A new Washington state law makes it riskier for criminals to travel in collector cars. I own a collector car with a “lifetime” collector car license plate, meaning there are no annual renewal fees. As far as I know there aren’t any “wants and warrants” out against the car or me. However, until the state legislature acted earlier this year, there was no way for a police officer to tell that or even if I’m the car’s legal owner if the car was pulled over for a traffic stop.
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Monthly Archives: November 2011
Keeping Criminals Out of Collector Cars
Posted in Cars
Wi-Fi in Allyn
I'll have one coffee to stay.
Allyn, Washington, (population 2400) has gone high-tech. Last week Sail On In, an espresso stand on SR 3 at the south end of town, added Wi-Fi to its menu of great coffee, delicious pastries, and tasty soup (see photo). For years Allyn, a burg on Case Inlet’s North Bay, was known mainly, at least from a business standpoint, as the location of Big Bubba’s Burgers, a 1960’s-style drive-in across the street from the waterfront park. Now there’s another good reason to visit Allyn especially if want to surf the net without a data plan. Perhaps other local businesses will follow suit.
Wi-Fi in Allyn makes it harder to justify paying $130 extra for an iPad with 3G. (As an aside, the buzz created by Amazon’s Kindle Fire prompted a look at tablet computers in general; my conclusion is that I wouldn’t be comfortable with the Fire’s 7-inch screen despite its attractive price.) Now I’m back to thinking the Wi-Fi-only iPad might solve my connectivity issues when I’m away from home. Our vacation place at Treasure Island (3 miles from Allyn) is not connected to the Internet, and previously the closest Wi-Fi connection was 9 miles away in Belfair. Now Wi-Fi is just a short drive (or easy bike ride) away over back roads. And Sail On In has a comfortable indoor seating area for when the weather is bad. Perhaps I can do a blog post from there.
Dining Out at 3:00 AM
News for late nighters
If you were wondering whether Kitsap Way has any restaurants besides Denny’s that are open all night, the answer is yes. Subway (see photo) just became the third eatery to be open 24 hours a day. The Kitsap Way Jack in the Box, located next door to the Best Western, also caters to night owls. The other 13 restaurants on the stretch of Kitsap Way between the SR 3 interchange and 11th Street all close by 2:00 AM at the latest.
My survey of local restaurant closing times wasn’t done in the wee hours. Instead I started it on an afternoon bike ride and checked it on the Internet for establishments that don’t post their hours at the entrance. Since I’m invariably asleep at 3:00 AM, it was news to me that there are enough insomniacs, night people, and workers on the graveyard shift to support three places being open on Kitsap Way in the middle of the night. Apparently there are.
Posted in Business Beat
Play Like Eleven
Here’s my request on this once-a-century date consisting entirely of elevens. Instead of relying on the 12th Man to make life difficult for the fearsome Baltimore Ravens when they battle us in Seattle on Sunday, how about if the Seahawks play like they have the allotted eleven players on the field for the whole game? In stumbling to a 2 and 6 mark so far this season, the Seahawks have seemed outnumbered at times. How else to account for a lack of offense in the first half all year, big yardage given up by the special teams in the Cincinnati game, and a takeway/giveway count of -5? There’s no penalty in the rule book for playing like ten; if there were, we might get one.
The idea of the 12th Man didn’t originate in Seattle, but the Seahawks benefit from it. When they are really into making noise, Seahawks fans (the 12th Man) are loud enough to totally disrupt the visiting team’s snap count, rhythm, and communication. In past seasons Century Link (formerly Qwest) Field has been one of the NFL’s most difficult venues to play in—let alone win in—for road teams. But not this year (so far anyway) as the Seahawks are 1 and 2 at home. Simple plan for Sunday: suit everyone up who is healthy, substitute a lot, and get all eleven players involved in every play beginning with the opening kickoff. That’s what the Ravens will be doing.
Posted in Sports
The Missing Chums
No fall chum salmon yet
I’m not going to pass up a great title even if it isn’t completely apt and also needs to be credited to the Hardy Boys. The fall chum salmon aren’t really missing (I hope) just late in arriving to the creeks at the eastern end of lower Hood Canal near Belfair. Perhaps we should call on Frank and Joe to solve the mystery of what’s keeping them or at least to find out where they are. The brothers’ motorboat, Sleuth, would come in handy.
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Oyster Bay View
Oyster Bay at high tide
Oyster Bay is just south of Mud Bay. The two bays are separated by a narrow strip of land that forms the base of the Marine Drive peninsula. Oyster Bay is larger than Mud Bay, better known, and more scenic. Its name gets more respect too even if most of the oysters that lived in the shallow water along its shores are long gone.
The photo was taken this afternoon from the parking lot of the Family Pancake House on Kitsap Way. Bremerton’s Baymont Inn is in the background. Additional great views of Oyster Bay are available from Madrona Point, Shorewood Drive, the Baymont Inn, and several other restaurants along Kitsap Way. The Oyster Bay interchange, a major exit for Bremerton from State Route 3, lies just to the west of the bay.
Lower Elfendahl Pass Road Reopens
New fill and asphalt, old culvert
For nearly four years vehicles couldn’t drive on one of the most scenic roads on the Kitsap Peninsula. The lower section of Elfendahl Pass Road had been closed since December 2007, when 12 inches of rain over two days flooded Stimson Creek and caused several serious washouts. The photo shows the repairs to one of them. The road reopened last Thursday.
Photos of some of the damage caused by the December 2007 storm are included after the jump.
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