Well, the Oregon spring weather (I.E. rain) held off for the bulk of Saturday, and blessed the weekend’s events with sun and fun. The weekend started out at the meetup location on Saturday morning, where 22 MINIs and their owners assembled for a day of driving. Added to the plan was, walking and hiking through some beautiful Oregon State Park scenery. Not added to the plan was (in a couple of cases) an attempt to eat what turned out to be the biggest cheeseburger ever witnessed.

After departing, PDX MNI members ran the fabulous oregon country twisties in two groups. We then cooked it through some beautiful backcountry roads for about an hour and a half. After both groups completed the approximately 60 mile run, we arrived at the Silver Falls State Park. It’s a fabulous place, with majestic waterfalls and beautiful nature trails. Some inspired folks set out to hike the full 8 mile path around the falls. Others thought that the 2 mile route was enough, yours truly included.

After every one finished their explorations and reconvened at the parking area, we set out for the final destination. The Wooden Nickel Pub, which is in Sublimity, Oregon. This is the home of the “Big Eddie” and “The Rhino” to you neophytes. Sounds like a couple of mob nicknames, eh? Well, it’s worse. They are Burgers. They are big, no…huge, well actually… immense burgers. Dinner plate sized burgers. These are huge burgers, served on a dinner plate sized, heavily buttered bun, 4 side-by-side patties (seriously), pickles, not particularly crispy bacon, copious amounts of melted swiss cheese, lettuce, ketchup and mustard. If you were utterly insane, you could order a “Double Rhino”. Both yours truly and another unwitting soul ordered the standard Rhino burger. Standard, my rear end... It was not made of rhino (although that may have been easier), but it was the size of one. As it sat in front of me, I quickly I realized that this was going to be a near insurmountable challenge to eat. Here, witness this monster...




After a good long mouth stretching effort, and fighting off the resistance of sanity, I had eaten nearly 3/4ths of this nemesis burger. That is what it should be called, now that I think about it. The Nemesis Burger. “I’d like a Double Nemesis please”. But, in a feat of triumph, my competition, polished the whole thing off! Somewhere in the laughter and taunting from the now interested PDX MINI crowd, as we attempted this gluttonous feat, we were dubbed, the “Hamburger Brothers”. Great. A stomach ache and a new unflattering nickname. Pass the fries.

Thanks so much to to our event sponsors and planners, who coordinated a great run to Silver Falls State Park. Thanks also to all the group leaders and pre-runners who helped create a safe and fun route for the group.

The PDX MINI website will be updated with pics as soon as they can be uploaded.

 

Dang, I'm STILL full...

dan