Hogue's Top 15 Best Authors List

This past week I did not Travel.  I stayed in the office and caught up on some paper work, did my expense reports, had a doctors appointment, refilled my medication, had a couple conference calls, etc and caught up with my family. 

Since I did not Travel this week, I thought I would do something different.  Because I do a lot of Traveling, most of it by Air (I do go by Train some in Europe, which I enjoy), I get to read a lot of books.  I have a lot of Authors I enjoy and for the most part I can read them faster than they can write them.  A few others that are not on the list that I have enjoyed in the past: Michael Crichton (Dead) "Sphere", "Congo", "Jurassic Park", "Next", Robert Ludlum (Dead) "Jason Bourne Series", Tom Clancy (Stopped Writing) "Clear and Present Danger", "Patriot Games", "Hunt for the Red October", "Red Storm Rising", John Grisham (Latest Books not as good as in Past), "The Firm", "The Painted House", "Rainmaker", "Playing for Pizza".

Here it is my Top 15 Authors.  If you have any I should look at, that you think I may enjoy, please send them.  I enjoy real Horror, supernatural, not slash & cut or the "Fu Fu", girly vampire books that are in vogue now. Those that are Real scary, can't go to sleep at night books.  Detective novels and save the world single handed character books.

1. Stephen King - King of Horror and real spooky Books, especially the books he makes into a series
2. Dean Koontz - Love his Characters and Surreal Stories
3. Randy Wayne White - Greatest Character "Doc Ford" Part Time Gov agent and marine Biologist
4. Vince Flynn - Kick Ass Character "Mitch Rapp"
5. Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - Great Character "Pendergast" Great Stories, he is an unusual FBI Agent
6. Lee Child - Take no Prisoners "Jack Reacher" a loner that works for good
7. Greg Iles - Location Natchez MS not far from Where I grew up. Several characters that show up in different staring roles in each book
8. Stephen R Lawhead - Great Fantasy, Old Scottish stories
9. James Lee Burke - So. Louisiana, The Dave Robicheaux Character
10. Michael Connelly - Harry Bosch & Mickey Haller LAPD Detective and a Lawyer whose Office is in his car, only in LA.
11. Robert McCammon - Boy's Life, Gone South, Swan Song really spooky books. Too bad he doesn't write more
12. Brad Thor - Scot Harvath, may be moving up
13. James Patterson - Love Alex Cross Character and the Maximum Ride books
14. John Sanford - Prey Books and Lucas Davenport. I Have hard time remembering which I have read
15. David Baldacci - Split Second, Total Control, Absolute Power, etc.

In Mexico City, July 12 - 16, 2010

Well here I am back at my Blog. Another week and another trip. I am back in Mexico (Mexico City) to attend a booth show this week. Flew down Monday on USAirways. They have a non-stop flight from Charlotte to Mexico. Before I get involved with this week’s Blog, I want to say I appreciate the words of encouragement from a lot of people on last week’s blog. Thanks.

I did make an error in last week’s blog that was pointed out by a couple of friends from Mexico. I was talking about visiting Durango City, home of “Poncho Villa”. Actually, it is “Pancho” Villa. My apologizes to Pancho, Durango City and Mexicans everywhere. “Poncho” is actually a nickname for Alfonso in Mexico. You learn something every day.

A little word about Mexico City. If you have never been here, you should come just to say you have been. It is a massive city that measures about 100 KM across, has about 25 million people, and is difficult to get anywhere very fast. It has a lot of nice things, such as a decent airport, the rail system is fairly modern but is limited, a lot of history and museums for those interested. My youngest son visited here with a friend about 3 years ago, visited a lot of museums, used the subway and had a great time. For a city this size it severely lacks an adequate freeway system (It probably has less freeway miles than Charlotte). If you drive you will spend most of you time on surface streets in stop and go traffic (more stop than go). The people are very helpful, though. Everyone will give you directions. The guy I work with and does the driving because he is from Mexico, has no problems with flagging down another car and asking for directions. One woman, one time said to him to follow her and we drove about 10 miles to where we wanted to go and then she just waved and said bye and drove off.

Traffic in Mexico City

One thing about Taxis you need to know. Not just in Mexico City but anywhere. In Mexico City airport, when you come out of baggage claim there will be people who will ask if you want a taxi. NEVER take a ride with them. There are booths on your way out of the airport that rent Taxis (several different companies). They will rent you a taxi, charge you the correct amount, and give you a voucher, and point you the way to the taxis. Taxis are relatively inexpensive in Mexico. When in a hotel and in need of a taxi, let the hotel do it. They will get you a reputable taxi and most hotels will charge the taxi to your room and give you a voucher or the cash, so the charge is up front not after the trip.

Taxi you don't want to ride in

We are staying at the Intercontinental Presidente in the Polanco area of Mexico City. The Polanco area is the most upscale area in the city. Beautiful buildings, statues, restaurants and shopping. (I even saw a statue of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King) The street the Hotel is on is Avenida Campos Eliseos. This street has many first rate hotels and is about two blocks from Avenida Presidente Masaryk. This street has many upscale boutiques, shopping areas, and restaurants. Much like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Stores like Gucci, Hugo Boss, Cartier, Tiffany and many others. It has been declared a “Zona Segura” Safe Zone. There will be many security and Police around the area. On the other side of the hotel is a beautiful park (Chapultepec Park) and in the park is Auditorio Nacional. Avery nice place for concerts, etc.

Hotel Intercontinental Presidente

                                                                                                  Avenida Presidente Masaryk

            Auditorio Nacional

The first day I was here we ate at a restaurant about a 5 block walk from the Hotel. Restaurante Asturiano (http://www.restauranteasturiano.com/) serves Spanish food with the service you would expect. I had Garbanzo Bean and Ham soup. It was excellent. My associate had some kind of Seafood soup that looked pretty good. We both sampled Morsilla (Blood Sausage), it was very good.

One of the things we did on Tuesday is go to where the Booth show will be, Centro Banamex. It is an Exhibition Center with a Horse Track on the other side of it. We went there to check out the progress with our booth for the show (People in Europe and almost everywhere else calls it a “Stand” not a Booth.) It was coming along nicely. Hopefully a lot of customers will show up. It is much larger than the same show last year, so maybe get a lot of traffic. (Chinese companies represent about a third of the total floor space at the Show).

We took important customers out to dinner after the show both Wednesday and Thursday night. As is tradition in Mexico, the Show runs from 2:00 pm to 9:00 pm. So our dinner started at 9:30, late for us Americans (very Mexican). The first night of the Show, we had dinner at The Palm Restaurant in the Hotel (Intercontinental Presidente) (http://www.thepalm.com/) The Palm is a chain of restaurants with several in the USA, including Charlotte (Phillips Place). I had a small steak and it was cooked to perfection. I like my steaks medium rare. Because most restaurants will over cook a steak, I try to stress this by saying: ”more rare than medium, bloody”. Most restaurants still will over cook. But this steak was great. Since the service was excellent, I would recommend The Palm. Some of the other people with me had Tuna or Shrimp, all said it was excellent.

The next night (Thursday) we went to an Italian Restaurant, again in the Hotel, Restaurante Alfredo. Service was excellent and the food was good, not excellent. I really like Italian and I have had better, but the atmosphere and the opportunity to dine with our customer really made it a good night.

On Tuesday I had eaten with our company’s credit manager at the Zhen Restaurant in the hotel. Now I love Chinese Food as well and any food I eat. After paying the bill, which included a comment card, the waiter brought the card back and wanted our credit manager to fill it out. I never fill out a comment card. I took it and wrote “Small Portion, Big Bill” and returned it. Not worth the cost.

Now, the reason I am in Mexico is to attend the Booth (Stand) Show. It turned out to be an excellent show with some good contacts made. Wednesday was a little slow but we met a potential customer, that, if we get him, will make the whole show worth the time. He actually came back to our Booth on Thursday and talked some more. We have set up to visit him in a couple weeks when I am back in Mexico. We had a great day on Thursday and am anxious to hear how we did on Friday. I left to go back home on Friday and left the show to be handled by the team. Friday there are few potential customers that come to the show. It is mostly young people picking up posters, give-a-ways and getting pictures taken with the beautiful models. This is one of the really good things about Latin America, The Exhibition shows in Latin America will have lots of beautiful Models that are used to attract attention to the Booth (stand), and this year it was no exception.

Now I am finishing this up on the plane back to Charlotte. We will land about 6:30, which I wish was earlier, but you take what you can with the airlines. Unfortunately, Charlotte does not have the “GOES” System (Global Entry) yet that is available in most Foreign entry airports (Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, LA, Detroit, etc). So I have to stand in line with everyone else. This could take an hour (With the GOES System takes me 10 seconds to get through immigration.) They tell me it will come to Charlotte at the end of the year. (It actually took about 30 minutes to get through Immigration).

During all the activities of the past week I did manage to finish my current book by Dean Koontz, “Relentless” and started a new novel by Michael Connelly, “9 Dragons”, staring one of his continuing characters “Harry Bosch”, a LAPD Homicide Detective. He is a pretty cool guy. (I really do have an exciting life, HAHA)

Next week I will spend the week in my office, a rarity for me, but will be traveling again the next week. Don’t know what I will do on the Blog, but might do something.

Mexico, Leon, Torreon, Durango City - Week of July 6, 2010

This is my 1st posting with my blog (http://travelingwithhogue.blogspot.com). I have to admit, I’m learning, so please excuse the novice approach to this. I hope to give those who care (or don’t) a little bit of what it is like to travel around the world. I hope you will find it as interesting as I find the world outside of the USA very interesting. But don’t think I am not a fan of the USA, it’s just that I don’t travel in the USA, I travel outside the USA.

I am writing this as I am traveling between Durango City (State of Durango) and Torreon (State of Coahuila) in Mexico North West of Mexico City. The terrain is very green because of the recent Hurricane that dumped a lot of water in this area. It is amazing the number of Toll Booths on this road. But I am getting ahead of myself.

On Tuesday July 6, 2010 (Yes, I traveled on the day after the 4th holiday) I flew to Leon (State of Guanajuato). I flew American through DFW and connected to an American Flight to Leon. American has good connections to most Northern Mexico airports and I prefer to fly them because I think they are the best of the American carriers. Made it to Leon on time and, went to see a new customer, visited with him and took him to lunch (lunch in most of Mexico is about 2:00 to 4:00pm). But, here is where it gets interesting (to me anyway). One of the great things about traveling is getting to see what everyone else in the world eats. We went to a very nice Restaurant in Leon, Los Agaves Restaurant. (www.losagavesrestaurant.com.mx). Now “Agave” is a plant (see picture). It is grown to make Tequila, and there is of course a lot of Tequila produced in Mexico. As, I’m sure you know, that in some bottles of Tequila there is a worm in the bottom of the bottle. One of the real delicacies in Mexico is “Gusanos de Maguey” (Worms of the Agave Plant) (see picture) and “Escamoles” (Mexican Caviar or Ant Eggs). I’ve had both and prefer the worms to the eggs. Worms are baked to a crisp and served with soft tacos, guacamole and salsa. Not bad, try them. The Ant Eggs are a kind of dip served with chips. The Restaurant also served very good steaks and the service was very good. I would recommend Los Agaves if you are ever in Leon. Try the worms, you won’t be disappointed. I seldom eat steak outside of USA, because no one has better steak than the USA, no comparison. I will occasionally eat steak in some Latin America countries, but never anywhere else.

After lunch went to one of our new customers customer, a large trucking fleet in Leon, “Castores” (1,300 trucks). Nice fleet. Then to airport.

Just made it to the airport in Leon (Guanajuato) in time to catch my flight to Mexico City (People in Mexico don’t call it Mexico City, they just say Mexico. As in “I’m going to Mexico”, meaning Mexico City). Shouldn’t have worried the fight was about 45 minutes late, which is normal for Mexico air service. Had time to finish my latest Lee Child novel, “Gone Tomorrow”. This is one of the Jack Reacher (the main character) novels I have been reading a lot of lately. Even my wife likes these books where the Hero always wins and don’t take crap off anyone. Of course my wife always reads the last chapter of any book first to see if she wants to read the whole book. Also started a new Dean Koontz book “Relentless”. I have always been a big fan of Dean Koontz. I have read all of his books and eagerly await his new books. He is a very big dog lover which is always a plus. I would like to quote him from this new book in which he quotes Chesterton, “A man and a woman cannot live together without having against each other a kind of everlasting joke. Each has discovered that the other is not only a fool but a great fool.”

Made it to Mexico (ie: Mexico City) by 9:00 pm and checked into the Airport Hilton. The advantage of the Airport Hilton in Mexico is that it is inside the Airport Terminal 1 (You can wake up and walk to your gate). They also provide van shuttle service to Terminal 2 (AeroMexico flies out of T2). If you didn’t do the Van shuttle you would have to walk to the Mono-Rail and wait on it and take a 10 minute ride to T2. Saves about 30 minutes and this is a big deal when your flight out of T2 is leaving a 6:30 am.

Flew to Torreon (State of Coahuila) and met our customer there for Breakfast. I bring this customer up because this is the very 1st customer I met when I started calling on Mexico. I met him in the Airport Hilton in Mexico (Mexico City). He flew there to meet me. (a big reason I like the international side of Business, the customers really like you to call on them. They treat you like an honored guest and most of the time they treat you.) This customer has been with us from the beginning and has continued to increase his purchases with us. He told us that in the next couple months he will be able to give us an order every day.

Torreon is one of those Northern Mexican cities that sport a painted steel monument at the entrance to the city. These monuments are all different but they have to be by the same artist. They are painted Yellow or Red or blue and in different shapes. 5 or 6 of these cities sport these. (Interesting, I must find out more).

We drove west out of Torreon to Durango City (about 2 hours). Durango City is the home of "Poncho Villa", which I thought was a famous Mexican Bandito but actually was a Hero that fought against the Spaniards in the battle for independence. There is a lot of evidence of Poncho Villa in Durango (In Mexico the nickname Poncho is used in place of Francisco, so is Pako, Chuy is used in place of Jesus, Pepe in place of Jose. Don’t know why, just is). Called on a potential customer and had a great meeting. We will find out next week if we will get a significant part of his business. Took him to lunch at the Villa Restaurant (yes named after Poncho) he bought (not Poncho the potential customer). The food was good but the service was bad. I think they were too busy watching the World cup game between Spain and Germany.

Now back to the drive back to Torreon and all the toll booths. Two roads from Durango to Torreon, one is free (libre) the other is toll (cuota). The Mexicans prefer the free road so it is jammed and the toll road is wide open. So we take the toll road and stop and pay tolls every 10 miles. Got back to Torreon where I stayed at the Hampton Inn Airport. The thing with Hampton inn is that they are the same if you stay in Torreon or Gastonia, no different. The only difference is the length of the happy hour. From 2 hours in Torreon to 30 minutes at the Monterrey Airport Hampton Inn.

Flew from Torreon Airport (5 minutes from Hampton) to DFW on American. DFW is such a nice airport. Easy to get around. You can go between terminals so easy, just jump on the “Skylink” and you are there. I don’t understand why anyone would go through Houston to get to Mexico. Houston you can walk for miles between gates, go through several security stations and maybe find a tram to ease part of the trip, but don’t count on it.

Next week I go back to Mexico (Mexico City). We will have a Booth (Stand) at the Automekanika (PAACE) show. Hopefully we will talk to a lot of new Potential customers and some of our current customers.