CanYouFind.Us

That’s how it has seemed for us lately! We came home from a long day of work in LA, and noticed a puddle under the RV. These do happen on occasion for various reasons ie; leaky hoses, AC condensate, surrounding sprinklers. Since we had the awning out, a lot of these weren’t very likely. This spot is one that we typically see AC runoff, but the awning should have been pushing that out another 8 feet. Turns out-our water heater was leaking. I put some silicone tape around the plug, then a bit of electrical tape, and we called it a night. We woke up to neighbors knocking on the trailer to wake us up. First of all, I don’t take too kindly to this, especially before noon. When we are working nights, I really don’t like to be up early. It turns out, they had a very valid reason to wake us-the nylon drain plug had burst open and was pouring water right out the side of the trailer. Just as fast as the water lines could get water to the tank, it came right back out. Now THAT is a way to start the day!

We took off to a local trailer store and asked for a new plug. He suggested we upgrade to an anode plug that would go in instead. Hopefully someone reading this is as novice to RV’s as we are, and they can learn something here as well. It turns out that this rod actually works to combat the minerals in the water tank, and give you cleaner water. Unfortunately, it cost us $20 and I have no idea how long it will last. Either way, after the hour it took to remove the burst nylon plug, this went in effortlessly, and not a drip has leaked out since.

Not a drip, from the water heater that is.

A few days later we moved up the road to the San Jose area. I can tell you that the drive was nothing short of amazing. We left late at night and spent most of it driving to black skies. Come morning, we were lucky enough to be driving through the San Luis State Park. I still regret that I didn’t have time to pull over, but we were already at the point of only getting 3 hours sleep before work. Driving through the park was like driving through the hills of England. Soft rolling hills were everywhere, and the giant State Reservoir sat in between them still and calm. Every twist and turn, and every hilltop, gave you a new view that was absolutely jaw dropping. I promise, we will be going back to get a few pictures of this beautiful area.

Two days after we parked in San Jose, we noticed a puddle of water in the bathroom. Do we really need more water leaks? Apparently we do. There happened to be, 2 leaky water pipes under our bathroom sink. We made a quick run out to Lowes and picked up a set of ‘push to connect, self sealing connectors’. These were garbage. Totally worthless, and a giant waste of time. We had the pipes cut smooth and square. I seated the connections just as the manual directed, and we fired up the water connection. Water went EVERYWHERE. Each connecting point became a geyser aimed right at my face-and it was hard to run when lying on my belly on the floor. At that point, we removed all the new parts, and went to Home Depot. The big orange might be a bit harder to navigate at times, but we did manage to find the Shark Bite connectors that I had in mind. We picked these up and went back home. Finally, we have water in the trailer again. The new pieces did the job they described, and sealed everything perfectly.

I also managed to get a bit of silicone tape on the shower drain valves, so now we aren’t leaking outside at that point either. Of course, as soon as all these repairs were made, the water pressure regulator on our hose…broke. So I’m still leaking-but at least this one is outside and only affects us by lowering the pressure when we first open up a line. This RV is starting to turn into an episode of ‘This Old House!”

2215 State Route 59
Plainfield, IL 60544
(815) 254-2424

www.vitabellapizza.com

Wow. I wish I had been able to take pictures of the food from this place, but once it hit my mouth-I couldn’t stop. A good friend of mine had mentioned that Vita Bella was his favorite place in Chicagoland to pick up an Italian Beef sandwich. I have had a few of these sandwiches in the past, so I was ready to see what the hype was about on this one. We agreed to try it out for lunch the next day-and that was one of my best decisions to date.

Warren set off to pick up our order, and came back with a bag full of delicious. Vita Bella uses a sweet pepper that tastes like it has been simmer with powdered sugar. The beef was perfectly tender, and amazingly juicy. This meal has literally transformed my expectations for Italian Beef sandwiches.

And, their thin crust cheese pizza was VERY tasty as well!

If you are a fan of good BBQ, than this is one to pay attention to. Being a KC native, I take my BBQ very seriously. We were doing a project in Batavia, NY and the office staff suggested we check out Alex’s Place for some baby-back ribs. Personally, I have a hard time even getting past the name of those, as I get stuck on the theme song for Chili’s and their overly generic, bland and boring ribs. Luckily, we pushed all the skepticism aside, and went for it.

I always get my first impressions of a BBQ restaurant from the parking lot. If I can smell the food cooking-we are on the right page. I was able to smell the flavor of this restaurant, while I was still at the stop sign across the road. I’ll skip the fluff part of this review, and just skip to the meat of it all. We ordered their signature baby-back ribs. “Double Dipped” in a garlic BBQ sauce. These ribs, were simply amazing. The sauce didn’t have the ‘punch you in the tongue’ bite that the waitress had prepped us for, but it had a delicious sweet and tangy flavor. The most impressive part-is that they were actually cooked to perfection. The only other time I’ve had ribs cooked that well-is back in KC when the brother-in-law’s are bbq’ing it up. These weren’t the typical overcooked ‘fall off the bone’ ribs. There was just enough left on them that you could pick them up, and they bit off cleanly.

Their home-made rolls were also quite impressive, but I’m still having dreams about those ribs.

We sure thought it was fine, at least! A good friend of mine laid a few suggestions out when he heard we were going to be working near his hometown. Capri Imports was one of his recommendations. We stopped in for a sandwich after work, and were simply amazed at what they put in front of us. This is a quick shot we took of the ‘Mixed Italian’ sub that Karen ordered. This beast barely set us back $7, and was enough for 2 full meals! They used almost a half loaf of bread for this thing, and packed in an abundance of flavor.

Wow. I almost don’t know where to begin this post. I’m so extremely disappointed with my most recent DISservice at this place. But before I get to that, I’ll elaborate with a small amount of back-story.

Nearly a year ago we had gone to this location to pick up burgers and onion rings for a group of 4. We were all quite hungry as it was getting late in the afternoon, and nobody had managed lunch yet. I ordered 4 Jr. Double Cheeseburgers, 2 onion rings, and 2 orders of tater tots. 10 minutes later when we are sitting down to eat, we open the bags and realize they had failed to give us our onion rings. Their reported ‘award winning’ onion rings, and they shafted us out of 2 orders. Lovely.

Being that I’m a full time traveler, and a full time lover of local foods, I was more deeply saddened by this discovery. There is entirely too much good food, and way too many good places, to be able to go back to a place with such poor service. I’m always in pursuit of the favorite local haunts-and I hate to find one that can’t even be consistent-or give me what I paid for!

So for over 8 months, I refused to go back to Hi-Boy. Several people told me I was just being absurd, and one experience was no reason to totally write off a place. Today, I finally let my girlfriend convince me of that fact. I gave  up, and loaded into the truck for some Hi-Boy.

When I pulled in I was very pleased to notice they had some new menu additions. They now offer fried pickles (which I don’t care for-but my better half loves them) and the thing I’m most addicted to-sweet tea. I placed my order and pulled around for my total and my food. When I get home I grab a few plates and open up the bag…only to find that I had yet again, been shorted the onion rings!

Normally I’m very quick to write a company about excellent service, but slower to complain about poor service. I know I can be extremely critical about my food when I go out, so sometimes I will try to write off my complaints as me just being over the top. However when a place consistently fails to give you what you ordered and paid for-I think it’s time to spread the word about how lacking that establishment is. Their burgers are good, but not good enough to add in the cost for sides that you never see.

I finally had time to get back up to Stone Henge, but the weather wasn’t the greatest. It was chilly and windy-and obviously a bit gloomy. Regardless, I took quite a few pictures-several of which I’m quite pleased with.

After a very long day of flights, I made it back after just 7.5 months away. I do want to find the genius that had the idea to put a TOUCH SCREEN video game system into the headrests of international flights. Instead of 6 hours of sleep, I was greeted to 6 hours of the guy behind me tapping the screen furiously.

Needless to say, I was rather tired once I began my 5 hour drive to the hotel. I hadn’t managed to grab the big camera out of the suitcase, but I did have my new work camera close by-which was great when I rounded a hill and spotted Stonehenge!

Turned out there was a major mix-up with my hotel, and right now I have no idea at all where I will be staying as of tomorrow. I did take a few more pictures from my current hotel, and the view it has of the beach nearby.

Enjoy the pictures.

and I can’t find food, or cigars.

I guess, to be fair, I’ll go over the positive side of things, and then if you wish to read my complaints-they will be here as well. First off-the weather. Karen was ahead of the curve and set out sunscreen for me before I left. Sadly, I was BEHIND the curve, and forgot to bring it. Day 1 involved a slight sunburn. At this point, we’ve been inside for a large amount of the project, so I haven’t seen much more sun.

I have also managed to try a lot of the local favorite foods. Early on we tried the roti ( a traditional local dish where you scoop curry with pieces of unleavened bread), and then found shark-and-bake at Carnival. Their beer and rum is also ridiculously cheap. I have tried 4 types of Trinidad rum, and one rum from Guyana (avoid that one!) Since I’m not a rum specialist, I can’t comment on them too much, but they have been enjoyable.

We also spent 2 days photographing Carnival. This giant party (fete) is the focus for many of these islanders for the entire year. When the time comes, it’s non-stop for nearly 2 weeks. As it gets closer and closer to Fat Tuesday the events start to increase and 6 days before you are pretty much into the events. Friday night the parties start, and they continue till dawn (trust me, I’ve heard the song that proclaims this very thing). The parades really kick into full effect Monday morning. The masqueraders are fully dressed up, and they hit the streets following their music truck. These trucks are semi truck rigs pulling a full 53 foot trailer-packed with stereo gear. Each one is essentially a mobile-concert center. Some have live DJ’s, and all are insanely loud. Eventually you will see a truck of the steel bands go by. If you are lucky, they have spaced them out enough that the concert truck is starting to fade, and you can hear the amazing music that these bands are playing on their national instrument.

Once Carnival was over, things calmed back down and are back to ‘island style’. We are now getting things ready for the Fifth Summit of the Americas that is rapidly approaching. I’m unsure how much longer my project will be down here, but at times-I’m certainly ready to head home.

Generally speaking, the food here is really starting to ‘grind my gears’. If we stop and eat lunch at the canteen, every single option is chock full of bones. Those of you that have known me for ever, probably remember when I wouldn’t eat ANYTHING that had bones in it. I finally decided that some of the food might actually be worth the work, and stopped letting it be an issue.

However down here, it is an issue. You are given a fish sandwich, and nearly every bite requires you pulling tiny fish bones out of your mouth. I’m thinking their general culinary approach: is chop it, and cook it. I can almost ignore it in the fish, as I know they’d about destroy some of these to get the bones out. However on the chicken, it makes me want to scream. If I am eating the roti, I’ll grab a chunk of chicken and pop it in my mouth…take one bite and you are crunching into a bone. The next piece appears to be bone free, then you start finding all the bone fragments from where they chopped the chicken.

So now for my meals, I’ve turned to going to the local fast food joints. I’m sure ANYbody reading this, knows how little I like fast food chains. For all my complaints about them in the States, it’s even worse here. Long John Silvers serves overcooked and dried out fish and chicken, with soggy fries. Burger King manages to be out of a medium combo, but has the large (I never could get her to explain out they were out of less french fries). If you are a fan of beef-give it up. The burgers are…questionable. Every one I ordered at the hotel, or at Ruby Tuesdays, had the telltale crisp corners of a Sysco frozen burger (and nothing wrong with that-just not worth the prices they want!).  The grocery stores make me cry. Your only options are frozen food (all pork, all seafood, and most chicken comes frozen) or canned. I probably could eat fresh fruits/vegetables, but half of that doesn’t look to be in very good shape. The selection is certainly not what I’m used to from back home. I’ve always known that food is one of my luxuries, and now I realize how much that I have taken that for granted. The prices on the foods here are generally reasonable, but when you only have 2 choices of canned spagehtti sauce-they better be cheap.

Then there is my other luxory-cigars. I managed to bring about 20 of them down here with me. Due to a few very late nights early on, I didn’t get into them very hard. After we moved into our rental house I had a full patio to go outside and enjoy them…but I also had to fight a major mosquito problem. Eventually I found some bug spray, and I’m back in the groove. Then as I started to smoke through my selection, it became clear that cigars weren’t going to be easy to find down here. For 2 weeks we chased every single lead we could find. Someone sent us to a mall, so we’d scour it. Eventually we would find the ‘cigar shop’ and relize it only had tiny machine made ‘quick smoke’ cigars. Then we go to the next mall and find that they do have real cigars, but their prices are sky high, and they only have 3 selections! I did pick up a few sticks there (Monte #2 in case anybody reading this cares) but the prices aren’t what you want to pay if you like to enjoy multiple cigars per week. We are still researching shops, via stateside contacts, so hopefully we will land a shot soon.