It was brought to my attention that Cow Do was celebrating
its 10th iteration, and I hadn't made any of them, despite
my professed enthusiasms for beef and red wine, the foci of
the event, and my respect for the organizer, Gaucho100K.
To be fair to me, I'd always had things to do that prevented
me from attending before.

0827 2V 184 WAS NWK 0920 1222

I was parsimonious and took the cheap train that doesn't
stop at EWR; instead I took a regional to NWK and the bus
back to the airport, which always saves you about $4, but
given I was on the slow train I saved $20 or more, and
there were plenty of seats (the faster ones get crowded),
and there's actual but slow functional wi-fi that keeps
you entertained enough. Being an oldish person, I continue
to be surprised by the relative on-timeness of Amtrak - it
used to be notoriously unreliable, something that they
remedied I think the way the airlines do, massive schedule
padding. Anyhow, we came in right on time.

And being an oldish person, I was confused by the asymmetry
of Penn Station, so when I went to where I thought the
Raymond bus lanes should be, a blank wall greeted me, so I
180ed it and found that I was at the Market St. bus lanes;
my instincts had taken me in the right direction but down
the wrong corridor - there are two that go to Market St.
but only one that goes to Raymond. The signs were pretty
useless, because they were placed too high for me to see.

The 62 bus now has luggage racks. Still $1.50, one of the
great bargains, and it runs every 10 minutes and gets you
to the airport from downtown in under half an hour. The
main source of savings is that you don't have to pay the
Airtrain fee.

I couldn't check in: it was a combined CM/UA itinerary,
on an M fare, which is instant upgrade on Copa for 1Ks,
but not on United, where I went into the regular queue.
That might not have been all of it.

The agent I went to looked puzzledly at my record and
started asking pointed questions, particularly whether
I'd paid the Argentine reciprocity fee, which struck me
peculiar as that was Copa's responsibility for finding
out. It took me a good twenty minutes to establish my
bona fides and then get my documents copied (a walk to
a hidden office down at the end of the corridor) and
something that has happened to me before. Eventually I
was good to go and went to the nearest security, where
despite having PreCheck I as often I do got the random
swab test. I doubt it's random, mostly because the TSA
doesn't know what random means. I think all evidence
indicates I've started being profiled again. Two entries
into the US from Amsterdam and one from Thailand this
year, I suspect that may be what it is.

I was midway between Gallagher's and the Oyster Bar. Both
are pale imitations of the real thing, but the food is all
pretty decent, especially at the maligned Gallagher's.

My gate was in the far concourse, though, near the latter,
and that coupled with the prospect of several Argentine
beef feasts on the horizon pushed me to the O-Bar.

I seated myself at the bar, where a preternaturally cheery
young lady greeted me.

A Sam fulfilled one of my requirements; a plate of
cherrystones (I like clams as much as oysters, plus they
have more flavor, plus they are cheaper) and one of oyster
stew satisfied another. The cherrystones were much smaller
than at the real Grand Central, though just as fresh. The
stew, though, was a sad if not pale imitation of the real
thing: six tiny oysters, a not shellfishy enough and not
rich enough chowder with a little tang of tomato and stuff,
lots and lots of paprika, and a raft of toast. I think they
got a pan roast recipe out of a cookbook, cheaped out on
some of the ingredients, and sold it as stew. Reasonably
quick and reasonably priced, though, and served with a good
attitude. I left more tip than usual.

Still had plenty of time to ensure that the house Bourbon at
the club is still Wild Turkey 80, especially as our flight
was posted as 20 minutes late.