I bought this book in preperation for my cross-country drive, in the hopes that I could avoid McDonald’s, and others of that ilk, for the whole trip. Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed whenever I tried to use this book.

I made an attempt at using the book 3 times. Admittedly, I could have tried in bigger places — there were several places listed for Austin, Atlanta, etc — but I tried to use it where it had restaurants when I was looking for one.

For example, my first attempt was in Gallup, NM. There isn’t much around Gallup, NM, and I was passing through around lunchtime (though later than I thought, since I forgot about the time zone shift entering New Mexico). They recommended an establishment called The Eagle Cafe, which supposedly made a very good stew of some kind. I drove through downtown Gallup, looking for the Eagle; downtown Gallup, btw, isn’t much. It was a pretty dilapidated strip of small stores, half of which looked closed. The Eagle turned out to be right in the middle of these, with a blacked out window and a dark door. Even if it served the best stew in the Southwest, I didn’t really wanna check it out…

The next time I tried to use it was in Carlsbad, NM. Carlsbad, I think, exists solely for servicing the needs of the tourists who come by to see Carlsbad Caverns (which I semi-wanted to see, but didn’t get there in time). They stated that there was a Dairy Queen (a chain, I know, but so did they, and they recommended it in _spite_ of that) which served some pretty good barbeque. I missed it on the first pass, and then drove back looking… I noticed a building on one side of a different restuarant with a higher street number, and one on the other side with a lower number. The restaurant there didn’t seem to have a number, and it certainly wasn’t a Dairy Queen, but it served barbeque so I figured I’d check it out. Their ribs were unimpressive (though inexpensive), but the menu other than the ribs was amazingly cheap ($3 for a cheeseburger platter at a sit-down restuarant!), and the people were nice. Not a complete failure, but definitely not a success.

The final time I tried to use the book was in New Orleans. I wanted to find a restaurant for lunch before heading out of town. There were two that it recommended that sounded terrific in the description, and were in an area of town that would likely have parking, so I went to check ‘em out. The first had bars in front of the windows and door and was clearly not operating anymore, and the other was “closed for renovations.” Ah well. It just wasn’t meant to be.

I finished reading this before leaving New York. It’s a collection of essays/travellogs by a writer named Geoff Dyer. I thought it got off to a great start, but that might have been partially because the first story recounts his time in New Orleans, which I read right after passing through, and then his visit to Cambodia. Once he started talking about places I hadn’t been his job got harder.

The author seems like an interesting guy, but different. His stories are sometimes interesting because of the locale he’s in (A trip to Libya shortly after it was opened to tourism), and sometimes his reaction to them (the heat and emptiness of Rome in August leading to a lethargy/lack of purpose). I don’t think that I would unquivocally recommend it, but I do think that it’s an interesting read for a different perspective on life.

At least, that’s what I feel like after struggling to log into this site for the last 20 minutes. This is the problem with programs that remember passwords for you… you forget them. I am now in Athens, Greece, and without my laptop for the first entry. It might be a bit before I manage adding photos here, since just logging in seems to be a battle.

The flight was uneventful, except for someone being in my seat when I boarded, but that got itself worked out. Yesterday I did almost nothing except walk around a bit, as I was very jet-lagged. My brother and his wife arrived today and managed to accomplish more than I had, but were also fatigued. A 7-hour time change just does that, I think.

I’ve been to Athens once before. While I think seeing the Acropolis is certainly worth it, and escpecially with a guide or something to give you some insight/history of the site, I think the rest of Athens leaves something to be desired. There is a touristy area called the Plaka which has a large number of little tourist shops… but not in a nice way like Santa Fe or Carmel. Outside of that area, it seems fairly gritty, and generally not very pleasant. Perhaps I just don’t know where to look.

This internet cafe is pretty uncomfortably warm (even though it’s pretty cool outside, and very nice weather-wise), so that’s it for now. Tomorrow, we tour the Zea marina (the ancient harbor of the Athenian navy) and then board the boat.

Well, I’ve finished criss-crossing the country (”Jump! Jump!”), and I fly out to Athens tomorrow evening. When I got up to DC, almost all the hotels seemed to be booked. Guess it’s the time of year when all the schools make trips to the capitol. I did one in 9th grade — must have been about this time of year — though I don’t remember much about it except for the hotel. Anyways, I walked around the Mall and stopped by the new World War II Memorial.

They’re doing lots of construction around the Washinton Memorial, for security I’d guess. The WWII Memorial is kinda interesting. The water fountains and falls are such that in the back of the memorial, the noise of water falling is quite loud. You’d have to raise your voice to be heard over it, I think. I usually think of memorials as quiet, and peaceful, but I guess this is another take.

I had a great dinner at an Afghan restaurant that evening with Becky, and then wandered around some hip looking neighborhoods. I had planned to drive by Gettysburg the next day, but, since it was raining pretty heavily, I went to see the Sith. While I can’t say I was pleasantly surprised, since I had read a bunch of good reviews, I liked it. Of course, the writing/acting was nothing to write home about, but the movie was fun, and it fills a hole in the story line.

I then made a mad dash to Connecticut to meet up with my family for dinner, during which I was stopped for speeding, though let off with a warning… I think because I had kept my hands on the steering wheel until the officer was at my window. Anyways, since then I’ve had a good time hanging with my family and friends in New York, and getting ready for my trip. Hopefully when I take off tomorrow I’ll be ready.

Given all the driving and such, I haven’t gotten as much reading done as I might have guessed. However, I just finished the first book I brought with me.

It’s a collection of stories from various writers, where all of them involve being away from “home”. As one might expect, some are better than others, but most are at least interesting. All are easy to read, but by and large they are not all that compelling.

Some memorable ones involve a once-glorius-but-now-rundown hotel in Bangkok, teaching english in Japan, and struggling to retrace the World War II road through Burma.

If you’re looking for something to read in dull moments, you might like it.

The World of Coca-Cola is one of the big tourist attractions in Atlanta. It presents a bunch of historical information about the soft drink, along with lots of memorobilia. They also have a room where they play old Coke commercials, which was kinda fun. The best part, though, is the tasting room, where you can taste various Coca-Cola products from around the world. They have a Watermelon soft drink from China, I think, a lychee nut soft drink from Thailand, and various others which actually taste interesting.

The worst thing though is the “Bitter Appertif” flavored drink from Italy, called Beverly, I think. Oh mah gawd. Dreadful, and once you’ve tasted it it’s hard to get the taste out. Each person in the room would taste it, and then exclaim, “That’s horrible! Don’t try it!” Immediately, the next person would step up and the cycle would continue. Ugh.

Speaking of cycles, the other main attraction is the Cyclorama, which is a huge painting (oils on linen) that circles around you to give you a view of the battlefield at the Battle of Atlanta during the civil war. Apparently this was a common form of entertainment in the 19th century. This particular one was commissioned by General John A. Logan during his vice-presidential campaign. Originally, it was to be titled something like, “Logan’s Great Day” and he has a very prominent position in the painting riding up to the battle lines on his horse, while Sherman is a little spec in the distance, far from battle. He apparently passed away before it was completed, though…

Apparently the sales tax in Montgomery, Alabama is 10%, or 13% for alchoholic products. I didn’t realize that anywhere in the U.S. had double-digit sales tax. Crazy.

Just about to head out from the city of voodoo, the big easy, New Orleans. I arrived here late on Saturday night after having lunch in Galvaston (at Casey’s, which was not bad, but pretty typical), TX, and driving up the coast. The highways in western Louisiana are really annoying… there’s like a bump every 10 feet for like 100 miles. They should feature it in a commercial for chocolate milk.

After that segment, there are bridges for what must be around 50-100 miles over the swamp area, which is kinda cool. You drive along a bridge with trees coming up over the side, for, like, ever. Of course, it does get repetitive after a while…

I walked around Bourbon street Saturday night, which is the main street in the French Quarter where the bars/clubs are. It’s pretty amusing watching all the people walking back and forth along the street, and peering over from the balconies above. There was a really good jazz band playing at the Maison Bourbon (Dedicated to the perservation of Jazz…), so I ended up coming back to that periodically as the amusements of the passing pedestrians faded. I had dinner with Eddie and some of his coworkers at Emeril’s Delmonico last night, which was just fantastic. I’m told that both the redfish and duck were amazing, and I can attest that the lamb chops were terrific. Now back to cheaper food options as I finish the drive, though…

Just got back to the hotel from the Giants @ Astros game in Houston, where the Giants managed to eek out another victory. Minute Maid Park seems to be a fairly nice stadium; it would have been cool to see the roof slide open or closed.

The last couple days have involved a lot of driving. Drove south from Santa Fe through Roswell (where there were some fake aliens on the roofs, but not much else), and on to Carlsbad, where I had planned to see the Carlsbad Caverns, but I arrived too late. Instead, I ate at a sit-down restaurant whose menu was so cheap I couldn’t believe it. Cheeseburgers with fries and such were like $3. Unfortunately, I got the ribs, which were nothing to write home about… heh.

Drove through western Texas till late at night, and then more the next day… Texas is big. Finally made it to Austin, where I had a nice dinner with Christine and her husband. Austin seems like an interesting town, but I rushed on this morning to get to Houston, not realizing until after parking that the Giants @ Astros game was a night game. Ah well. Gave me lots of time to grab lunch and then work on the website…

Seems like hotel air conditioners cool much better in the evening than in the morning. Am unsure if this is a conspiracy designed to get you to leave earlier or not. Will report after gathering more evidence.