Road Trip to see Dr. Dog in Albany, NY

NEW (3): Big Top Portable Toilets, Rentals To Go, Royal Flush Portables
REDISCOVERED (2): Stone Industries, Mountain Top Portable Toilets & Septic Service

Cap City. Smallbany. We came into town sometime early afternoon via an Enterprise rental car due to an error on my part. I don't know why, but I could've sworn the Metro-North came up here like ten times daily. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong about that. I come to find only the RAmtrak runs through here, but since they operate on a "bucket pricing" system, you're a grade A chucklehead if you buy a ticket at the eleventh hour. So, the rental turned out to be the optimal choice, especially since an economy car costs $40/day at most with any of the many discounts you can rustle up.

As soon as we got within the city limits, a grave hunger came over us. A quick search put us onto Andy & Sons Importing Co, which was a local Italian specialty store that opened in 1956 and also served food to order. Now if you know anything about these types of joints, and growing up in Chicago I was surrounded by them, they always make the best sandwiches around. I popped into the shop, and that smell all these stores tend to have came over me. It was comforting. I walked up to the counter, and there's a lady ordering in front of me. Let the eavesdropping commence. She requests a pound of the "stuffed banana peppers" with prosciutto & provolone, plus a pound of the "pepper shooters" with imported provolone & prosciutto. I was like damn this chick's not fucking around here, she's not here to fuck around. She's like Bobby Knight. She definitely would've recovered Greg Graham. She grabs a few more miscellaneous items and heads out the door. I follow shortly after with our sandwiches in tow to find her still hanging around puffing on a stonk. I ask about the stuffed peppers and she claims to have walked two miles just to get some. Respect to her and these pisanos for doing it right. You know that sandwich was fantastic.

After checking into the Hilton, we started to cruise around town looking for a place to have an elbow bender and maybe find a local latrine. It didn't take long before we came across our first, [Stone Industries]. It wasn't a new one for the project, but it's the first time I've personally documented this one. I'm a huge fan of the logo, so I wasn't disappointed. Soon after we posted up at C. H. Evans Brewing for a few sodas. They weren't the best I've ever had, but it was happy hour, so for four clams a pop how can one complain? Afterwards, while walking out back through the parking lot we came across our second find, [Big Top Portable Toilets]. A new brand for myself and the project. That always gets my toes tapping.

On a recommendation from a local in the brewery, we started making our way to Jack's Oyster House. On the walk there we came across a building under construction which housed our third find, [Mountain Top Portable Toilets & Septic Service]. Another brand someone submitted to the project in the past, but it was a lifer for me. At the oyster house, we grabbed a dozen mixed bag and a few glasses of vino. It was taking them forever to shuck'em, and after a few rounds of apologies from the waitress, she also brought out some complementary scallops topped with caviar. Now that's class. A few more drinks and it was already time for the reason we came here, Dr. Dog playing at the Empire Live. This would be the first of eight shows we'd see them on their self proclaimed "Last Tour" and they did not disappoint playing Cuckoo, Black/Red, The Pretender and Say Something.

The next morning on the way back to the city, I spotted a whole line of gray potties from the road. We got off at the exit and found our final two brands for the trip [Rentals To Go] & [Royal Flush Portables]. It's always insanely exciting when two new, undocumented brands happen to be right next to each other. I couldn't think of a better way to end a trip, and was on such a high until we hit the George Washington Bridge and remembered I had to pay that outlandish $16 toll.

|PPP|