http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3503006

Need I say more? Other than, Fuck Yes!

It’s been a pretty hectic last few days. We are home, having driven 3,684 miles.

We didn’t have a hotel reservation for the two nights in Vancouver, so I opted for the River Rock casino resort, as it advertised the largest poker room in Canada. I also thought it was near downtown Vancouver, but was actually more in the suburbs.

Not a problem, though. It was only a few miles into the middle of the city. We spent most of Thursday walking around the west end, then ended the evening with a meal at the Fish House at Stanley Park. It was pretty good — Laura’s crab cakes were amazing.

I don’t think it could have been a much more beautiful day on Thursday, either. It was around 75 and sunny, no humidity. Basically, perfect weather.

I sieved back $800 of my poker money to the mostly sharp card players at the poker room, as well. No big deal, I still ended up ahead overall on poker for the week.

Friday morning finally arrived, which signaled the start of the drive back home. We aimed for somewhere in Montana.

That turned out to be Bozeman. We arrived around midnight after about 14 hours on the road. An overpriced Super 8 was our choice for sleep (it was almost as much as the good deal we had gotten on priceline for the Hyatt in SF).

Saturday morning was business-like — hop in the car, and go. Ten hours later, we’re back in Broomfield.

Overall, it was a pretty silly drive, something I will never try again. But I saw places that I will probably never see again, and it was a breathtaking drive for a large part of it.

The drive from the Bay area Tuesday was non-eventful. Some smoky areas from fires were a small nuisance, but overall not a problem.

We did enjoy a fine lunch along the way in Weed, Ca., at the Hi-Lo Cafe, as well as a fine view of Mount Shasta.

The goal was to make it to the Portland area, but it was going to be so late at night, that we decided to stay at a casino hotel about an hour southwest of Portland, and play poker. I was lucky to walk away after a few hours with $1200 profit — needless to say, a good idea to stop and play some cards.

Wednesday morning, we set out to make Vancouver, and we have arrived in Canada. Again, nothing eventful, other than 4 PM traffic in Seattle was slightly annoying. It’s truly a gorgeous drive through western Washington, though.

Thursday and Friday we are staying at River Rock, which I was led to believe was located downtown, but instead is in the suburbs. We’ll make the most of it.

Finally have a few minutes to write on the trip so far.

We left Saturday morning on schedule, drove roughly 800 miles to Winnemucca, Nevada. It’s a small town in the middle of the northern Nevada desert, and we were lucky to get a decent room at a Days Inn. It was around 10pm when we rolled in. I decided to scope out a poker room, with the idea in mind that there might be some blowhard locals to take some money from.

Shockingly, I was pretty much correct. There was a 1-2 no-limit game going, and most of the players were terrible. I walked away up $250.

Sunday morning we ate a delicious breakfast at the Griddle, across the street from the motel. I ordered Rosie’s French Toast — a halved croissant cooked like French toast, and it was really good. Never had anything like it.

After five hours we arrived in San Francisco. Laura was not feeling well, so we decided to go see Hellboy 2.

Monday was SFMOMA day. Frida Kohler was the main exhibit, and it was very cool to see it. Before the museum, we ate at Thirsty Bear, a microbrewery serving Spanish food. Laura’s garlic fries were really tasty, and my chicken salad sandwich was also pretty darn great.

We met up with Nick afterwards, went to the Latin American for some drinks, and met his girlfriend Sarah. She’s a very cool chick. They suggested an Indian place for dinner, and it was marvelous. Vegetarian samosas never tasted so good. Drinks followed at the Lone Palm, another fun place to have a couple beverages.

Today (Tuesday) we forge ahead to Portland. We are still unsure if we’ll take the scenic route up the 101 (two hours longer). Or if we’ll even go the full distance to Portland. Details to follow in the coming days!

I write this with “Gut Feeling” by Devo playing. The first two minutes of this song make me want to get up and do something. I love it.

Anyways, so I’m doing something over the next 8 days. I have been wanting to travel to the Pacific northwest for many, many years, but have never had the time or money or someone who wanted to go as bad as I do.

Tomorrow morning, Laura and I will take off for San Francisco. After a couple days there, we’ll head up to Portland, and then onto Vancouver. I am most interested in Vancouver, but all of the places along the way I’m eagerly anticipating. And I’ll more than likely get a chance to spend an evening or two with Nick.

I plan on posting as much as possible here over the next week or so — I’m excited about this!