Richmond Trip

This past weekend, I drove down to Richmond and saw a couple friends of mine. The main purpose of the trip was to see my friend Mark Morton. Mark is a friend I knew in the Air Force. Last month, he retired from the Air Force and was visiting Richmond to see his daughter Janae who lives there. Since Richmond is only about 2 hours driving from where I live, I asked if he'd like to meet while there and, he said yes.

The other friend I arranged to meet is my travel friend Harvey. Harvey and I have done a number of Globus tours together as well as 2 cruises. That's why I call him my travel friend. We get along well and have some similar interests. I always enjoy getting together with him during the tours and cruises we've done. This trip would be no different from those.

After I checked into the hotel I was staying at, I rang Harvey to let him know I was on my way over to his apartment. We met there and caught up on the news. Also, he gave me back my cruise port book I loaned him. I wanted to get this back as it tells what optional excursions may be available at various cruise ports. I don't have any idea what I'm going to do at some of the Alaskan ports I'm going to visit in June and, I'm hoping the book will give me some ideas.

All caught up on the latest goings on, we drove over to an Outback Steakhouse that was close by. The restaurant is apparently very popular in Richmond as there was a bit of a line when we arrived. We were told we would have to wait 30 minutes or more for a table. We said no problem and started looking at the menu. Apparently, we got lucky because I don't think we waited more than 10 minutes before we were told a table was available. After giving the menu a good look, we settled on the bloomin onion for an appetizer and, we both had the largest steaks they offered - the 20 ounce Porterhouse. The bloomin onion appetizer was fantastic. It was fun breaking off the onion leaves from flower shaped onion (why they call it bloomin I guess) and dipping them in some awesome sauce. My steak came with 2 sides and, I chose a salad and a sweet potato. The salad was good though I thought they were a little skimpy with the salad dressing. The sweet potato was great with butter and brown sugar in it. I had the steak prepared in their classic style and, it was outstanding. I savored every bite. Service by our waitress was pretty good. Overall, we had an outstanding meal there and, I would recommend the place heartily to anyone. After the meal, we drive back to Harvey's apartment complex where we said our good byes. We'll meet again in less than 2 weeks for the Peru tour.

I drove back to my hotel and crashed. The next morning, I got up, checked my emails (I'd taken my laptop with me with its USB modem that enables me to connect to the Internet any where in the U.S.) and got ready to meet my friend Mark. The hotel I was staying at has a very nice breakfast buffet. It's reasonably priced and, I offered to treat Mark and his daughter to breakfast there. The two of them showed up on time and, we made our way to the restaurant. Mark's daughter Janae turned out to be a very nice young lady. Mark himself looked to be doing well barring fighting a case of walking pneumonia! We had a nice time talking before they had to head on to do other things. After they left, I quickly packed the few things I'd taken on the trip and checked out. The drive back was uneventful. Overall, it ended up being a really nice trip to Richmond. I very much enjoyed meeting my friends Harvey and Mark and, I hope to see them again in the future (I'll see Harvey again on the Peru trip and, Mark plans to stay in West Virginia for at least a little while.).