300 miles to friendship.

Today was a very interesting day. I got together with my friend Dan and we went on a road trip around Southern Maryland. We started at my house near US 301, drove South to MD 5, followed MD 5 to Mechanicsville and continued on 235 though Lexington Park on towards meeting MD 5 again. We made a left, followed MD 5 to Point Lookout, visited the state park there, turned around, followed MD 5 though Leonardtown to Mechanicsville, made a right on MD 235, followed that for a mile or so, made a left on MD 6, followed that West, over MD 5 again, though La Plata and Welcome down to the end at the Potomac River. Then we made a U-Turn, followed MD 6 to MD 225, followed MD 225 to MD 6, took MD 6 back to US 301, made a turn South, made a turn East on MD 234, followed that to Leonardtown, back down MD 5 towards Pt. Lookout to MD 4, followed MD 4 North to Upper Marlboro, made a turn South on 301 and back to my house.

Dan has not been driving his car very much, and it needed a long trip. Today afforded that opportunity, putting about 300 miles on it. I paid for his gas, since he only works temp work.

Afterwards, I took Tara to dinner. We ended up at the Red Lobster in Columbia. We had the best server with the worst service. Our server was being held down by a cooking staff of one and a bartender that was cleary overworked. She warned us when she came to take our drink order that they only had one cook plus the manager trying to cook, so things were slow. Our food came out "fresh" though, so at the end of the night she ended up with a $15.23 tip. The manager had to comp some of our stuff, not because our server was bad, but because our food was not great (over cooked, etc). I could tell by the other tables with other servers, that their food was coming out slowly too. Couple this with it being her first week as a server (and only her second week total working at a restaurant), she had it. After Tara and I talked to her and gave her a pep talk, we told her a little about ourselves, and gave her our e-mail addresses. She was genuinely touched by our genorosity (25% of what our meal should have cost) and our understanding. I remember being a server, working one of the worst nights of the year, and being killed by overworking and slow cook staff. Most people penalized her for problems beyond her control. However Tara and I recognized that she really was not the problem and she was really trying to be part of the solution. I think Walt Darden would be proud of this server. It's too bad this week has been so rough on her that she was talking about quitting tonight. But waiting tables is not for everyone. I only lasted six weeks at it.

Well, time for me to go to bed.