This week I walked almost 30 miles in one week touring Portland’s pot shops and attending the cannabis events in week 14. My trek includes Willamette Week’s Best of Portland Party as well as all of the 710 sales (in the Cannabis culture, July 10 is oil day, since 710 spun 180° onto its head reads as OIL). I will also be continuing my Dispensary Tour north and east of the Willamette River. Here is how I walked 27.9 miles from Sunday July 9 through Saturday, July 15.
Sunday, 7/9/17, 3.2 miles. As I had discussed in last week’s blog, we are looking at manufactured homes as a one-story option for our living space. Today we drove south to Palm Harbor Homes in Albany. After looking around at many of the available options, we took ourselves out for an early supper and returned home.
Monday, 7/10/17, 2.2 miles. Today we continued our research into manufactured homes by heading north to Woodland, Washington. After wandering through many potential homes, we spent an hour or more wandering around ilani (yes, with a lower case “i” as the first letter), the new casino in Ridgefield Washington. Our decision, based upon what we have encountered, is that we have not found a reasonable solution yet in our price range. The research continues. I know that I missed taking advantage of many oil and extract sales on this 710 holiday, but it is much more important, to me, to stay “all in” when it comes to life with Flo.
Tuesday, 7/11/17, 1.8 miles. Today is the monthly “use this month’s coupons and/or take advantage of special pricing” shopping day, so I wander from Costco to Target to Safeway. Such is the life of retired folks whose income arrives as a monthly lump sum. For an OCD guy like me, it works really well.
Satchel – this wonderful little dispensary is located right along the Yellow Max line, near the Rosa Parks station, making it very convenient for fellow wanders. Today they have 16 chemovars on the shelf, including: Yerba Buena’s Caramel OG @ 18.46% THC; Yerba Buena’s Silver Hawk @ 21.84% THC; Cultivated Farms’ Spirit in the Sky @ 19.90% THC; and BZS Resources’ Purple Hindu Kush @ 20.95% THC. They have clones for $30/$36, and their pre-rolls are packed in house from flower. Every Friday is “5-gram Friday” when they sell 5 grams of any of their flower for the price of an eighth.
Gram Central Station – today they have 26 chemovars on the shelf and tell me that they normally stock 32 chemovars. They offer up some of Sirius Extract’s Sirius Black flower @ 16.84% THC. These buds are extremely dense and, of course, extremely dark. They also offered me some of Oregon Essentials’ Blackberry Kush @ 18.51% THC. They use only three pricing levels for their flower, $10, $12, and $14 per gram. As a customer, this makes budgeting much easier.
Pacific Green – with an address of 710 NE Killingworth, they fully embraced the 710 holiday that had just passed. Today they still have 33 chemovars on the shelf, including Canna Co.’s Marionberry @ 28.9% THC and Leap Farms’ Lemon Kush @ 21.4% THC. This is another dispensary with three pricing tiers: $10, $12.50, and $15 per gram (rec). They have Squib 100’s @ $21, Chalice Farms half gram pre-rolls @ $6, and full gram pre-rolls @ $10.
Alberta Green House – don’t let the “No Public Restroom” sign on the door deter you; they do have a restroom for customers in the reception area of the dispensary. Today they have 38 chemovars on the shelf including: M3’s Alpha Blue @ 21.42% THC; High Noon’s Granola Funk @ 24.43 % THC; and a very stinky Dogwalker OG @ 25.34% THC from an unknown farm. 12 of the strains occupy shelves in a section titled “Sun Grown Section”, allowing those customers with a preference for outdoor grown selections to see those choices all together. All of the pre-rolls are half-gram and range in price from $6 to $9 each. Their Squibb 100 price is $20.
The Kings of Canna – this dispensary has wonderful retail counters, at least from a customer’s point of view. The rounded endcaps allow for viewing a large number of selections while moving around the space, while the budtender can view all of them while standing in one place; very convenient! Today they have 22 chemovars on the shelf including: Laughing Grass Gardens’ Black Betty at 19.6% THC; LTRMN’s Lemon Kush @ 19.78% THC; and Devils Lettuce’s Cactus @ 24.65% THC. They offer a few of their own pre-rolls as well as pre-packaged pre-rolls from TKO, Sticks, and Prūf Cultivar. They offer Twax pre-rolls at $16 (pre-tax), which is the lowest price I have seen.
After finding some wonderful flower choices, I wander over to Frankie’s place off of Alberta in NE Portland. We spend time savoring some of my recent finds and talk about whatever strikes our fancy.
Thursday, 7/13/17, 0.3 miles. Today I visit my Cardiologist in Beaverton. She was not aware that the surgery has not yet been scheduled. She also was unaware that the original Cardiac Surgeon is no longer in available. Everything else is looking good for surgery in September, when Medicare becomes my primary health insurer.
Friday, 7/14/17, 7.1 miles. Today I head out to see Garth at Hanger Clinic to see if he can offer a solution to the issue I am having on the sole of my right foot. A little work on the prosthetic in my right shoe and Eureka! I can walk again with no pain (or, at least, with very minimal pain). From here I head to the Jupiter Hotel east of the Willamette River to attend Mary J. Poppins’ Budtender Boot Camp Part 1: Intro to Cannabis Botany. What an absolutely fabulous class! Every budtender, in my humble opinion, along with any customers who want knowledge should take this class. The botany part of the class is taught by Emma Chasen, Director of Education for Farma. After class I wander around the downtown area looking to see what I can find until I remember 5-gram Friday at Satchel. A short MAX ride results in spending just over $23 and walking out with 3g of Yerba Buena Silver Hawk (it is the absolute end of the jars – not enough to let me buy 5 grams of it but really great as it is).
Saturday 7/15/17, 7.1 miles. Today I want to wander the parks along the Willamette River to see how my foot is doing after Garth did his work yesterday. I so love people watching while I stay high and wander around. I take the MAX to Goose Hollow (southwest area of downtown Portland), walk east along Columbia to SW 13th, south to Montgomery, and east into PSU where I wander along the Park Blocks to College St to 5th where I take the Orange MAX line to OMSI. If you remember, I can’t force myself to walk across any of the bridges here except the Steel Bridge, and maybe the Broadway Bridge (I did that once, but I did it by focusing on someone who was preceding me across the bridge, and I can’t exactly ask some random person to walk ahead of me so I can focus on them). I enjoy walking along the river from OMSI to the Steel Bridge, cross the bridge to the west side of the river, then wander north or south along the river depending upon where I would like to take my break(s).
credit:theweedblog.com