[DeTomaso] Pandora's Perils, part XI: There's no place like home

[Christopher Kimball]

Since Clarke and Wilma had driven to Moses Lake Tuesday, that evening I spent dinner at an A&W Root Beer hamburger stand across from the Comfort Inn in Hermiston, Oregon.  A&W has always been one of my favorite restaurant chains.  I had a delicious chicken sandwich and their version of a milkshake, which in this case was orange pop blended with vanilla ice cream.  Fantastic!  I went back to my hotel room and enjoyed a dessert of chocolate-malted Easter eggs, chocolate Digestive biscuits and milk.  All in all, very satisfying!
Wednesday morning (yesterday) I decided to sleep in, except my stupid cell phone went off early.  Someone was excited to tell me about how much lower my home mortgage interest could be.  I was really ticked off--since when do solicitors start calling cell phone numbers?  I laid in bed staring at the ceiling for a while, and then decided to get up.
It was too late for the complimentary breakfast, so I simply added my magic powder to water and drank that, then ate a few more chocolate, Digestive biscuits and finished off my milk.  I then drank a chocolate milk I had purchased Tuesday night from the convenience store attached to the A&W Root Beer stand.  I guess one could argue the chocolate milk was the liquid equivalent of Froot Loops.  Probably about as nutritious, too.  It always cracks me up how the manufacturers of what is commonly referred to as "junk food" try to minimize the amount of calories, sugar, sodium and chemicals one is actually ingesting while eating or drinking the stuff.  They do this by claiming that there are a certain number of "servings per container" instead of counting the total.  For example, anyone over the height of 4' 2" would drink the entire bottle of chocolate milke, such as the one I had as part of my breakfast, in one go, yet the manufacturer classified the bottle as two servings, not one.  What they really should have printed on the bottle was "drinking four of these will provide you with an entire day's-worth of calories."  Not that it would do much good; I don't know of too many people who read the labels anyway.  The only reason I did is because I didn't have Clarke and Wilma there discussing car stuff with me.   Did you know they have a number of classic Thunderbirds?  They are both very active in Thunderbird car clubs, and have traveled all over the United States in their classic 'birds.  We talked about how the Fun Rally compares to the Thunderbird club rallies; basically they are very similar except at Thunderbird rallies people have to pay for their own drinks but get a lot of free food at the hospitality suite.  The POCA Fun Rally provides complimentary drinks, but only pretzels and M&Ms.
I drove from the hotel all the way to Centralia without stopping, encountering heavier traffic the closer I got to Portland.  From Portland to Centralia the traffic was the typical freeway-type, with lame-brains in the fast lane going 5 mph below the speed limit.
I got to Centralia and met my wise, English mother at Starbucks.  I had a breakfast sandwich and a Venti, peppermint mocha Frappuccino, double-blended, heavy cream, double pumps (extra sweet), with two packs of white sugar and whip.  Delicious.  We discussed the trip and other fun stuff, and she pointed out that the ticket I received may have been a good thing, for it prevented me from continuing to drive at dangerously high speeds.  Well, most of the time she's wise...!
I got home an hour later and was very happy Pandora had performed as well as she did throughout the trip.  There is a little black soot or oil or something on the lower plate (the one by the rear sway bar that reads, Pantera") which I'll examine this weekend.  It may just be dirt from driving in light-rain conditions which I experienced on the last leg of the trip.
All in all, a great experience.  Now I have a year to touch-up all the rock chips before the Fun Rally next year!
Oh, and by the way, due to my sedentary situation while driving, and the huge amount of junk food I ate on the trip, it turns out I gained some weight--one pound, to be exact.  To whip myself back into shape I guess I'll skip the milkshake today. 
Sincerely,
Chris