PULLMAN — Tuesday, Oct. 4 — If you visit Washington State University from "the other side," you can pay for your trip if you don't mind doing a few, uh, deals.

You just have to know the right guy to see, and if you bring enough dough, you can fill up your trunk with "goods" that you won't have any trouble selling on the street back in Seattle.

We're not talking about B.C. Bud or Maui Wowee. We're talking about Cougar Gold.

It's cheese.

Ferdinand is the guy you have to see — or, actually, Jim Cavender, the friendly fellow who works the counter at Ferdinand's, the on-campus shop that sells cheese and ice cream made by WSU's dairy program.

Ferdinand's sells eight kinds of cheeses, packaged in 30-ounce tins. Cavender said Cougar Gold, a white, sharp cheddar aged at least a year, is his favorite. It has a following all over the state.

"You can use it in grilled cheese sandwiches, or it makes a killer mac and cheese!"

Aging intensifies the flavor and makes the cheese sharper, Cavender told me when I stopped in for a few tins to take home. It keeps aging in the can.

"We've had people keep a can in the fridge for 20 or 30 years before opening it. The oldest cheese I've had was eight years old, and I had to drink a glass of water, it was so sharp!"

Cavender is also a student. A dairy sciences major or something? Nope. He's in Comparative Ethnic Studies.

OK, so it's not just Moo U.

We have spirit, yes we do

The Car of Discovery is pleased to sports its new "Go Cougars" magnet. When in Rome, eat spaghetti, I say.

Let's pull off the highway for a second and talk

Most folks on our tip line are having as much fun with this as we are, although it seems to me a few readers can't get past the idea that this trip is about politics.

It's not. Yes, we had some tongue-in-cheek fun with the "206er Meets 509" title — we even mentioned that hot-button gubernatorial election. But we're all Washingtonians. We put on our Filson jackets one sleeve at a time, and make our coffee from the same sweet water that's a blessing of our corner of the continent — whether you're brewing Starbucks or Maxwell House.

Is the car I'm driving a political statement? Maybe. Am I saying that only Seattleites care about conservation? No. But to have driven a gas hog on this trip, in a time of war, shortages and the highest fuel prices we've ever seen, would have been pretty numb. Even on the remotest ranches I've visited in recent days, folks are putting "for sale" signs on their big pickups in hopes of getting something that doesn't drain their wallet at the pump.

And no, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. Actually I've hitched a ride on it now and then. And I say that fondly.

I don't think I'm a big-city twit, and I'm sure not posing as better than anybody. I'm just the guy who gets to meet as many of you as I can this week, and I'm having a ball.

Where to rent

A reader asked where we rented our Prius. We struck out with the usual rental agencies. Then we discovered Toyota Rent A Car, a rental service offered through some Toyota dealers. See www.toyota.com/toyota. We got the Car of Discovery from Toyota of Lake City.