The Great Northwest Geek-out Begins!

[furtech]

Here's the full Flickr set

Since we were leaving on Labor Day weekend, we took this trip in three legs: the first to just get out of the Bay Area before the big rush-- that took us to Weed, California. Great breakfast at the Hi-Lo Cafe! Stayed at the dog-friendly Motel 6 there.

Second leg was to Portland, OR. Tracy met up with some WoW friends and I got together with two great people I met through cosplay fandom. I got the rundown on PAX and the local anime con, with the conversation ranging widely from there.

The dogs got some romp-time at Tom McCall Riverside Park: Frisbee by streetlight. This is a huge, beautiful park.

I got to test the very low light capabilities of the f200exr: I love it. The pictures of the river (and dogs) were shot without a tripod: just braced on a post. amazing.

Before leaving Portland, we managed to get breakfast at a cafe featured in Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" show. OMG. So bad for you and yet-- so GOOD.

( Go to the Flickr set to see the actual evil food! )

The drive into Seattle was greatly improved by the discovery that Tracy -likes- to drive! I love being a passenger, so that worked! Plus, the Prius loves her driving. She averaged about 50mpg for several hundred miles...as opposed to my below-40mpg. I guess that debunks my theory that my hybrid is faulty.

Just outside of Tacoma, we passed a tractor-trailer rig carrying a jiggling, rolling sacks of some mysterious liquid. If anyone has a clue as to what these might be, I'd LOVE to hear it!

Comments

[merrycalliope.livejournal.com]

Just outside of Tacoma, we passed a tractor-trailer rig carrying a jiggling, rolling sacks of some mysterious liquid. If anyone has a clue as to what these might be, I'd LOVE to hear it!

If it were Los Angeles my guess would be breast implants.



(What a terrible thing to post in the LJ of a person I don't know. My apologies. I just couldn't resist.) ^_^;

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

ROFFLE

I did a quick Google search and couldn't find anything. I bet it's something really horrible, like liquified cow parts or something. D:

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Ironically, that's -exactly- what the fluid moved like. Liquid silicon, milk or dead orca. Creepy.

[snowwolf42.livejournal.com]

I asked at a rest stop once; his had peanut oil. The use of a bladder permits the air to be bled out and the product to have less oxidation during transport. Makes sense.

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

That makes sense.

My guess also would have been some sort of non-flammable lubricant like grease.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

That works! Certainly it moved like a great sack of oil (or giant breast implants as someone suggested). I'll bet he's a very careful driver...

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

That...thing... with the gravy is terrifying. I have no idea how it smelled or if it looked better in person, but the photo looks a lot like a cat hurled on toast. It's amazing unappealing from a visual standpoint.

[martes.livejournal.com]

LOL! If any cat i had barfed that amount, I'd rush them to the vet!

It reminds me of the barf scene from "Team America" for the quanitity.

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that is a rather large volume. But I've seen that much occur if you tried to grab the cat and toss it outside and failed. Cat barf from 3-4' up does that. Or they barfed off a counter. @#$%^& cat.

One of our now-deceased cats used to have a distinctive "I'm about to hurl" yowl that it only used when it was about to have a hairball. So that one was at least easy to hustle into the yard quickly.

This is why we can't have anything good!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Of course it would be you two thinking it looks like cat barf. And then turning it into a lively discussion about the endless variety of cat vomit.

OMG, it was good. I'm no biscuits-and-gravy fan, but these were an entire meal of themselves. The sandwich is -nothing- I would normally order, but it was one of the best things I've ever eaten!

Re: This is why we can't have anything good!

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

Biscuits and gravy can be fabulous if it's made fresh. but there's just something about the color and texture of that that's just... urgh.

Maybe the smell in person was enough to overcome the appearance.

[aeto.livejournal.com]

I'm on-call this weekend, which means I can go out but need to stay close to network access... That means no sailing, hiking, etc... If you're around and would like to grab dinner or similar, let me know.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Cool-- what's a good day for you? I'll email you!

[tori04.livejournal.com]

I think it is filled with blood. Lots and lots of blood.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I am surprised I didn't think of that...

Con suite snax for a vampire convention?

Oooo...the more I think of it, the more creeped out I am because -blood- is the perfect answer...

[swirling-chaos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, biscuits and gravy always looks funky no matter how you serve it but it is pretty darn good. :9

And haha, the breast implants comment gave me a good chuckle.

ROFLMAO!!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

I jes' can't fathom it! I've never seen the need for liquid to be transported in giant pillows!

[vulpesrex.livejournal.com]

1) Weed is a nice town; a family friend, recently departed, owned the Greyhound Bus station in town, and did the Western Union business both there and in Mt. Shasta. Guy Marschner loved food, guns, airplanes, and America, not necessarily in that order, also had a small ranch just west of College of the Siskiyous - with a beautiful panorama across meadow and cattle pasture, with a view Mt Shasta to the East, the most glorious sunsets I've seen have been spent looking at that mountain in winter, as the last evening sunlight turns it orange, then pink, then scarlett...Guy looked almost like a stereotypical french country peasant, with his moustache and dark eyes and round shape, only lacking a beret. He was a WWII veteran, with a limp and respiratory problems from internal injuries sustained, according to my father, by a "friendly fire" artillery barrage, so Guy was always travelling to a VA hospital for quarterly or bi-annual treatments. What I didn't learn until later was that Guy wasn't in the US Army per se...but was with the OSS. He was a "Jedburg", an agent dropped behind German Lines to help train and equip Maquis units of French Partisan fighters - the "Underground" - and had, after successfully directing sabotage missions, had a price on his head, and was eventually captured/betrayed, and turned over to the gentle mercies of the Gestapo, and _there_ acquired the injuries which would plague him for the rest of his life. This explained a great deal, in the connections and influence which Guy had within the government.

2) When people in Yreka speak of eating at "Wally's place", they are referring to a restaurant on the Business Loop called "Wah-Lee's", it's what passes for the best chinese reataurant in town. It's where the locals take out-of-town guests for a grand dinner. North of Town there is a rest-stop by the Klamath River, before you get into the Siskiyou Mountains proper, which always struck me as a good rest-stop for dogs, just keep them out of the river, because the water is swift and cold.

3) Did you notice the big metal Bull as you drove north, up the sloping pasture, by the highway?

4) All through northern California and Oregon, a "Trucker's Breakfast" includes biscuits and thick, cracked-pepper white (or pork) gravy, liberally mixed with crumbled bits of sausage patty, dolloped over a split, open-faced biscuit; it is the rural answer to chipped-beef on toast (or for ex-service types, "SOS" or "Shit on a Shingle"), disgusting to look at but quite tasty. Shiitake Mushrooms in the gravy, though, is just a bit too "yuppy" for rural California, though; usually accompanied by "Home Fries" or "Cottage Fries", as opposed to plain old hash-browned potatoes.

5) As was mentioned above, some fluid cargoes which can degrade through oxidation or through being "churned" or "frothed" in a stainless-steel tank, are best transported by airless bladder; would you believe that truck could have been carrying industrial quantities of Glycerin or Hand soap, or even hair shampoo? Liquid Prell, anybody? And as such liquids are quite thick and dense, they could, in a tanker, become a tipping hazard as they raise the center of gravity of the trailer; the bladders sit lower, and make the whole vehicle more stable.