Apr. 6, 2009 - Road Trip Ramblings
After waking at 6 with much on my mind, a busy morning of errands and nothing in my stomach, we piled into the van at 12:30 to head off on another road trip. Most of the band had left on the bus at 8 in the morning, but because of an appointment we had to leave after lunch. This turned out to be helpful for a few others who also couldn’t make the 8 am bus, and the five of us hit the road right on schedule. I am grateful right off the bat for kind travel mates who didn’t complain when we stopped almost immediately to pick up some subs for lunch. It was a weird day for me. The stress of the morning prevented me from eating, so by noon I was starving. I could have waited for lunch except that traveling on an empty stomach is generally bad news. I probably would not have actually thrown up, but I would have been miserably nauseous, so I was grateful for the sub before we left town.
Out on the road we went. My trumpet player and I sat in the rear of the 8 passenger van for the first leg. We chatted some, and I think we both napped a bit. On the second leg it was his turn to drive, so I sat up front with him, which I found much more pleasant. I hope the other trumpet player didn’t mind too much giving up her seat so I could sit next to my man.
It was a 6 hour trip, and our dinner reservation was for 7, so we made only a few very short stops on the way. At our last pit stop we were informed by our trumpet player that we had exactly 2 minutes…
We arrived at the destination city in good time and were at the restaurant at 7:10. The other band members whom we met there had just ordered their drinks. My trumpet player ditched me/us to go do some shopping he can’t do at home. His evening was sadly unsuccessful, whereas ours was not! We ate at an Indian restaurant and the food was delicious! I have never had real Indian food before (I don’t think the curried beef I make at home really qualifies as authentic…) so I was looking forward to this new culinary experience. I was not disappointed. While the food was not as spicy as I expected, it was very tasty. The chicken masala (which I am sure I have spelled wrong) was especially marvelous, as well as the papadums (again with the wrong spelling!) that were served before the meal. Most ordered an Indian dessert that was described as a dumpling in milk. I passed on that, since I’m really not crazy about anything in milk. I like milk in a glass, but don’t like milk on pudding or fruit or even ice cream on cake. However, when it was served the bandmaster, who is particularly fond of Indian food, was so overcome with the heaven that this dessert surely would be, that he insisted that I taste it. So I did take a spoonful and I had to admit that it was very tasty. The flavours were wonderful, but being a milky dumpling dessert I would not have enjoyed a full bowl. So I was glad to have been able to experience just a taste.
The service was as exceptional as the food, and at the end of the meal our host brought out a tray of complimentary mango liqueurs. I had earlier during the meal been asked if I drink at all (since I declined a glass of wine) to which I replied that I do not. So the bandmaster kindly asked our host if the drink had alcohol in it, saying that I would want to know that, which I would though I had assumed it did. It may have surprised those at the table when, knowing that it was indeed an alcoholic drink, I did taste it. (Shhh…don’t tell my mother!) But taste it is all I did, and while I would be happy to explain why I do not drink, yet feel no guilt for having tasted this delicious cup of mango, this post will be way too long as it is, so all I will say is that it was very good (I love mango) but the alcohol does have a flavour that I don’t care for, so I was not tempted to drink the rest of the tiny glass and instead offered mine (less 3 sips) to the bandmaster in payment for my taste of his dessert.
When we were finished I phoned my trumpet player who was just finishing up his unsuccessful shopping excursion. He was soon there to pick us up and take us all to the hotel.
There had been a mix-up in the room reservations which resulted in some of us being given a beautiful king room. The first things I always check out is the view, and while a cityscape is not my favourite vista, given our location we did have a lovely view of the city lights, not to mention the living rooms of the people in the apartment just off to the right…
It was quite late when we arrived, so my trumpet player decided to go right to bed rather than going to the usual band gathering. I said that was just as well and I’d stay too. He said no, I shouldn’t stay just because he was staying. I said no, I’m tired too and really would be better off going right to bed. He insisted that I should go and I soon learned that the reason was that he had found a “game in an hour” that he wanted to watch before going to sleep. Hmmm. He knew that if I stayed I would whine if hockey was on…so I decided to give him the hour game and headed off to “Raphael’s” saying I’d be back in an hour. Because of the late hour, and because we had to be up in the morning for the parade, Raphael’s was small and short, but enjoyable. By 12:15 I was back in the room for a nice, comfortable sleep.
I see that this post is less than interesting, but I will post it anyway by way of thanking my travel mates for allowing the immediate lunch stop on Friday as well as generally being good company on the trip, the trumpet player for giving me the front seat while my own trumpet player drove, the bandmaster for the yummy taste of dessert and for looking out for me where the mango liqueur was concerned, and my trumpet player and the other clarinet player for driving all those long hours to get us to the city and home again. The trip was good, the meal fabulous, but the real fun didn’t start until the following day…
