| Name | Type | Where I got it |
| Moliterno al Tartufo | Sheep | Whole Foods, Grapevine (Willow Glen) |
| Brinata | Sheep | Whole Foods |
| Istara P'tit Basque | Sheep | Whole Foods |
| Caveman Blue | | Rogue Creamery |
| Tymsboro | Goat | Neal's Yard Dairy |
| Caerphilly (I remember it could be Duckett's, as opposed to Gorwydd) | Cow | Neal's Yard Dairy |
| Ardrahan | Cow | Neal's Yard Dairy |
| Gubeen | Cow | Neal's Yard Dairy |
| Coach Farm's Triple Cream | Goat | |
| Hook's Farm Cheddar (at least 10 y/o). | | Brennan's might have a private-label equivalent. |
| River's Edge Chevre, "Up In Smoke" | Goat | Rogue Creamery |
15 March 2013: Sometime last last fall, Margaret and I were visiting the Rogue Creamery. We picked up a number of our favorite Bleus, and they had a sample of Up in Smoke – a River’s Edge Chevre from Three Ring Farm in Logsden OR. We liked it, and bought a couple of 4oz balls. This is pasteurized cultured goat’s milk, smoked over maple, and wrapped in maplewood-smoked maple leaves. We forgot about it until today, somewhere between 4-6 months’ later. The cheese had mostly turned from white to a medium-dark honey-ash-brown, and Margaret was a bit concerned about some of the mold on the leaves. I am a guy, so I figured we should try it out. I like Brutal Blue from Rogue Creamery. For me, it has a clear, clean, focused “punch”. My thought at my first little taste of “Up in Smoke” was “This is the strongest and most powerful cheese I’ve ever tasted.” It was body-shaking. Awesomely good.
After tasting it, Margaret commented on how, in comparison, the “Cave Man Blue” we also had was “mild and refreshing”. Cave Man Blue is one of our top-favorite Blues – it has solid, multidimensional flavor, and crystals. Up in Smoke, aged like this, is a remarkable experience.
I retraced my outgoing route, and this time there was a recent rain as I was heading up Tuolomne Pass into Yosemite, which made some nice waterfalls.
I left the hotel in the morning and decided it would be more fun to take US 89 south and find a way to cut over to I-15 than just take I-70 to I-15.
I noticed that Highway 153 would take me from Junction UT to Beaver UT. My GPS didn’t really tell me that it was a dirt highway (I had no idea something called a “highway” could be unpaved), but I figured I’d give it a try anyway. A few miles outside of Junction there were some switchbacks, where there were a couple of guys using one the switchbacks as a launch-pad for their hang-gliders. Farther along there was occasional snow on the road, but I was comfortable thinking I could turn around if the snow became “too deep”. This road also made it to 10,000′ of elevation. Pretty drive, I’d like to come back again.
There is a chance I took highway 21 west out of Beaver to highway 130 and took that south to Cedar City, and I might have just taken I-15 since I knew it was going to be a long day of driving.
I had lunch in Cedar City, refilled my water jug, and gassed up. I headed west on highway 56, over the border into NV (where the road becomes highway 319. I think I noticed there was a national monument or something north of there, someday I’ll figure out what it was and go and visit.
I turned south on US 93, going thru Caliente again, and keeping west on highway 375. This, again, is the Extraterrestrial Highway, and I remember liking the way the cholla cactus starts small on the west side of the ET Highway and gets taller and taller the more east one goes. I recall that the vegetation changes significantly as one goes east over a pass/ridge. I also remember there was a dead cow on the side of the road on my way out, and a week later on my way back it was still there in the same bloated shape. I was curious why it had not been scavenged at all.
It was getting close to sunset at this point, and I was liking the way the sky to the west was shaping up. As highway 375 turns west toward Warm Springs NV, I pulled over to take some pictures.
I got in to Tonopa late, staying at a different hotel. They recommended somewhere else to eat, and it was probably marginally better than the place the hotel I stayed at on the way out recommended.
I left Leadville and decided to take the scenic route, so I headed south out of town on 24 to 82 west (yes, back to Twin Lakes), on up through Aspen, and on to Glenwood Springs, where I met Chris, a college classmate who was unable to make it to the reunion.
We met at the Glenwood Canyon Brewing Company, and shared a pitcher of their home-brew root beer (and I might have had some appetizers). Chris warned me that while the flavor of the rootbeer would be good, it would not be well-carbonated.
From there I headed off to the hotel (somewhere like Richfield or Joseph. Probably not Elsinore, as I would have remembered that, as I like the movie “Strange Brew”.)
If I remember correctly, on my first full day in Leadville we went out shooting, and I like to think I did pretty well, except on the .308 (I never figured out where any of those shots went). I had my first try with a shotgun and skeet, and while I missed with my first shot, I hit with the other one or two shots. It was during this “experience” that I learned that it is No Fun to shoot a shotgun with a rotator cuff injury, so I stopped. I think Amanda got in that evening, so we went out for dinner and had lots more chats.
I think we went out for a hike near Twin Lakes one day, and on another day we went up in to the hills east of town.
I spent a bit of time on Sunday looking for the Bavarian restaurant I liked in Colorado Springs. The original location had closed, so I looked for them at their “new” location on the north side of town. No luck.
I drove north to Denver, where I met a grad school classmate at KrispyKreme and picked up some donuts for Leadville. I was a bit concerned that as I got closer to Denver the temperature got closer to freezing, as it was raining and I knew that Leadville was quite a bit higher…
I headed west on I-70, got a bit of snow, and not long after that I was above the weather. I took Highway 91 (again hitting 10,000′) on the way to Leadville (which is over 10,000′). Had dinner with Jarrett, and probably did some laundry.
Woke up wicked early to meet my guide, so we could be in Canyonlands before sunrise to take pictures.
As I recall, we shot until about lunchtime. I headed north out of Moab, and filled my water bottles at the spring just after starting on Highway 128.
I stayed on 128, except I turned right on Fas-347 thru Cisco, until I joined I-70. I stayed on I-70 to Highway 9, going south (thru Fairplay) to 24, and then 24 east to Colorado Springs, to my hotel. Somewhere on this leg I hit 10,000′ again.
I had breakfast at one of the apparently two open breakfast places, then headed east out of town on highway 89 for around 9 miles and turned north on Johnson Canyon Road, very pretty, taking it north for about 16 miles until I turned right on Deer Springs Road, which was unpaved. This road was mostly OK, and Margaret would have HATED it. I had a bit of trouble on a washboard section, and slowed down. The only other rare traffic on this road was folks in their pickup trucks with ATVs in the back, or guys in camo (most with rifles) driving around on their ATVs. I noticed the clay was darker than usual, and realized it was from the recent rains. At one point the road took a sudden, big dip into a wash. I was probably going 10 or maybe 15 miles/hour, and as I was heading downhill I hit the brakes. They did nothing, and I sped up a bit as I “bounced” on the bottom of the wash and headed back uphill. Luckily the angles were such that the airbags didn’t deploy (yay!) and there was probably no way the car would be able to go *up* the way I came, so I kept going. The road didn’t get worse, but it did sometimes get narrower and steeper. In total, this leg of the trip was around 33 miles long. Toward the end of the road, there was a park or campground of some sort, and I have the (possibly true) recollection of several folks driving their pickup trucks the other way being surprised to see me in my car coming from the way I did.
Anyway, I turned left on Road 400 (Kodachrome Road) and drove north to Cannonville and Route 12, then east on 12 through Escalante, made a quick stop at the Kiva Koffeehouse, to Route 24 east, thru Capitol Reef National Park and up to I-70, then south on 191 to Moab, where I met my photography guide for dinner at (a nice Thai restaurant), and decided if I was gonna be in the area for a shoot, I might as well wake up early and take some sunrise photos.
I went east on 6 out of Tonopa to highway 375 (the Extraterrestrial Highway), to US 93, thru Caliente, then on to Highway 319 east, which turns in to Highway 56 when crossing from Nevada into Utah.
I stayed on this to Cedar City, where I had a bite to eat. I could have taken I-15 south and gotten to Kanab early, but I noticed that I could stay on the same road and take it to Highway 14 (which looked twisty and interesting) to Highway 89, and then take that road south to Kanab. I did this.
14 was very pretty – going east, there were great colors in the rocks, and the trees went from cedars(?) to something, to aspens, and there were hoodoo formations in the hills that had snow on them. There was a spot on this road that was at 10,000′ elevation.
When I got to Kanab I ate dinner at the Rockin’ V Cafe – it was, as I remembered from my previous visit here, very nice.
I have never driven thru Yosemite, and have wanted to do that for a while. This trip started at just above sea level, and the pass above Tuolomne Meadows is at 10,000 ft. Amazing place…
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