On The Mother Road

We were sorry to be leaving the Parkers this morning. Beau and Harry were not feeling very well; Oscar looked very sad and we thought Ida and Perry might cry. We took a parting picture of Perry's Satsuma tree. It is loaded with satsuma oranges and he expects to harvest them in January. If we're lucky, maybe they will ripen early and he can bring a couple to us for Christmas in Mississippi.

We headed down 101 towards Ventura and then cutoff on the 126 to avoid the LA mess. Pleep and Delete dialed in the Garmin and then decided to take a nap too. They were very sad to be leaving the boys, Oscar, Ida and Perry. Pleep figured he could serve a dual purpose of monkeybutting the few bad drivers we ran into on I5 and I14 while he napped.

When we made the turn to I40 at Barstow, it was 315 miles to the next turn in Williams, Arizona for our hotel. Pleep insisted that his experience in driving Harry to the baseball game was sufficient to enable him to handle the car. We made 1 stop just outside of Barstow and pulled into Williams around 5:00 p.m. Pleep was very proud of his driving and the fact that we only stopped for 10 minutes all day. His favorite road sign of the day was Holy Moses Wash. All along I40 Delete kept spotting signs warning us to watch for Elk. He was sure he would catch a glimpse of his relatives but no luck.

The original Route 66 connected Chicago to Los Angeles. It was named in November, 1926 and nicknamed the Mother Road. The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, encompassing a total of 2,448 miles. It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song (written by Bobby Troup and performed by the Nat King Cole Trio and The Rolling Stones, among others) and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s. More recently, the 2006 Disney/Pixar film Cars featured U.S. 66. As the song says:

If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route 66!

Out west, it was replaced with I40 but you can still see parts of the historic road all the way from Barstow. Williams is located on the historic road and is the gateway to the Grand Canyon. There is a train that runs from here to the Grand Canyon and a number of historic hotels, restaurants, and most importantly pubs. Pleep wants to check out the Old Route 66 Cruiser Cafe & Brewery tonight. He's convinced Delete and Ed that he will behave himself.

We headed out to scope out the town and "cruise the loop". The Loop is a one way route through downtown Williams that takes you past all the historic buildings, the railway station and then "loops" back to the west along the train tracks. It has a very 40's/50's feel. We ended up at the Cruiser Cafe and settled into a nice booth.

Pleep insisted we needed to try several of the brews - American Pilsner and Horseshoe Bend Pale Ale. Delete really liked the vintage Coke napkin and straw holders. We think it was because the red matched his bow. Because we hadn't eaten enough beef during our stay with the Parkers, Ed ordered up the beef ribs which were described as Fred Flintsone sized.

Ed spotted the antique gas pumps on display around the cafe. Several were the same ones his grandfather's station in Allentown had - Texaco Fire Chief. Pleep noted that gas was sure cheap on these pumps. The max purchase they could handle was $9.99 and there were only 2 digits for the price per gallon.

While we were enjoying our beers, a large group (25-30) of motorcycle riders - all Harleys came in to the bar. One of the riders spotted Ed's Guinness 250 Toast shirt and stopped by to chat. It turned out that he was from Dublin. Their group had all flown into Chicago and rented Harleys. They were driving as much of the old Route 66 as they could and were heading all the way into LA. Most of them were Irish but there were also Australians, Welsh and English riders. It sounds as though their trip has been great and they were clearly enjoying the entire experience.

Time To Pack Up & Pack Out

We're sad to be leaving Santa Barbara. Ed tried to help Beau prove the Pythagorean theory but it was very hard, especially after a few Oktoberfest brews. Oscar and Delete tried to help Harry with his homework but Pleep said if there was no brew he was out. Pleep and Delete were very happy to see that Harry's reading the blog counted for his media journal. Evidently in California, if you read anything on the internet it counts for something. Fortunately, we were all glad to learn Harry was actually reading real books not just blogs.

We spent the day trying to help Ida get organized for the all sports weekend in Chicago. First the Cubs Diamondbacks game at Wrigley. Then, the trip to South Bend on the bus for the ND/Washington game. The critical items on her list were warm clothes for the boys and suitcases. Because you can't actually buy anything in Santa Barbara, we had to drive to Ventura and hit the Target. Jeans, shirts, suitcases. sweatpants etc. were all acquired. Ed managed to get everything packed into the suitcases we found.

Ed and I packed it all up. Oscar was upset to see Pleep and Delete getting everything packed up. He looked very lonely and stayed very close to Pleep during the whole pack up. Oscar is concerned that once Peggy and Ed leave he isn't going to have anyone to feed him or hang out with him. He has been glued to Ed's side the entire time. Ed thinks he may need to adopt Oscar so that he has at least one friend.

Santa Barbara Oktoberfest

We found the Brewhouse in Santa Barbara. It's a local microbrewery. They have had an Oktoberfest every year for the last several years. We really liked this year's theme - Take Me To Your Litre.

Brewhouse Brews are handcrafted right on their premises. This ensures the freshest possible beer, as the brew you drink did not have to survive a journey from St. Louis, Chico, or even Paso Robles. In fact, it has never traveled more than a few feet. They brew in small, seven barrel (201 gallon) batches. The two large copper vessels comprise what is actually known as 'the Brewhouse'. The taller of the two vessels is the mash tun. This is where the process starts. Freshly milled grain is mixed with hot water in a process called mashing. Mashing converts the starches found in grain into sugars. When conversion is complete, the resulting liquid, called wort, is transferred to the shorter copper vessel. This is the brew kettle. Steam is used to bring the wort to a boil, and hops are added. After the boil is complete, the wort is cooled rapidly and transferred to one of the five stainless steel fermenters.

Ed started with their West Beach IPA which was excellent. They also had a seasonal Oktoberfest beer plus several "guest" fest beers. The Spaten Oktoberfest and Hofbrauhaus Okctoberfest also found their way to our table. The big party is this coming weekend so everything was very fresh and we thought it was important to test things out for them.

Pleep and Delete were bummed when they found out where we had gone. They were left at home because we were just running errands and decided to check the place out in case we wanted to return next year for the party. The Parkers attended a few years ago to celebrate Ida's birthday and thought it was worth looking into again. Pleep was especially bummed out when he learned that he wouldn't be going back on Saturday to see the local surfer girls all dressed up in their Oktoberfest outfits carrying big trays of beer.

Sunday Football, Baseball, Nintendo, & Homework

Sunday should be a laid back day especially after a jam packed Saturday. The Parkers still had a very busy lineup. Pleep and Delete were very happy to start the day off with a couple of their avid blog fans - Beau Parker and Tyler Cody. They joined in the Nintendo NFL game until it was time for breakfast. It had been a long slumber party event where not much slumbering occurred.

Harry had a big baseball game.Because the ball field was so close, we let Pleep drive Harry to the game. Pleep liked his get-up and recalling his last trip to Wrigley Field thought it would be a good idea to accompany Harry to the ball field. He figured getting to hang out with the players and in the dugout would be great. Plus he thought the concessions would be even better if you were with the players than if you were in the stands at Wrigley waiting for the beer man,. When he reached the field, he found out that Harry's team was playing the White Sox. A great opportunity to monkeybutt the opposing team and pretend he was in the crosstown series. Pleep was very disappointed when Harry explained the only beverages were water or Gatorade and that no monkeybutting was allowed in Little League.

The balance of the afternoon involved a number of errands including getting the Ford F150 smog test completed. The boys had a lot of homework to do. Pleep and Delete thought they would help Beau with his because they had helped Harry last week. Pleep was too busy playing with Beau's new Santa Barbara High School baseball cap to be any real help. Delete suggested the best thing to do was to just keep hitting the delete key any time there appeared to be a spelling or grammar error.

After a great dinner at Brophy Brothers (best clam chowder anywhere), we headed home for Sunday night football. At that point Pleep and Delete decided they had had enough sporting events. Pleep said maybe Ida's bad tv was not as bad as he originally thought. So they headed off with her to catch up on the goings on at One Tree Hill, Bored To Death, and 90210. Oscar was a little put out that they had taken over his spot but he was busy hiding his new bone for the third time.

Crush Party & Beach Party

The Gainey crush party was the big event of the week. We joined the crowd at Gainey for their most popular event – a lively celebration of the Art of Winemaking! It was a great afternoon of grape-picking in the vineyard, cooking demonstrations, wine aroma demonstration, special barrel-tastings, barrel-building demonstration, the infamous BAREFOOT GRAPE STOMP, hay-rides through the vineyard, award winning Gainey wines, and a souvenir wine glass. Gainey bottled a special red wine for the crush party.

Perry jumped right into the grape stomping. He took off his shoes and started stomping. It was very similar to walking around a mud bottom pond in Mississippi. There were a number of bees buzzing around the proceedings but that didn't stop any one. Pleep took a good look at the grapes, the stomping, and the bees. He decided the best thing about it was the nice lady walking around pouting wine into everyone's glasses.

Ida took one look at the juice coming out and started looking around for a hose. She insisted Perry hose off his feet and legs before putting his shoes back on to go inside the barrel room. In the barrel room they had tapped several barrels of wine for tasting. The Pinot Noir was excellent and will be bottled in March 2010.

Pleep took a tour of the vineyards to check out the grapes that were still on the vines. He wasn't interested in the horse drawn ride through the vineyards because it was very hot and there was no shade. He much preferred staying under the trees and staying close to the bars where the Crush Party Red was freely flowing.

After all the tasting and stomping, the group had worked up a bit of an appetite. We headed back to the picnic tables for the barbeque. The bbq was their special Tri-Tip and Chicken Santa Ynez style Barbecue. There was a live band and dancing. The freeze dance was fun to watch and the crowd got into it despite the unusually warm temperatures.

The party wound up around 4 p.m. and we cabbed back to the Parker place. The Peters family came over and cooked up ribs, penne with pesto, and other great food. Eric Peters invented a new cocktail - the transfusion - which is a mixture of vodka, grape juice (not stomped by Perry) and ginger ale. At the end of dinner, the men headed to the beach with all the kids for a campout. We were happy to stay in the house and enjoy the last of the football games.

Santa Barbara Brewery

Pleep was glad to have Friday roll in. He chauffeured Harry to school and they discussed how nice Fridays were, what TGIF meant and how to spend the weekend. It was the perfect day to head to downtown Santa Barbara for a walk around and shopping. After hitting a number of stores, Pleep insisted we needed to check out Santa Barbara Brewery. He checked out the listing of their beers and saw it included an IPA and another pale ale. Then he decided to check out the process. First was the big brew tank - nice copper setup.

Next stop was the fermenting tanks and finally the serving tanks. Pleep ordered up an IPA and kicked back for a rest from the heavy schedule. It was a nice cool, dark pub and right on State Street. Everyone behind the bar was pleased to have Pleep checking things out and offered to let him go upstairs to the fermenting tanks.

Next stop was Superica. Looking at this humble street-corner shack, you'd never guess it was the late Julia Child's favorite place in Santa Barbara. She lived in Santa Barbara and was a frequent diner here. They make authentic Mexican food, homemade tortillas, tamales, etc. It is one of Ed's favorite places to eat when we visit Santa Barbara. Pleep thought the place was perfect. It reminded him of the divey beach places Zane always finds for a quick, local lunch.

Hello Guiness 250 Toast, Good Bye Bad TV

Pleep was very excited this morning because it is Arthur's Day at last and time for the Guiness 250 toast. He put on his buttons and got out the Guiness. Ed's wearing his "Make History With Me Tonight" Guiness shirt that Pleep got him from the Guiness girls. He really thought Beau & Harry would have the day off from school. No matter, it didn't stop him from toasting Arthur and 250 years of Guiness.

Pleep and Delete are very tired of the bad tv shows Ida is addicted to - One Tree Hill, Melrose Place, 90210, etc. Pleep thinks all the girls in these shows look alike and that none of them looks as though they are youg enough to be in high school. He decided to take things in hand this morning and make his patened monkeybutt move at the tv. He was very glad to see that Mississippi plays football tonight. Harry set it up to record because it is on so early (4:30) here we wouldn't see it. Baseball, homework, and dinner all have to be dealt with before tv viewing.

When we visited the Gainey winery earlier this week we tasted two new wines - Recovery Red and Recession Red. They were both great so we bought a couple of bottles of each. Pleep saw them and jumped right on the idea. He wanted to send a case to his brother in Boca but we told him they were a wine free house for the next few months. Too bad for the brother, more for us. We had one of each for dinner last night.

Another Day In Paradise

The 101 Highway was closed down for most of the morning because someone driving the wrong way ran into 6 cars and caused numerous other accidents behind the main incident. It was a good thing for us that we weren't going anywhere. No issues getting Harry or Beau to school but Ida was stuck downtown for several hours. Fortunately, she was able to head to the beach for her morning workout. Ed, Oscar & I did another nice hike on the Mesa. Pleep was very glad nothing like this happened to us while we were on the 101 heading up here.

Pleep and Delete are a little put out. They've been relegated to the bedroom while the rest of us go out or play with Oscar. We headed to the Boatyard on the beach for lunch. The real excitement of the day was going to Petco and purchasing new toys and bones for Oscar. We aren't going to show Pleep the toys because he'll just start whining or worse try and steal them from Oscar.

While we were out enjoying the day, Pleep and Delete snuck out to the chaise lounges to soak up the fine Santa Barbara sunshine. They hung out there most of the afternoon but did manage to avoid a sunburn.

When Harry came home from school, he started right in on his homework. Pleep thought it would be a good deed to help him with his English homework. Delete just thought the red cover on the Macbook went well with his ribbon. He left all the tough questions to Pleep. An example was, when is Valentine's Day? Pleep also knew the answer to "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?"

Santa Barbara - It's All Relative

Pleep loved visiting with his relatives. These guys are British. Beau and Harry acquired these guys four years in London. One of the smaller guys is Merv. We think Harry named him for Uncle Murph but changed it to Merv just to make it a little irritating. Delete enjoys being the only moose plus the only guy with a bow. The Generali red ribbon matched up very nicely in the Parker family room's red walls.

Oscar loved having a few more "guys" around to hang out on the couch with him. Delete tried to imitate Oscar's approach to laying down but his antlers do get in the way a bit. Fortunately, Oscar didn't seem to mind and he left the Generali bow alone.

Beau and Harry were very happy to have company; it provides more people to discuss and debate football and baseball issues. The Yankees are always high on Harry's radar and Monday night football is on at a very kid friendly time out here.

We started the day with a nice hike on the mesa. It was a bit foggy but the temperature was perfect. Oscar was very happy to be out hiking rather than stuck in the backyard waiting for everyone else to come home from work or school.

When Ida was finished working, we all headed over to the Gainey winery to pick up the tickets for Saturday's Crush Party and several cases of wine. Because we are members of the wine club, we also went into the private tasting room and spent a while tasting the current offerings. Ed missed the French guy who was here last time. He's one of the only French guys with whom Ed has ever had a good time.

However, Ed does have a new best friend - Oscar. The "Big O" is stuck to Ed's hip. His new favorite thing to do is to curl up right next to Ed in the chair and watch him compute. We're hoping Pleep and Delete don't get too jealous.

Leaving Las Vegas; Ventura Highwayl

After a quiet night in Vegas, we were up early to load the car, catch the free breakfast and get out of there before the morning rush hour. We also wanted to make certain we were through the Mojave before the temperatures rose. Pleep and Delete were a little put out that they hadn't seen anything except for the inside of the Residence Inn. So we headed down Tropicana Boulevard. Pleep was very excited when he spotted the Statue of Liberty because he thought that meant New York City and a trip to the Emerald Inn. He was not very pleased to find out we were not heading there until November.

We headed out of Vegas and into the Mojave Desert. By 8:30 it was already over 90F. There is nothing but sand and scrub from Vegas until Ventura. There was a brief pit stop in the middle of the Mojave. Pleep was not thrilled to be relegated to the pet area. Delete spotted the rattlesnake warning and the two of them hightailed it back to the car.

Thanks to proper planning by Delete in running the Garmin, we avoided the run into the Los Angeles and the bad traffic. We headed west out of Victorville across to Ventura where we picked up US 101. There was only a brief stretch along CA 14 where we encountered several bad drivers and Pleep had to put his patented monkey butt maneuver into play.

We arrived at the Parker house in Santa Barbara and have now fully unloaded the car. Ed's glad to be done with long drives for the next 10 days. We plan on heading to a few wineries in the next day or so.