Your first trip

Yeah, but even a philistine like me knows to find a better place when the company's buying.

Besides, I had a Grand Slam for breakfast and my heart still hasn't forgiven me.

 

Speaking of places that have gone downhill in the last decade or two ... whatever happened to Denny's, man? I don't remember it being nearly as vilified 10-15 years ago as it is now. It used to be a nice place to have a breakfast meal at midnight, or so I thought. It was classier than Waffle House. Now it's on the same level. Now you're more likely to get a grand theft auto in the parking lot than a well-made Grand Slam. What's the dealio, yo? :'(

 

Too many skee balls stopping by late at night.

 

Denny's classier than Waffle House? Does that mean you could SEE the roaches at Waffle House, and not at Denny's? Or that the Denny's waitress was only missing one tooth and crushed out her cigarette with her boot, not in your coffee? And where does I-Hop rank on this scale?

 

I would rate the 24-hour eateries in order of cleaniness and tasty food here:
1. Waffle House - Even though the smothered and covered gets a bad rap for being the home of cholesterol and cockroaches, the newer ones can be quite nice and clean
2. Dennys - The last time I ate there made me sick. They've dropped a notch or two.
3. Huddle House - The old SE here made it a ritual because he could smoke in peace there. When it closed, he left.

 

Sirs, Madames, but particularly Sirs,

I haven't told this story much but I think my first road trip was one of the great debuts. Unfortunately I've never bettered it.

While I was still working as a doorman at the Shamrock Hotel and seemingly vainly launching my freelance career (1985 for those playing along), I convinced a short-lived tho' pretty good Canadian sports mag to send me to the Dominican Republic. Pretty F. Good, right off the hop. Photog to chauffeur me, I handle the translating. It gets better. The magazine organized this as a junket and got the DR Travel Board to get us tickets and accomodations and first-cabin treatment all the way. Can't get better? Oh yes. The mag sold the junket on the basis of having swimsuit models do a fashion spread at Club Med. Yes, I am surrounded by binge-drinking models, clothes optional on all sides of me. The toughest bit of work was convincing the photog to ever go to the ballpark so I could write a story. You want dumb luck? I was worried that my material wasn't great, so on an impulse I told him to pull over in San Pedro de Macoris on the drive to the airport. He told me that I could get ten minutes, no more, or we'd miss our flight. Asked one kid where Tony Fernandez lived--TF was just a touted prospect at the time--we were within 50 yards of Cabeza's house (right beside the open sewer).

X hundred road trips thereafter, none as good.

YHS, etc

 

Not my first -- that was a Buccaneers road opener in the late '70s at some point, I don't think I did any overnights to speak of in my first job -- but most disappointing.

Bucs traveling to Giants; Giants Stadium was almost brand new (a thought that really makes me feel my age). Team going in FRIDAY.

Boyohboyohboy, going to New York City for two nights with the Bucs beat guys -- there were a bunch of them back then, and they were a fun group.

I'd never been to New York.

Week before the trip -- they tell me that because somebody's off, I have to put out the Sunday paper (Saturday night) and then fly to N.Y. Sunday morning, cover the game, and come back on the team charter (that was done in those days, with a price paid by the paper).

So my first trip to NYC consisted of a flight into Newark, a turnpike cab ride to Giants Stadium, a bus ride back and a flight home.

I kind of caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty from the cab or bus or whatever.

And that was my first trip to New York.

Remember we had a thread about somebody wondering if they should learn desk, even if all they wanted to do was write?

Well, it worked out career wise for me; but this was as good a reason as any NOT to be able to do both inside and outside.

 

My first road trip was to cover the AT&T at Pebble Beach.
After hundreds of trips since then, I can safely say it's all been downhill since then.

 

Did they have the old NBA All-Star Game court with Stay in School on the outside yet? Went there for the '99 MAC tourney. Moving to Cleveland, best move ever by the MAC.