Double Dipped Wings On A Train

Track One
Robert E. Lee Road - El Paso, TX

On a recommendation from the class, Kenny and I checked out this restaurant that is built out of a train.  It was definitely worth the trip.  It's an interesting place that is built out of three remodeled railroad cars: a 1920 Vintage Southern Pacific dining car, a caboose, and a reefer boxcar.

I ordered a Moscow Mule and was immediately asked for my drivers licence, but they didn't want it to prove my age.  They wanted it so they could hold it hostage until I gave back the copper mug after I finished my drink so I didn't run off with it.

These are Spanky's Spud Chips.  They're basically thick potato slices which are deep fried and topped with bacon, cheese and seasoning, and they're served with a side of sour cream and guacamole.

This is what I was told that I should order here: Track One Double Dipped Wings.  They're dipped in pure honey and hot sauce, which are a perfect combination.  They're messy as hell, but they may have been the tastiest wings I've ever eaten.

I hope that I get back here before I leave.

Cast Iron Stomach

Clasico Kitchen Bar
9615 Montana Ave - El Paso, TX
Marco and Christian introduced me to the latest El Paso establishment to give my stomach a workout: the Clasico Kitchen Bar.

This tasty beverage is a Clasico Hangover Clamato.  It's an old fashioned clamato that includes clams, shrimp, dry beef, green olives, celery, lime, salt, pepper and special sauce with a salt rim.  I added a Dos Equis to defeat the purpose of it's name.

These are Toro Eggs.  It's an appetizer made from grilled jalapeno peppers stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon.  I could eat these every day of my life and still want more.

Last, but not least, this massive sandwich is called the Habana Cheeseburger.  It's Angus beef with white cheese topped with pastor (pork marinated with chile and achiote), grilled ham, avocado and pineapple chunks.  I can't even begin to tell you how delicious this was!

Eagles and Elotes

Cabo Joe's
1700 North Zaragoza Road - El Paso, TX
I met up with some of my colleagues to watch Nick Foles and the Eagles stomp the Vikings in the NFC Championship game.  Naturally, I wasn't going to pass up a chance to eat some tacos.  On Melanie's recommendation, I also tried elotes for the first time - corn on the cob coated and grilled with chipotle mayonnaise and topped with fresh cheese.  I'm not generally a big fan of mayo, but they were delicious!

This all feels like a crazy fever dream.

If you could go back in time and tell my younger self that I would be drinking in a Texas bar and watching the Eagles win a game to put them in the Super Bowl, I probably would have said that this scenario is highly unlikely.  If you were to tell me that literally the entire bar would be cheering for the Eagles, I would have thought you were a lunatic.  But, here I am, and the Texans you see in the photo at the top of this post were all loudly and proudly rooting for the Eagles.  I swear, I almost expected them to break out into a chorus of Fly Eagles Fly.

Mixed Signals

Papaburger
Zaragoza Road, El Paso, TX

Carlos & Mickey's

Carlos & Mickey's
1310 Magruder St - El Paso, TX
I've eaten a lot of good food in my time in Texas, but this takes the cake.  The restaurant has an incredibly cool atmosphere with beautiful architecture, fountains, statues and a mariachi band traveling throughout the dining rooms.  I had a Texas sized peach margarita that was the size of a fishbowl, and the Revolution combination dinner, which included carnitas, a tamale, a cheese chile relleno, a beef taco and a cheese enchilada with a side of beans, spanish rice and guacamole.

This was followed up by a stop at a sports pub called Brew, then to Bowl El Paso.  Somewhere in between, we drove past this old Blockbuster Video that hasn't been converted to another store yet.

I'm not sure exactly where this was because I was pretty drunk by this point in the night.  Thankfully, I wasn't driving, and I managed to get up to my hotel room without falling down.

Sun City and La Equis

El Paso, TX

After lunch, I headed out for a view of the city from the Franklin Mountains.  The photos really don't do justice to how beautiful it is.  I don't know if I'd trade the mountains and woods in Pennsylvania for it, but I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to spend a few months here.

You can see pretty far from the mountains.  The X that you see in the last photo is a nearly 200 foot tall sculpture called La Equis (The X) in Juarez, Mexico.  It was built by an artist named Sebastián. 

Do They Have A Delivery Service?

Kiki's Mexican Restaurant
2719 North Piedras St.
El Paso, TX
One of the folks that I'm here to train brought me to this awesome restaurant for breakfast.  They're famous for machaca, so that's what I ordered - absolutely delicious!

Blackbird

Ink Xpressions
7924 Gateway Blvd. East
El Paso, TX
When I was 15 years old, a friend who owned a tattoo gun inked my right arm with a red Star Wars Rebel Alliance logo.  It wasn't very good, and it didn't age well.  Mr. Look took care of me with this incredible cover up work.
____________________________________________________________________________

Blackbird
The Beatles

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

How To Pee Like A Gentleman

One Stop Kitchen & Bar
7300 N Loop Drive - El Paso, TX

I went out drinking with two of the guys that I'm training and the woman who will be the supervisor of the team, and I found this rather interesting bathroom door.  I can't say I've ever held my butt quite like that when I pee, but I'll have to give it a try sometime.

Burger Don Cuco: The Cheesy Masterpiece

Tacos Don Cuco
North Zaragoza Road - El Paso, TX

I got here just before the place closed, so I had to take dinner to go.  Not gonna lie, the menu was a little tricky to figure out for a Hawaiian boy from Pennsylvania, but I knew enough Spanish to order the Burger Don Cuco and a burrito.  Look at all of the cheese on that burger!

Texas Cheesesteak

Crave Kitchen & Bar
11990 Rojas Drive
El Paso, TX

Dear Texas,

This was a tasty burger and I appreciate the effort, but please stop calling it a cheesesteak.  It isn't.

Love,
- Everyone who has ever set foot in Philadelphia.

Empire Over El Paso

One of my trainees bought this for me as a present at an art show.  Not sure who the artist is, but it's a pretty awesome rendition of a battle between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance in El Paso.

In Flight Photos

American Airlines: Flight 5912
Phoenix to El Paso
Yes, I am the kind of nerd who takes pictures from the plane window once in a while.

Last Trip to El Paso

Headed back to The Borderland one last time.

The Polka King of Hazleton

The Polka King
Netflix (2018)
If you grew up in Hazleton over the past four decades, you know the name Jan Lewan.  Like Farmer's Iced Tea and Senape's Pitza, his name has been synonymous with Mob City since the 80's.  After many years of being a fixture on local television and radio, the Polka King was arrested for fraud in 2004 and served time in federal prison through 2009.

Last year, a film starring Jack Black and Jason Schwartzman about the rise and fall of the Polka King was shown at the Sundance Film Festival.  It was released on Netflix yesterday, and I'm glad to say that it's very good.  Although none of it was filmed in Hazleton (to the best of my knowledge), they mention the city quite a bit, and they do so without taking cheap shots at the city or it's Polish-American senior citizens who made up much of Lewan's fanbase.  In fact, it captures Hazleton life very well.  The scenes between Jack Black, Jenny Slate and Jacki Weaver are shockingly authentic to life in Hazleton.  More than once, my wife and I looked at each other and laughed that Weaver's dialogue could have just as easily come out of my grandmother's mouth.

The film does a good job for showing Lewan for who he is - a big personality who had good intentions and bad ideas.  The dude is most certainly guilty of fraud, no doubts there, but it's not the fraud of a guy rubbing his hands together, laughing that he pulled the wool over people's eyes.  It's the fraud of a naive dreamer who truly believed that it would all work out for everyone.  I'm happy that his story has been told respectfully and that he has embraced the film.

Video Games Live

Video Games Live
FM Kirby Center - Wilkes-Barre, PA

This is a pretty awesome idea that I first heard about a few years ago, but haven't had the chance to see until today.  Video Games Live is a group that includes a full orchestra who goes on tour performing songs and remixes from the soundtrack of classic and modern gaming.

Looking back on the history of the industry, the Playstation 2 era is my line in the sand.  The games that came before the release of the PS2 are from a time when I read the magazines, frequently bought new games, and followed the industry closely.  However, after that point, my interest in gaming began to fade.  I didn't stop playing altogether, and I still bought the occasional new game, but I really didn't care as much as I used to.  For that reason, about half of the songs that were performed were from games that I have no familiarity with at all.  I'm happy to say that there was plenty of representation from the 8 bit through 64 bit era, including music from Castlevania, Mega Man, Sonic The Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, Chrono Trigger, and one of my all-time favorite games, Chrono Cross.

The orchestra is extremely talented, and the show was a lot of fun.  If you like gaming, or if you have children who do, I highly recommend it.

I Hope That's Not A Law...

A Pallet Of Caffeine

I think we're all set on Dolce Gusto coffee and hot chocolate for the foreseeable future.

My Furry Training Assistant

My Guiding Principle Of Customer Service

This quote is hanging on my desk at work.  I've always taken it as the main guiding principle of my approach to customer service throughout my career.  It tells us that true strength is not in bellowing as loudly as you can - it is in deliberate action, deliberate words, and speaking with a non-aggressive authority which demands your attention.  It also reminds us that when customers resort to being rude, they are not exerting power over you.  They are resorting to the only tool in their arsenal - the temper tantrum.

Bender Wisdom

Timeline Arcade
Hanover, PA

When you get to the top of the stairs to the entrance of the Timeline Arcade, you are met by a row of high school lockers that are covered in drawings, song lyrics and movie quotes.  This line from The Breakfast Club is my favorite of them.

Happy New Year

Pac-Man Drop
Timeline Arcade - Hanover, PA

This arcade has become one of my favorite places in the world to go since I first discovered it this past June, so when I learned that they were having a New Years party, complete with a Pac Man Drop to count down to 2018, I knew there was no place I'd rather be to ring in the new year.

In September, I got to meet game designer Howard Scott Warshaw at the Timeline Arcade.  He was a very awesome and funny guy.  I didn't expect to meet another awesome gaming celebrity last night, but I was very happy to get to meet Nick Arcade host Phil Moore.  We talked for about an hour at the tables near the video screen, and he couldn't have been a nicer and more chill dude. 

As much as I enjoyed hanging out with Mr. Moore, I was surrounded by games that were just begging to be played...

 ...and they were being played under the watchful eye of poor little Gizmo as he lay in the hand of a tinsel-covered Gremlin.

We played a lot of games and finished a few, including the classic Sega shooter The House Of The Dead, but the game that got the most play was my all-time favorite Golden Age Midway classic: Gorf.

As it got closer to midnight, everyone went outside and crossed the street to count down to 2018 as Pac Man dropped from the roof of the arcade to the streets of Hanover, Pennsylvania.

All in all, it was a great New Years Eve.  Here's to an awesome 2018!