The Jin Family

A knock on the door with a request to plug in their rice cooker was the start of a wonderful serendipitous event! 

After explaining we didn’t have any sites with electricity, the couple moved a little distance to discuss their options. I told Jim we could plug it into our RV since we had the generator going…how many watts and how long could it take?  “So please come in and we’ll use our electricity to cook your rice.” The gentleman thanked us and brought in this monster sized machine that reminded me of R2D2.  This is an electric turbo pressure cooker that cooks enough rice for 10, but will also do all other pressure cooker duties. It would take 20 minutes only, we were told.  OK, we were watching the Rockies - Cardinals baseball game, so they set up the machine with the correct settings and left to be back, as I understood it, in 20 minutes. 

First up as soon as the machine started it knocked off the TV…found out later it was 1250 watts - same as a hair dryer. So OK the Rockies were ahead 12-0, we can wait it out.  In 20 minutes the pressure valve started to jingle and the cooking began.  Another 35 minutes the rice was done and the pressure cooker reduced it’s pressure for safe transportation.

While we waited we talked to Andrew, his wife, Nancy, and friend, Karen.  They had never been inside an RV before and they marveled at the size and said it looked like a large apartment. We explained our fulltime RV lifestyle, which interested Andrew a lot.

“Please come and share our dinner”, they said, “we are having Korean barbecue and you will like it”.  We normally do not accept dinner invitations from our campers, but the chance to eat authentic Korean food intrigued us so we accepted.  I was going to just send Jim down as I told them I didn’t eat meat, but they mentioned they were serving kimchee, and that changed my mind.  I spent 3 years in Japan and I love kimchee and don’t have many opportunities to eat it, so now I’m all in.

So Jim reminds me to bring him a fork to use, as I gathered bowls to use. When we arrived at their campsite there were 11 people assembled with dinner all ready to go.  The side dishes were pre-made and chilled and the beef and pork were being skillet fried to perfection.

There in the front left is the kimchee, behind it is home sprouted mung beans that were seasoned, to the right is sautéed spinach with sesame seeds and behind that is pickled white radishes.  Jim fell in love with the tender marinated meats and spent time watching the cooking and asking questions.  I had a taste of the meat and they were so good, but I really enjoyed the assortment of vegetables.

We found out that the couple was not staying the night, but only paying for a day use of a campsite to eat dinner and then they were driving on to Pagosa Springs for the weekend.  During the conversation we found out that the gentleman was named Andrew and his wife was Nancy.  Andrew was born in Korea and came to America at age seven.  He is a teacher in an academy in the Denver area and teaches English and prepares students to take college entrance exams.  His students are Korean and Russian. Four of the children with them were his students.  They came to America just for the summer to study then will return to Korea. 

Karen (Haija) made all the food before hand.  She and her radiologist husband came to America for a two year period to exchange information with American radiologists.  Karen said she was a professor in Korea teaching Chinese medicine including acupuncture. She was pleased to be a housewife while in America. Karen is a very accomplished cook and I so enjoyed her food!

Here we are for a final photograph with Karen and Nancy on my left with Andrew on Jim’s right.

As we said our “goodbyes” Andrew said we had really gotten him to think about RVing when he retires.  He said he would like to do what we are doing and work in a campground.  I told him if I was still alive when he retired he was to give me a call and I would hire him to work with us!  We all laughed, but I gave him a business card anyway.

We parted with my commenting “any time you are in the area and can’t find electricity for your rice cooker, just stop on by and you can use our electricity to cook your rice”.  We all laughed.

Andrew and Nancy thanked us for our hospitality and said they would return this summer to stay with us.  It takes so little to make lasting friends.

What a wonderful, spontaneous time we had together. Two different cultures, two different lifestyles, two different food tastes, but brought together by the common desire to spend some time in nature, in the forest……together… priceless!

Remember, you are loved.