Hello All,
Well, on Tuesday the 29th my friend Joyce and her husband Michael drove with me up to Boston's Logan Airport in my car and dropped me off for my flight to Italy. I was alarmed when I noticed that one of my front tires looked very low on air pressure, but I had enough jitters about my trip itself to worry too much, and I trusted they'd take care of the issue. Checking in and going through security took all of 15 minutes, and I had been anticipating a horrible wait due to the terrorist threat. But the airport was very quiet and while I did see more security presence, it really didn't affect me getting through the line.
Unlike United Airlines, on which I am a frequent flier and get better seats, Lufthansa treated me like common riff-raff and I did not get a window seat. At least I did get an aisle, because the seats were so cramped I'd have gone insane in a middle seat. I tried to sleep, but three children in the row in front of me kept jumping up and down and screaming for much of the 7 hour flight, and when they DID be quiet, the flight attendants invariably banged into my left arm and woke me every time I dozed off. One time they actually spilled a bunch of ice all over me. That was fun. At least the food was really, really tasty.
I changed planes in Frankfurt and then on to Milano on a smaller, less crowded and considerably quieter 1:20 minute flight.
Milano was cold and there was lots of snow on the ground as I exited the airport in my little blue Fiat Panda and headed 3 hours east to the area just outside Venice. I checked into the Junior Park Hotel in a town called Quarto d'Altino, set in a quiet, park-like area and I was so tired I showered and napped for 3 hours. I then met my friend Leo who lives in the area and we went into the city of Treviso for a nice dinner. I had only been to the airport in Treviso, which looked like a bus station with planes in the field out back, but the city itself is charming and was all lit up for Christmas. I had a pumpkin gnochhi dish doen in butter and basil sauce and they were like fluffy, pumpkin clouds. It was a nice re- introduction to Italy.
The next day was the 31st and I drove in pouring, icy rain 4 hours south into Tuscany to spend New Year's Eve with my friend Brent, who owns the Priello Bed & Breakfast. I shook my head in disgust to see that Italy's Route E-45, which has been under construction and repairs for over 3 years is STILL a mess, with potholes so big they could swallow a Honda Prius, and horrible, slow detours where all traffic must exit and follow 18 wheelers laboring up circuitous mountain roads at painfully slow speeds. There was lightening, but the rain was unbelievably hard the whole way there.
I arrived at Brent's around 7:30 PM to learn that I would have to crash on the couch as all his guest rooms were fullL 2 British couples, and French couple, and an Italian couple... all gay. We drove about 20 minutes from Brent's goat farm to his B&B at Priello, and had a group dinner, the highlight of which was a lasagna Brent made with his own goat cheese and finely ground gat MEAT as well... no waste there! There was also chicken, marinated peppers, and a homemade tiramisu, as well as all the wine you could drink. The house was as cold as a tomb, as Brent had had a gas problem, and I was so cold I had to periodically excuse myself from the dining table and sit by the fireplace to warm up. At midnight, we braved the icy rain and went outside to watch the valley below Priello come alive with fireworks. A few displays were by local towns, but it seems the majority of them were being set off from individual home owners all over the surrounding area and it was pretty amazing. On New Year's morning Brent and his partner Alessandro headed back up to Priello to fix the heat and a leak, and I slept in a bit, but I was so cold that even bundled up in my very warmest clothes, I could NOT stop shivering. Those of you who know me well know that I am never cold. I am wondering if it may be related to my blood pressure... it has dropped as low as 120/73 at some points, though it's averaging around 140/86... still a lot better than it was a few weeks back.
I couldn't do another night on the couch so I searched for a hotel with an indoor pool and jacuzzi, as all I could think of was getting warm! I booked a room at a spa hotel and drove northward through horrible rain to near Verona and Padova to a luxurious place, where I arrived at 8:30PM, only to be informed that the pool had closed at 8:00 PM. I was sorely disappointed, but tried to look on the bright side and asked at what time it opened in the morning. Um, 4:00 PM!
A SPA HOTEL that has a pool open for only 4 hours in the afternoon! I thought of a few perfect Italian curse words to utter at that point, but I refrained. Gotta think of my blood pressure! So I consoled myself with a so-so dinner and a VERY long, hot shower, and I did sleep for 9.5 hours, so that was good.
On Saturday I was not in a great mood. I have been plagued with heartburn for much of the trip so far, and it seems unrelated to what I eat. And yet when I go without eating for a few hours it gets worse. I thought some good gelato would help there, but the combination of the ugly weather and the holiday weekend has meant that everything is closed... even the gelaterias! Sigh. I took a leisurely drive south of Padova through some charming towns with walls and castles, like Mantagna and Este, and did take a nice walk around one of them, despite the cold. (At least the rain had stopped for a few hours!) I had to laugh at a common Christmas decoration you see here at about every thrird house or apartment... itàs about a 1.5 foot tall Santa doll, climbing a rope ladder up the side of the house. They are really corny and hard to photograph, as all you see is Santa with his butt to you as he is facing the wall. ANd why is he scaling a rope ladder? Hasn't Italy's Bobo Natale (Santa Claus/Father Christmas) ever heard of the chimney??? Molto strano!
I stopped at an internet place trying to make some more plans for the Israel part of the trip, and then I had a hellish time trying to find a hotel I'd booked in Padova. All of my friends in the area were busy Saturday, so it was a little lonely. I thought of going into Venice, but it was so cold and rainy out and my favorite restaurant there, La Zucca is closed till January 6. So I had another dull dinner, and then went out to a gay club where I thought Leo was going, but he couldn't make it after all. I did surprisingly run into my friend Christian there, but he was with a bunch of friends and it was hard to talk. Knowing I'd see him the next day, I just headed back to my hotel and had another difficult night's sleep. My mind is so active and I just lie awake and think of things that I need to do for the trip. It has not been relaxing.
Sunday was a better day. The sun actually came out for 4 hours and I took advantage of that to take a train into Venice and at least have a walk around my beloved city. It was very quiet there and most things were closed, but it was nice to just walk. I did dicover a new and OPEN - gelateria called GROM, at which I had extra dark chocolate, mandarin orange and pear gelati. Molto buono! I walked past La Zucca, closed up like a drum and felt sad.
I then met Christian at 4:00 and we drove about 45 minutes to Claudia and Marco's... a couple who are getting married in April and have invited me to the wedding. Claudia recently discovered she has lupus, and while her health is OK still, some doctors tell her she may have only 10 years to live! She is only 32, and is one of the warmest and sweetest people you could ever hope to meet. She is only having 50 people at her wedding and I was so touched that she invited me, but she said I am part of "la famiglia" and she is happy I will come. It was her birthday on this day, and I recalled that she collects snow globes from all over the world, so I brought her one of San Francisco and she squealed with delight when she opened it. She and Marco are planning a 2 week honeymoon in California and Hawaii, and before dinner I was at their computer getting them great airline deals and directing them where to stay on Maui, and I think in the course of 45 minutes I'd helped save them $1,000! I have also offered them my apartment for the time they are in San Francisco (Which means I guess I really need to clean!) and they were very excited. Claudia made a multi-course dinner, and we were also joined by our friend Ciube. It turned out to be a very festive night, and as usual we have great laughs over language. For example, Claudia said I might need a "wind cracker" to stay warm - she meant a wind BREAKER. Claudia always says she will "dress the table" instead of "set the table", and when corrected she admits that it sounds rather sexy to talk about UNdressing the table after the meal! Regarding staying at my place on their honeymoon, Marco said I could stay at their place in Italy while they were gone, and said, °We can change your house"... he meant EXCHANGE houses, and they laughed until they cried about the implications of CHANING my house by repainting and redecorating it in my absence! And there are those strange idiomatic expressions. While we say in English, "I am full as a tick", they say "I am as full as an egg", which doesn't have quite the same ring to it in English!
Christian has had to work throughout most of the holidays, and was so tired. He had a 2 hour drive back home after dinner, so Ciube drove me back to my hotel. He used his GPS, and though I have never owned one or wanted one, I would never get one after THAT experience. The damned thing kept telling him to turn here, turn there, turn again... all in an Italian female computer voice. But soon Ciube decided he knew short cuts and so stopped following her advice and she kept screaming for us to turn around immediately! I wanted to beat the hell out of the stupid contraption, but again, I must watch the old blood pressure.
I laid awake for almost 4 hours last night, despite a sleeping pill. I could not stop thinking about things. How will I get to my Cairo Hotel from the airport. How can I help Claudia and MArco find a better travel deal. How will I organize our time when Joyce comes to visit in California this February. Oh yes, and how will I get from Tel Aviv to Milan on the 22ns now that Alitalia Airlines has CANCELLED my flight. Yes, cancelled it with no explanation. I finally fell asleep at 4:30 and work at 10:00 just in time to get breakfast at the hotel.
And now I am at a hotel 10 minutes from Milan's airport. Had dinner in a local restaurant where a party of 12 people had 3 kinds that kept running around and screaming at pitches that I didn't think it was possible to hit while their parents ignored them. The waitresses, laden with trays full of food would have many near collisions and warn, "Bambini, ATTENZIONE!", but that did no good. I had to plug my ears with my fingers at a few points to drown out the screaming and one waitress caught my eye and flashed a HUGE steak knife at me, saying in Italian, something to the effect of it's the only solution" That really did make me laugh.
OK, my alarm is set for 5:00 AM. Ugh. I better go. I don't know how easy it will be to find internet connectiosn in Egypt, but will try to keep you updated.
Hope the new year is off to a good start for all of you!
Hugs,
Matteo
Monday, January 4, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Pre-Travel Jitters
Hello All,
It's Tuesday the 29th and in about 5 hours I depart from Boston to Milan via Frankfurt. After the failed terrorist attempt in Detroit last week, I anticipate an ugly scene at the airport. Also, because I am flying Lufthansa, I do not get the perks of being a United Airlines Premier member... no special treatment, no special seating... I am in row 57 in an aisle seat... I wanted a window, but the plane is full, so I guess I need to count my blessings and be thankful I am not in a middle seat!
I have noticed that I am becoming more and more anxious before my trips. I don't know what that's all about, but I do notice it getting worse as time goes on. Once I actually depart, I tend to be fine. But I have been a basket case for two days, even to the point where I have been feeling queasy, and that is VERY odd, because nothing typically affects my stomach! I feel like I have too much in my luggage, I feel I didn't do enough prep work, I am anxious about not having access to my laptop and having to rely on internet cafes to communicate and research travel plans. I am a little apprehensive about hiring a cab from the Cairo airport to my hotel in Cairo, and I also learned that because I arrive after sundown on Friday in Tel Aviv, this means that the sabbath is in full swing and all public transportation ceases. Great. This could be like a very tense episode of the Amazing Race!
My time in New England has been great. My Aunt Helena is doing well, and we've gone out to lunch and dinner a couple of times together. On Christmas Eve I spent the evening with Joyce and her family, who surprised me with a gift of the first 3 seasons of the TV show The Office, which I only recently discovered and absolutely love. Christmas Day my cousin and his wife hosted a buffet for 27 adult guests, 2 toddlers and 4 large dogs. It was like a three ring circus and I could only cope in small doses, frequently running back over to my Aunt's side of the house to hide out and get some quiet. I also visited with Maggi and the McKinneys on Christmas night... and then it was over, in a flash. I didn't get here until Wednesday night, the next day was Christmas Eve, and now it's over and past. Hard to believe. It was nice to find almost 2 feet of snow on the ground here when I arrived, though a mild rainstorm on the weekend has melted all but the most stubborn drifts. Today the high temperature will only be in the teens. Brrrr.
Have had a few nights of absolutely horrendous dreams about Dominican and the new semester starting and being unprepared. The only bright side is that at least when I wake up I can console myself that I do not have to start school again in 2 weeks! Ugh!
Well, I should get a move on here. Joyce will drive me to the airport in my car today. I arrive in Milano tomorrow and rent a car and will spend Wednesday night near Venice and then going to my friend Brent's place, Priello in Tuscany for New Year's Eve. I hear it's very cold and stormy over there right now.
OK, have a wonderful New Year and I will update the blog as often as possible.
Ciao Tutti,
Matt(eo)
It's Tuesday the 29th and in about 5 hours I depart from Boston to Milan via Frankfurt. After the failed terrorist attempt in Detroit last week, I anticipate an ugly scene at the airport. Also, because I am flying Lufthansa, I do not get the perks of being a United Airlines Premier member... no special treatment, no special seating... I am in row 57 in an aisle seat... I wanted a window, but the plane is full, so I guess I need to count my blessings and be thankful I am not in a middle seat!
I have noticed that I am becoming more and more anxious before my trips. I don't know what that's all about, but I do notice it getting worse as time goes on. Once I actually depart, I tend to be fine. But I have been a basket case for two days, even to the point where I have been feeling queasy, and that is VERY odd, because nothing typically affects my stomach! I feel like I have too much in my luggage, I feel I didn't do enough prep work, I am anxious about not having access to my laptop and having to rely on internet cafes to communicate and research travel plans. I am a little apprehensive about hiring a cab from the Cairo airport to my hotel in Cairo, and I also learned that because I arrive after sundown on Friday in Tel Aviv, this means that the sabbath is in full swing and all public transportation ceases. Great. This could be like a very tense episode of the Amazing Race!
My time in New England has been great. My Aunt Helena is doing well, and we've gone out to lunch and dinner a couple of times together. On Christmas Eve I spent the evening with Joyce and her family, who surprised me with a gift of the first 3 seasons of the TV show The Office, which I only recently discovered and absolutely love. Christmas Day my cousin and his wife hosted a buffet for 27 adult guests, 2 toddlers and 4 large dogs. It was like a three ring circus and I could only cope in small doses, frequently running back over to my Aunt's side of the house to hide out and get some quiet. I also visited with Maggi and the McKinneys on Christmas night... and then it was over, in a flash. I didn't get here until Wednesday night, the next day was Christmas Eve, and now it's over and past. Hard to believe. It was nice to find almost 2 feet of snow on the ground here when I arrived, though a mild rainstorm on the weekend has melted all but the most stubborn drifts. Today the high temperature will only be in the teens. Brrrr.
Have had a few nights of absolutely horrendous dreams about Dominican and the new semester starting and being unprepared. The only bright side is that at least when I wake up I can console myself that I do not have to start school again in 2 weeks! Ugh!
Well, I should get a move on here. Joyce will drive me to the airport in my car today. I arrive in Milano tomorrow and rent a car and will spend Wednesday night near Venice and then going to my friend Brent's place, Priello in Tuscany for New Year's Eve. I hear it's very cold and stormy over there right now.
OK, have a wonderful New Year and I will update the blog as often as possible.
Ciao Tutti,
Matt(eo)
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Leaving the Pressure Behind
What an end to the semester! For the two weeks leading up to Christmas Break, I was getting home from campus around 9:30PM 4 nights a week, and then spending another 3 hours grading papers and answering desperate student e-mails. I'd go to bed around 2:00 AM and wake at 6:00 AM with a list of things that needed to be done that day. Often I'd awaken recalling a dreadful dream, like one of an impending tsunami ovetaking me. By day I felt like my head would explode.
And on Friday, Dec. 11 I learned that that was close to actually happening. While taking care of getting all my required travel vaccinations: H1N1, Polio, Tetanus, Typhoid... what fun! I also had to get prescriptions refilled and a plantar's wart attended to, but all that was a cake walk compared to getting my blood pressure taken. The nurse was so shocked that he repeated it to be sure... 170/110! Then the doctor came in and tried again... 190/110. Yikes. For those of you who don't need to worry about blood pressure, normal is 120/80 and when I was put on blood presure medication 15 years ago it was because my pressure was hovering around 135/95. Very, very scary. I slowly and calmly took myself to the pharmacy to get a prescription for a second blood pressure medicine, wondering if my head would explode if I climbed a flight of stairs.
The next day I used the blood pressure monitor at the pharmacy: 209/134. My God!
All of this made the last week before departing a very mixed bag. The normal jubilation I'd have felt with each graded paper or each item crossed off my to-do list and the sabbatical looming ever closer was definitely dampended by my worry about my health, a little nervousness about my sabattical travels, and sheer fatigue. I ended up delaying my departure for the cross country drive by one day so I could just have an entire day at home with nothing I needed to do except pack (oh yeah.... and buy a portable blood pressure monitor for the trip)! And so after a restless sleep, I hopped in the car at 8:30 AM on Friday the 18th and headed east over the Bay Bridge and points east.
I ate healthy that day, devouring 2 boxes of fresh blueberries, one of raspberries, and some turkey and cheddar sandwiches I'd brought in the cooler. I also had cereal and bananas to munch on as well, and never stopped to eat anywhere. I ended up driving 12 hours, 750 miles to Salt Lake City, UT and stayed at a Baymont Inn there.
On Saturday I slept till almost 9:00 and headed off to a well-reviewed breakfast place that got rave reviews for pancakes. The ones I make at home are better, but I did have an interesting experience when I walked into the restaurant. I was seated at a table beside two men, and one stared at me, pointed at me, and exclaimed, "I know you! But from where?" Hmmm. That was odd. "And then he mumbled something that ended in MATT and extended a hand. How did this person know my name? It turns out that HIS name was Matt as well, and we finally pieced together that we'd chatted a couple of years ago online and he is originally from Australia, but now lives in southern California, and he still remembered my face from my online pictures. Matt introduced me to his companion Sydney, a distinguished older gentleman who was visiting from England. So I ended up having a nice and unexpected breakfast conversation that made up for the sub-par pancakes. Of course, that night when I checked e-mail, there was a message from Matt saying how nice it was to have finally met me. He went on to share with me that after breakfast, he and Sydney had gone back to Sydney's hotel room where they met a third man and they all filmed one another having sex for a home-made porn film. Overshare! Did I really need to have this bit of information? I quickly deleted my e-mail and headed farther east in a speeding car.
I made it to Steamboat Springs, Colorado by 5:00 PM Saturday, dropped my bags off at the quaint Bunkhouse Lodge, and immediately drove up to Strawberry Hot Springs to soak away my troubles in the outdoor hot pools there. There was no falling snow, as there usually is, but there was a canopy of stars taking the place of snowflakes, and the difference between the 25 degree air temperature and the 100 degree pools felt wonderful. I did worry that perhaps soaking in hot water would not be good for my blood pressure situation, but I figured that the psychological benefit of being there would outweigh the risks. I then went off in search of my traditional Steamboat Springs dinner: elk medallions and mashed potatoes. I was not disappointed by my meal at Cafe Diva, and the meal was rounded off by a delicious crab-tomato bisque, and some wonderfully seasoned green beans and snow peas, and delicious bread, olive oil and warm olives!
I giggled at the stories of hordes of holiday travelers stranded at airports around the country, but especially in New England due to the blizzard, while I drove out of the Rockies into Denver and 60 degree, sunny weather. I ate fruit, cereal and bananas in the car that morning, so when I reached Denver I had a late brunch at yet another famous place to have panakes in the U.S., ironically called Toast! This place gets an A for creative pancake concoctions. I had a sampler plate that allowed me to try small "silver dollar" sized panckes of different varieties. I had a blueberry-lemon and ginger snap cake, a crispy apple-cinnamon strudel cake, a basic buttermilk, and a "biscuits and gravy" cake, which was a pancake shaped biscuit topped with sausage gravy "syrup". The apple was the best, but it was definitely a novel place.
I am always taken aback as I drive from the Rockies into Denver. Interstate 70 spills from the mountains down some twisty and steep grades and suddenly before you in 180 view is nothing but the grat plains, and you know that there is nothing approaching even a small mountain for the next 1,000 miles. Cell phone connections become sparse, radio stations fade in and out, and after 3 hours of driving at 75 MPH, only to realize you haven't even reached the border of Kansas yet. It's not my favorite part of the drive.
This time I had lots of company for the drive. In addition to my extensive music collection, I had gotten a few audiobooks before I left: Bill O'Reilly's Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity, comedienne Kathy Griffin's Book Club Selection, and yes, Sarah Palin's Going Rogue. Helping me stay awake on the road were lines by Palin like, "There's plenty of room for wildlife in Alaska... right on the plate beside the mashed potatoes" and trying to imagine her campaigning for mayor by going door to door while carting her 3 young children in a sled behind her. O'Reilly tells wonderful stories of tormenting the nuns who were his teachers in grade school and gives a very interesting account of how he developed his political perspectives. And Griffin really steals the show with her simultaneously intimate and hilarious life story. She also keeps me alert with her repeated and dead-on impression of Oprah's exaggerated way of screaming out the names of her celebrity guests: "John TRA-VOL-TA! BarACK O-BAMA! KATH-Y GRI-FFIN!" I have heard Kathy do this impression a million times but it ALWAYS makes me laugh.
Sunday night I made it to Topeka, Kansas, and I hit yet another famous pancake place I'd found of the web: Hanover's. That was an intersting little adventure. Once I was seated, a waitress probably my age came racing over and gave me a menu. While she went to get me some coffee, a second waitress appeared and brought me water and offered to get me coffee. She almost bumped into the other one who was returning with my coffee. One of them said, "Whenever a handsome man comes in, we race to see who can wait on him first." I swear that is the first time I have ever been aware of a waitress trying to flirt with me. Unfortunately, the wrong waitress won, as my order was screwed up royally, and when I finally got my order, I found that the insides of some of the pancakes were raw. The waitress was sweet and raced to get another order, but I didn't have the heart to tell her that those too, were raw inside. But they did take my coffee off the bill as a consolation prize!
On Monday it was on to Indianapolis, and tonight, Tuesday, I am in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Tonight is a Courtyard by Marriott and last night was a really luxurious Crowne Plaza Hotel that I snagged on Hotwire.com for $42 a night! I made it to Pittsburgh today by 3:15, in time to catch a very late breakfast at Pamela's, a place that is on an online list of the top 15 places in the U.S. to get pancakes... it's in my top 2 list. That was the only meal I had all day and it was as delicious as I remembered it. Pamela never let's me down... though the waitresses there don't flirt.
With each passing mile, I feel more decompressed from the busy semester. Hopefully my new blood pressure medication is helping, or maybe it's the pancake and elk diet or "driving therapy", but my blood pressure has been dropping with each new day:
California, Wednesday: 234/116
Salt Lake, Friday: 182/113
Steamboat, Saturday: 164/102
Topeka, Saundau: 163/100
Indianapolis, Sunday: 149/ 94
and today, Harrisburg: 135/84
At this rate I should be normal by the time I hit New England, and considerably low by the time I hit Israel in mid-January! I am hoping that the Christmas spirit will kick in as I reach Massachusetts tomorrow. I really have not felt the season very strongly this year. But of course, I will be in the neighborhood of where it all happened next month, so maybe the spirit will simply be delayed by a few weeks.
OK, my king sized bed with 80 pillows on it is beckoning seductively to me, and I am finding it far more attractive than my Kansas waitress.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and Happy New Year to all and to all a good night.
Matt
And on Friday, Dec. 11 I learned that that was close to actually happening. While taking care of getting all my required travel vaccinations: H1N1, Polio, Tetanus, Typhoid... what fun! I also had to get prescriptions refilled and a plantar's wart attended to, but all that was a cake walk compared to getting my blood pressure taken. The nurse was so shocked that he repeated it to be sure... 170/110! Then the doctor came in and tried again... 190/110. Yikes. For those of you who don't need to worry about blood pressure, normal is 120/80 and when I was put on blood presure medication 15 years ago it was because my pressure was hovering around 135/95. Very, very scary. I slowly and calmly took myself to the pharmacy to get a prescription for a second blood pressure medicine, wondering if my head would explode if I climbed a flight of stairs.
The next day I used the blood pressure monitor at the pharmacy: 209/134. My God!
All of this made the last week before departing a very mixed bag. The normal jubilation I'd have felt with each graded paper or each item crossed off my to-do list and the sabbatical looming ever closer was definitely dampended by my worry about my health, a little nervousness about my sabattical travels, and sheer fatigue. I ended up delaying my departure for the cross country drive by one day so I could just have an entire day at home with nothing I needed to do except pack (oh yeah.... and buy a portable blood pressure monitor for the trip)! And so after a restless sleep, I hopped in the car at 8:30 AM on Friday the 18th and headed east over the Bay Bridge and points east.
I ate healthy that day, devouring 2 boxes of fresh blueberries, one of raspberries, and some turkey and cheddar sandwiches I'd brought in the cooler. I also had cereal and bananas to munch on as well, and never stopped to eat anywhere. I ended up driving 12 hours, 750 miles to Salt Lake City, UT and stayed at a Baymont Inn there.
On Saturday I slept till almost 9:00 and headed off to a well-reviewed breakfast place that got rave reviews for pancakes. The ones I make at home are better, but I did have an interesting experience when I walked into the restaurant. I was seated at a table beside two men, and one stared at me, pointed at me, and exclaimed, "I know you! But from where?" Hmmm. That was odd. "And then he mumbled something that ended in MATT and extended a hand. How did this person know my name? It turns out that HIS name was Matt as well, and we finally pieced together that we'd chatted a couple of years ago online and he is originally from Australia, but now lives in southern California, and he still remembered my face from my online pictures. Matt introduced me to his companion Sydney, a distinguished older gentleman who was visiting from England. So I ended up having a nice and unexpected breakfast conversation that made up for the sub-par pancakes. Of course, that night when I checked e-mail, there was a message from Matt saying how nice it was to have finally met me. He went on to share with me that after breakfast, he and Sydney had gone back to Sydney's hotel room where they met a third man and they all filmed one another having sex for a home-made porn film. Overshare! Did I really need to have this bit of information? I quickly deleted my e-mail and headed farther east in a speeding car.
I made it to Steamboat Springs, Colorado by 5:00 PM Saturday, dropped my bags off at the quaint Bunkhouse Lodge, and immediately drove up to Strawberry Hot Springs to soak away my troubles in the outdoor hot pools there. There was no falling snow, as there usually is, but there was a canopy of stars taking the place of snowflakes, and the difference between the 25 degree air temperature and the 100 degree pools felt wonderful. I did worry that perhaps soaking in hot water would not be good for my blood pressure situation, but I figured that the psychological benefit of being there would outweigh the risks. I then went off in search of my traditional Steamboat Springs dinner: elk medallions and mashed potatoes. I was not disappointed by my meal at Cafe Diva, and the meal was rounded off by a delicious crab-tomato bisque, and some wonderfully seasoned green beans and snow peas, and delicious bread, olive oil and warm olives!
I giggled at the stories of hordes of holiday travelers stranded at airports around the country, but especially in New England due to the blizzard, while I drove out of the Rockies into Denver and 60 degree, sunny weather. I ate fruit, cereal and bananas in the car that morning, so when I reached Denver I had a late brunch at yet another famous place to have panakes in the U.S., ironically called Toast! This place gets an A for creative pancake concoctions. I had a sampler plate that allowed me to try small "silver dollar" sized panckes of different varieties. I had a blueberry-lemon and ginger snap cake, a crispy apple-cinnamon strudel cake, a basic buttermilk, and a "biscuits and gravy" cake, which was a pancake shaped biscuit topped with sausage gravy "syrup". The apple was the best, but it was definitely a novel place.
I am always taken aback as I drive from the Rockies into Denver. Interstate 70 spills from the mountains down some twisty and steep grades and suddenly before you in 180 view is nothing but the grat plains, and you know that there is nothing approaching even a small mountain for the next 1,000 miles. Cell phone connections become sparse, radio stations fade in and out, and after 3 hours of driving at 75 MPH, only to realize you haven't even reached the border of Kansas yet. It's not my favorite part of the drive.
This time I had lots of company for the drive. In addition to my extensive music collection, I had gotten a few audiobooks before I left: Bill O'Reilly's Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity, comedienne Kathy Griffin's Book Club Selection, and yes, Sarah Palin's Going Rogue. Helping me stay awake on the road were lines by Palin like, "There's plenty of room for wildlife in Alaska... right on the plate beside the mashed potatoes" and trying to imagine her campaigning for mayor by going door to door while carting her 3 young children in a sled behind her. O'Reilly tells wonderful stories of tormenting the nuns who were his teachers in grade school and gives a very interesting account of how he developed his political perspectives. And Griffin really steals the show with her simultaneously intimate and hilarious life story. She also keeps me alert with her repeated and dead-on impression of Oprah's exaggerated way of screaming out the names of her celebrity guests: "John TRA-VOL-TA! BarACK O-BAMA! KATH-Y GRI-FFIN!" I have heard Kathy do this impression a million times but it ALWAYS makes me laugh.
Sunday night I made it to Topeka, Kansas, and I hit yet another famous pancake place I'd found of the web: Hanover's. That was an intersting little adventure. Once I was seated, a waitress probably my age came racing over and gave me a menu. While she went to get me some coffee, a second waitress appeared and brought me water and offered to get me coffee. She almost bumped into the other one who was returning with my coffee. One of them said, "Whenever a handsome man comes in, we race to see who can wait on him first." I swear that is the first time I have ever been aware of a waitress trying to flirt with me. Unfortunately, the wrong waitress won, as my order was screwed up royally, and when I finally got my order, I found that the insides of some of the pancakes were raw. The waitress was sweet and raced to get another order, but I didn't have the heart to tell her that those too, were raw inside. But they did take my coffee off the bill as a consolation prize!
On Monday it was on to Indianapolis, and tonight, Tuesday, I am in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Tonight is a Courtyard by Marriott and last night was a really luxurious Crowne Plaza Hotel that I snagged on Hotwire.com for $42 a night! I made it to Pittsburgh today by 3:15, in time to catch a very late breakfast at Pamela's, a place that is on an online list of the top 15 places in the U.S. to get pancakes... it's in my top 2 list. That was the only meal I had all day and it was as delicious as I remembered it. Pamela never let's me down... though the waitresses there don't flirt.
With each passing mile, I feel more decompressed from the busy semester. Hopefully my new blood pressure medication is helping, or maybe it's the pancake and elk diet or "driving therapy", but my blood pressure has been dropping with each new day:
California, Wednesday: 234/116
Salt Lake, Friday: 182/113
Steamboat, Saturday: 164/102
Topeka, Saundau: 163/100
Indianapolis, Sunday: 149/ 94
and today, Harrisburg: 135/84
At this rate I should be normal by the time I hit New England, and considerably low by the time I hit Israel in mid-January! I am hoping that the Christmas spirit will kick in as I reach Massachusetts tomorrow. I really have not felt the season very strongly this year. But of course, I will be in the neighborhood of where it all happened next month, so maybe the spirit will simply be delayed by a few weeks.
OK, my king sized bed with 80 pillows on it is beckoning seductively to me, and I am finding it far more attractive than my Kansas waitress.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and Happy New Year to all and to all a good night.
Matt
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