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Music Bob Travel Bob

On the road again …

More travel. Two interesting stops …

New York City, Greenwich Village: We had dinner at Otto Enoteca Pizzaria last week. It’s owned by the Food Network’s Mario Batali. When a friend suggested it, I was worried it might be pretentious or culinary overkill. Nothing could be further from the truth. The food was incredible and the wine list was extensive. Price wasn’t too bad, either. We had several pizzas, all fantastic, and finished the meal with a sampling of gelato. My favorite was, surprisingly, a pumpkin gelato. While in New York, we also stopped by the Chelsea Market. What a great place. Not something you’d expect to encounter in the middle of New York.

Fort Worth, Texas: We went to see Willie Nelson at Billy Bob’s in the Stockyards. I had high hopes but was sorely disappointed. Willie was phoning this one in, and Billy Bob’s was horrible. It claims it’s the world’s largest roadhouse, but it was really a sprawling shopping mall of a place. Terrible venue. Thank god we went to the Loon that afternoon. Now that’s a real bar …

This week, it’s Stuart and Naples in Florida, then on to Memphis. Maybe I’ll get some decent barbecue there. Or at least bump into Elvis …

Now Playing: Restless Wind from the album The Earth Rolls On by Billy Joe Shaver

Categories
Techno Bob Travel Bob

The high-wireless act

During another travel binge last week (NYC,
Cincinnati, Corpus Christi), I was staying at the Athletic Club in New York. They supposedly have wireless. But the signal was scant, and I wasn’t able to get much done.

So I started walking around the hotel with my laptop, fishing for a stronger signal.

I found one. On top of the armoire. So I’m standing there, with my laptop at shoulder height, answering e-mail and surfing the web in spurts, until all the blood would run out of my hands and I’d have to take a break.

The next morning, my back and shoulders were sore from my high-wireless act. But the pain was nothing compared to the grief I would have suffered using a dial-up connection …

Now Playing: Broken Hearts Are For Assholes from the album Sheik Yerbouti by Frank Zappa

Categories
Travel Bob

Kiosk chaos

When the airlines started switching to kiosks for check-in, I was ecstatic. This made things faster and had a definite appeal to my inner geek.

On Friday morning, I learned painfully that most people still prefer interfacing with humans. As a long line snaked out in front of the Delta kiosks, “normal” people grappled with technology. And the humans weren