Text 21383, 111 rader
Skriven 2007-10-15 17:15:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip cotd 288
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Next morning I took my friend East Bay Fisher and his son
to that bastion of gastronomy on College Avenue, Barney's,
which offers, and of which we partook, various kinds of
burgers - mine the standard issue, rare, this being an 8-oz
football-shaped patty on a pretty good bun, your choice of
lettuce, onion, tomato on the side. Good dill pickle. Had
an order of curly fries (quite spicy!), at the urging of
the son; also a black cherry soda. Fisher, mindful of the
fact that I was paying, just had water; his son, mindful of
the fact that I was paying, had a big old coffee milkshake,
half of which went away in a go cup. The meat was quite
good, the fries pretty good, the available combinations
interesting. B+ to A- I'd say, not the top top, but very
respectable.

Watched a couple baseball games on Fisher's HDTV, and it was
time to head to Francesco's for a little frequent flyer do, nine
people brought together by lust for miles and the love for
Italian food. Francesco's is a scant half mile from the Oakland
airport (walkable, but, as one of the locals pointed out,
not with a bellyful of beer). We were arranged in a row, with
the guests of honor at the head, so we were sort of split into
an east and a west coast. The conversations revolved, not
surprisingly, around points and miles and BBSers not present.
One of the runners handed out sets of UA airplane trading cards,
apparently originally the gift of the famed Capt. Denny Flanagan
(you can look him up). I was tempted to do a little guerrilla
marketing and putting a few of these into the Sky magazines on
my next flights with the notation "hey, kids, you get these
when you fly United."

I ordered a Maker's Mark straight up, which came
suspiciously frothed and frosty-looking in a martini glass.
The waitress apologized, saying that this was what the
bartender had given her; I told her that I'd wait for this
to warm to room temperature, but meanwhile get me a Maker's
Mark straight up, which came straightaway and was good. As
my flight was 40 minutes before my colleagues', I ordered
the broiled petrale sole to come early, which it did, only
it was grilled, with the underside of one of the three
generous fillets kind of burned. As the two good fillets
constituted a decent meal (counting the side of spaghetti
Bolognese), I didn't complain (and in fact ate up the third
fillet because it was there). I then started working on the
warmed-up drink, but one sip told me that it was in fact a
Manhattan, not just a Bourbon shaken with ice. Sent it back
for another Maker's Mark. During this negotiation and the
wait caused by a no doubt pissy bartender, everyone else's
food came and was devoured, and the party broke up around
9:45, which meant that one of the locals took the guests of
honor and me back to the airport: I got my boarding pass (zone
6 - this itinerary was to solidify US Gold and to prevent
about 20000 Delta miles from dying, 5 segments, 2 transcons
for the price of anyone else's Washington to Albany - okay,
fifty bucks more than Southwest, but I'd gladly pay the
premium not to fly Southwest), hustled in 2 mins through
security, and heard my flight announced in the distance.

DL1236 OAK ATL 2235 0600 757 33A

As I was in zone 6 there was a 20 wait for boarding anyway;
I discovered that, as one of the Delta experts at table had
surmised, that this was one of the refurbed 757s with in-seat
video: old movies, a couple fairly current selections, games
($5 extra), TV shows (Iron Chef, anyone? Discovery Channel?),
and Airshow on demand. I snoozed anyhow with the Airshow on.
All I noticed was that one of the flight attendants, wearing
a pink "force for good" t-shirt, was particularly grumpy,
and the others, although professional, weren't nice enough
to undo her bad impression. I cared little, though. I
thought of asking for a $5 Woodford Reserve or perhaps one
of the frou-frou cocktails they advertise, but luckily I
nodded off early enough that that was not necessary.

We landed a bit early, so I tried to schmooze my way onto
the earlier Cincy flight or maybe the direct Albany; at the
gate, the agent told me almost apologetically that standby
was not allowed any more, but if I went to Customer Service
I might get the $50 fee waived for a confirmed seat. Trotted
over there to find a foul-mouthed agent who refused nastily.

Red Carpet Club time. Read my e-mail (nothing of consequence
I'm glad to say) and read a couple magazines in the tiny
room before going back into the bowels of the ugly Atlanta
airport for my flight.

DL 716 ATL CVG 0840 1006 738 23A

This time I was in zone 9, and when I finally lined up to
board, there were still people sitting waiting! so I guess
there must be at least 10 zones on Delta.

A fairly insignificant hour flight, most of which I slept
through. I did notice that this crew was fairly agreeable.

We landed a bit early, so I went to Gold Star for brekkers.
A two-way and a root beer a la carte turns out to have cost
me as much as a five-way, drink, and garlic bread on the
package deal. The chili is watery and a bit bland (not
enough cinnamon, enough allspice, too much clove, no heat);
the spaghetti was not al dente but, surprisingly for 10 am,
still okay. Skyline is better, which is saying something
as I don't care for Skyline.

Took the bus out to the commuter terminal and hooked up
at the free wi-fi center. Our flight loaded 20 late and
took off quite a bit after that.

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