Ten Days In The Valley - Part Deux

After a weekend in Ottawa, for my first night in Pemmytown, my cousin'd Jodie decided to cater to my craving for chip truck fries. I've been eating really healthy for a good month in preparation for this special artery clogging event. I knew for sure that I'd be indulging more than once on this little ten day excursion.

Colburn's chip truck has been a popular establishment in Pembroke for as long as I can remember. You can always expect a long line-up of people waiting to purchase their cardboard cartons of deep fried goodness. In fact, it has been so successful that they opened a second chip truck in Petawawa and more recently, upgraded their Pembroke truck to a little take-out joint where Wally's Pizza used to be.

As I may have mentioned before, the Ottawa Valley has more chip trucks/take out stands than you can shake a stick at. Since my last visit, I've heard that about 4 or 5 more have popped up in Pembroke alone. I wanted to take pictures of all of them, but there just wasn't enough time.

Actually, I was just doing the math, and did you know that if Kelowa were to have as many chip trucks per capita as the city of Pembroke, we would have about 42 of 'em parked all over this city? Instead, I think we have two. There's a chip stand down by City Park, and then there's the one in the Crappy Tire parking lot, but they use fresh cooking oil there. Meh. Don't they know that it's the really old oil that makes the fries nice n' dark n' tasty? If you're gonna be consuming a greasy box of free radicals anyway, you might as well get your taste buds worth! And while you're at it, why not throw in a side order of deep fried pickles? Mmm-Mmm! (Hey! Don't look at me that way! ;)

While at Colburn's I was surprised to see a real blast from the past - Pop Shoppe! Jim n' I have often reminisced about how when we were kids, Pop Shoppe was always a special treat. Of course, the rainbow of funky flavours would never last in the house more than a few days. I didn't think Pop Shoppe was still in business, so Jodie n' I grabbed a root beer and lime ricky. (Whatever lime 'ricky' means...?)

After our deep fried picnic, Jode n' I ended up taking a swing past the Wall of Shame. It's an area near City Hall where people like to sit and watch the world go by. However, the people who generally sit there often look down on their luck. Hence, "The Wall of Shame". The first time we drove by, my photos were all blurry. Being the thoughtful tour guide that she is, Jode took another swing past so I could grab a better shot of the people sitting there. (Still crappy quality tho.) I just wanted to show Jim that people actually do sit there....

Not just us. (As seen during the 2006 "Livin' The Dream Tour" we organized for Jim's first trip to Pembroke.)

The next day we paid our friend Amanda a visit, where I had my first cucumber sandwich since... umm... well, probably since I left home?! I forgot all about the simple goodness of cucumber sandwiches. Manda says that's because it's a valley thing. I don't know... is it? Did any of you non-valley people grow up enjoying the crisp pleasure of cucumber sandwiches? I'm craving one right now...

Full of smiles and silliness, (once he was past his "Heman" melt down), Nathan made sure to invite Jodie n' I to his birfday on Saturday. I asked him what he wanted, and he said a candle. That's easy! ;)

 I also had the pleasure of meeting Manda's very serious baby number two, Gabriel.

Although we did manage to eventually get a smile out of him... or maybe it was gas. I'm not sure.

Okay, I'm gonna take a break from picture posting for now.

To be continued (again)....