Time for Day 4 of my food adventure in Austin, Texas. This was the 2nd day of the Computer Mine Conference and is by far the longest day. It involves going to a costume party and having lots awkward small talk. It is an extremely long day, but at least you get paid to go to the party.
After Day 3, this is what was left in my per diem account:
$257.98
Here are some of the cell phone pictures from the day:
I had breakfast at the RP Club. So it was free and good. I prefer sausage over bacon, which makes me a minority in this life, but never going to complain about free bacon!
Turns out Kim is one of those creepy people that take a picture of themselves when you ask them to take a picture.
Lunch was on the Computer mine, so it was once again free. I can’t say much on the quality of it because it was mostly gone before I got down there. What I had was okay, but nowhere near as good as the lunch from the previous day.
The meal at the Computer Mine Conference Party was the best meals I’ve ever had at such an event. A taco bar! And shrimp. It was the first time I was NOT counting down the seconds until it was over. At least for the first 15 minutes. After that, I might have looked at my watch a few thousand times until it was over.
THE QUICK OVERVIEW:
- Breakfast at the RP Club was solid enough again.
- The lunch at the Conference wasn’t very good, but mostly because it was pretty much gone before I got there.
- The taco bar at the party was solid and one of my favorite meals on the trip. Which is something for banquet food.
My breakfast was free. My lunch was free. My dinner was free. That means at the end of Day 4 this is what remained the the per diem account:
$257.98
Could I make that last through Saturday and the flight home on Sunday. We’ll continue this journey next Sunday! Same Photography 139 time. Same Photography 139 channel.
I didn’t realize sausage was more popular – it is gross and often mealy, but bacon never disappoints!
I meant to ask what the RP hotel was – the most offensive turd to own rich hotels, of whom I was thinking, I am not sure if he has one down there? I also can’t imagine Mine ownership being cool with it, so I am guessing it is another.
You might be able to tell that this was really slapped together to get it out. There are more typos than normal.
I prefer sausage over bacon. Not the other way around. One of those typos. I also notice I didn’t publish the picture of Kim where she took a selfie on my phone. Bacon is more popular than sausage definitely. But it shouldn’t be in my mind.
The hotel wasn’t an RP hotel necessarily. It was the Downtown Marriott. It was this secret club that only certain people had access too. I’m guessing it was members of their points club or something. I just got in cause Kim put me on the list.
Changed to reflect my actual position on breakfast meats. And the picture of Kim added and the word NOT added in a key spot.
No judgment on typos. I’m terrible at rereading myself – even if I read over what I typed, I know it made sense to me, so it’s going to make sense the next time.
Charlie was obsessed with eggs and sausage when he was a toddler. He found bacon to be mid. I’ve got some texture situations when it comes to food, so that’s part of the reason I overall usually find bacon more dependable – but I like it to be super crispy yet not burnt. I don’t want to navigate fat bubbles.
Oh, got it! Yeah, they usually do have a secret handshake club, I forgot that. I’m glad Kim got you in! Jon travels a lot for work so he always stays in… it’s either something in the Hilton or Marriott families, but nothing fancy. But it’s often enough to keep us flush in free nights from that chain when we travel – we just couldn’t find many in Dublin.
Bacon is very hit and miss. There is a sweet spot where it is crispy, but not burnt and when it misses that sweet spot, it is tragic. The worst is burnt bacon where you bite into it and it shatters into a million unappetizing pieces.
I think it is weird that you have an issue with sausage’s texture because it is way more consistent than bacon’s texture which is all over the place. I also find sausage to be way more versatile. Nobody is going to the VFW for a bacon gravy and biscuits. But at the end of the day they are both great. I just like sausage better.
And speaking of sweet spots, I do believe that hotels have a sweet spot. If you go too cheap you don’t get anything out of it. Then there is the sweet spot. Free wi-fi and free breakfast. Then there is what we usually get at meetings. Expensive hotels where you have to pay for breakfast AND wi-fi. I think I somehow got free wi-fi although I was expecting them to charge the company car for it. I would have had to go out and buy breakfast. That would have ate into my per diem. Plus cost me some time. This year we stopped providing people with a breakfast at the meeting and saved a boatload of money for the company. And also that breakfast is usually trash anyways.
I hope when I got Philadelphia in 2 weeks, there is also a sweet free breakfast club, but I have my doubts. I imagine I will mostly end up skipping breakfast when I’m out there. Although some of the breakfast places I found in New Orleans last year were my favorite meals from that trip.
Agree, the shatter-bacon is trash. You can’t even put it on a breakfast sandwich or anything. I think none of the actual textures of bacon are gritty, though – and that and mushy are textures that bug me a lot. I have no way to explain it. Also, I think I just overall like the versatility of bacon – I have some pretty bad TMJ from my cancers, so getting a breakfast sandwich or similar with a sausage patty is way too tall for me to eat, whereas bacon adds nothing to the height of the sandwich (unless you put on just a crap-ton of bacon, I guess). I also like the taste because, while it’s super-greasy, it doesn’t take on the flavor of the grease as much usually? That said, if I ever go to the Clown Empire or any other fast food restaurant for breakfast, I’m getting sausage rather than bacon if I get a meat, because it’s just got a better application and more like the meat it’s emulating.
Totally agree on the hotel thing – Jon and I have had that exact discussion many times. I used to bring myself some Pop-Tarts or granola bars for breakfasts to the shows because then I could have something quick to eat without going broke on my per diem. While I know the per diems are paid out by destination COL, it never seemed to accurately aggregate all the meals. Also, the hours are so long that it’s not like you’re spending a lot of time in the fancy hotel, anyway (other than I guess at the February meeting – but it’s certainly not in your room).
Weird thing is that there is only 1 fast food breakfast that I will eat and that is Hardee’s. And when I go to Hardee’s, which is rare cause there aren’t any close by. (I think Jewell is the closest to my house) I get the bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. I do LOVE Hardee’s breakfast. We need one back in Ames! Whenever I road trip solo, the Hardee’s drive-thru is a must if I go by one.
But I will tell you the one thing that you haven’t mentioned that bacon has over sausage. The BLT Sandwich. The only thing in the world better than true love. Where the bacon is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe!
I also have kind of the opposite with the per diem. I almost always come back with at least $100. As you will find out in the amazing final last 2 installments of this adventure. Except 1 time. I think Miami Beach is the 1 time that I spent most of or all of my per diem. That is the most expensive place I’ve ever visited and it didn’t help that one meal was over $150. A steakhouse with Cathie and Lowell and Michelle K. Lowell’s meal was over $200 and I think he paid for one of my sides for some reason. By far the most expensive solo meal of my life, but as a man of the people and a working class hero, I have notoriously simple tastes. I’d rather have a good cheeseburger than a steak. Not just because of the price. It is what my palette prefers. And of course you know about my love for the simple man’s sandwich of choice… the tenderloin. The sandwich that birthed these Sunday food adventures.
The per diem for my coming trip to Philadelphia is $559. For 7 days. Probably no free meals out there, so that one might not last. I have so many cheesesteaks to eat!
I think it is an old Grouch Marx joke, “I would never belong to a club that would have me as a member.” That is my relationship with fancy restaurants. I know the analogy doesn’t 100% hold, but I think the spirit of it is in there.
Even on the Computer Mine Conferences, I try to spend as little time in the hotel as possible. I do confess on this one day I never left the hotel. But I was on the clock from like 8 in the morning to after 8 at night. But when the conference is in Las Vegas I know a couple miners that never leave the hotel from the moment they arrive until the moment they leave again for the airport.
I occasionally have to go up to Mason City for work, and always stop at the Hardee’s in Jewell on the way up! My first year after my first cancer, so I would have been 16-17, my grandma usually took me to McFarland for my monthly checkups, first of the day. She and I would alternate Hardee’s or Evil Clown Empire each month on the way back to school, and Hardees was clearly the winner of that contest. I will say that Ames did no favors to either Hardee’s in either of their locations (or Hardee’s did no favors for themselves, as they picked it) – that now-Panera parking lot was atrocious, and still is. And I’m pretty sure the spot from the mall hasn’t had anything in it since Diamond Dave’s went out of business, and that’s been… 25-ish years? Maybe?
I forgot the BLT! And bacon cheeseburger – you’re not throwing a big sausage patty on top of a cheeseburger, but you can slide some bacon on there and make it infinitely better! Also, this may not be a popular opinion, but I also like bacon better on Casey’s breakfast pizza, just because it’s a sharper foil for the gravy-sauce.
Coming back with per diem money is ALWAYS the pro move. I did 100% of the time from trainings, just because I didn’t personally need to eat fancy by myself in a strange place. Being 5’2″ and 25 also didn’t help as a woman, I sort of had some reticence about being out and about by myself in unknown locations much. Holy crap – that’s SO much more expensive than, like, 801 Chophouse. That’s like two people with one ordering drinks and apps at 801. I’ve never been to Miami Beach, but I know that Tampa was more expensive than it felt like it should be for a freaking swamp state. We always got roped into one or two dinners that would be way too expensive on group trips, and I felt like I was always ending up riding the per diem line.
Tenderloins really ARE a food of the people, aren’t they? You’re not finding those in a too-bougie-type place. And that IS a Groucho joke – I’ve quoted it about golfing!
Have a blast in Philly! The other pro move besides a cheesesteak out there is to get a bagel w/lox and cream cheese. When I went to New Jersey a few years ago to photograph a friend’s wedding, a mutual friend of ours was my wheelman and took me to all of the best bagel spots in Philly when I visited her there. And that’s one of the few ways to also conserve money!
Agree on the hotels – unless I’m going to, like, a seaside resort, I don’t really want to be at the hotel. (Even then, I have to be doing something.) Jon and I had a fundamental disagreement about our first trip to Portland – I was not there to relax, and it was my birthday trip, so put on your shoes, friend. Tonight, we ball. I don’t overall love Vegas (not my vibe in really any way), but go out and experience something, dudes – go ride a roller coaster on top of a building or something.
I have to say, I was unaware that there is enough variance in bagel quality for it to matter where it came from.
I also believe that you can’t get a great tenderloin in a city or town of any size. For example, the only tenderloin in Ames that is worth a spit is the Filling Station, while Slater has two great tenderloins. You can get passable tenderloins in Des Moines, but that is about it.