Stardate 60843.57 - Finally Home

I'm finally home after my long work trip to Norfolk, VA. I have a couple of travel stories to tell.

First, while staying at the Holiday Inn Select I ran into a little trouble. The Holiday Inn Select is quite a nice place - especially for a Holiday Inn and despite my issue on Halloween, I recommend the place. I got my requested King Bed and no-smoking room, and it had a microwave and a small fridge with freezer. Our company has an excellent nightly rate with the hotel, and it is close to the office. Halloween night at 0300, however, I was woken up by what sounded like a fight in the hall outside my room. Lots of profanity, lots of "You don't know me!", and what sounded like a brief struggle with cries of "Give me my cell phone!" At first I was just going to let it go, but after 5 minutes and not showing any signs of slowing down, I called the front desk and asked that they send security up to break it up, which they did. Later, Bill (who was just a few doors down the hall) told me that he was enjoying the show and jokingly chastised me for breaking it up.

Second, I had been really good about eating a healthy breakfast while I was there. I purchased cereal and milk at FoodLion and ate in my room. So on the last day I was ready to be bad, and I wanted doughnuts. We drove on Friday up to McLean, and I wanted to stop for doughnuts on the way. While speaking to one of my staff, he said to get off at Ashland, north of Richmond, as it was "the food exit". Well, there is food at every exit, and there are no doughnuts at the Ashland exit. So we ate at Burger King, and now I remember why I never eat there. First, no one was at the counter when I got there and I stood for a good 5 minutes before someone came over. She said the register was "open" and she couldn't "clear it" so she could take my order. After another minute, someone came up from the back and said, "it is ready to take his order" without actually touching anything, and then proceeded to take my order - badly. First, he didn't hear me say to make my breakfast meal "medium". Second, he told me they were out of decaf coffee (at 0830). Third, the ketchup dispenser was almost empty so I didn't get enough with my hash browns. Fourth, the guy I was with ordered "the same thing" as me, so they made it exactly the same and didn't even ask him for his meat choice on the breakfast sandwich. Overall, a very unpleasant experience.

Third, I was hungry at National Airport and wanted a quick bite before my flight (since you don't get any food on the USAirways Shuttle - but the food on the Delta Shuttle isn't worth the extra $50 each way that the ticket costs). There was a huge line at the regular place in the terminal where I grab a quick bite so I went to a kiosk that had some sandwiches and stuff and there was a slice of chocolate cake with some butterscotch chips on top that, when purchased, would leave me with just enough cash for the taxi ride home from LGA. Since I didn't get the breakfast I wanted, I asked for the piece of cake. Which she dumped into a paper bag. No container, no small plate, no fork - just a piece of cake dumped into a paper bag. I was furious.

There were a couple of good meals on the trip - we enjoyed Logan's Roadhouse a couple of times. Sal's Famous Pizza was very good and pretty close to actual New York-style pizza and we ate there a few times (including getting take out for the entire proposal team once). There was a seafood place (can't remember the name) that was out on a pier that was nearly abandoned the night we went there but the steamed shrimp was quite tasty (and the beer was cheap!). I got steamed crabs at Bubba's Crabhouse and Seafood that were pretty good, although I think my co-workers got tired of waiting on me to finish them.

NYC