Old Clinton Bar-B-Q

The Old Clinton Bar-B-Q is a stop I would frequently make when I was working in Macon, GA. It is an old building full of history. I would have liked to have taken the time to get to know the place better but we always had to get back to work after eating. There website is http://www.oldclintonbbq.com/index.html. I always got the BBQ plate with BBQ pork, Brunswick Stew, potato salad, pickle, and bread.

The BBQ is chopped fine, typical of what I have found in Georgia (now that I have stereotyped it everyone is going to say that it isnt typical of what is in Georgia). The meat has red tint from the smoke, has a pretty good smoky flavor, and is fairly dry. You are given sliced bread to eat the meat with.

The sauce is thin and brown. Its mostly vinegar with some tomato sauce in it and spices. I also consider this type of sauce as typical for Georgia. I wouldnt say that the sauce is particularly special, but it has always been consistent. This is not my favorite type of sauce but it is good for this type of BBQ since the meat is fairly dry.

The potato salad is pretty standard for potato salad. But what is really good is the Brunswick Stew. I dont normally care for it but it is really good here. I could probably eat a whole bowl of it as a meal.

Gray GA is not a very big town. If I find myself in the area I would definitely go back to eat at Old Clinton Bar-B-Q.

Civic duty

I dont like the word duty. It means obligation and responsibility. You are not obligated to do something you volunteer for. This is a common term though probably coined by our "founding fathers." It means to vote in elections, sit in jury duty, pay your taxes, etc. But it really means much more. In our society we really should be civic minded. We really should volunteer more. I find that the attitude of most people is what can society do for me.

I volunteer with some of my time, sweat, blood, and money. Since the mid 90's I have volunteered my time and sweat with Adopt-A-Highway. Litter really irks me, so this may be a driving force behind my volunteering. The best thing would be to educate the idiots who litter, but that would not completely solve the problem. So, 4 times a year I get together with some coworkers and we pick up trash along our stretch of highway. More frequently, I pick up trash along the road in front of my house. I cant say that is civic duty though, I am trying to keep my yard looking nice.

Today I am giving blood. I donate platelets and the process takes about 2 hours. They take blood from one arm, run it through a machine to separate the platelets, and then return the blood to the other arm. One can donate platelets every 4 days. Right now, I am on a schedule to donate every 3 weeks. The local blood center tries to keep the schedule for this machine full. I was "chosen" for this procedure because I have the most common blood type, and they apparently have enough of that type. Platelets are most commonly given to cancer patients and other patients with blood disorders.

I really think that I could do more. What do you do?

A great purchase

I made a great purchase on October 13, 1995. I was in college and my car had just been totalled. I needed a new car immediately since I commuted to school. I chose a 1989 Mazda 323 hatchback. It had 51,800 miles on it and was in great shape. I paid 2000 dollars cash for it. A few months later we had an emergency and had to have money fast. The bank gave us 7 grand with it as collateral. We were fortunate. A year later we had the title back. Shortly after that I was making a late night grocery store run when it happened. This woman wrecked into me. She was busy looking in her purse for her lighter and did not even know I was in the parking lot. The only obvious damage was the turn signal on the front right side. It was busted. The not so obvious damage was the bent frame. The repair estimate was 2400 dollars. I have a turn signal in the bumper as well as the one that was broken. I didnt think the bent frame was that big of a deal so I pocketed the money. So at this point the car has cost me nothing but normal maintenance. Not very long after this the heater core needed to be replaced. It cost $150. In 1999, the transmission went. That was actually a tough one. I debated not replacing it and getting something else. I figured a used transmission was worth the risk. That cost $700 including labor. So, the car actually costs something more than maintenance now ($450). In 2000, I moved into the regular work force. In 2002, the odometer cable broke. Cost $50 big ones. Oddly enough, the heater core went bad again. $250 bigger ones. Thats a total of $750. Then, the train accident in 2005. This car was old and there was a layer of oxidation on the metal surfaces. The engine has a small oil leak and most of the engine compartment was coated in oil. The car was spared significant damage from the Chlorine. They gave me $500 to fix it. The only damage was the brakes. New pads were $50 bucks. To date, the car has cost me $300. I have 181,000 miles on it now and drive it to work almost every day. It has been dependable. It has been a great purchase.

Hotels

During the past 6 years I have spent a lot of time on the road. Most of it has been for work. When I first started travelling, someone gave me the advice to always use the same hotel brand, airline, car rental, and even credit card. The airline was kind of forced on me, since there are only two that serve my local airport. The rental car was sort of forced on me too, since there is only one locally, Enterprise. I try to avoid them at all costs, even going to the airport to get Avis. The hotel is something that was more or less chosen though. There were some situations that I have to stay with what is available, but for the most part I stay at Comfort Suites (Choice Hotel Brand). When not available, it is Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, and Sleep Inn. Just about everywhere I have ever been has this chain (except Hawaii). Every Comfort Suites has been nice. The others, are not glamorous. Some, are kind of scary. However, I have managed to build a lot of points with them. This is why I chose them, they advertised that you get more free nights for the dollar. It took an average of ten paying nights to get one free night. With other hotel brands, it typically took 15 to 20 paying nights to get one free night, and they were typically more expensive. In retrospect, I definitely made the right choice. Shortly after joining Choice Hotels, they had a special. Stay twice and earn a free night. This means two separate stays. Most of my work travel required me to stay in one town one night and another town the next. I was earning a free night every time I hit the road.

They accumulated fast. I also got the Choice Hotel credit card. Points accumulated faster. I took several trips using my points. Free hotel nights are sweet. When I got married, I offered most of the out of town guests at least two nights in a hotel. My dad and mom got even more nights. All were free. We went places and we travelled. We went to the beach. The points still accumulated.

Then we planned the trip to Hawaii using our airline miles for free tickets. Unfortunately, there are no choice hotels in Hawaii. For the first time in 4 years I was forced to pay for a hotel room with my own money. I had chosen once or twice to stay at a motel at the beach, but mainly because someone else was sharing the tab and this motel was closer to the beach than the hotel that would have been free. It was my choice though.

Then, the baby came along and I stopped travelling for work. I do not regret that one bit. But, since then we have been steadily chipping away at the hotel points. Couple of nights here, a weekend in Vegas, and suddenly, the nights were numbered.

Then my dad had to have surgery. He lives in Houston. I packed the family and headed that way. We only had 4 free nights left. We were planning to be gone for 6 nights. We used the 4 nights free for the same hotel in Houston and planned to pay for the hotel wherever we were or needed to stop. I used my own money for 2 nights. It has definitely been a blessing having the free nights. I have used almost 100 free hotel stays. I guess the 180 bucks I spent on those two nights I paid was worth the 100 free nights I didnt.

Although most people would prefer a more luxurious hotel to a Comfort Inn, they have all been good to me.

Chicago, part 2.

We arrived in Chicago for the next phase of the trip. Cassie had never been to Chicago before so we had to do the usual. We started out at Alder Planetarium, which we breezed through and then made our way to the Shedd Aquarium.

Cassie was really interested in the architectural details of the Shedd Aquarium, like the octopus light and this door, as a few examples.

From there we went to the Field Museum. I think that we could have spent all day there, and still not seen everything.

Next, we made our way to the Sears Tower. How can you go to Chicago without going up the Sears Tower? I almost forgot to mention the serenade that we got while on Chicago public transit. American Idol tryouts were in Chicago that weekend. So, just about every bus near Soldier Field, including the ones we took to/from the Field Museum, Alder Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, and the Sears Tower were full of wannabes and AI hopefuls. They all had to show off their skills on the public transit. I am not sure what was more annoying, all of the singing everywhere or the ridiculously full busses of people heading to/from Soldier Field. Anyhoo, we made it to the Sears Tower and the observatory. Here is the skyline and Lake Michigan looking northeast and southeast. We weren’t able to see across the lake into Michigan.

From there we went to the Art Institute of Chicago. Cassie was really excited about this because they had an exhibit of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Cassie is a big fan of art nouveau and seeing his work was fascinating. Unfortunately, they didn’t allow flash photography.

As if this day wasn’t full enough, we went to see a ComedySportz show. This is an improvisational comedy sketch show where two teams compete to show off their improv skills. I am easily amused so I really enjoyed the show. We ate dinner at a little steak house across the street from the ComedySportz Theater.

The next day we started out at the Navy Pier and enjoyed a ride on the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel. We also took a picture of the skyline from the Ferris Wheel.
I got a Chicago style hot dog at the Navy Pier. I wouldn’t eat them often, but they are really good for a change. There was an exhibition of stained glass windows at the Navy Pier so we looked at that too. Here is one of the pictures from that.
From there we hit the miracle mile. Cassie enjoyed window shopping but didn’t buy much. While we were on that side of town we went to the Hancock Observatory. We also walked down to the famed Water Tower.

For dinner we ate at the Grand Lux Café. This is a restaurant that is owned by the same people who own the Cheesecake Factory, and the Grand Lux Café has a menu that outshines the Cheesecake Factory’s. I try to go there when I am in Chicago.

The most important thing we did was go to Gino’s East for some Chicago style pizza. We rounded out our trip with a trip to the Millennium Park and Buckingham Fountain. The "bean" as we called it was pretty cool. It made an interesting view of the skyline.