Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

• She's still seeing a "substitute" doctor, not the one who did the surgery. The doctor was even careful to point out when she was advising Hawk today, "Well, you're not my patient, but...." The reason for the substitution is Hawk's preferred doctor, the orthopedic specialist she's seen many times over the past 20-ish years and trusts thoroughly, is out with an arm injury right now. That said, she trusts this new doctor pretty well. It's just off-putting (to me) that the doctor who's currently caring for her puts distance between herself and Hawk with that "You're not my patient, but..." refrain when Hawk asks her for guidance.


• The quibble about "You're not my patient, but..." aside, this doctor is way better than the previous substitute Hawk saw, who was dismissive— to the point of mocking— of her complaints of post-surgical pain and arguably removed her stitches a week too soon, which arguably resulted in an infection at the surgical site, which slowed her healing by at least a week and potentially could have been much worse.


• Hawk made a complaint about that bad doctor to the clinic's admin and also posted a negative review on Yelp. By the next morning the clinic's social media team had responded to her, apologizing for the problem. The admin took a week to respond... and even then only with a brief, form-letter acknowledgement of receiving a complaint. That's a sad illustration of the state of affairs in American medicine.


• The skin healing over the surgical incision is closed up now, and signs of infection are mostly gone. Hawk's pain levels have decreased— though pain is far from gone.


• The doctor recommended a lighter wrapping of bandages around the surgical area and showed Hawk the technique after undoing the previous, thicker wrapping and cleaning underneath. The lighter wrapping is easier to maintain and right away lowered Hawk's pain level slightly. We figure it might have been that the thicker bandaging was creating pressure on sensitive nerves.


• Hawk continues to wear a plastic "boot" around her foot. She's now had it for almost 3 weeks. Her mobility continues to improve every week. I remember the first day she wore the boot she got tired out walking less than 100 yards. Now she can walk a mile or more in a day... though it tires her out to the point of napping for a few hours afterward.

In my previous blog I wrote about chain restaurants. We visit them sparingly, prefering local restaurants which are often way better— especially in our area. But sometimes we have a taste for chain food, and when traveling we're more likely to opt for chain food because it's a known quantity in an unfamiliar place. When we were traveling around Colorado a few weeks ago we visited more than our usual share of chain restaurants. Here's a rundown of what we visited during the week & what we thought:

Qdoba: Our first chain food was lunch on Saturday. We picked Qdoba, which is in the same niche as better known competitors Baja Fresh and Chipotle, because we wanted Mexican food. Also, neither of us had been to a Qdoba in at least 10 years, so it was kind of like trying something new. How was it? Meh. The quesadillas we bought came heavy on cheese and light on meat/veg. The cheese seemed to be low quality with a weird aftertaste. We won't go back to one for at least another 10 years.

Pizza Hut: "The 'Hut" is a guilty pleasure for me. I think their pizza is actually good. Well, not good-good, but the one near my home is reliably 3.5/5 stars, occasionally reaching 4/5. I ordered pizza from one in a small town on Saturday night not because it was my first choice but because it was my thirteenth. How was it? Not as good as the one near home, but it got the job done. One of the things I like about Pizza Hut is that, with their online deals, I can virtually always get an excellent amount of food for a very reasonable price. On this Pizza Hut delivered. Well, not delivered, because I went to pick it up, but figuratively delivered. 😅 Also, as an example of why I don't blanket-dismiss chain food, when I bought pizza at two different local restaurants later this trip, one of them was clearly better than Pizza Hut but one was not quite as good— despite positive Yelp reviews.

Dairy Queen: This ice cream chain is a guilty pleasure for both of us, and the guilt here is mostly the "OMG how many calories did I just ingest?" kind. I know from visiting a number of them that DQs vary in selection and quality, though at worst the quality is still at least barely acceptable. How was it? This trip we visited three DQs, using Yelp to avoid a few of the not-so-good ones. As with past experience, the worst we visited was still okay. The other two were like, "OMG that was delicious... but how many hundred calories?"

Famous Dave's: We ate at one of these chain barbecue restaurants Monday night when I was ready for some "red meat therapy", as I like to call it. It was either Dave's or Outback; we picked Dave's because, like Qdoba, we hadn't been to one in about 10 years, so it was kinda like trying something new. How was it? I shared a photo a few thoughts already. Basically, it got the job done. Not great, not quite good, but definitely okay to okay-plus. I could see going back to a Famous Dave's in less than 10 years.

Del Taco: Del Taco is one of those chains we'd eat at more if there were any near us. Instead we look for them when we're on the road in the southwest US. "What's a Del Taco?" you might ask if you're not from this region? Imagine it being like a Taco Bell but with way better food. ...Yeah, I know that's damning it with faint praise. It's still fast food, but we like it. How was it? The store we visited had marginal reviews on Yelp but we found it was exactly what we expected, no more, no less. The negative reviews were likely from people who either don't grasp the decidedly Mexican-American style cuisine they offer (e.g., meals come with fries on the side, not beans and rice) or don't grasp the idea of fast food vs. full service.

Village Inn: This diner we ate at on Friday was actually my first experience with the chain. Inside, the restaurant is decorated in a motif of pale orange and teal, seemingly an homage to the popular Howard Johnson's restaurants of 40+ years ago. I figure that's deliberate as this kind of restaurant caters to people who remember fondly the restaurant scene of 40+ years ago. How was it? I found the menu uninteresting... unless you want breakfast all day or a burger. I'm not much of a breakfast person, especially at 1pm, so I ordered a burger. It was okay. I have no interest in returning. Hawk wanted to go again a day later; I insisted we choose a local diner, specifically one with a broader menu, instead.