Camping, Princess Style

[Smithy]

7 hours ago, Porthos said:

Killian's on draft, I almost cried. Decades ago Killian's was our "fishing beer" up at the lake, consumed in the cabin.

 

It's good stuff. I can't drink it; a single glass gives me a splitting headache for the entire next day. But I can remember how good it tasted!

[Smithy]

*Bump*

 

We're away for the season -- and we have NEVER covered ground so quickly in the Princessmobile as we did last week.

 

It all started with a sudden cold snap after a fairly warm fall.

 

 

That's snow on the ground, the day before we left. We had agreed that this year we could leave before November 1, since I had no obligations keeping me in town. We'd had a mad dash to get the Princessmobile packed: this summer has been one of major repairs needed, and they were only finished a week before we wanted to leave. (More importantly, they were finished 2 days before Camping World closed our repair facility permanently, but that's another story except to say it was a nail-biter for all concerned.) 

 

There is always a certain level of mayhem just before we leave on these trips. I've been overly optimistic all summer about how much food, and of what type, I'd be able to cook. The freezers and refrigerators were full. My darling's daughter made sure to bring us pounds and pounds of the beef they'd bought and had processed. I'm pretty sure there's venison among the gifts too. The upshot is that the Princessmobile's freezer looked like this the day we left.

 

 

The refrigerator was just as packed, and a large cooler in the bed of the pickup had some frozen meat that was guaranteed to stay frozen until we got farther south.

 

On the morning we left, it was 21F. And that morning, the trailer's furnace quit. Then the dolly legs and stabilizer jacks seized most of the way up, with a total electrical failure of the trailer's landing gear system. In other words, the trailer was hooked to the truck and couldn't be released until the landing gear was repaired. We had no way to get the trailer repaired before mid-November if we stayed home. "Bugger this for a lark," we said, and hit the road for warmer weather.

 

 

Duluth really is a beautiful city. There's a lot of road reconstruction going on, but traffic jams are rare. Until that day.

 

 

There was a man running naked on the freeway (film at 11!). Did I mention it was 21F? I never got the rest of the story. Was it a lost bet, or a dare? We hope it was nothing more sinister. We got to take the scenic route through town.

 

I hadn't bothered to pack road food the first day, though there was plenty in the trailer. At our first fuel stop I got a couple of breakfast-biscuit sandwiches. 

 

 

Not something I"d care to eat every day, but tasty enough.

 

Later on down the line it was some sort of Italian sandwich for each of us. I was intrigued by the mustard package, but it turned out still to be garden-variety Heinz. Still, good enough for the road.

 

 

Snacks, of a delicious and unhealthful variety:

 

 

I'm a purist when it comes to chips. I like straight-up crispy crunch potato chips. No fancy seasoning, thanks. Lay's is my favorite. My darling prefers extra seasonings: maybe hot, maybe sweet, maybe sour cream and onion. He's still working on his bag of BBQ-flavored chips.

 

Did I mention that it had been 21F when we left home? And the furnace had quit? We drove 461 miles that first day, to Osceola, Iowa; where we could plug into electricity at a casino campground we like. We didn't go visit the casino. My darling had a couple of beers and went to bed. I had the remains of a wonderful dinner our best friends had fed us 2 nights before we left. It doesn't look like much here, but it was comfort food at its finest: meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, and the last of the green beans from their garden.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Smithy
Corrected the campground location it was in Osceola, Iowa -- not Osceola, Wisconsin! Thanks to FauxPas for the question (log)

[heidih]

Wow - considering you also shop cool places along way - we will not fear about your nutrition.  Sending you good wishes for no mechanical bloopers.

Edited November 5, 2023 by heidih (log)

[ElsieD]

Looking forward to reading about your travels (and food).

[Shelby]

I always think you guys are so brave to embark on these journeys.  I'm SUCH a hermit.  And the mechanical problems to boot.  I, too, hope it's smooth sailing for the rest of the way and back.

 

It's been so many years since I've had one of those breakfast biscuits--I'm sure it was McDonald's--but I like them.  I also don't hate the Italian subs...I like them more with a bit of vinegar or Italian dressing but when driving that's super messy.

 

I love that your freezer is so full.  Makes me feel warm and cozy that you won't go hungry  

[C. sapidus]

Good luck with the Princessmobile, and watch out for naked running men.

Or maybe that's just a Minnesota thing. 

[Smithy]

When we awoke in Osceola, IA the next morning, it was a bit warmer than at home: all the way up to 24F. We were glad we'd spent the money to plug into campground electricity. The things that had stopped working still weren't working. Our electric fireplace and portable electric heater, along with our propane-fired oven and range, were our heat sources.

 

I took the time to make sandwiches and prepare better road snacks than we'd had before on the previous day. Here's a shot of our refrigerator. See what I mean about it being jammed? (The contents were slightly different on that morning, but the principle is the same.) The outside stuff in the cooler was still frozen solid, so I didn't need to make soom room.

 

 

The bottom three drawers may be better organized than I usually manage. The left-hand drawer contains a good selection of deli meats and cheeses for sandwiches. The right-hand drawer has lettuce and had spinach, though I've used that up now. The middle drawer has snack vegetables. Here's the sandwich-stuff drawer:

 

 

and the contents, spread out:

 

 

Sorry for the blurry photo! There's roast beef, salami, herbed chicken, pepperoni; sliced cheddar, pepperjack, Kerry Gold cheeses. Dill pickle chips in that little potato salad container. My sandwiches always include pickles; his don't. He likes Miracle Whip. I like mayonnaise. We both like mustard.

 

On that first day, I still had my beloved sourdough bread. I could have sworn I'd packed an extra loaf of that, but I haven't found it. (So far that seems to be the only thing forgotten; that's better than my usual record despite our greater-than-usual packing chaos.)

 

 

Here's a later set of sandwiches -- his and hers -- and mighty fine sandwiches they've been!

 

 

That Kerrygold Dubliner cheese is nice stuff. I've never had it before, but I'll put it on my shopping radar from now on,.

 

 

We also had asparagus, tomatoes, celery, carrots for snacking.

 

 

The cherry tomatoes had come in a plastic shell with a label sealing it. Inside the label they have a pretty nice marketing deal, I think. It might make a few people think harder about how and from where we get our food.

 

 

We drove south. I think the only road sight I have from that day is the beautiful bridge across the Missouri River, joining Kansas City, Missouri to Kansas City, Kansas.

 

 

And we drove south. And we drove. It became a marathon session. The plan had been to go to northern Oklahoma and its Welcome Center. But it was supposed to be well below freezing there too! "Let's continue on," we said. "We'll get through Oklahoma City and then look for a place to stop for the night," we said. "There'll be a rest area farther south," we said. We finally found it, well after dark, in Gainesville, Texas. Total mileage for the day: 624 miles, and 12 hours. We split a bowl of split pea soup, crawled into bed under lots of covers, and crashed for the night.

 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Smithy
Corrected typo; added time driven. (log)

[heidih]

Nice marketing info on the tomatoes. What does this mean "The outside stuff in the cooler was still frozen solid, so I didn't need to make soom."

"

[Smithy]

11 minutes ago, heidih said:

Nice marketing info on the tomatoes. What does this mean "The outside stuff in the cooler was still frozen solid, so I didn't need to make soom."

"

 

Whoops! Thanks for that question. I've crossed out the "soom" and added "room", with a note describing the edit.

 

When we were packing, I'd put some items from the home freezers into a large cooler in the back. The stuff was frozen solid. I included a container of ice cubes so I could monitor for thawing. As long as the ice was solid, I didn't have to worry about the things in that cooler thawing out. Now that we've reached warmer weather, I've made some room in the trailer refrigerator and freezer by pulling normally-frozen items, like coffee and nuts, out onto the counter.

[rotuts]

@Smithy 

 

thank you again for taking us along on your trip.

 

Im looking forward to those markets in the south that have

 

37 types of pork sausage , and the like.

 

as I understand it , the PM heater is nor working .  I take it its a stand alone heating system ?

 

vs some sort of heat you can use once the PM is plugged into a sampling ground 

 

electrical offering .  

 

what sort of amps does external the plug in offer ? 

 

when you drive , does the PM engine have an electrical distribution 

 

to the freezer // refrigerator ?  

 

 

[Smithy]

Those are good questions, @rotuts, and thanks for the welcome. I'll have some grocery store and restaurant shots to show you soon! 

 

The Princessmobile's refrigerator is a dual-fuel RV refrigerator. When we're plugged into 110v electricity, as we were at the first night's campground, it runs off electricity alone. We also have a generator that can provide 110v power. When we aren't plugged into electricity or running the generator, the refrigerator runs off propane and the trailer's 12v batteries. (The refrigerator MUST have some electricity to function.) The Princessmobile can take up to 50A service; when it does that, we can run any and all appliances we wish. Some places only offer 30A service, and some households we used to visit only carried 20A. In those cases we have to be more circumspect about what we run: for instance, the coffeepot and microwave oven may be able to run together, but not if we also have the electric fireplace on.

 

I'm happy to report that the furnace fixed itself when the weather got warmer. There was probably some ice in the intake that cut off air flow. It's behaving beautifully now.

[heidih]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

 

Whoops! Thanks for that question. I've crossed out the "soom" and added "room", with a note describing the edit.

 

Ha I thought it was your homespeak for an everything but the kitchen sink stew/soup ;

[C. sapidus]

The Missouri bridge in Kansas City is indeed beautiful. Drove across that last month.

 

Wow 12 hours is a long day on the road. We aim for 8 hours or less, but once we drove to San Antonio in two 12-hour days. That was not fun.

 

I look forward to your further adventures!

[Shelby]

4 hours ago, Smithy said:

We also had asparagus, tomatoes, celery, carrots for snacking.

You guys are so healthy!  

 

My snacks like that are more like having a couple of celery sticks with my pitcher of Ranch dressing 🤣

 

You guys have had some seriously long driving days.  I couldn't do it.  Here to Colorado to see mom is about 10 1/2 to 11 hours and that's my max.  AND it's driving a truck or an SUV NOT a camper which I know is infinitely harder (we used to have one).

[Smithy]

36 minutes ago, Shelby said:

You guys are so healthy!  

 

My snacks like that are more like having a couple of celery sticks with my pitcher of Ranch dressing 🤣

 

You guys have had some seriously long driving days.  I couldn't do it.  Here to Colorado to see mom is about 10 1/2 to 11 hours and that's my max.  AND it's driving a truck or an SUV NOT a camper which I know is infinitely harder (we used to have one).

 

LOL on the ranch dressing! I do have some wonderful hummus in the refrigerator that I haven't shown yet, but it's too messy to eat in the pickup. As to the marathon days: it's certainly more than we want to do, but we were powerfully motivated. 🙂

 

[Smithy]

On the third day, we landed in Llano. We have NEVER arrived there in so few days, or so early in the fall!

 

 

Electricity! Water! Warmer temperatures! And hope for mobile RV repair services!

 

 

The pickup still couldn't be moved, but the little 4-wheeler you see in the picture can be used on the back streets -- and Cooper's Old-Time Pit Bar-B-Que is close by. We could have walked, but didn't. They recognized us. "It's been a while," they said. I'll show you more of the operation in another post. We came away with far too much food for our celebratory dinner: beef ribs, pork ribs, and the complimentary barbecue sauce, dill pickle chips and pinto beans.

 

 

Dinner that night. (Of COURSE we could have eaten something from the fridge or freezer. We didn't. We wanted to celebrate.)

 

 

He had toast; we used our preferred barbecue sauces. Mine is the Cooper's sauce (not shown here). He prefers sweeter, stickier sauces that I'll show you in other posts. This was waaaay more than either of us wanted in one sitting, but we enjoyed it on subsequent nights too. @heidih and others were exactly right that we're in no danger of starving. 🙂

 

The next day, I enjoyed beans for breakfast, doctored with their barbecue sauce and some sour cream.

 

[Shelby]

3 minutes ago, Smithy said:

On the third day, we landed in Llano. We have NEVER arrived there in so few days, or so early in the fall!

 

 

Electricity! Water! Warmer temperatures! And hope for mobile RV repair services!

 

 

The pickup still couldn't be moved, but the little 4-wheeler you see in the picture can be used on the back streets -- and Cooper's Old-Time Pit Bar-B-Que is close by. We could have walked, but didn't. They recognized us. "It's been a while," they said. I'll show you more of the operation in another post. We came away with far too much food for our celebratory dinner: beef ribs, pork ribs, and the complimentary barbecue sauce, dill pickle chips and pinto beans.

 

 

Dinner that night. (Of COURSE we could have eaten something from the fridge or freezer. We didn't. We wanted to celebrate.)

 

 

He had toast; we used our preferred barbecue sauces. Mine is the Cooper's sauce (not shown here). He prefers sweeter, stickier sauces that I'll show you in other posts. This was waaaay more than either of us wanted in one sitting, but we enjoyed it on subsequent nights too. @heidih and others were exactly right that we're in no danger of starving. 🙂

 

The next day, I enjoyed beans for breakfast, doctored with their barbecue sauce and some sour cream.

 

What a relief to finally get to a place where you can get what you want and fix the things that need fixing!  I recommend eating out more--you both deserve it.  I'm so sick of my own cooking...so I'll live vicariously here.

 

 

[rotuts]

@Smithy 

 

have you tried the Goat ?

 

its my understand in TX its very young goat , cabrito 

 

and quite delicious , and veery different from an older goat .

 

I visited my sister in TX several times , but none of the top notch BBQ had it

 

around the Austin area.  

 

pleased you can work on getting the PM fixed .

 

Ive also forgotten , where doe the 4 wheeler travel ?

[Smithy]

3 hours ago, rotuts said:

@Smithy 

 

have you tried the Goat ?

 

its my understand in TX its very young goat , cabrito 

 

and quite delicious , and veery different from an older goat .

 

I visited my sister in TX several times , but none of the top notch BBQ had it

 

around the Austin area.  

 

pleased you can work on getting the PM fixed .

 

Ive also forgotten , where doe the 4 wheeler travel ?

 

Cooper's occasionally offers cabrito, and I managed to get a shoulder back in 2019. I thought it was delicious. My darling wouldn't try it, for sentimental reasons, so once I'd finished off that portion I never tried for it again. I liked it very much, though. I don't think I've ever had older goat.

 

When we're traveling, the back room is our "garage". The 4-wheeler, my bicycle, his tricycle, and numerous other stuff that isn't necessary until we settle travels back there. Once we open out, the "garage" becomes our dining room. (It could, theoretically, also be a guest bedroom but it hasn't since the first year we had this particular trailer.) In this collage you can see the 4-wheeler, fully packed, as seen from the main living area and also as seen from the side entrance. The coolers in back are full of dry, non-perishable food. If we didn't visit a grocery store this entire trip, we'd miss out on fresh fruits, vegetables and dairy -- but we'd have plenty of everything else. 😉 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

Since I'm talking about the garage / dining room, here it is when we're set up to stay a while.

 

 

The back doors can be slid open to allow access to the back deck, or closed to preserve the distinction between outdoor and indoor environments. When we're loading or unloading the cycles and 4-wheeler, the back deck becomes a ramp and the doors are opened all the way. The curtain you see at the right helps with privacy at night, and occasionally helps block too much sun from coming in when it's hot. 

 

During the first day or two at Llano, I had the luxury of baking some sweet rolls for my darling's "guilty pleasure" breakfast. He never used to eat things like this, and now he likes to have one a day. Heck, he's losing weight so it doesn't seem to be hurting him. These were the Pillsbury "whomp" cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing. (I've written about my sweet roll tests in the Daily Sweets topic, most recently here.) You can see on the top row how much they expand during baking. Give them a little time to cool before spreading the frosting, and then remove the springform rim. Thanks to my tests of these rolls, I knew what size pan to pack along. Now I have TWO springform pans in the Princessmobile. (This one is too big to fit in the 3-quart Instant Pot we have with us.)

 

 

We went grocery shopping on the first full day in Llano, so I could buy fruit and make my darling's usual breakfast fruit salad. He usually has that with cereal for breakfast, even when he's already had a sweet roll. 🙂

 

 

I'll show the grocery store, and other shops, in separate posts.

 

 

[lindag]

Any updates on the repairs?

[Smithy]

On 11/8/2023 at 10:28 AM, lindag said:

Any updates on the repairs?

 

Everything's working correctly now! We had to cool our heels in Llano for the landing gear to get fixed, though we spent less time there than usual. The furnace problem resolved itself. It may seem ironic that the furnace started working when it got warmer outside, but we think there had been frost or ice blocking the air intake until the warmer weather melted it.

 

The weird thing is, we usually spend up to a week in Llano anyway, yet this time the waiting -- and calling to find someone when the first guy didn't come through -- and helping with the repairs when we finally found someone -- preoccupied and apparently stressed us to the point that we did much less exploring than we usually do. We never even crossed the bridge to get to the main part of town and visit my favorite kitchen store. Not that we needed anything (so far I seem to have remembered it all, for once) but it's always fun to look. This time, I couldn't be bothered. Stress. 

 

For the same reason, I didn't take as many photos of the grocery store offerings as I usually do. Still, we visited several times and kept buying more food or wine. Here, I give you Lowe's Market. This place has a fine selection of starter plants and herbs in the spring. In the fall, everyone's busy thinking about deer hunting instead, with deer corn and automatic feeders for sale. There are always smokers and cookers outside the store, but it appeared that the stock had almost completely been bought out by the time I took these photos. The barrel barbecue cost a couple hundred dollars, as I recall.

 

 

Inside the store are a lot of sporting goods and kitchen appliances (meat grinders and sausage stuffers, anyone?)

 

 

They have an interesting selection of beer and wine. We've been making the most of the Oktoberfest offerings, and bought what seems to have been their last Hacker-Schorr and Paulaner. The offerings now are going to the "winter" seasonal brews.

 

 

They have racks and racks of sausages, though their offerings aren't as good as at the next place I'll show you. I very much like the Opa's sausages, so I picked up some of them.

 

 

I've had lobstah rolls on the brain for quite a while, ever since the lobster meat arrived last summer in my ButcherBox shipment. I still haven't eaten that meat! It's in the freezer somewhere. Meanwhile, I found rolls at Lowe's that looked like they'd be perfect. I've been enjoying them for sandwiches.

 

 

By the time I get to the lobstah, I'll have to find more rolls.

 

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Smithy
spelling (log)

[heidih]

Opa's sausages = grandpa's sausages. Yes still fun to explore even if nothing "needed". Thanks. 

[Smithy]

One of the things that continues to amaze us about Texas is their drive-through liquor stores. Steve's has a drive-through (or curbside service) shed loaded with wines and beers. I didn't think to take a picture of the interior, but the driving lane is fairly narrow because of the stock -- cases and crates, and refrigerators and at least one freezer. We usually go into the associated walk-in shop. The proprietor is an interesting character, quite flamboyant for this part of the world (Hallowe'en painted fingernails, anyone?) and quite knowledgeable about beers and wines. I get good recommendations from him based on my wine tastes. When I asked about the Llano Estacado wines he cautioned me that they come from Lubbock. What exactly that meant I wasn't sure, but it might be like a California wine coming from Lodi: until recently, not likely to be a good source. He said this Sauvignon Blanc is good, and fairly dry, so I came away with a bottle of it and a Castle Rock Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It's already gone. It was pretty good.

 

 

He also sold us a 6-pack of Saint Arnold Christmas Ale. We'd noticed it in the grocery store, in cans, but passed it up. He said this had some hints of warm spices, but not overpowering. We love the narrative on the label. 🙂

 

 

It is a good beer: good body and flavor, just a touch of spice. We'd buy it again. We are also amused by the bottle cap interiors. Unfortunately I threw away a couple before realizing that each one is different.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Smithy
spelling (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Let's not denigrate Lodi wine.   A friend of ours is making super-outstanding wines, acknowledged by top restaurants and somms, Sandland label.

eg: