Food and Sleep
Sep. 13th, 2005 06:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madshutterbugThe thing about food franchise places (fast food or otherwise) is that they're predictable. There's some allowance for variation between places but not a lot. Speaks to the tendancy for familiarity, I guess. Sunday my intreped travelling companions and I wandered to an Outback for dinner. Yes, the food was good, and yes, the food was Outback. One nice thing is the salad was fresh, and the blue cheese dressing was very cheesy. In a good way. Other than that, though, a safe, predictable meal.
Last night, we grouped together with other attendees and a couple of the GE employees and went to a local place, Chesapeakes. A brief aside: due to changes in various tax laws, companies need be much more careful about the classic wining and dining of customers (I believe the pharmecutical companies tripped over their feet hard, which is what brought the world to this); in a situation like this one (company provided training on product to customers) they may either entertain everyone, or no one. GE's solution is to provide us (the customers) with per diem cards, but they weren't ready yesterday evening, so the two reps joined us.
Chesapeakes, I hope the name implies, serves seafood. One may get surf and turf if so desired, and while not apologetic about it they do acknowledge that Knoxville isn't a coastal city. No worries, the food is good. My choice last night was blackened Hawaiian ahi tuna (rare... seemed to bother a couple of my travelling companions *G*) on horseradish mashed potatoes and with tomatoe jam. The salad proved even better than the fresh greens at Outback, with a most excellent creamy garlic house dressing. And the ahi did indeed melt in my mouth.
I'll go there again. In fact, it may be easier to go there again since it's not exactly easy to get to... well, not hard, but then we were also using the navigation technology provided by the rental company. The restaurant may apparently list its address as being on Henley, but there is a wall on Henley rather than access to the roadway. Reasonable, as this particular stretch of road is at this point already developing into the access ramps for I275 and I40. So there was noplace to turn when the pleasant NeverLost Lady announced, "You have arrived."
We drove around a looong block (as it were) and approached from the other side, and found parking with no trouble this time.
Sleep, now, is a different matter. It's not my bed, and while I'm sleeping, I'm doing so in two - three hour stints for some reason. Some of that is no doubt the lack of the normal night sounds (which out on the ranch do not include traffic noise, and the hotel is about a quarter-mile from the interstate). I'm sure our roosters are still letting each other know they're around and claiming their respective territories in the bird yard, but their voices don't carry to TN.
Last night, we grouped together with other attendees and a couple of the GE employees and went to a local place, Chesapeakes. A brief aside: due to changes in various tax laws, companies need be much more careful about the classic wining and dining of customers (I believe the pharmecutical companies tripped over their feet hard, which is what brought the world to this); in a situation like this one (company provided training on product to customers) they may either entertain everyone, or no one. GE's solution is to provide us (the customers) with per diem cards, but they weren't ready yesterday evening, so the two reps joined us.
Chesapeakes, I hope the name implies, serves seafood. One may get surf and turf if so desired, and while not apologetic about it they do acknowledge that Knoxville isn't a coastal city. No worries, the food is good. My choice last night was blackened Hawaiian ahi tuna (rare... seemed to bother a couple of my travelling companions *G*) on horseradish mashed potatoes and with tomatoe jam. The salad proved even better than the fresh greens at Outback, with a most excellent creamy garlic house dressing. And the ahi did indeed melt in my mouth.
I'll go there again. In fact, it may be easier to go there again since it's not exactly easy to get to... well, not hard, but then we were also using the navigation technology provided by the rental company. The restaurant may apparently list its address as being on Henley, but there is a wall on Henley rather than access to the roadway. Reasonable, as this particular stretch of road is at this point already developing into the access ramps for I275 and I40. So there was noplace to turn when the pleasant NeverLost Lady announced, "You have arrived."
We drove around a looong block (as it were) and approached from the other side, and found parking with no trouble this time.
Sleep, now, is a different matter. It's not my bed, and while I'm sleeping, I'm doing so in two - three hour stints for some reason. Some of that is no doubt the lack of the normal night sounds (which out on the ranch do not include traffic noise, and the hotel is about a quarter-mile from the interstate). I'm sure our roosters are still letting each other know they're around and claiming their respective territories in the bird yard, but their voices don't carry to TN.
