2010.09.19
Posted in Food, House and Home at 5:49 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
… I should have brought back better weather. And some lemongrass as you’ll see in a moment.
Less than a week ago I was enjoying 42C and sunshine in Palm Springs, and now I’m home to single-digit temperatures and rain. I guess autumn arrived while I was gone. At least the trees still have their leaves here.
And given the weather I decided it was time to make a good soup for supper, so while I was grocery shopping I picked up most of the things I needed for a nice lemongrass and salmon soup, except for the lemongrass and ginger (both of which the store was sold out of). No big deal, other stores were bound to have it.
I went to a total of four grocery stores. Of the four, only two had root ginger (and in one of the stores it was going moldy). None of the four had any lemongrass. Including the ones where they have it every time I look. I’m not sure why, but nobody seems to have lemongrass in Calgary.
So I made the soup without lemongrass, substituting some lemon juice and additional onions and ginger. The flavour isn’t quite the same as it should be, but it’s close, and the soup is still quite delicious.
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2010.09.18
Posted in Road Trip 2010, Travel at 4:59 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I’m home.
The final day of driving was quick and easy – I left Great Falls just after 7:00am and got to the border with a very short line (one car in front of me). I owed just under $30 of duty on the wine (not bad at all considering how much I was bringing back). After paying it, I was on my way and had to adjust to speed limit signs in km/h instead of mi/h.
The weather was damp, rainy, and cool for most of the drive home, but I didn’t see any snow.
And now, almost 8,000km after I left, I’m home again. Overall, the trip was fantastic and I enjoyed it much more than I could have hoped. Tonight I’m doing nothing aside from laundry, and tomorrow I need to catch up on some errands and buy some groceries. Then it’s back to the routine, which I’m looking forward to in a strange way.
And who knows – there might even be a road trip 2011. I’ve got about a year to think about it.
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2010.09.18
Posted in Road Trip 2010, Travel at 4:51 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Yesterday was the longest driving day of the trip. I checked the weather forecasts before leaving SLC and then jumped on the freeway and drove North. The weather was great so far, and I stopped to meet some friends for coffee just south of Pocatello.
After that, I stopped in Idaho Falls for lunch then kept heading North into Montana, and into the rain. In fact, the rain started just after I crossed the Montana border. It was never steady rain, just spotted showers. The roads were wet but not slippery or anything, and the temperatures stayed above freezing the whole drive. When I got to Butte, I stopped in at Starbucks, bought a tea and busted out the laptop. I decided to drive as far as Great Falls since the weather was favorable (and I wasn’t sure how much worse it would get). I booked a cheap hotel on Priceline since I didn’t feel like camping in cold, damp weather and drove the rest of the way to Great Falls.
Except for the many miles of construction, the drive was completely uneventful. I saw numerous Alberta plates heading North, and a number of them were staying at the same hotel as I was in Great Falls.
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2010.09.18
Posted in Road Trip 2010, Travel at 4:46 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I went to Park City for supper and a walk. The drive heading up there on I-80 was interesting, and the trees were starting to change color. Park City itself reminded me a lot of Banff, only it didn’t feel quite as touristy. This was most likely because it’s the shoulder season. When ski season heats up I have no doubt the place will be packed with visitors.
I found yet another brew pub for supper, and had a very tasty buffalo burger. I also ordered a pint of draft beer, and wound up with something not quite as I expected. I then remembered that Utah’s laws concerning draft beer limit it to a very low alcohol content (3.2% or something stupid). Sigh.
The scenery was very pretty, though.
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2010.09.16
Posted in Road Trip 2010, Travel at 4:24 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Not much to report today, really. I got on I-15, and drove. Until I got to Salt Lake City.
I stopped for Breakfast in Mesquite, stopped for lunch in Beaver. I saw a few other Alberta plates heading North, for the first time really this whole vacation.
The nicest part of the drive was the canyon at Virgin River, but other than that there wasn’t much to see.
One little bonus was about 40 miles of 80mph zones on I-15 that made the drive a little bit quicker. Which was good because traffic at Provo was inexplicably crazy. I’ve also decided that the drivers in Utah are the worst I’ve encountered so far this trip. They certainly don’t bother shoulder checking before changing lanes – I was almost hit 4 times today.
I’m safe in Salt Lake City, and I even managed to find a car wash to get rid of all the dead bugs on the car. Not sure what I’ll do for supper, but it’ll be an early night. Ideally I’d like to get to Great Falls tomorrow, but we’ll see what the weather does.
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2010.09.16
Posted in Road Trip 2010, Travel at 4:10 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
After my mellow afternoon by the pool I did a few things of interest. First up was a stroll down the strip, stopping wherever I felt like to people watch. I also timed it right and watched the fountain show at the Bellagio. I got utterly lost inside Caesar’s Palace, and once I found my way out again I wandered across the stip and wound up eating supper at PBR Rock Bar in Planet Hollywood. It was a pretty nice little bar with an interesting faux-western decor to match the faux-everything-else in Las Vegas.
Supper was a good salad and a 22oz glass of nondescript American beer.
After supper I did some more people watching, had a few cocktails, and spent a whopping $5 gambling before heading to bed. Las Vegas really isn’t my kind of town, but I managed to have a good time nonetheless.
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2010.09.15
Posted in Road Trip 2010, Travel at 5:39 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Today I got an early start and jumped on the road to get to Sin City in time to enjoy an afternoon at the pool. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I left Palm Springs about 7:15am and embarked on what people refer to as the back way to Las Vegas. Basically, you drive Northeast to Twentynine Palms then head to Amboy, then through Kelso and Cima before hitting I-15. The drive is very pretty and very very remote.
It’s also about a half hour faster than taking the freeways, especially given the traffic and all of the construction on I-15.
Luckily I knew in advance just how isolated this drive was, and I stopped in Twentynine Palms for gas and provisions (water and granola bars) before continuing further. I’m sure there were gas stations near the route I took, but at one point I saw a sign that claimed 90 miles to the next gas station and after Twentynine Palms, the first gas station I actually saw was in Las Vegas (about 220 miles away).
Having plenty of water and a full tank, I drove on a sequence of more or less straight 2-lane highways. When I got to Amboy I saw road markings for route 66, although I was only on that highway for a few miles.
It turns out that Amboy is really just a motel and a post office. A few miles south there is a salt extraction plant (the desert was almost white with salt there). And that’s about it. The other towns on the drive weren’t any larger really. but the drive through Mojave National Preserve was very pretty. I didn’t stop to take pictures really, as there weren’t many places to stop on the road (unless you count soft, narrow shoulders that didn’t look too trustworthy).
The most interesting part of the drive was the vehicle count. I saw only six other vehicles on the route I was driving until I hit I-15. That’s about 150 miles of roads with virtually nobody on them. For the most part, the roads were in reasonable repair although some parts were a little rough. I was glad the car was just serviced – this was not the sort of place you’d want to have vehicle trouble.
Some parts of the road had a reddish coating on the asphalt. I think it might have been to deal with flash flooding, but I’m not sure.
As for wildlife, there wasn’t much. One sign advised me to watch for tortoises, but I didn’t see any.
Once I was on I-15, it was only a very short drive to the Nevada border. And there’s no doubt where the state line is – just look for the casinos perched right on the edge of the state as you enter and you know you’re in Nevada.
I zipped straight to the hotel on I-15 and checked in early, before my room was available. Luckily I had planned for this and binged at the buffet for lunch then went directly to the pool for the afternoon. Now it’s time to figure out supper and the evening, and then it’s back on the road tomorrow.
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2010.09.14
Posted in Road Trip 2010, Travel at 6:01 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Today I slept in a bit then headed over to CVS to buy water in preparation for a trip to Joshua Tree National Park. I had never been before, but I figured I should probably have at least 4L of water with me since I had no idea how hot it would get.
Joshua Tree is what you would expect for a National Park in the middle of the desert. It’s stark but beautiful in its own way. Throughout the day I saw more wildlife than I expected, although it was mostly assorted snakes and lizards. I began the day by driving into the park from the South entrance (near Mecca), and drove to the Cottonwood Springs park office where I bought my day pass and got some information. I had originally planned on doing a hike at the south end of the park but changed my mind and decided to do one further North.
It was about 30C when I got to the park, and by the time I left at 1pm it was still just above 30, much cooler than Palm Springs (at 42C again).
I drove North through the park, stopping at a few spots along the road to get a closer look at some of the vegetation. The vegetation varied quite a bit even within the park which kind of surprised me. After about 90 minutes of driving through the park, I arrived at the Lost Horse Mine trailhead, where I embarked on a 6.4km round trip hike to the mine. The hike was pretty nice, although it felt very isolated. There’s no shade and nobody around for miles. I was glad I brought the water, although there was a gentle breeze which helped a lot. You can actually see the mine almost a kilometer away on the trail, which makes the hike somewhat agonizing since you know you’ve still got a bit of a ways to go.
The mine itself was quite cool. It made me reflect about how it was constructed (and how they brought in the materials and out the mined gold). The trail I was hiking was undoubtedly the way in and out.
After hiking back to the trail head, I drove around some more of the park before leaving to go get lunch and head back to Palm Springs. I stopped at a small diner called the Paradise Cafe in Yucca Valley based on a tip from a friend. The food was inexpensive and really quite good, although the menu was pretty typical diner fare.
Now I have to figure out supper, and get ready for the long drive home which begins in earnest tomorrow.
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2010.09.13
Posted in Road Trip 2010, Travel at 5:31 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Today I drove from the ocean to the desert, but instead of taking the interstates I took the back way through Lakeside and over to Julian. I stopped in Julian for a slice of apple pie (who says you can’t have it for breakfast) at Mom’s. From there I enjoyed a very pretty drive through the hills to Palm Springs.
When I arrived in the desert, the temperature topped out at 42C which makes this the hottest day of the trip so far.
My first stop in Palm Springs was at the Infiniti dealership to get the car serviced which it needed. As a bonus, the car also got washed which it also really needed pretty badly. While the car was being worked on I wandered over to the BMW and Mercedes dealerships next door and browsed their car lots. There were some very nice used 7 series BMWs that were selling for only $50,000 or so. I also took a look at the odd-looking X6 hybrid, and was a little shocked at the price (about $85,000).
I also found a Mercedes I quite liked (assuming I won the lottery), and had to laugh a bit – the car had a $3,000 “gas guzzler” tax attached to it as well. But given the price of the car ($90,000+), the people who can afford to buy it wouldn’t let a little tax like that stop them.
Once my car was finished, I went into downtown for some food, opting for mexican food at Maracas. It was decent and hit the spot. Now I’m at the hotel with a very very nice view of the pool and the golf course.
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2010.09.13
Posted in Road Trip 2010, Travel at 5:20 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Sunday in San Diego was pretty laid back. I slept in and had a leisurely breakfast, then drove out to the beach around 11:00am. I actually managed to score a spot at the roller coaster in Mission Beach which surprised me, although those spaces must be the narrowest parking spaces on the planet.
The sun fought the marine layer and started to win at about 12:00pm; I walked North to Pacific Beach, and started walking down Garnet when I noticed the street was closed. It turns out that Sunday was the Brazilian Day festival. About 5 blocks of Garnet were closed as well as a few blocks of one of the cross streets. It was a typical street and aside from the music and some of the food vendors, didn’t appear to be overly Brazilian. Nonetheless, I had Brazilian Barbecue for lunch. It was quite tasty and very filling.
With the sun now out, I walked back to Mission Beach and the beach was starting to get quite busy. It was a very nice day although a little breezy. Along the way I ogled the beach front mansions, some of which seem to be perpetually for sale.
When I got back to Mission beach, I stopped at the Wave House to relax for an hour and had the world’s most overpriced margarita. For those who’ve never been, the Wave House has a couple of huge wave machines that create a continuous wave which you can surf. I think they charge about $20 / hour or so. Some of the surfers at the Wave House were quite good, and some weren’t as good but as always it was neat to watch.
I hung out for a few more hours at the beach, but it was a pretty lazy day other than that. Supper was chinese food, pretty non-distinct but it hit the spot.
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