Environment, Society

Still Virginia Bound

Leslie and I are still fighting to get back to the kids after being stranded in New Orleans after all flights were cancelled. We are safe but had a wild night trying to find a way home.

Despite the fact that the weather was mild on Sunday and Monday morning in Washington, US Airways cancelled our flights. It was very frustrating to speak to friends in Washington and hear how the weather was fine. The cancellations appeared to be decisions based on the location of equipment, but thousands of passengers could have made it home. The main problem however at US Airways was the virtual collapse of any customer assistance that continued to Monday. We had to wait literally hours on the telephone to get through and then had to wait over an hour on hold to reach anyone. US Airways then told us that we would have to buy a separate ticket to go to closer airports like Charlotte (it didn’t matter since those were cancelled as well.) I remain furious with US Airways which (despite plenty of forewarning) did not appear to set up sufficient personnel or resources to assist passengers. We literally spent 24 hours from Sunday to Monday trying to reach someone at the airline, which has a message that repeatedly cut off calls and told them to call back.

With four kids with our sitter in Virginia, we could not wait any longer so I rented a four-wheel drive jeep and set out Sunday morning from New Orleans. We made it 700 miles when we were hit last night with a blinding blizzard storm in the mountains of Virginia. Visibility dropped quickly to virtually zero and we barely got off the highway. We found a motel in a tiny town called Marion, Virginia and bunkered down.

We are going to set out again shortly to try to get to the kids. A lot of roads are cut off with debris and winds remain high in McLean at 37 miles per hour. However, there are signs of it winding down. The kids are fine and still remarkably have electricity. We are prepared however. In Alabama, we bought boxes of water and Moon Pies (which we can’t get around us in McLean). If anything goes wrong, we can survive on Moon Pies for days in the mountains!

I hope all of our regulars on the East Coast are safe and sound today.

145 thoughts on “Still Virginia Bound”

  3. OS,

    I know you are not talking to me but anyway—–what was Durkee’s good for. It was either on top of a Moon Pie or maybe barbecue sauce.

    Why don’t you do recipes like ElaineM does, you know, writen down in detail.

    I think we are still waiting for her version of

    Bloomberg cake, or was it Moon Dog cake with chocolate sauce. She might even make it with mussel sauce for Nick in all amity. Seeing as he probably has grandkids too.

    You know you have a friend when he hugs you after hearing your worst side.

  4. Nick,

    Sorry to hear of your loss. We both have been there.

    Food is the original human culture expression.

    But we don’t have to wax theoretical about it, do we?

    I don’t do food blogs, not that I don’t like them, but feel so depressed when a superb sashima one cook one cook’s menu is served in Tribeca and my Concorde is laid up for cleaning out after the last party flight with (name your stars)!

    When I get it back we’ll meet and eat at that fish taco place you like. 50 USD, was that the tip to the busboy? Or price per skull? Pay 4 times that here and it won’t be one quarter so good. Winter and Swedish non-food. They even love American chain food.

    Try the guy in NYTimes.

    PS I lived in LA for 4 years. Up the hill from Sunset and at Silver Lake. Does it rain less in San Diego than LA in the winter?

  8. It is indeed. I went there in 2007 w/ my sister and brother-in-law. She was undergoing tests @ MD Anderson @ that time. That’s the only Ninfa’s I’ve ever been to. My sister would not eat @ any other.

  9. nick, The original Ninfa’s was fabulous. They branched out and lost quality control. I don’t know if the original one is still around.

  10. ID, I need to find a good food blog. Those are my favorite comment threads. I know you also love food, maybe we should both find a venue for talking about what is truly important..not law, politics, etc. but FOOD!

  11. SWM, You just brought a fond tear to my eye. My sister Mary, lived in Austin and took me to that great restaurant before she died in 2008. Prior to living in Austin, Mary lived in Houston and took me to Ninfa’s. She returned to Houston undergoing a bone marrow transplant @ MD Anerson in 2008. When I visited her there we talked about getting back to her two favorite Mexican restaurants. It was not to be,

    When Mary lived in Houston she went to the U. of Houston to get her masters in English. She didn’t care for sports but she was attrending school during the Phi Slamma Jamma days. She tutored the basketball team in reading and came to like Akeem, Clyde, and the boys. When she moved to Austin she got a job teaching high school English in one of the rural districts. She would say, “I love teaching Shakespeare to those young cowboys.”

  12. Love fish tacos. Allegedly they were first served in San Diego. We go to a half price apps. special bar/restauant on Monday night. The restaurant is called World Famous and it’s on the beach in Pacific Beach. My usual routine is start w/ steamed mussels, then some seared Ahi, fish taco and then a lobster taco. Washed down w/ a few beers. My wife and I eat this superb food for under $50 including beer and vino. Portabella taco sounds interesting.

  14. My husband likes the tacos de brisket and I am a fish taco person but I had a good portobello one with pepitas the other day.

  16. SWM, Our family owned a restaurant in Ct. The eggplant parm grinder was one of the biggest sellers. My uncle ran the restaurant and billed the eggplant sandwich, “Better than sex.”

    SWM, We spend winters in San Diego. Now, there’s great Mexican throughout the southwest. But, since San Diego is only 12 miles north of the border there are some REAL taco stands. I’ve come to love the lengue taco.

  17. nick , Right now my favorite sandwich type food is a taco. Don’t like any German food not even the German food in Germany. Best hoagie I ever had was in Princeton, NJ… an eggplant parm one.

  19. SWM, I have family in Austin and they make good bbq, the only real difference is, as you say, the sauce. Some places won’t serve any sauce! They also bbq german sausage an homage to the many German immigrants who settled not far from Austin. Memphis has pretty good bbq. That stuff in the Carolinas is horseshit! But, they just started walking upright there recently so maybe they’ll evolve.

    LouisLlunch in New Haven is thought to be the originator of the hamburger. They’re cooked in a vertical oven on white toast. They are juicy and superb. He won’t serve you ketchup, just a slice of tomato

  20. Wow!! Gene, SWM, and the callous, mean, horrible Nick Spinelli agreeing on KC bbq. We would eat @ Arthur Bryants every Friday for lunch. However, our group all agreed Ollie Gates had the better sauce. So, we would sneak in Gates sauce in unmarked bottles. When I was a juvenile probation I had a kid who’s mom worked for Arthur. He was a good guy to work for. She would bring us out a plate of burnt ends which meant we had to waddle out of there. She also introduced me to mutton which is quite tasty. Arthur called his place “my ol’ greae pit. The kitchen floor was a couple inches of grease. Employees needed to learn how to skate on it. I would eat @ Ollie’s place also, you could not go wrong there either. Calvin Trillin has written w/ love about Bryants.

    One must always remember, bbq is somewhat like pizza. Whatever you grew up eating is the best..even it’s f@ckn’ Pizza Hut. I grew up in Ct. and thought the bbq ribs in Chinatown in Boston and NYC were the best. Then I moved to bbq mecca and learned I was horribly wrong.

    Jimmy Carter came to Bryant’s for lunch one time when he was campaigning for re-election. What a pain in the ass when a polotician comes and disrupts your lunch. Finally, the old Municipal Stadium where the KC A’s and Chiefs played was just a few block away from the grease pit. Ol’ timers told me that was a tradition hit the grease pit and go to the game. Mecca indeed.

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