Month: September 2017

All things considered, I’d do it again tomorrow.  Not so sure what Laura would say about that…

So here are the totals & tallies I promised.  I don’t know whose been reading this blog as we went along, but if there’s anybody out there, I thank you.  It’s been fun and entertaining.

We’re headed off to Korea, China and Japan to see Rudy for the Holiday’s.  I’ll fire-up the old Mac Book again and we’ll see what kind of mischief we can get into over there.  Until then, be compassionate humans 🙏🏻

Miles Driven - 10,581
Diesel Fuel Purchased - $2,628.68
MPG Average - 10.2
Traffic Accidents - 0
Speeding Tickets - 0

States - 28
Territories - 5
Maritimes - 3
Countries - 1
(countries kicked out of - 1)

Dog Poops Picked Up - 557
Dirty Dog Washes - 6
Dog Beds Thrown Away - 4
Dog Trips to the Vet - 1

Oysters Consumed - 144
Clams Consumed - 76
Lobster Rolls - 6
Hudson Burgers - 12
Chowders - 8
Blog Posts - 34
Nights away from home - 55
Places we're going back to - 5
Days Til the Next Adventure - 98

Trip of a Lifetime - 1

 

Three nights in Coeur d’Alene and we didn’t get to see much.  No time on the water.  No time on the trails.  No time at the local eateries.  Just kidding.  Of course we found food and booze.  But the one destination we were looking forward to spending more time doing and less time consuming, has us working backwards.

The fires were (are) nowhere near us but the entirety of the Pacific Northwest is completely consumed with smoke, haze and bad air.  The schools have a no-recess order and the weather-persons are constantly issueing  “stay inside” warnings.  So we did just that.  We stayed inside……. the bars and restaurants and did absolutely nothing to exert ourselves.  We were perfect tourists.

But as a result, we’ve added another “come back” city to our list of towns to revisit.  I can however, report that I have officially ended my search for the perfect hamburger.  As I recently reported on FaceBook, we accidentally found  the most famous hamburger joint in the PacNW.  We weren’t searching for anything, other than a parking spot, when kismet provided us a spot right in front of Hudson’s Hamburgers.  A 110 (yes I said ONE HUNDRED & TEN) year old, family owned hamburger shop.

The place was tiny, tidy, clean, friendly and unbecoming.  It has been reviewed and written-up by the NY Times & Sunset Magazine, along with numerous local and regional papers.  It is a living time-machine.  I thought Marty McFly was gonna drop down next to me and order a Tab.

There were 4 seats available at the counter of 17 stools.  Just as the man pressing patties and flipping burgers in front of us asked how many we wanted, the lady behind the counter slid some waters in front of us with a smile and a “welcome”.  They serve two kinds of burgers.  With or without cheese.  And you can have those burgers with 2 toppings, pickles and/or onions.   They don’t have tomatoes, lettuce, bacon, french fries, onion rings, seeded buns, or even regular mustard.  They have three bottles in front of you, regular ketchup, spicy house-made secret recipe ketchup and spicy house-made secret recipe mustard.  That’s it.  Nothing else.  Don’t ask.

In brief conversation with the owners and patrons, our good fortune was revealed to be even deeper than we first realized.  Normally, the line is 30-40 minutes long, out the door and around the block.  We were eating the freshest, tastiest burgers we’ve ever had, within 5 minutes of sitting down, all because the fire storms kept most people away.  The Burger Gods cast their light upon us, through the thickest of smokey skies, and we knew instantly that we were in the middle of something very special.

There is only  one man working the grill.  There’s no room for anyone else.  He hand presses every patty, smashes it down on his cutting board and slaps it on that time-seasoned cast iron grille.  While those babies are sizzling away, he preps the buns with exactly 6 slices (hand sliced at that exact moment) of dill pickle and a 1/4″ thick slab of hand-sliced white onion.  A simple, plain, white-bread bun is the perfect delivery device for that hot & juicy burger.  Add whatever sauce you want to it and take your first bite.  The clocks stop.  The conversations hush and every action around you seems to freeze.  Yeah, it’s like that.

We visited 3 times total in a 24hr period and had 6 burgers each.  I took special care to observe and commit to memory, the ingredients, process and procedures.  I WILL replicate these burgers at home.  Trust me, I got this!

Other than that, we’re outa here.  Time to head South to find clearer skies and visit my cousins near Reno.  Home is coming soon.  I think we’re finally ready.

Oh, we finally saw a moose 😜

Hey, you can’t park there!

 

 

2 days.  We are officially two days ahead of schedule now.  Not that we ever had a schedule, but we wanted to be home by the 13th because we’d been invited to a very important cocktail reception at Mr. A’s on the 14th 😃🍸.  Those long, last days of boredom helped push us through Canada.  We even skipped Calgary, just to get out of Dodge (sorry Calgary, but we promise to come back for your Stampede weekend in the next few years).  Only to arrive in Montana, to be welcomed by wildfires.  Everywhere.  We know this haze and smell in the air, all too well.  Tonight we raise a glass to the rain Gods and ask for a little help.

The last day, through Alberta, brought us new things to look at.  The World’s largest Tee-Pee, Al Capone’s Canadian hideout, a really big Potato Head thingy,  and some really beautiful farm land.  But those last couple of miles to the border, were the best views we’d seen all week.

What did we have to declare (besides a windshield full of bugs)?  A few bottles of wine, some Canadian Rum (right?), 10 lbs. of PEI potatoes (the BEST EVER!),  a fridge full of groceries, a cooler full of Canadian IPA’s and a bunch of misc souvenirs.  All things considered, the Country was beautiful, the people were VERY friendly, the prices for everything were on -par and the experience was well worth the effort.  Despite my boredom quips.

Glacier National Park was, from what we could see, gorgeous.  The fires have left a thick stain on the view and a light sting in your throat.  The park is much smaller than I had anticipated and while the drive was scenic, we were prohibited from driving on the one road everybody should drive on.  The Going To The Sun Road.  Not just because it was closed due to the fires, but the RV was too big to drive on it anyway.  Note to self; come back and rent a car.

We’re down in Coeur d’Alene now but all the air is out of our balloon.  The smoke and air quality is really bad and we’re questioning our plans to stay for 3 days.  I’ve really been looking forward to coming here.  I’ve seen and read so much about CdL, that I always thought that this might be “The Place” for us to retire to.  Unfortunately, we really can’t see much (literally), and spending too much time outside, is just uncomfortable.  Fingers crossed, we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

 

 

500 miles today and that’s all I’ve got to show for it?

Oh, and Curley got a finger up her butt today.  Greetings.