Tina and I headed down to San Marcos to get our Texas driver's licenses. It turns out we need to register my car in Texas first and to do that we have to get a vehicle inspection. From the Hays County Tax Assessor's Office (where they handle vehicle registration), we were sent to Lube Pit Stop to get ours done. When we arrived, the mechanic was busy and told us to come back in about thirty minutes. Since it was near lunch time, I asked him for a lunch recommendation and he suggested Italian Garden (415 N L B J Dr, San Marcos, TX‎ - (512) 392-8730‎) for their large Philly Cheesesteaks.

Situated on the south border of Texas State University San Marcos, Italian Garden is easy to find but not much to look at. A look through their menu showed that they served standard American Italian fare with both regular menu items and lunch specials attractively priced (lasagna for $5.95 caught my eye). But, we had come with the intention of ordering the Philly Cheesesteak (also $5.95). After asking the friendly waitress how big the sandwich was, we decided to start by just ordering one and splitting it. The sandwich arrived and was about a foot long and stuffed with grilled steak and the perfect amount of bell peppers (providing a tad of bell pepper sweetness and bitterness) as well as just enough cheese (for flavor and lubrication, but not so much to be heavy). They also had thick slices of grilled mushrooms mixed in which I like a lot more than the thinly sliced variety. Unfortunately, I left my cameras at home and had to take the picture with my mobile phone.

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What I Ate: April 20, 2009 (Italian Garden)

In the morning, our moving company arrived and delivered all our stuff. Then the cable guy arrived (early!) and set up the cable and internet. Meanwhile, I was rearranging the boxes to be both more space efficient and also accessible if we needed something. Tina went over to her parent's place to help them with some of the furniture we had brought from California that we were giving to them. She gave me a call around lunchtime and told me that they had made lunch. I had potatoes and daikon, pork marinated in Asian barbecue sauce, and zucchini over rice for lunch.

For dinner, we headed back to Tina's parent's for pork and cilantro won tons. I ended up eating three bowls!

Another day of pure driving. It also doesn't help when driving east since you have to factor in that you lose an hour as you cross timezones. We stopped in Van Horn, Texas at a Pilot station with a Wendy's in it for lunch. Tina had Chicken Nuggets and I ordered a Mandarin Chicken Salad. I actually liked it quite a bit and the salad was a decent size. The dressing was sweet, tart, and had a strong sesame flavor and the individually bagged almond slices and crispy noodles added extra texture and flavor.

We made it all the way to New Braunfels before deciding to stop for dinner. We had discussed dinner options earlier and Tina and I had agreed if we could find a Schlotzsky's then we should go there for a quick dinner. Using Google Maps on my mobile phone, I found a couple on our way up the I-35, so we stopped at the New Braunfels Schlotzsky's (1037 S Walnut Ave, New Braunfels, TX‎ - (830) 629-2811‎). Tina and I have had Schlotzsky's three times before - every time it was purchased at the airport and eaten on the plane ride back to California (we missed it last time since our plane was so early none of the airport restaurants were open). There's something addictive about the "Original" sandwich sold at Schlotzsky's - the combination of salty Italian salami, cold cuts, slightly gooey melted cheeses (cheddar, mozzarella, and Parmesan), crispy lettuce, and their abundant use of olives gives it a real satisfying taste. However, I think there's more to it. For both Tina and I, there's something magical about the so-called sourdough bread it's served on. (I say "so-called" because it doesn't taste or feel like any sourdough bread I'm familiar with, but I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area so I have particular views on sourdough bread.) The bread is spongy - not like a sponge bread, but like a Scotch-Brite cleaning sponge. I know that the comparison between a food product and a sanitation tool isn't all that appetizing, but it's the best comparison that I can think of. Somehow the crumb structure (mostly the size and distribution of the holes) and the slight resistance to chewing seems to match my mental picture of a sponge (okay, it's not difficult to chew through - just has a little resistance. I'd image a sponge would be really hard to chew through.) It all works really well - the holes capture the sauce of the sandwich and the bread has just enough chew to support the meats.

We drove from Los Angeles for the Las Cruces, New Mexico today. I decided to stop for lunch (and a driver change) at Blythe, California (the last town in I-10 before you reach the Arizona border). We stopped at the McDonald's there and I ordered a Filet-o-Fish and a Big Mac.

The thing that surprised me the most about the meal was that the Filet-o-Fish was properly constructed! The cheese was squarely in the center of the bottom half of the bun, the fish patty was placed correctly on the cheese (not halfway off the sandwich) and the tartar sauce in the middle of the patty. This is the first time in years that I've had a Filet-o-Fish that wasn't completely off-center (and when that happens, there's no fixing it because the partially melted cheese acts as a strong glue keeping the fish and the bun in strict spatial relationship to each other). Tina laughed that I had to go all the way out to Blythe to get a Filet-o-Fish I was satisfied with.

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What I Ate: April 17, 2009 (McDonald's, El Guero Canelo)

Our last meal in the Bay Area went to In-N-Out Burger. I was planning on hitting the one in Gilroy on the way down, but it took us a while to get going (lots of stuff to wrap up), so at around 2pm we went to the Sunnyvale In-N-Out (604 E El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, CA‎ - (800) 786-1000‎). I had a Double Double with onions, Tina had a Cheeseburger with onions, and we shared an order of fries.

Dinner was at my parent's place where my mom and dad prepared a delicious dinner of pork and daikon soup, kombu seaweed seasoned with garlic and oyster sauce, shrimp and jielan (Chinese broccoli), steamed broccoli, and spicy teriyaki beef with vegetables.

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What I Ate: April 16, 2009 (In-N-Out, Red Mango, Pinkberry)

Our moving company, Moovers, Inc., came today and took all of our stuff. Well, almost all of it. It's amazing how the little things that you tell the movers not to take add up to a lot of stuff. We threw a lot of it away, recycled a bunch, gave away more, and packed a few more boxes for the car. Tina did some painting and then we decided it was time for lunch. I had to return my Comcast cable box so we found ourselves in San Jose and decided on going to Lee's Sandwiches (which is a San Jose institution). I pulled into the parking lot and we saw Lucy's Tamale Factory (974 Story Rd, San Jose, CA‎ - (408) 275-8262). I had never been to this one but Lucy's Tamale Factory makes great tamales. We ordered a pork, a sweet (cinnamon and raisins), and a chicken tamale. As usual, the tamales were good.

We then walked over to Lee's Sandwiches (990 Story Rd # 30, San Jose, CA‎ - (408) 295-3402‎) and ordered a Special Combination #11 to share. There is a Vietnamese community in Austin, but I don't know what their Vietnamese sandwich shops are like (yet). We usually go to the Lee's Sandwiches in Sunnyvale or the one in Milpitas. This one's #11 tasted a little different than the others we were used to. I think it had to do with the addition of cucumber to the filling.

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What I Ate: April 15, 2009 (Lucy's Tamale Factory, Lee's Sandwiches, Ramen Halu, Pinkberry)

Our last day of packing (I think). The movers are coming in about 6 hours to pick up our stuff and I think we just finished. Around lunchtime, I made another trip out to Goodwill and then swung by Erik's DeliCafe to pick up Pilgrim's Progress sandwiches for both Tina and myself. Erik's is another Bay Area establishment that I'll miss and the Pilgrim's Progress is our favorite sandwich there. I got Clam Chowder with my sandwich while picking up Chicken Vegetable Rice soup for Tina.

For dinner, we chose to eat at Won Ton House (1205 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA‎ - (408) 984-8668) where we both ordered the House Special Combination Clay Pot Rice. The clay pot rice comes with "Chinese Vegetable and Soup of the Day".

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What I Ate: April 14, 2009 (Erik's DeliCafe, Won Ton House)

In two days, I start driving for Texas in my Volkswagen Jetta TDI. I've been running Biodiesel (B99 - 99% biodiesel, 1% petroleum diesel blend) for the last three years, and I'd prefer to run on as much biodiesel as possible while I drive to Texas. I have a few constraints though - it won't be time efficient for me to pick up biodiesel on the way to Texas, so I'll only have what I carry with me (two 5-gallon fuel cans of biodiesel). Because of the angle of the opening to the fuel tank on my Jetta, I can't maneuver the fuel can to get more than about 4.5 gallons out. The last 1/2 gallon is stuck in the can. Also, for emissions reasons, I'd like to run as close to B20 (20% biodiesel) or higher as possible. The last constraint is that I can't get fuel again before I leave (the fueling coop that I belong to isn't providing fuel again until Thursday evening and I leave Thursday morning) and I have 2/3 of my tank full of B99 right now.

I could run B99 for as long as possible (about 850 miles) but then I'd be running pure petroleum diesel for the rest of the trip. Here's the plan that I've worked out:
- Fuel up in Santa Clara with petroleum diesel before driving to my parents' home in Los Angeles. After fueling, I'll be running approximately B66.
- After spending the night at my parents' home, fuel up in LA with petroleum diesel without adding additional biodiesel. B29
- Drive to Tucson, AZ where I add 1/2 a can of biodiesel (2.5 gallons) and then top off with petroleum diesel. B22
- Drive to Las Cruces, NM where I spend the night. Drive to El Paso, TX, where I pour the rest of that biodiesel fuel into the tank (about 2 gallons). Fill up with petroleum diesel. B20
- Drive to San Antonio where I pour in another 2.5 gallons of biodiesel and top off with petroleum diesel. B20
- Drive to Austin with 13-14 gallons of B20 left in the tank and 3 gallons of B99 in fuel cans.
This method should allow me to have some time to run on biodiesel while in Austin as I look for a new source of biodiesel.

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Driving to Texas and Biodiesel Planning

I drove up to Berkeley to meet Dave Patterson for a short chat in the morning. I can't help but think of it as a nice bookend to this portion of my life - I started my career at Intel after chatting with Professor Patterson about the pros and cons of going to a small company versus a large company immediately after graduation. Now that I'm getting ready to leave Silicon Valley (for hopefully a more laid back pace of life), I thought it was fitting to have a chat with Dave again before I leave. After we were done, I wandered the campus a little and through the dorms that I lived a decade ago. I bumped into Professor Hilfinger (shook his hand), went up to the top of the Campanile (shook the hand of Lilian, the woman who has manned Sather Tower's elevator for as long as I can remember, and promised her I'd go up the UT Austin Tower), and told some random guy about the mirrored Fiat Lux underneath the Campanile awning. When I was ready to leave, I ate a German Frankfurter (3/4 beef, 1/4 pork, fresh garlic) from Top Dog (2503 Hearst Ave, Berkeley, CA‎ - (510) 843-1241‎) on the Northside of the Berkeley Campus.

I then brought home several dogs for Tina's lunch (and apparently our dinner).

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What I Ate: April 13, 2009 (Top Dog)

Around lunch-time, I ran out to drop off a trunk load of stuff off at Goodwill. Afterward, I headed over to Erik's DeliCafe but they were closed (because it's Easter). I went one more block to Popeyes Chicken and picked up three pieces of spicy chicken with a corn-on-the-cob. (I grabbed Tina a Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya and Mashed Potatoes and Gravy.)

For dinner, we headed down to New Tandoori Cafe (5134 Stevens Creek Blvd, San Jose, CA‎ - (408) 247-9010) because we wanted something reasonably quick. Tina ordered a new item - the Chicken Desi Burger - which was quite tender and flavorful (but it took a long time for it to come out). The chicken was heavily seasoned in "Indian" spices. I ordered the Lamb Seekh Kabob Wrap with Garlic Naan (which is what I normally get). As usual, it was tasty.

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What I Ate: April 12, 2009 (Popeye's, New Tandoori Cafe)