October roundup

October has come to an end, and as usual, I've slipped on posting an entry for many weeks. As hectic as my travel schedule is, I really don't have much excuse for this. Everywhere I go has Internet capability, and I was able to watch a couple of baseball games on TV, so clearly, finding time wasn't an issue. To be frank, I've been lazy about posting, so what else is new?

My original thoughts on this post was to give a debriefing on my upcoming trips, but such was planned around the beginning of the month. Twenty-something days have passed, and I am five trips too late for that idea. Instead, I present the highlights of my recent five-city tour.

East Lansing, Michigan: Flying into Detroit, Michigan State was another hour and a half from the airport. Getting back to the airport was the same hour and a half distance. That was it, the highlight was leaving East Lansing. Moving on.

Atlanta, Georgia: Since the beginning of the year, I've been to Atlanta a handful of times, usually for work or just passing through Hartsfield Airport for a connecting flight. This trip wasn't any different, except for the fact that I was flying from Detroit to get to Georgia. The food in Atlanta is underrated in my book. I used to think the stomach-upsetting Varsity was all there was to its cuisine, but there are some real gems in this city.

Each time I visit, I am more and more impressed with the dining options. I'm talking about the pastrami at Goldberg's Bagels, the Ghetto Burger at Ann's Snack Bar, and all the free Coca-Cola products and fatty snacks at the Georgia Tech Conference Center. This past trip, I had the Bean Sprout Cafe's non-meat squid, which tasted and looked like meat, the Elvis Burger at the Vortex (medium rare topped with bacon and peanut butter), and a mess of pulled pork and fried jalapeno chips at Fox Bros. BBQ. One more thing about Atlanta, get a chance to visit the Clermont Lounge once, and only once, sometime in your life.

Miami, Florida: My second visit to Miami ever. Crammed between the Atlanta and Morgantown trips, I was limited to a little over one day to spend in southern Florida. The Miami airport is annoyingly long - I swear I walked a half mile to get to the baggage claim. The line to exit the parking lot there took almost 30 minutes, with a queue of only six cars. The trip started out rough.

One of the Florida International professors, however, turned it around. His reception was held at his penthouse of a 26-storey building right off of Collins Avenue in South Beach. The place was decorated with original artwork and marble accents, and it had a balcony with a magnificent view facing the Atlantic Ocean. I ate my share of caviar and quiche and other foodstuffs I cannot spell or pronounce. I retired the evening in a bed at the touristy Best Western the next block over. It had been a full week since I was last in my crummy futon bed in DC. On the eighth day, it was back home for a couple hours to recharge for the drive to West Virginia.

Morgantown, West Virginia: Miami to Morgantown, trading beaches for mountains. My second visit to the Lakeview Resort, just outside of West Virginia Univeristy's campus. This time they finally got the Internet to reach out to all the hotel rooms. They also managed to not have the toilet spew water from its base when I flushed - I only needed one room instead of the three they had me in last time. Highlight of every trip to West Virginia? The chicken biscuit at the Sheetz in Frostburg, Maryland.

Fayetteville, Arkansas: Flying into an airport whose abbreviation is XNA can never be good. It sounds like I flew onto another planet. In fact, I may very well have, as this place had immaculately spotless Wal-Marts. Fayetteville neither disappointed nor exceeded any expectations. Their BBQ (Whole Hog cafe) and fried chicken (AQ Chickenhouse) were excellent, as was expected for a Southern city. Besides the food, there were strip malls and grass fields, also not a big surprise. I believe the busiest part of the town was the XNA airport, as people from all over are in and out of there due to Sam Walton's little Five & Dime stores he started in Bentonville.

Second most memorable part of the Arkansas trip? The possibly slow-witted Wal-Mart cashier that was compelled to crinkle her eyes and ask "Whuuuudt?" (translation: What?) three times before computing the meaning of the words "do you do cashback." The most memorable part? As I leave her cash register, I hear her next customer asking some other question, followed by a familiar "Whuuuudt?" I knew right there I was still on Earth, particularly, in America.