Beer/Spirits, Culture, Food, history, Travels

A Pen At Ten (Pt. 2) – Road Tripping

(Featured Photo: The San Antonio River Walk, San Antonio, TX)

While we weren’t officially a thing yet, my spouse and I dove in hard on whether we’d make a good couple: we decided on a several-day-long road trip to Yosemite National Park, the California Gold Country, and the San Francisco Bay Area together. The experience must’ve went well, because we scheduled an even longer road trip both in time and distance about six months later: After we didn’t kill each other, we figured we were set and now we’re married.

Our life together has been about catching up on all the fun things happy younger couples do (we were both bracketing 40 years of age when we met) but in a shorter timeframe. COVID-19 and our first addition to our family (a rescue dog, who has been a joy to have around) has slowed our travels down a bit, but we’re starting to take a peek at longer excursions in the future..

I admit I stumbled a bit with figuring out how this Top Ten should be structured. What you’re seeing is the final result of all that mind shuffling.

1) The Most Epic Day – The word “epic” is not necessarily overused, but it can be misapplied. One day during our second road trip definitely qualifies for that designation by most people’s books we figured.

From the now defunct Cricketwood Bed & Breakfast (a B&B we sadly did not take full advantage of) we crammed in this full day of activities:

  • A 2 hour drive to our Mount Hood trailhead
  • A 3 1/2 hour trek up and back to the gorgeous Ramona Falls, including helping out some hikers get back to the Pacific Coast Trail.
  • An hour’s drive to Portland to grab some sweet treats at Voodoo Doughnuts
  • A half-hour drive down to Tigard to meet up with a relative at Max Fanno’s Brewpub for dinner and beer.
  • A drive farther down south to Salem just because we could.
  • An hour-and-a-half drive back to Bend from there with an emergency coast down the highway decline to a Sisters gas station to refill a gas tank that went empty right at the pump (one of three times I’ve managed that feat, and all in the state of Oregon)
  • A much deserved outing in the B&B’s hot tub before crashing out for the night

All told, we tallied 17+ hours awake, 350+ miles driven, nearly 8 miles hiked up and down Mt. Hood, plus some random walking distance in Portland, a few dozen bucks spent on food, gas and beer, and a promise not to do that much on any one day again.

2) Eclipse Practice – Total solar eclipses are both rare (per Wikipedia, 68 of the 224 eclipses predicted for the 21st century are of the total type) and rarely experienced by a particular part of the planet in short order. Yet, the United States is due for that unique distinction once the 2024 Total Eclipse streaks across the land on April 8 (addendum: that turned out to be an even more spectacular sky display) occurring roughly seven years after the August 21, 2017 event streaked a path from Oregon to South Carolina.

We used that event as a way to knock off some states we hadn’t visited yet and caught some unique sites in each. But really, the star of the show was the eclipse itself, and we felt fortunate to find ourselves on an expansive ranch in nowhere Nebraska (especially compared to the masses who crawled their way to the nearby Carhenge). The seemingly unending Plains landscape proved to be a perfect (and slightly surreal) place to enjoy this spectacle.

3) Mother Nature – National Parks have been a go to for us since the beginning, since we took on Yosemite National Park in the winter on our first “date” of sorts (what winter does to the park’s most famous falls in Upper and Lower Yosemite, Bridalveil, and Nevada is magical.) We really haven’t had an experience since that topped Ansel Adams’ favorite photography venue, but two rank right up there in Sequoia/Kings National Park 150 miles to the southeast (words are inadequate to describe those massive trees) and gorgeous Crater Lake NP in Oregon. If at all possible, venture to the Cleetwood Cove Trail, the only legal way down this ancient volcanic mountain to get to the lake’s surface and dip your toes in the lake’s almost impossibly clear waters. Even if your fitness and mobility doesn’t allow that (the ascent back up is the equivalent of climbing 65 flights of stairs) the views of this sleeping volcano and lake are more than worth the trip.

4) Living For The City – Maybe it’s no surprise that Asheville, NC ranks as our favorite destination city over the years – its funky vibe, great food and beer, and location (easy drive from where we were or convenient stopover point for places farther south, as well as its central location to a number of out-in-nature activities and sites) makes it an easy choice for us.

Some cities we expect great things from (Chicago, Denver, and Philadelphia, for example) and some we didn’t know what to expect. In a very close call, Portland, ME edged out Milwaukee, WI in our cities we want to get back to again really really soon” category. We loved the food, beer and culture in each city, but the tiebreaker here was proximity to water – the ocean is going to triumph over lakefront almost every time, and Portland holds the slight edge in this case.

5) Baseball, Hot Dogs…What More Do You Need? – Baseball games are a mutual love of ours, and we try to squeeze at least a baseball game on all our trips if at all possible. Some of our favorite ballparks we’ve visited during our travels include Asheville’s McCormick Field (easy access from downtown, intimate setting and maybe the best craft beer of anywhere we’ve visited), Turtle Creek Stadium in Traverse City (it looks residential from the outside, but is a really lovely place to see a game) and Comerica Field in Detroit (especially when you are bringing along kids, with a Ferris Wheel, carousel, and other kid-friendly activities and food.) Toronto’s Rogers Centre, home of the Blue Jays, might be the most friendly pro ball park where we’ve seen a game, and some planned renovations will only heighten the fan experience in the future.

6) Beer, Beer, Beer! – Despite the stagnation in the craft beer industry of late, we can’t deny that a big focus of our last decade of travels has been craft beer and related beverages. Based on a personal map we’ve created, we’ve hit up at least 260 craft breweries during our 10 years of travel. Out of these breweries (outside Ohio – that’s slated for a future post), these ten jibed with us the most in terms of great beer, atmosphere, and timing of the visit:

7) Best Surprise Find – most of our trips early on were planned out to the tee, so surprise finds were a bit scarce, However, future surprise finds have stiff competition in the Dee Wright Observatory in Blue River, OR, which we ended up passing by due to a last minute decision to go the proverbial long way on Oregon State Route 242 over the McKenzie Pass. While the fog and overcast prevented us from seeing the peaks around us, the weather lent a spooky, eerie feel to the ancient lava fields and the observatory built out of those very same materials.

8) The Ultimate Detour – Unlike Dee Wright, which was a purposeful re-routing, we haven’t had need to alter our travel plans too much during our time together, but one such detour to avoid a freeway closure in Arizona due to snow proved to be an unexpected treat. We detoured south into Phoenix along US 93/US 60 and got a real life Wile E. Coyote/Roadrunner landscape (a real life coyote even darted in front of our car at one point.) The southern part of the storm that closed the freeway in Flagstaff gave us random showers and and as beautiful a rainbow as you can imagine, and we finished up viewing the Very Large Array Radio Telescopes (not my photo, but I wanted to let you see what we saw) in the west New Mexico plateau right around dusk.

9) A Niche for Kitsch – We love seeking out the unusual and kitschy on our travels, with The National Funeral Museum (Houston, TX), The Museum of Us (formerly the Museum of Man, San Diego, CA), The National Mustard Museum (Middleton, WI) and the Berczy Park Dog Fountain (Toronto, ON) were strong contenders in this category.

But when it comes to kitsch, the SPAM Museum in Austin, MN, is hard to beat. Trays of the 20 different flavors of SPAM as hors d’oeuvres, a kiosk where you can create your own SPAM Jeepney or send yourself a SPAM recipe, various displays how various countries feature SPAM (did you know South Korea has gift sets for this luncheon meat?), the requisite company history displays, and a section dedicated to Monty Python’s mocking tribute to this product, this museum has it all and more.

10. Ten For The Road – frankly, there are too many great experiences that we’ve had over the years, so here are ten more to take you as you head on your travels:

Markets – local markets are a great visit almost everywhere you go, but if we had to pick just one, we’d go with Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market (the energy was amazing on the day we visited), edging out the also incredibly cool Jean-Talon Market in Montreal, QC.

Waterfalls – another great love of ours, the waterfalls associated with Yosemite and Mount Hood (mentioned previously) are top-notch, and a trip with my parents to see Niagara Falls from both sides of the border was a special trip.

If we had to pick waterfall or two to join this threesome, we’d add Triple Falls and Hooker Falls in North Carolina’s Dupont State Forest. These picturesque beauties of nature were used in the filming of the smash hit movie “The Hunger Games.”

Beaches – Even with our personal belief that oceanside beaches beat out their lake counterparts, we had a tough time narrowing down a favorite. By the length of a driftwood or two, we nominate the Monterey Bay/Carmel area of California (specifically, Carmel Beach and Lovers’ Point) as our favorite confluence of crashing waves, dramatic coastline, and sand you can trod your bare feet upon.

Books – We’ve visited many a good bookstore, but how about a whole town dedicated to books? Located in the Catskills, Hobart, NY, is essentially a bookstore village with no less than 7 bookstores in a hamlet of 400 people. Yes, other businesses do exist here, but it’s the books (leaning more used than new) that makes this worth a detour.

Historic Houses – again, another favorite pastime of ours, and one could do worse than to make a West Coast swing and pair up the audacious Hearst Castle perched on the hillside in San Simeon (there are no less than nine different tours media mogul William Hearst’s mansion which you can partake) and the San Jose located Winchester Mystery House, with all sorts of nonsensical nooks and crannies due to the superstitious (and as we found out, philanthropic) owner Sarah Winchester and her efforts to fend off a curse on her family.

Most Unintended Special Moment – on a random holiday weekend, we decided to take a trip out to Washington DC. As it turned out, that holiday was Veterans Day, and we caught a number of veteran-oriented events. No matter what one may think of the politics of this country these days, the pride of the veterans (both my wife and I have relatives who served in the military) who made the trip that weekend with us could not be denied. The Christmas Ornament Show at the Czech Republic Embassy that we found out about at the last minute also added a little holiday cheer to our vacation trip (and a few additions to our Christmas Tree.)

Time to Train – The COVID-19 pandemic put a crimp in our traveling as well as the travel industry in general. 2020 saw our usual California trip to visit my family squelched, so we decided to do something novel in 2021 by taking Amtrak out to and back from the West Coast. Based on our experience, I think everyone should try out this trip at least once: our experience is documented at this post on my Critical Rice Theory blog.

Cryptids and Hauntings, Oh My! – Point Pleasant, West Virginia may not stand out as a destination, but if you have a thing for mythical monsters and haunted places, this town of 4,000 has the perfect combo in the Mothman, with the only Mothman Museum in the world, a related statue and festival, as well as a historic and (supposedly) haunted downtown-located Lowe Hotel. Add in some local history sites and the picturesque Ohio River, you have a hidden gem of a visit.

Over The Top – the architectural fan out in the countryside of Wisconsin would probably opt for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taleisin East in Spring Green. The fan of just getting everything everywhere all at once should probably opt for The House on the Rock just ten minutes down the road. Yes, Alex Jordan’s main house sports some great architecture and you could get the “regular” version of this tour. However, you really should do the full tour: this minimum four hour(!) excursion offers the whole shebang, as you tour through interconnected buildings that contain just about everything else you can think of, save maybe for sports memorabilia. The experience remains one that even now we can’t fully wrap our heads around.

Random Foodie Stuff – the Broccoli Rabe Roast Pork sandwich from Tommy DiNic’s in Philadelphia…the most incredible sorbet from Scream Sorbet in Oakland, CA…fresh from the ocean octopus and bass from San Diego’s Mitch’s…Grits with Catfish and Buckwheat Pancakes at Hominy Grill in Charleston, SC…Uncle Wolfie’s of Milwaukee transformation of oatmeal into the divine Ube Toast Crunch Oatmeal…Fresh Montreal bagels (and some to take home) from St. Viateur…Consistently great Burmese food from the Richmond District’s Mandalay in San Francisco…Chicago via Puerto Rico’s Jibarito at the Jibarito Stop in the Pilsen neighborhood…late night Tex-Mex goodness at San Antonio’s Taco Palenque…Charred Broccoli with Endive and a Pecan Vinaigrette from Main Street Meats, Chattanooga, TN

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