Category Archives: Restaurants

Blowin’ in the Wind

We were joined by Mike and Jodi Hall and their granddaughter Swayzie and her friend Valerie on Friday afternoon. They pulled in to Pleasant Harbor RV Resort around 2pm and took the site directly behind us. When I pull into a site and begin my set-up routine, I generally dislike interruptions or distractions and rarely engage a neighbor in small talk – that often leads to mistakes in my routine.

I broke my own unwritten rule and went over and started talking to Mike as he was setting up their travel trailer. After about 10 minutes, I realized I wasn’t being helpful and let him finish without me distracting him.

On Friday evening, Donna grilled a pile of marinated chicken drumsticks. We all sat around the picnic table at our site and struggled with poor lighting. Donna also made potato salad and a delightful kale salad. After dinner, we had carrot cake Donna baked for dessert – it included a few cut pieces with birthday candles. My birthday was two weeks earlier, Swayzie’s ninth birthday was Saturday, October 24th and Mike’s birthday was Monday, October 26th. It was a good time.

On Saturday, we took the golf cart shuttle to the marina and went to Dillon’s for lunch. The shuttle is the way to go – if you drive over, you have to park above the marina and it’s quite a hike down the ramp and then a long walk on a floating walkway to the restaurant/bar. The shuttle drives all the way across the floating access onto the marina dock right outside of Dillon’s.

They have a huge water slide on the dock that ends with an upturned lip that flings people from the slide into the air over the water. We saw a few guys doing flips and twists in the air, but we also saw a few belly-flops and one guy smacked the water as he hit horizontally on his back and side – it sounded painful. We enjoyed lunch – most of us ordered from their barbeque menu – and enjoyed a couple of cold ones. The food was good, albeit on the pricy side for what it was. But the view and setting command the price. I don’t know why I failed to take any pictures.

Friday’s high temperature reached the low 90s and Saturday and Sunday were in the high 80s. Historically, the average high temperature in this area at this time of year reaches 89 degrees with a low of 60 degrees. On Sunday, Donna and the Halls went to the Lake Pleasant Regional Park and hiked the Wild Burro trail. They didn’t see any wild burros, but they made the trip down to the Scorpion Bay Marina. I stayed home and watched the Formula One race from Portugal and the Moto GP race from Spain.

The temperatures were on the warm side Sunday, but in the afternoon, the wind started to pick up. I pulled our awning in as it was starting to billow a bit. While I was watching TV, I heard a loud bang! I looked outside and saw our neighbor across the street come outside. He looked around, then focused on the fifth-wheel trailer next to his site.

It was a Vilano fifth-wheel trailer with dual awnings and they were deployed. I knew the owner, Mike, was out on the lake in his boat – I’d seen him load up and leave earlier. Just then, his front awning blew up like a balloon and the frame arms scissored in as the air spring gave way. The arms crashed against the coach siding with a loud whack! When it happened again, I figured damage was imminent.

Last week, Donna talked to Mike when she was petting his Basset hound, Otis. Mike told her that she could come and visit the dog anytime – he doesn’t lock the trailer when he’s out on the lake. I took this as permission to enter. I walked over and knocked on the door, knowing no one was home. I opened the unlocked door and called out as Otis came over for a sniff. I let myself in.

I looked around for switches to operate the electric awnings. I didn’t see any, but I saw a touch screen that operated the various room lights. I looked at the screen and saw a small icon at the bottom that looked like an awning. I touched the icon and the screen then displayed an extend/retract button for awning 1 and another button for awning 2. Eureka! I retracted the awnings and left.

Later, when Mike returned with his boat after sunset, I walked over and told him what had happened. I wanted him to know I entered his coach and why. He was grateful and told me he could hardly believe he left his awnings out – he knew better than to do that. He was so grateful that later, when he returned from the store, he gave me a six-pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he insisted.

Monday morning, Mike and Jodi packed up the kids and their stuff and pulled out around 11am. The forecast for Monday’s weather called for a 40% chance of rain a few days ago. It was revised to no rain, but a cold, blustery day ahead. The wind started picking up by noon. The high temperature only reached 69 degrees.

The wind continued to strengthen throughout the afternoon. By 3pm, I decided to take the whip down from my Frankenbuddi Versatee Vertical HF antenna. It extends about 30 feet in the air and was moving quite a bit in the wind. The wind gusts became stronger and isolated dust storms came through the area. By dark, we had gusts of 40mph and blowing debris that made it look like a blizzard was coming through.

The car cover blew off of Midget-San. I went out in the dark and wind to retrieve it. Sand and leaves were blowing everywhere. Donna helped me secure the cover back over the Midget. I hate to think of what the interior must look like – it was exposed to all of the blowing debris.

The gusting winds continued all night, rocking the coach at times. It made for a fitful night’s sleep. This morning, the winds are still blowing, but not nearly as strong as yesterday. I went out to take a look around. Of course our chairs blew down and one of the table cloths disappeared. There are leaves and debris in all of the sites – there weren’t any leaves to be seen on the ground before. Even our door mats blew away.

Leaves and debris in the site around Mike’s Vilano fifth-wheel trailer – it’s the one I pulled the awnings in.

In the site across from where Mike and Jodi were, a canopy cover was destroyed.

Never underestimate the power of wind! This morning, my Comet GP6 UHF/VHF antenna was listing to one side. I re-secured the mount to straighten it. Even with the lower wind strength this morning, the antenna is whipping around.

This morning’s wind pushing the antenna around.

The wind is supposed to abate and be reasonably calm this afternoon. I’ll put the HF antenna back up and do some clean-up. The forecast calls for high 60s again today before we start warming back up to more normal daily highs.

We plan to move out of here on Saturday, so I’ll start reorganizing the trailer in the next few days. We’ll be moving south to Buckeye where we can visit with my middle daughter Jamie and her family.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Wild Burros

Donna registered for a guided kayak tour from Lake Pleasant Regional Park – she’ll take her kayak out on the lake next Friday with a park ranger leading a group of up to 10 people. Lake Pleasant Regional Park is operated by Maricopa County Parks and Recreation. The park is an area of about 23,000 acres – 7,500 to 10,000 acres are covered by the lake. Lake Pleasant is a pleasing name, but it may not be what you think. It’s named after the Carl Pleasant dam which was completed in 1927 and formed the lake from inflow of the Agua Fria River.

There are fees associated with entry to the park. Donna decided to purchase an annual Regional Park Pass – she’ll use it here and also when we are in Mesa to enter Usery Regional Park. So we drove the Midget west on Carefree Highway to North Castle Hot Springs Road and the entrance to the park. Once Donna paid for the pass, we drove in and took a look around.

Our first stop was at the Scorpion Bay Marina parking area. From the parking lot, you get a great view of the lake and marina. It’s a bit of a hike to get down to the marina, but they also have two inclined lifts that can hold about four people or a couple of people and gear to get down and up from the marina.

Scorpion Bay Marina – stairs between two inclined lift tracks

I was surprised at the number of large boats in the marina. The building at the end of the dock is Scorpion Bay Grill – Donna and I plan to eat there in the near future.

As we were leaving the parking area, we saw wild burros.

I pulled off of the pavement and Donna shot a couple of photos.

They didn’t want to hang around while Donna photographed them

Donna wanted to check out some of the hiking trails, so we took a car tour of the park. Between Sunset Ridge and the Bobcat Day Use area, we found a huge boat ramp. The sign says 10-lane boat ramp, but it looks larger than 10 lanes to me. It’s also a long, fairly steep run from the parking area to the water.

We’ve had nocturnal visits from wild burros at least three times this week. Yesterday, I saw one of the park maintenance guys scooping donkey droppings and I figured out why they are coming into the RV park. We have a grassy park with a pavilion between the RV sites and the clubhouse/pool area. The burros are feeding on the green grass at night when no one is around.

Last night, Donna prepared a new dish – it was called melted broccoli pasta and she served it with shrimp grilled on the Weber Q.

I had a really interesting contact on ham radio Wednesday evening. I could hear a conversation between two people with a strong signals on both ends. I was operating on the 40-meter band, which is useful for long-range contacts of 300 miles up to 5,000+ miles. After listening for a few minutes, I found that one end of the conversation was coming from Henderson, Nevada. The other guy was in Peoria, Arizona – less than 10 miles away from me! This doesn’t usually work on 40 meters – the signal skips over near locations as it reflects off of the ionosphere.

I was able to join the conversation, then the Henderson contact had to break away and we were joined by a guy in Del Mar, California. It was a fun contact and I enjoyed the conversation. Today I’m expecting a delivery – I’m going to replace my MFJ 2289 high frequency antenna with something new. When I bought my radio gear, I really tried to learn about which radio would be the right choice for me and I think I did well. But, I should have paid more attention to antenna theory and design. A lot of the old-timers have advised to spend money on the antenna – that’s where the performance is. Well, live and learn – I should have spent the antenna money once – instead I keep replacing them with the next best thing as I learn.

Today should be the first day we have a high temperature in double digits. It’s been 100+ degrees every afternoon since we arrived. Today’s forecast calls for a high of 91 degrees and we should see low to mid-90s for the next couple of weeks. We joke about dry heat, but really at 10 to 20% humidity, 90 degrees doesn’t feel too bad.

Dry and Dusty

As I mentioned in my last post, we drove up to Kanab, Utah on Thursday and met Jeff and Deb Spencer at Escobar’s Mexican restaurant for lunch. After a short wait, we were seated at an outdoor table on the front patio. We enjoyed the food, company and conversation for the next two hours. Kanab is only about eight miles from Fredonia where we were staying.

On the way back, we made a side trip to look at the Kane County arena where a rodeo was scheduled on Friday evening. It looked dry and dusty – the parking area was a dust bowl. I decided to pass on the rodeo.

Donna went out for a bike ride on Friday and in her travels, she ran into Deb Spencer. Jeff and Deb are mooch-docking at a friend’s place in Fredonia. Donna stopped and talked to Deb and her friend, Marge.

Dry and dusty has been a theme at Wheel Inn RV Park in Fredonia. On Saturday while Donna took a bike ride, the wind kicked up. I ended up taking down my ham radio antenna and it turned out to be a good precaution as the wind became gustier all afternoon. At times, the amount of dust in the air was astounding. It was a good thing Donna went out early for her ride. She followed a route suggested by Marge and went across the state line to the Jackson Flat Reservoir. Here are some photos from her ride.

I was feeling a little off all weekend – some kind of intestinal bug. So I wasn’t very active.

On Sunday, Donna had an appointment at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab. She drove Midget-San up there before noon. They have a number of tours for a variety of animals – dogs, cats, pigs, goats, birds and rabbits. Donna toured Cat World where rescued cats are housed.

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary Welcome Center

I hung out and watched the Moto GP race from Spain and the Formula One race from Russia. When Donna returned, I loaded the Midget in the trailer and I was glad I did. Once again the wind kicked up and we had several dust storms – so much dust I couldn’t see across the street.

Monday morning we hit the road. We took US89A south and began climbing. In Fredonia we were about 4,800 feet above sea level. Our route on US89A took us past Jacob Lake where we topped out at 7,920 feet above sea level! The highway is twisty and very narrow. I clenched a few times when oncoming tractor-trailer rigs threatened to knock mirrors with us. There is no shoulder at all and dropping a wheel off the pavement probably would not end well.

We quickly lost elevation as we drove past Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. We crossed the Colorado River at Marble Canyon at an elevation of a little over 3,500 feet above sea level and began climbing again. We soon left US89A and hit US89 south. This is a wider road with ample shoulder space and is a divided highway at times. But, it’s a very bumpy road with whoop-de-do sections. After traversing several miles of rough pavement, I groaned when I saw a sign warning of rough pavement for the next 24 miles. If the next 24 miles warranted a sign, things could only be getting worse.

US89 took us up the Mogollon Rim south of Cameron and the road to the east entrance of the Grand Canyon. We entered the Coconino National Forest and were back up to an elevation over 7,000 feet above sea level. Most people think of Arizona as flat desert land. Not so in northern Arizona. We went from arid canyons to thick pine forests with a multitude of landscapes in between.

From Flagstaff, you can see Humphreys Peak – the highest natural point in Arizona at 12,637 feet above sea level. We drove past Flagstaff and made a detour east on I-40 to Winona where we found the Twin Arrows Casino. The casino is closed due to the pandemic, but it has large lots and RVers are welcome to dry camp. We spent last night here and are off to Camp Verde today where we’ll spend the next couple of nights at the Distant Drums RV Resort. We’ve been there before and it’s a nice RV park with amenities.

The temperature is much cooler here, but it’ll be warmer in Camp Verde and warmer still in Lake Pleasant where we’ll check in at the marina on Thursday.

Floating Green

After our day on the water last Tuesday, we’ve had a low-key rest of the week. The highlight was meeting up with Dick and Roxy Zarowny on Friday for lunch at the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course. I saw on Facebook that our friends Jim and Cindy Birditt had come down from Priest River and golfed with Gary Stemple there the day before.

We met Dick and Roxy at the Floating Green restaurant where they had claimed an table on the patio for us. The Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course claims to have the world’s only floating green. We parked at the Events Center after checking in with security at the gated entrance. The short walk to the Floating Green restaurant took us right past the floating green.

The Floating Green seen from the end of the parking area

It was a beautiful day with the temperature around 80 degrees as we dined and talked on the patio. We started out with Bloody Mary’s – actually they were Caesars since they were made with clamato and had garnish of pickled asparagus and bacon!

Great cocktail before lunch – everything is better with bacon

From the patio, we watched golfers try to get on the floating green. Several people really struggled with the shot – there has to be a lot of golf balls in the water around the green! I watched one guy hit four balls into the water – he never made it on the green. I wonder how Jim, Cindy and Gary fared on this hole.

Floating Green from the patio – these guys made it

The food was very good and we enjoyed conversation for nearly two hours. Dick and Roxy were on the fence about going down to Viewpoint in Mesa, Arizona this winter. Roxy sent Donna a message last evening saying they’ve decided to go there in January. We look forward to seeing them there. They will drive their motorhome to Las Vegas in October and stage it there in a storage facility. Driving an RV from eastern Washington to Arizona in the winter is not an appealing idea. With the motorhome waiting in Las Vegas, they can drive there in their car, then take the motorhome through the desert to Mesa without a worry about ice or snow.

Donna took care of a chore this week. Our refrigerator was badly in need of defrosting. The air in Mount Vernon held a lot of moisture and that resulted in ice forming on the cooling fins in the refrigerator. She waited until the refrigerator was low on food, then did the deed. After Friday’s lunch, we stopped at Winco Foods and restocked. Last night Donna prepared a pan-seared flank steak from Winco and served it with riced cauliflower and peas.

Tender, tasty flank steak – it wasn’t as rare as it appears in this photo

The weather stayed on the warm side all week with daily highs in the low to mid 80s. It should be cooler today – in the mid 70s with tomorrow’s forecast calling for a high of 70 degrees. This is just right – it won’t be too hot as I organize and pack the trailer today. I’ll dismantle the ham radio antennas and pack our outdoor table and chairs. I’ll probably get plenty of steps today ferrying our stuff from our site to the trailer at the back of the Elk’s Lodge RV Park.

Tomorrow morning we’ll pick up the trailer, hit the dump station, then head south on US95 – it should be a pleasant drive with the cooler temperature. This will take us south just east of the Idaho/Washington border through Moscow and down to Lewiston. We have a couple of options down in that area. I think our first choice will be the McKay’s Bend BLM campsite on the Clearwater River. They have 14 full hook-up sites there. If we can’t get in there, we’ll go to the Lewiston Elk’s Lodge located right on the Snake River.

Upriver With a Paddle

In my last post, I mentioned the weather forecast called for cooler weather by the end of the week. Maybe that was wishful thinking. Okay, it was “only” 84 degrees on Thursday, but the rest of the week was 90 degrees or higher.

I also mentioned interference I was experiencing on High Frequency (HF) ham radio bands. I figured it out – it was mostly operator error. I partly blame it on the weird nomenclature Yaesu uses. My radio, a Yaesu 991a, has a feature they call IPO – intercept point optimization. After reading the manual again, I finally figured out this was a confusing term for preamplfiers.

Preampliers boost the signal before it’s decoded and amplified by the rest of the circuits. The thing is, if you boost the raw signal, you also boost any noise or interference. I had this circuit set to Amp1 which boosts the signal 10dB – raising the noise floor. Then I was trying to use Digital Noise Reduction to suppress the noise. I was fighting myself. By turning IPO off, the noise was greatly reduced.

I’ll mention one more thing regarding ham radio before your eyes glaze over. I was on the radio with two guys in Las Vegas – one of them was actually in Henderson. These guys, Scotty and Andrew, had elaborate radio set-ups and were talking to each other and inviting others to join in the conversation. I conversed with them briefly and I should quit complaining about the hot weather. They told me it hit 115 degrees on Thursday and was 113 at 6pm when we talked. They also said the hot weather was compounded by smoke and ash from the California wildfires.

There are several wildfires burning in California right now. The central coast has several large fires as does the northern part of the state. There are also fires in southern California, but I don’t think they’re as large as the northern and central coast fires.

On Thursday, Donna rode her bicycle down to Lake Couer d’Alene. There are many good, paved bike paths in the area. She locked her bike at the marina where the trailhead for Tubbs Hill Trail is. She hiked the trail in a counter-clockwise loop. She read it is a two-mile hike and rated as easy. But she found it had hills and seemed longer than two miles! Here are some of her pictures from the hike.

Thursday evening, Donna prepared southwest chicken breasts. They were spicy! They were good, but next time she decided she should add a dollop of sour cream to the serving.

Southwest chicken and sauteed zucchini with cotija cheese

On Friday, we met up with Jim and Cindy Birditt. We made plans the night before to meet at “The Mudhole” in the Priest River Recreation Area. We loaded the Sea Eagle SE370 inflatable kayak in Midget-San and headed out around 9:45am and drove up to Priest River. It’s a nice drive through farmland and pine forest.

Jim and Cindy had just arrived before we got there around 10:45am. Jim unloaded his hard-shell kayaks while we inflated and assembled the Sea Eagle. It looked to be a near perfect day for kayaking. The boat ramp is at the mouth of Priest River right where it drains into the Pend Oreille River. Priest River was flowing slowly – just right for an upriver jaunt.

The back of Donna’s head as we started out

The riverfront properties have some beautiful homes. But it also has some waterfront property with minimal development – we saw several places where the only dwellings were RVs. There were a couple of apparently abandoned or unoccupied dwellings too. As we paddled upriver, eventually, the waterfront homes dwindled then disappeared altogether once the river became too shallow to be navigable by powerboats.

No more visible homes – our turn-around point was the bend straight ahead

We saw an osprey – it landed in a tree top near us and began calling. As we came downstream, we saw a bald eagle overhead, then we saw two more. I snapped a couple of photos of nice riverfront homes – I wonder if these are summer homes.

I was too far away to get a good shot of the second home – a cabin-like structure with a water feature with two waterfalls. It looks more like a resort lodge than a home.

We cruised easily back downriver aided by the slow current. The current was somewhat offset by a headwind, but it was a great day to be paddling on the river. By the time we got back to the boat ramp, it was past noon and really heating up.

We loaded our gear and followed Jim and Cindy to the west side of town where the Ranch Club restaurant is located at the golf course. We had lunch outside on the patio and sat and talked for a couple of hours.

Jim and Cindy had burgers – they had several variations of burgers on the menu. Donna had a cobb salad and I opted for the daily special. The daily special was fish and chips made with steelhead trout. This was something I’d never had before and I wanted to try it. We’ve grilled steelhead several times, but I hadn’t tried it battered and fried.

Steelhead trout are native to the west coast of North America, although they have been introduced elsewhere. A steelhead trout is a fresh water rainbow trout that migrates to the ocean and grows to a large size in the salt water. It then returns to fresh water streams to spawn. Steelhead can live up to 11 years and spawn multiple times. A rainbow trout that remains in fresh water for its lifetime is just that – a rainbow trout. Rainbow trout that migrate and become steelhead are generally larger – they can weigh up to 55 lbs – and less colorful than their freshwater brethren.

Awhile back, a guy from Michigan insisted that they had steelhead in streams “back home.” I have to differ – if a rainbow trout never enters a salt water ocean, it isn’t a steelhead. I don’t believe a rainbow trout from a Michigan stream will go to the ocean and return.

I was a little disappointed in the fish plate – it was battered heavier than I prefer. The chips were outstanding though.

We’ve extended our stay here at the Coeur d’Alene Elk’s Lodge until the end of the month. That means I’ll have to pack up and hit the dump station soon – I don’t want to risk overloading the gray water tank before we leave. The weather guessers now say we’ll see 80 degrees today before we’re back in the mid to upper 80s for the rest of the weekend. Long range they say we’ll be in the 70s by the end of the month.

Tri-tip Delight

Kevin and Alana came by on Thursday afternoon and we went into town to District Brewing on the corner of Main Street and Myrtle Street – across from the park where the farmers’ market is held. The brewery had a variety of good IPAs on tap, but only one amber or red ale and one porter.

We found a table on the upper level overlooking the park and Skagit River. After a round of ales, we moved to an outside table so Alana’s chihuahua, Chico, could join us. I ordered a wood-fired pizza to go and Donna and I enjoyed it back at home.

Friday was mostly uneventful – Donna went out for a bike ride. I went to Lowes and bought supplies to build a new antenna mast. I received an MFJ-2289 Big Ear dipole antenna from Ham Radio Outlet the day before. This monster looks kind of like an old “rabbit ear” TV antenna on steroids. The collapsible whips are 17 feet long! I built a mast and mounted it on a sturdy tripod about 10 feet above the ground. The idea is to get on the 20-meter band and see if I can make some distant single-side-band contacts over the air. I haven’t been successful yet.

As I was messing with the radio yesterday afternoon, I could see clouds thickening and could feel rain coming. I took everything down and put the radio away. Meanwhile, I had a tri-tip on the Traeger wood-fired smoker-grill.

I bought the tri-tip at Winco Foods on Wednesday. It was untrimmed, so I trimmed the fat cap and seasoned it Thursday night. Tri-tip is an interesting cut of beef and has some folklore behind it. The tri-tip cut is the bottom of the sirloin – the tensor fasciae latae muscle in front of a cow’s hip. It’s a curved cut usually about eight or nine inches long and three inches thick in the center, tapering on the ends.

This portion of meat was once used only for ground beef or maybe stew meat. The story goes like this – in the 1950s a butcher named Bob Schutz at Safeway in Santa Maria, California was overstocked on ground beef. So he took a bottom sirloin cut that would normally be ground and spiced it, then put it on a rotisserie. The results were surprising. Everyone found the meat to be flavorful and hearty. With a few tweaks, he perfected the method of grilling over coals and began marketing the “tri-tip” as he called it, as a barbecue cut.

This barbecue meat became quite popular in Santa Maria, which is located in a valley known for growing wine grapes, midway between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. Today, a tri-tip that has been barbecued is known as “Santa Maria Tri-Tip.” It’s mostly a west coast thing, but I’ve heard it has grown in popularity throughout the country. The traditional method uses a simple dry rub of equal parts salt, pepper and garlic powder. I used a commercially prepared rub called “Pappy’s Choice” which has a high salt content. After trimming the tri-tip, I rubbed it, wrapped it in cling-wrap and put it in the refrigerator.

Friday afternoon, I pulled the Traeger out of the trailer and set the temperature at about 220 degrees. I did this by setting the controller to 180 degrees, then adjusting the P-setting to P0. This had the pellets feeding for 15 seconds, then idling for 45 seconds and held it at the temperature I desired.

After two hours in the Traeger, I checked the internal temperature and found it at 130 degrees. I fired up the Weber Q and heated it to 400 degrees. I took the tri-tip out of the Traeger and put it in the Weber for three minutes per side. This seared the meat and toughened the bark resulting from the rub and smoking. This is called a reverse sear technique as most searing methods start with the sear first.

The last trick to serving tri-tip is to cut it correctly. It’s a lot like cutting brisket. You must cut across the grain and pay attention as the grain direction changes. For our dinner, I sliced the tri-tip in 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick slices.

Donna made whole wheat spaghetti with pesto, sun dried tomatoes and asparagus on the side and she also had fresh corn on the cob which she bought at the vegetable stand near here on her bike ride. I pulled the tri-tip off the Weber at about 5:20 pm, just as it started raining. Perfect timing. I let it rest on a cutting board for 15 minutes before slicing. You need a cutting board with channel cut in the outer perimeter – this is one juicy hunk of beef.

That’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about tri-tip. The one I smoked was rather large – about three pounds before smoking. So, we have leftovers and that’s great. I had some with eggs over-easy for a poor man’s steak and eggs breakfast this morning. Donna sliced the remainder into thin slices that’ll be just right for tri-tip sandwiches or topping for a salad.

The rain fell off and on overnight and it’s raining lightly this morning. It should clear up by early afternoon. The thermometer reached 73 yesterday and should be about the same today. Tomorrow and Monday are predicted to be sunny and warmer. I’ll start organizing the trailer today. Tomorrow we plan to visit with Kevin and Alana and our granddaughter, Gabi, and Kevin’s boys, Nick and Kyle. On Monday, we’ll pull out of here and head over the North Cascades to Winthrop.

Reeling in the Years

Another week has flown by since I last posted. I wrote that post on a wet and dreary day. It’s been the opposite of that since then. Glorious, sunny days with blue skies and cool evenings. It’s hard to believe the first month of 2020 is coming to a close already. I have a theory about the perception of time accelerating as we grow older.

When we were 12 years old, our lifetime experience could be broken down into 12 increments, each spanning one year (this isn’t exactly true – most of us have little or no recollection of the first few years of our life). So, our internal perception of time revolves around a year being 1/12th of everything we know.

When we reach the age of 60, our lifetime experience can be broken into 60 equal intervals, each spanning one year. These intervals are now 1/5th of the perceived interval when we were 12 years old. A year represents a much smaller portion of our life experience, thus we perceive a year as a much shorter span of time. Therefore, for us old people, time really flies.

After the rain cleared up, Scott started working on our coach on Wednesday. A painter’s work revolves around prep. The quality of the work is a reflection of the preparation. I’ve had car painters tell me that actually shooting the paint is the easy part. Getting the surface prepared and the final cut and buff are what make the job come out great. Scott spent three days preparing the surface for paint. He had to remove the clear coat from the areas where it was failing. To get the new finish to adhere, the old clear coat had to be cut back to provide a good, solid margin. He did this with a razor blade and sand paper. It looked like tedious work.

To match the paint color, he had to remove one of the basement compartment doors that had all four colors on it. He took it to a paint shop where they could color match with a special camera and computer program. He was ready to start applying paint on Friday.

Saturday afternoon he was ready to start the finish work. He had to block-sand the clear coat, then buff it with a polishing wheel. He ran out of daylight and had to finish up Sunday morning. The finished job looks great.

Meanwhile, we went about our business. Donna started practicing new music on her clarinet. The next Viewpoint Concert Band performance is February 16th and they have a whole new repertoire to learn for that performance.

I learned something new about UPS deliveries. Apparently, they have a new protocol where they only make one attempt to deliver a package in some areas. If you aren’t home, they take the package to a UPS Access Point. I had a package come on Thursday while we were out. There was a note left on our door. After I deciphered the driver’s chicken scratch note, I figured out that I had to wait until the next day to pick up my package at a nearby CVS pharmacy. Seems a little crazy to me, but I suppose the agreement to accept packages at CVS will bring customers into the store to potentially shop while they’re there.

On Saturday morning, Donna and I drove Midget-San to Gilbert where we were meeting our friends, Sara and Howard Graff, for the farmers’ market. They actually pulled up next to us at a stoplight on Gilbert Road at Baseline on the way there. What timing!

Gilbert used to be little more than a crossroads in the desert. Urban sprawl has made it part of metro Phoenix today. Everything from Glendale to Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler is one big area of development. It’s hard to tell when you cross into another city limit. Gilbert has gone from being a one-horse cowboy town to a trendy place to shop and eat. There are numerous restaurants along the old Main Street.

We strolled and shopped at the farmers’ market. They had a fairly large number of vendors there with plenty of fresh produce.

There was a separate market place on the north side of the old town for arts and crafts. After walking through all of the markets, we checked out a few places to eat and settled on OHSO Brewery and Distillery. We had a short wait, then were seated out on the covered patio. Their food was excellent – we were all very happy with the meals we ordered. On the weekends, brunch from 10am to 2pm includes a 10-ounce beer or a mimosa when specific menu entrees are ordered. My entree included a drink, but Donna commandeered my mimosa when I ordered a Bloody Mary. The Bloody Mary was made with half jalapeno vodka and half horseradish vodka. It was spicy and it included a stick of house-made beef jerky.

Speaking of beef jerky, on Friday, I trimmed and cut beef top-round steaks across the grain into strips. I had them marinating in the refrigerator overnight. Saturday afternoon I set up the Traeger wood-pellet fired smoker-grill and set it to 180 degrees. I started with two pounds of beef. Four and a half hours later, I had one pound of beef jerky after the meat had smoked and dehydrated. It’s pretty good. I’ll make an adjustment or two to the recipe and reduce the smoke time to four hours when I make it again.

On Sunday evening, my middle daughter, Jamie, and her man, Francisco came over from the west side to go to dinner. Francisco’s birthday is today, but we celebrated early with dinner at the Black Angus. I worked at Stuart Anderson’s Black Angus back in the ’70s in San Diego. That’s where I met my first wife – Jamie’s mother. The Black Angus isn’t what it used to be, but we enjoyed the meal and had a good time together.

Here are a few other good meals we enjoyed over the last week courtesy of Donna’s culinary skills. First up is coconut curry wild Alaskan sockeye salmon with bok choy served with forbidden rice. A favorite for sure.

Coconut curry salmon with bok choy and forbidden rice on the side

Another seafood dish was served up Thursday night. Donna grilled shrimp with pesto served with grilled mushrooms, onions, peppers and zucchini with cauliflower risotto on the side.

Last night, she kept it simple with a chicken stir-fry.

Yesterday, I prepped chicken leg quarters. Later today, I’ll put them on the Traeger. I’m trying something new to me – smoked paprika chicken legs with spicy herb chimichurri. I’ll let you how that works out.

Although a cooler day with clouds are in the forecast for tomorrow, we can expect the favorable weather to continue with highs in the 70s through the weekend. We’re getting plenty of exercise – one day last week I had almost 18,00 steps on the pickleball court!

Holiday Thieves

Another week has flown by here at Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego. I’ve been in a regular routine, visiting with friends for a happy hour cold one at Dan Diego’s or Offshore Tavern and Grill on Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday respectively. We’ve been playing pickleball at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center on Monday, Wednesday and sometimes on Friday.

One habit I’ve fallen into is the Tuesday Taco Special at Offshore Tavern and Grill. They have large, tasty tacos during happy for $3.00 on Tuesday and they are the best. One thing I discovered there is Curt’s hot sauce – made right here in San Diego.

The label says Extra Extra Hot, but it’s not really all that hot – it is very flavorful and I love it.

One of my pals I often have a cold one with is Bob Babich. Bob was an NFL Football player – he was the 18th player drafted in the first round in 1969. He played with the San Diego Chargers for three years then, in 1973, he was traded to the Cleveland Browns for a first and second round draft choice. He played in Cleveland until 1978.

One of the bartenders at Dan Diego’s is Mike Fulton – brother of chef and part owner, Ryan Fulton. Mike found and ordered a Babich number 60 Cleveland Browns jersey. I’m not sure if the color and layout is period correct, but it was nice touch and Bob was really surprised to see Mike behind the bar with it.

Donna’s been faithfully practicing with her clarinet and going through the break-in process with her new wood Leblanc clarinet. I ordered a variety of reeds for her and I’m learning how to adjust and balance the reeds. Clarinet and saxophone players all have a love/hate relationship with their reeds.

I adjust the reeds by carefully scraping the reed to balance both sides. I use a new, razor sharp utility knife blade to do this. On Wednesday, I was pulling a new blade from the dispenser and it was stuck. I gave it a good yank and it suddenly popped free. I swiped it right across my left index finger. Dumb! It made a clean, deep cut. We were off to the Pacific Wellness & Urgent Care Center.

Doctor Moore at the center fixed me up with three stitches. The worst of it was when he numbed my finger tip with injections into the cut. Finger tips are very sensitive!

We had really nice weather on Thursday and Friday. Donna had friends over for dinner Friday evening and rented a fire pit for the occasion. Sini, Mona and Sharon Hinton joined her. John Hinton also came down for awhile. On Friday afternoon, Donna picked up her race packet for the San Diego Santa Run on Saturday. The race packet included a “sunny Santa” costume.

I’m making a Christmas wish on Santa’s lap

The San Diego Santa Run is a 5K fun run in Pacific Beach held the morning before the Christmas parade. Donna rode her bike to the starting area near Garnet and Cass Street. She found our friend, Brooke, there along with about 4,000 other Santa’s.

Donna heading out to the San Diego Santa Run

She had fun and found out that Cass Street is actually uphill as you head north. Not so much that you think about it in a car, but you can feel the incline when running it!

A few nights ago, Donna made a dish that we haven’t had in a long time. It was spiced pork tenderloin with maple-chipotle sauce. I don’t know why we haven’t had it in while, it’s a real goody.

Last evening, I finally caught a nice sunset over the bay. With all the rain we had lately, I haven’t seen many sunsets.

This morning, it was cold in the coach. We don’t like to sleep with heaters – we’d rather put a down comforter or extra blanket on the bed. This morning was coldest of the year – 52 degrees in the coach. We decided to go out for breakfast. One of our favorites we’d discovered in Maui is a Hawaiian breakfast dish called loco moco. Loco moco is rice topped with a hamburger patty, fried eggs and brown gravy. We found it here in San Diego at Leilani’s in Pacific Beach a few years ago. We went for it this morning. I had the Hilo style with spicy fried rice.

When we came back home after breakfast, Donna made a grim discovery. A thief had cut the lock off our bikes and stole them! They were locked to the picnic table and covered with a plastic tarp. Either during the night or while we were at breakfast, the thief struck. They must have cased it out – they had to know what was under the tarp and how to steal it. It looks like they used bolt cutters to defeat the Kryptonite brand cable lock. I can see now how poorly made this cable lock is. Neither of us can say for sure if the bikes were gone when we left for breakfast or not. The thieves took Donna’s new Trek Dual Sport and my Specialized Crave 29er mountain bike.

I’ve been asked if we’ve noticed much difference here since Campland took over managing the property. The biggest thing that stands out is the lax security. Before, anyone entering the park without a vehicle tag was stopped and had to surrender their driver’s license at the security shack for the duration of their visit. Now, anyone can just drive right in, no questions asked. Also, parking enforcement is almost non-existent. Rules are meaningless.

Campland was granted an $8.1 million lease credit to complete the clean up of the old manufactured homes surrounding the RV park. Final demolition and clean up was slated to begin in October. To date we’ve seen little or no activity. It must be nice to manage the park with no lease payments – cash flow is positive for sure!

After a few days with temperatures reaching about 70 degrees, it looks like we’re in for a couple of cooler days in the low 60s before it warms up again over the weekend.

Yellow Submarine

Most of the fisherman in our section of the Newport Marina RV Park left for a few days this week. They went home in their trucks but left their fifth-wheel trailers, gear and boats here. Although they pay for six months of RV site and dockage, I guess they have to go home and take care of things from time to time. They’re a very friendly group of guys with a great sense of humor as evidenced by the trailer one of them has set up to vacuum seal and freeze fish filets.

I expect we’ll see the guys this afternoon. Donna made zucchini nut muffins for them yesterday morning.

Tuesday we drove a short distance to the Hatfield Marine Science Center. It’s a research center operated by Oregon State University and various fish and wildlife agencies. It’s an interactive museum of sorts with most of the interactive displays designed to be educational for children. Admittance is free – $5 donation suggested – and it was a worthwhile visit.

A yellow submarine is on display in front of the center. It’s a 4,000-pound, two-man submarine that can dive up to 350 feet and stay submerged for up to four hours. This electric-powered sub was used in 1985 to search for the steamship SS Governor which sunk near Port Townsend, Washington in 1921. It was able to locate it and provide video footage.

We left the Hatfield Marine Science Center and took a drive down Ferry Slip Road to the Wolf Tree Brewery Taproom. We looked for it once before and missed it. Donna found it on one of her walks and I needed to wet my whistle. It’s in a new building off the beaten path a bit at Wilder Corner. They had a nice amber ale that I enjoyed.

We took a side trip through Aquarium Village to have a look around and found it to be sleepy with a few small businesses and a cafe. I thought there would be more to it.

Wednesday morning we woke up to wet surroundings. It wasn’t really raining, but a heavy mist was in the air and moisture collected on the coach, the covered Midget and on the ground. By late morning, it had burned off and the sun came out, drying everything. We walked about three quarters of a mile south to the South Beach Fish Market right on the west side of US101. This is a small market and cafe – it was highly recommended for fresh seafood and great chowder by the guys in the RV park.

We’ve noticed the place looked busy every time we passed by. Tuesday was no exception. We got there a little past noon and there was a line waiting to get to the counter inside to order food.

The line to the counter runs all the way out the door

There was a cook shack outside where a guy was boiling crabs. Inside, behind the fresh fish case, they take orders at the counter. A guy was working a fryer non-stop trying to keep up with the volume of orders. We stood in line for about 15 minutes. I ordered the fish and chips – made with the catch of the day – ling cod – and a cup of chowder. Donna had the fish sandwich, also made with the catch of the day. All of the fish was very fresh.

We waited another 15 or 20 minutes before our order came up. They had tables inside as well as several outdoor picnic tables. We decided to dine al fresco at one of the roadside tables. The fish and the chowder were both excellent – far better than what we had in Depoe Bay. The ling cod was obviously fresh and lightly battered. Donna discarded the bread from her sandwich and had a tasty fish filet. It was worth the wait.

Last night we had another seafood dish. Our neighbor, Les, gave us filets of smoked salmon and smoked steelhead – a little over half a pound of each. Donna made a pasta salad with garbanzo bean rotini and grilled peppers, onions and zucchini, then added chunks of the smoked fish along with capers and a ginger white balsamic vinegar. Tasty!

Pasta salad with smoked salmon and steelhead

All of the rich seafood I’ve been eating is starting to get to me. I feel a little bloated and need to watch what I eat in the new few days.

Today looks like another partly cloudy day with the temperature reaching the upper 60s. We need to run a couple of errands and buy some groceries this afternoon. I’ll pack the grill and chairs and prep for travel. I’m hoping it’s not too misty tomorrow morning. I’ll hook up the trailer, load the Midget and we’ll continue south on US101. Tomorrow’s destination is another small coastal Oregon town – Florence – about 50 miles from here. We have a reservation at the Elk’s campground north of town – 50 amp service and fresh water but no sewer hook-up.

UPDATE – Wow, did I ever screw up. Right after I saved the draft of the post above, a few minutes before 11am, the camp host stopped by and asked Donna what time we were pulling out. Wait, what? Donna said we would be out Friday morning. He said his list shows us leaving today. I checked my receipt and calendar – sure enough, we were due to leave today, Thursday. Check out time is noon.

I called the office to see if we could extend a day – no go. The site was already booked. This is the first time I’d ever made a mistake on a check-out date. We quickly packed up and pulled out of the site at 11:55am. It took another 20 minutes to load and secure the Midget and we were on our way. Like most of US101 along the coast, the drive was scenic. The road gets twistier once we were south of Seal Rock. Many of the curves have 30mph speed advisories.

We arrived at the Florence Elks RV park about four miles north of town at 1:30pm. We were directed into a site in what they call their overflow meadow. It’s in a sandy clearing in a forest of cedar and other conifers. The sites are only roughly delineated and we have more than enough room for the coach without dropping the trailer and can park the Midget alongside. We also have 50amp electrical service and fresh water, no sewer hook up. Our Verizon signal is fairly good and the Dish satellite has good reception. We’re booked here for a week but we may be able to extend.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Across the Columbia

Sunday was our last full day in South Bend. We rode our bikes across town at mid-day and found Linda’s Fish and Chips on the east end of town. It’s a popular spot and has a large parking area that can accommodate RVs. It’s just a food trailer, but the food is good and the property is nice with a large lawn area and several picnic tables with umbrellas. The view downriver from the lot is nice. We stopped for lunch and ate at one of the tables.

From there we rode across the lot to the bike path to Raymond. The bike path is mostly paved, but there are several short unpaved sections. Donna is loving her Trek Dual Sport 2 – it handles the dirt sections almost as well as my mountain bike. Her bike is faster than mine on the pavement though.

About halfway between South Bend and Raymond, we found a small RV park right on the river. It had about a dozen sites and was next door to a boat shop specializing in catamarans. They had two very large catamarans on the lot – I wonder how they launch these behemoths. They looked like you could easily live aboard and cruise the ocean. I could get used to that!

We stopped at the grocery store in Raymond and Donna bought cereal and bananas before we rode back. We were within a quarter-mile of our coach when my front tire went flat. I must have picked up a blackberry thorn. This close to the trailer I didn’t mess with it on the side of the road, I just walked it back.

Sunday evening, I watched the Moto GP race – it turned out to be one of the least exciting races of the season. I had most of our things packed in the trailer – I only left Donna’s bike and our camp chairs out to pack in the morning. Donna wanted to ride her bike to the market in the morning. Our new set-up in the trailer is working well, but I have a few items I’d like to find a better place to store. This photo illustrates why I wanted such a small car. Midget-San is small enough for me to open the driver’s door and exit without any trouble once it’s inside the trailer. I keep a car cover on it in case anything gets loose in the trailer.

We were on the road again by 10:30am Monday morning. As we headed toward Bruceport on US101, I was behind a few cars that were traveling about 50mph. I kept a distance of about 100 – 150 feet behind the car in front of me and matched their speed. Behind us was a tractor trailer rig. Apparently the truck driver couldn’t see the traffic in front of me and decided he needed to get past me. When I noticed him swinging out to the oncoming lane to pass, I was shocked. There was a downhill curve ahead and he wasn’t going to get past me before we hit it. I braked to 40mph so he could overtake us and get back into our lane. For the next 20 miles he was about 150 feet ahead of us. His dangerous maneuver netted him a two-second advantage.

We cut south on WA4 and WA401 to the mouth of the Columbia River where we rejoined US101 and crossed the bridge to Astoria, Oregon. We had planned a stop there to pick up beer at the Safeway store – I had scoped out the parking situation on Google. We also wanted to walk on the Astoria Riverwalk.

Our timing was impeccable. They were repainting traffic lines on Highway 30 through Astoria and traffic crawled through town. We could have walked the three miles to the store faster than driving there, but that wasn’t an option.

We parked behind the Safeway store by an abandoned building. A travel trailer was directly in front of the building, so we were partially blocking a driveway. The driveway had a cable locked to posts in front blocking access, so I didn’t worry about it.

The Astoria Riverwalk is a paved multi-use trail along the Columbia River. On the south side of the trail, there are a number of office buildings interspersed among townhomes and condos. It’s gentrified and appears upscale.

I think this was a cannery – abandoned now

There were eight cargo ships we could see moored in the Columbia. Most of the cargo ships entering and exiting the river are bringing cargo to Portland from other West Coast ports or the Far East.

With few exceptions, ships entering the Columbia River are required to have a licensed pilot guide it through the treacherous Columbia River Bar. Pilots from Astoria take control of the ships and navigate past the bar. Then a licensed Columbia River pilot takes over for the remainder of the cruise to Portland.

When we got back to the coach, someone had unlocked the cable and managed to drive around us. I felt bad about us blocking it. Donna talked to the guy and he was alright with it though.

From Astoria, we continued south on US101 – it’s a scenic drive down the Oregon Coast. We checked in at Cannon Beach RV Resort around 1:30pm. They have a bit of a branding issue here – in some cases, the RV park is called Cannon Beach RV Resort, other times it’s called the RV Resort at Cannon Beach. In fact, their campsite map and information flyer has both names on it!

We dropped the trailer near the entrance. We decided to leave Midget-San in the trailer. We can ride our bikes to anywhere in town or up to the state park if we want. We have a full hook-up, 42-foot back-in site. It’s paved with a nice lawn area and the park is surrounded by mature trees.

I set up and immediately dumped and flushed our black tank. Over the last two months, I only got to dump it twice and both times, I couldn’t use the flushing system. With that done, Donna told me she was going to try the Dish satellite network. I thought “Good luck with that” as I eyed the trees. Five minutes later, she had satellite reception! The park wifi was also very good – at least at first it was. Verizon signal is not good here.

In the evening, when more users were on the park wifi, it totally bogged down. It was even worse first thing this morning. I’m typing this post on Word Pad, then hopefully I can successfully transfer it to WordPress for publication. I probably won’t try to post again until we move on to a better signal.

We’ll explore on our bikes today – I fixed my flat tire this morning. We’ll have another full day tomorrow before we continue south. This park is a little pricier than we usually like to pay, but that’s the coast in season. When we left Arlington, our first night at Cabela’s was free. Then we had three nights at South Bend for $10/night. So we averaged $7.50/night for the first four nights. Three nights here came to $165 with tax, bringing our total to $195 for a week. That’s an average of $27.85/night. Mixing it up like this keeps costs low. Thursday night we’ll boondock before we hit Newport and another pricey place.

The weather here is much cooler with highs in the 60s. The mornings are cloudy with a marine layer that’s expected to burn off in the afternoons.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Restaurants

Blowin’ in the Wind

Wild Burros

Dry and Dusty

Floating Green

Upriver With a Paddle

Tri-tip Delight

Reeling in the Years

Holiday Thieves

Yellow Submarine

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Across the Columbia

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*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

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