"We Be Representing da' 253....Naw I Mean"!!!!!!

My official take on last weekend is that at both times it was so awesome, yet it could have been so much more. Tom and I both had an outstanding time and loved that we took that trip. Yet we still felt like we could have done a little bit more. But that was kind of stymied a little bit on the second day. But we'll get to that a little later. Here's kinda how it went.

We left Tacoma last Thursday afternoon. We just drove straight to Baker City, OR. for the night. Along the way, we pulled off in LaGrande for gas and wound up cruising around town a little bit just to see it. I had never really seen LaGrande outside of what little is by the freeway. And really, there's not a whole lot going on off the freeway, either (lol). Although we did see this one building with a really huge tractor in it. That got our attention for a second or two as we drove by it.

But the real fun started when we got to Baker City. For those who aren't familiar with the area, Baker City is a small town of, I would guess, around 5000 people or so in eastern Oregon. I think it's a nice little town. It's basically squeezed between some mountains on a plain. But there are two reasons why it's there. The first is that it's a decent place to stay for the night. There are alot of hotels there for it's size. And the other reason is for cattle ranching. In fact, the cattle industry is so huge in that area, they had these little pamphlets available just about everywhere you went. I took one from the front desk of the hotel. Here's part of what it says:

"Driving" cattle on the roadways from one pasture to another is an important and necessary part of the business now, just as it was years ago. When you travel in cow country, please be alert for these "beef factories" on hoofs. Baker County is "open range", which means that the cattle have the same right of way as the motorist. Unpredictable mama cows worry about their calves, especially while on the road. The cattle owners worry too and work hard to prevent accidents between cows and motorists. If you encounter a herd of cattle as you travel, reduce your speed. DO NOT honk your horn! Work your way very slowly through the herd. Often one of the riders will lead you through the cattle. Stay close and move slowly. If there is another auto in front of you, stay close to them so the cattle can't come between you. You can use eitehr lane, but move slowly and watch for oncoming traffic. Watch thosecows closely, they can dart in front of you or kick of you are too close. If a rider signals you to stop, please heed the warning.

And it just kind of goes on and on like that. They go on to tell you to be on the lookout for antelope and rattlesnakes and also invite you to eat some meat at one of the local restaurants. They even have a recipe for a stir-fry supper on the back of the pamphlet.

So we decided to accept their invitation to eat some beef and visited the McDonalds just a few blocks up the road. Whether or not the beef in their burgers was local or not, we never asked. The main thing between us was whether or not to go inside to eat or just hit the drive-thru. The line looked a little long for the drive-thru, so we decided to head inside to eat.

Which was both a good and bad idea. I can honestly say (and Tom will back me up on this 100%) that it was absolute chaos back in the working area there. The crew was arguing with each other about various things, they were screwing up order after order in the drive-thru (there were two other customers in the restaurant with us...both with complaints about screw-ups in the drive-thru) and just fucking off in general. The one girl was really nice to us when she kept telling us that she "would be right with" us. I think that was the only thing keeping us there. Well, that and all the entertainment going on behind the scenes there.

When she finally took our orders, she gave us our soda cups and went scurrying back into the fray behind her. I took my cup and went over to the soda machine and started pouring an orange drink for myself. But when I hit the "press" button, only a little trickle of the syrup came out...along with water spraying all over the place! It got the right sleeve of my leather Seahawks jacket soaking wet ("no big loss" according to Tom...lol). So I dumped out what little I had run into the cup and tried the Coke button. Same thing. Now Tom was laughing at me (lol). So I went up to the counter to try to flag down someone to tell them that their soda maching was haywire while Tom tried to get some Diet Coke with the same results I had.

After a couple more minutes, the one girl came back and I told her about the soda machine. Her face went pale as she said "oh my god! I forgot that I took the nipples off it earlier and we have to get it out of the drive-thru machine". I kinda drooped my head and shook in disbelief. Tom seized the moment and asked "did you take a lighter to them"? She answered with a confused "huh"? Tom then said "nevermind".

(Believe me......Kurt's laughing right now while everyone else has no clue as to what Tom meant....hahaha).


So after everything was squared away, we took a booth and sat down. Amazingly, our orders were correct. But we sat there eating in a stunned silence as we listened to all the bickering in the back. Stuff about screwed up orders, not putting more fries in the fryer, trying to find the nipples to put back on the soda machine, etc. Two of them were hollered at for flinging onions at each other. At one point, one of the guys got sick of it and went out for a smoke break despite the orders of his supervisor. After a couple minutes, he came back inside the door and announced "I'm going across the street. There are a couple chicks trying to pick me up". As the door slowly closed behind him, his supervisor yelled at him "but you're on the clock"!!!

And it went on and on like that. Even after we were done eating, we sat there listening to all of this unfold for another ten or fifteen minutes. In the half-hour or so that we were there, I counted seven people who came in from the drive-thru to complain about their messed up orders. But it was getting late. So we finally decided enough was enough and headed out of there. On the way to the car, Tom commented "I'm not sure I ever want to eat in there again. But I'd sure like to come back for another show some night".

The plan for the next day was to leave the hotel at 7:00am and get into Salt Lake City in mid-afternoon so we could get settled in there and maybe explore the area a little bit. But when I met Tom in the hotel lobby, he seemed kind of out of it. We checked out and got into the car. He then told me "we have to stay here for a little bit. I forgot something at home". I won't go into the details as to what it was since I've known him for 8 years and didn't even know he had this problem and I'm not sure how he would feel about it being revealed to everyone like this (although it's not embarrassing at all. Really, it's something alot of us may need at some point in our lives). But it's something he really needs for his basic survival. And, as luck would have it, there was a place in town that could help him out. But we had to wait until 8:00am for the place to open.

But due to his forgetting this thing, he didn't sleep a wink all night. He told me he just sat around in his room all night doing nothing but stay awake. So he was really tired at that point (being awake for over 24 hours straight can do that to you). But we were also getting hungry. So after a little looking, the only restaurant we found was this little place named "Linda's Cook Shack". It was just your basic local greasy spoon. But let me tell you something; that was the BEST breakfast I ever had! The eggs were eggs. But the sausage patty I ordered was thick and juicy, the bacon was, as Tom described, "as big as siding" and the hash browns were freshly made and buttered to perfection. And Tom said that the bowl of oatmeal he ate was "the best I've ever had". On our way out, we not only left a tip for our waitress, but Tom also walked up to the counter and tipped the cook some money, too. It really was just that good!

Damn good coffee, too!

So after we picked up the item Tom needed, we headed out of town. We both agreed with each other that we should visit Baker City again...just for kicks at the McDonalds and for more breakfast at "Linda's Cook Shack".

The only bad news was that we were now 2 hours behind schedule. Tom apologized a few times. But I kept telling him that it was okay and that his living was alot more important than getting to Salt Lake City early. All along the way, he kept dozing off for a few minutes at a time before waking up. I kept myself entertained by listening to the Jim Rome show and some of the various cd's I have.

We did pull off in Twin Falls, Idaho for gas. As you approach town there, you take a bridge over the Snake River Canyon. They say that you can still see the ramp that Evel Kneivel used in his failed attempt to jump across it in his little rocket ship back in the mid-70's. But we looked all over for it and couldn't find it.

We got to the hotel there in SLC at about 5:00pm. I went into my room and laid down for a few minutes to rest before taking a shower. After I was done and dressed, I gave Tom a call to his room and asked if he was ready. He sounded like I woke him up when I called (lol). So he scrambled to get ready and we headed off to the E Center for the game.

The hotel was just a few blocks from the arena. So we just walked up there. Along the way, we found a bar that we decided to go to after the game. It was called "The Puck: a bar". How could we turn down a place named after a piece of vulcanized rubber?

So we walked up to the arena and got our tickets at will call. Tom hung out there a little bit so he could wait for a friend of his who was gonna go to the game with us. I went inside, bought my popcorn and pop, and started taking pictures of some of the Alaska Aces. There are three former Seattle Thunderbirds on thier team: Justin Maiser, Barrett Heisten and Kimbi Daniels. There is also a former Winter Hawk on that squad.....Patrick Wellar. With pedigree like that, no wonder they're running away with 1st place in their division (hahaha).

Mostly, I took pictures of Maiser. Jacque asked for him specifically since her mom is a big fan of his. She also wanted me to get an autographed puck from him. But when I asked the guy at the infomation booth, he said that the bus bay was locked up and fans weren't allowed to go down there. I also asked him if there was any way I could get down to the visiting locker room door or something. He said "nope. Nobody's allowed down there. But you can get autographs of a Grizzlies player at that booth over there after the game". I really wasn't interested in that. In fact, I'm not much of an autograph hound as it is (okay....outside of the Sea Gals....lol). But after she asked, I told Jacque that I would try to get it. And I did try. I just wound up empty-handed.

Tom's friend was a 40-something woman named Michelle. She spent the last two years up here in the Tacoma area working for the county in some capacity. She was a nice woman. I also think she's the main reason Tom chose this trip over the rest of them (lol). But I don't blame him. I was teasing him the whole way down there about how he was gonna get some in Salt Lake City.

She seemed particularly interested in some of our old travels together. So we regaled her with our stories of fear and loathing. She just laughed and laughed at them. At some point, she asked us why we weren't acting like that now. Tom told her that he wasn't feeling all that good and that was the main reason. At one point, during a stop between plays, they played a rap song over the PA. Tom yelled out his famous "PLAY SOMETHING WHITE" line. She laughed at that. But the people around us seemed unusually shocked by that statement (lol).

Contrary to popular belief, it's not all that hard to buy beer and other types of alcohol in Utah. So we had our fair share of beer while watching the game. Although buying beer was alot like it is in Tri-City in that you have to go to this special booth to get a little paper bracelet confirming that you're 21.

Speaking of the Tri-Cities, former American Ryan Kinasewich scored a goal and added an assist in Utah's 4-1 victory over the Aces. The only goal for Alaska was scored by former T-Bird Kimbi Daniels. The Grizzlies goaltender was outstanding in net. He made several spectacular saves as the night went along. I really couldn't tell you much about how the teams played, though. Our tickets were down in the third row to the side of one of the face off circles. It was a good location to snap some pics of the game. But, frankly, those seats drive me nuts (lol). They're okay when the play is right in front of you. But I can't see shit when they're down in the other end. When I watch a game, I already know what happened after it happens. The thing I really want to know is WHY did that just happen. And you just can't tell when you're sitting that close.

But that's the screwed up thing about the Grizzlies ticketing website. Basically, you pick a price range where you want to sit. Then they just confirm that you bought the tickets. They don't even tell you where the tickets are so if you don't like them, you can go back and try to buy them somewhere else. We didn't even know where we were sitting until we got the tickets from will call. And since the game was a sellout, I just had to live with sitting down there.

Walking around the concourse during the second intermission, a guy noticed my Red Deer Rebels jersey and asked about it. When I told him I was from out of town, he informed me that he had moved there three years ago from Stockton, CA. "The thing I like most about this area is that you're not constantly worrying about getting shot at like you do in Stockton".

I've been to Stockton. And I agreed.

When the game was over, we went outside and Tom asked Michelle if she wanted to go to "The Puck" with us. She said that she was meeting some friends somewhere else. But the next time that Tom was in town to give her a call so she could "show you around town a little". After she said that, she winked at him. Then she shook my hand and left. I felt sooooooooo bad. Normally, it's old man Winter playing the role of cock-blocker to me. But it was the opposite this time. I apologized to him. But he said "forget about it. I'm too tired to do anything, anyway. Let's hit the bar".

And that we did.

Now in Utah, we learned that you just can't walk into a bar, belly up and start drinking. Bars there are actually clubs. And you have to be a member to get in. So when we walked inside the doors of "The Puck", the woman at the door asked us if we were members. My first reaction was "you have to be a member to get in here"? Then she said "you guys are from out of town, huh"? I said yes and that's when she explained that to me. But she offered me a temprorary 3 week membership for $4.00. That seemed reasonable enough. So I forked over the money to her. She said that since he was with me and I was now a member, Tom could come in with me under my membership. Hearing this, Tom immediately said "these guys are with us, too". At some point during my conversation with the woman at the door, he had struck up a dialogue with these three guys from Denver who were also at the game. The woman asked me "are they with you"? Luckily, my focus was sharp and I told her "yup". So I did my good deed of the weekend...I cheated a bar in SLC out of a few bucks so some guys from Denver didn't have to pay their way in the honest way (hahaha).

Now the slogan for "The Puck" is "We Love Hockey". Which they do considering all the hockey memorablia in the place. But on all but one of the screens in the bar was the NCAA tourney game between Washington and UConn. Which was fine with me. My Huskies were on and they were in a tight game. However, I quickly learned that I was the only one rooting for the good Huskies. Just about everyone else in the place (including...not too suprisingly...Tom) was rooting for the OTHER Huskies. But when Washington lost in overtime, I realized how tired Tom really was. Ordinarily, he would have made a big fuss over the fact that a team from Washington had lost and tried to embarass and humiliate me. But he didn't. He just sat there drinking his beer.

After he had a couple brews, he told me that he was really wiped out and that he was going back to his room and crawl into bed. I told him that I had the tab and off he went. Not too long after that, most everyone else at the bar left, too. So I called over the bartender (who was this smoking-hot chick) and ordered another Corona. When I was through with that one, I asked for the bill and paid it. When she came back with my change, she asked me what part of Washington I was from. "How could you tell I was from Washington" I asked her. "Becuase you were the only one rooting for them" she responded (lol).

So I told her that I was from Tacoma. She said that she had never been up there, but her brother lived here for a couple years and that he really liked it and he was thinking about moving back up there someday. Since there was nobody else there at the bar, she started telling me about her travels. She spent some time in Las Vegas a year or so ago. That's where she learned to bartend. She also tried Los Angeles, but left there after about two months. She decided to move back to SLC since "it's really not that bad".

But we just sat there for about a half-hour chatting about dumb stuff. Then I looked at the clock and realized that it was after midnight. I had to get back to the room and get to bed since we had another early wake-up call in the morning. She told me to "have a good trip" and also reminded me that I still had another 20 days left on my membership (lol). I told her I would see what I could do as I was leaving.

And that was that (lol).

We checked out of the hotel the next morning and went for breakfast at the Denny's next door. The waiter screwed up my order (lol). But I wasn't in much of a mood to argue about it. Basically, he just forgot my slice of ham in the Lumberjack Slam. But everything else was there. So I just ate what I had.

After that, we went to the mall a few blocks away so I could buy a Utah Utes football jersey and mini helmet. The store was called "Fanzz". When we arrived in there, the guy asked us if there was anything I was looking for. I told him about the jersey and mini helmet and he pointed me to the area where they were. He asked why I wanted those things and I said "I try to buy a jersey and mini helmet from the local college team wherever I go". He asked if we were from out of town and I gave him the same explaination that I had everyone else so far. Then he told me "since you're from out of town, you can buy any of the Utes hats on that rack for $15". That seemed like a decent deal, so I bought a fitted baseball hat that had a sticker price of $25. It turns out he was the owner of the store. So I thought that whole thing was pretty awesome.

Somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, Tom started shuffling through my cd bag. He found a Wu Tang Clan cd that I had forgotten I even had in there. Then a shocking thing happened; "let's put this in your player. I wanna see what it sounds like" he said. So we did. He was tripping on some of the things they were saying between songs. At the end of it, one of the Clan goes on this rant where he says "Naw I mean" alot. Tom laughed at that. Which I don't blame him for. It is kinda funny in a way.

We arrived in Boise to some rather foul weather. About 10 miles outside of town, it just started raining like mad. Then, as we got closer, the rain came down even harder. Eventually, it turned into hail. While I was trying to concentrate on the road, Tom kept trying to point various things out to me. I was wondering how he could see all of this when I could barely see out the windshield (lol).

But we sloshed our way into the hotel parking lot. After going to our respective rooms and refreshing ourselves, we headed out for dinner. We picked an old standard...the new Hooters in Boise. It was like any other Hooters out there. Frankly, I think I might be getting bored of the place. I spent most of my time in a text message debate with Emily over who would win a fight between Evel Kneivel and Chuck Norris. Tom kept asking me what we were talking about. I kept telling him it was none of his business. I sent one to Emily telling her that I couldn't believe that I spent my time at Hooters debating that with her. I finally told Tom what the two of us were talking about as we were leaving. He shook his head and asked "is Emily better than these Hooters girls here"? Just as he was asking that question, Emily sent back her reply to my last message. I looked at it, laughed and told Tom "she answered it for you". I showed him what she had written. It said "Hooters girls have nothing on me LOL".

He shook his head again and said that we were both nuts.

We went directly from Hooters to the newly named Qwest Arena. When the doors opened, we started walking in. When we got to the security guy, he opened my bag and told me that "they don't allow camera's like that inside". I told him that they let it in last year. But he whipped out this piece of paper with the Steelheads logo on it that said, in so many words, that my camera was considered "profesional quality". That got Tom all riled up. "That's a load of bullshit" he said. I just folded up the tent and started walking back to the car with my "professional" camera. All along the way, Tom just bitched and bitched about it. At first, I just shrugged my shoulders about the whole thing. But he started getting me all juiced up about the whole thing, too.

Oh yeah! For the first time on this trip and the first time since that Navigators game last summer, the "Tom & Tom Show" was about to kick into gear.

When we got back to the front door, Tom started yelling "don't bring your camera's. There's a Nazi standing there that's gonna throw you out if you even try"! As we walked past the security guy, Tom asked me "how are we gonna pay for this trip now that we can't sell those pictures of this game for hundreds of dollars on the internet"? I said "I don't know. Perhaps we can take my professional camera to a pawn shop and sell it. Maybe that'll get us a little way before we have to resort to hitchhiking". Then Tom said "maybe we can scalp our tickets. If this game is so god damned important that they won't let camera's in, we can at the very least get Super Bowl prices for them". The security guy gave us a dirty look as we walked past him.

Once inside, I turned to Tom and said "let's go to the bar for a beer". He thought that was a good idea so up we went. When our waitress approached us and asked how we were doing, Tom (inspired by that Wu Tang Clan cd from earlier in the day) answered "we be representing the 253.....Naw I mean"? She gave us a funny look and said "okay...what can I get you boys"?

For some odd reason, the Steelheads decided to hand out their end of season awards before the game. Before they announced the winner of each award, we were telling each other (loudly) that former Tacoma Rocket and Sabercat, Marty Flichel, should win that award. And each time, someone else won it. At the end of the whole thing, there were like 9 or 10 Steelheads out there with their awards. Everyone but Marty Flichel. Looking down there at all the guys who won these awards, Tom said "it's like pre-school out there. Everyone gets a little sticker star".

The Steelhead opponent that night was the Fresno Falcons. And Fresno wound up winning the game, 2-1. But much to our pleasure, the only goal that Idaho scored was from the stick of Marty Flichel. But as one last slap to the face, Marty didn't even get one of the three stars that night. "This place is bullshit" Tom commented on our way out. "No cameras, flat beer and no awards for Flichel". I guess he was right (lol).

I asked him if he wanted to hit a bar for a night cap. He told me he didn't feel like it and that he just wanted to get something to eat on the way back to the hotel. We tried stopping at a Taco Bell for a Southwest Steak Bowl (a favorite of both of us). But when we got to the drive-thru, the kid on the other end told us that they were shorthanded and it would take 15-20 minutes to process our order. That wasn't good for us. So we just hit a gas station instead and bought some chips there to munch on.

While laying on my bed watching some tv, I noticed through a little crack in the curtains that it was snowing outside. This was no more than about 10 minutes after the weather man said that it would be clear that night (lol). It didn't snow all that much, though. There was still a little bit on my car in the morning. When I pulled around to pick up Tom in the lobby, he was suprised at the snow. He didn't even know that it had snowed the night before.

We went to the Denny's next door to our hotel. And, just as the day before, the waitress screwed up my order. Once again, she didn't get me the piece of ham that came with the Lumberjack Slam. But this time, I protested a little. I also had Tom covering my back as he told her he clearly heard me order the Lumberjack slam. But she said that I didn't say that. I was pretty pissed at that point. But I decided to just let it slide. I told Tom that I was paying for the entire meal. And I simply got my revenge by not tipping her.

And that was about that. We just raced back home after that. Tom tried calling his cousin in Richland to see if they were home for a quick visit. But they weren't there at the time. So we just drove back home instead.

Like I said in the beginning...this was a great weekend. But it had that feel that it could have been so much more. Mostly it was because of his bad night on Thursday. But it was still a good time. Who knows....perhaps there will be more in a few weeks.