First, let me start by saying I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I know that times are tough for many people these days but I hope that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy some quality time with their families. Since my brother is on the Bengals, my family is coming to town and we’re going to have Thanksgiving dinner here in Cincinnati.

Second, thanks to JSprague24 and Yukon for your comments on my last post. It makes it much easier to write when I know people are interested. I think after JSprague24’s comments a trip to the Caribbean might be in order. As for Yukon, thanks for the hunting recommendation. I’ve actually been hunting quite a bit over the past year and it’s been a great way for me to relax. If you ever make it out this way, Waynesville, Ohio is a great place to go. The Game Warden, Alan Wright has hooked me up with some great farms to hunt. Here is a picture of some land that I hunted on a few weeks ago. For all the pros out there, I love to hunt with my Mathews bow.

While on the subject of hunting, one thing that I think surprises a lot of people is that there are a bunch of athletes that like to hunt. I learned last year that Joe Jurevicius (Cleveland Browns, WR) and John Howell (ex-Tampa Bay Buc, S) love it so much that they own about 60,000 acres of land in Nebraska. They have a nice hunting lodge and you can hunt elk, bison and deer. I haven’t been out there yet but it’s an experience I look forward to one of these days. If you’re interested check out this link. Joe once told me that one time he was big game hunting in Africa and he got charged by a huge black rhino. He said it was like a Chevy Tahoe driving full speed at him. Fortunately, he used his football skills to get away. That’s probably part of the reason why my wife hasn’t okayed a big game hunting trip for me just yet!

Dikmench7 asked a good question last time about how close we players are to each other. Truth be told, we’re really close, even though we might not be on the same team – see pic above of Oscar Lua (New England Patriots), Keary Colbert (Carolina Panthers), Frostee Rucker (Cincinnati Bengals), me, and DeShaun Foster (San Francisco). At the end of the day, we might not like the other team we’re playing and we want to win as much as we can but we are, when it comes down to it, playing a game. When players get hurt or something bad happens on or off the field, we all put ourselves in that person’s shoes and realize that it could have easily happened to us. Football is a great game that brings people from all walks of life together and I appreciate that about it. Each and every one of us has been booed, cheered, injured, challenged and the common thread we have is football. I’ve made great friends on the Bengals and across the league and I’m very fortunate for that.

Plus, as with most competitive businesses you have a mutual respect for your competition. I respect and admire the way Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and countless others play the game. I still want to beat them when we play but I can appreciate a throw or catch or hit when I see it. For example, when my former Trojan teammate Matt Cassel threw that TD pass with :03 seconds left, I was completely fired up for him. It was one of the best passes I’ve seen thrown in a long time. And I think the mutual respect is a feeling that most guys share around the league.

Lastly, to answer pcary’s comment about sharing rooms on the road, I am fortunate (as I think most Qbs are) and have my own room. To be honest, I’m not much fun the night before the game because I’m trying to get my last minute prep time in and I study at all hours. As such, the Bengals let me have my own room.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and I look forward to any comments you have. Keep them coming!

Safe travels!

Carson

Carson Palmer is the Quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals and a frequent Delta flier.

The best part of being a travel writer is—duh!—the travel, of course. Followed closely by all the fabulous food you get to wolf down in exotic locales. During my various peregrinations, I’ve eaten everything from guinea pigs roasted by Peruvian Incas to “grasshoppers of the sea” in Slovenia.

Then there’s the coffee. I guess you could say I’m coffee-obsessed. For proof, check out the November issue of Sky, which is all about coffee, front to back.

Which brings me to the photograph of my Illy X1 Francis Francis espresso machine. Instead of using prepackaged pods like so many new espresso machines do, my Illy accommodates freshly ground coffee, which prompts colleagues to bring presents of coffee back from their far-flung treks. Check out the labels on the shelves behind the machine. Sometimes while I’m waiting for the machine to warm up, I find myself just reading the exotic names out loud: Kopi Kampung from Sulawesi, Indonesia; Cafe Molido from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Espresso Regalo, from the Yergacheffe region of Ethiopia; Costa Rican Orgánico Bajo Sombra, Café Grano Entero; Tchoupitoulas Blend from good ol’ New Orleans. I frankly can’t think of anything we eat or drink that’s as global—or as easily accessible—as java.

Favorites? Café Alta Gracia, grown in the Dominican Republic on Julia Alvarez’s plantation. Raven’s Brew Coffee, which hails from the rainiest inhabited place in North America: Ketchikan, Alaska. For a longer list, see the tasting I attended with Theodore Erski, a Chicago prof who uses coffee to teach geography in his classroom.

The most interesting coffee I’ve ever had? That would be Indonesian Kopi Luwak, which you may have read about. The beans have had the advantage of “curing” in the digestive track of a civet cat, which is more closely related to a mongoose than a house cat. The animal eats the beans, and nature takes its course. The beans are then gathered from the forest floor, cleaned and roasted.

What did it taste like? On the front of the palate, it had a dusty note, like some African coffees—maybe more earthy, as you might expect, than dusty. I’m almost certain from its bitterness that the beans were robusta instead of arabica. But as it hit the back palate, there was a je ne sais quoi (but maybe I do)—a bitter/sour aftertaste that was definitely a little beyond funky. About a half-dozen people tried it. One taster, who’s really got good taste buds, said after long deliberation and smacking of her lips and gargling that its taste reminded her of “decay.” I and others could see instantly what she meant. Though not complex, Kopi Luwak is, if nothing else, distinctive. I’m glad to have tried it, but—at a whopping $150 or more per pound—probably won’t buy a whole lot more.

What’s the most interesting coffee you’ve had? Will you be enjoying a cup this Thanksgiving?

David
Delta Sky

Continuing our commitment to New York City, we announced today that Delta will become the Official Airline of the New York Yankees beginning in 2009. See full article here.

Would you visit our Sky360 Suite at Yankee Stadium? After seeing mockups of the Suite and of the view from behind home plate you may start planning your next trip to NYC!

Katie
Delta Blog