Day 1 - Loafing
Not much intellectual challenge to our first (well, truncated) day here in Ashland. We checked into our digs - a sweet little house nestled up against Ashland Creek, and I immediately felt my mom’s absence, since the three of us have lodged here for the last 3 years or so in Ashland. So, I called her and checked up on her recovery. As it happened, she’d played bridge in the morning, and was resting up.
We walked over to the Ashland Co-op and bought groceries. I perceived that, despite spending over $80 for staples, there was nothing that could remotely be called “dinner” amongst our gleanings, and followed my intuition with inquiries that led to our repast at Standing Stone Brewery, where I dined on a buffalo burger.
Following dinner, we stopped into the liquor store (hey, we had to go back to the house to put the half of Mrs. Perils’ steak sandwich that we boxed in the fridge, and the liquor store was on the way). It’s a treat to buy our favorite vodka, Crater Lake Vodka, here in Oregon - it’s cheaper than in Washington, plus there’s no sales tax here in Oregon. However, tonight I discovered a companion product that just might have to become the official beverage of Perils of Caffeine in the Evening (as always, click any photo to enlarge):
(j/k. I don’t think I could actually put something like this in my mouth)
Our lodging is set amongst a collection of little art galleries, and as we headed out for a post-prandial hike up the Ashland Creek watershed, this whacked-out Honda Civic parked in front of our complex:
It had what appeared to be a 9-hole golf course on its roof, but the golfers were not your standard country-club fare:
 |
 |
And the back end…with a sufficient slug of weed, you could stare at all the bric-a-brac in rapt fascination until you starved to death. Or until the owner moved the car (assuming that you noticed that the owner moved the car).
 |
 |
 |
As we emerged from the creek and headed back to the house, the setting sun emblazoned the west-facing hills above the town. The bump on the upper right is Grizzly Peak, and we’ll be hiking there sometime in the next few days:
Great car. The outside looks a little like the interior of our Volvo estate. Although clearly the owner designed and executed the design whereas our decor is the product of three kids and sedimentary settlement.
While I can appreciate, in theory, the idea of coffee + vodka, I agree that I would hesitate to try that stuff.
Great car. I particularly like the bumper sticker that says “never apoligize[sic] for your art”. I aspire to the level of eccentricity required to glue stuff to the exterior of your car, but after all these years the closest I’ve been able to get is a collection of jello molds that festoon the back wall of my porch. As a matter of fact, yes, it is a memorial to the jello mold building downtown. How did you guess?
Forgot to mention that if you ever find your way out to Tiger Mountain, I have a bottle of Clear Creek eau de vie de douglas fir you might like to sample.