I learn something new every time I visit a new place. Sometimes, I glean a new historical fact or expose myself to a food or drink I have never had.<\/p>\n
When I visited the Cincinnati area recently, I discovered something entirely different. Apparently, Covington, Ky., doesn\u2019t sell contact lens solution.<\/p>\n
Covington sits right across the Ohio River from \u201cThe Nati\u201d and was the base for my friends\u2019 wedding.<\/p>\n
I flew out for the nuptials, meaning I couldn\u2019t pack contact lens solutions thanks to the jokers in England who sparked the new terror threat regulations.<\/p>\n
No big deal, I figured. I could get some from the hotel or a nearby store.<\/p>\n
Well, the hotel couldn\u2019t come through (although they did give me a toothbrush and toothpaste), so I headed across the street to the small grocery store.<\/p>\n
Nothing. The same thing happened at the two convenience stores down the street. I knew Kentucky was backward, but I never saw this coming.<\/p>\n
The area had everything a guy like me could want \u2013 two chili places within two blocks, McDonald\u2019s across the street and White Castle in the parking lot. That\u2019s right \u2013 a White Castle in the hotel parking lot.<\/p>\n
But nobody had contact solution.<\/p>\n
I should have figured as much. The whole trip got off to a rough start, even though I heard the glorious sounds of Neil Diamond\u2019s \u201cAmerica\u201d as I waited for my plane in Harrisburg.<\/p>\n
The Cincinnati airport was kind of confusing and I had trouble finding the main terminal. I ended up paying for a shuttle instead of calling a friend because I didn\u2019t feel like waiting for a ride.<\/p>\n
The shuttle driver then proceeded to drop me off at the Marriot in Covington. Which was nice and all, except I was staying at the Courtyard by Marriot down the street.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t even notice what had happened until I got upstairs and gave the desk clerk my confirmation number. She told me the Courtyard was two blocks down the street and, as I walked to my hotel, I wondered how she considered four blocks to be two blocks.<\/p>\n
Everything worked out OK, even though the friend who I had said I would call for a ride was waiting for me in the lobby, wondering what had happened. I still feel bad.<\/p>\n
The festivities began not too long after as we took advantage of the hospitality room provided by the groom\u2019s parents. For a little while on Saturday afternoon, I didn\u2019t know if all of us would make it to the reception.<\/p>\n
But we did and we all made it home alive, thanks to a brave cab driver who put up with three of us making a midnight phone call from the back seat to a friend who was not part of the evening.<\/p>\n
We celebrated late into the night in the hospitality room, but I never thought to make a late-night run to the White Castle before I went to bed. How unlike me.<\/p>\n
I had to soak my contacts in tap water (not good), which threw me off my game. I would have been thinking clearer if I had been able to bring contact solution on the plane.<\/p>\n
I blame the TSA for not letting me get a greasy bedtime snack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I learn something new every time I visit a new place. Sometimes, I glean a new historical fact or expose myself to a food or drink I have never had. When I visited the Cincinnati area recently, I discovered something…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-travel","wpcat-3-id","wpcat-24-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}