Time for Biscuits and Gravy!

It’s Day #4 of my “Hit The Road Hungry” road trip, and I’m hankering for a good old-fashioned, all-American, road food breakfast.

You know the kind: where the gruffly-cheerful waitress keeps your coffee cup filled as you chow through a big plate of eggs, bacon, and—most important—biscuits and gravy (though in the South a mess of grits will also do).

Fortunately, an old family friend lives along my route, as I’m continuing south on California Highway 101, and she suggests meeting up for breakfast at Hank’s Creekside, an old-timey coffee shop near her home in Santa Rosa.

And yes, they have biscuits and gravy!

(I know it looks like a plate of white mush, but it was really tasty.)

Can anyone recommend a favorite biscuits-and-gravy spot? Please leave a comment and share.

About the “Hit the Road Hungry” Road Trip
I’m doing a solo road trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles, working with a company called Hit The Road that pairs people who want to take road trips with people who need their cars moved. I’m delivering a 1998 Honda Civic for its owners who are moving from British Columbia to southern California, and I’m eating my way down the west coast.

The previous posts in this series are:
When Plans for Pie Go Awry
Taco Craving
Pok Pok in Portland
Living The Serious Coffee Lifestyle in Portland
Bites By Bike, with Portland’s Pedal Bike Tours
Taste of Korea: A Taste of the Food Cart Scene in Portland
I Should Have Had the Deep-Fried Pickles
Winding Through the Redwood Forest
Ten Thousand Buddhas, One Highway Patrolman, But No Lunch

I hope you’ll continue to follow along as I “Hit the Road Hungry!”

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

Photo credits:
Photos © Carolyn B. Heller

3 comments

What does it say about my karma if the California Highway Patrol pulls me over in the driveway of a Buddhist monastery?

I’ve rolled off Highway 101 near the northern California town of Ukiah, hoping to stretch my legs at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a monastery built on the grounds of a former psychiatric hospital on the edge of town.

Wrapped up in otherworldly thoughts, I apparently notice too late that the speed limit in this world has abruptly dropped to 30 mph, and suddenly, there’s a flashing light behind me.

I don’t believe in divine intervention, but I’m grateful to whatever spirit moved the officer to wave me on with only a stern warning to watch my speed.

Slightly rattled by my encounter with the patrolman, I wander through the monastery campus, past streets with names like Mindfulness Avenue and Patience Way.

Despite the temple’s name, I’m still surprised when I enter the blocky beige building and tiptoe into the silent sanctuary. It’s covered top to bottom with small golden Buddha statues.

Thousands of them.

Thousands and thousands and thousands of delicate gold Buddhas.

(I wish I could have taken a photo, but it felt disrespectful, with two people kneeling in prayer. You can get the general idea of the Buddha statues in the temple interior here and here.)

Of course, this story has a food angle, too. The earnest young man at the temple information desk tells me that I’ve arrived too late in the afternoon for the vegetarian lunch that is served to visitors every day (except Tuesday). He says he hopes that on my next visit, I will come in time for a meal.

When I say that yes, I’d like to return to eat, he touches his palms together, ever so slightly bows his head, and far more gently than the highway patrolman, sends me on my way.

About the “Hit the Road Hungry” Road Trip
I’m doing a solo road trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles, working with a company called Hit The Road that pairs people who want to take road trips with people who need their cars moved. I’m delivering a forest green 1998 Honda Civic for its owners who are moving from British Columbia to southern California, and I’m eating my way down the west coast.

The previous posts in this series are:
When Plans for Pie Go Awry
Taco Craving
Pok Pok in Portland
Living The Serious Coffee Lifestyle in Portland
Bites By Bike, with Portland’s Pedal Bike Tours
Taste of Korea: A Taste of the Food Cart Scene in Portland
I Should Have Had the Deep-Fried Pickles
Winding Through the Redwood Forest

I hope you’ll continue to follow along as I “Hit the Road Hungry!”

About WanderFood Wednesday
Every Wednesday, you can share a photo or post about own food adventures as part of the WanderFood Wednesday blog carnival. Here’s how:

1. Post a food photo on your site.


2. Add a brief description about the photo—or a longer food-focused post—and include a link to WanderFood Wednesday.


3. Add your blog name and post title to the “Mr. Linky” form below, with a link directly to your post (not to your main blog). That’s it!

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

Photo credits:
Ten Thousand Buddhas Photos © Carolyn B. Heller
Vegetarian Restaurant Photo by spareorgan (flickr)

2 comments

This land is your land, this land is my land,
From California, to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters,
This land was made for you and me.

I can’t get this old Woody Guthrie song out of my head. Maybe it’s because I’m in the Redwood Forest!

I know this doesn’t have much to do with food, but I have to share some photos of where I am—heading down Highway 101 along the northern California coast.

I started my day in Crescent City, which is on the ocean just south of the Oregon border. I stayed at this funky motel that was perfectly preserved from the 1960s:

The whole building was supposedly constructed from a single giant redwood tree!

Yes, there was Wi-Fi, but otherwise, entering my room was like stepping back into my father-in-law’s living room.

Even the napkins that accompanied my morning coffee were deliciously retro:

Sleepy Crescent City is just a place to sleep, but south of town, I had to stop and take a photo of the Pacific Ocean as the morning sun was trying to shake off last night’s rain:

I was hoping to get to the town of Eureka in time for a late breakfast at the Samoa Cookhouse, which claims to be the last surviving lumber camp cookhouse in the western United States. They no longer feed loggers, but they do feed tourists, serving a set menu—no options—for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

But when I arrived, I was 15 minutes too late for breakfast, and instead of French toast, they were cooking up Salisbury steak.

Now I love all sorts of old-fashioned foods. I’ll dive into a plate of fried chicken or smothered pork chops or biscuits and gravy. But Salisbury steak?!? That’s a little too retro even for me…

So instead, I grabbed a quick bite from the North Coast Co-op, a locally-owned, Whole Foods-like market, and kept heading south toward the Avenue of the Giants, a 30-mile route past some of region’s the tallest redwood trees.

The weather unfortunately turned kind of gloomy—it even started to hail for a few minutes—but these trees are big!

The little Honda Civic I’m delivering to Los Angeles next to the giant redwoods…

Humming: From the redwood forest…

Back to the regularly scheduled food programming soon!

Have you done this trip through the Redwood Forest? What were the highlights for you? And should I have stayed for the Salisbury steak? Please let a comment and let us know.

About the “Hit the Road Hungry” Road Trip
I’m doing a solo road trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles, working with a company called Hit The Road that pairs people who want to take road trips with people who need their cars moved. I’m delivering a forest green 1998 Honda Civic for its owners who are moving from British Columbia to southern California, and I’m eating my way down the west coast.

The previous posts in this series are:
When Plans for Pie Go Awry
Taco Craving
Pok Pok in Portland
Living The Serious Coffee Lifestyle in Portland
Bites By Bike, with Portland’s Pedal Bike Tours
Taste of Korea: A Taste of the Food Cart Scene in Portland
I Should Have Had the Deep-Fried Pickles

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

Photo credits:
Samoa Cookhouse photo by p_linehan (flickr)
All other photos © Carolyn B. Heller

2 comments