Oh, The Things You Can Do With Bacon.

10/23/08

After getting myself together this morning. I camped out a local coffee shop for a few hours before heading to one of the pubs I was referred to yesterday.

The Horse Brass Pub was first on the list. Walking into this pub, I felt like I should have had to go through U.K. customs first. The room smelled of fish and chips, and was built of old wooden beams, plastered walls, and a dark, lacquered wooden floor. The walls were adorned with brass emblems, vintage, painted, wooden barrel tops, old Guinness ads, and WWII era pictures and flags.

The pub also sported several brush dart boards and had schedules for upcoming Premier League Games posted on the wall. The music playing seemed to be heavily showcase hits from the 40’s and 50’s with such selections as Blueberry Hill and Purple People Eater.

In the corner sat an elderly lady knitting what appeared to be a scarf, sipping on a coffee, and smoking a cigarette. Her features were very pronounced, her actions deliberate, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of Madame Defarge from A Tale of Two Cities.

While this establishment doesn’t actually brew it’s own beer, it is easily forgiven, as it offers over 50 taps – most of which are Oregon Brews. Two thumbs up!

Next stop, Belmont Station. This place is reason enough to move to Portland. They have about a 15 taps nearly all of which I had never had. Interestingly enough over half of the menu consisted of “fresh hopped” ales. Being new to the term, I asked the batrtender and was informed that it means the hops were taken from the vine to the kettle on the same day. Generally, this infers that the hops are grown within 100 miles of the brewery.

In addition to the good beer, I noticed in a remote corner of the menu that they offered chocolate covered bacon. After another quick chat with the bartender, I learned that he made it himself at home. Obviously, I no choice but to have a piece. After a quick trip to the back, he returned and presented to me one of the stranger combinations I had prepared to nosh. Basically, he had fried bacon rashers, dipped them in chocolate, sprinkled them with peanuts and let the whole concoction set in the refrigerator. The result? Pretty good actually. Sweet and salty. Melty, chewy, smokey, and crunchy. It had a lot going on.

Oh yeah. If that wasn’t enough, they have a beer store attached that boasts over 1000 beers in stock. If you were to visit their site and, navigate to their beer list and copy and paste that into a spread sheet, you would find that it’s actually around 1019. Holiday Market, eat your heart out!

PDX

10/22/08

Today was one of those days that just never seemed to end. And I mean that in a good way.

It took me all of about 30 sec to enter Oregon once I hit the road. I had researched a disc golf course that looked promising over in Pier Park on the west side of Portland. I arrived before it got too congested, which was nice because, being unfamiliar with the layout of the course, I was moving pretty slow. The course was build into a fairly old-growth forest. There were plenty of large, moss-covered trees surrounding me, and some nice elevation changes as well.

I headed back to the van after finishing my 18 holes to discover that the course was getting pretty busy. There was even a street meat vendor that had showed up. I ended up talking to him for a while and after telling him what I had been up to for the past few weeks and where I was headed, he advised me to visit the Breitenbush Hot Springs. He also happened to have a small pro shop with him and as I was in the market for a new driver, I bought one to go along with my Italian Sausage.

Heading back into the downtown area, I pulled up to the Rogue Ales Distillery & Public House. This is my new favorite Bar. They have approximately 40 beers on tap, about 35 of which they brew themselves. I found a seat at the bar and went to work on an Independence Hop Ale. This is a fresh hopped brew made from hops grown by Rogue. It didn’t take long before I was talking to the guy next me about my favorite subject. He was from Florida and happen to be here for a week with the sole purpose of trying as many beers and breweries as possible. As he was nearly finished with his tour of duty, he had more information and good advice than I could possibly digest. This would come in handy tomorrow…

The seat to the left of me had just been occupied by a woman named Rebecca. She didn’t stay for too long, but was kind enough to recommend an entire itinerary for the next few days of my trip. She was also kind enough to give me her card and to call if I had any other questions or problems while I was in the area. West Coast people are really stacking up the brownie points quickly.

After Rebecca left, a couple sat in the two empty seats to my left. Jen and Travis were recently married, and were out on the west coast on their honeymoon. I talk with them for wuite a while. They’re both very friendly and anxious to meet new people. They even invited me to join them over at a concert they were heading to around the corner. A band called The Waybacks was playing and they were both huge fans. They left to go get in line and I stayed for a while debating whether or not to take in the show.

Curiosity would eventually win out, and I headed over to McMenamins Mission Theater to meet up with the newlyweds. Despite the name, this place was also a haven for micro brew fans. The locals seemed to be tending towards the Terminator Stout, so I followed the fold and was not disappointed.

The band was outstanding! While they originated as a bluegrass group, they’ve incorporated folk, country, and rock into their sound and even gave us tastes of classical, jazz, and Cajun to go along with the lightning fast flat-picking, killer fiddle playing and occasional three and four part harmonies. By the end of the night every person in the room seemed to be in the best of moods. This music is not a sound that is common in the Michigan area, but I think they would sell out a venue at The Ark in Ann Arbor.

I started to fade fast after the concert let out. I had said goodbye to Jen and Travis and thanked them for inviting me along to the show. I got back to the van and slept right where it where it was parked – right across from Rogue as you can see from the picture above.

Beer, Jazz, Pizza

10/18/08

Ok, so once I got into Washington State, I really started to get the itch to see the Pacific Ocean. I felt somehow drawn to it. I’m not really sure why, because I don’t surf, I’m not a great swimmer, and I’d rather not be attacked by a shark or a jellyfish or anything else of an oceanic nature. Nevertheless, I drove through the state on a mission. I didn’t stop for anything…….except Seattle.

I crossed city limits around dusk and was still holding on to the dream of driving non-stop until I hit salt water, but opted instead to drive around the city for a while. This being the first big city I had visited since I left, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the whole experience, and wasn’t sure if I could find a good place to stay the night. I had talked to Tina a few hours earlier and learned that she was on a day trip to Vancouver and would not return until tomorrow, so I was on my own.

As it was now dark, I headed out of the city and found a motel lot to stay the night in one of Seattle’s suburbs.

10/19/08

I got a hold of Tina this afternoon, and met up with her at a place called Chocolat Vitale. She had some studying to do, I had some blogging to catch up on, and this place had WiFi and really good chocolate. We chilled there for a while then headed out to meet up with her friends.

I’ll be up front. I drank a lot of beer that night. Apparently, when people find out you’re on a road trip around the country, they get this irresistible urge to buy you beer. Fortunately, and unlike South Dakota, I was able to repay a round here and there this time.

The first bar went hit had a wooden bar, wooden beams, and high-walled wooden booths with wooden seats. Nice place. In addition they had live music. It was a sax-drum duet that sounded somewhat like an experimental college jazz combo. I think it was the first time I ever heard avant garde jazz played live. Avant garde has the unique ability to ride the fence between entertaining and annoying. I can’t say that I really enjoyed it, but the performers were giving their all and that was enough to earn my respect.

The other members of the group were Brian, Joe, and Tim. Tim and I talked beer for quite some time and he was more than eager to suggest some good breweries as well as some individual beers. At some point during the night, Joe told me that he could probably get me a job in Seattle. I recall the words “scanning documents” and “$15/hr”. The idea of taking him up on his offer and living out of the van in Seattle for a while would play, on and off, through my cloudy head for the rest of the night. By the next morning, however, I decided to finish the trip. I thanked him for the offer and told him not to be surprised if I called him in a couple months on my way back out west.

The night continued with just Brian, Tina, and myself. We hit up an arcade for a while where I got to show off my Ms. Pacman skills before being humbled in Galaga. The final stop was for some pizza before I retired to the van. I would spend the night parked right on the streets of Downtown Seattle.