I stay at the Best Western here in Yreka. Wi-fi is a bit sketchy, but the secret is they have a few hard-wired rooms. I get one of those and have assured internet access. So I can do important things like this blog post.

I got here after a long drive. Left home at 10, met client in my Redway office, stopped in Garberville to get some cash from the bank, drove to Eureka, dropped a suit at the cleaners, filed a Claim Opposing Forfeiture with the court and served the DA (maybe for the 2nd time), got my new tires at Costco while I did some shopping (catfood and cokes. To my amazement no one at home wanted anything from Costco.)

I intended to have lunch at Hue, the SE Asia restaurant on 4th 1 block north of the Townhouse. (4th and L?) but naturally they were closed to fix up the kitchen. So I went to Stantons and got a BLT and a coke (only its a Pepsi. Is there any sadder sentence in the English language than "Will Pepsi do?" ) The BLT was great. Stanton's American menu is tops. $10 with tip.

So, off to Yreka a bit late but hey its only 4 hours from Eureka. Gas in Willow Creek and a coke- big mistake. By Happy Camp I was nodding out and had to pull over for a 10 minute cat-nap. In Yreka I ate, once again, at the Purple Plum. It's close to the Best Western, and it 's not the Dennys. It, like Stantons serves American food. I had a glass of Merlot ( the Sirah is off the menu now, which is ok since they never had any) and a meatloaf dinner. For some reason after the waitress brings dinner she asks if you'd like a dinner roll. I always would, and it seems like it would just come with the dinner. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes smothered in brown gravy. Meatloaf a bit tough (didn't know you could do that with meatloaf) but a satifying dinner. Side of carrot rounds, not very tasty but I needed a vegetable in addition to the green salad drenched in 1000 Islands dressing. No desert, I was good. $19 with tip.

Route 96 is still beautiful even in dry summer. Some forest fire damage visible at several spots. The KIamath is regulated by dam releases so it remains more or less uniform in flow all summer. Looks good.

Patronas was closed, Schats was closed. The Thai place may have been open, I couldn't tell during my drive by. I needed a paper to read during a solo dinner. I had intended to eat at the Purple Thistle, newly restored to my graces, but I picked up a hitch-hiker in Garberville and doubted that he had the money to join me there, so I drove on through to Ukiah. Bottom line, I ended up at the Safeway. Often I get sandwiches there and all goes well. Tonight however I decided to get adventurous. I got "boneless pork BBQ" and "snow peas with noodles". The boneless pork was dreadful. I'm sure its scrapings off of bones they can't sell for dog food, mashed together. They do something like that with fish now and call it sea-crab or some similar misleading name. Don't get the boneless pork. The snow peas were huge and therefore stringy. I liked the noodles. Cost about $10. Never again.

Faithful readers will recall that Mapquest said it was 1.64 miles from the Best Western at the south end of Willits to the Purple Thistle. Its all level, and I had a very pleasant walk taking lot of photos (which I'd love to show you but all attempts fail). There is a great deal of public art in Willits - on the side streets you find 4x4 paintings of locals from the past, but even store logo art is often nice. I found a fountain at the hosptal but the sprinkers streaming through shade and sunllight gave me the best pix. There was an exhibit of local photographs at 71 Main St and I photographed the poster. But I could not find 71 main St. There was a music store where it ought to be, but not every building posts a street number.

Fortunately this search took place directly across from the Purple Thistle. When I entered there were two women standing behind a counter with several open bottles of wine on it.
"Is this the wine tasting?" I asked, hopefully. Alas, it was not. It was the restaurant's wine service area. A very friendly waitress offered me indoor or patio seating. The day was cooling, I made for the patio. In a short time I had a glass of Cabernet, and was reading the paper I brought, while munching on some bread and butter (a bad habit for starting dinner, but one I have trouble breaking). The menu offerings were basic (a chicken dish, a steak, a salmon, probably a vegetarian). I got the steak with a second glass of Cabernet - after all I was walking. Wonderful steak with some combo of potatoes and cheese and a hint of green vegetable. I cut off small pieces and ate slowly so that the meal would last because I was enjoying it so much.

The waitress I had was one of those women that radiate health. I really prefer that to emaciation, especially at a restaurant. I mean if the wait staff don't look like they eat anything, how much recommendation is that for the food. She was friendly and helpful, too, but she did lure me into getting a dessert and cuppa decaf. I had been doing well at avoiding those calory adders and stomach filllers at the end of dinner, but she left the dessert menu for me to look at while I finished dinner and it kept looking more enticing.
As Blind Willie Johnson said "Its nobody's fault but my own" because I did get a dessert, with icecream added, and a decaf. About $40 with tip. The end of meal extras probably added $10.

The walk back to the motel was great, but it was too dark for most photographs. I did get one of the "Willits Arch" over 101 because it is illuminated.

So, add the Purple Thistle back onto the list of recommended restaurants.

Perkos is at the south end of Willits, directly across from my room at the Best Western. It is what they call "family dining." A menu of American cuisine, inexpensive and plenty of food. The desserts will add pounds all by themselves. For lunch today I had a 1/2 BLT but the effect on my diet of the 1/2 sandwich was offset by the huge spread of "seasoned fries" which I couldn't resist. Perkos wasn't serving on dishes today, rather the food came on large plastic objects and there was a sea of fries with my 1/2 sandwich looking small and lost at the far end of the sea. It was good in that American way a BLT can be, the fries were seasoned and good alone or with ketchup. They don't have coke, but they have Pepsi, but they were out of all flavors but Cherry Pepsi. I came near to having water, but caffine called and I responded. Actually Cherry Pepsi tastes better than standard Pepsi, I found out. So I had two of them to wash down all those fries. With generous tip: $7.61.

Tonight I'm going to try the Purple Thistle for the first time in quite a long time. I was somewhat of a regular there but I had a dinner one evening that seemed totally ordinary and just put me off on the place. Lonely Planet says of the Purple Thistle (and that is such an unlikely beginning for a true sentence that I hesitate to say it) that the prices are sky-high and the service "neglectful" (is that a word?) but the place fills up every evening. Other on-line reviewers liked the food quite a bit.

Mapquest says its 1.64 miles from the Best Western to the Purple Thistle. I'm going to walk it this evening, and I'll report back on how the meal was. Till then, good reader, adios.

My alarm clock is really quite intelligent. It knows the difference between 7:45 a.m. and 7:45 p.m. This allows you to set it in the afternoon for the next morning. It also allows you to set it in the evening for the next evening when you think you are setting it for the morning. How did I find that out? I awoke at 9:11 a.m. in a motel in Novata for a 9 a.m. court call in San Rafael. I have only dressed and got going faster on one occasion. That was when my sweetie and I had made camp on the banks of the river only to discover that there was a bear in the woods about 30 feet away that was interested in us. I went from bed to car in about 15 minutes and got to court before the case was actually called (I hope - I had Montgomery notify co-counsel and the judge that I was running late).

You'll notice that there's no breakfast in this narrative. I had it all there too, I even got a cup of milk to go at the restaurant last night. So I threw breakfast, sans milk, into the suitcase for another day, and took off for court. Lunch. Well, lunch was another matter. Made it to Schats by 12:30pm for a 1:30 meeting, and had the pastrami special, lots of jalopenas in it. Really good, even if I can't spell it.