The Road Trip Part 6. Portland: The Return of the Bootblack

DISCLAIMER: It has come to my attention that my parents are concerned for my health as of this trip and I have not been eating healthy enough. Your concerns have been taken into account and it is with that in mind that I apologize for this. 

I have never eaten a Reuben before.
What a fool I had been.

So going along with a convenient Star Wars chapter theme, here's one of my most interesting days of the trip.

To start it off I got a delicious Reuben from Kenny and Zukes, I've made it a habit to sort of ignore the menu and just ask the waiter/waitress "Let's say this is going to be my last meal. What would recommend?"

Their nervous laughter is usually followed by a pretty good suggestion for delicious food.

It hasn't steered me wrong yet.

For real this time.

Anyway, after that, I decided to wander around the block, and as luck would have it, I was literally not two blocks away from THE ACTUAL Powell's Books! Awesome!

I went inside and it was like walking into The Strand in New York, but with a higher budget. Each wing of the store was divided by broad colored walls, so you'd be in Purple for Self-Help and Reference books. Red for History and Cooking, and Mauve for your speculative alternate history travelogues.

It was pretty freaking awesome. I walked around for awhile just marvelling at the selection. They had an entire shelf that was JUST different editions of Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrell (Fantastic book by the way)

There were some
pretty choice gems here.

They also had a phenomenal gaming section. Seriously, this entire shelf was filled with goddamn Tabletop RPGs, the upper shelves were all ridiculous vintage shit. Like, we're talking first edition Weird West RPG Deadlands.

Pictured: a friendly NPC

I went outside afterwards and there was a guy who offered to shine up my boots. I was totally ready to just ignore him and move on and then I stopped and thought: "Wait, what the hell. My boots have been through a fair bit this trip. Also this guy has an awesome moustache. Also honestly, do I have anywhere else to be today in a hurry? I've already decided that I will prioritize all of my decisions on what will make a better story. What do I have to lose?" So after standing there awkwardly pondering for like half a minute, I was like. "Sure!" and he settled me down and began a shining.

Turns out he was a professional Bootblack who had been featured in the local paper. He had gotten like, serious apprenticeship stuff and did a lot of cool work.

Pictured: A donut covered
in Captain Crunch.

We had a lovely conversation where I mentioned that I was gonna go to Voodoo Donuts, (Again, at my sister's suggestion) He was like

"Dude! Awesome! Okay here's a trick: ask for a bucket of day old donuts. It's five dollars and it's a whole bucket of donuts. Seriously, it's awesome."

Oh god what have I done.

So I did.

~Ying Out.