Tell Good Stories…..

The New Bern, NC Walmart.

This past weekend was my 6th year of heading to Camp Seagull/Seafarer for Y Guides with my sons - this time my middle one.

As has become the custom, we made our stop at the Walmart SuperDuperCenter in New Bern - just off of Highway 70, and apparently where everything is happenin’ in the great city by the river. There’s always something that gets left behind - batteries, sunscreen, or, as was the case this time, a folding chair for the quality porch time with the other dads.

The assortment of customers is usually the highlight of the trip, with the people watching opportunities, but this time we were rushing to get in and out, as we were running late.

All 32 check-out lines were full as we approached, chair in hand. The “Self Service Checkout” area in any store can be a risky proposition - can be much faster, but can be a disaster.

I should have known.

There was a lady in front of us with a cart full of plants and fish. Gardening and pets. The gardening part went well, but the big plastic bags filled with water, fish and air wouldn’t scan. Repeated attempts at scanning, assisted by her panicked children, continued to fail.

At this point the Walmart employee charged with supervising the self service checkouts wandered over to solve the problem. It was as if one of the retiree door greeters had achieved enough seniority to graduate to some real responsibility. She must have been 100.

After much fuss, it was determined that to scan properly, the bag of fish, water, and air was to be weighed. WEIGHED!

And then no sooner had she pressed no in response to “Do you have any items under your cart?” she realized that she did, in fact, have items under her cart.

She did allow me to check out my chair before she started over.

The family and I went out for dinner last night at the new Chipotle Mexican Grill up the street from our house, our first time at this mexican chain restaurant (spun off from McDonalds - the purveyor of all that is wrong in fine dining).

It had two strikes against it before I walked in:

1. It’s not Armadillo Grill. This is my favorite Tex/Mex place in the world, and the restaurant that our family frequents most regularly. It’s inexpensive and feeds the family very well. The Queso is the best I’ve ever eaten. Unfortunately, there isn’t one near our house. It’s near work, and near our church, but if we’re at home, the options are limited.

2. It’s part of a huge chain, albeit one that proclaims it’s freshness and lack of chemicals - IT’S ORGANIC! WOOOO! Any chain, by its very nature, is not going to be as good as the local “mom & pop” or small local chain. That may be a personal bias, but I have never found an exception to this rule.

It did have one thing going for it prior to our arrival.

It’s not Moe’s. We would eat here when the Tex Mex addiction needed a fix, and we weren’t downtown or in Wake Forest.

Never again.

Our first impression was when we weren’t screamed at when we walked in the door “WELCOME TO CHIPOTLE”. Good thing.

The menu is limited. Very limited. Worrisome thing, but we’ll see.

There’s no queso? Uh oh.

We got burritos, the wife and I steak, oldest son, chicken. Surprisingly, they were very good. It’s all about the options - similar to Moe’s - you tell them how you want it (burrito, tacos, etc.) and what you want on it. That’s pretty much it. You buy chips as a side with your choice of 4 salsas or guacamole. The guacamole was very good.

The bottom line is this. It was good. It’s certainly no Armadillo Grill, but it is better than Moe’s, if for no other reason than they don’t well at you as you walk in. I think the meat used as filling may be better than the ‘Dillo’s, but the total package at the Armadillo Grill, with the phenomenal queso and chips, will keep me loyal to my favorite. For a quick fix, convenient to home, Chipotle will do just fine.

While I try and put together enough time to adequately write of life’s latest developments, I wanted to share this new video from my brother in law’s band The Old Ceremony.  Some folks at Carolina made this.