Yolk

This restaurant has the best breakfast in Chicago, and possibly the best breakfast anywhere. I stumbled on it by accident and made it my morning home for the next 4 days. I took all of my friends/co-workers there. I met the owner. I ate. I was satisfied. The end.

Oh yeah...all of the meals come with a side of pancakes. Glorious.

MDM

Cracker Barrel

If you've ever traveled through the southeast, you've likely seen a Cracker Barrel. It is also likely that you've stopped in an eaten a meal. If you have, this blog is not for you. Go about your business. Nothing to see here. If not, please read on.

The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store is a chain of restaurants that serve "Southern comfort food." The stores are typically located along interstate highways and offer a decent alternative to fast food restaurants. The restaurants serve breakfast all day, and also have a lunch menu. The outside of the restaurant has plenty of rocking chair seating for the 2 hour Sunday morning breakfast wait.

The patrons enter the restaurant through the "Old Country Store". The store is fashioned after the idea of the old country store, where one could come to buy the necessary staples of life. Or, in the case of Cracker Barrel, the unnecessary staples of life (see photo.)
Once seated, the patron can challenge his/her brain by playing a brain-teasing game with golf tees that will either make you feel like a genius or reduce you to a sniveling "eg-no-ra-moose." Be sure to wash your hands after playing. After all, you're about to eat!
The menu has a complete selection of fried foods, and some not-so-fried companions. For breakfast, I enjoy a hearty Uncle Herschel's Favorite (2 eggs, grits, gravy, biscuits, hash-brown casserole, sugar cured ham, and 1 defibrillator.) For lunch and/or dinner, I stick to a fried meat, fried okra, turnip greens, and fried coffee. I rarely deviate from my selections. If I want something different, I can just steal it from someone else's plate.
I like Cracker Barrel for several reasons.
1) They are consistent. You can always count on the meals to be prepared in a familiar fashion. An interstate traveler's dream.
2) They have round tables. What's better than a round table? In the realm of seating, nothing is. It's a very egalitarian piece of furniture.
3) Civil War-ish memorabilia on the walls. Nothing says fine dining like a bayonet hanging over your head.
4) You can make the Pentagon out of mashed potatoes.

So for all of you foreigners who rarely visit the south, do yourself a huge favor and pop into a Cracker Barrel and see what the buzz is all about!

Mmmatt.

Trail Mix

On Friday, somebody gave us 2 gallons of the most extensive homemade trail mix I've ever tasted.
Here are the contents:

Dried orange, peanut butter pretzel, regular pretzel, peanut M&M (on top of regular pretzel to prevent rolling away), Teddy Graham, Golden Graham, caramel Chex, dried peach, dried coconut, raisin, Cheeze-It triangle, wasabi pea, dried mango (my personal favorite), almond, dried apricot, caramel corn, spicy cheese string (?), hazelnut, spicy peanut, brown sugar Chex, cheddar cheese Chex, golden raisin, brazil nut, spicy cashew, spicy sunflower seed, dried strawberry, and pecan.

But wait...I just found more: dried banana, dried pineapple, and peanut butter M&M.

Thank you, mysterious 30 item trail mix provider.

MDM

Chiggers!

According to some, no creature on earth can cause as much torment for its size than the tiny chigger. Chiggers are found in low, damp areas where vegetation is rank such as woodlands, berry patches, orchards, along lakes and streams, and even in drier places where vegetation is low such as lawns, golf courses, parks, and my backyard. They are most numerous in early summer when grass, weeds and other vegetation are heaviest. Their bites produce small, reddish welts on the skin accompanied by intense itching as irritating as acute cases of poison ivory or poison sumac. These symptoms often are the only way of learning that an outdoor area is infested since chiggers are so small that most cannot be seen without a magnifying glass. Chiggers feed on a wide variety of snakes, turtles, birds, and small mammals as well as humans (me).

Now check this out. Chigger larvae do not burrow into the skin, nor suck blood. They pierce the skin and inject into the host a salivary secretion containing powerful, digestive enzymes that break down skin cells that are ingested (tissues become liquefied and sucked up). Also, this digestive fluid causes surrounding tissues to harden, forming a straw-like feeding tube of hardened flesh (stylostome) from which further, partially-digested skin cells may be sucked out. After a larva is fully fed in four days, it drops from the host, leaving a red welt with a white, hard central area on the skin that itches severely and may later develop into dermatitis. Any welts, swelling, itching, or fever will usually develop three to six hours after exposure and may continue a week or longer. If nothing is done to relieve itching, symptoms may continue a week or more. Scratching a bite may break the skin, resulting in secondary infections. However, chiggers are not known to transmit any disease in this country.

Another thing to note is that it really sucks when a chigger gets inside of the cast that is on your left hand.

Tesla

The conversion van that carries us around the country contains a 1000 watt AC power inverter. Basically, this is a device that connects directly to the van battery and allows you to power devices that have a standard household AC plug. Unfortunately, it rarely works. After several attempts at repairing the inverter, I became curious about the history of AC power. AC (alternating current) is different than DC (direct current). Without going into detail, DC power is found in automotive cigarette lighters, and AC power is what you plug into in your house. The search for AC led me to Nikola Tesla, an electrical pioneer in the early 20th century.

Tesla is widely respected as one of America's greatest electrical engineers. In addition to inventing the theories behind AC, Tesla is also credited as being the inventor of radio, He developed the AC motor, created an early version of X-rays, and experimented with wireless electricity. At the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, Tesla successfully lit light bulbs without connecting them to any wires. His ideas for AC power were looked down upon by Thomas Edison, but his format for AC power ultimately won the format war. (First AC, then VHS, now Blu-Ray. Go Tesla!) Despite fame and career success, he died in 1943 at the age of 86, destitute and in debt.

He is not to be confused with the 80's hard rock band, Tesla.



Can't you read the signs?

Riparian Zone

I've spent the past 2 weeks on the road with Dave Barnes. On the drive from Phoenix, AZ to San Diego, CA we traveled through the Sonoran Desert. Occasionally we would cross a stream or river whose banks were lined with lush green vegetation. I knew that a term existed for the green area along the bank of a stream, but couldn't recall the term. After a grueling internet search, the answer was revealed.

riparian (rĭ-pâr'ē-ən)

Relating to or inhabiting the banks of a natural course of water. Riparian zones are ecologically diverse and contribute to the health of other aquatic ecosystems by filtering out pollutants and preventing erosion.