Fun Stinks

Yesterday Randy and I headed out for a day of local adventure. The best part was that both events were within 15 mins of our apartment.

First, we headed to North Plains for the annual Elephant Garlic Festival.

nice parking honey

i made it out alive but later found half of a cedar branch in the car.

I have heard of elephant garlic but never actually seen it. Apparently, elephant garlic isn’t actually “true” garlic but a leek. Each clove of elephant garlic is much, much larger than conventional garlic. Each elephant garlic clove is about ¼ of a regular sized onion. I walked away with two sample cloves and I’m excited to cook with them...not sure how to cook them and with what so it should be interesting.

The festival ended up being more fun than we expected. We perused the different vendor tents selling everything from garlic spice rubs to marshmallow guns and ping pong ball shooters. We ate the most delicious fire roasted corn. The corn was cooked still in its husk and was so tender and flavorful.

classy action shot

We also tried garlic ice cream. It was interesting at best! If you ate it quickly, it tasted almost like regular vanilla ice cream. If you ate it at a normal rate, there was an overwhelming, quite nasty garlic aftertaste.

Randy's face tells the whole story...garlic ice cream...2 thumbs down!

We also stopped and enjoyed the middle aged cover band “Beat It” that was being featured at the festival. Surprisingly, they were really good and made for a fun environment. They rocked on and played covers of The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Styx, and Fleetwood Mac to name a few.

Our next and final stop for the evening was the Sunset Speedway in nearby Banks for the Gene Romero West Coast Flat Track Series.

Randy waiting in line, complete with toothpick in the mouth

Randy’s buddy from school invited us to the races. We didn’t know much about it, but I guess if you are into motorcycles, this is a really popular event. The event featured motorcycle and little mini car races. The motorcycles were fast and the heats were over quickly. The car races lasted a little longer and in my opinion were a little more exciting.

this was taken during one of the early time trials for the mini cars

opening ceremonies. all motorcycle racers were introduced. racers ranged from 13 yrs old to 50's.

I remember as a little kid pinning non-valuable baseball cards into the spokes of my bike tires, loosening one handle bar to mimic a throttle and racing circles around my driveway as fast as i could. I would try to take the corners as fast and as tight as possible while bending my inside knee down towards the cement just like real racers on t.v. On a few rare occasions i would lean my knee down a little too far resulting in major road rash on one knee. But I was tough and I was cool so of course it didn't hurt. Last night was kind of like re-living those childhood memories. I can't remember ever riding an actual motorcycle and I know absolutely nothing about cars but somehow I felt like I belonged, like I understood what was going on.

Needless to say, Randy and I had a blast at the speedway and we would go back in a heart beat!

Here are some videos of the races. Enjoy!