Road Tips

XM Radio

It's been right at three months since I got a new car.  And it's also been three months in which I've been able to live with XM Radio and get a good idea of what I like and what I don't like about satellite radio.  And, believe me, there's not much to dislike about XM Radio.

I had been holding out getting a satellite receiver until after the merger of XM Radio and Sirius, hoping to be able to get one of the new ala carte receivers they just released earlier this month.  Unfortunately, my old car didn't hold out as long as I wanted and I got a new Impala that came with XM Radio service. 

Now, I've had rental cars in the past where I've been able to listen to both XM or Sirius programming.  There were things I liked about both, and some things that I was upset about that you couldn't have both.  Actually, I guess what I wanted was the chance to have radio broadcasts of both Major League Baseball and NFL games on one format.

Actually, other than XM Radio having more baseball and collegiate sports to offer and no NFL games, programming on both formats is about the same.  Both have similar music channels featuring focused genres of music.  Both have the same news, sports and weather programming.  Both have comedy and entertainment channels.  About the only difference is that Sirius has Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, and the NFL; while XM has Opie and Anthony, Oprah and Major League Baseball. 

Earlier this month, XM Radio and Sirius announced cross programming platforms called "The Best of..." for both formats.   While I had been waiting a long time for this cross programming to commense, I have to say now that I am VERY happy I have XM Radio and not Sirius.  "The Best of XM" is definitely a better deal for Sirius subscribers than "The Best of Sirius" is for XM subscribers. 

The Best of XM that Sirius subscribers can now get for an additonal $4 bucks a month offers up Oprah, NBA and NHL broadcasts, the PGA Tour Network and some collegiate sports programming.  The Best of Sirius made available to XM listeners only offers Martha Stewart, two Howard Stern channels and the NFL games.   I'm not a big Howard Stern fan and I'm usually home on Sunday's when NFL games are on.  And if I am driving on a Monday night, ESPN Radio has the NFL game on their channel.  I'm going to keep my subscription for XM only. 

So what do I like about XM?  I do enjoy the focused programming.  I have a radio that has 36 presets.  As the guy who sold me the car said, "I don't know anyone who would use 36 presets."  Well, he didn't know me very well, because I use a lot of 'em, especially when the baseball season was on. 

One of the XM channels I find myself listening to a lot is Channel 40 - Deep Tracks.  This is a channel where they play some really obscure music from famous and not-so-famous rock bands and performers from the late 60's, the 70's and into the early 80's.  And the music is far from bad, it's just songs that were either not in the consciousness of most people due to radio station playlists at the time, or songs from bands that didn't quite make it big.  Sirius has a similar channel - The Vault.  But I found it to be repetitious with a lot of Jethro Tull, Moody Blues and Rolling Stones being played on the channel.  Deep Tracks on XM is all over the place with different performers and bands.  It's fun to listen to.

I also find that I listen to Channel 6 - the 60's - an awful lot.  This was the music I was weaned on.  Having older sisters and older cousins who played a lot of music and had the latest records in the early to mid-60's, a lot of songs played on this station are sort of a time line of my growth in the 60's.  I'm not ashamed to say I like to listen to some of the music, even though I do have to suffer through an occassional Archies, 1910 Fruitgum Company or any other bubblegum performer from the late 60's. 

But that's what a radio with 36 presets is for - to immediately go from one station to the next.  And lately I've been listening to any one of the four comedy channels on XM.  Channel 150 - XM Comedy features comics doing uncensored routines.  Channel 151 - Laugh USA features comedy routines and comics spanning from the golden age of radio through a roster of current comedians.  And Channel 153 - Laugh Attack focuses on comics from Canada and their irreverant humor.  I find that I listen to those three stations a lot as of late, especially on long trips.  It really seems to make the time pass by much more quickly.   

Channel 151 features a lot of comics such as Bob Newhart, Henny Youngman and Bill Cosby.  In fact, we used to have a number of Bill Cosby's comedy albums while I was growing up.  Listening to his routines from the 60's brings back a lot of good memories.  There's also some vintage Bob and Ray, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, and some old Smothers Brothers routines that we used to have on albums years ago, as well.   

Since I first began to travel for my job in the mid-80's, I've said the most boring stretch of road that I travel is Interstate 35 between Kansas City and Des Moines.  You get out of either town by about 60 miles and the selection of radio stations to listen to drops off dramatically.  Those that you can pick up feature country and western music with farm reports.  If I wasn't in the mood to listen to some of my CD's, I just drove down the road in silence.  I always said that if I got satellite radio, it would make the trip bearable. 

Well, I made the trip between KC and Des Moines recently and I have to tell you - being able to jump between a multitude of offerings on XM radio did make the time go by rather quickly.  I got to about 50 miles outside of Des Moines before I realized that I had been on the road for two hours.  For someone like me who travels a lot, satellite radio is the way to go.  I find myself thinking outloud, "How did I live without this for so long?"

The Washington Hotel - Door County

As I said in my entry on Monday, when we ventured out to Washington Island, we had lunch at The Washington Hotel, a hotel, restaurant and culinary school.  Cindy found the place on line and was reading about it.  It had to be the first place we stopped once we got onto the island. 

The Washington Hotel was built in 1904 by Captain Ben Johnson, one of the many ship captains who came to the island during the height of shipping on Lake Michigan.  He fashioned the hotel to be not only a place where his fellow sailors could come to get a warm bath and comfortable bed, but as a place where tourists would visit and relax.  Over the years, The Washington Hotel became the social center for island resident hosting weddings, parties and events.  In 2001, the hotel underwent a makeover that restored the Washington to its original 1904 floor plan. 

The Washington Hotel also boasts its own culinary school.  This is what piqued Cindy's interest the most.  The professional chefs at The Washington Hotel Culinary School provide cooking lessons primarily focusing on making meals from local produce.  They have scheduled cooking classes that are open to the public, or they will do private cooking classes, as well.  

The head chef and proprietor at The Washington Hotel is Leah Caplan who is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.  Caplan champions the use of locally raised and sustainable foods in her cooking.  She's somewhat famous for her six course meals she serves nightly through the summer, all made with indigenous foods from the Door County and Washington Island areas.  This includes fish caught from the lake, beef, chicken and pork raised in Door County, and fresh vegetables and grains grown in the area.  The menu changes on a regular basis due to availability of fresh meats, fish and sustainable foods. 

We got to the Washington Hotel a little after 1 p.m.  There is a nice outdoor seating area that would have been nice to eat in, but all the tables were full and they didn't know how long it would be before one opened up.  We ended up going into the dining room of the hotel and taking a table in the corner. 

The dining room had a definite early 20th century charm to it.  It featured large tables draped in white table cloths, sturdy chairs and a hard wood floor.  Large windows that looked out onto the deck where the outside seating was placed allowed for a lot of natural light to come in.  We were the only ones in the dining room, which was fine with us. 

Our waitress, who said she was a full time college student in Green Bay and who was working there for the summer, came out with menus printed that day.  Because the chefs at The Washington Hotel use only local produce, the menu is sort of "catch as catch can" on a daily basis.  Most of the lunches are from leftover foods from the evening before. 

The Washington Hotel bakes their own bread in a large wood-fired brick oven, one of the very few in the whole state of Wisconsin.  They also bake a lot of their main entries in the brick oven - including homemade pizzas - giving the food a very distinct and natural taste. 

We got a basket of homemade brick oven-baked wheat bread (wheat is the predominant grain grown on Washington Island) and we both ordered a glass of wine.  I got red, Cindy got white.  Most of the choices on the menu that day were sandwiches.   One of the more interesting ones was the Washington Hotel BLT - unprocessed Door County bacon, with tomatoes and lettuce grown on the island.  It was served on a homemade focaccia bread.  Cindy got that for her lunch.  It looks pretty yummy, doesn't it?

I got the open-faced shaved prime rib sandwich topped with Wisconsin Gorgonzola and placed on a homemade slice of bread.  Before the cheese was placed on top, they warmed the sandwich in the brick oven.  For sides, they offered us both a homemade German-style potato salad they had left over from the dinners they served the night before.  Although the presentation was nothing to look at, the food sure looked good.

And it was good.  My shaved prime rib sandwich had great flavor to it.  The Gorgonzola cheese offered a nice after taste to the beef.  And Cindy really liked her BLT.  She's been really high on eating natural and homegrown foods as of late.  She was certainly not disappointed with her sandwich. 

Our bill with tip came to about $40 bucks.  No, it certainly wasn't cheap, but the food was good and the experience was very nice.  Cindy was happy and that's all that mattered.  Besides, we were on vacation and we wanted to splurge a bit.  The Washington Hotel was a great destination on Washington Island.  If you ever get to the island, be sure to stop by and have something to eat.

Happy Third Anniversary!

Road Tips turns 3 years old today!  It's sort of amazing that I've been able to keep it going this long, plus the fact that people continue to read this blog.  I thank each and every one of you for tuning in a regular basis. 

What just started out as a whim in 2005 has turned into a blog with a life of its own.  The number of daily hits has been increasing for the past year and it continues to grow on a monthly basis.  I've heard from people who I haven't heard from in a long time and I've heard from people who I've never met before who now read the blog three or four times a week.

The new format that I put in place last year giving more precise category information has been a big help.  Rather than just giving an area for the places I've eaten at or visited, I've just gone ahead and added the town or city name for the category.  It dramatically cuts down on the time one has to devote to look for a restaurant or destination in a given city.

I'd like to change the look of the blog, too.  I've never been a big fan of the sky blue color that TypePad gives me as part of the template.  But I've played around with other color combinations and I've never been happy with any of those, either.  I'd also love to change the header from the basic travel template I got through TypePad to something a little more jazzy.  I'm playing around with some different styles and maybe I'll try to change the look in the coming months. 

Believe me, there are times when I really think it's worth keeping Road Tips going.  But with a growing audience and my 1000th entry coming sometime in 2009, I'm going to keep it going for a little while longer.  Writing is a hobby, one that I've had since I was in high school.  I figure if someone is going to keep reading Road Tips, I'd better keep looking for good places to eat. 

And for that, I thank you all, once again. 

 

A Day on Washington Island

At the very tip of Door County is the small village of Northport.  Well, I use the term "village" rather loosely because there's really nothing at Northport other than a small restaurant and the terminus for the Washington Island Ferry that takes you across to Washington Island.  Cindy wanted to spend a day on the island, so we did just that.

Washington Island is located six miles off the Door County peninsula.  To get to the island, the ferry takes you across some straits called the "Ports des Morts" (Door of Death).  Years ago, shippers used to try to cut some time off on their travel to and from Green Bay by cutting through the straits.  The currents coming from Lake Michigan that collided with the currents coming from Green Bay made the passage way very treacherous, causing many ships to collide with the rocky shore of several small islands in the area.  Hundreds of ships are on the bottom of the straits and the area is now a very popular destination for scuba divers each summer. 

It's not cheap to get to Washington Island.  It's $11 bucks a person and another $24 bucks per car round trip.  The trip takes about 30 minutes.  Here are the cars lining up for the ferry that runs about every 30 minutes in the summer months.  We were seventh in line for the trip across to the island.

After we got on board, we settled into our seats on top of the ferry.  It was a beautiful mid-August day and we were looking forward to experiencing the lake breezes as we went to the island.  They really squeeze as many cars on to the ferry as they can.  The ferry can also accommodate large semi's, delivery trucks and other commercial vehicles.  On our trip across, they hauled 25 cars.  Figure one car and at least two people per car and that's a minimum of $1150 bucks per round trip for the ferry line. 

The ferry stays open year round as a number of people live on Washington Island all year.  There's a little less than 700 people who make their home on the island.  Many of the residents are decendants of Icelandic origin.  Washington Island has the largest concentration of Icelandic heritage residents than any other place in North America.   In fact, it's one of the oldest and largest communities of Icelandic heritage in the world, outside of Iceland, itself. 

Washington Island is, indeed, a small community with a number of shops, restaurants, hotels and business services located there.  Its also has it's own school system and city services.  One of the first things we did was to find the Washington Hotel (above left) and have lunch there.  Look for my post on our lunch at the Washington Hotel coming in a couple days.

Washington Island is mostly rural with a number of small wheat farms that blanket the open fields between the trees.  This picture is from atop Mountain Tower, in the center of the island.  Actually, it really isn't a mountain, but a somewhat large hill with a viewing tower on top.

Here's a picture of the tower.  Cindy didn't want to climb up it, but I did.  It was about 60 feet to the top.  Cindy was able to make it up the first 20 feet before her fear of heights set in.  I have to tell you, it was a monumental pain in the ass to get to the top, especially for a guy with a bad hip and who is horribly out of shape.  

But to even get up to the tower, you had to climb these steps.  It was about a 175 foot climb up these bastards.   You can't even see the bottom of the steps from the top.  Thank God they had little rest benches about every 50 feet.  I figured that if I could make it up those steps, I could make it the next 60 feet to the top of the tower.  I did, but it nearly killed me.   

All through Washington Island they had some pretty neat little roads to travel on.  I think we went down every road while we were there.  This picture was down a little road that looked like it was enveloped in trees.  We encountered a lot of bicyclists out roaming the island and taking advantage of a great summer day.

Also taking advantage of a great summer day were a number of swimmers at Schoolhouse Beach.  Schoolhouse Beach is unique in that there is no sand on the beach, but large smooth white rocks that are easy on your feet to walk on.  In fact, Schoolhouse Beach is only one of five beaches in the world that has this type of rock for the beach.  The others are in Mexico, France, Sweden and Norway.  The harbor Schoolhouse Beach is on is about 100' deep, making it a popular mooring spot for vessels that traveled to the island in the 1800's. 

Here is a picture of the white stones they had on the beach.  There were signs saying it was against the law to take the rocks from the beach, but it didn't say anything about flinging them into the harbor as we saw a number of kids do while we were there.  The constant surge of water coming into the beach must bring back a lot of the rocks that are tossed out into the harbor.

It was getting late in the afternoon and we thought we'd better head back to catch the ferry before the last one left for the mainland.  We just missed the 5:00 p.m. ferry, but were the first ones in line for the 5:30 departure.  The last ferry leaves for Door County at 6:00 p.m. during the summertime.  There was an attendant there who we were talking to about the ferry service.  I asked her what happened if we were to miss the last ferry to the mainland.  She said, "You'd be spending the night on Washington Island." 

I said, "Does it happen a lot?"

She said, "Oh, yes.  Much more than you'd imagine.  Time just gets away from some people when they come out to visit."

She said a lot of people will sleep in their cars right here waiting for the first ferry in the morning.  She told us, "We had a situation a couple weeks ago where a family of six missed the ferry and the father refused to get hotel rooms on the island since he already had rooms back in Door County.  So he made his wife and kids sleep in the van."

I said, "OK, let's say that you missed the ferry, but you have to get back to Door County because you're having dinner with, say, the President of the United States.  Is there an emergency ferry service that can get you across?"

She said, "No, not an emergency service ferry.  You'd have to take one of the Washington Island ferries.  And if it was just you they were carrying, it would cost you $450 dollars."

I said, "Wow!  So, I guess it is a good thing to pay attention to the time and the ferry schedule."

She said, "That's a good rule when you come out here."

The girl, who was in her early 20's and had just graduated from college, was a native of the island.  I asked her what it was like to grow up out here.  She said, "I suppose it was like growing up in any other small town across America.  Yeah, we couldn't just get in the car and go shopping in Green Bay, but we had a lot of the things we needed brought out and sold in the stores."

She said that while it was great to grow up there, she was ready to move on.  She had accepted a position in Minneapolis for a job there that would begin in September.  She said, "Yeah, I'll miss it here."

Then she stopped for a moment and said, "For a little while, at least." 

Washington Island - neat place to visit for a day.  But it was one of those, "Been there, done that" kind of destinations.  If we go back to Door County, I won't be clamoring to head back out to the island.

 

Behind the Scenes at River Roots Live - 2008

 The fourth annual River Roots Live music festival was held in downtown Davenport, recently.  Once again, I was on hand to be the stage manager and the main announcer for the event.  Things were thrown into turmoil in the planning stages when the festival had to be moved from its regular location in LeClaire Park to the streets of downtown Davenport due to damage caused by the floods we experienced earlier in the summer.  And because it would have been a monumental logistical nightmare to charge for admission, the powers that be decided they'd make River Roots Live a free event this year, hoping that beer sales would help offset the loss at the gate. 

The main stage at River Roots Live this year was set up on Second Street in front of the Ground Transportation Center in downtown Davenport (see map).  The size of the stage was a staggering 40' X 40' with a same sized canopy roof on top.  We needed that size and then some.  We had two big touring acts on Saturday night - The Guess Who and blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa.  Both road managers wanted to set up at the same time on Saturday morning.  We got it done with a minimum of bruised egos between the two camps. 

And as with last year, we combined the annual Rib Fest with the River Roots Live.  This year there were only six or seven rib vendors at the festival, and all brought their small setups and secondary crews.  We really didn't know what would happen with River Roots Live and the Rib Fest being on the streets of downtown Davenport.  We expected the worst in terms of amount of people who would show up.

It turned out that we didn't have to worry.  Crowds exceeded an estimated 15,000 on Friday night and over 20,000 on Saturday night.  It was almost overwhelming.  Well, actually it was for the rib vendors who ran out of everything before 8:30 p.m. both nights.  The above left picture is a shot from the top of the parking ramp of the main stage crowd when Foghat played on Friday night.  It was just packed both nights.  It was actually kind of fun to see.

Because I was doing a lot of prep work before the shows, I didn't have a chance to eat much of the barbecue this year.  I did have some ribs and a sandwich on Friday and Saturday from a "mom and pop" barbecue place from around Osceola, IA.  All the touring rib vendors were busy and had long lines from the time they'd open around 11 a.m. until they ran out of food.  A lot of people were pissed off because people ran out of food.  One of the local rib vendors told me that he brought six times the amount of meat for Saturday than he did on Friday - and he STILL ran out of ribs by 6:30 p.m. on Saturday night!  It was just crazy.

Here is your handsome stage manager and announcer getting things rolling on Friday evening on the side stage.   It worked out pretty well this year as the main stage and the side stage were nearly in view of one another and it allowed people to just turn their chairs or bodies toward one stage or the other to watch the performers.  Plus, this year, we were able to use the large "jumbotron" for both stages, allowing people far in the back to see the performances. 

The weather, in a word, was perfect for the River Roots Live.  We had a lot of rain during set up on Thursday, and it was sort of cool and foggy during the day on Friday.  But by the time the first band played at 5 p.m. on Friday, the clouds had burned off, there was little to no humidity and the sun was shining.  And it was the same for Saturday. 

The main acts this year were Foghat on Friday night, and The Guess Who and Joe Bonamassa on Saturday night.  But, in between, there were a number of very good performers who came to play at River Roots Live this year.  One of the problems with being the stage manager is that I can introduce an act, then I'm off doing a number of other things behind the stages getting ready for the next act to go on.  I don't get to see or hear much of the performances except right at the start and right at the end.  

And one of the neat things about being the stage manager is that I get to know the guys from Iowa Public Television pretty well.  They've come to River Roots Live for the past couple three years to record the event to be played back on TV in six to eight months.  The executive producer, Jerry Grady, is great to work with and he's offered me DVD's of bands that performed for my personal enjoyment.  The only problem was that every band that was filmed and recorded on the side stage, the sound was all screwed up.  It made the recorded DVD's virtually useless.  I understand they won't be able to use any of the performances on their River Roots Live television show this winter.

And that's too bad because there was some great bands that played on the side stage.  One of them was Pete Francis, who is a former member of the great indie band Dispatch.   Dispatch is renown for having the best selling CD's of any independent band in music history.  Pete went by his given name of Pete Heimbold during his days with Dispatch.   

Pete and his band were in from New York City for the show.  We had some glitches that delayed Pete's performance by 15 minutes or so.  I was pretty pissed about the whole thing, because it was clearly our fault, but Pete and his guys were so pleasant and understanding about the whole thing.   

Actually, I got to hang with Pete for a while after his show as we were waiting for the bank ladies to get him cash to pay his band.  It turned out that Pete had just moved from Boston to New York and was slowly getting settled into his new digs.  He was really complimentary of the way we did things on the production side for River Roots Live.  He was a great guy all the way around. 

Other bands and musicians who played at River Roots Live this year included Goodnight Nurse, a group from Chicago that featured noted Chicago musician and producer, Brian Abraham; and Kris Myers, the drummer for the up and coming jam band Umphrey's McGee (who has played the RRL twice in the past.  Their style of music can be classified as electronica jazz, using computers, samplers and electric drums to make their music.  In fact, we were about 20 minutes late in getting the band up and going because of problems Abraham was having with his Apple computer.  Once they got that all figured out, they were only able to play for about 35 minutes.  Thank God it wasn't our fault on that one. 

Also playing was Assembly of Dust, a New York-based folk-rock band that was beginning to get quite the name out on the east coast.  They were good guys to hang with.  It was sort of funny because their leader, Reid Genauer, told me it was the first time they played west of the Mississippi River.  I said, "Well, actually, this is the first time you played NORTH of the Mississippi River.  The river runs east-west here."

Like most people who grew up learning that the Mississippi River runs north-south, Genauer had a hard time coming to terms that he was actually looking south into Illinois.  I said, "Hey, don't worry.  It took my wife about four years to get her directions straight because the river runs east-west." 

Other bands and artists included Brother Trucker, a roots-based rock band from the Des Moines area; Daphne Willis and Company, a folk-rock band from Chicago that played RRL last year and has been getting some positive national press as of late; and Lissie, a Rock Island native who now lives in California, and who plays folk rock.  Her most recent claim to fame is that she and her band opened for Lenny Kravitz on his tour in early 2008.  She played solo at River Roots Live and was also accompanied on a couple tunes by local musician Jordan Danielsen (above right). 

Local bands also played such as Rude Punch, Head Held High and my friends, Ellis Kell and Andrew Landers, as well as my friends from Jim the Mule.  Before the Mule band was to take stage I was ribbing them about their initial performance at River Roots Live three years prior when they opened the festival.  They were all so nervous and it was overly evident by the way they were playing.  I said, "Don't let your butt holes pucker up like you did the last time you played River Roots Live."

They all laughed and went out and played a great 45 minute set.  They definitely acquitted themselves from their earlier RRL performance. 

It's fun to interact with the bands before and after their performances.  Most of them are a little nervous when they get ready to go on, so I try to joke with them and calm them down a bit.  Afterward, when I go to pay the band, they're usually so jacked up that they want to keep playing.  Good crowd coming out in beautiful weather will do that. 

Usually, I don't get to interact all that much with the big name performers.  I do get to hear the shit from the road managers for those artists, however.  Actually, I do like working with professionals who are somewhat demanding.  However, the road manager for Joe Bonamassa, Warren, was a Class A asshole from the time he arrived with the band at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning until we just sort of had a "come to Jesus" meeting around 11:30.  It was pointed out that he was making life more difficult than it had to be.  And he was also reminded that even though Joe Bonamassa played last that evening, the band that was paid big money - about three times more than Bonamassa - was The Guess Who.  And they were paid big money to bring in the people.  I said, "Your job is to hold the younger people in the crowd to keep our beer sales going up to midnight." 

Once we got on the same page and he quit being such a penis head, we were suddenly friends for life. 

It's interesting that Foghat only has one guy traveling with them - their road manager who also served as their sound technician.  The Guess Who had two guys traveling with them - a sound tech and a monitor technician.  Bonamassa had five road guys traveling with him, plus a nice young lady who I guessed was Bonamassa's girl friend.  I thought it was rather telling in that Bonamassa needed five guys for four guys in his band. 

I'd always heard that Bonamassa (left) was somewhat of a prima-donna and a pain in the ass to work with.  I was fully prepared after the initial run-in with his road manager to see how Bonamassa would react to having to work around The Guess Who setting up on stage in front of Bonamassa's band's gear.  Actually, it turned out that he was fine with everything.  In fact, I was introduced to him and we talked casually for about three or four minutes in the backstage area during the afternoon.  He was very soft spoken, he did complain a little about starting so late, but he said he fully understood the "festival" concept and how things did get to be a little backed up toward the end of the evening.  He was a very nice guy. 

After his show, Jerry Grady from Iowa Public Television and I were standing near the back gate area of the backstage.  Jerry noticed a guy and two young kids standing near the gate.  I excused myself to go do some work in the dressing room trailers and Jerry went over to talk to the guy and his kids.  Jerry told me later on that he asked the guy, "Can I help you?"

The guy said, "Well, my kids are just starting to play guitar and they're big fans of Joe Bonamassa.  We were just wondering if Joe would be able to come out and say, 'Hi!' "

Jerry went over to Bonamassa's tour bus and knocked on the door.  He asked if Joe was on board and the person said he was.  Jerry said, "Well, there's a couple of young guys out here that would just love to meet him if he's got the time."

Jerry said it wasn't more than 30 seconds later and Joe came bounding off the bus and went over to see the kids.  I was shuttling stuff back on a golf cart and I passed this crowd of people all huddled around Bonamassa by the back gate.  He stood there and talked to people for about 45 minutes.  I thought it was rather cool on his part to do that.  Let's say that any notions I had about Joe Bonamassa being a petulant prima-donna were squelched right then and there.

The guys from Foghat were also very nice guys.  Roger Earl is the only original member of the band.  Lonesome Dave Peverett and Rod Price have both died.  Original bassist Tony Stevens isn't touring with the band.  His replacement when he initially left the band in the mid-70's, Craig MacGregor, is still playing with the band.  Taking Lonesome Dave's and Price's place in the band are Charlie Huhn, who used to play with Ted Nugent; and Bryan Bassett, whose claim to fame previously was as the guitarist for the 70's disco-rock band Wild Cherry (whose one big hit was "Play That Funky Music, White Boy"). 

Now, I was sort of leery when I was told Foghat was going to play the River Roots Live fest, given that the core and soul of the group was long gone.  But from the first notes they played and all through their set, they just rocked.  During their set, I was able to get to the VIP area where I met up with Cindy and our friends, Scott and Marcia Schroeder.  (I was able to get them VIP passes for the weekend.)  Now, Scott and I have known each other for years and I've always thought him to be somewhat ambivalent when it came to music - especially hard rock.  But Scott enthusiastically yelled in my ear, "These guys ROCK!!!"

When Foghat came off the stage before their encore, I was standing near the back of the stage.  Craig MacGregor exclaimed, "The people are backed up all the way to that third stop light!  There's a shit load of people out there!" 

This is what it looked like from the stage before Foghat began to play.  It was just a mass of people in downtown Davenport. 

I was able to hang with the guys from Foghat for a bit after their performance.  Roger Earl told me that he's living on Long Island and has been for a number of years.  He said a lot of English rockers from the 70's moved to the U.S. to beat the British tax system.  He said in his still thick British accent, "Long Island is home."  The guys from Foghat were just thrilled to play River Roots Live and Roger gave me a hug before the band left in a rented van piloted by Roger, himself. 

I was also somewhat leery of The Guess Who, given that the two biggest names - Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman - had long disassociated themselves with the group.  Only two original members were left - bassist Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson.  Both Kale and Peterson are well into their 60's and had been having health problems.  In fact, we had to have a special seat with back supports for Peterson, who suffers from a bad back and who is not a small man by any means.  

But they did a great job.  I was really impressed and pleasantly surprised by their performance - or what I saw of it.  It turns out that most of The Guess Who gigs are on Saturday nights.  That's right - they usually only play once a week at casinos and small festivals.  I'm guessing the crowd they played in front of that Saturday night was probably the largest they'd seen in quite some time. 

Interestingly, their road manager is also a member of the band - multi-instrumentalist Leonard Shaw.  He was a very high strung, nervous kind of guy, always asking questions about time schedules, when they were going to get paid, who would be looking after the band merchandise, who would be come to pick them up at the hotel, etc., etc.  But he was a very nice guy.  Once he got all the answers he was looking for, he was fun to be around.  

The other two members of The Guess Who, lead guitarist Laurie MacKenzie and guitarist, lead vocalist Carl Dixon, were really the spark of the band.  MacKenzie's claim to fame was that he was just a good local musician around the Winnipeg music scene - as was Leonard Shaw - and Dixon was the guitarist for an obscure Canadian heavy rock band in the 80's by the name of Coney Hatch.  

It appears that both Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman want nothing to do with this incarnation of The Guess Who as we were told before the show that Iowa Public Television couldn't record any of the songs the band played that evening, with the exception of "Shakin' All Over".  It turned out all the other songs are owned by either Cummings or Bachman and they don't allow any recording of the songs either via audio or video when The Guess Who performs.  "Shakin' All Over", a Johnny Kidd-penned tune, was the first hit the band had in the mid-60's.  So that was the only song IPTV could record.

However, the guys at IPTV were also providing the camera shots for the Jumbotron.  During The Guess Who's performance, they only showed one camera shot - a long shot of the full stage.  You couldn't even see the band on the Jumbotron if you were a couple blocks back.  I heard a lot of people complaining (since I'm the defacto "face" of the River Roots Live, being the announcer) and I went into the control room on the IPTV mobile production facility.  Jerry was sitting in his chair and I was asking him what the deal was.  He told me, "According to their contract, we can't show anything other than the shot from Camera One, with the exception of 'Shakin' All Over' when we can tape it and use other cameras".  

However, after the show, Howard, the sound tech guy for the band came up to me and said, "Will, what the f***?  How come they didn't show close ups of the band on the big screen?"

I said, "I was told that it was a contractual situation that they couldn't show the band except for 'Shakin' All Over'."

He said, "Who told you that?"

I told him, "Jerry Grady from IPTV." 

Howard said, "Where did he get that?"

I said, "From Leonard Shaw, I'm guessing."

Howard shook his head and said, "No, no, no.  That's only for recording.  They could have easily shown the band in close ups."

I said, "Look, Howard.  I'm just going on what Jerry told me.  If you want to discuss it with Jerry, he's standing right over there."

Yeah, it was a misunderstanding on Jerry's part.  And a lot of people were pissed, but it was over and done with, so nothing could be done about it. 

Ah!  The politics of the back stage area...

Here's a shot of the crowd during The Guess Who's performance.  I had my camera with me, but I was so busy that I never got to use it.  I got these pictures from Kyle Carter at Davenport One.  I'm still impressed with the number of people who were there.

But it was all free and that brings people out in droves.  I was told by one of the sales guys from the local Anheuser-Busch distributor that it was the most beer they had ever delivered for any event in all the years they'd been working with the city, the local blues society or any other organization producing festivals. 

In 2005, the first River Roots Live lost about $45,000 bucks.  The one in 2006 - the one I didn't work - lost over $200,000 dollars.  Last year, we lost about $30,000 dollars - even combining it with the Rib Fest.  This year, preliminary audits show that we may have broken even - just on beer sales alone!  And there could have easily been more beer sales as the beer tents were inundated with people both Friday and Saturday night, with some lines as long as 30 to 35 people deep waiting to get a beer.  I had one guy tell me a few days after the event that he could have easily gotten a beer, then gone back and stood in line, drinking the first beer while he waited to order his second. 

While we did have some hiccups with the production of this year's River Roots Live, it came off OK.  I wasn't as happy with everything as I was after last year's RRL, but it took a lot of team work to pull off the festival again.  Marcy Hyder and Kyle Carter from Davenport One took the lead in getting everything in place.  Santo Pullela from The Redstone Room booked the acts and took care of the musical riders (always a pain in the butt to track down equipment for some bands), Scott Rexroat from Rexroat Sound took care of the stage work, sound and lights including the building of the massive main stage.  Everything was in place for me to direct who and when and where. 

It will be interesting to see if we go back to LeClaire Park next year, given the success of the festival this year.  There were some logistical nightmares having it on the streets of downtown Davenport, but there was also an intimacy.  I know Marcy is already thinking about next year's event and wondering if we should charge admission like we have in the past.  However, I know for a fact that based on the turnout by the large number of people those two days in late August, a number of sponsors have already upped their monetary commitment to the River Roots Live for 2009.  And that means more big name acts to play the event.

And that also usually means more headaches for the production team and me...

Three Guilty Pleasures of Door County

While one is in Door County, there's all types of temptations that tourists can fall into, food wise.  We ran into three different places that we found to be just unbelievable and also very fattening to the waistline. 

The first place we found was the Door County Bakery (see map).  Actually, Curt Campbell from the Oilerie told us about this place.  He said, "It's the best bakery in Door County, by far."  The owners, Don and Jean Thompson, make breads, pastries and a locally famous chocolate cake called "Ports des Morts" (door of death), named after the small strait between the Door County peninsula and Washington Island.

The Door County Bakery is also famous for their Corsica loaf, a large French loaf made with olive oil and sesame seeds.  They make it in about six to seven pound loafs and then will cut off how much bread you want.  The girl offered us a taste and it was outstanding.  We ended up taking a couple pounds of the loaf.  Since we were traveling, she wrapped it up in foil and plastic wrap.  We kept it in the refrigerator back at the hotel and in the cooler when we were traveling.  But by the time we'd gotten back home to try some, it was pretty much done.  The girl said that it freezes well and if we get back there, we'll have to get it the day we're leaving to go home.  Unfortunately, we moved around for about a week with it unfrozen.  Oh, well.  Live and learn.

The Door County Bakery also has a large selection of pastries to choose from.  We'd had breakfast earlier in the morning and weren't hungry for anything like that, but the stuff they had in the counter definitely got me drooling. 

The Door County Bakery also has a deli and a small gourmet store on the other side of the building.  Cindy and I said we were going to come back and get a sandwich made with the Corsica bread at some point, but we never did.  Next time.

Behind the Door County Bakery was a building that housed a museum/art studio run by WGN Radio personality Spike O'Dell known as The Back Door Studio.  O'Dell, who grew up in the Quad Cities, collected coffee cups of famous celebrities or politicians he's had on his show over the years and had each person sign the cup.  He put them on display in this building.

Here's a shot of some of the coffee cups - both porcelain and Styrofoam - that O'Dell has collected from his guests over the years.  It was kind of neat and sort of hokey at the same time.  But there was sure of lot of 'em to see.

One thing that I didn't know about Spike O'Dell is that he's a pretty accomplished artist.  Cindy sort of knew that he was an artist, but I was just incredulous.  "Spike O'Dell did THIS?!" I exclaimed more than once looking at the artwork he had for sale in the building.  I was amazed at how good he was with a paint brush.  I've listened to O'Dell on WGN for quite some time and I never knew that he was an artist. 

The second place we found that became an instant guilty pleasure for us was Jorns' Sugar Bush outside of Egg Harbor (see map). Jorns' is a family operation that collects and processes it's own pure maple syrup.  We'd seen a billboard while we were out driving around regarding Jorns' and Cindy wanted to go see the place.  We went down a county road and literally drove right by the place.  It was nestled back in behind a farm house surround by a lot of maple trees.  We doubled back and drove into the driveway.

Roland and Donna Jorns are well into their 80's and Roland continues to process maple syrup like his grandfather and father used since the mid-1800's.  Jorns has over 1200 trees that he can tap each spring for maple flow.  During the height of the flow, he can process about 600 gallons of maple syrup a day. 

We made it into the shop and and the Jorns' daughter came out of the processing area and said, "My mother will be out here in a minute.  Feel free to look around."  We found a number of different sizes of maple syrup in bottles and containers, as well as homemade jellies and jams from Door County. 

Donna Jorns gingerly made it out to the small shop and greeted us as she walked in.  She was actually a pretty interesting woman to talk with.  She said her husband has been gathering and processing maple each year for 80 years, since he was a small child in grade school.  She said, "This was his grandfather's land, then it was passed along to his father, who passed it along to us when he passed away."  It's been in the family for about 150 years, she said. 

Donna Jorns told us that they have a lot of seasonal workers in the spring that come out and gather the sap buckets for processing.  She said, however, that finding help has been sort of tough lately.  "Kids are different now a days, " she told us.  "We used to have kids lining up to come out here to work years ago.  Today, it's so bad that we can only tap about a third to half the trees we have because we don't have enough seasonal help to gather the sap."

We ended up getting some of their syrup (a quart), as well as some jam.  Mrs. Jorns told us that she sends maple syrup all over the country.  She said, "When you run out of this, just call us and we'll send you some more!"

Cindy makes the greatest pancakes in the world and I have to tell you, with the Jorns' maple syrup on top, it makes them even better.  Jorns' maple syrup may be the best pure maple syrup I've ever had.  We will be calling them for more at some point. 

And last, but certainly not least, of the holy trinity of guilty pleasures of Door County, was Wilson's Ice Cream Parlor in Ephraim (see map).  This old fashioned restaurant and soda fountain has been serving tourists and residents in Door County since 1906.  We were told by our friends, Scott and Marcia Schroeder, that we had to stop at Wilson's during our trip to Door County. 

Wilson's is open seasonally from late May thru late October.  They're famous for their ice cream which they serve large amounts of each summer.  And when they dish it up, they dish up large amounts for each customer.  Here's a picture of Cindy eating her ice cream cone - a one scoop cone - that was so large, she had them put it in a small bowl so she wouldn't lose any of it. 

Wilson's has a long and rich history, which began when Oscar Wilson moved his family from Milwaukee to Door County in the early 20th century.  The Wilson family ran the place for 55 years before selling out in 1961.  The ice cream parlor/restaurant has gone through a series of owners and changes over the past 40+ years with current owners Roy and Diane Elquist updating the inside by adding air conditioning and screening off part of the outside seating areas.  Wilson's is a plum job for a number of high school and college students each summer.

I actually didn't order any because I was still full from lunch a couple three hours earlier.  But Cindy had eaten light in anticipation of ice cream later in the afternoon at Wilson's.  I had some of Cindy's and their ice cream was good.  Not the best I've had, but good.  We went back one other time after dinner at a nearby restaurant, but the line was so long and there were so many people hanging out that we decided to pass on stopping for ice cream at Wilson's. 

In addition to ice cream, sundaes and specialty drinks, Wilson's also has a food menu consisting of burgers, sandwiches, appetizers and salads.  I heard while we were in Door County their char-grilled hamburgers were pretty damn good, as well.  We may have to go back sometime to try those out. 

We were pleasantly surprised with the variety of food - and how good it is - in Door County.  But the three temptations - Door County Bakery, Jorns' Sugar Bush and Wilson's Ice Cream Parlor - all contributed to the guilty pleasures we found on our trip to Door County. 

Update on the Hewlett-Packard Story

I've heard from three or four people in the past few days wondering what ever happened with the Hewlett-Packard lap top computer I was having problems with (read the whole story here).  I did receive the new system recovery discs from HP and I immediately put them into my computer to put Windows on my new $375 dollar overpriced hard drive.  The computer whizzed up, started to go through all the installation paces, then got to a point and shut down again.  I was ready to throw it out the window. 

That was all a couple Saturday's ago and I knew that I was going to have to call Hewlett-Packard again to see what they could do to resolve this situation.  It couldn't be that two system recovery discs were corrupted.  I decided to wait until the following Monday to give them a call.

After the usual hoop jumping and other misdirections they try to put you through on Hewlett-Packard phone technical support, much to my relief I was able to talk to a guy - Pierre (probably not his real name) - who was going to help me with the latest problem.  I told him right off the bat, "Look, I'm so exasperated by this whole experience that I'm going to apologize to you in advance if I lose my shit during the course of this conversation."

He was sympathetic to my plight and looked through the service tickets that had gathered into a mini-novel in HP's technical support computers.  I told him that the second recovery disc had done the same thing as the first - shut down my computer during the installation process.  He immediately said, "Well, from just looking at the notes here, it's apparent that it's not a disc drive problem as much as a mother board problem."

I told him that I bought a hard drive from HP for $375 bucks and found later that I could have gotten one much cheaper from another source.  He said, "Well, actually you paid $379.20 for the disc drive.  And, yes, you could have very easily found a cheaper one elsewhere."

Pierre said that he'd be happy to take the disc drive back for credit on my card.  He then said, "However, it's sort of ironic that a new mother board for your computer runs $399." 

By this time, I'd had it with HP.  I said, "You know what?  $400 bucks is about half of what I can buy a new lap top for these days.  I think I'm just going to cut my losses and get a new one."

Pierre said, "Would you like to speak to someone in our sales department about a new notebook computer?"

I said, "Pierre, look.  You've been overly helpful and sympathetic to my problem.  But when the lady insisted that I had to BUY a system recovery disc for $15 bucks to replace what she said was a corrupted system recovery disc that came with the new computer when I bought it 18 months ago, and after I just spent $375 bucks on a new hard drive that I could have gotten cheaper, I thought it was time to end my association with Hewlett-Packard." 

Pierre said he fully understood and was sorry to hear my plight.  He got me an RA for the disc drive.  I sent it out and should be getting a refund sometime soon.  

In the meantime, I went to the local Best Buy to look at new lap tops later that morning.  The head of the computer department was helping me and I told him, "No HP's!"

He said, "What?  Really?  That's too bad because the HP's are all really hot right now."

Before I bought my HP notebook 18 months ago, I talked to a few computer savvy people who gave me their opinions on what to buy.  A couple of them strongly suggested the Toshiba brand of lap tops.   I'd gone through a Sony, a Dell and an HP in the last six plus years.  It was time to look at a Toshiba. 

To cut a long story to the chase, I found a Toshiba with a 320 gig hard drive, 4 gig of RAM, and the Intel 2.1 processor for $849 bucks.  My old HP I bought 18 months ago was $1249, with an 80 gig hard drive and 2 gig of RAM.  It did have Windows Office 2002 on it, while Windows Office 2007 did not come with this computer.  That will be another $250 bucks when the free 60 day trial ends in about six and a half weeks.  

All in all, I like it a lot.  It's much more quick than the HP and I didn't realize how many problems the HP was having compared to how slick the Toshiba opens up programs right away, compared to having to double click the icons on the HP a couple three times for a program to open up.  

I still haven't written that letter to Hewlett-Packard just yet, but I'm in the office all week long and I'm sure I'll find the time in the coming days to do just that.  And I'll be sure to let them know I'm writing it on my new Toshiba notebook. 

Schartner's on the Shore - Sturgeon Bay, WI

After we witnessed the authentic fish boil at the White Gull Inn, Cindy and I decided to go out for a nice dinner.  We got back to our hotel in Sturgeon Bay and picked up a number of menus from the front desk, checking to see what the area restaurants had to offer.  We decided on a place just walking distance down the street from the hotel.  When we returned the menus to the front desk, the girl asked, "So, where are you going?"  After I told her our choice, she said, "Oh, my gosh!  I'm sorry, you guys.  I should have pulled that menu out.  That place closed up earlier this year.

We ended up looking at the menus again and settled on a little supper club just outside of town called Schartner's on the Shore (see map).  The girl said she'd never eaten there, so she wasn't familiar with the place.  We decided to give it a try.

We pulled into the parking lot around 8 p.m. and there was only a couple other cars there.  Actually, the "on the shore" part of Schartner's is a misnomer.  They're about 200 feet from the lake, across the road.  In fact, you can't even see the lake from the place as there's a bunch of trees in between.

Schartner's is a typical north woods supper club with pine paneling, a large bar and pictures all over the wall.  One thing that I noticed right off the bat, however, is the large amount of St. Louis Cardinals memorabilia on the walls.  It was actually pretty interesting to see what they had on display.

The owner, Willie Schartner (right), a congenial man in his early 50's, greeted us and told us we could sit any where we wanted.  We took a larger table near the kitchen to get away from a rather boisterous group of diners on the other side of the restaurant. 

Schartner's on the Shore has been around since 1986 when Schartner, a local realtor, and his wife bought Leo's Tavern and Restaurant from Leo Hinkle who had ran the place for 35 years prior.  Before Hinkle bought it, it had been in business for 30 years prior to that.  So this marked the 88th year the place had been a bar/restaurant.  That's pretty impressive, if you ask me, for a north woods establishment.

It was a slow night for Schartner's on the Shore and there was only one waitress working.  The Green Bay Packerswere on television that evening playing a pre-season game in nearby Green Bay.  Schartner was glued to the set behind the bar, even though it was  pre-season game. 

The menu at Schartner's features your typical Door County staples - white fish, steaks, chicken and pork chops.  We both wanted steaks so Cindy got a New York strip while I got the rib eye.  We both ordered house salads and got potatoes for our sides. 

While we were eating our salads, the group of people on the other side of the restaurant got up and left, leaving Cindy and I as the only ones in the restaurant.  This afforded me a chance to get up and look around at the Cardinals memorabilia Schartner had on his walls.  It turned out that Schartner used to play a lot of baseball in his earlier years, including playing semi-pro baseball in the Door County area. 

During a break in the Packers game, I asked him, "OK, how did a guy who lives in Door County get to be such a big St. Louis fan?"

He said, "I used to be a big Milwaukee Braves fan until they moved to Atlanta in 1966.  I was so devastated by the move, that I vowed I'd never be a Braves fan again.  I decided to become a Cardinals fan because I really liked Bob Gibson and those teams in the mid to late 60's." 

I told him that I spent an afternoon at Bob Gibson's home in Nebraska a number of years ago (see that story here).  He said, "Really?  No way!"

I told him the basic circumstances of me being with Gibson and he just sort of looked at me in a funny way.  Then he clammed up, went back to watching the game and barely talked to me the rest of the time we were in there.  I figured he'd want to know more about my visit with Gibson. It was sort of weird, to say the least.  I don't think we even got a "Thank You" from him when we left.  Maybe he was jealous, or maybe he thought I was full of shit, I don't know.  But he certainly had an impressive display of Cardinals memorabilia, the best I've ever seen outside of the greater St. Louis area. 

Our steaks showed up and they were cooked to perfection.  The cuts of meat were large and tender, they were juicy and flavorful, and even the cheddar cheese cover potatoes were very good.  Since we were the only ones in there (until right before we finished our meal), she was very attentive to our needs.  

With drinks and tip, the bill at Schartner's on the Shore came to about $55 bucks.  It really was a good experience as I just love these type of north woods supper clubs.  If you're a Cardinals fan and want to see some great baseball memorabilia, or if you're looking for a good steak at reasonable prices, Schartner's on the Shore is a great place to go.  Just don't tell Willie Schartner that you spent an afternoon at Bob Gibson's house.

(Update - Willie Schartner sold the restaurant to Eric and Marja Johnson in 2009 and they changed the name to The Cabin of Sturgeon Bay.  It appears from their menu that they have a lot of the same items to choose from when it was known as Schartner's on the Bay.)

Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant - Door County

In a land where stores and restaurants scream "Tourist Trap" with little to no shame, we ate in probably the biggest tourist trap restaurant in Door County, Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay (see map). 

Al Johnson's has been in existence since around 1940 with Johnson being kind of the "jack-of-all-trades" in the restaurant - owner, cook, bottle washer, bartender.  Here's a picture of Al Johnson.  He's the bald-headed guy on the left.  In 1960, Al met his future wife, Ingrid, who helped turn the restaurant into what it is today.  She introduced a number of Scandinavian dishes to the menu, she helped change the decor so it had more of a Scandinavian ambiance to the place, and they added a large gift shop full of knick-knacks from Door County and from Sweden, Norway and Finland. 

But the biggest attraction at Al Johnson's is not the food, but the family of goats grazing on the roof.  That's right - there's a bunch of goats on the sod roof of Al Johnson's, just hanging out, eating grass and posing for pictures from the countless number of tourists who come to Al Johnson's daily. 

The first goat was put on the roof in 1973 by a friend of Al Johnson's who was playing a practical joke on him.  Johnson had put sod on the roof in the style of Scandinavian farm houses that were built into sides of hills and would allow for animals to graze on the roofs of the homes.  The friend fell off the ladder breaking his collar bone, but the goat stayed. 

The goats come out in the morning on nice days and stay until about 5 p.m., grazing and laying in the sun.  OK, yeah, it is an odd sight to see goats on the roof.  But this also tells me that if they have to rely upon goats on the roof to get people to come to the restaurant, then the food must not be all that outstanding. 

It was 1:30 when we checked in with the hostess at Al Johnson's.  She said it would be a 20 minute wait for the two of us.  Normally, I would have said, "Screw it."  But we were told by others who had gone to Door County that we had to eat at least once at Al Johnson's.  It was more the experience of being at Al Johnson's and not necessarily the food. 

Once we sat down in the dining area, we got our menus and looked over what they had to offer.  The menu consists of traditional Swedish food, sandwiches, full dinners and breakfast that is served all day.  In fact, we saw more than one table near us where the diners were having Swedish pancakes for lunch. 

Earlier this summer, Cindy and I went to Bishop Hill, IL, a small Swedish settlement that is a sort of tourist destination.  We'd been there a couple times before and hadn't been there for quite some time.  I don't think there's much to the place (that's why I've never written about it), but Cindy has some affinity for the place.  We went to a restaurant in Bishop Hill to have lunch and I ordered their Swedish meatballs.  When the lunch came out, I was served a bowl of noodles with five little meatballs, each about the size of a large marble.  And they had the gall to charge me $11.75 for the meal.   It was so pitiful that we actually laughed about for days and weeks on end. 

Of course, Al Johnson's had Swedish meatballs on the menu, and I ordered that for lunch.  They had a soup and sandwich special during the lunch hour for $7.95 and Cindy ordered a bowl of the tomato bisque soup and a half of turkey sandwich.  I was certainly expecting to have a better experience with the Swedish meatballs at Al Johnson's than I did at Bishop Hill. 

Nope.

When the waitress brought my lunch out, I just sort of stared at the plate.  Cindy looked down and started to laugh.  Sitting on noodles were five small meatballs.  Oh, they were larger than the ones at the restaurant in Bishop Hill, but for $12.25 for the entree, I was expecting either more meatballs or more size to the five I was served.  I just shook my head and dug in while Cindy snickered from across the table.  I came to conclusion that Swedes must be really chintzy.  (Wait!  I have Swedish heritage in my family tree!)

Cindy loved her soup and thought was sandwich was fine.  The taste of the Swedish meatballs was good, but the portion served was nowhere near the worth of the price.  There's many other better places to eat in Door County. 

OK, we'd been had by a tourist joint in Door County.  We figured we'd get boned a couple times while we were there.  We went to Al Johnson's, saw the goats, had the food, browsed through the shop and got the hell out of there.  That's one less place we'll have to go to when we go back.

The Oilerie - Door County

Most of the businesses found in Door County are usually tourist traps filled with cheap t-shirts, stupid knick-knacks, and gobs of cherry jelly and jam.  However, one place that we found turned out to be one of the most interesting places we've ever visited - the Oilerie in the village of Fish Creek (see map).

The Oilerie bills itself as America's first olive oil bar.  While traveling in Europe five years ago, the Oilerie owner Curt Campbell (above) was struck by the number of little olive oil boutiques that offered their customers samples of various olive oils before they bought.  Some of the oils were infused with lemon, garlic, raspberry or other flavorings.  He thought it was such a novel idea that he looked into the concept when he returned home.  During his research, Campbell found that no one was doing a olive oil boutique such as the ones he found in Europe.  Within six months of his visit to Europe, Campbell and his wife, Amy Jo, opened the olive oil boutique.

As you enter the Oilerie, you'll find tanks of olive oil sitting on table tops.  Customers are encouraged to sample up to a dozen different types of olive oils.  Many of the olive oils come from Spain, Italy and Greece.  The Campbell's say they've traveled to each of their olive oil vendors to meet the people who make the oil they sell.  

The samples are served in small paper cups.  Campbell says that he doesn't serve bread with the oil because the flavor of the bread would block subtle differences in the taste of some oils.  The staff at the Oilerie were more than happy to let people try a number of different types of olive oils.

In addition to olive oils, the Oilerie also features a number of different types of balsamic vinegar.  One of the balsamic vinegars they featured was a 25 year old variety.  I have to say it was probably the best balsamic vinegar I've ever tasted.

It turned out that we were literally out of olive oil at home.  I forgot to pick up a half-gallon of Italian extra virgin olive oil from Caputo's in suburban Chicago when I was in there the week before.   So we needed olive oil. 

With the help of one of the Oilerie staff members, we picked out a number of different types of oils and balsamic vinegar (the 25 year old stuff).  They fill the oil into 16 ounce dark green bottles that helps preserve the longevity of the oil.  They then take your selections into the back room and stamp out a metal plate that signifies what type of oil or vinegar it is, along with a date, and they affix it to the bottle. 

Well, we went a little nuts in there.  In addition to a bottle of the 25 year old balsamic vinegar, we got a couple bottles of Spanish olive oil, some basil infused oil, garlic infused oil and lemon infused oil.  We also got some plain Greek olive oil - all of which was extra virgin in nature.  And we ended up getting a couple extra bottles of Spanish olive oil for Cindy's daughter.  It took them a little while to get everything together, bottled, sealed and the plate made for the bottles. 

While we were in there, a news crew from a television station in Green Bay was there talking with Campbell and filming parts of the Oilerie.  Click here to go to the site where the Oilerie was featured on the television report.  Then in the top right hand corner, click on the blue arrow on top of the video to see the report.  About halfway through, look for the large handsome guy in the background looking around the place waiting for his order to be filled.

Along with some spices we picked up, the final tally came to just under $150 bucks.  Yow!!  That was an expensive trip to America's first olive oil bar.  But Cindy was so impressed with the place that she even talked to Curt Campbell about franchise information.  (The second Oilerie - the first franchised by Campbell, will open later this year in suburban Milwaukee.)  I honestly don't know how well it would go over in the Quad Cities and I don't have the money to invest in a place that I don't know what the future may bring.  Still, the Oilerie was a great place to go for anybody who enjoys cooking like I do.  I'm sure I'll be back some time.

 

The New Television

We broke down and had to buy a new television for our family room in our basement.  Our Loewe (pronounced LOO-va) television, a very good German-made television, and one of the first digital televisions offered in North America, died last May.  Now, we don't watch a whole lot of television in the summertime, but with fall upon us I knew we had to get a new TV as Cindy loves to go down and veg out on the couch watching television on Sunday afternoon and on some evenings when the weather's cold. 

Being in the Audio/Video industry afforded me the chance to take a look at a lot of different televisions, most recently at the CEDIA Expo in Denver, as well as at various independent dealers I call on, as well as at national and regional chains such as Best Buy, American TV and Tweeter.  Since I also am in the industry, I have a lot of places where I can go and buy a television wholesale, saving a few bucks in the process.

And a few bucks saved is the operative term here.  Profit margins are not very good on a number of televisions you see in stores these days.  It's been that way for quite some time, ever since the Japanese manufacturers began to flood the market with flat panel televisions a number of years ago.  On a sale of a $2000 television, the store may make a profit of a couple hundred dollars.  In order to do that, they have to make a whole lot of sales to make their bottom line stand up.  A 10 percent profit margin is not a healthy margin for any store.

Add to this, I hadn't bought a new television for - well, I guess, since about 1986.  Let me rephrase that - I had paid retail for a new television since 1986.  That was when I bought a 13" Sony television for my office.  It was a display model at a Walmart store.  It had been on every day for a year and half, a minimum of 12 hours a day.  I bought it for $200 bucks.  It worked until about three years ago.  It was a great television.

I also bought a Bang and Olufsen television when I was the representative for them in 1988.  It was the most overpriced television ever.   I paid $1000 bucks for it - normal retail price was $2000.  B&O offered the special price to their field sales people and it was sort of a deal where outside salespeople were not required to buy one and the matching VCR (also an overpriced piece of shit), but were heavily lobbied to do so.  The VCR gave out about four years later - the television about four years after that. 

In the meantime, I also represented NAD who offered a television back in 1987.  They gave me a 20" television for free.  I always liked the people at NAD for doing that for me.  It wasn't a very reliable television - a lot of them broke.  But the one I had worked great - right up to the time and years after I lost it in a messy breakup with an old girlfriend. 

And the Loewe set that I just lost was also given to me by the company back in 1996.  It was a great television - one of the best pictures of any direct view picture tube on the market.  But Loewe couldn't make a go of it in the U.S. (primarily because they were high priced televisions) and they pulled out a few years ago.  I thought about having it fixed, but then realized that it would probably me a minimum of $500 bucks to get it fixed.  And $500 bucks is a nice down payment on a new flat panel high definition television.

The main dilemma for me was whether to go with a plasma or with an LCD flat panel television.  The LCD's had gotten tremendously better over the past couple of years and were coming down in price.  They still didn't attain the black level or high contrast ratio you find in the plasma sets, but the colors are vibrant, they are usually more sleek in design than the plasmas, they're lighter than the plasmas and they definitely run much more cool than a plasma set.  And now that many of the new LCD televisions have a 120 hz picture refresh rate, the digital artifacts that occurred during sports programming or movies that featured a lot of action scenes are almost eliminated. 

Plasma's also have a more wide viewing angle than LCD's.  But our family room isn't all that big and off-axis viewing wasn't going to be that big of an issue.  I found myself leaning more toward the LCD's.  I knew I would be compromising the picture quality, especially in terms of the black level and contrast ratio.  But reports I was hearing were that LCD's were beginning to show that they were more reliable than plasmas.  And because the plasmas do run hotter - and heat is the number one enemy of all things electrical - I surmised the LCD flat panels would probably have a better chance of longevity.

The other thing that was sort of a bone of contention between my wife and me was the size of the screen.  I wanted to get a 50" television.  Cindy thought we really didn't need anything larger than a 37" or 42".  After making some measurements, I agreed that a 50" would probably be too big for where we wanted the television to sit on our cabinet top.  But a 46" would work fine.  Cindy still thought that would be too big.  I told her, "I'll guarantee you that once you get used to a 46" television, you'll start to say, 'Boy, it's too bad we couldn't have gotten the bigger screen'.  It always happens."

I ended up taking her to a local American TV store here in the Quad's to show her the size of the televisions.  I'm sure the salesperson had to know something was going on when I kept rattling off model numbers, specifications and features of some of the televisions they had on hand.  A compromise was made and Cindy said that we could get the 46".

I'd saved up money from working events for the City of Davenport this summer.  I put a budget of $1600 bucks, which usually means another $200 on top of that.  I knew I'd be able to find something in that price range.

I looked primarily at televisions from Samsung, Mitsubishi, Pioneer, Toshiba, Sony and Sharp.  I looked hard at the Mitsubishi's because a good friend of mine is a regional manager for the company and he would have given me a great deal on one.  But I began to see some problems with the picture on the Mitsubishi's, especially during fast moving scenes such as in sports or panning of the camera. 

The Pioneer Kuro and Pioneer Kuro Elite plasma televisions are great units.  They may be the best out there.  They have great black levels, unbelievable contrast ratios and have the best picture of any flat panel television I looked at.  And they also came with a hefty price tag.  Plus, they only come in 50" or 60" models.  If I had the bucks and the space, I would have sprung for a Pioneer plasma in a heartbeat.   Unfortunately, I didn't have either.

I was turned onto the Toshiba's from one of my dealers in Des Moines.  He was raving about the 42" Toshiba LCD panels.  I took a close look at them at CEDIA.  I thought the color did look good, the high refresh rate helped give it a good picture and the price of it was pretty good.  The problem was that Toshiba was at the end of their life cycle for existing televisions in stores.  Some stores were out of the 2008 Toshibas, and the 2009 models weren't scheduled to hit the stores until later this month.  No, I needed to do something now. 

My cousin's girlfriend works for the canteen service for Veteran's Administration hospitals.  She was telling me a 46" Sharp flat panel television was going to go on sale through the canteens at V.A. hospitals sometime soon for a great price of $999.  She said, "It's even under Sharp's cost."  They only problem was that the model she told me that was going on sale had only a 60 hz refresh rate and it wouldn't be on sale until early November.  I wasn't that destitute to wait for a good bargain.  $999 was a good price, but I wanted to get a television that I would be happy with for years to come.

I checked out the Sony's at CEDIA and elsewhere.  Sony has a new flat panel LCD coming that will feature a 240 hz picture refresh rate.  But compared to the picture quality of the much lower priced 120 hz refresh rate televisions sitting next to them, I didn't see that much of a big difference.  Besides, Samsung has been making the panels for Sony and Sony usually charges more for their televisions than Samsung did.

Which brought me to the Samsung models.  Now, years ago, the name Samsung equaled trash.  It was generally known in the AV industry that Samsung was a low rent Korean manufacturer that made entry level electronics - and not very good ones, to boot.  Suddenly, about 10 years ago, Samsung made a conscious effort to upgrade not only their goods, but their name recognition, as well.  Samsung teamed with Texas Instruments to show the first really good looking rear-projection DLP television set.   I remember going to Texas Instruments for training about nine years ago and seeing a Samsung television in one of the lab areas.  It had a stunning picture.  I turned to a colleague friends of mine and said, "This is a Samsung?!"

The model we were looking at - a 43" rear projection DLP model - had just come back from a debut at a high-end AV show in New York CIty.  I read reviews of that television in the coming months and the reviewers couldn't stop raving about how good it was.  With each review I read, I kept thinking, "That was a Samsung?!"

I was told by T.I engineers that more than any other company, Samsung adhered to the parameters set forth by Texas Instruments for their DLP displays.  Suddenly, Samsung televisions began to show up in stores.  The picture quality was superb, but more importantly, they didn't break. 

For a long time, when anyone would ask me what television I'd want to get for my own use, I never hesitated when I said a Samsung rear-projection DLP.  However, this was well before the quality of flat panel televisions got to where they are today.  And while DLP is still a great technology, periodic service - such as changing the bulb every 2500 hours at the tune of $600 per bulb - doesn't make it as economical today compared to what's out there.

The Samsung LCD panels and plasma panels were the first ones I looked at.  Each time I would look at a line of televisions, I'd always go back to the Samsung models.  While the picture quality of each of the ones I looked at was superb, I still kept seeing little things in the picture of Samsung's that made it be a little better than everyone else out there. 

The problem with the Samsung models is that they literally have too much to choose from.  They have about six or seven different levels of quality in their LCD panels.  There's about three levels in what would be classified their entry models, and three or four in what they call their higher end - or "Touch of Color" models.  The main differences between their 650 and 750 and 850 Touch of Color models are primarily features.  Features that I don't really need.   And the price difference was not all that bad, but I didn't want to be paying for features that I knew I wasn't going to use. 

However, the Samsung 950 LCD models were very nice.  They feature LED back lighting in their picture that allows for a more brilliant picture than the other models.  I saw a demonstration at a dealer's store in Green Bay recently and even though the 650, 750 and 850 models from Samsung have outstanding pictures, the LED back lighting for the 950 models makes the others look dull and lifeless.  Once again, however, you get what you pay for.  The 46" 950 model retails for about $3495. 

I ended up pulling the trigger on a Samsung 46A650, a 46" LCD flat panel.  Before I bought, I went to the Samsung A650 owner's forum at AV Science Forum, an Internet site that helps techies, consumers and others know what's going on with audio and video equipment on the market.  I read many of the posts (there's over 1,000,000 posts on this thread alone indicating it's a very popular television) and I came away more impressed with the performance I was hoping I'd get. 

I ended up getting the television from a distributor friend of mine and he got it shipped out of Chicago and I had it the next day.  He also confirmed that the 46A650 was one of their best selling - if not THE best selling - LCD television they had to offer.  I saved about $250 bucks on the unit had I bought it at American TV here in the Quad's.  Like I say, it's not a lot of money as there's not a lot of profit margin in video gear.  But $250 bucks is $250 bucks.   

I've been playing it as much as I can to get some hours on it before I sit down and properly calibrate the picture on the unit.  So far, I've been knocked out at how good the picture is without any calibration.  Cindy still thinks it's too big for our family room, but I'm sure she'll be saying in a couple months, "Boy, it's too bad we couldn't get the larger one..."

Snug Harbor Inn- Sturgeon Bay, WI

Snug Harbor Inn in Sturgeon Bay (see map) is where we stayed when we were up in Door County.  Owned by Jon and Patti Hanson, Snug Harbor Inn has over 300 feet of water front property along the bay.  The rooms go from simple hotel rooms to suites to cottages.  They also have boat rentals at their marina.  Cindy wanted to get a boat to go out in the lake for a day, but I didn't want to try and go out somewhere I wasn't all that familiar with.   

Our room was pretty basic - a queen sized bed, fridge, microwave, TV and DVD player.  The bathroom was pretty small with a shower.  I tried to get a room that faced the bay when I made the reservations, but none were available.  So we got a street side room where we were able to park in front of the door.  Plus, we weren't going to be in the room all that much other than to sleep, so it really didn't matter if it was on the street or on the waterfront. 

Cost of the room was $89 a night.  We had to make a one night deposit on the room and the balance was due upon arrival.  I'm sure it was so if you found other accommodations in Door County, you couldn't get your money back. 

Not that Snug Harbor was a flea bag hotel.  The rooms were OK, but nothing special.  The Hanson family was friendly, helpful and overly accommodating.  It was a very comfortable place to stay.  It's just that Sturgeon Bay is sort of at the far end of the action in Door County and we found ourselves driving 20 to 30 minutes to go to restaurants and other attractions in the other towns. 

And that was actually a minor hassle.  There really wasn't anything all that close.  The downtown area of Sturgeon Bay was a healthy mile and a half walk from Snug Harbor, so it was always a car ride to go somewhere.  Cindy and I decided that we'd like to stay some where more in heart of Door County next time, but once again, that doesn't reflect badly on the Snug Harbor Inn.

One morning, Cindy got up early and went for a walk around the area.  She took her camera and got some good pictures of the waterfront area around Snug Harbor.  This is a picture of the harbor just as the sun was coming up.  The weather the whole time we were in Door County was somewhat cool with low humidity, something nice for mid-August. 

Cindy has a great eye for detail, something that I definitely don't possess with a camera.  This is a picture of one of the docks near Snug Harbor with the fog settling over the bay.  She's able to see minute details and gets good pictures with her little camera.  I try to capture the big picture. 

Here is a family of ducks feeding in the water near the bank of the bay.   Unlike some places we went to in Door County, the ducks and geese didn't seem to be that big of a bother at Snug Harbor Inn.  The grass along the shoreline was definitely void of goose poop.

Here are a number of sailboats moored in the harbor.  Sturgeon Bay is known as a ship building town and they have a couple of large plants that make yachts that vary in size from ones that you'd see on the Mississippi River to ones that you'd see on Lake Michigan and on oceans.   

Like I say, we'll probably stay somewhere more in the heart of Door County the next time we go up, but Snug Harbor Inn is a great place to stay during your first visit to the area.  It's easy to find, what amenities it lacks are made up for with the bay front views, and it is a comfortable place. 

 

Oh, God! How I HATE Hewlett-Packard!

Right now, I'm in such a major pissed-off mood regarding what I've just gone through with Hewlett-Packard on getting my notebook computer back up and running, I think I'm on the way to a stroke.  I have never experienced a situation that I've just gone through in my life.  I really wonder what has happened to companies who are looking out for their customers. 

First of all, let me say that we've spent over $3000 dollars on Hewlett-Packard products in the last 18 months.  I got a new notebook computer last year for my work.  Then I bought a new HP Photosmart printer to go with Cindy's new iMac computer from Apple in January.  Then my six year old HP printer took a major dump and I went out and got a new Photosmart printer for my office.  Then last March, I bought a new HP 8200 desktop computer to use for media functions - music and recording television shows, primarily.  Life was good with HP in our house.

Until recently.

As I said in this post earlier this week, I'd been having trouble with my notebook computer for a couple months.  For some reason, I'd lose all hardware functions, including wireless Internet and printing capabilities.  It finally got to a point that I had to pay $49.95 for phone help (good for a two week period).  A couple of the problems I had disappeared, but then they cropped back up again within days. 

Long story short, it turned out that I needed a new hard drive.  I ordered one from HP and they charged me about $375 bucks for the drive unit.  Well, a couple of the more computer savvy and less naive readers of Road Tips told me that I could have easily found a much cheaper notebook hard drive either on line or at Best Buy.  By that time, I was stuck with the one that I ordered.

I inserted the new disc drive and began to run the Windows XP Operating System DVD to format the new disc drive.  However, each time I tried to run the disc, the computer would mysteriously shut down during set up.  Hmm, that's not good.  OK, the last tech from HP told me that if I had any problems during set up to give HP Technical Support a call back and they'd guide me through the process.

This is when it got bad.  Actually, up until this point, I had some very helpful and competent tech support people that got me through some of the mine fields I was trying to traverse.  However, earlier this week, that's when I encountered a slew of foreign support people who were either A) Rude; B) Difficult to understand; or C) Completely incapable of understanding the problem with my computer.  

I'm going to back up a week or so.  I was told by one of the HP techs that I needed to try a system recovery.  Well, I didn't have a system recovery disc, or at least I didn't think I had one.  I ended up calling HP tech support to BUY a system recovery disc, fully knowing that I was out of warranty and needed said disc.  I got a lady on the line who didn't sound like she was from Sheboygan.  More like from New Delhi.  I told her that I needed to buy a system recovery disc for my notebook.  This is the ensuing conversation, nearly verbatim:

HP Support Lady: Sir, the computer is not in warranty.  

Me: Yes, I know that.  That's why I want to buy a system recovery disc.  

HP Support Lady: You don't understand.  Your computer isn't in warranty.  

Me: Yes, I said I understand that.  That's why I'm willing to purchase a system recovery disc.

HP Support Lady: No, sir.  I'm sorry, but your computer is out of warranty.

Me: Yes, it's out of warranty.  That's why I need to buy a system recovery disc.  I want to buy a system recovery disc for my computer.

After a long pause, HP Support Lady: Sir, I'm sorry but I cannot send you a system recovery disc because your computer is out of warranty. 

Me:  I KNOW THAT!!!  THAT'S WHY I WANT TO BUY A SYSTEM RECOVERY DISC FROM YOU PEOPLE!

HP Support Lady: *Click*

She hung up on me!!!  The bitch!  She couldn't understand that I actually wanted to BUY something rather than have them ship it to me free of charge.  I'm still shaking my head over that one. 

My faith in HP Support was restored when I got a nice lady by the name of Teresa who was working the support line from Missouri.  She was really the best one out of a number of technicians that I worked with who actually had a personality and took the time to sort out the problems.  After consulting with some of her senior technicians on the matter, she had me do a Phoenix Bios check on the hard drive.  Immediately, the results came up "Failed".  She said, "Yeah, you need a new hard drive." 

Well, hindsight is always 20-20, but I didn't realize that I didn't need an HP notebook hard drive for the computer.  As the readers told me, I could have gone to Best Buy or gotten one off the Internet.  THEN, I would have had to call up HP support again and try to have them sell me a system recovery disc.

But it turned out that Teresa told me the System Operating DVD and the Application and Driver recovery discs that came with the computer would be all that I would need to get the computer up and running.  She said, "When you get the hard drive set in the computer, just start the disc when you turn on the machine.  You'll be able to get it recovered from there.  And if you have any problems, just call us and we'll get you taken care of."

The hard drive showed up earlier this week.  I replaced the old one and inserted the system disc.  It went through some loading procedures and after about four or five minutes, my computer just shut down.  Boom.  It turned itself off.  I turned on the computer again, hit a key on the keyboard to start the set up.  It ran for a few minutes, then - bam!  Shut itself down again.  Hmm...  I'm starting to get a little aggravated at this point.

Started it again - shut down about six minutes into set up.  Started it again, shut down in 30 seconds.  Started it again, shut down in two minutes.  I'm thinking, "OK, well, this isn't right.  Time to call HP Support."

I called support, hoping beyond hope that Teresa would be on the other end.  No such luck this time.   This support person was a lady of Asian persuasion with the name of Lisa.  She was hard to understand and she didn't quite understand the problems I was going through.  Even with all the prior documentation in front of her from previous call sessions with HP Support, she was having trouble figuring out what the problem was. 

Finally, she instructed me to do a Phoenix Bios check on the hard drive.  You have two options for the Bios check - a quick check, consisting of about two minutes; or a long check consisting of about an hour.  She told me to do the long check.  I said, "Do you want me to hang on the phone with you during this time?"

She said, "You don't have to.  We can call you back in a couple hours to see what the results are."  She said someone would call back after 1:30 p.m.

Guess what, I went to lunch and came back at 1:20.  At 1:15, someone from HP Support called and left a message that said I needed to reschedule the session since I wasn't available.  Well, screw that.  I'm calling technical support and going for broke.  I've had enough by this point. 

Once again, I got a lady who definitely didn't have a full grasp of the English language.  For 10 minutes I told her everything I'd done over the past couple three weeks, had her look up the case number to verify everything that had been done.  I told her that I just got the hard drive and was having trouble getting it to be set up properly.  She said, "Sir, your computer is out of warranty.  We'll have to charge you for a session."

I said, "Wait a minute.  I just spent $375 on a hard drive with you people, a hard drive that I've since found out that I could have gotten for $85 bucks at Best Buy.  The service tech who sold me the hard drive last week told me that if I had any problems to contact technical support and I'd be assisted at no charge."  (Teresa didn't say it would be no charge, but she did say I'd  get the help I needed.  I figured for $375 bucks, technical support had to come with the price.)

This development startled the service tech and she began to help me.  She had me do a set up again.  The computer kept shutting down.  She had me do a Phoenix Bios check.  I explained to her - again - that I did one earlier and the hard drive was fine.  She put me on hold for a couple minutes and then came back on.

HP Support Lady: Your recovery disc is corrupted.  You need to buy a new system recovery disc.

Me: Wait a minute.  Buy?  I just spent $375 bucks with you people.  And now you're trying to fleece me for a new system recovery disc?  This is the same company where I offered to buy one from you people last week but the lady wouldn't sell me one because my computer was out of warranty!  Now I've turned around, spent $375 on a hard drive that I could have gotten for a quarter of what I spent on this thing and you want to charge me for a system recovery disc?  I've never had to use the system recovery disc until now!  

HP Support Lady:  When did you receive your system recovery disc?

Me: The one I'm using?

HP Support Lady: Yes.

Me: I received it when I purchased the computer.

HP Support Lady:  We sent it to you?

Me: No!  It was with the computer when I bought it!  If it's corrupted now, it had to be corrupted when I bought the computer a year and a half ago. 

HP Support Lady:  Yes, that's why you have to buy a new system recovery disc because your computer is out of warranty.

Me: So, you're telling me that because a disc that I've never used before is corrupted - and it appears it would have been corrupted when I bought the computer - that I have to buy one?

HP Support Lady: Yes.

Me: You've got to be F******* KIDDING ME!

Now, I knew that a system recovery disc was only about 15 bucks.  But it was the principle of taking care of the customer that was blatantly getting shit on at this moment.  It was obvious there is no "gray area" for HP Technical Support personnel.  At that point, I asked to talk to a supervisor.

HP Support Lady: There's no supervisor on the floor, sir. 

Me: Well, connect me to a supervisor in some capacity in the Technical Support system.  This is just ridiculous.

HP Support Lady: My supervisor is not on the floor.

Me: Yes, I know that.  But there must be someone higher up in the system other than your missing supervisor that I can talk to.

HP Support Lady: Please hold for a minute, sir.

I waited a couple minutes and she came back on.

HP Support Lady: Sir, you'll have to purchase the disc.

Me: Is that what the supervisor said?

HP Support Lady: No, that is the way it has to be. 

Me: So, you didn't even talk to a supervisor?

HP Support Lady: Yes, you have to buy a system recovery disc. 

At this point, I was about ready to have a stroke, my blood was boiling so bad.  Finally, I knew this was a losing battle and I said, "OK, all right.  I'll buy a system recovery disc, but it will be the last thing I ever buy from Hewlett Packard.  What do I have to do?"

Suddenly, she turned to her overly helpful side. 

HP Support Lady (cheery voice): I'll be more than happy to connect you with a person who will assist you in purchasing your system recovery disc, sir.

She put me on with a lady who wanted to send the disc to me overnight for $28 dollars, second day for $22 or regular mail for $15.  I'd waited this long for my computer to get back to normal that I just took the $15 dollar option.  She said it was guaranteed to show up within 14 working days.  FOURTEEN WORKING DAYS!?  Via U.S. Mail?  Well, I hope to hell it shows up within 14 working days or the U.S. Postal Service has some bigger issues than I thought!

As you can tell, I'm just exasperated from the whole experience.  This was one of the most ridiculous displays of what not to do for customer service that I've ever encountered.  And being in the sales and service sector of my industry, every thing Hewlett-Packard did was completely wrong.  I'm usually not a person who will contact a corporation to vent, but this time I probably will.  I know, I know.  It's only 15 bucks, but as I said, it's the principle of the thing.  Fundamentals of good customer service were smashed and now Hewlett-Packard is going to lose a customer who, up until now, was a very happy user of their products.

White Gull Inn - Door County

As I said in my previous post, we went back to the White Gull Inn in Fish Creek (see map) for breakfast the morning after we witnessed an authentic fish boil there.  Knowing that we were going to be in Door County for a few days, a friend of mine from Chicago, Steve Weiner, told me that we needed to go have breakfast at the White Gull Inn.  Since Door County is famous for their cherries, Steve told me that I had to have the cherry stuffed French toast at the White Gull Inn.  That, alone, intrigued me about the place.

The White Gull Inn has been in existence since 1896 when a German born and educated physician who was living in Milwaukee, Dr. Herman Welcker, visited the small fishing village and fell in love with the area.  He decided to buy some land and put up an inn that would cater to people who were seeking a "European health spa" experience.  Swimming, hiking, boating - and eating - were the main staples of the "Henriette", named after Dr. Welcker's wife. 

Dr. Welcker added cabins to the outlying area and also offered summer plays and music concerts put on by actors and musicians from around the Midwest.  Relaxing at the Henriette was one of the favorite things to do by the rich and famous from Chicago and Milwaukee well into the 1920's. 

After Welcker's death in 1924, the resort was operated by family members until 1939.  For the next 20 years, a series of people owned the resort property, but never made a go of the venture.  In 1959, a young couple from Madison, Andy and Elsie Redman, purchased the resort and changed the name to the White Gull Inn.  Andy added a number of improvements to the property that are still in place today.  The Redman's started to serve a traditional Door County fish boil, something that was a staple for church picnics and backyard parties in the area, but never really exposed to the general public.  The theatrical presentation I described in my earlier post was a big hit for the people who visited the inn.

In 1972, Andy Coulson heard about an opportunity to buy into what had become a now-shuttered White Gull Inn and he jumped at the chance.  Hoping to turn it into a New England style bed and breakfast inn, Coulson moved to Fish Creek and worked hard to open the inn before the Memorial Day weekend.  One of the first people he hired was a young girl just out of high school by the name of Jan Lindsley.  Lindsley came from a big family and understood the aspects of what it was to manage a large house.

Three years later, Andy and Jan married and they continue to run the inn and restaurant.  They eventually became sole owners of the White Gull Inn in the 1980's.  They've also expanded the White Gull Inn adding more space for the restaurant and adding cabins and buying surrounding buildings to add to their property.

The main building at the White Gull Inn houses the restaurant and the White Gull Inn store, a small store where the Coulson's sell cookbooks, knick-knacks and Door County delicacies.   They have you coming and going at the White Gull Inn Store as you have to pass through it on your way in and out of the dining room.

We got to the restaurant around 9:30 and there was a good sized crowd of vacationers having breakfast.  The hostess seated us and presented us with menus.  The decor of the dining room reminded me of an old time New England fishing village inn.  Since Fish Creek was once a hotbed of commercial fishing on Lake Michigan, it was fitting the decor matched the history and heritage of the area.

The first thing you see on the menu are the cherry stuffed French toast, the very same item my friend told me that I had to try.  They take a piece of golden brown French toast, top it with Wisconsin cream cheese and Door County sweet cherries, and top it with the another piece of French toast.  It's cut diagonally and served with real Door County maple syrup.  OK, that sounded good to me.  

Cindy went with the short stack of pancakes, even though they also had cherry pancakes.  She wanted the basic pancakes that day.  And she ordered them well done, like she always does.  We both got a side of bacon and something to drink.  

It took about 15 minutes for our breakfast to show up.  And the cherry stuffed French toast was very good.  But, oh, God!  Was it rich!  They must have used 8 oz. of cream cheese on the toast and added about two dozen cherries.  The real maple syrup was absolutely wonderful.  I'm a sucker for real maple syrup.  

Cindy's short stack of pancakes consisted of two fluffy pancakes that were also very rich.  She had trouble making it through half of what was on her plate.  I had a bite and while I thought they were good, they were a little too fluffy for my taste.  And they were definitely well done - just short of being burned on the sides.  

Overall, the breakfast and the experience at the White Gull Inn was very enjoyable.  They serve breakfast until noon every day, then they also have a lunch menu and a candlelight dinner menu on the nights they don't have their traditional fish boil.  The White Gull Inn was everything my friend said it would be and then some.  It's a quaint little place with very good food - even for a fish boil.  

An Authentic Traditional Door County Fish Boil

One of the major tourist attractions when one goes to Door County is an authentic traditional fish boil.  This is a big event for the restaurants that serve fish boils in Door County as it is almost as theatrical a process one can see when preparing food.  

The first and only fish boil I ever witnessed was years ago outside of Omaha, NE.  I forget the name of the restaurant, but they used to have fish boils at a place just south and west of Omaha in the summertime.  I remember they used to have a number of ads on the radio and one night I thought I'd just go out there and see what it entailed.  What I witnessed then and what we saw in Door County were almost identical.

We went to the White Gull Inn, a bed and breakfast/inn/restaurant in Fish Creek (see map).  The White Gull Inn has been around since 1896 and they serve traditional fish boils three times a night (5:45, 7:00 and 8:15) on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.  People line up for the fish boils and pay something like $18.00 per person (adult) for the food.  And the food isn't anything to write home about - it's just fish and potatoes. 

It turns out the White Gull Inn was the first of what is now a number of places in Door County that does fish boils.  What was once only found at church fundraisers and in the backyards of Door County residents, the White Gull Inn began to do fish boils in the late 50's, exposing legions of tourists to the spectacle of the traditonal Door County fish boil.

Cindy and I got there about 5:15 and we weren't really hungry yet, having a late lunch when we got into Sturgeon Bay.  She wanted to see what all the hub-bub was regarding the traditional fish boils.  We went around back and there were a couple guys getting the pots ready for the boil.  The "Boil Over Crew" from the White Gull Inn were good guys and patiently explained the process over and over to the rapidly growing amount of people who were there to witness the fish boil.

Basically, they started out by firing up a black kettle full of heavily salted water - about one pound of salt for every two gallons of water.  The black kettles can stand any where from 50 to 75 boils before they have to be replaced.   Onions are then placed in the boiling water and about 10 to 20 minutes later, they add potatoes.  They cook the onions and potatoes for another half hour before they bring out the fish.

The fish they use is a variety of white fish caught usually earlier in the day in Lake Michigan.  The difference between the fish I had at the fish boil in Omaha versus this one is that the traditional Door County fish boil uses fish that have not been de-boned.  The one in Omaha I was at, they used white fish filets.  When Cindy found out that she had to de-bone her fish herself, she said, "I don't know if I can do that."

The boil over guy said, "Actually, the wait staff can show you how to do that.  It's pretty easy."

Still, Cindy was thinking a nice big juicy steak would be something a little better than a fish boil. 

A lot of people holding 5:45 p.m. dinner tickets began to gather around the ringed-off area in anticipation of the big moment when the boil over happens.  Before all that, though, the boil over guys take the big basket of fish and they put it in the boiling water for about 10 minutes.  They let the fish boil and the oils and fat from the fish come to the top of the water.

Now, here's the big moment - the boil over.  What the boil over is intended to do is to hyper-extend the temperature of the water and it boils over the top of the kettle, taking the fish oils with it.  In order to do that, the boil over crew has to throw about a half gallon of kerosene onto the fire.  The boil over guy stands with the kerosene at his side, making sure that he knows which way the wind is blowing.

Then he walks up and in one motion he throws the kerosene onto the fire.  There's this tremendous "whoosh" and intense heat from the fire when the kerosene is thrown on top.  Of course, there are "ooo's" and "ahh's" from people, along with screams from terrified old ladies, like the one who grabbed my arm when I was trying to get successive pictures of the fire.  

She thought she was grabbing onto her husband, who happened to be taking pictures on her other side.  I kind of looked at her, she looked at me and then she looked at her hands clasped tightly around my bicep, and quickly recoiled backwards with a horrified look on her face.  She said, "Oh, my gosh!  I thought you were my husband and I didn't want you to catch on fire!" 

Cindy got a big kick out that.  Cindy said, "Hittin' on the old ladies, huh, dear?"

Once the fire began to die down from the boil over, the two boil over guys take a large pipe and put it through the handles of the basket and pull it out of the water.  The fish, potatoes and onions are then taken inside for the scheduled feeding.  Already, people were lining up to get tickets for the 7 p.m. feed.  Cindy said, "You know, the more I get to looking at this, the more I think I need a steak."

So, that's what we did that evening.  We passed on a traditional fish boil at the White Gull Inn and went to a steak house instead.  But we did go back to the White Gull Inn the next morning for one of their breakfasts.  I'll talk about that experience in my next post.

A Little Behind...

You may have noticed that I haven't been keeping up on a regular basis as of late.  That has to do with a sick computer - my Hewlett-Packard notebook computer.  I've been experiencing problems with it since the summertime when I noticed that most of my drivers and hardware stored on the computer would just disappear.  Then I couldn't get the wireless card to work.  Then other things just began to deteriorate in the computer to the point that I had to contact HP service.  Just recently, I've not been able to get any Internet access (even with a hard wire hook up), to be able to print anything from the computer, or be able to open any Adobe files.

I've been on the phone with HP service so much over the past few weeks that I'll be trading Christmas cards with a couple of the techs.  I can now say that I am a qualified HP technical person as I've learned how to remove and reset the wireless card and the hard drive in the computer.  My problem has also vexed some of the most senior technicians at Hewlett-Packard who have spent hours on my computer via the Internet searching for the problem. 

Long story short, my hard drive is dying and they're sending me a new one - at a cost of a cool $375 bucks.  My computer is five months out of warranty.  The hard drive was supposed to be here on Friday, but now I find that it's sitting on a FedEx truck in Moline to be delivered tomorrow.  Sometime.  I was hoping I'd be able to install the new hard drive and be able to get somewhat back to normal over the weekend.  Now, what stacks up to be an already busy Monday is going to be even more busy. 

Yes, I've backed up all my data on a Western Digital outboard hard drive, so I'm not in danger of losing anything of significance.  I will lose all my e-mails that I've accumulated over the past 18 months.  I'm hoping that I won't lose my e-mail addresses. 

Since I've been on the road an awful lot lately, I haven't been able to keep up with some of my posts to Road Tips.  I do a lot of writing in hotel rooms at night or early in the morning.  Since I haven't had access to Internet over the past couple of weeks, it's pretty hard to keep up.  I've been able to get e-mails via my Blackberry, but any chance of sending long replies is next to none. 

Computers can be so aggravating, yet they're a necessary evil in today's society.  I've been a big HP fan for a long time, but problems with my notebook and initial problems with my new desktop that I bought back in March have soured me somewhat on their products.  I've not had any more problems with the desk top (fingers crossed, knock on wood) and I'm hoping the new hard drive in the notebook will get things back to normal in the short term.

CEDIA - 2008

I recently attended the CEDIA Expo in Denver, the most important  annual show for specialty audio and video companies such as ours.  This is the final year it will be held in Denver, with the show moving to Atlanta for the next two years and possibly a third.  That is contingent as to whether the city of Indianapolis can A) finish the addition to the convention center there; and B) if the city can get more hotels in the downtown area.   If that doesn't happen, we'll be in Atlanta again in 2011, then go to Dallas for three years starting in 2012. 

While the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has long held the title of the most attended consumer electronics show in the world, the CEDIA Expo has been viewed as THE show for our industry to introduce new products such as video panels, whole house control and specialized electronics.  With gas hitting $4.00 bucks a gallon earlier this year, a lot of dealers suffered this summer and many stayed home.  That was OK with me as the past couple of years I was so over run with dealers that I couldn't spend quality time with a lot of my key and new accounts.  This year we probably saw a 10 to 15 percent drop in attendance.

There really wasn't anything earth-shaking or cutting-edge as far as new technology was concerned.  A lot of the specialty audio companies showed Blu-Ray prototype players.  It was expected as a lot of the specialty companies were waiting for the fall out from the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD wars that ended earlier this year.  We'll begin to see good quality Blu-Ray players from a number of companies later this year and into early 2009. 

"The latest and greatest" race in flat panel televisions is beginning to slow down.  Sony showed their new generation of LCD panels that featured a 240 Hz refresh rate (the higher the refresh rate, the better the LCD panel is able to recover during fast action scenes).  Toshiba showed some new models that were pretty impressive, as well. 

Whole house control products continue to be big at CEDIA.  The Crestron and AMX booths were packed throughout the show.  Those two companies continue to show growth during a period of lackluster sales among other AV categories. 

Probably the biggest push at CEDIA this year was iPod compatibility in products.  More and more companies - including speaker manufacturers - are marketing products that feature docking and control components for iPod's.  It's rather interesting in that a lot of companies who were ignoring iPod and MP3 devices, calling them sub-standard in regard to sound reproduction (which in most case they are), are now embracing the product. 

In addition to iPod's becoming part of the whole audio/video experience, the merger of XM Radio and Sirius has now allowed specialty audio/video manufacturers to begin to include satellite receivers on their tuners.  We should begin to see a number of A/V receivers with this feature in the coming months. 

By the way, this coming Monday, Sirius XM will begin making ala carte services available with the introduction of the first ala carte receivers on the market.  Just yesterday, Sirius XM introduced cross platform programming that will allow some XM Radio programming to be made available on Sirius.  Also this coming Monday, Sirius XM should announce the "Best of Both" service that will provide cross platform content for subscribers that will cost $16.95 a month. 

And we're beginning to see a handful of outboard Digital to Analog converters (DAC) that will work in conjunction with computers and game consoles such as  X-Box and PlayStation 3.  One of the selling points of the game consoles is that they can also play DVD's and CD's.  However, it's universally known that the sound output of those units is pretty bad.  Having an outboard D to A converter hooked up in between the game console and a stereo or home theater receiver will significantly improve the sound quality of the units.

Plus a lot of people are storing music on computers and playing it back through audio systems.  An outboard DAC will also improve the sound quality of the music that is stored on computer hard drives.  I have a lot of music both on my laptop and on my desktop computers.  One of our companies that we distribute in North America - Cambridge Audio - will be coming out with an outboard DAC - the DAC Magic - sometime in October.  I can't wait to hear the improvement in the sound coming from my computers.  

But, all in all, there was nothing huge in new products at CEDIA this year.  It's not that technology is slowing down.  It think the industry is slowing down the development of products as to not leave the buying public behind.  And as slow as things have been in the AV industry over the past few months, it's probably a good thing to allow the consumers to catch up.  And with the uncertainties of the American financial markets, the AV industry could see a significant downturn through the end of the year.