In the end, it's a soggy sandwich - Can I Join You? - CycleBlaze

September 23, 2016

In the end, it's a soggy sandwich

We travel to the airport with nothing but the clothes on our back and our travel necessities in our daypacks. This is the result of fastidious planning so that everything falls into place for the tour. Earlier this week, I checked the FedEx tracking numbers to make sure the hotel received the bike boxes, and they are at the Pittsburgh Courtyard, waiting to be retrieved.

It feels great boarding a plane and not having to fight for overhead space or to try and squeeze past others to get in line one or two people ahead of others just so you can have that overhead compartment. We walk on the plane, site down, place our daypacks under the seat in front of us, and that's it. No yelling, cussing, or trying to avoid to look of the other passengers as we get on the aircraft. I even call out the gate agent by name with a friendly, "thank you." It's more civilized than normal.

To the left, the only bag we had to carry with us to Pittsburgh - to the right, the bikes and our traveling kit ready to be unboxed
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A 60-minute über into town through traffic takes us into the center of the city. Kath and the driver share their love of food and they discuss all sorts of ways to prepare (and eat) food. I try to steer (no pun intended) the subject into über's use of self-driving cars in Pittburgh and we talk about that for a few minutes, and how that company is piloting the autonomous vehicles in the downtown area. The cars drive themselves, although a human pilot is at the controls if the car fails to make the correct decision at a traffic stop.

It's about 4:00 when we check in so I assemble one of the bikes and then we walk to dinner. When in Pittsburgh, it's de-regeur to eat at Primanti Bros. On a Friday night, it's packed, so we wait for a table to open, and then spy a couple vacating some of the bar seats, and BAM! - we sit at the bar. We order one sandwich to split, and it's a good-sized sandwich and fries. But the fries are not on the side - they arrive in the sandwich! In the end, the sandwich turns out to be a soggy mess, and we had such high hopes. Maybe it was an off night.

Primanti Bros - Tungsten lights, tin ceiling, and fries in your sandwich
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For those who love food, this pic's for you...
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On the walk back to the hotel we pick up some cookies and milk for our dessert. The downtown area is packed with people on this Friday night in September and there is tons of activity going on.

I can't help myself - I love pictures of neon signs
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