Text 25787, 135 rader
Skriven 2015-04-07 12:02:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: end of trip 478
=======================
Checkout from the hotel was delayed by an irate customer 
ahead who claimed that a hold had been placed on her card
for thousands of dollars, which had had a cascading effect,
causing untold damage to her professional reputation, and
blah blah. To add insult to injury, said she, there had been
no hot water the first day. Eventually we got out of there.

Kent Black of the original Black's has opened a store in
north Austin as direct competition to Terry Black's, which
is run by his nephews. Ooh, can you see another family feud
going, like the Muellers? The place is half the size but
offers almost the same quality and maybe slightly better
bang for the buck.

The help here were more accommodating than the ones at the
original; the welcome was almost as friendly as at Terry's.
A good thing; I get tired of grumpy or worse dishonest
crews.

As expected, we feasted on good brisket expertly done, but I
thought Terry's had sourced better meat. From what I read on
the Internet, this is not to be expected, but nonetheless
it's my experience. Black's original sausage is rather more
smoked than Terry's but otherwise pretty identical - it
seems a tad moister than what I remember from Lockhart.

Four hot sauces were available - a pleasant though sweetish
vinegar sauce; chipotle mustard (mostly mustard); habanero,
appropriately spicy and rotten-fruitish; and ghost pepper,
which is quite hot indeed and not as objectionable-tasting
as the habanero - this last served well to cut the cloying
nature of the regular BBQ sauce.

Cheap beer.

This was a fitting finale to our trip and left us eager to
come back for more 'cue in the not distant future.

I had this nice mile-earning itinerary going, so off to the
airport, where more adventures ensued.

Security was a snap, and as usual I had plenty of time to
sip bad whiskey at the former President's Club and pretend
I was in old-time cowboyland. And the club was supposed to
stay open until my flight's departure time, how cool is that.

UA5532 AUS LAX 1928 2054 CR7 2A

Well, this was two hours late. Luckily, I built a huge
layover in. Unluckily ...

UA1476 LAX EWR 2324 0730 738 4B

this flight ended up cancelling, and they booked me on an
itinerary through Chicago to Baltimore getting me in late
next day in coach, with a deal-breaking overnight at the
LA airport.

Luckily I got the e-mail just before the delayed boarding
time of 2042, and even more luckily agent Haney at the club
- who had kept the club open past closing time for the
benefit of the passengers of three delayed flights - was up
for a challenge, and I got a great rate at a hotel and then
next day passage up front on the nonstop regional jet to
Dulles. Unfortunately, this meant that instead of 4300 miles
I get credit for only 1290, but I'll work on that.

The Wyndham Garden, which is six to nine miles from the
airport, depending on what mapping program you ask, has a
free shuttle, which comes more or less on demand, and that's
a good thing. Also a restaurant, open late, and the Rewind
bar, open later and with the same menu as the restaurant.
What happens: you ask the cute bartender for food, she calls
it in on her computer, and maybe 15 minutes later she
vacates the bar and trots off to the restaurant and gets
your order. Not the most efficient system, but it saves the
hotel the cost of a runner and the bartender the cost of a
visit to the gym. She is very fit-looking.

The place is supposedly famous for its wings and its burgers
so that's what I got.

The wings (asked for with sauce on the side) were large but
slightly overcooked but tasty. I believe I got one fewer
than the menu said, but given the size and my state of
hunger I didn't complain (which would have given the
bartender another couple hundred steps). The medium-rare
burger (okay, I usually get rare rare, but this is a hotel
bar, for crying out loud, and a nearly deserted one at
that, and contrary to popular belief I value my digestion
and my survival) was surprisingly truly excellent. Tasty
meat, done as ordered, sturdy bun (mostly left uneaten),
fresh fixings. The fries were mediocre. By the way, the
hotel literature says that there are over 12000 ways they
can do your burger. Given the permutations of meat, bun,
doneness, garnishes, I'd guess that most places could make
similar claims but are not obnoxious enough to actually do so.

A Deep Ellum double brown stout or two went well - nicely
smooth, moderate hops, chocolatey and malty, maybe a bit too
sweet to be drunk by itself but good with food. After that,
though, I had a blonde ale on tap (so described by the
bartender) to cleanse my palate. Maybe my taste buds were
reset funny, but this seemed excessively sour with a bit too
much citrus and maybe clove for my taste. I guess it was too
Belgian for me. I said to the bartender, this can't be from
Deep Ellum, can it, and only then did I find out that it was
Fireman's 4 from Real Ale Brewing, an honorable concern but
one whose beers are just not my type.

By the way, the hotel literature also claims that the Austin
Museum of Art is the "fifth largest art museum in the
country"; I was surprised that I'd missed this! Fifth
largest in the county, maybe? Even so. I did a little bit of
Internet research. Not only is it not the fifth largest in
the anything, it doesn't, per se, exist any more, as it had
been subsumed several years ago into the Contemporary
Austin, which itself is not exactly huge. No great harm,
one doesn't come to this town for the museums.

Bed was welcome after this long and strange day.

As I couldn't get late late checkout, I took the shuttle
at 2 and spent a good long time commiserating with my good
friend McCormick before my departure.

0302 UA3793 AUS IAD 1638 2037 CR7 1C

I totally slept through this flight, though the seat was
frozen in a position that was neither fully reclined nor
fully upright.

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