Monthly Archives: April 2018
I See Bears . . .
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Jan and I left the rig about 11:20 heading up to the Katy area to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at the new Black Bear Diner there.
Although we had planned to meet at 1pm, turns out we both showed up about 12:30, thinking that we’d get our names on the list since we knew there would be a wait. And there was.
We were told about 45 minutes, but then got seated after about 25 minutes, so that was good. But what wasn’t good was the wait for our food. Apparently the kitchen was overwhelmed and it took almost 30 minutes to get our meal.
They really should have held off seating customers to allow the kitchen to keep up. This why you sometimes see restaurants on a wait, and yet there are open tables. It seems people will tolerate waiting for a table better than they will tolerate waiting for their food.
But it’s possible to say it was worth the wait. Brandi, Jan and I all got the 2 Egg Combo with Bacon, Fruit, and an English Muffin.
Really delicious Apple Slow-Smoked Bacon.
Lowell had the Machaca Breakfast Tacos, with scrambled eggs, slow-roasted beef, peppers, and jack cheese, while Landon got the kid’s Chocolate Chip Pancakes.
As I said yesterday we’ve eaten at a number of Black Bear Diners out west and it was good to see that the food is just as good as before. And Jan was happy to see that the BBD in Katy carried her favorite notepads, so she stocked on a couple.
We would have liked to have sat around for a while and talked some more, but the waiting area was still overflowing at 2:15, so we said our goodbyes, got our hugs, and headed back toward Santa Fe.
We did make a WalMart stop for a couple of things, and also to walk off breakfast. I set Runkeeper when we get out of the truck so I can track how far we walk.
One think I noticed is that Black Bear has really changed their look since they’ve moved east. Here’s what the one in Yreka looks like.
And the one in Bend OR even has bears as customers.
And here’s what the Katy location looks like.
Pretty big difference. But the food is still great.
Thought for the Day:
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Black Bears and Kindle Books . . .
Not much went on during the day. I did some web stuff and work a little on my project.
I did go outside and put my anemometer pole back up. I had taken it down when we did our RV test drive last Sunday and waited to put it back up today until I had redone the mounting.
Tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) we’re meeting Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at one of our favorite diner chains, the recently-opened Black Bear Diner up in Katy. We’ve been eating at Black Bear locations out west for years, from southern California all the way up to Bend, OR, and as far east as Las Vegas. In between were Mt. Shasta CA, Redding CA, Yreka CA, and even the original one, the Hi-Lo Cafe in Weed, CA. Though actually it’s the Hi-Lo Motel and Café . . . and RV Park.
So why is the first one called the Hi-Lo Café and the rest of them called Black Bear Diners? Well, there was a divorce involved, and so in 1995 one party moved down to Mt. Shasta, about 10 miles south and opened the first Black Bear Diner in the shadow of Mt. Shasta itself
They both have the same newspaper-like menus, and the menu items are pretty much identical, just with different names. But all the same delicious food.
The last time we ate at the Hi-Lo Café was last May right before The Great Transmission Repair. And as part of that, we ended up staying at the Hi-Lo RV Park for a couple of days.
One thing interesting about the Hi-Lo café and Weed, CA is that they consider themselves the actual beginning of the Al-Can Highway.
Now Dawson Creek, Canada might disagreed with that, but Weed makes a pretty good case.
They say that US 97 originates in Weed, CA and goes all the way up to Dawson Creek. And checking it out when we got home shows they’re right.
US 97 runs up to the Canada border at Oroville, WA and there it becomes PH (Provincial Highway) 97 and, poof!, 1400 miles later you’re in Dawson Creek. And then PH 97 runs along with the Al-Can all the way up to Watson Lake in the Yukon along with PH 1.
But when you get Dawson Creek, it’s still another 1500 miles to Fairbanks. A long trip.
This just in . . .
The latest book in Nick Russell’s John Lee Quarrels series, Mullets and Man Buns, went live on Amazon Kindle today, so get your copy before they run out of electrons
Thought for the Day:
Patience – What you have when there are too many witnesses.
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