeemed themselves. Dinner was enjoyable and the waitstaff was great. In all, I had a good two day visit to Lynchburg. 

Now for some depressing news. This will be my last trip for 30 days. The department I work for has cancelled all classes (and trips) for the next 30 days as part of the state of emergency in the effort to slow down the spread of the Corona virus and the associated COVID-19. So, my young hotel series is going on a hiatus. I will continue blogging and hopefully will come out alive on the other end.

Hotels 1: Fairfax (2/28/2020)

My travel season, or should I say travel year, has started. We usually have a slow January. Mine followed by six local workshops in late January and early February, and this week my travel started with a big bang: a three-day class in Fairfax. This meant three hotel nights and an almost five hour drive back home, last night. Now it is nose to the grindstone and teach my heart out.

Around president’s day my wife and I visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. They had a Hopper exhibit. The exhibit dealt with Hopper’s vision of the American hotels, motels and guest houses. 

A photo of me in front of a vignette at the museum depicting a Hopper scene.  This is really the scene that gave me the idea of this series.

One of my favorite pieces in the exhibit   Blue girl on black bed.  Not by Hopper, and sorry I did not write down the artist.

This gave me the idea of doing something similar to Hopper; take pictures in and of my motel room and maybe even describing the stay there. No, I do not want to make it a review. I have already done this at times when I wrote about the sounds next door while trying to go to sleep, and my fantasies about what happened in my room before I occupied it. If you search for the word travel in my blog, you find some other references, but these two are the clearest ones about motel room stays.

So this past visit to Fairfax was the first, and the Hilton Garden Inn where I stayed must have suspected something, because they rolled out the welcome mat for me. Something I do not deserve; I am only a minor member of their loyalty program. But the fridge was stocked with free goodies (darn, no beer) and there were plenty of fruit and candy bars for me to enjoy. Since I try to watch that elusive girlish figure of mine I did not touch it, although I did have an energy bar for breakfast one morning.

On my way up I had stopped by IKEA and in a weak moment I had bought one of their cheap bonsai trees ($14.94): a ginseng ficus. I brought the tree up to my room as my “emotional support plant.” I still wonder what the cleaning ladies thought of a customer who brought his own plant to his room, but I assume that they have seen stranger items in a room. I’ll refrain from speculating here.

Well, here I’ll post my first Hopper like picture. I already posted it on Instagram, but still for those of you who do not follow me there. Enjoy.

My version of a Hopper like view of my Hilton Garden Inn Hotel room in Fairfax.

Travelers and moonshine (9/4/2018)

So now and then the motel chain I frequent sends me a survey asking me what my impression was of the latest motel I stayed in during my travels throughout the state. While I am generally fairly satisfied with the Holiday Inn chain, their Express motels can be all over the map. My latest review reads: “Convenient Mediocrity.” Based on my latest stay, I really need to try to find a better motel chain in those areas where I can only find some hotels where I have that specific experience as my latest one. Maybe I should be more like Edward Abbey, and find a cabin in a mountain village as he describes in his book “Appalachian Wilderness: The Great Smoky Mountains.” He wrote:

In the restaurants blue gas fires burning under stacks of ceramic logs that look almost real until you get close. Omni present in the background that bland tapioca-like sound my wife calls ”department-store music.” Décor by Holiday Inn – all the motel lobby furnishings, all the restaurant tables and chairs and lighting fixtures, look as though they came from the same factory somewhere in Sothern California. Everything designed by a neurotic suffering from a severe case of social irrelevance.

What’s the alternative to this comfortable mediocrity? A grand European-style luxury that most of us would not be able to afford? Or a return to the mode of a century ago, coming into a mountain village on horseback, having a cold supper by lamplight in the cabin-kitchen of some morose mountaineer, while savage coon dogs howl, slaver and snarl on the other side of the door, and going to sleep in the early dark on a cornhusk matrass, prey to a host of bloodsucking vermin?

Which would you prefer? Which would I really prefer?

You won’t believe me but I’ll tell you: I fancy the latter, i.e., the horse, cabin, dogs and bugs. 

It would fit, sometimes. During my latest visit to the western part of the state (Appalachia) last week, one of my students handed me a McDonalds paper take out sack and told me to be careful with it. On further inspection it contained a mason jar filled with moonshine; a different kind of happy meal! Now that would fit right in with that mountain village cabin, the howling dogs and cornhusk matrass. He described it as moonshine (95 proof he told me) made from corn. I can just imagine the corn kernels making the libation and the husk making the place to sleep off the hangover, the after effects of drinking the results of the fermentation and distillation process of those ground up yellow seeds. I tasted it when I got home, it was somewhat syrupy and did not taste half bad! 

Moonshine anyone?  Chilled and ready to go.  I discarded the packaging.

The motel I stayed in in Fairfax is a sentimental favorite, although every time I end my visit it feels like I need to stay at the Hilton, which cost more-or-less the same and is a heck of a lot cleaner and more luxurious. Believe it or not, but I used the description "Convenient Mediocrity " before I read Abbey's words.

I have been coming to this motel for ten years. I have even been stuck in there during two snow storms. We had to cancel classes and I was imprisoned in a room at that place for more than 36 hours. Entertainment existed of either some panicking individuals on television discussing the current weather conditions in and around DC; another TV station with some superficial garbage masquerading as news or a show; a book or magazine I had brought with me; or some form of digital entertainment. At times I may actually have done some work. I eventually ended up trudging through 12 inches deep snow across the street to a Hooters restaurant for lunch. Honest to God, one of the few times in my life I have eaten at Hooters. I am a real testament that the Hooters chicken wings are not half bad. My waitress was Russian, and she was wearing some very skimpy revealing outfit while it was snowing outside. I somehow thought that to her it must have felt just like Moscow or Siberia in winter at that moment; it did not seem to faze her at all. My nightly dinner was at Red Lobster next to the motel. That was how far I ventured from the motel, I waited out the storm and extended my stay a day or two, so I could finish my class: a dedicated instructor, indeed. 

These snowstorms always seem to start around four in the morning and wind down around eight in the evening, to have reasonably clear roads by the next morning. One exception was what is still known as “snowmageddon” in the Washington DC area. I was stuck in that one as well in northern Virginia but not in that motel. That one struck at 3 pm and was so bad that by the time rush hour started everybody was stuck. I made it to my hotel and we ended up making snow men in the hotel parking lot.

Traveling can be fun and interesting. In previous posts I wrote about noisy neighbors and about some of my naughtier thoughts about the furnishings in motel and hotel rooms. I try to make the best of it. It can be lonely, that’s for sure. In the past, I was able to meet up with a good friend, break bread and have a pint with him. That has gotten a bit more difficult since he changed jobs. But I still don’t want to live like a hermit when traveling. It would be too easy to buy a TV dinner, order a pizza for delivery, or get Chinese take-out and mope in my room. For one, I hate to sleep in a room filled with the smell of stale food. Moreover, I hate to walk through a motel and see dirty dishes piled up in the halls. That’s not my style either. So off I go to a restaurant.

I generally do not eat in my motel or hotel. The places I stay are not of the highest class and the food is only average and predictable. I also like to people watch. Nothing better (or sad) than seeing a couple come in with their two kids. Sitting down at the table; hubby and wify grab their cell phone and start staring at it, not communicating with each other, nor their kids. Kids of course don’t have a phone or anything else; they just stare in front of themselves, they may talk to each other, but that is rare. They just sit there as logs, waiting for dinner to arrive, contemplating how best to become the best next mass murderer or high school shooter. Just some of the interesting and sad things one sees when traveling around. It aggravates and upsets me. However, as I mentioned before, traveling can have its good points too, especially when you get to enjoy nature, the sounds of nature next door, the sights or just the (fermented) results and tastes of nature. Cheers!

I actually had a chance to take a picture of this scene in the restaurant.  Father and mother are staring at their phones and had been doing that for a while.  The kids are bored and just staring ahead, not knowing what to do with themselves, waiting to be fed. 

Motel room DNA (6/25/18)

As most of my loyal readers know, I am a frequent traveler. I travel a lot for work and stay in motels and hotels. Most of my travels are in Virginia; however, I do travel out of state, but that is mostly for pleasure. We actually just got back from a trip to New England where we watched our daughter get her graduate degree in Divinity from Harvard. Afterwards we spent a few days running around in the western part of Massachusetts, southern Vermont and New Hampshire. Most of the hotels were courtesy of my hotel points (Holiday Inn), or courtesy of my professional travels.

Those professional travels and staying in hotels is always somewhat boring, but on the other hand also strange at times. The strangeness is particularly acute when you stay in a new motel, like the one I stayed in the other week or when you go out of state on vacation. You need to learn the lay of the land, where the good restaurants are, what the best route is to drive to the place you are teaching, and just the layout of the room. One of the main question is, how much light comes into the room at night and how do I get to the bathroom in the dark at night without tripping over things or stubbing my toes (we older guys have at least one required bathroom visit every night).

There is also always some strangeness not knowing what to expect from your neighbors. How noisy are the rooms and how noisy will the neighbors be? Will they be quiet or won't they. Last week I had a snorer next to me. Just faintly, but I could hear him or her and it just put a smile on my face. It somehow made me think of some of the other noises you might hear when it is really quite, and I felt blessed with this very muffled sound. I wrote about sounds that next door neighbors make in this post last year. Truthfully, that was not the only time I've heard it. There is still a lot of loving going on in hotel rooms; it ranges from the rhythmic thumping to the more, sometimes, quite vocal ones.

This sometimes makes me wonder about the room I move into for the night (or two). Who was or were the occupants before me, and what went on in there just the night between those sheets, before I lay my tired body in that bed? Wanna let your imagination go wild? Or was it one of those filthy roadside crew guys or roofers from Ohio who I talked with the other day. Those guys spend two three months away from home on a roofing crew, live in motels; at night each person drinks a 12 pack of cheap beer, and eats pizza and passes out to repeat the process the next day after spending the whole day on a hot roof. I am sure they take a shower and clean up before they get in bed, and I actually had a great talk with them that one time. The money is good, and they all miss their wives at home. It reminds me of that one time we did an ecological survey of an area in South Carolina that was burned. Every evening we came out looking completely black, covered by black soot. You should have seen the bathtub after I took a shower that night. I felt sorry for the cleaning crew, we had a hard time cleaning the shower after we were done.

My room for the night.  No ghosts of the previous night visible.  This Hilton is always nice and clean and a pleasure to stay in.  It will be my home for two nights.

Wondering what went on before you, makes me wonder sometimes where to sit in my room. How much DNA was left behind on the bedspread or even on the chair or couch in that room? What am I laying my head on? I heard that friends of mine check into a room and always purposely spill something on the bedspread and then ask the front desk for a clean one. I guess that might minimize foreign DNA exposure at least on that part.

It is not only human DNA I wonder about. Bed bugs are another thing. Someone before you could also brought them into the room. My wife inspects places for bed bugs, so she trained me to look for them. Every time I check in that is the first thing that I do. I am sure that it doesn't guarantee anything, but it makes me feel better. Still, every time I come home, she gives my grief about potential bed bugs and asks me if I parked my car in the sun and exposed my suitcase to the heat. The problem is that I usually bring my computer bag into the place I teach and that bag or bags do not get exposed to the heat.  I also keep some of my prescription drugs in that bag and my vitamins and ibuprofen, which I do not want to expose to heat.

As you can see, traveling can be fun; there are all kinds of thing to keep account of.  It is often a lonely business, especially when I teach alone.  After work, it is often dinner alone and then back to your room where you drown yourself in the news, your social media, a book, or something else (I do not do sports or a lot alcohol like those roofers from Ohio, etc). However, you could also let your imagination go wild and fantasize about what went on in your room before you, and be a somewhat voyeur after the fact. Oh the perils of traveling.