On the Road Again with Merle

[mqqn]

Awesome summary btb01

I read the stats to my wife, Maggie, as she enjoyed playing host to Merle.

Excellent and fun all around!!!

A sincere thank you to all who participated!

 

[Horsewright]

Well, Merle has arrived home safe and sound from his cowboying adventure. (He actually got back a couple days ago, but I haven’t had a chance to write this post until now.) Here he is with the beautiful belt sheath Horsewright made for him — if I haven’t said it already, thank you for that Dave!

Now that Merle’s travels have ended, I thought I’d provide some interesting info about his journey.

Counting from the start of this thread, Merle was on the road for a total of 567 days. That’s almost 19 months, over a year and a half. He visited the following 18 US states: Alaska, California, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. He was in California on four separate occasions, visited New York and Oregon three times each, and Florida twice. (He was in Pennsylvania twice, as well, if you count the very beginning of his journey at the GEC factory.) Merle visited 4 (or is it 3?) different countries: the United State, England and Scotland in the UK, and Australia.

Traveling to and from all those destinations, Merle obviously covered quite a few miles. I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet, conservatively counting the miles “as the crow flies” between destinations. All told, Merle has travelled at least 63,221 miles. The longest leg of his trip (not surprisingly) was 10,573 miles from Scotland to Australia. In fact, his trip to and from Australia accounts for almost 1/3 of his total miles traveled. The longest leg of his trip within the US was 2,493 miles from Virginia to California.

Merle ate and drank quite well on his trip. He had pizza and a Nathan’s hot dog in NYC, Juicy Lucys in Minneapolis, moose steak in Alaska, a Yorkshire chip butty, Texas BBQ, boudin in Louisiana, and the four B’s of cowboying: beer, bourbon, beef and biscuits n’ gravy. He had American beers, English beers and Aussie beers, Irn-Bru in Scotland, and plenty of whisk(e)y. He visited the Jack Daniel’s distillery in Tennessee, and had a bit of a wild night drinking with @meako down under.

Thanks again to everyone who hosted Merle and made this such a fun thread: @WValtakis @Pàdruig @Peregrin Hyesouljah @abbydaddy @beezwax @paulhilborn Nature Boy @TheChunk91 mqqn @JTB_5 Jack Black @Magizm7 @meako @Rookie82 @SVTFreak @HEMI 49 @hornetguy JM2 @glocktenman @BigKurtHaze @sbh06 Markeologist and Horsewright

(I sure hope I didn’t leave anyone out!)

To wrap things up, I’ve put together a compilation of photos from Merle’s travels that I liked, one from each host. There were so many great pics, it was hard to pick just one in a lot of cases, but I did my best. I will admit that I picked two from Jack Black simply because I didn’t want to leave Tool Man out.

Thanks again to everyone who participated, both the hosts and those who just followed along, commented, etc. This has been a lot of fun, and I hope y’all have enjoyed it as much as I have!

Ya bet! Great write up and wrap up. Thanks for allowing us to hang out with Merle for a while.

 

[JM2]

Thanks again Barrett for allowing this to happen. After showing Merle the hills of Kentucky, I regret having missed out on getting one myself. Merle is fleet in pocket and deft in hand.

 

[Markeologist]

Been out of touch last few weeks, just want to thank Barrett for sharing Merle with me as well as the Porch in general. Best to you all, Mark

 

[Nature Boy]

Today’s adventure with Merle is a culinary one.

Philadelphia has the cheesesteak, Chicago has deep dish pizza and Amarillo has a steak the size of your head, but in Minneapolis, it’s the Jucy Lucy, a burger stuffed with molten cheese.

Merle, Scout and I headed over to Matt’s Bar in Minneapolis for lunch, where they claim to serve the “original” Jucy Lucy.

Here’s some info from their website:

Matt’s Bar & Grill, now a Minneapolis landmark, began in 1954 as a neighborhood burger eatery. Shortly after we opened, founder Matt Bristol explains how the “Jucy Lucy” was created when a local customer asked for two hamburger patties with a slice of cheese in the middle. Upon biting into this new, molten hot burger, he exclaimed “that’s one juicy Lucy”, and a legend was born. Customer demand grew so quickly, we forgot to add the “i” and the “Jucy Lucy” has now become a local culinary hero. Remember, if it’s spelled correctly, you just might be eating a shameless ripoff!

I have to say, I really like the atmosphere inside Matt’s. It has just the right sort of dated-but-well-cared-for neighborhood bar feel to it.

I wasn’t able to get a photo of Merle outside of the building — that would have required standing in the middle of an intersection that, while not exactly busy, had enough regular traffic that doing so would have caused an issue — but he did get to join in on the pictures inside.

Now I will say, at first glance, the Jucy Lucy at Matt’s doesn’t look very exciting. It’s sort of… plain. Just a simple looking burger patty on a bed of grilled onions and a plain bun.

That said, it’s actually really good! A bit messy, definitely juicy, potentially hazardous (that cheese comes out HOT!) and it tastes great. (The grilled onions are a really nice touch.)

Scout had a grilled cheese, which she said was excellent, as well. (Ok, she doesn’t know the word “excellent,” but she seemed to like it just fine.)

I got a reminder of this thread today in the form of a ketchup packet…

Hope Merle is is still getting his licks in!

 

[Hyesouljah]

Hosting Merle in LA is an experience I won’t soon forget. It makes the 2021 Bladeforums Knife that much more special to me and made me appreciate the Bladeforums community in a way I didn’t know was possible. Following along on this thread was one of the most gratifying experiences. Thanks btb01 . I just saw your summary and tag. For some reason I miss a lot of tags in the notification window.

 

[btb01]

I got a reminder of this thread today in the form of a ketchup packet…
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Hope Merle is is still getting his licks in!

That’s great!

Don’t worry, Merle still gets out and about.

 

[Jack Black]

That’s great!

Don’t worry, Merle still gets out and about.

Yay!

 

[Horsewright]

Good to see an old buddy!