Nomads, day 15 (9/19/2023)

We have arrived in Long Beach, our intended destination. We have come here to watch our daughter get ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister. I have no idea how long we will stay here. But let’s continue with the correct sequence of events.

Day 15: Henderson (NV) – Las Vegas – Barstow (CA) – Long Beach

Days 16, 17 and 18: Long Beach and the Los Angeles area.

The trip from our latest stopping point to Long Beach was interesting and uneventful at the same time. We left the hotel as soon as possible! Here, I came up with one observation: while the setup of the van makes sense and is good, we need to devise a better way of moving things from the van into a motel room or now into our daughter’s home. Yes, I get a lot of steps on my Fitbit walking back and forth between our van and the intended place of domicile for the night, but it all seems somewhat inefficient if you decide not to sleep in the van that night. We have our clothes in bins and when staying overnight in a motel room, I only need our toothbrushes, one piece of underwear, a clean T-shirt, etc. You get the message I assume. We still sleep with the same clothes on as at the time we were born.

After what had inevitably become to be, our regular breakfast of a McMuffin meal with coffee, we decided to go for broke and visit the famous Las Vegas Strip. It took us a half hour drive in morning commuter traffic to get there. However, we were treated with the sights we were somewhat expecting. The van we are driving has the advantage that you sit higher, and you can look over all the vehicles. It was a great vantage point. There was a lot of construction and traffic on the strip, so we inched from one end of the strip to the other. The benefit was that the driver (me) had plenty of chances to look around as well. The electronic billboards, the famous casinos, the tourists, and even the occasional person sitting on the curb, acting as if he was completely out of it, broke after gambling, drunk or with a hangover at 9 in the morning was fun to see. After hearing so much about the famous strip, it did not disappoint.

Leaving Las Vegas put us on Interstate 15, all the way to LA. Starbucks on the way, and by the time we left Nevada for California my Google Maps told me there was an accident somewhere down the road. We were passed by a screaming police vehicle and soon thereafter we got the reminder why not purchase one of these super big campers (at least the size of a big bus) that fit behind a monster truck. We finally got to see what one of those campers looked like from underneath. The camper was on its side on the shoulder of the highway. The truck that was pulling it was upright, but it looked like it had been on its side as well. The airbags had been deployed and when we drove by, I could see the driver trying to deflate them.

The remainder of the drive was fascinating. We just descended and descended from a plateau that was above 4000 feet to approximately 700 feet in elevation. It got progressively hotter, and the vegetation became sparser; we encountered large areas covered in sand. Looking on the map we could see we were entering the beginnings of what was to become Death Valley further to the northwest. We never actually entered Death Valley; we skirted it; however, this low area already seemed very inhospitable and an eerie reminder of what we could have encountered had we gone there. In Barstow we stopped for dog food at the local Tractor Supply, which was much larger than our local one at home. Lunch at the outlets near Barstow and on the road again, now with Long Beach as destination on our GPS. Our lunch spot (at Chipotle) was interesting. We sat outside with the dogs, and we were surrounded by house sparrows that were begging for handouts. Radar was really interested in the little birds and tried to shoe them away.

Back up in the hills to finally descend into the L.A. basin. As we dove down a layer of smog or maybe thicker polluted air and the L.A. highway system welcomed us. The highways were all that they were made out to be, very crowdy and congested. Thank goodness we were able to utilize the carpool lane having 2 individuals in the van.

We arrived in one piece after a 16-day trip. In the next post I will describe some of our adventures while residing in the Long Beach and L.A. area. We are now slowly starting to plan our trip back home. I think we will be somewhat happy to drive up our street, to stick the key in our front door and start planning some new (van-based) adventures.

Not in order of our trip this time.  We have arrived!

Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert 

Las Vegas strip

Las Vegas strip

Nomads, days 13 and 14 (9/18/2023)

We woke up in Logan Utah, with the destination in sight. We slept decently, even after being relocated by the folks that stole our site. But let’s first resume my daily log.

Day 13: Logan UT – Cedar City

Day 14: Cedar City – Zion National Park (Kolob Canyons) – Moapa Valley (NV) – Hoover dam – Henderson (near Las Vegas)

Back to Logan. We were not particularly happy as you might have noticed above and in our previous post. The memories that flooded back from our time there were interesting. Together we received around $1000 in stipends, and we lived of that and savings that we had accumulated from my Uganda job. We cleaned our home and did laundry on Saturdays and hiked on Sundays. When we left town at the end of our studies, our landlord gave us our deposit in the form of a check. When we arrived on the east coast four days later, we learned that she had blocked payment on it without giving us any reason. Our discussions with the waitress, the evening before (shew was from Texas and obviously not from the prevailing religion), somehow had brought other negative feeling up about our stay 42 years ago. I am still amazed how events from so long ago can jaundice someone’s impressions and feelings. It harks back to some of the stuff I read in “The Art of Travel” (look at my first post for the reference <here>).

After breakfast at McD. (we wanted get the hell out of the campsite ASAP), we again drove by our old home and decided to go view the campus. We hardly recognized it, so much has changed in the 42 years although a few things looked familiar. I was looking for houses friends used to live and tried to remember parties we had while driving to campus. However, those homes were gone and now were the sites of commercial buildings. We remembered our friend Allen who was always in shorts and even biked to campus in shorts during snowstorms. We also again discussed our very good friends Jeff and Maria. Jeff had rheumatoid arthritis and one afternoon they came to our home, giving us all their booze, because they had decided to turn Mormon. A couple of weeks earlier we had been skinny dipping together in a creek in the hills.  Jeff committed suicide soon thereafter; he could not live with the pain and the outlook on his future.  In those days, they did not have the drugs we have now. We hit the road after that and took off for Cedar City.

The drive took off some of the pressure, I personally was delighted to be back in the basin and range ecosystem. I love the Great Basin Desert. We initially wanted to go to Bryce Canyon NP, but changed our minds, since it was getting hotter again. In other words, we found a dog friendly Holiday Inn Express; I booked a room online and set that as our goal. Our intention was to go for a hike after checking in and visit Zion the day after. Well, by the time we got near Cedar City we were hit by some major thunderstorms and the hike never materialized.

Zion stayed on our list, but a visit the next day revealed to us that this National Park wasn’t dog friendly. The Kolob Canyon scenic road was partially closed, and we walked the dogs on a section of the closed part.

Goodbye Utah, hello Nevada; one of the few states I had never set foot in. Lunch at a taco stand in Moapa Valley while watching a flock white faced ibises; they were what looked like grazing in a flooded pasture. This was followed by the drive through the Lake Mead scenic area. In Nevada we had entered the northern regions of what looked like the Mojave Desert, I was delighted to see creosote bush and the sparseness of the vegetation. The geology was amazing, as well. Here I am in my element, at home; being an arid land ecologist. We loved seeing the lake and the white ring showing how the water level had dropped. One of the rangers told us that the level had come up 26 feet these past few months.

A visit to Hoover dam, and a hotel. It was 98 outside and we were not thrilled with camping. This turned out to be something. It seemed that only the casino hotels in the area were dog friendly (guess why). Honestly, they sucked, or the one we ended up in did! You had to enter a smokey casino with dogs to get to the elevators, but we survived it. These are some of the perils of camping in a van with dogs.

What did I learn to date? We need a rooftop AC, if we want to do this more regularly in the warm part of the year. To be able to operate the AC on sites with no electricity, we will need to generate our own power. In other words, we need to install solar panels on the roof and a battery system. Something to investigate when we get back home.

Zion

The taco truck

In the sand dune area with petrified sand dunes

Same as above, with our van.  The temperatures are 98

The Hoover Dam

The carpet at our hotel.  Should I take my shoes off?

This is where you walk your dog, in the parking lot of the casino

The End is Near (5/17/2023)

I guess I will be reporting on two weeks of my farewell tour. Two more to go! The past two weeks I spent in Norfolk (week one) and in Richmond (week two). Crazy enough, I was teaching the same classes at each location, in exactly the same order.

Items to report are that things are getting closer as I go, and more emotional or nostalgic and the end is getting nearer and nearer. In Norfolk, one of the members of the Virginia Beach gang started sending a retirement card around and everyone wrote something nice. It was very moving. Then, around the end of everything one of my students came over and asked if she could have her picture taken with me as a memory of taking my classes. Also, on day two I had lunch with the Virginia Beach gang.

In Richmond, I had another selfie taker at the end of day two. Furthermore, a lot of handshakes, well wished, going out to lunch as a group on day one and folks interested in my reading list (mostly or all my natural history books). At the end of day 2, I actually walked around a stormwater BMP with one of my students to evaluate it for potential maintenance issues. In addition, all four days ended in a standing ovation for me and a thank you for your service. I almost felt like I was coming out of the military service.

Food and drinks were somewhat uneventful these two weeks. The newest microbrewery on my visit was the Veil in Norfolk. The beer was good and the homemade pizza as well. Richmond was just in and out with a quick lunch.

A quick hotel review, In Norfolk I taught and stayed at the Delta Hotel, by Mariot, near the airport.  The only thing I can say is, that it was not bad.  Breakfast was better than most.  I was given the smallest room a king-size bed could fit in, but then, I paid State rate.  State rare is about a quarter of the going rate.

Things are getting more nostalgic and sadder. I am not sure if I am ready to call it quits. I enjoy teaching and working. As one of my colleagues mentioned, it seems I affected a lot of folks in our business. This makes me happy and maybe I should go out on top, when I have a lot of friends or folks that seem to respect me. But it is difficult to do. It was a good ride.

The next two weeks I am looking forward to a webinar and a trip to Abingdon before it is over, and I start the next phase of my life. Reading the obituaries, I am watching those ages of death creeping closer and closer. I am going to need to fight depression, loneliness and get a hobby. But then, I already have one and up to this writing I was not depressed! The unknown is both exciting and scarry.

Me with one of my students who wanted a selfie with her teacher.  It was so humbling! 

Hopefully this will be in my future.  More hiking outside.  During this hike, this past weekend, we actually saw a cottonmouth. 

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.

August travels or Hotels 12, 13 and 14 (8/31/2021)

Wow, yes I have missed reporting on some of my travels. It should not come as a surprise if you have read my last post. A move of my father-in-law, followed by the wedding of our daughter. Almost immediately I had to pack up get on the road, and travel for work.

• Hotel 12 was in Herndon at the Windham near Dulles Airport.
• Hotel 13 was a week later and I stayed at the same hotel again, the Windham, near Dulles.
• I stayed the week after that in Hotel 14 at the Renaissance in Portsmouth.

All three hotels were by the Marriott chain, a new experience for me. I frequent the Hilton and Holiday Inn chain, so this was new and honestly I was not disappointed. Maybe except the price of meals which was above my state per diem rate. But times both locations had so much going for them so I could go out and find something to my liking. I was lucky, the Renaissance gave me state rate, I booked in June, but a colleague who booked in July could not get the same rate and had to stay in a second rate hotel. This was no fun, in particular since we were teaching at the hotel. This will certainly be the deciding factor for us in booking future training locations now we have been stung once.

Great room and view at the Renaissance.  It's a shame that we might never stay there any more because of their treatment of State employees.

Only the second Herndon stay was I on my own, I traveled with a colleague the other two times. Knowing that my readers like to see my microbrewery and restaurant reviews, here they come.

During my stay in Herndon I visited two microbreweries: The Aslin Beer Company, downtown Herndon; and The Beltway Brewing Company in Sterling. A favorite between the two, I don’t know. They are both different and both very good. Aslin has a corner brewery vibe with a pizza shop attached to it. They make some good beer. Beltway is slightly more industrial and speaking with one of the managers the do some contract brewing for others. Beltway makes some mean empanadas, which tasted delicious, as long as you are prepared to wait and drink another beer. But then, the pizza at Aslin was great too. There are some other eating places around both breweries, more around Aslin and the second time around I ate at a Korean/Japanese restaurant (Red Kimono) nearby which was absolutely wonderful. Lunch places galore, I ate Thai, Indian, and Vietnamese. In other words I was in Asian heaven.

Just a shot of a beer at Beltway while waiting for my empanadas

Downtown Herndon in Fairfax County.  That evening there was a gathering of cyclist.

In Portsmouth there were no brewery visits, but we stopped by the Bier Garden, a German Restaurant and had some delicious German draft beers and food. I highly recommend it. There is a Legend brewery near the hotel, but I have visited the original Richmond location enough that this seemed redundant. We also ate at Fish and Slips a restaurant at the marina in the Portsmouth harbor. Last time I ate at this place as in August of 2000 when I was house hunting in the area. I could not help myself but I ordered a Manhattan. Food is good but deep fried thus not the healthiest. Other lunch places included a down town Mexican joint and a Thai place. Both great.

So now you are up-to-date!

Walking back from the Bier garden I saw this in the harbor and had to take this photograph. 

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.

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.

On the road again (Hotels 3: Virginia Beach) (2/22/22)

One year and eleven months ago after returning from a teaching gig in Lynchburg the then governor and the department I work for decided that we should temporarily shut the office, stop all traveling, and start teleworking. We were completely in la-la land about COVID or the Corona virus, and figured this would be temporary, maybe till June or at worse, September. Ah, little did we know.

So, after teleworking and teaching online we decided that 2022 was going to be the year that we were going back into the classroom. And there came Omicron: We had to cancel January classes. Again, email student the sorry emails and reschedule everything, from hotels to meeting rooms, etc.

One of the things I was looking forward to, was returning to real live teaching. Remarkable as that may be for an introvert like me, it is not a thing about being around people, but more about being able to read their facial expressions and get live feedback. These interactions are invaluable compared to talking to a Webcam.

Finally, live teaching started in February. I became the proverbial “canary in the coal mine,” I was going to try it out for the rest of us. Well, I now have taught four live classes and honestly these classes were exhausting but exhilarating. So maybe I am not an introvert? I really don’t know any more. I enjoyed the one on one so much more than the web-based classes. Maybe it’s just the format; colleagues of mine tell me that since our recent switch to Zoom things have gotten a lot better. Zoom allows you to turn on and view the webcam of your students and makes it more personable. That is of course if the students are willing to share their camera. However, the format that I had been using was not very personable and you have to rely on typed questions in a question box which do not allow for a free- flowing discussion. In addition, you don’t see people’s faces and really cannot have a good follow up discussion. During breaks you cannot have any personal interactions with folks.

Overall though I was good to be able to directly interact with folks. It was just much easier to respond to questions and to enter into fun deep discussions.

Then finally the travel. While somewhat scary to be on the road again; my father-in-law recently survived COVID and I do not need to be afraid of bringing it home. I assume I would survive an infection (knock on wood). Eating out is kind of fun again, although I need to watch out for my waistline again. I have been the main cook at home during these past two years of COVID and I am slowly running out of inspiration. I always told folks that I love to cook, I never thought it would get old, but somehow it does. It is nice to eat something different and sample different flavors to bring home and try them out here. Variety is the spice of life, or so they say.

I watch some different TV, drink a beer and just relax in my motel room. So, what’s not good about it? Maybe sleeping in a strange bed; loneliness, although I don’t mind eating alone; and the drive after teaching a whole day will get old after doing it a few times. Who knows?

My third photograph in the Hopper tradition (little did I know it would take such a long time for the third one).  This was taken in Virginia Beach at the Holiday Inn.  You can see the Atlantic Ocean in the background (Marocco or Portugal over the horizon).

Spring is springing (3/26/2020)

Spring is springing and it is springing more crap than I had ever hoped for:

1. Yes, we have the regular allergies and pollen raining down. The world is slowly turning yellow. It is raining and our runoff leaves a yellow ring around the collar (or the high-water marks).
2. Of course, we are all impacted by the corona virus. Whatever you think about it, who’s fault it is, you name it. I have my biases and I may hint about them below (but then if you are a regular reader it should not surprise you). 
3. As part of the virus and my age, I am stuck at home, teleworking 5 days a week. This is a different experience. 
4. For a person my age, I have been sort of ordered form the Governor that I should shelter in place and not get out unless completely necessary. This brave person went out for the first time this past Saturday after 10 days “house arrest” and again the other morning to pick up medicine for Jake, who is still hanging on. 
5. And now for the kicker, word came down that we need to start using the hotel points that we accumulate during our travels for the state to book hotel stays for the state, instead of using for our own. 

It is this last point that has me bent out of shape today. It seems to be the result of a complaint by and unethical employee who was fired because of her unethical conduct. Now the State Inspector General seems to be changing the policy for all state employees because of the complaint by one unethical person who obviously had a grudge. Again, it seems to be a complaint filed by an anonymous employee as way to get even. She is as disgruntled employee; and remember to get fired from the state is difficult; you can murder someone and not get fired. 

So, I had to work on a spreadsheet detailing all the points I had accumulated over time. Moreover, now I am being issued a state credit card so I cannot even accumulate points for my travel on my personal credit card. 

Yes, I am sure there will be a lot of you who will be pulling out that tinny violin out for me and start playing it, telling me that if I don’t like it, to get the hell out off Dodge. When I was working for industry, I never had to do that; I was allowed, actually encouraged, to use my hotel points for private travel. And yes, I guess I should go back to industry and go from protecting the environment to not giving a damn or at least being cavalier about it; or maybe I should retire. Retirement would be great, were it not for a presidential mismanagement of a Corona virus pandemic; mismanagement that somehow screwed up my retirement plans. So, fuck you all, I’ll be occupying a job of some unemployed guy until me IRA is back to the level it was a month ago, unless the Corona virus gets me first. That is even though I don’t get free hotel stays any longer for being away from home night after night. 

One of the ponds behind our home.  You can see the yellow pollen ring around the the base of the trees growing in the water.

Well some spring it is. Although I am under “house arrest” I can go for walks in the abandoned woods in the back of our home. My outdoors bonsais have all been repotted, nature is awakening, fresh bread came out of the oven, I am teleworking, and I still have innovative ideas. I just need to make sure that I get credit for those new ideas (but more about that some other time). There still is a lot to celebrate in these anxious times. Let me know how you are doing! To all my readers, wash your hands, try to be positive, love thy neighbors, stay healthy, and be well.

My little quince cutting that I have been trying to grow is finally taking off and is flowering this spring.  Crazy but fun.

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.