Still Traveling (Part 2)

I left off my last post at the end of May, as I was leaving Vermont.  Now, I don't want anyone thinking that my experience in Vermont says anything about the State, or its people.  Vermont is a lovely State, with equally nice people.  Everything is recycled or composted, everywhere you went, there were solar panels. This is a State that takes its environment very seriously.  My experience was a direct result of the work situation that I was in.  That being said, let's continue with the journey.

I left Vermont for Washington, D.C., after having emailed a couple of people that I knew in the area, asking for some help finding a place, or at least a place to stay for a couple of days while I found a place to stay (we had already started looking before leaving Vermont, but were not having any success.)  This became a VERY enlightening experience as this journey was taking shape.  I won't go into that particular diatribe here, but I can tell you that this mini-series of blog posts will conclude with, among life-changing revelations, with an entirely new definition of friendship. 

Okay, like I said, so we left Vermont for Washington, D.C, and I was excited to find a place to live, back in the “real” world again.  My new job was set to start on June 4^th, and I was eagerly looking forward to it. Looking for a place on craigslist just led to a lot of scams, and of the two people that I knew in the area, one person had already rented her son’s room out, but was trying to help me on her end, which I definitely appreciated. The other just said that her house was a mess and she was busy, so no help there. It was also the start for me in defining the word “friend”.

We entered Maryland, and the first thing that I noted was a sign for a Roy Rogers restaurant.  For those of you who have never heard of Roy Rogers, he was a very popular Western film star (with his horse Trigger and wife, Dale Evans) and singer from the 1930’s to the 1950’s, even had his own western variety show, “The Roy Rogers Show” from 1951 through 1957. He lent his name to a fast food chain of restaurants, which had awesome roast beef and fried chicken. The restaurant that I used to go to closed more than 15 years ago, so I was so surprised (and very happy!), to see it. I was giddy to try out the food again. Still good – thin sliced roast beef on a soft sesame seed bun, crispy, mildly seasoned chicken. There were new menu items, but we wanted to go back to our memories. Alas, this turned out to be our high point on this leg of the trip.

After a couple of unsuccessful days trying to find an apartment, I went to the restaurant where I was (finally!) going to be a pastry cook again. I met with the Pastry Chef and the Executive Chef, got the tour, and was even given some tips on where to apartment hunt. Armed with new energy and advice, we set out again to find a place. This resulted in even more disappointment; we couldn’t find anything under $1,500 a month where the reviews didn’t complain about rats. The final straw was a place that looked worse than housing projects in NYC. I couldn’t take anymore, and decided to turn the car north and drive to New York, to recharge, and reconnect with family and friends.

June 2018 –

I was back.  My son had been missing the city since we left in 2007, and I have to admit, that it was good to see the skyline as we made our way to the George Washington Bridge.  Being back in New York was a trip. I walked the city. 

NYC Skyline

Washington Square Arch

St. Patrick's Cahedral

We visited friends from the Bronx to Connecticut, and actually tried to see if we could make a go of living there again. I did quite a few stages in restaurants, and even got to make ricotta cheese at one of them.

  

   

I got a call asking me to cook for Cirque du Soleil which was an awesome experience (a follow up in August, asking me to work with them again in Seattle, not so much, but I’m getting ahead of myself.)

In the month that we were in New York, we also got to revisit a bunch of restaurants that we used to frequent - Nathan's, White Castle, Chickenfest (A great little neighborhood restaurant in the Bronx where we lived. Please note, the noodles, and sweet plantains with the half chicken! Yum!)

Alas, we didn't have 'friends', that we could stay with for more than a few days, and it became just too darn hot to stay in the car, so we decided to head back to Oregon and try and deal with the eviction.

July 2018 - 
As we headed to Oregon, I had a brief conversation with a former chef, and was offered a job in Bend, so we headed that way.

Rhode Island
Washington
Oregon

August 2018 - 

Oregon
Washington
Left for Idaho