Krispy's Kapers

Resurrecting the Travel Blog

2015-06-25T11:14:00.001-07:00

Well, it has been 4.5 years since I have posted anything, to be honest I completely forgot about this here little blog. However, with the impending trip to the UK I figured now would be a good time to revive it and start chronicling the trip.

With any luck there will be some guest authors on this trip as well.

Atlanta Snowpocalypse 2011

2011-01-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

The Storm that Wasn't

I drove up to Atlanta on Friday to pick up the rest of my stuff and to register my car. There was talk of a snow storm hitting the Atlanta area Saturday evening, but as with rain in Southern California, snow is often overblown in Atlanta.

Saturday was gorgeous and hung out with my buddy Brian making designer ketchup and solving the worlds problems (like always). No storm. Hell it wasn't even cloudy. Sunday came along and I managed to get some packing done and went to the grocery store just in case the storm came, but I didn't get bread or milk (Take that Southerners!). Sunday evening - nothing. Sunday night - nothing... until around 10pm. The snow started to fall slowly.

It looked like it was going to be the Storm of the Century that never happened.

Well that changed about an hour later.

Within 2 hours there was nearly 4 inches of snow! Now I am not one to let perfectly good snow and a hill go to waste:

By the next morning there was 5 inches!!

Snow on top of roomies car.

Not Boston - it is actually Atlanta

You can see my car to the left of the mailboxes. It is two wheel drive and there is a fairly steep hill to get out of the neighborhood. I wasn't going anywhere for awhile.

What you can't see and I couldn't get a good picture of, is that the entire surface of the snow is covered in 1/8" to 1/4" of ice. One of the chihuahuas could walk on the ice with out falling through. That made it even harder to drive, as snow isn't too much of an issue, but the ice made it impassable without all wheel drive or chains.

Later that evening for fun the roomies and I walked over to the grocery store (I ran out of Pepsi). We also got Puff Pastry and some snacks. I made little puff pastry squares filled with spicy Itallian Sausage. Puff Pastry makes everything better!

Tuesday - Driving through Snowpocalypse 2011

The next day, Tuesday, things weren't looking much better. Around 11 I was seriously suffering from cabin fever and had to get out. Tabitha started calling Mexican restaurants and the only place we found open was Taco Mac. So we went. The roads were sketchy but drivable. I didn't feel particularly secure about driving all the way to Macon in those conditions though. Taco Mac is known for beer, and beer I had.

Best beer to drink on a snow day? Miller High Life!

Don't worry, I only had one and a full meal.

Even though the roads were a mess, I went ahead and packed up my car just in case. If you are ever offered the chance to move in the snow by all means, pass. Ugh - I have never been that cold, hot, and sweaty all at once. What a mess. Luckily I didn't fall once, although there were a couple of close calls and I ended up skiing down the hill about three feet. Didn't fall though!

Around 4:30 the temperature had peaked at 35 and the roads were kind of slushie. The weather had that night getting down into the low 20's and not getting over 28 the following day. Sounds like a great recipe for icy roads. So I decided to go for it and take my chances. I also figured that there would be less people on the road then than the following day.

Click on the blue pins to see images from my trip through downtown.

View Larger Map

After the airport the roads cleared up and the trip was uneventful from then on.

Road Trip 2011: Atlanta to Amarillo!

2011-01-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

The dates have been set. Andrew is meeting me in Atlanta and we are then driving across country with the following stops. If you have any suggestions for any places along the route please leave a comment!

Road Trip 2011: CA or bust - Weekly Update

2010-12-22T07:57:00.000-08:00

Good news everyone.....

Well, I have a taker for the first two legs of the journey. Mr. Iacopelli is going to join me from Jacksonville to Austin, with an overnight stop in New Orleans. His application was selected for two reasons. One he submitted it! Two, his answer to the questions.

From where to where do you want to go? His answer: College towns and roadside strip clubs.
In 50 words or less, what makes you awesome? His answer: Andrew. Iacopelli.

We are tentatively leaving on the 15th of January. Plan on arriving in New Orleans that evening, and leaving New Orleans when I can legally drive again. Date TBD. From NO to Austin is about 8 hours.

So the legs from Austin to Oakland are still open.

Also, if you live on the way and want me to stop by and say hi, let me know.

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Counting down to the big move

2010-12-17T16:58:00.000-08:00

Well folks, it seems like the big move in imminent. Went through and ran a rough budget last night and I should be leaving Florida between January 10th to 15th. Currently I plan to take 3.5 days to complete the journey from Fernandina to Oakland, stopping around Houston, Phoenix, maybe Vegas, then Oakland.

Now, if anyone is interested in joining me for a leg of the trip, I can extend the trip to hit points of interest and such. You may apply by clicking on the following link:

Road Trip Application

Please allow up to two weeks for review and confirmation. Applications must be submitted by January 5th, 2011.

And remember folks, gas cards make awesome Christmas presents!

Sure to Grow trial - Initial Post

2010-12-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

Sure to Grow plug

SURE TO GROW

Today I received 24 Sure to Grow Clipper 2" media plugs. The idea is that these are the perfect size for putting into my Deep Water Culture lettuce and herb system. The plugs are made out of the same material that is used for batting/stuffing in pillows and sleeping bags. It is very loose and squishy, supposedly making it great to maintain a perfect air/solution ratio. We shall see.

The back two rows in the above picture are my six week old bib lettuces. They have been through hell and yet continue to press on. Here is the list of things that I have done to these poor plants:

Used water of horrible quality. High in iron, salts, and carbonates. That is why they took so long to grow in the first place (see below).
When I transplanted them into the DWC system above, I was still using the bad water and they developed a root fungus which nearly wiped them out. Out of the original 22 I was only able to save 11. However, now that they are in good water they are thriving, at six weeks they are where they should have been at two weeks.
Too hot of temperatures. When I first started around Halloween, the temperatures were in the mid 90s for awhile and the poor little guys didn't like that at all, especially combined with the bad water.

So hopefully this new batch will be able to do much better and actually produce a crop in 5 to 7 weeks like they are suppose to. This is good news because I am suppose to be leaving Florida in 5 weeks. I doubt that they would survive the trip across country, not that I would attempt it!

10/29/10 - Bib Lettuce 5 days old

11/17/10 -Bib Lettuce 3 weeks old

11/21/10 - Bib Lettuce 4 weeks old

12/6/10 - Bib Lettuce 6 weeks old

As you can see, the lettuce hasn't done so well. Hopefully that is all behind me now!

Broccoli!!

The broccoli has been growing like a weed in summer since changing the water to distilled water. Check out these pictures. The broccoli seems to do really well in a NFT system.

Broccoli - 11/17/2010

Broccoli 11/21/10

Broccoli Roots - 11/21/10

Broccoli - 12/6/10

Broccoli 12/11/10

Broccoli Roots - 12/11/10

How to start your own Hydroponic hobby

2010-12-05T16:19:00.000-08:00

I undertook this hydroponic project for a few reasons. First and foremost I like growing things but I am exceedingly lazy and hate getting dirty. Two, Florida has a ridiculous amount of diseases, bugs, and critters whose sole purpose in life is to destroy your crops. Three, I figured it would be fun to do and allowed me to placate my need to be creative and to build things. The whole thing was from the get go a learning experience. I knew I was going to make mistakes, and I honestly didn't expect anything to survive. I was half right!

I started with a Jiffy Greenhouse I have lost nearly all of my lettuce through a variety of problems and diseases. It turns out that our well water is very high in iron and carbonates which forces out other nutrients from the hydroponic solution. This results in slow growing, sickly plants that are prone to disease.

Jiffy Greenhouse

On the other hand, my broccoli has done quite well. It is very hardy and while it didn't do much at first, it did keep living and now that I have everything dialed in it is blowing up!

I did read everything I could about hydroponics, but I learn best by doing, so that is what I have done. For anyone that is interested, hydroponics is really easy and cheap to set up, I just went big. So here is the how to based on what I have learned thus far:

6 Easy Steps to starting your hydroponic hobby

Start Simple! Do not start with a complicated and expensive NFT or Aeroponics system. The more complicated it is, the more things that can go wrong. Learn the basics with a cheap and easy to build DIY setup, there are tons of plans and ideas online that use plastic totes and can be done for less than $50. Plans for a simple starter system. Use a tote instead of an aquarium.
Buy Local, buy only what you need. Buy the correct nutrients for what you are actually doing, not what you hope to do in the future. If you have a hydroponics shop in town buy from them and make friends with them. Don't be cheap and buy online (I always went local), these people are a huge source of info when everything goes to hell.
Use Distilled Water. Do not use tap water or well water. For your first system get distilled water - Walmart for $0.88 a gallon. Well worth having a pure and sterile water source and not having to deal with all the issues I have had to.
Get the correct measurement tools. You don't need to go out and buy the greatest Conductivity and pH meters in the world, but you do need a way of checking your nutrient solution quality. A pet shop with aquarium supplies will sell pH test kits for around $5-$10 that test down to 6.0 pH. If you change your water weekly or every two weeks, you can get buy without a conductivity meter for awhile, but you will eventually want to get one. Makes life much easier. No matter what you do, check the water if not daily, at least twice a week for pH.
Don't get crazy with your plants. Go to your local garden center and pick up something that you would be interested in growing, but is very simple. Lettuces and herbs are easy, amazingly hardy, and fast growing. They don't take up a lot of space so you can grow them fairly dense.
Have fun!

Updates on what I have been doing - not a lot.

2010-11-22T15:25:00.000-08:00

Dry Wall
Over the past couple of months I have been slowly working on my Aunt and Uncle's place doing some drywall work and some other general handyman stuff. For the most part it has turned out pretty well, even though I am no Michaelangelo when it comes to drywall repair, it is passable.

Word of warning though, if anyone ever asks if you can do drywall just say no! I had white snot for days after sanding the tape and mud. Not fun. Luckily I am almost done. But they are my Aunt and Uncle and I would do anything for them, even drywall. To the right you can see a picture of the work 90% complete, just some sanding and filling left.

Hydroponics Update

It has been a few weeks now and I have learned tons about how to grow things hydroponically. Well more like how not to grow things hydroponically. Turns out that the system I built from my limited knowledge and no experience is more of an advanced system and prone to issue if you don't know what you are doing (who knew?) But regardless, this whole thing was designed to be a small scale learning experience and in that mission the project is a great success.

The results so far:
Strawberries - out of 10 only one survives. It appears to be doing well and is growing new roots. Hopefully I can get this one to flower.

Broccoli - These are the real winners! Three of the plants are flourishing and growing a great set of roots.

Lettuce - They are still going, although not growing as fast as they should. However, I planted something like 40 in the hopes that a few would survive and so far most are still growing.

Here are two of the larger lettuces and the one on top of the channel is a basil cutting from the soil garden.

Pythium - the evil fungus and what to do about it.

2010-11-12T10:42:00.000-08:00

Well after much research it has been concluded that Pythium was the cause of my strawberry failure. The factors that lead to this outbreak were:

High nutrient water temperature. I set up my system in the fall thinking that temps would start to decline, unfortunately shortly after planting the strawberries we had record high temperatures. The nutrient water climbed into the high 70's. Read More

Transplanting established plants from soil. I did rinse most of the soil off, but I wasn't aware of the dangers of taking a plant from soil straight to the hydro system. It is imperative that if you must use plants that were in soil, that you thoroughly clean the plant from ANY organic debris. It is preferable that the plant is quarantined in fresh water and continually rinsed to make sure that all material is off. Then soak the roots in a weak (the kind you buy in the store) Hydrogen Peroxide solution. This will get rid of any remaining organic matter and remove any damaged parts of the plant. Read more

Make sure the plants aren't stressed. In my case I was overwatering the strawberries and stressed them in that way. Stressed plants will succumb to pathogens more readily than healthy plants. Make sure that the growing conditions are correct for the type of plant you are trying to grow.

Sterilize the nutrient water OR grow beneficial organisms.

Beneficial Organisms. There is a lot of conflicting research out there about how beneficial "good" bacteria and fungus are for hydroponic systems. Some say they help increase the amount of nutrients a plant can uptake and fight off pathogens. Others say that the nutrient water is already full of nutrients in plant friendly forms so there is no need for these organisms that are useful in soil horticulture. I vote it can't hurt, even if the plant isn't getting any additional nutrient benefit from the microorganisms the protection granted could be worth it.

Sterilization of the nutrient water. There are two common ways to sterilize your nutrient water:

UV. There are a variety of inline UV sanitation systems out there designed for aquariums as well as hydroponics. They range in price from $50 to $500 and are fairly effective against killing off most micro organisms. However, they may not destroy all spores. You can use UV with beneficial organisms, but must turn off the UV for a few days to allow the organisms to colonize the root systems of your plants. Otherwise you will just kill them with the UV.
Ozone. Ozone is the nuclear option. It sterilizes the water, but if used incorrectly can cause health problems to the operator and damage the roots of plants. You can not use beneficial bacteria or fungus with Ozone, it destroys everything the ozonated water touches. Also, ozone generators are costly. This might be a good alternative in a large scale system, not great for the home hobbyist.

Basically, make sure your plants are healthy, monitor your plants everyday (TDS, pH, visual inspection of the roots and nutrient water) and most importantly, keep everything clean. This is what I have learned thus far, hopefully round two will be more successful.

Hydroponics - Oh no, Root Rot!

2010-11-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well, my poor strawberry plants had a fungus of some sort and the roots were rotting. I am still trying to figure out what caused it, but I have made some changes. Turns out strawberries do not like "wet feet", ie they shouldn't be saturated.

Unfortunately I didn't know this when building the system, and set it up so that a trickle of nutrient water was constantly going over the roots. I had been using a modified NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) system. In an NFT system the plant roots must reach the bottom of the channel so that the tips are immersed in the nutrient water. However, if your roots are long enough to reach the bottom, then you can't use this system.

Under normal propagation you let the roots grow long enough before transplanting them into the NFT system. But since these plants were store bought in soil, many of them didn't have long enough root structures. Thus I was encouraging the roots to grow by running water through the net pots and down the roots. (see the previous post for more info).

I was able to save enough of the roots by soaking them in hydrogen peroxide (it eats away the fungus and dead root material) and rearrange them in the pots so that the roots make it down to the bottom of the channel where the water is. My first big failure and lesson learned. Hopefully the plants will survive, they are in pretty sad shape right now, and our little cold snap isn't helping I am sure.

Sadly I panicked when I saw the condition of the roots and didn't stop to take any pictures. Next time I will get pictures!

Finished the hydroponics system

2010-10-29T16:13:00.000-07:00

I have a cold! =) However that did give me time between my naps to work on the project. I got everything put together, tested, and planted. Here is the rundown of what has happened thus far:

This is the lettuce seedlings in the rock wool and hydroponic nutrients at day 5.

Lettuce in standard peat starters at day 7

Here is the system. It consists of a 4"x4"x72" pvc, 10 3" holes for baskets, 5 1" holes for the nutrient lines, and end caps. Next to the table is a 10 gallon tote that serves as the reservoir. There is a 3/4" black vinyl line that goes from the pump in the reservoir to a manifold. The manifold has 5 1/4" drip irrigation tubes coming out of it that then go in between pairs of plants. The line passes through a rubber stopper and then ends in a T. The T sprays each basket, watering and feeding the plants. Finally there is a drain on the right side that drains into reservoir. It is also made out of 3/4" black vinyl.

Close up of the channel. Starting from the left there are 7 strawberry plants and then 3 broccoli plants. There are two different kinds of lights.

The left side has 150w equivalent CFLs in the 2700k range. This is suppose to stimulate flowering and fruiting. Each one puts out about 2400 lumens.

The right side has 100w equivalent 6700k (daylight) range CFLs. These should stimulate vegetative growth, making the plants leaf faster, since the broccoli is much smaller. Each one of these bulbs puts out 1700 lumens.

Here you can see the nutrient water streaming out of the T. The water hits the basket splashing all around inside the Hydroton (the clay pellets). The pellets keep the roots moist, but still allows the roots plenty of air, thus reducing the amounts of roots necessary and allowing the plant to put more energy into growing.

I tried two different kinds of sprayers, but they didn't work very well.

Here are the two bastards that never worked properly. So I went with the simple but effective route.

Hydroponics Project part 1 - Backyard Hydroponic Strawberries

2010-10-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

Today I got the top part of the DIY aeroponics channel done. So far I am $60 in ($22 of which is a hole saw!) and have another $40 to go. Luckily there is a lot of left over parts, and should be able to build a second one which I left room for, for about $20. This one is set up for strawberries and it has room for 10 plants.

The lettuce tank will go underneath the aeroponics channel. There is another light bank but I have to figure out a better way to secure them. They will get full spectrum 1000 lumen CFLs, so total for 4 lights is 100 watts or so. Not bad.

I get bored

2010-10-26T05:29:00.000-07:00

So last night I was playing around with Google SketchUp, its like a cross between Autocad and Paint. You can make some pretty detailed 3d drawings and models. Its free. So after tons of research on the best hydroponic systems, I drew up this. Walker pointed me in the right direction.

It uses simple parts found in Home Depot. What isn't pictured is a resevoir (dark colored plastic tote with a pump and some tubing).

Hydroponics, what?

2010-10-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

Well, as some of you know, I love being creative and I love growing things. Florida has a great climate for growing things, however it also has a great climate for bugs, fungus, bacteria, and other plant pathogens. After failing a few times growing crops in the sandy back yard, I was talking to Walker and he convinced me to go Hydroponic.

No, I am not growing anything illegal!

Since where I am going to live in the next few months is up in the air, this will just be a trial run and experiment. After hours and hours of research on the internet (the DEA is probably watching the house as we speak) I have decided to build two different systems for two different crops.

Lettuce - If you have seen the modern marvels on farming, then you know what I am doing here. I place all the plants on a Styrofoam sheet and float it in a bath of nutrient rich water. The roots grow down into the water, the leaves grow up, and no bugs or soil problems to destroy the lettuce!

The floating bed lettuce system. I made this drawing with Google SketchUp.

Strawberries - First I have to find a source for strawberry plants, turns out that growing them from a seed takes over a year. I don't have that kind of time. So the guys at the hydroponics place recommended some online nurseries that will ship me some rooted strawberry plants. The strawberry system looks something like the system below. The right hand picture is what commercial hydroponic strawberry growers use.

Getting Started

Luckily all I need for the first few weeks is something to start the seeds with. I figured since this is an experiment of sorts, I should have a control group. I started 12 plants in little peat disks like I normally would for soil gardening. I then set up 40 starters using rock wool cubes from Grodan that were soaked in a very dilute nutrient solution from Olivia's Solutions (they are out of Calistoga!).

The peat seeds have a two day head start on the hydro seeds, so we shall see who will win the race!

Here are the pictures of the two starters:

Rock wool grow blocks on the left, peat on the right

Close up of rock wool.

Awesomeness part 1

2010-08-19T17:40:00.001-07:00

The Incredible True Story of Drew and the Jeroboam

2010-08-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

Oakland, CA
Friday, August 6th I left Sacramento around 7am and headed towards the Bay. It had been almost a year since I was last there, way too long. The San Francisco Bay area was having an unseasonable cold streak with highs expected to get into the low 70's. Having recently left the hot Southeastern summer where the lows are in the high 70s I was afraid I was going to freeze my ass off. Don't worry, it's still there.

I was headed to my god parents house, or as I like to call them “Parents: West”. They are the ones that got me into sailing and traveling and stuff (with a little proding and a lot of support from my real parents, love ya guys). So you could blame my life of adventure and leisure on them, I know I do. I called when I was about 30 minutes away to give them a heads up and make sure everyone was up and dressed before I came barging in. No answer. Odd. After driving up the goat path that is the road to their house in the Oakland hills, I find no one home.

Lets break this down:

I had just driven 2500 miles in 2.5 days, alone
I hadn't had a moments more than 5 hours of sleep a night
I smelled like a foot (who's been skiing with me?)
I had to pee!
There was no one home
I didn't have keys
Awesome!

After I got done watering the ivy (sorry Ian and Lesta, but I couldn't hold it!) I realized that I saw their car down in the village. Well, I saw a dark Outback which is the official car of the Oakland hills, but I figured it was worth a try. Boy were they surprised to see me saunter (yes I saunter) up to the patio of the coffee shop. We talked for a bit, then when back to the house where I took a shower and passed out. I was up just in time for lunch, I have impeccable timing.

Georgia and Florida have a lot of things going for them, however Mexican food is not on the list. I have yet to find a decent burrito east of New Mexico (Texas is ruled out for the fact that it is in Texas). There was only one real option for lunch: Taqueria

It was heaven to have Al Pastor as an available option. The drive was worth it for the burrito alone, and it wasn't even the best burrito I have ever had. I have to figure out how to get Pepe's out to the east coast. I digress...

The Party

A little background:

My first job in the wine industry was for Beringer, makers of fine wine and white zin. As a wine chemist there, I had to perform routine analysis on wines during production and at bottling. In order to test wine in the bottle, well, you have to take it out of the bottle. Now the testing we did only required 50 ml (a quarter of a cup), and we had to do it hourly. Most days we would have 16 to 20 bottles of wine hanging around with just a little bit taken out. One of the perks (of many) of working in the lab is that we had dibs on these bottles, just sacrifice one to fill up the others and re-cork them.

Normally it was white zin, or table wine quality wines, the bread and butter of Beringer. However! Every once in awhile we would be bottling something good, and in this case something amazing. I was able to “acquire” (with winemakers consent of course) a 3.0L bottle of 1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Street value is somewhere in the $700-$1100 range. Not the most expensive bottle of wine I have ever drank, but the most expensive bottle of wine I have ever legally possessed.

The thing about these bottles we took home is that they were unlabeled, meaning they had no actual monetary value. I use to keep all my wine in Ian and Lesta's cellar (remember them, its their party we are talking about) and they would play wine roulette, bringing new meaning to “get something red” cause that's all you knew about it. This one was a little different, it was the only Jeroboam (3L bottle) in their cellar.

The original plan was to use it for my wedding, well clearly the wine would go bad before that happens, so decided that it would be opened upon my completion of graduate school. Guess what, I have a MBA now, it was officially time to open up the beast.

Back to our story...

I just turned 34+ and completed graduate school, and the plan was to invite a few close friends over to my god parents house for a dinner party where we would free the wine from its glass prison. The cast of the shenanigans are:

Me, after chasing the dog

Myself
Catherine (aka Margret)
Andrew
Ian
Lesta
Sophie (the dog)
The Macaroni and Cheese

Catherine

After lunch Ian and Lesta left for a sailboat race, the offered me a spot, but I don't race Moore 24s I like my boats to be above the water!{the sailors get it}. I went to the store and picked up some steaks and then Drew met me and we got some more stuff at the store. What to do for sides, well it is my birthday AND graduation party, and one of my favorite foods is mac and cheese so we came up with an idea for $20 Macaroni and Cheese (recipe to follow).

Andrew (front) and Ian (back)

Now this is where the story becomes a lot like a sitcom. Upon leaving Lesta warned me that Sophie the dog was not allowed on the porch because she could jump the fence and take off. Sophie being a young dog loves to run, chase the neighbors cats, and disobey. Foreshadowing anyone? What do you think the odds are that Sophie gets out? You'd be right.

Sophie the Cheese Burglar

Drew and I unload our plunder in the kitchen and brought out the 3.0L bottle of 1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon to marvel at its awesomeness. I wasn't sure which was more awesome, the pile of bacon and cheese on one side, or the 3.0L bottle of 1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Mac and Cheese - I don't have a picture of Lesta

Drew was working on the bacon while I was making sure the cheese was up to quality standards. Then it dawned on Drew that we didn't have anything to drink. We mozied on down to the wine cellar and returned with a bottle of mystery wine. I got to the arduous task of grating the cheese with the food processor when I realized that there was cheese missing. I might not be detailed oriented, but I know when there is cheese missing. Andrew and I searched and searched and searched, but couldn't find the cheese. We checked all the usual suspects; the fridge, the dishwasher, the pots and pans cabinet, the computer room, the dining room, etc. No where to be found. About this time we notice the dog was just laying on the floor licking the carpet. Completely oblivious to us just going to town on the carpet.

Seriously? The dog pilfered a ¾ pound block of Irish cheddar off the counter. Bitch! At least she had the sense to leave the 3.0L bottle of 1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon alone.

(this is where it gets good)

I went out to the porch to get something, I can't even recall now, and the cheese burgling mutt darted right past me and was gone before I even got the door open enough to go out of it. Who didn't see this coming? Andrew and I spent the next half hour running up and down the Oakland hills chasing this cheese filled dog. I kept thinking to myself “this is how the relationship with my god parents ends, flat dog in the middle of the street”. We completely lost sight of the dog for awhile and I sent Drew to drive around looking for her.

While he was gone some local kids that I had enlisted in the hunt started yelling, they saw the dog. I got them to help me herd her, but to no avail, she is way too fast. I had a pocket full of treats at this point and tried throwing some at her, but she never saw them. A few minutes later I had Sophie somewhat cornered and just as she was about to bolt over a wall, I beaned her on the head with a treat. Using the classic cartoon trick I slowly reeled her in by throwing treats closer and closer until I could grab her collar.

About thirty minutes later I get a call from Lesta, the neighbor had called to let her know that Sophie was out and that there were strangers at her house. The neighbor knows exactly who I am, and does not like me. We had a 'incident' many years ago that she still hasn't forgave me for. I assured Lesta that everything was OK and that Sophie was safe and sound. She was safe and sound tied up to a metal pipe in the back yard to make sure she couldn't pull another Houdini. So the dog lived, I got to keep my god parents, Andrew took a scenic tour of the Oakland hills and the Macaroni and Cheese didn't burn!

Dinner

Ian and Lesta returned to a house full of amazing bacon and cheese smells with dinner almost ready. Catherine arrived shortly there after and the steaks were done with in 20 minutes of everyone's arrival.

Dinner was rib eye steaks, sautéed mushrooms, baked asparagus, and the $20 Macaroni and Cheese. Oh, have I mentioned the 3.0L bottle of 1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon? It is there in the center of the picture. It is a lot of wine. There was also a bottle of Kenwood Pinot Noir from the infamous Kenwood Pinot and hot tub night, some random chardonnay, and scotch.

Dinner was amazing and we had a great time as seen by Andrew hamming it up for the camera. After dinner we retired to the porch for cigars, scotch, and port. Aside from chasing the pups, it was a fantastic night and well worth the 2500 mile drive. Unfortunately it was short notice due to the changing circumstances of the trip and didn't get to have everyone over that I would have liked. Next time....

Saturday

The next morning was a little rough, turns out that when you achieve the year after your 34th birthday the hangover gets exponentially worse. I got up, took a shower, loaded up the car and headed north towards Mt. Shasta for the wedding. Remember Xuan's wedding? That was the point of this entire trip!

Now, I have made the journey from Chico to Oakland hung over as hell many times, a few of those might be Xuan's fault, but this was the first time I had driven towards Chico hungover. It seemed just wrong. But, you know what makes a long drive completely hung over better? In 'n Out.

I made it to Shasta safely and took a nap as soon as I got there, for the festivities were about to begin. Thats a story for another post.

Thanks for reading and please comment, my huge ego needs it!

$20 Mac and Cheese

1 box of large elbow macaroni or medium shells
1/2 lb block of a soft cheese such as Edam or Havarti
1/2 lb block of Fontina (or similar)
1/2 lb of sharp cheddar or other sharp cheese
1 small container of heavy whipping cream
1 pint of whole milk
6 slices of bacon
1/4 - 1/2 cup of flour

Cook the bacon over low heat in a large pot to render out all of the fat, remove the bacon. Start the pasta water and add the pasta when boiling.

Add flour to the oil to build the roux, cooking until just past blonde. Reduce the heat and wait a moment before adding all of the milk and cream. Bring to a boil for a few minutes to activate the flour, then let the sauce cool till it is about 150 degrees (shredded cheese piece just barely melts). If the sauce is too hot the oil in the cheese will seperate and the sauce will become grainy. With the sauce cooled, put back on low heat and slowly add the shredded cheese allowing it to fully melt before adding more. Generally a handful at a time. Allow a little bit of time between handfuls to allow the heat to recover. Once all the cheese has melted and there are no lumps of cheese in the sauce, remove the heat. It is important that you don't get the sauce too hot from here on out. Season to taste, I like salt and a little bit of curry seasoning.

Add the strained pasta to the sauce and mix thouroughly then transfer into a baking dish. Top the full baking dish with bread crumbs and the bacon and bake for about 15 to 25 minutes at about 250-300 degrees, we are just thickening up the sauce and getting rid of some of the water. After that turn it broil and brown the top for about 3-5 minutes. Serve.

I'm back! Cheyenne to Sacramento

2010-08-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

Alright, sorry for the delay in updating the stories, but it has been a crazy week (or two). I am now getting ready to go to Washington DC for a few days. Yay! 10 hours each way...

Where did I leave off?

Oh yes, Cheyenne...

Cheyenne to Sacramento: The Hard Way

Wind Turbines in Wyoming

I woke up at 5:45 in the morning, which is really early seeing as I didn't get into the hotel until 11:30pm local time. Hell, I figured if the cowboys do it, I might as well. The golf's headlights aren't the greatest and I was burning daylight.

I packed up my Star Wars pillow and got on the road intending to get off at the next exit for a morning Coke and some gas. Did you know that Cheyenne only has three exits? Neither did I, the next exit was Laramie, which was just fine.

The rest of the trip through Wyoming was non eventful until I came to one of the cheesiest, worst (and not in a good way) roadside attractions in the US: Little America

Little America

Anyone that has driven I-80 is familiar with this garish place. There has to be more than 100 signs and billboards when tallying from both directions of I-80. With that much advertising you'd expect this amazing place. A place that upon opening your car doors you here the blissful sounds of angel's song. There should be rides and oddities and interesting things to see. You'd expect a playground for the kids and endless aisles of ridiculous “I Visited Little America” schwag.

What you get is a truck stop and passable hotel. They have “attractions”, a stuffed Emperor Penguin and a 4 foot tall green cement Sinclair Oil dinosaur. That is about it. They also have a truck/travel stop with a convenience store that has all the same stuff that you'd expect any truck stop to have. It is wholly unremarkable. I even tried to find some senseless schwag to send to Dorrie, as she loves that kind of stuff. Nothing! Silly.

Now, don't get me wrong, it is worth the stop just to check it off your list. It has now been checked off my list twice, and is still worth the laugh to go. Just that the laughing is at it, instead of with it.

Utah

Park City area

After leaving Little America with out a soft serve cone (sorry Liz!), I started my trip down the mountains.

Did I mention that I crossed the continental divide twice? Yep, twice. Silly me for thinking that it was just a single line.

Park City is gorgeous, not as it is in the winter, but still pretty awesome (that would be in the dictionary use of the word). Shortly after Park City I descended down into Salt Lake City. I have been there a few times before and not in need of caffeine free soda, I pressed on. About 20 miles past SLC there was a small gas stop exit, I needed gas and it was time to eat so I pulled off. Then, what do I see to my utter delight? Del Taco!!!!!!!!!

I haven't had Del Taco in so long, and it was my first semblance of west coast culture. I may have overdone it on the ordering, but I hadn't had the food in so long! The food was exactly as I remembered it, and I am pretty sure I am good for another 4 years. =)

The Desert

I am just going to put this out there. I don't like the desert. Never have, probably never will. I like water and not dieing too much to be a huge fan of the desert. And yes, I have spent a lot of time in the desert, I have given it a fair shake, and it is just not for me. With that said, it is fascinating at the same time. Mostly as in the “why the #$(@ would any one live out here” kind of way.

If you want to be removed from society, live next to dirty trashy people, drive three hours to get to the grocery store, and deal with a perpetual layer of dust then the desert is for you. I will stick with trees. The desert does have a lot of mining going on, which allows my mind to wander to the “I bet I could strike it rich” delusions. Checking out the mining equipment is somewhat interesting, and keeps me entertained when it is available, that and the numerous prisons, otherwise it was a good thing I saved all my NPR podcast for Nevada.

The one shining star of the desert is the Bonneville Salt Flats. I took Cecil (the VW Golf) out for a little spin on the salt flats. Anyone want to know how fast he goes? Anyone? There was no one there this time, but the last time I blew through there was a team practicing for some sort of speed record. I guess everyone was at Hot August Nights in Reno, NV.

Reno

Butch's Truck

It was Hot August Nights in Reno which meant that my buddy Jeff and his family were there. Perfect timing as I pulled into Reno right at dinner time and as the festivities were really getting going. There were a lot of amazing cars, including Jeff's Step-something Butch's classic truck. Jeff and his family and I went out to dinner at this surprisingly great Italian place that was upstairs in a random building. There was live entertainment provided by a single guy singing along with old Dean Martin songs. The old dude claimed to have been a good friend of Martin's and hung out with the Rat Pack. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but his singing wasn't bad and the food was great.

Unfortunately my time in Reno was short as I had to get over the hill to Sacramento before too late. Laurel and Chris had graciously offered up their house for the night. So I said my farewells and off I went.

Sacramento

Did I mention that I was in Cheyenne earlier in the morning? Google Maps says the distance between the two is 1087 miles. I think the odometer was somewhere around 1150, regardless it was a long ways. Luckily I have spent a lot of time driving I-80 over the Sierras, as I was ridiculously tired and (mom, don't read this part) have been doing the long blinking thing.

I thought about taking my emergency 5 Hour Energy drink, but decided that I was only an hour away from Laurel & Chris's and that I really needed the sleep, staying up all night was not an option. As you have probably already figured out, I didn't die on the mountain and made it to the house in one piece. I hung out with Laurel and Chris for about an hour, everyone passed out, and I got up early the next morning and drove to Oakland. At this point I had basically made it!

Map of the trip so far.

2010-08-06T16:22:00.000-07:00

So y'all can follow along at home. Here is a nifty map of the trip so far. 4,700 miles so far!

View Larger Map

Oh my back hurts!

2010-08-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

Well gang, I did it! I covered 2500 miles in two and a half days. I haven't posted due to the fact that I have been either driving or sleeping, and mostly driving. I am still exhausted as I sit here and write this, so there will be more to follow as I manage to recover from the drive.

Day 2 Marion, IL to Cheyenne, WY
When I set my day two goal as Cheyenne, I was only half expecting to make it. Ok I actually gave myself a 20% chance of making it. It was over 1000 miles (1006 to be exact!) and is farther than I had ever driven in one day before. I do like to challenge myself though, so I went for it.

I left Marion around 8am with St. Louis in the GPS. I had made plans with Mellisa to meet up for breakfast around 9:30. Seems we only get to hang out when I am driving through her state! We met at this divey old pancake house inhabited mostly by blue hairs called Uncle Bill's Pancake and Dinner House. I got the 2x2x2x2, and you guessed it, 2 pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage. This place has some of the best pancakes I have ever had. Oxnard people, don't fret, Uncle Herbs will always be my favorite.

HOLY CRAP When linking to Uncle Herbs I just found out that it is closed! CLOSED!! Well now it is official, there really is no reason ever to go back to Oxnard. I blame ALL of you Oxnard for allowing this to happen. You shall all pay, pay I say!

Ok, back to the road trip.

From St. Louis I hauled ass towards Cheyenne. I can sum up the rest of the drive in these two words:

Corn
Soybeans

The country was beautiful. Don't get me wrong, I love the Midwest. Not sure I would want to live there, but I do like visiting. Every time I drive across the country I laugh to myself when I think of all the irate people who say this country is overcrowded. It is far from overcrowded. We just need some sort of lottery system for newcomers. When you come into the country you pull a card from a hat, that card tells you want state you get to live in. Problems solved.

When I got to Cheyenne, it was dark. There was no moon out and I couldn't see much outside of my headlights. Also, I was exhausted so finding a hotel was a little more challenging than normal. I finally find the Motel 6 and was surprised to see how many cars there were in the parking lot. I didn't even make it in the door when the lady at the desk pointed to the no vacancy sign. Seriously, Cheyenne Wyoming has no vacancy? After getting the same thing at two other motels I was beginning to think I was going to have to drive to Laramie. I finally took a chance with a non branded hotel, and they had two smoking rooms left. I took one, gross, but necessary.

When I asked why Cheyenne was full, the very nice lady at the desk informed me that it had been Frontier Days this past weekend and a lot of people stick around afterwards. Sure enough when I got up that morning at 6am the "breakfast" area was full of what I am guessing by their outfits were Mennonites. Very interesting.

That was day two of my trip, Day 3 to follow.

Car goes fast

2010-08-05T14:10:00.001-07:00

Since the car has been so well behaved I took him out on the salt flats to play. Good times. Now how to wash off all the salt? Car wash here I come.

We lost Dorrie :-(

2010-08-04T05:33:00.000-07:00

The last two days have been packed with traveling and adventures, which is why I didn't get to update this. So we will recap first, then explain what happened to Dorrie.

Birthday!

After waking up, we saw the hotel room in the daylight for the first time. Probably would have been better off leaving before dawn (I am currently writing this from a Motel 6, which is much nicer than that Ramada). They did have a hot breakfast with all the bacon you can eat. BACON!!!

Our first stop of the day was Buffalo Trace; the makers of Blantons, Buffalo Trace, Pappy Van Winkle, and Eagle Rare. The tour was great! Our guide, Jeff, did an amazing job keeping us entertained and going through the long history of the facility and the area. Very educational (in a good way!).

Next up was suppose to be Wild Turkey, but we might have stayed at Buffalo Trace a little too long so we skipped it. Put Loretto, KY in the GPS and took off down the Bluegrass Highway. Side note, when does bluegrass turn blue? All I saw was a lot of green.

The Long Road to Maker's Mark

Having been to Maker's Mark before, I knew better than trying to use the GPS to find it. Maker's is in the middle of nowhere with nothing but tiny country roads serving it. However, I was too lazy to get an actual map, and I paid for it. The GPS's name is Susan. Susan, the Kentucky DOT, and myself got into a bit of a disagreement. I sided with the Kentucky DOT and the posted signs, I should have listened to Susan. We ended up crossing the bridge pictured to the left.

Dorrie started cracking up as the road steadily became smaller and smaller and less paved as we continued on. At one point we had resigned ourselves to never getting out of the area and that we would find a nice family to take us in. Just when the road looked liked it was going to end Maker's Mark appeared out of nowhere! Turns out Susan brought us in the back way. Smug bitch. The Maker's tour was great, and we got to try their new product 46, a little more robust than their already quite robust bourbon.

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, checked out Jim Beam and then went to Churchill Downs for a tour of the facility. Then we started the trip back to Atlanta.

Dorrie: The 'real' story

While at Churchill Downs I received a call from the VW dealership. The car would be fixed by Tuesday around lunch. Great news! I can still make it to the wedding (and don't have to be killed by Xuan). Dorrie decided that she would not be joining me on my cross country trek, and I don't blame her. If we left on Tuesday, that gave us just 3 1/2 days to cover 2500 miles, just so that she could get on a plane and fly right back. Understandable...

The next problem became apparent immediately. How do we get Dorrie home? Flights were ridiculous, renting a car one way was expensive. She could take the train but would have to go through Washington, DC and it would take three days. There was always Greyhound. That became the plan, I would take her to the Greyhound terminal in Atlanta and she would catch the 3:30 am bus direct to Jacksonville. Seems like a reasonable plan, until we found out where the station was. Right in the middle of downtown Atlanta, and not the nice part of downtown.

We got into Atlanta around 12:30, and neither one of us was really thrilled about her getting on a bus in the middle of Atlanta. Since we had 3 hours to kill, I decided just to drive her down to Tifton. My parents had graciously offered at one point to meet us there and pick up Dorrie to take her back to Jacksonville. That was the new plan, and we made it to Tifton before 3:30. Dorrie set us up in the Days Inn (about the same cost as the bus fare) and I was asleep within 10 minutes of getting into the room. It was a long day.

Tuesday: Car Day
I left Dorrie at 11:30 and drove the three hours back to Atlanta where my awesome roommate Tabitha drove me back to the dealership. I loaded the car, had a little talk with her and apologized for any disparaging remarks I had made. I then get in and left the dealership around 5pm. I drove until about 11pm local (midnight eastern time) and stopped for the night in Marion, Ill. That is where I am now.

Today I am meeting a friend for breakfast as I drive through St. Louis, and then am hoping to get as close to Wyoming as possible today. Ideally I make it to Cheyenne, but that might be a bit of a stretch.

I will be updating Facebook all day, so you can follow me there.

Birthday = Bourbon Day

2010-08-02T05:55:00.000-07:00

It is August 2nd, 2010 and I just woke up. It is my 35th birthday and today we are going on a tour of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Todays itinerary looks something like this:

9:00am Buffalo Trace (Breakfast Bourbon...)

10:30am Wild Turkey

12:30pm Makers Mark (I am an Ambassador)

2:30pm Jim Beam

4:00pm Churchill Downs - the horse track!

Dorrie:

You would think that drinking bourbon at 9 am on a Monday would be a little early, but it is his birthday, and it does get us out of the Ramada Inn we stayed in last night. When we opened the door it was like a swamp the room was so humid. This morning, after having the air on crush the entire night, its like an iceberg.

Here are the pros and cons of the shower, so you can get a feel of what we are working with here.

Con: The water is brown

Pro: The water pressure is awesome, and the shower head is not at waist level.

Con: There are someone else's pubes stuck to the wall in the shower.

Con: Dorrie is pretty sure that in a few hours there will be a video available of her online, shaving her legs. The 'vent' in the corner of the shower has no fan...

Pro or Con: The water gets so hot it smells as if its literally about to catch on fire.

Oh, and there is a Sugar Glider convention going on.

Krispin and Dorrie go to White Castle

2010-08-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

Road Trip 2010 Album

This morning Dorrie and I woke up with dreams of Bourbon, quickly got ready and was in the car by 9am. Driving through Tennessee we were headed for Lexington, KY; gateway to the Bourbon Trail. Unfortunately, what we didn't count on is the fact that the entire state of Kentucky closes on Sunday.

We did manage to find a rockin' Mexican joint off the interstate. It featured a great little sign seen in the picture. Turns out you can't smoke on Sundays between 11am and 3pm. Too bad we got there at 2pm, we could have smoked two packs of cigarettes with our chips and salsa, but our poor timing killed the dream.

After arriving in Lexington around 4pm, with not a lot to do, we checked out some historic places. Saw the fort that Daniel Boone built and a mansion built in the late 1700s, then we went to the Kentucky Horse Park.

That too was 'closed', but there was no one at the entrance, so we just powered in. After breaking in and driving around, we happened upon a polor match and then went over to the grand stands to watch a little Grand Prix show jumping. I decided that I like horseback riding. Or at least the jodhpurs...(the English riding outfits) Dorrie decided she is going to send for the cats and move to Lexington.

After the horse show we were debating various activities when we realized that Cincinnati was only an hour away. I had never been to Cincinnati, but my roommate has always talked up how great Ohio is, so figured might as well add another notch to the trip.

Once we got to Cincinnati and noticed it was a bit blighted, Indiana was just around the corner, so had to go there! On the way back to Lexington we ran across the Creation Museum and had to stop and check it out. I wanted to see what kind of "science" they were using. Unfortunately the museum closes early on Sunday. I wonder why???

Headed back to Lexington for the night, it came to my attention that Dorrie had never been to White Castle! How can this be? So now our day finally had a purpose, to get Dorrie to White Castle, no matter what. It was an arduous journey to the Castle, we missed the first exit and had to drive an entire 3 miles down the interstate to the next exit that had a White Castle.

It had been quite awhile since I had me some White Castle, so I had to sample all their products. I am not going to say that doing so was a bad decision, but I have made better decisions in life.

On our way out, Neil Patrick Harris showed up on a Unicorn!!!! It was amazing! He was kind enough to pose for a picture with us, and a fellow patron was kind enough to take the picture. Before I got a chance to thank him, he vanished on his Unicorn.

California Update
Tomorrow (Monday, August 2nd (My Birthday)) we find out what is going on with the VW that we are suppose to drive across country. If it is fixable and can be fixed by Tuesday morning, I head west to California. If it isn't fixable, or is going to take longer decisions will have to be made. Keep your fingers crossed.

You can see all of our pictures thus far HERE

We gotta go somewhere, right?

2010-08-01T05:07:00.000-07:00

Since the car is in the shop until at least Monday afternoon, we have to do something. With a little bit of debate, we decided that Bourbon Country in Kentucky was the ideal place to go. So today we are heading north towards Lexington, Ky where we will visit Woodford Reserve, Buffalo Trace, Jim Beam and then hopefully make our way over to Churchill Downs in time for a tour of the track.

From there depends on what happens with the VW Dealership, I'll keep y'all updated as I find things out. Expect lots of pictures from the distilleries though!

Back in the ATL

2010-07-31T15:19:00.000-07:00

I am actually at a computer, so there should be less typos and odd auto-spell mistakes.

The wrecker driver got us back to Atlanta safe and sound, even if he did miss our exit! Got the car to the VW dealership but they won't be able to look at it until Monday. Hopefully it is a minor issue such as the thermostat and can be quickly and cheaply replaced and Dorrie and I can be back on our merry way. If it is anything more complicated we are going to be running into time constraints and some difficult decisions.

My roommate Tabitha picked us up at the car dealership and brought us back to our place.

Thank You Tabitha!!!!!

So, back in Atlanta for the night, going to go out, anyone want to join us?