1. I blasted in the Sube over the hill to Fred Meyer in CdA to shop for some area rugs that I hope will make it easier for Charly to walk in more parts of the house. Charly's hind quarters are starting to fail her. Her hind legs often splay when she walks on the exposed parts of the wood floors. Her legs do fine when she walks on rugs or on the lawn out back or on the carpeting protecting the back porch. So, I picked out four rugs today and put them in strategic spots in the house and, when I go to CdA for church tomorrow, I might buy one or two more.
2. After rug shopping, I rocketed over to Byrdman's house and he drove us down to the place I remember as the Blue Tooth Saloon back in about 1973. Today, it's called The Relic Smokehouse and Pub and features a full menu of smoked/barbecued meats, sandwiches, and other offerings.
For a short period of time, the Old Line Bistro in Beltsville, Maryland offered lamb sliders (not smoked). I loved them. I felt my love awaken when I saw that The Relic had smoked lamb sliders on the menu and I enjoyed them a lot. I might add another nickname to my list of things to call CdA. I already think of it as Beer Mecca and Breakfast Town. After enjoying sliders at Paragon and Paddy's and today at The Relic, I will now also refer to the Lake City as Sliderville.
I was also very happy that The Relic had one of my favorite beers ever on tap: Firestone Walker's Double Barrel Ale (DBA). It's a beer brewed in the style of an English Pale Ale. It's sweeter than American Pale Ales, more malty, featuring a nuttier, more bready taste, with subtle caramel sweetness. I don't like beer and barbecue at the same time, so I finished my beer before I ate my sliders and enjoyed one more Firestone DBA as an after dinner beer.
Byrdman and I decided to see what was happening at the Filling Station. I loved drinking a little 5 oz. glass of Fremont's Coconut Edition B-Bomb, a bourbon barrel aged winter ale. I then ordered one more tiny beer, a 5 oz glass of Avery's Vanilla Bean Stout, also aged in bourbon barrels. Loved it.
We got in some good yakkin' with Justin, Kingston native Keith Carpenter's son -- the Carpenters own the filling station -- and found out that Keith's dad is Norman Carpenter, also a Silver Valley stalwart. Byrdman and I were pretty sure Norm worked on cell repair in the Zinc Plant Cell Room. I am going to pursue further confirmation of that bit of information.
3. I forgot to pursue that further confirmation later in the evening at the Inland Lounge. Cas was busy with a lot of customers and with a sip and paint party going on in the back room. I'll pursue it soon when Cas has a little more time to shoot the breeze at the bar.
Before waltzing over to the Lounge, I joined Jake, Carol Lee, Bucky, Debbie, their mothers, D.J., and Eileen at a round table for Burger Night at the Elks. The room was packed and I found out later from Harley that tonight the Elks served over 100 burgers, a single night record. I had an awesome time.
Over at the Lounge, I got to see Seth, Abby, and Fitz before I settled into a stool at the bar next to Grebe and we had a good old long session, talking about the decades he owned the bowling alley in Kellogg. The Union Legion Lanes, later known as the Kellogg Bowling Alley, was one of Dad's homes away from home. On a few rare occasions, I used to get to go up and watch him and Mike Turner and George Linney and others bowl for Mogey's team in the Industrial League while June Turner kept score. The lanes shone, the pins exploded, and the bowling area smelled of lane polish, beer yeast, and acrid burnt tobacco from the many cans, bottles, and glasses of Heidelberg, Lucky Lager, Olympia, Hamms, Budweiser, and, at one time, Carling Black Label beer the bowlers chugged and the cigarettes they smoked.
Grebe had a lot of tales to tell about the ups and downs of his business -- it made me nostalgic and I realized that I don't know what the current bowling situation is in the Silver Valley. Are the Morning Club Lanes open in Mullan? Is there any bowling available in Wallace? I know bowling is done for in Kellogg and Smelterville. If you are reading this and know the current bowling situation in the Silver Valley, please let me know what you know.
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