Travel & its discontents

I attended the Midwinter library conference, and it was a bit of an odyssey.

I was supposed to leave on Friday, early, but there was a snowstorm, and everything going out of Chicago got cancelled. The best anyone could do for me was a 9:00 AM flight out of O’Hare on Saturday morning, and that seemed OK. My first thing at the conference was 1:30 Saturday and I was to arrive by 10:45. I could bus to Chicago Friday afternoon, and wouldn’t have to worry about driving in the snow on Thursday night, after work, to get the train.

Madison got about 6 inches of snow Thursday night. I walked to the bus, pulling my wheelie bag in the snow, and I got to Chicago around 4:30 Friday. I had dinner with John & Megan at Star of Siam. It seemed like the snow was mostly over, and the streets were really slushy. On Saturday morning, I took the Blue Line to O’Hare, again pulling my wheelie bag through the snow to get there.

Landed in Denver on time, pulled my wheelie bag in the snow to the light rail, and all would’ve been well except they were doing maintenance on the train and I had to pull my wheelie bag in the snow to transfer to a bus for the last three stops. I pulled my wheelie bag in the snow to my 1:30 event, and arrived at 1:12. My next thing was at 3:00; pulled my wheelie bag in the snow there too, and arrived at 2:55.

Once I got out of the 3:00 meeting at the Convention Center, I could see my hotel, so I didn’t have to pull my wheelie bag in the snow again until Tuesday morning when we left.

But let’s talk about the food.

Saturday night, Ethan got us a reserve at a place called Linger – they call it an Eatuary, which seems too much like mortuary to me – but the food was good – international variants on the sandwich. There were four of us and we split a bunch of stuff: bao buns, and tacos, and sliders, and sausage, and sweet potato waffle fries with house made chipotle ketchup, and b’stilla – and we even went for the dessert – the little donuts.

Sunday I went and got breakfast from the hotel free buffet – black coffee and honey nut cheerios and the banana that’d been in my backpack the whole time I was pulling my wheelie. I had a pack of peanut m&ms for lunch. I met Mark at our division’s Happy Hour, and then we went to Maggiano’s at the shopping mall 5 minutes walk from the hotel (Denver Pavilions) for dinner.  Chopped salad and pasta carbonara with peas in it – nothing earth shattering but dependable Lettuce joint-ness.

On Monday I finally got in a long walk to the giant REI on the river walk. I bought a new metal travel mug that I think will be good for work desk mug – it’s a little heavy to lug around, and it keeps the coffee really hot.

I went back to the room and did some work and was going to wash my hair but decided to wait till we got home. We met friends at a speakeasy, Green Russell, where we had drinks and some apps which kinda spoiled my appetite for what could’ve been the best meal of the trip, Bistro Vendôme. we had the warm goat cheese salad, steak frites, and cauliflower gratin. The amuse bouche was mushroom soup in a little mug and the bread came in a paper bag, with unsalted butter on the side. The frites seemed to be coated with sugar to give them a good crust – a little weird but tasty. Which I’ve read is what MacDonalds does.

After two drinks at the speakeasy and a glass of wine at dinner I couldn’t sleep at all and we had to get up at 5:00 am so I could pull my wheelie bag to the train to the plane to the bus to another bus to go home. A full day’s travel.