Portland Roses and a Hobo False Alarm

For our Portland breakfast this morning before breaking camp we walked over to Voodoo Doughnut.

We had a Voodoo Doll which is a "raised yeast doughnut filled with raspberry jelly topped with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stake" and a Memphis Mafia which is "fried dough with banana chunks and cinnamon, topped with glaze, chocolate chips, peanuts, and chocolate and peanut butter drizzle."

Today we discovered why they call Portland Rose City at the Washington Park - International Rose Test Garden.

McMenamins Barley Mill Pub is the first McMenamins location and is full of Grateful Dead artifacts.

Their website:

"The annual Barley Brew is one of those, a most-loved tradition. Each spring Mike, Brian, second-generation McMenamins and a group of employees gather at the Hillsdale Brewery around the anniversary of the opening of the Barley Mill Pub to contribute artifacts and souvenirs to the annual brew. These beers have been “flavored” with such contributions as Lanson Champagne, wine, rum, beer, as well as a Grateful Dead ticket stub, poetry, photos, leaves from our gardens (non-toxic, we promise). Even more so, as songs, toasts and stories fill the air, the brew is flavored with sharing, friendship and a connection with where it all began for us at McMenamins."

Before heading back to Washington we stopped for some gas. I was pumping away, minding my own business, and a scraggly looking man approached. I prickled up a bit as I usually just avoid hobos but I was sort of trapped in place due to the car. He ended up being the gas pumper man. I felt really bad. Oregon is one of those states where you aren't allowed to pump your own gas so I was definitely breaking the law. The guy was pretty chill about it thankfully and I finished up and we left. How awkward.

Japanese Italian Food

I was mostly excited about visiting Japaneses steakhouse Kokkaku in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle because I was craving a steak and the Japanese angle sounded like extra fun.

I was secondarily excited to have dinner here because I noticed that they had this on the menu:

Japanese bagna cauda with Saikyo Miso dipping

Assorted vegetables, radish mix, Saikyo Miso sauce

Bagna Cauda is an Italian dipping sauce made with garlic, butter, and anchovies, introduced to me by my friend Seago from Gillespie, Illinois. I guess it was popular in that area. Anyway I knew that the concept of a Japanese miso pretending to be bagna cauda would trigger him and that would give me maybe even more enjoyment than the food itself. This was really good.

I don't recall what I ordered but I can confirm it was good and meaty.

The war in Ukraine has caused an embargo on Russian oil plus there's some inflation happening and the result is some pretty high gas prices. I'd like to buy an electric car one of these days.

Wordle is the hit craze game that all the cool kids are playing these days. You have so many guesses to figure out a word. Its popularity has spawned a whole bunch of copycats. Semantle is kind of interesting where you guess words and it tells you how related your word is to the secret word.

Moose Doppler Boom

We've laughed a bit about how since we live on the upper left of the country, hemmed in by the ocean, mountains, and Canada, our options for little towns to visit seem to be a great deal lower than they were in the great flat expanse of the midwest.

Today our tourism target was Issaquah, WA.

Issaquah will be recognizable to fans of betrayal, as that is where Costco moved its headquarters after leaving Kirkland. Costco realizes how dumb "Issaquah" sounds and so continues to call their private label "Kirkland Signature" despite that being a dirty dirty lie.

Anyway Issaquah has a lot of old weird vehicles laying around. Probably too lazy to fix them. Sad.

I don't know what it is about them but I like old timey gas stations a whole lot.

Darigold is the Prairie Farms of the PNW. It's a dairy cooperative that makes all the good stuff.

Triple XXX Rootbeer Drive-in was closed but too awesome to not come back for. I've always told people that strip clubs should have rootbeer floats but no one would listen.

I put in a shift at Climate Pledge Arena later that night during a Seattle University basketball game. The highlight of night was when the mascots of Seattle's pro teams all showed up for some clowning.

I'm not sure why the Seahawks have two mascots but Boom is definitely one of them.

The Gas Stations and German Enclaves of Missouri

Decided to mix it up a little and... did some more camping and hiking at Thousand Hills State Park near Kirksville in Adair County. The park features 1,500 year old Native American petroglyphs. We... did not have time to go see them, but I'm convinced that they exist.

Pretended to be admiring the flowers on this button snakeroot when really I was creepin’ on this old guy’s campsite at Long Branch State Park. The area was created when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dammed a river near Macon.

I think this poor bug was trying to lay eggs in some tree bark and was confused that all it was finding was impenetrable brown fiberglass.

There was an old timey Shell station museum thing on the side of the road that I was slightly obsessed with.

Deutschheim State Historic Site in Hermann includes the Pommer-Gentner house, which was built in 1840, when Germans first settled the Missouri River valley that reminded them of home.