Food, food and more food!

All we seem to be doing lately is cooking and eating, and eating and eating.  With our three couples from Oklahoma City area here with us, there seems to be a group dinner every few days.  These guys have been going to Big Meadows Campground for some 20 odd years, so with it being closed this year they came here to Park Creek to be with us.  We’ve had these dinners with them for the four years we’ve camphosted up here.

Here’s Don and Barbara

Frank and JoAnn

Martha and Dennis

Charlie, Dawna and Kiel

 

Here we are waiting for grilled chicken to finish up so we gathered around a camp fire and enjoyed each other’s company. 

 

    

 

 

 

Then last Friday we had another fish fry.  Those men go out and fish most every day and catch their limit of four trout each….that’s 16 fish a day, so it adds up and by the end of the week we have to have a fish fry to eat it all up as the freezers get too full to hold any more.  Our friends always filet their fish while Jim and I like them de-scaled and grilled whole.  You can pull the bones right out after they are cooked.  But when in Rome…….so we eat them deep-fried with fried potatoes and hush puppies.

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Then last Saturday Jim barbequed five racks of ribs to feed the group. We do this every year as everyone likes Jim’s ribs, so they all pitch in $5 a piece and we have a feast.  The day started off fine so we all sat outside, but by the time the ribs were done the rain began to fall so we all dashed inside our rig to eat.  I’m sure glad for our new rig as it accommodated all nine of us fine….everyone had a seat to sit on and eat.

This year the fifth rack didn’t get eaten so we invited everyone over for lunch yesterday to finish them off.  Of course, it rained and we had to eat inside again.

We have one more traditional meal we usually eat together and that is Dawna's and Charlie’s tostada dinner.  We’ll do that sometime next week before they leave.

Oh, I found the most wonderful barbeque sauce online at allrecipes.com   It’s call Bubba’s Best BBQ Sauce. It was sweet and hot and plain old delicious.  It makes 5 cups but it should keep in the fridge for a week or so.  I simmered it for about 3 hours but you can use it after 30 minutes.  We used it on the ribs and everybody asked for the recipe….it sure was good!!!  We usually use Sweet Baby Ray’s, but this is just as good and cheaper, so I’ll not be buying barbeque sauce again.

Well, today I am doing laundry and faxing in our weekly reports, so I best go and get to work.

Remember, you are loved.

RVing

My personal choice of an RV guru is Nick Russell and we follow his Gypsy Journal blog daily with our first cup of coffee.  The other day Nick published comments on the RVing Top 10 Experiences to be considered a real RVer.   Click here to go to this blog posting.  I encourage any RV “want-to-be” to check it out as it is very informative.  We’ve done 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7.  We plan to do #9 next winter.  Doubt if we’ll ever do #4 as I don’t like to be in that much of a crowd.

Many of us mark up a map to show which states we have visited.  There are different “definitions” of “having visited” a state.  Some say it is when you have physically been in any part of that state; some say it is if you spent a night in a state; and some say you have to make love in the state in order to count it.  Jim and I cotton to the first definition.

There is a cute joke about this though. The above information was told to an RVer and then “Clyde” said to his wife, “Mable” that means we have to go back to Oklahoma and California honey!  Funny, huh?

Remember, you are loved.

Damn that breast cancer!!!

Received a phone call yesterday from Barbara Bakke that many of you met at Boomerville in Quartzsite last January or at Gypsy Journal Rally in Yuma in February. She is the traveling companion of Joel Buchan. 

Barbara was diagnosed with breast cancer early May, had surgery and is now facing a year of chemo and radiation. She is doing well, in good spirits, has a good support group, but welcomes prayers and good thoughts. They are back in Oregon and will stay there for her treatments, but will travel on the off weeks.

Barbara is a special lady, folks, and I ask that you remember her in your thoughts and prayers.  If you would like to send Barbara an encouraging electronic card or email her address is bakkebrb@yahoo.com .  I know she would appreciate receiving communications from us all. Being new to RVing, she was blown away by the camaraderie and feeling of community she saw with the Escapees group. Barbara and Joel are big time dancers and many of their travels center around attending dance rallies around the country.

Thank you for your support of Barbara.

Remember, you are loved.

Fish Fry

We have two couples that have come to Big Meadows every year for eons. They have known each other for over 50 years, one fellow was best man at the other’s wedding.  So we have Don and Barbara and Frank and JoAnn.  Frank and Don are fishing fools!!!!! Every day they go out and fish for HOURS…….Don fillets the trout and freezes them; when there is enough they put on a fish fry extraordinaire! Frank’s niece, Martha, and her husband, Dennis, are staying at a nearby full hookup campground and they also joined us.

All the cooking is done over the fire pit using cast iron Dutch ovens to deep fry the potatoes with onions and battered fish fillets.  Of course, Barbara always makes hush puppies with onion and jalapeno that are “to die for”. 

Everybody has a job and works together to get all the food out.

Martha made homemade ham and beans and I made cole slaw.  What a feast we had.  Look at that plate of deliciousness!!!!

The worse day camping is better than the most fabulous day at work!!!

Remember, you are loved!

Farmington, New Mexico

We actually took a day off today!  We only do that two or three times a season.  But I finally found the red, square, foldable charcoal grill I’ve been looking for for about a year. We had one for about 5 years and it was perfect for fulltiming because the legs fold down and it sat compactly in the truck bed next to the tool box.

I went on the internet and the only place I found it was at Big Lots.  And, as luck would have it, it was on sale for Father’s Day.  BUT, the closest Big Lots was in Farmington, New Mexico, a 135 mile trip one way!  Oh, what the heck….let’s go….so off we went at 8 a.m.

I had called ahead and Abbey was nice enough to save one for me.  It was a fast pick up.  Then lunch at Golden Corral…love their crab meat salad.  I was lucky as they served beef liver today….yummy!  Next we stopped at Petco and got the pups’ nails trimmed; yes, they had to muzzle Chorizo as he got nasty mean.  Poncho, MY dog, was a perfect gentleman!

Then we drove back home seeing the Ride the Rockies bikers driving into Pagosa Springs.  We wanted to get back to the campground around 4 p.m. to greet our overnight campers, and we made it.  We have 8 sites full tonight and that’s pretty good out of 12.

Father’s Day weekend has always been good for us at Big Meadows Campground with lots of fathers and sons spending the weekend together.  This has been a tradition with many families, some coming every year for 20-30 years.  We would get 3 and 4 generations coming together every year.  We’ll see if any come on over to Park Creek this year.

So it’s been a nice day.  Remember, you are loved.

Here Moosey, Moosey!

 

Take a look at this photo. It’s that moose cow I wrote about the other day on Facebook. Took this at 7:45 this morning. She’s young and pretty thin. She walk right by our back window. It’s the first moose Jim and I have ever seen.

She posed for this photo and stayed real still.  Then she just meandered down the road of the campground as pretty as can be. 

I’ll be on the lookout for her tomorrow morning for sure.

Remember, you are loved!

Bobbie’s Day Out

Love my hubby, but it was time to go to the “big city” by myself and hang with another female.  So I left at 7:25 a.m. and didn’t get back to 4:30 p.m.

Stopped and got my hair cut in a new “do” which I really like.  Then an hour at Wally’s to get the monthly essentials.  Then stopped at the nursing home to see my girlfriend, Naomi.  After that it was lunch with my best friend, Salai.  Then back to Walmart to buy bras for Naomi; bring them to her at the nursing home…..then finally drive back to the serenity and calm of the mountains. 

Alamosa only has a population of 9,000 but it is too big for me now…getting old as I miss the Alamosa of 25 years ago when we only had 2 stop lights and if you met another car at an intersection we called it a “traffic jam”!!!

But I had a good time shopping by myself, looking at slow cookers, summer blouses, new dish designs….just browsing like I don’t do when Jim is with me.  It was fun and refreshed my spirits.  so I am good for another month.

Remember you are loved.

Cooking, Kids and Ride

The other day I received the latest issue of Taste of Home with a recipe for flour tortillas.  It sounded so easy I figure I would try it.

Wow, what a great recipe. The tortillas were chewy but very tender and didn’t take any time at all to make. Here is the link to the recipe http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Homemade-Tortillas

I mixed up flour, salt, water and oil then roll out the individual tortillas and brown/fried them in a cast iron pan…delicious.  I don’t think I’ll be buying flour tortillas again.

Oh, here is a recent photo of our great-granddaughter, Amity.  This is her first activity walker and her feet barely touch the floor….too cute.

We finally got a little rain yesterday so the dusty roads are a little calmed down now.  We had six campers last night so hopefully the camping season is beginning. 

Ride the Rockies starts today.  It is a 532 mile, week long bike ride through scenic Colorado.  There are 2,000 cyclists assisted by 100 helpers.  This year they are riding from Grand Junction to Salida passing through Pagosa Springs towards Alamosa and will pass right by our campground!!! 

I know one of the riders, Judy Egbert, who is the City Clerk of Alamosa.  I plan on staking out a spot on the highway for the day and cheer on the bikers as they ride by and taking a lot of photos that I will share with you next week.

Remember, you are loved.

Escapees on Today Show

I’m copying this from an Escapees RV Club News email I received Friday.

“Escapees members Trudy Lundgren and Lisa Wade will be featured on NBC's Today Show Monday,
June 14, 2010.

The Today Show and AARP followed their travels for a bit to learn more about them and the RV lifestyle. The feature will air during Jane Pauley's "Your Life is Calling" segment between 8 and 9 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Saving Time).

Jane Pauley's team graciously invited Escapees to join the web chat afterwards, between 12 noon and
1 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Saving Time). You can sign in at http://www.aarp.org/ws/your_life_calling.html.

Escapees President Cathie Carr and Executive Director Angie Carr will be online, along with Trudy and Jane, taking questions from viewers. You don't want to miss this wonderful opportunity to get your RVing questions answered by such an esteemed panel.
If you miss out on the segment and/or web chat, you can find the video, chat transcript, and more on RVing at www.aarp.org/jane.”

We’ll have to sneak on our generator at 7 am here in the MTS so we can watch.  I also plan on lurking in on the chat afterwards.

Remember, you are loved.

Internet at campground

When our friends Dave and Marie Dengate came to visit us this weekend I asked Dave if I could borrow his aircard adapter cable, since we have the same USB aircard.  Sure enough his cable worked on my aircard and I could get online.  Seems my cable had a bent/broken pin inside and that’s why I wasn’t getting out.

So a fast phone call to wps antennas and I ordered a new adapter cable….so in a couple of days I’ll be back online AT the campground and won’t have to make the trip to town to get online.  I’m one happy lady today!!!

Weather

Gad zooks, it has been hot up here in the mountains.  You’d think at 8,500 feet it would always be cool, and it usually is, but yesterday the temperature rose to 90 degrees!!!  That is unheard of up this high. 

Our friends, Dave and Marie Dengate, came to camp with us on their days off as volunteer camphosts at the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  They get pestered too much if they try to stay at their campground on their days off.  So we invited the Deacons to come over so we can all have a steak dinner tonight.

In the meantime, I was cooking my Tamale Pie for the camphost meeting and had the oven going at 375 degrees, for crying out loud!  I made a double batch but it all got eaten up so it must of been OK.

After the camphosts left at 4:00 I began to fix Creamy, Cheese Potatoes because we invited the Dengates and the Deacons over for the steak dinner. Of course, we had to have happy hour first…..

Then after steaks we made a campfire

Then we had ice cream

Nick Russell had a very interesting blog post today on how you can afford the fulltime RV lifestyle.  Any “wannabees” out there would benefit from reading this post.

http://gypsyjournal.net/blog/2010/06/06/fulltime-rving-can-be-very-affordable/

Remember, you are loved.

Bikers

We had a couple of bicyclers camp with us last night here at Park Creek.  Huck and Amelia are on a long-distance ride from San Francisco, CA to Brooklyn, NY over a course of three months.

They are both landscapers and took 3 months off work to ride across America on a lark.  At 25 and 23 years old why not?

They told me they travel about 60-100 miles A DAY!!!  They usually start out at 11 am and peddle till an hour before sunset, averaging about 7-9 hours of cycling a day.  Oh, my butt and legs ache just reading this!  Needless to say, they don’t pack much gear with them…a couple of satchels, food and water.

They carry plenty of food with them and usually stock up every couple of days.  Amelia said they were pretty tired of eating salami and cheese and are ready for a change.

They both sleep together in a one person pup tent.

They plan on peddling to Alamosa today, and then on through Trinidad and into Kansas where they will board a train to travel to Kentucky then cycle up from Kentucky to New York.  The train ride is to bypass the threat of tornadoes in Kansas. They are a bit behind in their time allotment. Amelia said they zig-zaged across Nevada going to Las Vegas and through Arizona and lost time.  They need to  be in New York a week or so before August 1 so Amelia can visit relatives before taking Amtrak back to San Francisco (a 3-4 day trip) and as they are due to start back to work August 1st.

What a nice conversation we had this morning sharing places we have seen and how we both enjoy living minimally….seeing new places and meeting interesting people is more important than having a big house full of possessions.

I gave them our social card and they said they would send us a postcard and let us know how the rest of their trip went.  I certainly admire these two young people and wished them well and sent them off with my blessings.

Remember, you are loved.