Road Trip 2010 - Planning

"Being here; not getting there"

Carla and I are preparing to embark on our latest road trip. We'll be heading out of Portland and driving to Chicago and back. I've always wanted to drive across the mid west. Most everyone who I tell that to gives me a quizzical look; I imagine I'll understand those looks by the time we get back.

We know our place is in good hands; we've got a house sitter, great neighbors and work on our deck going on. We've got a common set of instructions with our neighbors when one or the other of us are gone.

• "If the party is loud and they won't let you in, call the cops".
• "We aren't moving. If a moving van shows up, call the cops"

We've been planning with various levels of intensity over the past few months. But we've had the maps out on the table for a couple of weeks now trying to get a handle on what we've bitten off:

To Chicago

We've driven through the west so many times that our plan is to get some distance between us and Portland the first couple of days. Once we get out into Wyoming and out of familiar territory we'll slow down to travel about 250 --> 350 miles a day mostly off the interstate. We'll be on US 30 a good part of the way out.

We are being flexible, but do have some rough milestones for getting to Chicago. Here is how the day's shape up

1. Carla picks me up at work and we head to central or eastern Oregon. We'll stay at either Pendleton or La Grande where I found a nice trackside motel.
2. We blast through eatern Oregon, Idaho and most of Utah, stopping at Echo, UT where I80 branches off from I84.
3. Drive through western Wyoming; planning to stop in Cheyenne. We hope to have a lovely drive watching the sun rise over the Rockies.
4. Head over to following US Highway 30 to North Platte; I expect we'll stop often to take train pictures. Once we get into North Platte, we'll head over to the Union Pacific visitor center. This is one of the largest rail facilities in the world; the visitor center has two viewing decks on the 7th and 8th floor of the tower.
5. More train viewing as we follow US 30 and 36 through eastern Nebraska to Bellevue (a suburb of Omaha0. Our hotel in Bellevue has excellent view of the tracks and by all accounts a terrific barbecue joint across the street.
6. We leave Nebraska and cut through the southwest corner of Iowa and into Missouri with a planned night in Hannibal. Is this where Harry Truman grew up?
7. From Hannibal we have a short drive to Springfield, IL where we'll take in the Lincoln museum and all the other sites related to my presidential relative.
8. Back on Route 66! We cut across Illinois on the Mother Road and arrive in Chicago to visit Andrew and Henriët

Chicago - The Windy City / The City of Big Shoulders

We'll have just a few days in Chicago - first order of business? laundry! :)

Some of our planned activities are:

• The Art Institute
• A boat ride / architectural tour
• the Field Museum of natural history
• Maybe a White Sox game; Cubs are out of town
• Tour the home of Chess Records
• A hot dog at Flub a Dub Chub (no ketchup!)
• Deep dish Chicago pizza
• 3 great breakfast places Andrew and Henriët know of
• Maybe some music one night

Returning Home

The focus of the return home are the sites of South Dakota and eastern Montana. We'll tour the badlands, Mt. Rushmore, and the Little Big Horn memorial. Of course no trip through the upper mid west is complete without a stop at Wall Drug!

1. We head out of Chicago late morning and head to La Crosse, WI
2. Pedal to the metal as we blow across southern Minnesota to get to Chamberlain, SD so we can have some fun
3. Chamerblain to Deadwood, going off the beaten path for a scenic drive through the Badlands of South Dakota
4. Visit Mt. Rushmore; Wall Drug and what not
5. Head to Billings taking time to tour the Little Big Horn battle site (the place of Custer's Last Stand which I remember doing a book report on in the 5th grade).
6. Billings to Missoula
7. Missoula to Kennewick, WA
8. Home

Those last 3 days are a little unfocused. But we are really focusing on our trip motto of "being there, not getting there" The vacation is the trip, not the day or week's destination. So, although we could definitely do it much faster, we want to really see it and be there.

Let's see if I can keep up daily or bi-daily posts.

Baby Back Ribs on the Smokenator

Sunday July 25, 2010

After pimping my grill by adding a couple of holes for my smoker probes, I thought I'd try out the Weber kettle grill and Smokenator. My first try yielded acceptable but not fantastic results. I think the problem was that I wasn't measuring the temperature properly; measuring at the vent rather than the grill just allowed for too much variation.

So here is how it went down. Here is a picture of the grill with briquettes in the Smokenator. It shows how the briquettes fit in.

The water pan is sitting in the disposable aluminum tray used to catch drippings. Before we get started, the pan will go in the big square hole and be filled with hot water.

Now the grate goes on top and the ribs get started

The 2 smoker probes are pushed through a bit of potato to hold them in place (as you can imagine, it wasn't my idea - I read of it elsewhere). I'm glad I made the modification. The instructions call for maintaining 250* at the upper vent; but this meant I was under 200* at the grate. In order to get the desired 225* where the food is, I had to crank it up to 300* at the vent. I also think that that large disposable aluminum tray may have affected my heat.

After 3 hours the ribs are looking fine.

Normally I do about 2 hours on smoke then apply the Texas crutch - wrap each rack in aluminum foil with about a cup of apple juice. Having forgotten the apple juice I just went for the third hour on smoke.

Then to finish, I place them on the grill, slather barbecue sauce on each side, and grill about 20 minutes

Finally to the platter

I am such a guy. I was cooking dinner while Carla was driving home today from a visit with high school buds near Yreka/Fort Jones CA. I was so focused on cooking the meat I forgot about a vegetable, or a salad. Well, I guess we could have used those potato bits. Carla whipped up a salad before we sat down.

All in all, a success.

If this looks good and you want to try your hand at barbecue. You have GOT to go to AmazingRibs.com Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn has dozens of great recipes. These ribs are from his "Last Meal Ribs" recipe. So, good they are definitely want you want for your last meal. He has a good section on how to set up your gas grill for smoking. It worked well for me.

Not just book reports. Let's talk Barbecue!

Saturday July 24, 2010

I've been keeping my resolution to read at least 8 books a year. I've finished 10 so far this year. But I'm more interested in barbecue this time of year. I've smoked pork shoulders in my Alton Brown clay pot / electric hot plate setup for a few years with spectacular results; but it is limited to one shoulder, it's not nearly big enough for racks of ribs. I've tried using my Weber Genesis to do ribs. The results are good but not great. It's hard to get much smoke from the usual techniques of putting wood chips in foil.

So, this winter, spring and early summer I had my heart set on a pellet smoker for doing some barbecue. I even went so far as renting a Mak 2 Star General for Father's Day

Too bad it was so damn wet and cool that weekend. For whatever reason I had a moment of clarity and realized it was too expensive. Instead I bought a Weber 26.75" kettle grill and a "Smokenator" attachment. This is a piece of bent steel which fits along 1 side of the Weber. You fill it with charcoal briquettes and wood and you get a few hours of nice controlled heat and smoke. Every few hours you add some more water and/or briquettes. I've used it twice so far. Once for two HUGE pork shoulders and then today for 3 racks of

baby back ribs. I was happy, but not delighted, with the pork shoulders; there were a couple of spots that were tough as leather and definitely could not be considered "pulled

pork". I think this was because I wasn't measuring the temperature properly. The trick to barbecue is low and slow; you want to maintain about 225* for about 8 hours for a small pork shoulder.

The instructions call for measuring the temperature at the upper vent. Reading up on the process, I've found many people think that the differential between the grate and the vent is too much. So, I thought I'd measure at the grate. I have a Maverick ET-73 remote thermometer which has two temperature probes that connect to a transmitter so I can monitor the temperature from my armchair in the house while I'm watching the Dodgers.

My problem was that I didn't want to snake the probe cables under the lid of the Weber where they might get crimped or disrupt the seal the lid has on the ket

tle. Maintaining airflow is critical for the Smokenator. So, I though a modification was in order.

I am not a handy man by any stretch of the imagination; but once i

n a while I get brave. I messed up a bit but overall I think it came out okay.

First I gathered my tools (well not all of them; I'd have to make 2 trips back to the garage)

• Drill
• Gauge for measuring the probes and drill bits
• Center punch and hammer (with protective glasses)
• A block of wood and a clamp
• A round file (not in picture)
• Dremel moto tool with grinder to file off the burrs (not in picture)
• Some high temp paint.

Then I picked a spot under the rim, but over grate.

Next, I laid 3 strips of masking tape over the spot (I had hoped that the masking tape would help protect the enamel). Then I clamped a piece of wood to the inside and made an indentation with a center punch.

Next, I used my newly purchased bolt gauge to measure the size of the probes, realizing that the crimped end near the cable makes it a bit wider. I picked a matching drill bit and drilled a hole.

The hole was just a smidge too small, so I went back to the garage to find a small round file in my old model railroad toolkit. I filed out the hole until the probe fit through. One hole down

I repeated the process for the second hole. I didn't need as much space for this probe so I had less filing to do.

The holes had some sharp burrs on the inside of the kettle; so back into the garage to get my Dremel tool to put on a little grinder to clean things up.

Now for the unveiling. Off came the masking tape. Uh oh. I must have done something wrong on the 2nd hole because a big chunk of enamel came off on the back of the tape.

Good thing I live in western Oregon where it hardly rains so rust won't be a problem. Oh wait, DANG - rust just might be a problem. Oh well, that's why they invented paint, right? I masked the spot and painted inside and out with some Rustoleum high temperature black spray paint.

Before following my lead, you might want to see if it was worth while and see if there are any hints from some real handy men and women out there.

I put rubbed down 3 racks of ribs and let them sit overnight for the big test Sunday.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - September

For whatever reason, I got caught up in the Wizard of Oz this fall. Carla picked up "The Annotated Wizard of Oz" at Powells for me. I don't have the book with me so don't have the editor, publisher, number of pages or all that.

It was fun to read; the characters from the movie are all there, but there are additional adventures. One of the interesting differences is the winged monkeys. The only reason the Wicked Witch of the West has power over them is she has a magic hat that allows her to command them to do her bidding three times. In the book, Dorothy gets the hat and has the monkeys help her and her pals.

I also think the book is better than the movie in how the ending holds together. The movie never made sense to me; Dorothy is running away to protect Toto from being destroyed. But when Dorothy comes back it seems her reason for leaving was different. And what was going to happen to Toto; wasn't the witch lady going to come back for him?

One interesting bit I read in the annotations was about seeing the adventure as a mythic hero journey as described by Joseph Campbell. Here is the short version of the hero myth as taken from page 30 of his Hero With a Thousand Faces.

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from the mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow men.

Dorothy does all that. She leaves Kansas in a tornado and ends up in Oz, definitely a land of supernatural wonder. She has a decisive victory over two witches and the Wizard of Oz. Her companions become leaders in Oz and then she returns home.

So, that led me to read some Joseph Campbell. More on that in the next post.

Scorecard; late August

I may have read one or more of the first three before January 1.

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns
2. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
3. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
4. Couples by John Updike
5. The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam
6. As They See 'Em by Bruce Weber
7. The first Elmore Leonard interlude (7 books)
8. Jesus Interrupted by Bart D. Ehrman
9. That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
10. Rhino Ranch by Larry McMurtry
11. Girls Like Us - Sheila Weller

The "for sure" list:

• The Wizard of Oz - L Frank Baum. I have an annotated copy; think I'll read it straight through first; then again with the annotations)
• Friday Night Lights - H.G. Bissinger
• A Briefer History of Time - Stephen Hawking

The "probable" list:

• The Fifties - David Halberstam
• Another Elmore Leonard interlude

Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller

Title: Girls Like Us (Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon - and the Journey of a Generation)

Author: Sheila Weller

Publisher: Washington Square Press

Pages: 527

Reading Dates: 8/16/09 ==> 8/31/09

I really like a couple of things about this book. First and foremost it is great to read the background behind these fantastic songs of my teen and early 20's. Second, it's fun to read about all the gossip of the life of the stars.

But what I liked is overbalanced by things that I find distracting. Reading as a man, I do not have the same feminist view of history; even realizing that filter, it seems that Shelia Weller sets the women up on pedestals and makes them into heroines; It all just seems so much about women fighting the male culture and we don't get enough of the other influences of the 60s and 70s - Vietnam first and foremost. The author disses virtually every male in the book. She goes on and on early about males marrying much younger women early on, but doesn't seem to pass that judgement on Carole and Joni when they get older and hit on young men. More that anything I see their careers as "typical" of an artist: the art means everything and everything (and everyone) has to jostle for 2nd place. Artists are narcissists.

I also got annoyed with Ms. Weillers writing style. There are too many paranthetical statements (with sometimes brackets within them [even those being starred for footnotes]). Here is a standout example writing about Joni Mitchell's song "Blue" on page 314

"Asher thought the song (which Rolling Stone's Timothy Crouse would call "beautiful[ly] mysterious and unresolved") was extraordinary. (its references to a drug addict's "needles" and Joni's proffering a she shell to her lover - John Fischbach remembers Joni giving a seashell to James on evening in L.A. - make it fairly clear that "Blues" is about James.) ...

So the sentence is "Asher thought the song was extraordinary. And then we get a whole sentence that is ONLY in parentesis.

It seems like it could have been written more directly.

Come the end of the book, I like Joni Mitchell less than I did before; talk about vain, after giving permission for the book, she didn't want to be included with 2 other artists. I learned much more about Carole King; I knew she wrote hits in the 50's but didn't know the details. And Carly I like more. Starting off, I thought that maybe Linda Ronstadt or Bonnie Raitt would have made a better 3rd. It also turns out that

The Scorecard in Mid August

Let's take a quick look at how I'm doing on my goal.

I may have read one or more of the first three before January 1.

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns
2. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
3. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
4. Couples by John Updike
5. The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam
6. As They See 'Em by Bruce Weber
7. The first Elmore Leonard interlude (7 books)
8. Jesus Interrupted by Bart D. Ehrman
9. That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
10. Rhino Ranch by Larry McMurtry

The "for sure" list:

• Friday Night Lights - H.G. Bissinger
• Girls Like Us - Sheila Weller (biographies of Carol King, Carly Simon, and Joni Mitchell)
• A Briefer History of Time - Stephen Hawking

The "probable" list:

• The Fifties - David Halberstam
• Another Elmore Leonard interlude

The "maybe/mabye not" list:

• The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffennegger (It's been on my beside table for a couple of years)
• Netherland - Joseph O'Neill. (Presiden Obama read it, but I hear it's depressing - just right for winter !)

If anyone's out there, I'm taking suggestions!

Rhino Ranch - Larry McMurtry

Title: Rhino Ranch

Author: Larry McMurtry

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pages: 278

Reading Dates: 8/7/09 ==> 8/15/09

One of Larry McMurtry's better books in the last few years is the final chapter on Duane.

It's been interesting to follow McMurtry's various characters through their lives; some of the series were good; some not so much. Really, the Berrybender narratives sucked (IMHO); when I read them I really reconsidered what the heck I found so interesting in his novels.

Following Gus and Call through their lives was a challenge because, really, how do you follow up on Lonesome Dove.

The Moving On, Terms of Endearment group was probably my 2nd favorite; but I didn't like the book where people get killed in the gas station explosion. It seemed like McMurtry was just trying to get rid of people so he wouldn't have to write about them.

My favorite story arc is the Last Picture Show, Texasville, Duane's Depressed, and now Rhino Ranch. Reading this latest novel makes me want to go back and read the 1st two books of the group.

I have three main impressions of this book; two positive and one not so much. On the plus side, it does a nice job of comparing Duane's relationships with the women in his life (past and present). We see many different sides of strong women; one of McMurtry's strong points I think. Annie, his now ex-wife who doesn't know what she wants but goes all out to get there; K.K. slater the "billionairess" woman of strong opinions who gets what she wants; Honor Carcmichael his ex therapist who is going ; Dal, the new geologist in the office who is quiet, strong but, unfortunately, not as big a part of his life as he'd like. Of course, there are hits and misses and that's where the fun is.

Another nice thing about this book is the dialogue and pacing. McMurtry really does a good job of getting people talking; the conversations are quick and witty. Things really move along; a downside of this (maybe it's just me), is the incredibly short chapters; some are less than a page long. I used to look at this as just a way to get more pages out of a short novel; but with this I see it as a method of moving things along.

My main criticism with this novel is the time scale; sometimes we jump weeks from one chapter to another; other times, just a matter of minutes. It's hard to tell when this story is supposed to take place. I was thinking of it taking place in "the present" but the last few pages show that we are looking at history. It's just a little jarring.

I haven't even said anything about the plot. The story of trying to save African Black Rhinos by moving them to a huge ranch is Texas is interesting. Of course we have to see the plight of the Rhinos dying out (including being poached) as a parallel to Duane's loneliness and isolation from his home even though he lives right in Thalia.

Overall a nice book to read; but Richard Russo has moved into the top spot of my favorite authors list.

That Old Cape Magic - Richard Russo

Title: That Old Cape Magic

Author: Richard Russo

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Year: 2009

Pages: 261

Another great Richard Russo novel. I could tell that he has supplanted Larry McMurtry as my favorite author when I had both this and Rhino Ranch on my bedside table and picked this to read first.

The first part is great Russo with great descriptions of relationships. Griffin is the protagonist and the story opens as he and his wife are traveling separately to the wedding of Kelsey, his daughter's best friend. Part 1 develops relationships and compares Griffins parents and childhood with his wife's. There is some beautiful descriptions, like this on page 117 where Griffin is looking at his daughter and her boyfriend, soon to be fiance:

"... they looked like what they were, two young people who'd waited what had seemed like forever to find each other. Now they clung tightly together in the understanding of how lucky they were, that in another equally plausible scenario they wouldn't have met, still be alone still looking"

It wouldn't be Russo without some big problems, and Part 2 gets right to it with this opening paragraph:

"How quickly it had all fallen apart. Even a year later, most of it spent in L.A. the speed of what happened after Kelsey's wedding took Griffin's breath away"

I read that paragraph, and immediately put the book back down realizing I'd have to prepare myself before diving in.

Russo ties together many relationships, so we can see the richness and complexity of life. Griffin's parents had an on and off relationship and no seeming love for Griffin as he grew up. As a result he spends his adulthood keeping his wife and daughter away from his parents. In contrast, his wife Joy had a wonderful relationship with her family, a big family and Griffin only grudgingly comes to terms with this. We also get a snapshot of the relationship between a couple of strangers in a bar; the woman (Marguerite) wanting a special evening and her date, Harold, being a total clod. Another family we see in great retrospective of a family Griffin meets on the cape one summer as a child.

In the acknowledgments, he credits (among others) his mother who had recently passed away.

One nice thing is that has a fairly happy ending. What really brings me back over and over is keen eye when exploring relationships. Two Russo books in 1 year! Bonus.

My revised list for the rest of the year

I went to Powell's Wednesday and adjusted my list slightly. I took off "The Power of Myth" because it turns out to be a transcript of the TV series. I may just NetFlix the series. But joy of joys I found a new novel by Richard Russo

1. Rhino Ranch. Larry McMurtry. Just got it from Amazon. I want to see what happens to Duane. I may need to re-read The Last Picture Show to bring myself back to speed.
2. That Old Cape Magic. Richard Russo. A new Richard Russo novel; I'll be reading that as soon as it gets here!
3. Girls Like Us Sheila Weller. A biography of Carol King, Carly Simon, and Joni Mitchell. I'm thinking it will be an interesting view of the 70's.
4. A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking. I figure I'll be lost about 1/2 way through the 1st sentence.
5. Friday Night Lights by H. G. Bissinger. I liked Three Nights in August so I thought this might be fun to read sometime in September or October
6. Some more Elmore Leonard
7. The Fifties by David Halberstam. I've read lots of his stuff and love how he makes a book out of a bunch of really good long essays about topics (and tying them altogether). This will be a good book for winter; long nights and some time off from work will give me a good chance to dive in.