Roaming With Carl

A Visit to the Grand Slam

Those of you who do not share my interest in playing on-line trivia, you can skip this post

Players of the Buzztime (ex NTN) bar trivia game have noticed a recurring presence of "Grand Slam" in the top bar score list. Grand Slam is the lobby bar of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington D.C... On 3 June, 2008 I visited the bar for the Tuesday Showdown game to see what the place was like. When I asked if I could join in, the five players present all extended a hearty welcome. Bill was the ring leader that night and introduced me to the other players, all the while apologizing that they were short handed tonight. Two players were sports experts who had been on the team representing the District at the Las Vegas sports trivia finals. Another player had two PHDs and was the religion and law expert. Another player was recognized as the science, physics and space expert. The fifth regular was a "generalist" who filled in on the mythology and popular culture areas. A couple, who were not present, had expertise in the Theater and the Classics. Bill observed that their absence normally resulted in lower bar scores, so he was not optimistic at the start of the night. Besides myself there was another visitor, (Rick from Boston) who was apparently a frequent presence whenever he is in town.

Well they are an eclectic multi-talented bunch and their play was not quiet. The verbal banter verged on the rough and tumble at times but nobody appeared to get out of sorts. They have a small section behind the DJ booth that is will equipped with four or five HD flat panels. If the section was filled the section could hold 15-20 bodies. Apparently they have same cocktail waitress every Tuesday so she was aware of everybody's foibles.

In spite of Bill's concerns about being short handed and his crying about the low scores we were posting Grand Slam came in second overall, with all six counters scoring more than 60,000 points. My score of 57,019 was one of my higher ones but I still finished on the page of shame (11^th).

This team does something that I've not seen before. They wager on where they will finish in the final standings. The negotiations were the entertainment while waiting for the final question and the final standings to be displayed. Bill hit the score with his pick of number 2. He told me as we were on our way out that they hit the exact number "pretty often".

I'd go back for the fun even if the cost of a beer is $6.00. For us non-alcoholic drinkers they do carry Kaliber so you don't have to choke down O'Douls.

Technorati Tags: Buzztime, Online Trivia, Grand Slam

The Blue Ridge Parkway

On the 27^th I took a weather day in Lexington KY. The big storm front that has been wrecking the country went through and and West Virginia was forecast for 78% rain all day.  I did not carefully pick my route through the Appalachians to spend it driving in the rain.  Just not my idea of a vacation drive. . I was able to catch up on e-mails and continued to fine tune the return trip.

I picked out the closest active Buzztime site and got my usual Tuesday trivia fix. Friends Sports Bar & Grill only had one couple who were hard-core players. They were gracious enough to allow me to share the game with them. The place has a high Buzztime activity score, but that was not reflected in the crowd while I was there. The couple said the bar did a killer happy hour business and a late night restaurant and bar workers crowd. That generated the high average bar score.

On the 28^th I continued on with a plan to overnight in Lewisburg West Virginia, traveling the Blue Ridge parkway. The plan was working, weather was beautiful, sun glasses on, the scenery was interesting and then things went into the bucket. Around 14:30 sun glasses came off, by 15:00 the wipers were on the mist setting, by 15:30 the temperature was down to 58 from 72. Rolled into the New River Gorge turn off and was in fog with about a mile horizontal visibility. Decided to skip seeing the famous bridge and continued to Lewisburg. I should have checked the hotel availability. Needless to say there was no room at the Inn. The Greenbrier Resort was seven miles away but I had already checked their overnight rates. $395 plus taxes is still far out of my comfort zone.

Exercised the Acura Navigator and got a Hampton Inn location and telephone number in Summersville for the RON. Interesting event when I got to Summersville, the navigator directed me to where it thought the Hampton Inn was. Bu it was a Carlson Countryside Inn at the address that the navigator had for the Hampton Inn. I checked with the clerk and she said the Hampton was on down the road about 1.5 miles. This is the first time the Acura navigator has lead me astray like this.

Trip details

• Back roads. Planned to be all limited access roads. But the route back to Summersville from Lewisburg took me through 35 miles of "typical" West Virginia winding mountain roads. Luckily the front had passed on and the sun was shining but the road was stil wet in spots.
• Trip Miles & Gas info: 373 miles. Average 44mph, 28mpg, premium $4.05 in Charleston WV..
• Dining experience: Nothing to report – The Lexington stay had at least one of every national chain I have heard of and quite a few I never heard of.
• Motel: Courtyard Marriot in Lexington in a area that looks like what I expect the Rim in San Antonio to look like in 5-10 years. Hampton Inn in Summersville. If there is a low grade Hampton Inn this is it.

 

Technorati Tags: Bluer Ridge Parkway, Travel 2008