Road Trip 2011: CA or bust - Weekly Update

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.

Counting down to the big move

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

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

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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. 
5. 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. 
6. Have fun!

Further Reading

Maximum Yield - Indoor Gardening
Urban Garden Magazine | Hydroponic Systems
UrbanFarmOnline.com - Sustainable city living at your fingertips
Rosebud Magazine Hydroponics Lifestyle Growing And Entertainment!
The Growing Edge — Sustainable garden news, media, links and commentary for growers that are growing on the cutting edge.
The Hydroponics Blog

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

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.

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!

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

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

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

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?

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

The Incredible True Story of Drew and the Jeroboam

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

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!