North Coast Travelogue: 11/19-11/21

I'd read an article in the Sacramento Bee not long ago about how deer are more likely to be on the roads this time of year. It seems this is the Fall mating season so the bucks will be roving around with reckless abandon in search of Miss Deer.

I hadn't thought much about it, until reading the article. Even then, I was somewhat surprised as in the spring and early summer I'd seen umpteen dead deer along the road while driving back and forth to San Francisco. It couldn't get worse than that,could it?

I saw fewer dead deer this time around than I'd seen back then. I did finally almost hit one, though.

I was keeping the warnings about the deer hazard on my mind. Still, it surprised me when I turned a corner down around Myers Flat while heading south. A doe had jumped off the hillside and was halfway across the freeway. I panicked. Well, kinda.

She was probably less than 70 yards in front of me and, by the time I reacted, probably less than 50. I wasn't sure I could stop in time, especially with anti- lock brakes.

To make matters worse, rather than get accross the freeway, she stops and turns to go back when she's over half way to the other side. Luckily, she immediately did another about face and trotted towards the west side of the road. Then I realized I could easily manuveur around her to the left. More luck involved as no traffic was coming the other direction.

All's well that ends well.

I probably overreacted, although I'm not sure if I jammed on the brakes hard enough to lock them up if I didn't have anti- lock. I don't recall feeling the anti- locks come on.

I'm not sure if I like the anti- lock feature, or not. Most of the time the brakes seem to grab when I try to slow down at high speeds, rather than just slow me down.

Maybe I'm just getting used to them as that doesn't seem to happen as much anymore. Whether the anti- locks helped save that deer, I have no idea.
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Finally managed to follow Erik Kirk's advice and ate dinner at Tommy's Joynt, in San Francisco. He'd suggested it some time ago. Last time we tried to eat at Tommy's, it looked like there was a line going out the door. We didn't want to wait so we passed it up.

Turns out the lines are kinda normal there as this is kind of like a cafeteria: You walk in the door and the line starts there. Then, you walk along, see what you want and tell the guy or gal on the other side what to put on your plate.

Pretty quick, actually, and we actually found a seat nearby. I get the impression the place is always packed.

Fairly inexpensive, too. When we eat at Jack Tar's, at the Cathedral Hill Hotel, right across the street from Tommy's, it can cost between $20 and $30 for the two of us, and that's getting the cheaper meals. At Tommy's, we both ate for less than $20. I had the Buffalo Stew, $7.50. Connie had the Buffalo Chili, or whatever it's called, $5.50.

Not bad. I guess Tommy's will be the lunch and dinner place of choice from now on, when we're staying at the Cathedral Hill Hotel.

Oh, as an aside, some of the sales routines you run into are so predictable. First time I recall the guy at the hotel front desk bring this up:

He noticed we were "Medical Foundation Folks", or some such, and pointed out the Jack Tar Bar and Grill had a Healthy Heart menu. He gave us a brochure with the Healthy menu.

I noticed a few things on the menu I'd seen before on the regular menu. I mentioned to the wife that we should check and see how much they cost on the regular menu.

Sure enough; Most everything on the Healthy Heart menu was on the regular menu, and it was cheaper by two or three dollars on the regular menu. Tricky, tricky, tricky.