UMTravels

Today’s chore is getting the Grom Audio box installed in the Miata. The what? It’s a box that plugs into the multi-CD player jack on the back of the head unit (that thing in your dash with all the knobs on it). Why? I will allow me to connect:

• iPhone/iPad/iPod – both charging and playlist control
• USB devices like memory sticks – and control the playlist
• Auxiliary Input devices like MP3 players (no play list control)

What’s it look like?

Basically it’s 3″x3″x1″ and stashes behind the dash and then you can run wires where you want them – like in the back glove box on the Miata.

But talk about a pain to get the head unit out… 2+ hours and even more surfing for instructions.

Yes, that large tin box goes back in the dash. I’ve tried it with but the AUX source and the USB source and it works great. With the USB you can switch between 6 different playlists and go forward and back in the selection of songs in each playlist. Can’t wait to give it the big tryout on the road trip next week.

Steaks on the grill with Swanda tonight – and a computer fix session.

And once again, the weather is psycho – rain in the morning, blazing in the afternoon.

[229.1]

I tried to get up early.

I failed. That bed is WAY too comfortable. Why get up? That’s right – bladder call.

It really is life on the farm. Chasing down recently hatched chicks (no me, but the neighbor grandchildren visiting were the heroes), ten pounds of blueberries harvested in the hot sun, breakfast on the deck with farm fresh eggs, bread from the bakery, organic chicken sausages from the island (put in the category of turkey bacon, tofu bacon, and any other non-pork breakfast product).

Post-breakfast reading on the couch because it’s so HOT on the deck, even under the umbrella, which leads to the pos- breakfast, post-reading, nap. Yes, mister travel freak out guy is napping on a day he has a date with a non-refundable ticket.

Out of the house one-ish for the 1:50 ferry back to Vancouver Island – yes, the boys are driving me back to Victoria because one of their neighbors is flying into the Victoria airport around the same time. Should I offer my $2.50 Canadian for gas?

Ferry was fun. More pretty boys. Here is the stroller bar for the trip:

Got to the Clipper terminal a little after three and decided to see if I could catch the 5:30pm ferry rather than the 7:30pm ferry. $10 please. Off to the restaurant at the Days Inn on the Harbour to mail postcards and have some fish and chips before loading.

It was nice to get in at 8:30 rather than 10:30 – meant I could stop at Swandas for a package, which turned out to be a package, and drinks with Swanda and Wonderful, and much chatting – by the time I got home, it was well after 10:30.

Get home, start the ice machine, make a sandwich, catch up on email, listen to TV (cause I’m busy with other stuff), and go to bed.

Tomorrow is another day. There is some rumor of me using the other Clipper Groupon to come during Salt Spring’s Gay Pride Parade.

I did Eureka/Arcata’s parade, complete with Humboldt State marching band. Why not Salt Spring Island.

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Crowdog is up at 5.

RobinHood is up at 6.

UncleMarkie is looking for coffee around 9, and waiting for the second breakfast of the household day, we will call that “brunch”. Thank goodness I have tolerant hosts – it also allows them to the garden watering out of the way early.

My lovely hosts, who don’t really know that I’d just be happy parking myself on the lawn or in the garden with a book and an umbrella listening to the chickens and the blueberries ripening… suggest a hike (queue “roll of eyes”) and then settle into another plan.

• Shopping for groceries and booze after a stop a Valhalla Cabins to visit some of the other faeries on the island (not home, but groceries and Plymouth Gin)
• Internet (Wi-Fi, both RobinHood and I had our laptops) and sandwiches at TJ Beans
• Thrift store shopping (me, while they were still logged on)
• Pretty hippy boy watching (think the San Juan’s in Washington State)
• Winery number 1: Mistaken Identity. Got a recipe for a non-tomato-based pizza (and the recipe for the dough) that is roasted fennel root, Italian sausage and smoke Gouda cheese. I’ll try it an pass it on if it’s good.
• Skinny dipping at one of the lakes – too bad the cute 20 something’s looking for free camping (but swum in their underwear) were leaving as we got there
• Winery number 2: Salt Spring Vineyards
• Winery number 3: Gerry Oaks Winery (for sale, owner consultation for 2-3 years included)
• Cheesery: Salt Spring Cheese – apparently they know everyone on the island.
• Bakery (Salt Spring Baking Company) with a 270 degree view (CrowDog works there for extra change)

Home for dinner with a couple of boys I last met in Yelapa which is on accessible by a boat (theme?) south of Puerto Vallarta (who run the Valhalla Sleeping Units). Wings, lamb, fresh salad and vegetables from the garden, chatting into the night, many spilled drinks….and many references to Bacchus.

Once again, to bed late. But oh, what a comfortable bed it is – I feel like I have landed in the lap of luxury rather and a rural farm.

No wonder I sleep late.

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Up at 5 and was at the Victoria Clipper for check-in before they were even open. And the coffee shop that was next door was closed until further notice. Bummer. That means a Clipper breakfast basket. At least that means I don’t pay for the cranberry juice to go with the champagne.

Being one of the first people through customs put me on the 11:05 bus from Government and Superior (3-4 blocks from the Clipper terminal in Victoria) to Swartz Bay. An hour an a quarter later if bought my ticket for the Salt Spring Island Fulford Harbour run — with enough time to get a little lunch from the cafe in the parking lot — good thing as the ferry has no services on it.

By 1:30pm I’m on Salt Spring Island — very much like the terminals on the San Juan Island, especially the Friday Harbor one. One small hitch… nobody to pick me up. Finding one bar of service I call and leave a message. A half hour after the next ferry arrived, call and leave another message. Luckily the eye candy around the ferry is amusing, and I finish reading a book.

After getting a Chai, I go out to hang around and wait for the next ferry to come in, and I wander into the “one-bar” zone — and I get a voicemail ding. The boys were late getting back from the mainland at the northern ferry terminal — call to confirm which terminal you are at. The joys of island life when you depend on ferries on a three day weekend (BC Day is today).

All is good — we are back at their place in time for cocktail hour followed by steaks on the grill and fresh potatoes and snap peas from the garden (and the steaks were from the island).

CrowDog is the early to bed early to rise type, so RobinHood and I spend the night trying to time-date the house. My guess is 40’s because of the lathe and plaster and the inlaid oak floors, but then turned into a mid-century with the swingers fireplace, new flat doors, recessed curtain areas, etc. What initially threw me off was the floors — but in a mid-century those would have been covered with wall-to-wall carpeting.

Pictures when I get back to the land of high-speed zeros and ones — the boys are on dial-up, and not by choice. The joys of island living… and there is only one-bar of service in the valley as well.

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It was a late night of shooting the shit with Julian which means we didn’t get out the door for breakfast until 11:30 – or would that be lunch?

The drive back was grueling at points – apparently there is 10% more traffic on summer Sundays along the I-5 corridor. I felt it. Many, many bozos smacking their cars into each other and stalling traffic (three multiple car collisions). News from later in the afternoon was that traffic was stop and go from Lacey to Tukwila – that’s like40+ miles. Yikes. I might have made better time if I hadn’t stopped in Lacey for a Safeway meat run (and dinner supplies).

And a thank you to Pat in Berkeley who forwarded this tidbit from Edinburgh about aerial dining:

Click on the picture to the link to the article. I’m guessing that my version is much cheaper to implement.

Packing for Canadaland in the morning because of a $58 roundtrip coupon on Groupon.

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Out of the house at 9:30am — apparently with the rest of the state as well — every rest stop jammed and lines at the loo.

BBQ lunch with Julian at the Big Kahuna BBQ in St. Johns, then back to his place to watch the 30’s black and white version of Scarface — a pre-code extravagance of gratuitous violence.

For your amusement since we know lots of you don’t stay up that late, we have Neil Patrick Harris’ performance earlier this week on the Late Late Show… it left me howling. Sorry it’s in two parts.

Tonight was a deck party and BBQ in Portland — lots of faeries, lots of fun. But really, BBQ twice in one day? Too bad the FishWife wasn’t open, that was the original plan for lunch.

Late evening bullshit and wine session with Julian.

[227.6]

OK – I’m starting to get annoyed.

In the morning it’s long pants and shirt – because it’s overcast and cool.

By noon the temperature spikes and it’s shorts, t-shirts and flipflops.

Enough. Make up your mind.

Just a day of running around with the top down (and the heat on in the morning) topped off with dinner in the air-conditioned comfort of SwandaVille.

[225.7]

So – I know that those two sound like they go together, but the Cleaning portion of the headline was my teeth – and old fashioned feed me the nitrous and scrape the hell out of them. I prefer that to taking out the water jack hammer and going after my gums. My favorite memory of a teeth cleaning (if that is such a thing) would be around Christmas time in Vic’s office on Capital Hill and he had a vacation substitute hygienist in – in her words “making a little extra Christmas present money”. She was seriously old school – notes on the chart were nitrous, then numb the gums, then the jack hammer. She looked at the situation, said, it’s not that bad, we settled on just the nitrous and she went to work – sharpening the scraper after every ten or so scrapes – if they ALL did that, they wouldn’t need the water jack hammer. Me thinks modern hygienists have gotten a tad lazy.

But I digress – organizing. After the dentist it was Swedish Meatballs with a side of Mac and Cheese. OK – not the most healthy meal, but I’ve been to the dentist and deserve some sort of treat. Which means I was at IKEA. The result (after much swearing because of the heat and my lack of coordination) was a new bookshelf for the office which cleaned all the books off the coffee table (and from under it),

First photo, new bookshelf, almost filled already, second photo(back of my office door) – top, Alaska Air route map, next, WorldMark locations with US map hanging over poster, next, first class airfare to all Alaska cities, what the $99 companion fare yields price per, and the mileage, then the Amtrak route map. I am a travel geek, I admit it.

Blowing my nose all night from the dust I’ve kicked up.

[225.6]

So I caught this lovely version of the 737 I’d like to have for my personal transport:

Wow – a 737 with SideWinder Heat Seeking missiles on it – that’s for me! Actually it’s for the Indian (sub-continent) Navy. Personally, I’d go for the winglets which give you a 20% improvement on MPG.

So, the problem with the Miata? A gas cap that there was a manufacturers bulletin for. My old mechanic and now the owner of the Quillayute River Resort wasn’t impressed with that the boys at BMW couldn’t figure that out and had to waste a day sending it to University Mazda. If I had a regular 9-5 job I’d be much more upset, than what I am, which is amused.

Most of today fixing little things around the house like crawling on the roof, again, to align the antenna. Started to get closer to the laundry/bar room shelves… at 33.5 wide I need to figure out how 32″ wide will work so I can get three shelves out of a 4×8 sheet of cabinet grade plywood.

Oh, and I booked another trip – Santa Fe for Christmas. Flying to ABQ on the 20^th ($5), staying at the Hampton Suites for a “Southwest Special” rate of 50% off for a one night stay ($70), then catching the Rail Runner to Santa Fe mid-day the next ($?), returning home on Amtrak in a roomette ($535) on the 26^th. Time with the family, time with myself.

Dinner tonight was an amusing use of leftovers… the grilled rockfish from a couple of nights ago, flake it, add and egg, ad a handful of the Ritz crackers Fluffernutter brought as an appetizer, mix together, toss in the fridge for a bit to bind, form into patties and lightly fry, use the same pan to wilt some spinach and there you have it. I should have plated it on the yellow dinner plates, would have looked nicer.

Dentist tomorrow. Big fun. Nitrous.

[226.0]

Miata out of the shop in the morning. All fixed and pretty, but missing it’s air freshener. Will talk to TinTin about that.

Spent the afternoon straightening up the place – too bad the maid doesn’t come until tomorrow, but maybe that’s a plus – doing a heavy clean AFTER a dinner party.

A big dinner party tonight, well, big for me these days is anything over four people and this was five people. Fluffernutter, TinTin, Slomo Jen, her friend in town for an interview, and, well, me. Mixed grill on the grill.

After dinner fun with the scissor lift. I really need to get that pad poured and the platform built. Guess I should talk to the maid in the morning and get the concrete pad scheduled. Big fun.

[228.0]

Today is all about trip planning. Finished the route for the Bliss trip now that Boise is out. Now Pendelton (for the mill tour) and then on to Maryhill (and Stonehendge)”

Oh how I had actually having to use the phone to make reservations. I’ll hold my nose and dial. Luckily, it was easier than I’d thought – just the time on wait. Used one of my Groupon’s to get to Victoria next Monday. So that trip will be, early Clipper to Vancouver island ($59) walk to the backside of the Empress, catch the number 72 or 73 to Swartz Bay ($2.50), catch the Fulford Harbor run to Saltspring Island ($9.60 walk-on). Total transportation bill, $75. Not bad for call the distance.

So, here are the trips that the details are finished on:

• Saltspring Island 8-2 to 8-4
• Walla Walla, McCall, Pendleton, Maryhill 8-9 to 8-12
• Germany (Frankfurt and Berlin) 8-16 to 8-30
• Berkeley and Santa Cruz 9-4 to 9-8
• Birthday cruise to the Eastern Caribbean 9-23 to 10-5
• St. Louis (mileage run) 10-16

Things still in need of detail work:

• Portland 7-31 to 8-1
• Victoria 9-13 to 9-14 (approximately, could ad days on either side)
• Thanksgiving at Whistler 11-24 to 11-28

WOW, no wonder I have no time for clients. Thank goodness all of these are inexpensive trips.

DancingBear and rockfish on the grill for dinner with a little bread and salad on the side.

No news on the car… BMW for another day.

[227.4]

If anyone can remember what I did on Sunday other than waking up in Olympia, let me know. Sunday’s post was lost in the ether with a server upgrade. At least I was able to recover Monday. Is that what they mean by blacking out?

[226.6]

Nothing like waking up in a strange bed. At least I’m alone and I know whose bed it is.

After last night’s festivities I slept in to almost 11. Jimmy was back home and had watered the entire garden and was in the shower by the time I came out of the fog. It would have been more effective to start the coffee grinder. Same effect.

I have one duty to take care of today – make a rosemary challah for dinner at Curts. I failed. I forgot the rosemary. Still turned out well – the dinner roll style – a center bun and 7 buns around it (basically cut the dough into eight pieces and form).

The commute to Olympia was stalled by a mid-sixties Ford plowed into the hillside median strip. I got off to get gas and meat at Safeway.

Got to Curts at about 5:30 just in time for cocktails.

Dinner tonight has two former councilmen for Olympia. One is Curt and one is the guy that bought my house in Olympia a couple of years ago and was forced out of politics by spurned “friend” who wore a wire in a $20 pot buy between “friends” of medical marijuana (neither had prescriptions). My experience of the council in Olympia is that they would be much happier if they were paid $100,000 a year like the same size town outside of LA that is in the news now. Less gender harassment complaints, more bank deposits. A top administrator making $750K a year and guaranteed a $650K for life if he retires – no wonder the residents are outraged.

But enough about politics – it was about the food. Crab cakes for the appetizers, cold beet soup, a metzo of jicama fries (cold, not deep fried) and hummus, then high-heat roasted asparagus and bell peppers and a salmon steak with a spice paint (who the hell knows what that is).

Lovely evening in Olympia.

[226.6]

Nothing like having breakfast at the dealership… well, not really, just a pastry and a can of Diet Coke to tide me over until I could get to Uwajimaya for a proper sushi brunch.

I hadn’t even finished the Wall Street Journal (but made quick work of the sushi) when the dealership called. Same problem. They can’t fix it. They are shipping it over to the Mazda dealership (I assume another Lithia subsidiary). Won’t be back until Monday afternoon at the earliest. Do I want a loaner car. Duh – I’ve got plans for the weekend.

Walked back to the dealership, finished the WSJ while they did paperwork for the loaner. And what a loaner it is:

It would be a 2010 BMW 125i with 6500 miles on it – Kelly Book value? $30K – almost twice the book value of the car they are fixing. Nice. Maybe I should have held out for a convertible since the weather is supposed to be nice this weekend.

The evening was consumed with Patsy’s 50^th B-Day party, which the invitation (in part) read: No gifts. No kids. Bring a bottle to share. Lovely sentiment and lots of people I hadn’t seen since their wedding 12 years ago, and other friends that it has been far too long since I’ve seen (like at least a year and a half – my Jaguar phase).

Tons of good food (thanks Jimmy and Suze), dancing, and surprise guests from Vermont Alec and Lindsday.

Luckily I was staying just down the hill at Jimmie’s place.

[226.8]

Not much to report here. A day spent taking care of little bits of this and that.

• Made an appointment to take the car BACK in for the warning light issue
• Made payments on all the outstanding bills and then did my quarterly taxes
• Made a batch of little buns as a test run and shared them with my neighbor Missy
• Made a dinner of chicken and kashmiri palak paner (a spinach based dish)
• Made some more decisions about the road trip the second week of August – like staying in downtown Walla Walla on the way to McCall, Idaho and an overnight in Boise with Bliss’ friends on the way back

Today humorous moment — noticing that there is an extra $10,000 in your checking account because your brokerage house transferred sale proceeds twice. I’m guessing that they will discover their mistake, but I’ll leave it in there gathering interest in the meantime.

[226.2]

Up and out of the house early – off to the BMW dealer to see what the hell is up with the “Check Engine” light on the new toy. Decided to just drop in and see how quickly they could make me a satisfied customer. The answer is an hour and a half. For dropping in unannounced – stunning. And I got the car washed out of the deal as well! I spent the time having brunch and reading the paper at the apartment, which is a couple of blocks away.

Next up was Office Max for black toner for the color laser printer, and then to Dick’s Restaurant Supply for no particular reason other than to see what’s in their used section.

I’m going to try a run of challah as tiny little buns. The metal things are dangerous looking skewers for the grill, and the creamer go with a tea-pot that I got from the UW last year:

Moving onto dinner, I just heard this phrase, Tropical Depression – what, they ran out of coconut flavored rum?

But speaking of coconut, that was the theme for tonight’s dinner with Bliss. Pina Colada’s as cocktails, Coconut encrusted shrimps as an appetizer, and a Thai coconut chicken and vegetable stir-fry over a rice/grain medley, with some spicy green beans on the side.

It was good to see him again – with his teaching schedule during the year I don’t get to see too much of him. The after dinner conversation centered on a quickie road trip the second week of August, which is the only time we both have available.

Time will tell.

[228.0]

Sometimes it’s about the journey rather than the destination – actually for me, it’s mostly that these days.

I couldn’t take another night in the broken down motel with its encrypted slow wi-fi (password chipmunk to all those late night visitors). Remind me to file my TripAdvisor review.

Got outta the dump 9:30ish, after an ice and postcard at the nice Whistling Jacks up the road (they were full – roadster road rally – saw some of them in Rainier later in the day), and to camp while there was still some breakfast in the warming tray (yeah for Sterno) and Lulu Latte was still making decent coffee (Swanda did not approve of the coffee at the restaurant at the dump – probably would have been better with the Tully’s packets in the room – damn, I should have taken those!).

Hung out around camp for a couple of hours reading the New Yorker, and finally packed it in. Next time I’ll just bring my bag and pad and rough it in the lodge, giving me the flexibility to come/go. Packed the car and headed back to Seattle the long way home – through the major portion of Mount Rainier National Park – it was a beautiful sunny day for a drive through the mountains. It really is the journey.

Got some nice shots of the mountain from turn-outs, had a sandwich and posted cards at Longmire, got home at 5pm – here are the photos:

Oh, and there are more pig shots in there.

Quick defrosted a filet mignon to go with some salad, popped a bottle of the Tempranillo that I now have most of a case of from the aborted trip, and settled in for the evening.

Oh, and Swanda bailed on night number two as well. Seems the feeling was mutual.

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It is never a good day when you have spent the previous packing the trunk only to have the Check Engine light come on it the morning – too much time with the trunk open, low battery, low fluids – it’s not like the old days then that light said – “stop the car right now or it’s going to blow up”.

Mind you, this is the NEW car (well, new to me).

I checked the fluids and off we go. I have charcoal to deliver. There is a pig to roast.

Got out of the house a little after 10:30, and was on the mountain with the charcoal around 1. Beautiful day for a drive… why is it that people on scenic routes driver 20 mph UNDER the speed limit. Hey, pull off, look at the view. I’ve got a pig going onto the grill, get out of my way. I was doing the speed limit, but constantly bumping up against the “gawkers”. Get a National Parks Pass – you can do it every weekend that way.

The pig (before):

The pig (after):

Please notice the strategically placed Italian sausage to change the gender of the pig. Pig on at 2, dinner at 7, too many chefs in the kitchen, good, but not stunning. In my opinion, one should add coal strategically, not a bag at a time. Swanda and I out of there at 9ish to head to the “motel”.

Motel is in quotes because… well, motel? Campground? Brothel? Flop House? Not sure – I’ll report tomorrow morning. Freaky neighbors in a 5^th wheel who think their children are going to be snatched at any moment. The promised wi-fi – oh, well if you can’t get it in your cabin, come to the restaurant, you don’t have to even buy coffee… it’s 10PM, restaurant closed and I’m not going to sit on the steps and hope they haven’t turned it off for the night. No cable – the company stopped providing – hello satellite… but they do provide “family friendly” DVDs – assuming you show up before 8pm when their office closes. Thank you Swanda for stopping at the “motel” before heading to the ridge.

We will see if I actually make the second night of the “Ridge”. If we were talking about the Ridge Vineyard, it would be a yes.

[227.4]

It seemed that today was mostly about getting caught up on email, blogs, and letter writing – and planning for a two-night trip to the woods.

The plan is to take the long way home – through Mt. Rainier National Park so I can use my pass again. $15 more of value out of the $80 card – that brings the total to $63 of use.

So, what’s in the trunk so far:

• 22 lb. of charcoal
• Lighter fluid
• Gallon of water
• 2 water bottles – prefilled
• 2 camp chairs (one supersize)
• A 12-pack of seltzer
• 40+ CDs
• A case (12 bottles) of temprenilo (spanish red wine)

What is to come into the car tomorrow:

• Overnight bag
• Computer bag
• And in the passenger foot well, a soft side cooler with a twelve pack of Diet Coke, all sorts of breakfast meats, ices, glasses, corkscrew

Drinks and dinner tonight at Swanda’s place in the city – working over the last bit of details for the upcoming funeral and wake – for a pig on a spit.

[227.4]

Got out of the condo at 10am with the boys still sleeping or at least locked in the bedroom.

As you head south to the border, there is a sign just north of the border that tells you expected wait times at the Peace Arch crossing, or the Truck crossing to the east. Sign listed the truck crossing at 90 minutes, and the Peace Arch crossing “No Data”. No Data as in, it was backed up all the way to the exit for the truck crossing, which is like a mile away. Needless to say I took the truck crossing.

Thank goodness for the Nexus card. 90 minutes for everyone without one, more like 10 for me. It was such a cluster F at the border that there was a LINE to get into duty free – I passed. So much for cheap booze this trip. And I’d never seen this before – they snaked the Nexus line through and around and put us through two of the three truck stalls (which took two officers since cars are much lower, as is the card reader – all set up for trucks). There were about ten busses in the bus turnaround (where they take you off and run you through customs like at the airport), and ten more in line to get in. I have never seen that many people trying to get across the border, even during the Olympics.

Stopped in the north end to have a beer and a chat with Josh (and pick up $$$ for his domain renewal) before heading home.

My suitcase was still on the walk when Mick arrived unannounced – he had just dropped someone at the airport and swung by to see if I was around. That turned into a ride in the new (to me) Miata to the store for dinner supplies and more whiskey since he loves his Old Fashions. We got enough for three people – then we just had to round up the third.

The third turned out to be Wonderful. While I was showing him the car we got into a conversation with MaryAnn (no relation to Ginger who gave me the test drive in the 350Z) and it turns out she is going on a Caravan Tour with her friend in a couple of weeks. It’s the Mount Rushmore to Yellowstone tour. She is also interested in the Copper Canyon and Panama tour – I’ll have to print some shots from my trips with Caravan.

But I digress – dinner. Tri-tip on the grill, baked potatoes, cole slaw – damn fine for al fresco dining.

And then for some reason we got into trimming the front rose bush of all the dead canes, and when the boys left I started attacking the Empress tree and taking off its lower branches to give the Madrona more light.

The Madrona is the one on the left. The Empress to the right — connected by a yellow cargo restraint to try and straighten the Madrona up to keep it from the walkway.

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