Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

I found an interesting thing when I went to light a candle the other day. The box of matches I kept nearby had just run out, so I rummaged around other places in the house where we keep matches and found this:



What's so interesting about a matchbook with a restaurant's name on it? I mean, aside from the fact that restaurants basically don't "do" customized matchbooks anymore. It used to be a thing years ago, back when more people smoked. Back when smokers could smoke in virtually every restaurant, everywhere. Restaurants would hand smokers a matchbook with the restaurant's name on so they could light up at their tables, then remember the restaurant by taking the matchbook home, sort of like a calling card. A calling card that makes fire.

What's interesting to me about this particular matchbook is that I've probably had it in my possession, through multiple house moves across multiple states, since about 1992. I know that because the Greek House restaurant in Ithaca, NY was one of my regular haunts in 1992-1993 when I lived a few blocks away. Yes, these matches are from another century!

And why would I have old matches when I've never smoked? Ah, it's because in that century past the apartment I rented had a stove that needed to be lit with a match. That's right, a gas stove without an automatic striker or even a pilot light!

How old is that? Well, since you asked.... I estimate the house I lived in was built in the 1910s. That comes from style of foundation the house was built on and the foundations of other houses in the neighborhood. (Haha, you asked an engineer "How old is that?" and now you get an engineer answer. 😏)  Some houses had stone foundations/footings, others had concrete. Building standards changed from one to the other in the US after 1910. Thus I estimate the neighborhood was built around that time, with my house being slightly newer than some because it had a concrete footing.

Now, the stove might not have dated to the 1910s, but I figure it wasn't newer than the 1940s. Pilot lights become common in gas stoves in the 1940s. For example, my grandmother owned a stove manufactured in 1941, and it had a built-in pilot light.

So, since my flatmates and I needed matches to use our stove, and we were poor college students, we grabbed free matchbooks at restaurants when we dined out so we could eat hot food at home. It was lucky for us, I guess, that smoking was still common.

BTW, the Greek House closed in 2006.

BTW², these 33 year old matches don't work well anymore. Unsurprising since they're cheap giveaways. Two fell apart as I tried striking them before the third lit.

Pasadena Trade Show Travelog #6
At the hotel - Sat, 8 Mar 2025, 6am

Yesterday was a long day kicking off the trade show in Pasadena. It wasn't that I stayed out late carousing; I was actually in bed, lights out, by 9:30. It wasn't even that the show itself was long. The afternoon vendor session was 4 hours, though I did spend 3 hours on setup ahead of that. And I had 3.5 hours of "regular" work with several meetings from my hotel room desk before even that. But what really made it an long day— annoyingly so— was that I woke up at 4am for no good reason. And today it's happening again.

No, I didn't wake up at 4am again. Thankfully. I managed to sleep in 'til 5:30 today. Woohoo? Yay I got 8 hours? I was hoping for more after a marathon day yesterday.

Today's schedule is more straightforward than yesterday's. There's no "cram in as much of a regular Friday of work as possible then go start this show at lunchtime". The show hours are 10-6, and that's all I intend to do work-wise today. It's a Saturday. But, dangit, I really wanted to sleep in 'til... oh, I dunno... the leisurely hour of 7am today?

As to what happened last night with that will-we-or-won't-we get dinner together cliffhanger I left off with.... Shawn and I met for dinner. We went to the Yard House a few blocks away. Well, it was a few blocks away for me and 1/2 block for him. We're at different hotels. At first I grumbled internally that's too faaaar as I was already beat and my feet were aching. But the brief walk was refreshing.

Dinner was exactly what I was hoping for: 1:1 with a new colleague, just shooting the shit about mostly not-work stuff, while downing a few pints of beer with some pub grub. We both were interested in calling it an early evening, so 3 rounds of drinks were plenty. Neither of us wanted to stay out late. (I have some colleagues who consider it a failing if they don't stay out 'til last call.) I was back at my room at 9pm, and lights-out in bed by 9:30.

Now today's another day. I'll see if two days of waking up stupid early has me running out of steam by the time the show day ends at 6pm.

Non-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #12
Back at the hotel - Sun, 16 Feb 2025, 8pm

Tonight is a lot like last night. We finished up fantastic hiking by 4pm, went for an early dinner at a Golden Corral buffet restaurant, and retired early to our room in a low-rise hotel very far off the Strip. Yes, today we ate at Golden Corral again. But it was a different Golden Corral restaurant. 😂 Hawk didn't like the one last night because they didn't have her favorite dinner dish— or her favorite dessert. The one we visited tonight had both. It also had more of a carnival atmosphere inside. (That's a bad thing, BTW. But we mostly ignored it.)

Also like last night I'm pushing this blog forward while letting several journals full of photos and videos from the hike(s) that need processing wait. At this point one— one— from yesterday is ready to publish. Another 5 are in the backlog behind this one. I'll work the backlog after we get back from our trip Monday night.

The one thing not like yesterday is where we went. I already posted in this morning's blog that we went to Valley of Fire State Park. There we hiked to the Fire Wave, probably the most famous spot in the park; continued the trail around in a loop through the Seven Wonders trail; and then hiked the White Domes loop.

We were spent after that and also red-rocked out. We skipped even drive-to spots elsewhere in the park, instead opting for a scenic drive home through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. It was over an hour of easy, country-highway type driving, through a combination of wide-open Mojave Desert vistas (basin-and-range geography, not flat desert) and occasional canyons and red rocks outcroppings.

Now we're back at the hotel, resting and unwinding from a busy day. And we've still got tomorrow's activities to plan. Our flight home isn't until 7:30pm, so we can plan a full day!

Non-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #2
Lake Mead, NV - Sat, 15 Feb 2025, 11:45am

We got off to a slow start this morning. It wasn't from sleeping in late, though. I wouldn't have minded sleeping in late. It would've been my first time in about 6 days. No, my body decided 5:45am was waking up time. Then there were a series of things I needed/wanted to do that resulted in us not getting out for over 5 hours. 😒

Where are we going out to?



It's the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. We're out here for a day of hiking. The photo above is a view from the trailhead. But unfortunately it's already 11:45. The day's, like, half over. What took so long?

Beginning in Henderson, which is just southeast of Las Vegas, my first task was to get a ride back to Las Vegas Airport to rent a car. Why not do it last night when Hawk and I were literally at the airport together? Well, when we booked this trip initially there were different timings, and it made sense to get the car in the morning rather than the night before. By the time my company forced a change of plans on me, the price of the rental car had gone up over $100 for our 3-day weekend. For that kind of money Hawk and I decided we could Lyft/Uber around a few times. And walking to dinner from the hotel last night wasn't bad.

I checked the hotel's breakfast offering on the way out. Ugh, runny scrambled eggs and a room full of boisterous children. It looks like there's a U8 team staying here for a tournament. I skipped the breakfast buffet and ate a protein bar with half a bottle of Coke Zero.

Once back at the airport— actually, the rental car center, which is 2-3 miles from the terminal— I went through the hoops of picking up my car. "I"ve upgraded your car," the rental agent said cheerfully. Hooray, the benefits of elite status! "It's a Toyota Corolla!" she continued. ...Wait, what? Nobody in the history of the world has ever thought, "Oh, my, a Corolla, what an upgrade!"

Well, good news/bad news. My assigned car— my upgrade Corolla— had a cracked windshield and a busted windshield wiper hanging loose. I trudged back to the rental office— yes, it was a trudge, as they gave me what seemed like the farthest away car in the lot— and got a new assignment. This one actually was a slight upgrade. Well, an upgrade from a Corolla anyway. 😂



It's a Hyundai Elantra, and it's almost new— just 1,005 miles on the odometer. And it's not really much of an upgrade from a Corolla, though it does look sharper. And it has heated seats— which are a huge bonus for Hawk, whose back problems are flaring.

Back at the hotel we gathered our hiking gear for the day. Hawk had already packed most of mine while I was out, which was helpful. But we still needed to finalize where to go. We'd meant to do that last night, but both of us tired out quickly and went to bed early. And it took me a while this morning as I was still unpacking— mentally unpacking— from a busy week of training at work.

As we got ready to actually leave I realized I'd forgotten to pack my hiking gloves. I use them to protect my hands while boulder scrambling. And our chosen hike, Owl Canyon, would definitely have boulder-scrambling in slot canyons! Well, good news/bad news. I could buy a pair of gloves easily at a sporting goods store like Big 5, which there's one of half a mile from the hotel. But it wouldn't open for another 30 minutes.

"No problem," we figured. "We'll go out for a quick brunch first." Except the place we picked was closed. Permanently. Oops. With the drive time there and back the Big 5 was already open, so I just did my shopping. They had hiking socks on sale, so at least I made my shopping a two-fer. And they had the exact type of gloves I wanted.

We still needed brunch. We quickly agreed on another restaurant kind of on the way out of town. Then, as we pulled into the parking space in front of the door, we noticed another restaurant across the street: Del Taco! Yes, Del Taco, one of our guilty favorites. Well, not guilty, because we have no reason to feel guilty for it. We un-parked, drove across the street, and ate at Del Taco.

It was nearly 11am by the time we got rolling again, finally actually driving out to our hike for the day. We reached the trailhead for Owl Canyon at 11:30, laced up our boots, checked our packs, and got ready to hit the trail.

Whew, it's taken hours longer than it should have to get to this point, but now we're looking forward to a fun hike!

Update: Keep reading in Hiking the Owl Canyon Loop - Part 1

I saw an interesting article in my newsfeed yesterday, "Gen Z Doesn't Know How to Act in Bars." I'm always curious to read the latest in how older generations are scorning the young. And this article was published by Vox, which has a strong reputation for insightful explanatory journalism. Perhaps this article would go beyond superficial scoffing, I thought, and show whether there's really a there there. Well, it did, and it didn't.

First, let me summarize the complaints, according to the article, about how Gen Z acts incorrectly in bars:

• Gen Z closes out their bills each round, instead of leaving a tab open for the evening, making more work for the bartender. Yes, this really is the primary complaint; the article even states that explicitly. ...Which makes me wonder who wrote this, an overworked bartender?


• In a group of Gen Zs, not everybody will order a drink. ...Again, what sources were used for writing this article?


• Gen Z groups are more interested in socializing with the friends they came with than chatting up the bartender. ...Seriously?


• Gen Z groups stay a long time without drinking the whole time. ...Are you sensing a pattern here?

The author shows a moment of self-awareness about the rubbish she's spreading. Before presenting the above complaints she writes:

"Obviously, it’s incredibly satisfying to point out how a person — or, even better, a whole group of people — does something wrong. It’s even more fulfilling to be able to signal a divide, a marker that, for objective scientific reasons, you could never be implicated in this type of chaotic discordance. Look at this worse person — who is nothing like me — move through the universe, incorrectly!"

You could plausibly argue that this foreward to the complaints— which, taken together, all sound like they come from impatient bartenders who wish customers would just pay and get out— invites us to scoff at them and dismiss them. Indeed, for some of us, like me, it does. I love her little passage about thinking ourselves better than others. But in a published work I believe you've got to evaluate the content by its mass. When an essay is 98% complaints and 2% one trenchant little paragraph about how, maybe, the complaints aren't valid, most people— maybe even, say, 98%— are going to take away the 98% as the message.

What's wrong with the complaints in the article, by the way? Here are Five Things. And remember, I'm two generations older than Gen Z.

1. Closing out the bill each round sounds like a store problem, not a customer problem. Seriously, easy and fast payment system exist. Stop being cheapskates and replace your early-2000s technology. Don't tell me you can't afford to upgrade when you sell $1.50 bottles of beer for $10+ each.

2. Yeah, not everybody orders a drink. Deal with it. It was like that 25-30 years ago when I was a regular bar patron, too.

3. Is it because your service sucks? One big reason not everybody among my friends 25-30 years ago ordered drinks was shit service. At a pub I met friends at every week, most stopped ordering food and drink because table service became so erratic. That was one particular establishment, but in general service levels are way weaker today than they were back in the late 1990s.

4. People order fewer drinks because they're expensive. Even as a Gen Xer I order way fewer drinks in bars and food-and-bar establishments now than in the past because they've just so darn expensive. At $10+ for a beer and $15+ for a cocktail I just can't enjoy them much anymore. Plus, if had the weaker finances of a 20-something I certainly wouldn't be downing a lot of $15+ mixed drinks!

5. People linger over drinks. That's how bars have always worked. The thing that's most ridiculous about this article is the bartenders' repeated preference that people just order drinks as long as they're there, then leave. And that's just so many kinds of wrong. To name just two: A, it was never like that. B, do you really expect people to buy a drink and leave— they could buy that $10 beer for $2 at the grocery store if that's all they wanted— or to get soused on multiple rounds of drinks if they stay for a few hours? These bartenders seem like the worst of the doesn't-know-how-to-socialize stereotype typically thrust on Gen Z.

Panama Travelog #34
Panama City, Panama - Sun, 29 Dec 2024. 10pm.

After a fizzle of a trip to Panama City's old town today we came back to the hotel in the drizzling rain and took it easy for the rest of the afternoon. At dinner time we debated where to eat. I fretted about so many things this trip going to shit, especially, most recently, getting rooked at a tourist trap lunch spot. I didn't want to spend a lot of money for dinner only to have food that's mediocre at best. Well, when you don't want to pay a lot for dinner there's always... fast food! But not the American chains like the Subway we tried— and enjoyed— last night. There was a local fast food chain we could see from the pool on the roof: El Tarasco.



El Tarasco has a bit of an odd setup for a fast food restaurant. They serve alcholic drinks... but only a few frilly, frozen ones like the piña coladas we're enjoying in the photo above. There's no beer. We ordered drinks, an appetizer of guacamole, and a few tacos each.

I ordered the tacos al pastor shown in the first pic. Hawk got carna asada tacos "keto style".



What's keto style? These tacos have beef and cheese fried on a griddle and then folded over on itself, kind of like enchiladas but without any tortilla. And the taste? A bit overcooked, actually. But, aside from that, tasty.

I mentioned soaking in the hot tub. It occurs to me I haven't shared any pics from or of the hotel this part of the trip. Partly that's because the weather's been shitting almost the whole time we're here, and "Ooh! I will take pictures of the rain and drear!" is not a thing I've ever said. But that said I did snap a few photos in the evening when it stopped raining.



These are from the pool deck on the roof.



We've spent a lot of time up here at the hot tub the past few days. It's vastly better than the dirty duck pond called a "pool" at our hotel in El Valle. I'm glad I made a side-trip the other day to buy a swim suit even with busted navigation since I forgot mine at home this trip.

Panama Travelog #28
Panama City, Panama - Fri, 27 Dec 2024. 10pm.

OMG. What a fucking mess this afternoon and evening turned into. Things have finally gotten under control somewhat by now but I'm still so pissed off.

Around 3 or 4pm today things looked good. We finished a revenge hike near Gamboa and needed to drive into Panama City. The plan was we'd drive to our hotel, check in, stow our bags in our room, then drive to the airport to return the car, and finally Uber back to the hotel. Oh, and squeeze into that list stopping at a Machetazo, Panama's equivalent of Walmart, so I could buy a swimsuit because I forgot to pack mine this trip. (It hasn't mattered until now because our last hotel didn't actually have a swimming pool, just a duck pond.) All these things happened, and in proper order, but how they all happened involved way more frustration than it should.


Back at the hotel Hawk and I divided our efforts.



Once the laundry was de-alcoholized and the phones were working we went out for a late dinner. The front desk had recommended a few restaurants within easy walking distance. We picked their first recommendation, Costa Azul, a restaurant with a huge menu of Panamanian standards. I noticed it's open 24 hours and was clearly popular with the late-evening crowd. And the food was... well, it's available 24 hours. I felt like they'd steered us to Panamanian Denny's.

As for the room temperature, I have temporarily accepted the solution of "Just turn it off". I will approach the front desk manager tomorrow. I expect the day shift manager will have more latitude to authorize a room change.

Panama Travelog #23
El Valle, Panama - Thu, 26 Dec 2024. 4pm.

I see my blog backlog growing huge with this trip in Panama. For example, the hike to La Dormida wound up spanning 5 entries— which will fill most of 2 days if I maintain my pace of 3 posts/day, longer if I don't. (Ed: It took 4 days to finish.) Thus I'm going to shift gears and start posting one-a-day summaries. I'm leaving space to fill in later with detailed entries including photos and such. One benefit of structuring my blogs this way should be a clearer narrative for our trip.

An Easy Start to the Day

Our day started off with breakfast in the usual place, with the usual foods, at the hotel. After breakfast we rested a bit; I'm still getting over achy legs from overexerting myself with the La Dormida hike two days ago. Today's better than yesterday. Going up the stairs is only slightly tough now. Going down the the stairs, though... ouch, that's still painful. My stabilizer muscles are wrecked from the uneven, steep, slippery trail at La Dormida.

Mid-morning we noticed that the sky was clearing overhead. How fitting that now, on our last full day in Anton's Valley, it looks like it will be sunny. Rather than just shake our fists at the sky as it mocks us, we decided to take advantage of Mother Nature finally taking pity and smiling on us a bit. We pulled together our hiking bags and headed out in the car with a list in mind of many things we could do while the sun is shining.



Also seeming to mock us is that today we could actually see La Dormida. The vantage point for this photo is not ideal, in down with electric and telephone wires running above us, but it's the clearest view I've seen. If you squint you can see the form of a woman lying on her back in the mountain. Her head is on the right, her next to the left of that, then her chest further left.

Hiking Cerro Gaital... Or Not

First on our list was hiking Cerro Gaital. It's part of the rim of the volcanic basin the valley lies in, and it's the mountain just behind our hotel. Of course, getting to a good trailhead to reach the top meant driving all the way around to the other side. I mean, we could have just walked straight up from the hotel... but that'd be a monster hike even more monster than La Dormida. So we drove.

Driving around to the upper trailhead on the other side of the mountain brought us up into the clouds. I knew it was possible, even likely, this trail would be socked in with clouds. While the sky was mostly clear from down in the valley there were places where low clouds were sticking around. And Cerro Gaital was one of them. This is where it was critical we planned a list of many things we could do today. We opted to nope out of hiking Cerro Gaital and instead go to the next spot on our list.

The View from Cerro La Cruz

Bailing out of hiking Cerro Gaital was absolutely the right choice. I had misgivings, strong misgivings, when we decided to get back in the car at the trailhead rather than hike. All those misgivings melted away as we came back down around the mountains and saw that our next destination, Cerro La Cruz, was clear. Beautifully clear.



We parked the car in a few places up on the ridge to explore different areas and see different views. I'm including just one photo here because, like I said at the top, I want to actually catch up on my backlog with these one-a-day entries, not fall further behind.

I picked this photo out of my collection for two reasons. One, it shows the spread of Anton's Valley below us. And two, that far mountain in the middle? The one with the clouds on it? The only one with the clouds on it? That's Cerro Gaital. Once I got to this spot around midday I knew that pulling the plug on hiking Cerro Gaital was 110% the right decision. Coming here I got the beautiful view I would not have gotten there, and it was much easier here with a super-short trail instead of a steep slog I would have been miserable doing.

Waterfalls at Las Mozas

I did stretch my legs at our next stop, the Las Mozas trail. It's just down the hill from from Cerro La Cruz. A short trail leads into a stream canyon with a few waterfalls. The short trail was surprisingly primitive. Any semblance of a constructed trail disappeared after about 20 meters as the route simply traversed the rough, volcanic rock next to the stream. With my weak ankles I was concerned I'd slip on the wet, very uneven rocks and stopped about halfway. Then I decided "Fuck it, I'm only here once" and pushed on to see the main waterfall. I'm glad I did.

Update: I've posted a blog with photos of Las Mozas waterfalls.

Lunch & Butterflies

Next up on our agenda was the butterfly sanctuary in town. But first was lunch. We stopped at a pizza spot in town we'd eaten at a few days earlier. Their pizza sucked but their empanadas and fries were good. So today we ordered just empanadas and fries. I washed mine down with a Panama beer. Usually I'm not a day drinker, but at these local restaurants a domestic beer is almost the same price as a soda. For an extra 20¢ I'll enjoy a beer.

The butterflies were... huge. There's this one species in Panama that's at least 6" across when it opens its wings, and it's brilliant blue on top. The butterfly sanctuary uses a double-door system so visitors can get right in with the butterflies. Some people in there with us had butterflies landing on their fingers. I couldn't get them on my fingers, but they sure loved my shirt and kept landing on my collar and shoulder.

Sharing photos and video of the butterflies is definitely a thing that would backlog my blog worse, so I'll leave those to post later.

Panama Travelog #10
El Valle, Panama - Mon, 23 Dec 2024. 8pm.

With so many little things go wrong on this trip we're trying to keep our spirits up. Instead of remaining bitter about the things we missed because they were closed, broken, unavailable, swapped to a cheaper model, or laden with fake reviews, we're trying to focus on what we do have.



After the snafu with our hotel booking for the next 4 nights we relaxed with a pair of drinks in the hotel restaurant. They made a virgin piña colada for Hawk without needing multiple rounds of negotiation. It was rich with real pineapple and coconut, possibly the best she's had. I got a margarita which, while not the best I've ever had, tasted like a it's just a tequila slushie. 😵‍💫

It's good we relaxed with these drinks at the hotel before heading out, because once we headed out we were in for more snafus. 🤣



With it being too late in the afternoon to hike anywhere and too early for dinner, we figured we'd visit the butterfly sanctuary in town. That entailed two more snafus. The first is that a bridge is out on the main road through town. The detour routed us along this neighborhood street... that's actually a dirt road. And it's muddy.

Then, once we got to the butterfly sanctuary, it was closed. Well, not closed-closed. But thanks to delays arguing about the bait-and-switch at the hotel we arrived just after the last entry.

So again, it was too early for dinner, too late to hike, and now too late to visit the butterfly sanctuary. What else was there to do? How about... go shopping!



We parked near the town's flea market and walked around the vendors' stalls. This area was clearly a tourist trap but we enjoyed looking at the goods here. Tourist trap or no, most of these are hand-made. We could tell because in many of the booths the craftspeople were sitting there making them! The photo above shows a hand-painted wood piece featuring a Harpy Eagle, Panama's national bird. We saw lots of them in different forms of art; I like this one because it's preying on a sloth.

After visiting all the booths at the flea market we walked along the town's main street— yes, the part on the other side of the "Bridge out Ahead!" situation— to glance at other shops and restaurants.



One of the shops had a bunch of Panama hats. I considered buying one... But a) they didn't have my size, b) I already own a couple of straw hats, though I left them at home this trip, and c) these hats nowadays strike me as being a bit colonizer-y, especially when a white guy like me wears them.

Soon enough it was time for dinner. We were hungry, too, as lunch was a couple of bao (for me) and 50 cents of fried plantains (for Hawk). The restaurants in town are mostly tilted to the tourist crowd, touting burgers, pizza, Italian, and... Chinese. Though the Chinese seems more locals-oriented than the others. We picked a restaurants with pizza and Argentine style food, particularly empanadas. Hawk got an empanada while I ordered a pizza and drank two cans of local beer to wash it down. I opted for the beer partly because I was curious to try Panama national brands and partly because it was only slight more expensive than the overpriced cans of soda.

Now we're back at the room, after a stop along the way at a mini-super (M/S), the regional term for a small grocery store that sells a bit of everything, to get some drinks and snacks for the room. I bought a few bottles of beer— I found Negra Modelo sold as loosies for a cheap price— to enjoy this evening. We're sitting out on the hallway/balcony in a pair of Adirondack chairs enjoying the evening air.

Maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow. With everything.

For lunch Saturday Hawk and I tried visiting a new-ish restaurant chain nearby, Sourdough & Co. I've eaten there once before and was disappointed with the high price for a modestly sized sandwich but thought I'd give it another try. In hindsight I should have known there'd be trouble when the restaurant didn't have its basic sandwich prices listed anywhere— not on the lighted menu board behind the counter, not in the paper menus in a rack by the register. The total for our order, two sandwiches with side-and-drink combos, came to $55 and change.

"$55, that's a lot for two people," I told the cashier. "I'd like to review the bill to see the individual prices."

"Well, that's what it costs," the cashier said, unhelpfully, as if I'd criticized him personally. "You got two sandwiches with sides." Notably he did not show me price breakdown, as I'd specifically requested.

Before I could ask him more pointedly to show me the itemized bill, Hawk jumped in to the conversation and announced, "No. I'm not okay with paying that much?"

"What do you want to do?" I asked. "Leave?"

"Yeah."

So we left and walked across the square to Five Guys. Five Guys, which I'd just read in a news article this morning is rated the second most overpriced fast-food chain. The bill for our two meals there came to $36 and change. And for that money we both ate our fill. And, importantly for Hawk, they had a better drink selection, including drinks she actually enjoys.