Text 14786, 95 rader
Skriven 2011-08-16 22:56:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: echo pic 752
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A lowery day, promising a slog of a journey.

Nancy and I finished off the teri drummers and the
Ruth Hawaiian bread, which I discovered to be
quite palatable toasted and smeared with butter.

Lengthy goodbyes with Nancy and Gene and Linda, and we got
on the road around 1130, mostly cloudy conditions.

Stuff we left behind included more fruit and vegetables than
we'd eaten, more bacon than we'd eaten, almost as many eggs
as we'd eaten, about 8 beers (Helen had found another 12-pack
in her ever-bountiful car trunk when it appeared we were
beginning to run out), a gallon of Ocean Spray, some jars of
jam, Yoplaits, several cans of soup (?!), almost 5 lb of
sugar, and assorted other things.

The Garmin took us way up over and yonder and to US 11, which
Nancy had warned us against. As she said, it's less attractive
and has construction; further, the towns it goes through,
notably Gouverneur, are bigger. Be that it may, this route
took almost exactly as long as hers would have. And there is
one cool feature - the database contains speed limits, which
are mostly accurate, registering changes, as far as we could
determine, within just a few feet of the signs.

There's an interesting diner in Watertown, right off the I-81
entrance, which was packed with cars; but it was still too
early to eat. When we got on I-81, the heavens opened up, and
it rained pretty much the whole way to Syracuse.

We'd decided to try Eva's, in Solvay, an east European enclave
in the western part of the city; this had been one of the
candidates for the dinner that we'd eventually had at the
Dinosaur. In order to get there, we had to negotiate a few
mildly flash flooded areas, which we did safely, only to find
it closed. Mr. Microsoft Streets suggests a number of nearby
alternatives, which we checked out: Twin Trees - closed.
Smorol's - Sauerkraut Sunday, but not until 3:30. Looked like
we'd struck out, but a few blocks away appeared to be Sam's
Chicken Land (the Garmin also found this), so we figured we
were hungry, why not.

It's your sub shop arrangement with seating for about 20.
Slightly less elaborate than what I'd hoped to take them out
for, but the smells seemed okay. Dale's eye was caught by a
hand-printed sign tacked to the wall advertising fresh haddock
Thursday to Saturday. Too bad it was Sunday. We asked if there
was still fish. Answer: yes. We ordered a haddock sandwich and
6 pieces of chicken. Everything is cooked to order, and the
girl at the fryer seemed new but very conscientious: the food
took a long time to come out.

The haddock sandwich was about half a pound, in two fillets,
in a sub. It was fried golden, the meat tender and juicy.
A winner. Six pieces of chicken were two breast pieces (the
Shipps took care of these), a thigh, a wing, and two drummers.
I had these. The chicken had been brined and consequently was
very salty though juicy; the breading was pleasantly bland by
comparison: in all, pretty palatable. On the table a foodservice
bottle of ketchup and a squeeze bottle labeled HOT HOT - this
turned out to be ketchup mixed with Texas Pete or the equivalent.

The Shipps had proposed to split a 20-oz Pepsi (about a buck).
I decided I could tolerate a bit of jitteriness so went in with
them and got the 67-oz for under $2. Pepsi is sweeter than I
remember; good for counteracting the salty chicken. I drank
half the bottle and did in fact get the jitters afterward, but
not until around midnight.

Down the Interstate to SR13 and then Elmira, with a pit stop
at McDonalds after Cortland, where I got a large sweet tea
(actually, I mixed sweet and unsweet about half and half,
which was about right). It's handy for taking pills and
combating dry mouth. More rain. Down 15 to Williamsport - this
road is being upgraded as the future I-99, with new construction
taking the southbound lanes in spots across the valley from
where they used to be, which put the Garmin into conniptions.

We rolled in for a fairly late dinner with Billy and Annie
and her brother Rob. Gumbo was the order of the day: I think
Rob made it, because the pot had stuff baked onto the bottom,
and Annie hates that. This was a mild version, with chicken,
shrimp, and kielbasa, and okra, file, and roux. One could hot
it up with Mazi's piri-piri sauce (Rob's new favorite, very
chic, subject of a Saveur magazine article a couple months ago)
or with the powdered red serranos that I have been traveling
with lately.

For dessert, Annie's lard-crusted blueberry pie with the
Penn State Creamery's Peachy Paterno ice cream on the side.

And so to bed.
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