travel Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Viva Las Vegas

Mark Evanier

Viva Las Vegas? Why did my oldest college friend and I go to Las Vegas? Because he didn’t go to Iceland! Makes sense, right?

MAK and I were hanging out at a bar/restaurant in Albany. He told me he and a friend would fly out of Stewart Airport in Newburgh. It’s pretty reasonably priced. So MAK was excited for about 48 hours until his friend got injured moving furniture; he was bummed.

This led to a conversation about travel more broadly. I said, “You know, somewhere I really don’t ‘get’? Las Vegas!” MAK said he’d been there several times. Did I want to go there with him? Hmm. (Actually, I misunderstood him. He had been there but one time but for over a week.)

On the one hand, gambling doesn’t interest me. The few times I’ve been stuck at a casino, always with other people, I was bored silly. On the other hand, there are still 20 states I’ve never been to, and Nevada was one of them. I was up for an adventure.

The window had to be between September 13 and 28. It was after my Anthropocene Reviewed review at the APL and before my annual physical. Moreover, my wife has a timeshare she took over from her parents, and there were points to be used or lost by the end of September. Also, while my wife’s job is busy in September, it’s busier in October, so she could feed the cats.

Ask ME

I asked Mark Evanier, a comic book and TV cartoon writer, among many other things. “As someone who has been [to Las Vegas] a lot, what would you consider are the must-sees (if any) and avoid that like the plagues in 2023? He replied: “Well, I haven’t been there for several years and have very little interest in returning to a city that for many years was like a second home to me.”

Still, he answered at length. “Perhaps take in a show. They’ve gotten way outta hand price-wise, but in many of those hotel clusters, you’ll find booths with names like Tix 4 Tonight that sell same-day tickets for reduced prices. You can also sometimes find deals through Groupon. Unfortunately, the real superstars who play the city usually only play on the weekend…when I told you not to go…

“But not everything costs money. Walking around and sightseeing doesn’t…yet. So you can have a good time…and one final tip: Avoid (1) street performers who want you to pay them to pose for a photo, (2) prostitutes and (3) the folks who are trying to sell you time-share deal. Actually, (2) and (3) aren’t are all that different except that with (3), the screwing is way more expensive and goes on forever.”

I kept that in mind.

To travel, or not to travel

Coming from California

I’m writing this more than two weeks after the fact, which is suboptimal. This continuation: To travel, or not to travel.

Tuesday, October 4: My usual Bible guys meeting at 9 a.m. I believe I’m the youngest member of the group, which used to meet in person before COVID. But once we started on ZOOM, we stayed on ZOOM. Unlike most meetings, a Bible study with four to seven guys is manageable.

Conversely, the weekly book review at the Washington Avenue branch always wants to be in person. There were some furtive attempts at offering it online, but it’s just better face-to-face.

I went home, and my wife and I started a largely futile attempt to clean the house.

Wednesday, October 5: My wife and I drove to the Albany International Airport. It’s “international” because it services trips to and from a few Canadian cities. I went to the luggage area and met my sister Leslie, who had flown in from SoCal. She was going to go to her high school reunion that weekend. I had agreed to be her Plus One.

My wife suggested going to the Iron Gate Cafe, where we had eaten only a few weeks earlier. But her ankle was now extremely sore, and she begged off but dropped us off there. My sister loved it, as my wife knew she would.

My wife drove Leslie to the Avis/Budget car rental in Colonie Center, near the former Sears; I had no idea it was there. We all went home, with me navigating for my sister; she could have used her phone, but why when she had me?

Medical

My wife was on the phone with her doctor’s office, but from my end of the conversation, it didn’t sound as though her pain or possible infection was being taken seriously. Moreover, the redness of her ankle and above was very concerning to me.

This was because, in 1979, two days before I started my first attempt at grad school, I got a little cut on my baby toe. Increasingly, it hurt tremendously. I hobbled through registration, then limped to the infirmary. The doctor immediately put me on bed rest AT THE INFIRMARY for six days. He feared that the infection, traveling up a blood vessel in my leg, would head for my heart and kill me. I started classes late and never did catch up.

My wife and I put Leslie up in a hotel so she wouldn’t have to put up with our demented cat.

Thursday, October 5: I called my wife’s doctor’s office at 6:10 a.m. Of course, I got the service, but I gave the person great detail about the swelling and what appeared to be spreading infection. To my amazement, her doctor called back at 6:30 and promised a slot as soon as the scheduler came in. At 7:40, the office called, and my wife had a 10:30 appointment, which my sister drove her to. My wife got doses of antibiotics. After lunch, Leslie drove us so my wife could get an ultrasound. The good news: no blood clots.

The reserves

Leslie and I were going to Binghamton that afternoon in her rental vehicle. To travel, or not to travel, that was the question. I would have felt uncomfortable leaving my wife but for one thing. Unrelated to the medical issues, my daughter had decided to come home from college for the long weekend. SHE would take care of her mother! This was a bit of serendipity

And from the reporting of the patient, when Leslie and I came back on Monday, she had done a fabulous job. This is not a surprise, based on a story my daughter told my wife. Someone at college had accidentally cut themselves, and another student tried to patch them up, but they didn’t do it correctly. Clean the wound, pat it dry, and then put the ointment on the bandage, not the wound. My wife had shown this method to my daughter, and the message took. Can you hear the maternal beam of joy?

Travel Questions from Sunday Stealing

It’s ALWAYS been the train

travelogue This version of Sunday Stealing, Travel Questions starts with a couple of bits that we answered LAST week. But it evolves from there.

To which countries have you been?

USA (where I live), Canada, Mexico, and Barbados.

Which countries would you love to visit one day?

Many. France and Ireland may be at the top of the list.

Have been on a trip this year, or have one planned for later?

Most of our trips are of short distances and brief duration. Some of this is based on a resurgence of COVID but also wanting to see local venues within an hour or two.

What kinds of transport do you prefer to travel by? (train, car, plane…)

It’s the train. It’s ALWAYS been the train. The last time I took a plane was to see my sister Leslie in San Diego in 2018. She was 2832 miles away. And as I had previously surmised, it was a flying bus, only worse, especially the Newark to San Diego segment. Middle seat, no legroom.

Do you get yourself a souvenir to take home? If yes, what do you like to buy?

WAY back in the 1900s, my late mother collected porcelain bells. I’d buy one for her. Then she quit collecting them and decided to eliminate her collection as dust gatherers. Thanks a lot, mom, for screwing up my gift-giving opportunity.

For myself, I liked to buy shot glasses. I still have a few, including some that folks have brought me when THEY went on trips.

Cuisine

Do you like to try local food? Can you recommend anything or advise not to try something?

When I was recently in my hometown of Binghamton, NY, my MIL and I talked with a young woman from the Midwest. I recommended the spiedies from Lupo’s or other local establishments. Conversely, I railed at what passed for spiedies at the 2019 New York State Fair in Syracuse. It tasted like boiled (not grilled) unmarinated chicken.

I was in Montreal in 1991 and 1992. I tried poutine but never warmed up to it.

Do you book your travel online or classical in a travel agency?

I used to use a travel agent, but haven’t in a very long time.

Name three things you can not go anywhere without and have in your suitcase.

Dental floss, cough drops, and clean underwear.

Tell about a funny travel experience you had.

I took a train to NYC and saw a guy I’ve known since kindergarten. Oh, here’s a train story.

Tell about a bad travel experience you had.

When my wife and I flew from Barbados to JFK in NYC, we had to go through customs. The queue was in a figure-eight, and our part of the line didn’t progress for a long time.

What accommodation do you usually stay in when you go on trips?

Motel or with friends or family.

All By Myself

Have you ever traveled alone by yourself? Did you like it? If not, would you want to try it?

Before we were married, my then ex-girlfriend seemed to think I couldn’t or wouldn’t travel alone. That was absurd, as I said at the time. I traveled by myself many times before I ever knew her.

Still, in 1998, I took a train from Albany to Detroit to Cleveland to Albany, which I described here.

What is the first thing you do when you arrive at your destination?

If I’m staying more than one night, I hang up my clothes. But I’ll live out of the suitcase if it’s just one night.

What kinds of activities do you like to do when you are traveling?

Museums, baseball stadiums, and non-chain restaurants.

How do you like to spend your vacation? (on a cruise, backpacking, etc)

Mostly in cities, so tour buses or riding around on local transit. I’ve never been on a cruise.

Do you like to travel in your own country? If yes, can you recommend a place?

I LOVE to go to Washington, DC. Beyond that, I like a place with good local transit. San Diego used to be a drive-only place, but the light rail system is tremendous. I know people hate the NYC subway system, but I find it very useful, WAY better than driving in the city.

April rambling #3: 100 days (seems longer)

The niece’s new album: Planet Cole Porter. This is a collection of songs sung by Rebecca Jade with Peter Sprague’s amazing arrangements.

Deliver us from Scripture-citers

Pastorized for your protection

What’s Our Story? How do we defend Western values if we no longer believe the story that used to justify them?

‘They Starve You. They Shock You’: Inside the Anti-Gay Pogrom in Chechnya

Racism, Hot and Cold

Women Don’t Need to Apologize Less — Men Need to Learn How to Apologize

Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Catcalling Someone

Why Traveling is More Important Now than Ever

Gisele Lagace, Canadian comic book artist, refused entrance at the US border

Rapp On This: Raging scum (bull v girl)

For 18 years, I thought she was stealing my identity – Until I found her

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has Fairbanks Disease, which causes stunted bone growth. He’s 4’11”. So he was bullied mercilessly in school until somebody stood up for him. An older kid who he didn’t even know began to beat the crap out of anybody who bothered him. It was the foundational experience of his life.
The older kid was Mickey Schwerner. A few years later, Schwerner joined Andrew Goodman and James Chaney and went door-to-door in Mississippi, trying to register Black voters. You know what happened.

This Lawsuit Goes to 11

Harry Potter and The Problem With The Pensieve Memories

Now I Know: The Rise and Fall of the Flivverboobs and An Astronaut’s Most Important Fan and The Time Travel Trap

Weed can play a significant role in your romantic relationships

The 8 Personalities You’ll Meet When Dating in the U.S.

Space Sex is Serious Business

The picture on the top of the page is of actress Gloria DeHaven. Yet it shows up often on the Internet as being a young Frances Bavier, the woman who would eventually play Aunt Bee on the Andy Griffith Show in the 1960s.

Illustrated Guide To Playing Sports As An Adult!

Five Questions for Rick Geary by Alan David Doane

I did not realize this until recently, but I think I’m becoming a devotee of the British way of punctuation. “British usage omits the apostrophe in the plural form of dates (e.g., 1980s)”. Also, “British style (more sensibly) places unquoted periods and commas outside the quotation marks.”

100 days

New York Times: White House Reporters Recall Their Most Vivid Moments

Fourteen per cent of US Christians left their churches after the election

Here Are The National Monuments At Risk

Massive Corporate Tax Cut Literally Cannot Pass Congress

Seth Meyers: ‘For every action, there’s an equal and opposite clip’

Anti-immigrant hotline bombarded with reports of space aliens

‘I thought it would be easier’

Ivanka & Jared: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Music

UNABASHED PLUG for the niece’s new album: Planet Cole Porter. This is a collection sung by Rebecca Jade, with Peter Sprague’s amazing arrangements.

Cuba Gooding, Sr., RIP

Pentatonix’s Acapella Spin of Queen’s All-Time Classic

Simon, Garfunkel, Sound of Silence, live

Kermit sings Once In a Lifetime (featuring The Electric Mayhem)

Flapper pie

K-Chuck Radio: The Arthur Baker Groove System and Saturday morning rock and roll!

Not me: Dinner with Roger Green (Formerly of The Czars), Sun, May 28, 2017, 6:00 pm (event ends at 10:00 pm) in Denver
No Cover!

Dinosaurs, candy, kissing, travel

It was this red shoestring licorice we bought about two blocks from the school

Got a bunch of questions, great questions. Gracias. I’ve been thinking about them, some of them A LOT, but some are going to require longer answers than others, and I’ll have more time in the next week or two (I hope).

In the meanwhilst, here’s a few from New York Erratic:

Were you ever into fossils or dinosaurs? What is your favorite dinosaur?

Not in any kind of systematic way. I mean they were collectively cool, but I didn’t study them very thoroughly. I got frustrated that several of the ones I knew as a child have totally different names, and theories as to their origins are different. Some are now birds that were thought to have been reptiles, etc. Rather like the planets of our solar system, where I once knew how many moons each planet had, but no longer. I’ll pick T-Rex; always liked Bang A Gong [LISTEN].

Have you ever had your IQ tested? When? What was your IQ?

Yeah, at least a couple of times, but they never told us. Once in fifth or sixth grade, some of my classmates discovered our scores but no names were attached. Someone was in the 140s, and we all figured it was friend Carol (not my wife Carol). There were three or four in the 130s, which we surmised were friends Karen, Bill, and me. But we really had no idea.

Did you ice skate as a kid?

I don’t believe so. I have no recollection of it. And not as an adult except once, and it involved wooing Carol (my now-wife).

How do you memorize skits for plays? (This one is fairly urgent… 😛 )

Repetition, optimally with another person, or persons, reading the other parts. But I HATE doing long speeches, soliloquies because I have a hard time memorizing them. Unless they’re poetic, and I can make a song out of them.
***
SamuraiFrog wants to know:

At what age did you feel like you became an adult?

62. (Not entirely false.)

I suppose it was when I bought a house, and I was 47. Not sure I like this growing-up stuff.
***
Jaquandor, who is in the midst of answering MY questions to him, wants to know:

You’re given enough money for a road trip someplace in the US…not enough to fly anywhere in the world, but enough that you can pay for gas, food, and lodging someplace in this country. Where do you go?

I’d do a bunch of baseball parks by train. But if we’re talking a single location, I’ll pick Juneau, Alaska, because it’s the farthest state capital one can get to by land. If I’m limited to the continental US, then Seattle, WA, or Portland, OR, because I’ve never been to either of them, and they are in states as far from me as possible.

***
Tom the Mayor, my FantaCo colleague, asked:

What was the first comic you remember reading? And the first book?

The first comic I have no idea. It may have been Archie, or Richie Rich, or some other Harvey Comic. The first superhero comic was almost certainly DC, Legion, or maybe Justice League.

I had these Golden Books, but I don’t quite remember them individually. I also had the Golden Book Encyclopedias, and those I remember reading voraciously.

What was the first movie your parents took you to?

Not sure. Can’t remember seeing any movies with my father except for the drive-in. Maybe it was the 1960’s version of State Fair; or did I go without my mother? 101 Dalmatians? Early on, it was West Side Story.

What was your favorite candy as a kid?

It was this red shoestring licorice we bought about two blocks from the school, right across the street from friend Bill’s house.

Do you Kiss your wife and daughter in public? Did your parents kiss you in public?

Yes, and The Daughter still lets me! Not that I can recall, and I don’t know if they kissed my sisters either.
***
You can still Ask Roger Anything.