Mill Street Inn, Cambridge, Maryland

Just had a very pleasant stay the the Mill Street Inn in Cambridge, Maryland, while in the field doing research for my current project, Ghosthunting Maryland! Was very impressed with this historic little establishment and would heartily recommend it to anyone traveling out to the Eastern Shore or looking for a fun and relaxing place to spend a few days.

Built in 1894, this beautiful Queen Anne home was designed by a local architect and lived in by the original family until just five years ago. The current owners, innkeepers Jennie and Skip Rideout, purchased it in 2004, converted it into a very comfortable bed-and-breakfast, and opened it to guests in 2006.

For me and my photographer, Chip Cassano, the location of the Mill Street Inn in Cambridge's historic district was very convenient, and made it very easy for us to visit a number of nearby sites of interest. This makes it an ideal base of operations for anyone interested in visiting local historic or reputedly haunted sites.

America's Haunted Road Trip

At the moment I am diligently working away on a book called Ghosthunting Maryland for publisher Clerisy Press and as one of the upcoming entries in its America's Haunted Road Trip series of travel guides. This fun, exciting, and sometimes scary project is, naturally -- or maybe supernaturally -- taking me all over the state (that's me in the "catacombs" of Westminster Hall in Baltimore a few days ago), so keep an eye on this spot for useful and actionable information that I gather and post here.

San Antonio Has Free WiFi

SAN ANTONIO -- I am pleased to be able to add San Antonio International Airport to my list of the most civilized and user-friendly airports I have encountered. My main criteria for this determination is due primarily to the availability to a free wireless Internet connection in the gate areas (and secondarily to the availability of decent eateries, at least one of which serves alcohol, in the same).

Having relocated to Texas Hill Country, I will likely be using the airport in San Antonio for at leat half my flights, so it is nice to have an airport with such good amenities just 36 miles due south of my new home. Almost as close is Austin-Bergstrom International Aiport, a little further away and to the northeast, but I am sad to report that it does not offer free WiFi and is thus not nearly as desirable as a point of departure.

Other airports with free Internet access through which I have recently travelled and posted about include those in Denver, Rapid City, South Dakota, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Had lunch and availed myself of the free local Internet connection at Rosario's Mexican Cafe y Cantina, across from Gate 34, where I had a decent Mexican BLT and Bloody Mary (my travel drink of choice for several years now).

No Sleep 'til Texas

It is usually not worth noting in travel-related materials that I am very pious person and, out of respect for other peoples' beliefs, I tend to keep my own to myself. It is only proper, however, that I start this post by sincerely thanking God for watching over me and my six cats and bringing us in safely on our non-stop journey from Virginia to Texas.

This trip was, in short, a 1,580-mile trek that I made straight through in 26 1/2 hours, moving at an average speed of 60 mph and stopping only to refuel, use the restroom, and buy more coffee, caffeinated soda, and energy drinks.

Under normal conditions, I would say that it was unnecessary and maybe even a little foolhardy to try to cover so much ground without a backup driver, at least one overnight stay, or both. The purpose of the trip, however, was to relocate our six cats and to get them out of the house the night before the packers came to our house. My original plan was to have a co-pilot and to spend one overnight in Memphis, just past the halfway point. My travelling companion dropped out at the last minute, however, citing a "miscommunication" and leaving me without enough time to create an alternate plan. To say that I set off from Virginia with at least a little sense of doom hanging over me would not be inaccurate.

...

As I added to this post my third night in the house, I was still physically exhausted. That old saying that “The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long” would seem to apply to micro-instances and not just whole lifetimes; for just over the span of a day I burned as brightly as I ever have but it took a toll on me, to be sure. As I wrote this over a strong cup on green tea, I had been up only a little more than 12 hours and was struggling to stay awake and focused. I was not able to keep going much longer then in any event and, after writing a few paragraphs for a handful of other projects, read a few more pages on The Knight and Knave of Swords, a book I have deferred reading for almost two decades, and then passed out for awhile.

Charlotte Has Free Wi-Fi

It is always a pleasant surprise to discover an airport with free Wi-Fi, and to the short list of those that do I am pleased to add Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. (That was not the case at Austin-Bergstrom International in Austin, Texas, where I started my trip this morning, and where a connection for the half-hour I wanted to spend online would have cost me $7.95 -- the balance of the 24 hours I would have paid for being extraneous).

(Name: CLTNET/Charlotte Douglas International Aiport Wireless Internet Public Access Network)

Pho is a Phull Meal

If you've ever had pho -- a traditional Vietnamese noodle soup that is one of my favorite foods in the whole world -- then odds are you either love it or hate it (very few people tend to have middling views on the stuff). And if you have never tried it, it is a treat that I recommend you try at least twice (assuming you aren't addicted to it after the first bowl).

About half the time I take someone out for their first bowl of pho, they completely blow me off when I tell them that it is a full meal. Even knowing that I tend to have a good appetite, they quite often assume that somehow it isn't going to be enough for them, and order a plate of spring rolls, a spicy beef salad, etc. I have never seen someone do that and then be able to eat both meals.

Pho is, in fact, very filling, and a large bowl -- which, typically at just 50 cents more than a small bowl, is the way to go -- is more than enough for just about anyone, most people being hard-pressed to finish even that.

My brother-in-law Dean Minnick and I are currently on the road and staying overnight in Austin, Texas, where we were lucky enough to discover Hai Ky, a little pho shop just down the street from our hotel. I enjoyed my large #1 bowl of pho very much, and I think Dean would have enjoyed his small #13, his first bowl of the stuff, if he had taken my advice and not also ordered that huge plate of vermicelli and roast pork! But, like I said, they don't always like to listen ...

Kansas Travel Advisory, etc.

WICHITA, KANSAS -- Perhaps if I spent some time in Kansas I would be a bigger fan of the state ... to date, however, my experience with it has pretty much been confined to long, dreary drives across it east and west on I-70 and my current long, dreary drive south on I-35. As things stand now, I can only wonder that Dorothy Gale expressed apprehension rather than relief at realizing she was somewhere else.

My brother-in-law, Dean Minnick, and I are currently holed up for the night in the La Quinta on Kellogg Drive in Wichita. It is nice only in comparison to the Budget Inn Dean had allowed his GPS to guide us to, where we most assuredly would have had our throats slit during the night. Pros and cons to our current digs follow:

Pros
* Young woman at the front desk was very friendly and professional and, after we mentioned some of the cons that follow, offered to switch our room for us.
* Our room was right off the lobby and has a back door directly into a very pleasant atrium pool area.
* Received a military discount of about $10.
* Room and public areas, while somewhat worn, were clean (with the exception of the perintent "con" listed below).

Cons
* Hot tub in the pool area, which I would have gladly availed myself of after our long day's drive down from Minnesota, was busted. (The hotel in general has seen better days and shows signs of wear everywhere; I would be surprised if it was not torn down in two years.)
* Light switch in our room was broken, so we could not use the three lights on one side of the room.
* Frames of both beds in the room have an ankle-level metal flange sticking out of them that can cause a painful bag to the leg for anyone not being careful.
* Coffee maker was set up in a spot without an outlet and had to either be perched in the bathroom or set on the floor to use.
* Washcloth in the bathroom had one corner neatly turned back to display ... an imbedded pubic hair. Yuck.

In short, nearly $100 was a lot to pay for what we got. There are other places east of this one -- going west will take you into increasingly-seedy downtown Wichita -- and you should probably just stay at one of them instead. Either way you go on many of the main drags through town, the roads are under construction -- a perpetual condition typical in towns with a traditional mob influence.