Camping, Princess Style

[Porthos]

@Smithy I suspect that the grocery store in Lone Pine also serves the needs of the agriculture population for a good distance around.  It's the best store in the area until you get to Bishop.

 

As an aside,  my Sweetie can bo longer make the car trip from SoCal to Bridgeport in one day so Lone Pine is our overnight rest point. Although we live in AZ now, we start our early summer fishing trip in SoCal, picking up our grandkids to take with us. They love their time at the lake.

[Smithy]

36 minutes ago, Porthos said:

@Smithy I suspect that the grocery store in Lone Pine also serves the needs of the agriculture population for a good distance around.  It's the best store in the area until you get to Bishop.

 

As an aside,  my Sweetie can bo longer make the car trip from SoCal to Bridgeport in one day so Lone Pine is our overnight rest point. Although we live in AZ now, we start our early summer fishing trip in SoCal, picking up our grandkids to take with us. They love their time at the lake.

 

That makes a lot of sense regarding the grocery store. There are a couple of ag-supply stores here that I haven't explored, but it's clear that the agricultural community is strong here. I haven't ventured much farther north than Independence during this trip, but I haven't seen anything this good to the south.

 

You can probably shed light on the restaurants and hotels/motels around here. I see there's a lot to offer -- both fast-food and seated, but as I've shown here there simply hasn't been time or reason to explore them.

 

It would be lovely to coordinate a visit sometime, since you'd be overnighting here! However, I'm hoping to leave today or tomorrow, wind permitting. 

 

This is as good a time as any to show a little store landmark my sister and I noticed near the stop light in Lone Pine.

 

 

Unless there was more than one such sign made, this used to be a Visalia storefront landmark when we were growing up, about 100 miles west of here and across the mountains. Merry-Go-Round was the children's (maybe girls' only?) clothing store on Main Street. Rather upscale for the time and area. It disappeared from Main Street as the town changed. Nice to see it here.

 

[Smithy]

Breakfast this morning, while I write a bit more and ponder what to do today.

 

 

That's Meyer lemon from my L.A. friend's tree. I brought a dozen with me when I left a week ago. I'd like to have taken more (I don't think she's using them) but I didn't have specific uses for them so I restrained myself.

 

Last night I had one of the chicken enchiladas from Wolfe's, and can write a bit more about what they're made of and how they taste.

 

 

Here's the ingredient list, graciously written out by the staff member who prepared my order:

 

 

I once again cooked it in the oven in one of the Corelle pie pans I'd picked up at a Yuma yard sale. That's a pretty good vessel for the purpose.

 

 

I probably still don't have the right time and temperature, but it came out better last night than the last time, when a telephone call distracted me. I started at 350F, decided that wasn't hot enough, turned it up to 400 or so, then decided that was too hot. Probably turning the pan would have helped also.

 

 

Still, it was very good. As with so many things, the quality of the ingredients is the key. The chicken breast chunks are a fairly good size, and very tender. The notes say they're baked with olive oil, salt and pepper, and garlic powder. I suspect the baking is a key factor. Here's the best money shot I could manage:

 

 

This time, the flavor and texture of the corn tortillas was unmistakeable. I loved it. I'm glad I have more of these.

 

All the time I was doing my evening thing, a storm was blowing in. Dust below me on Lake Owens,

 

 

clouds and eventually a scattering of rain above me.

 

 

 

 

The wind shook the trailer and I rearranged the pickup to make what windbreak I could (not much). Bishop, some 50 miles north, was reporting wind 28 gusting to 43. That's knots. In mph that came out to nearly 50 mph wind gusts, nearly broadside to the trailer. (In kph it sounds even more scary: 79 kilometers per hour!)

 

I went to bed with the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann ringing in my head: you got me rockin' and a rollin', rockin' and a reelin' BoberAnn.

 

This morning it was 43F. Still gusty wind. Classic post-cold-front weather. The wind is nowhere near as strong, but last time I looked there were still travel advisories for my intended route. There's a pilot's adage that it's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the sky, than the other way around. I'm in a similar position here. Maybe I'll move today, maybe not.

Edited Thursday at 12:36 AM by Smithy
"windbreak" is one word, not two (log)

[chromedome]

13 minutes ago, Smithy said:

I went to bed with the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann ringing in my head: you got me rockin' and a rollin', rockin' and a reelin' BoberAnn.

 

You may be familiar with the term "mondagreen," for a mis-heard or misunderstood song lyric. When I was a sprout, I thought they were singing "bob around," which (in my defense) certainly fits with the song's bouncy rhythm.

[Smithy]

39 minutes ago, chromedome said:

You may be familiar with the term "mondagreen," for a mis-heard or misunderstood song lyric. When I was a sprout, I thought they were singing "bob around," which (in my defense) certainly fits with the song's bouncy rhythm.

 

Oh, very yes! I'm so pleased to know that someone else knows the word "mondagreen". I introduce it to friends and family whenever possible. I think one of my favorite examples from personal life comes from a few years ago, when I was reading a high-wind warning from the National Weather Service to my darling on a day like yesterday. The warning said that high winds might blow off "weakened roofs". He thought I'd read "nincompoops" and wondered why they'd be up on the roof in the first place!

[Smithy]

On 4/22/2025 at 6:35 AM, Tropicalsenior said:

I use the leftover fat to make roux. I melt the fat and add an equal amount of flour and cook it until it is the color of that I want. Then I cool it enough to make it into small rolls like we used to make for refrigerator cookies. You can then keep it in the freezer in Ziploc bags. When you want to use it as roux just cut off what you need and pop it back in the freezer. It's great for thickening stews and soups and making gravy. The most flavorful type of fat is that that you skim from your oxtail soup.

 

On 4/22/2025 at 12:16 PM, Smithy said:

Thank you very, very much for this tip. I have a lot to work with here, and now it won't go to waste.

 

 

Following up on this tip: I haven't made the roux (yet) but the tip helped me justify keeping the fat around until I could made the roux. Last week, when my sister was here, we had a fine festive dinner with most of the leftover rib meat from my Easter dinner; my favorite green bean salad; and potatoes cooked in some of that fat. And wine of course, lots of wine.

 

I was thinking along the lines of Potatoes Anna or Potatoes Dauphinois, but I don't think the final product fit either of these. I liberally buttered the bottom of the square Corningware baker I'd bought at a Yuma yard sale. I used a mandoline to cut thin slices of a Russet potato she'd brought. I've had thinner slices, but this worked well. I layered them around in a "scallop" or "fishscale" pattern. Meanwhile, while the oven was heating, I heated 4? finely chopped garlic cloves in the melting beef tallow. When they had just started to sizzle and the tallow was quite warm and melty, I poured it all over the potato slices, covered it and loaded into a 425F oven. 

 

 

After about a half hour the potatoes were softening and absorbing the fat. I took the cover off, turned down the heat and put the beef ribs, still wrapped tightly in the foil in which I'd stored them, into the oven to warm up.

 

I had intended to shred this cheese and put it atop the potatoes. This is one of the treats I brought from home.

 

 

I tried some. Nope. Not compatible with the existing flavor profile. Neither was regular cheddar. I decided that the spuds didn't really need anything more.

 

 

My sister agreed. And we luxuriated in dinner!

 

 

 

Of course, the next morning there was this spectacle to be dealt with.

 

 

Still no kitchen brownies!

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

the next morning there was this spectacle to be dealt with

That reminds me of a Funny Story. We lived for 3 years on the Pacific coast and in the evenings it was hotter than the hubs of hell. Many nights I would just put the dishes in a bus tub and put them under the sink. Carlos, who was living with us at the time,  asked me why I did that. I told him the story of the Shoemaker and the elves that would make his shoes in the middle of the night. I said someday the fairies would come and do my dishes for me. Shortly after that, Michael my grandson, came to live with us. The first night he was there he jumped up and did the dishes for me. Carlos laughed and said, in Spanish of course, your fairy has come. Michael, who didn't know a word of Spanish at this time asked what he had said and I told him that Carlos had just called him a  fairy. Fortunately they are now the best of friends and we can still laugh about it.

[Smithy]

If you're ever in the vicinity of Independence, CA there's a lot to see. I mentioned that we went to Manzanar one day. On another two days we visited the old Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery, which operated from 1916 until 2008 and is now a fascinating museum about the life cycle of trout, the ecology of the region, and some of the other wildlife.

 

 

We visited twice because the first day we lollygagged on the grounds enjoying a picnic lunch and didn't realize we'd missed the museum! We came back the next day. This was typical of our picnic lunches:

 

 

The building itself is beautiful, and was built to stand "forever" although it took the intervention of a group formed to save it when floods wiped out most of the stock ponds and the Fish and Wildlife Service decided to close and abandon it.

 

 

The pond downsteam of the hatchery is beautiful, and has extremely lively and overfed trout. They're overfed courtesy of the little fish-food vending machine on the banks of the pond. For $0.25 you can get a drinking cup's worth of fish pellets. When you start scattering them on the waters, the word spreads. Some of these guys were the length of my arm!

 

 

I didn't realize that mulberries grow in California, but here they were on the grounds. Ripe, or at least ripening. Nice. Tart. A bit astringent.

 

 

On the day we visited while the museum was opening, we found reasons to spend money in the gift shop. 

 

 

I don't need new potholders, but these are fun and they go to a good cause: supporting the museum. They're also a bit of a gift to myself: new potholders for the new Princessmobile. Symbolic of a new life.

Edited yesterday at 03:40 PM by Smithy
spelling and word choice (cup full vs. cup's worth) (log)

[FauxPas]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

We visited twice because the first day we lollygagged on the grounds enjoying a picnic lunch

 

Thank you! The Bee people don't seem to get it that it's "lolly" and not "lally".   🙂

 

[liuzhou]

8 hours ago, FauxPas said:

 

Thank you! The Bee people don't seem to get it that it's "lolly" and not "lally".   🙂

 

 

Actually, it was originally lallygag and only changed later to lollygag. Also, it originally meant to act flirtatiously.

 

[Smithy]

I finally -- was it really only yesterday? -- bid farewell to the Eastern Sierras and their wild weather...

 

 

...and started heading toward home. There were still a few high wind warnings along the way, but they seemed more aimed at the northbound and westbound traffic. I only hit a little bit of turbulence, and nothing too frightening. 

 

The most frightening thing might have been at this enticingly-named "Desert Oasis" or some such (I've forgotten the full name) along the fabled Route 66, and before I left California:

 

 

No truck parking. And diesel was $8.50/gallon! I'm used to around $5. The very, very fine dust (note the footprints) was yet more proof that I was in new country. As I drove through the California desert I recognized a lot of areas my darling and I had stayed in, but I couldn't snap photos much less plan to stay there. It's time to move.

 

The wonderful sandwiches I purchased from Wolfe's are finally coming into their own.

 

 

Ingredients are as I listed before: their dark brown "Prairie bread" (I still think it needs a different name) with roast beef, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, sprouts, pepperoncini, mayonnaise and mustard. I've now had one entire sandwich, split over two days, and have one in abeyance.

 

I drove through Winslow, Arizona and checked out a potential camping area before moving on. My darling had once called me from that town, specifically to tell me that he was "standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona" and that he loved me. If you aren't an Eagles fan you may not get the reference.

 

The chicken thighs I bought in Lone Pine have come into their own. I'd thought to cook them over an open fire, reminiscent of our Cowgirl Chicken of yesteryear, but in the end cooked them in the oven. I first laid down a layer of rinsed brown rice with a little water, then loaded the chicken thighs atop it. They'd been coated with generous helpings of Penzey's "Resist" spice blend, more than I'd normally apply but I wanted to finish off that package. Oven roasted until the chicken and rice were both cooked. Quite good. 

 

 

Not shown: the green bean salad I'd consumed while waiting, because I was already darned hungry. I will add that the spice blend is a bit too aggressive -- as in, hot -- for such a heavy coating. I like it, but ended up tempering the flavors with Meyer lemon juice and a bit of salt. Still, I have one small packet finished off. There's another in abeyance but I'm about a week from home, and would like to keep the second one unopened.

[chromedome]

6 hours ago, Smithy said:

I drove through Winslow, Arizona and checked out a potential camping area before moving on. My darling had once called me from that town, specifically to tell me that he was "standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona" and that he loved me. If you aren't an Eagles fan you may not get the reference.

 

After Glenn Frey died the town erected a statue of him on a corner in Winslow. The "standing on a" corner is now a tourist attraction, where people can come and take selfies with Frey, just as they do in Milwaukee with the "Bronze Fonze."

[C. sapidus]

11 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

 

. . . My darling had once called me from that town, specifically to tell me that he was "standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona" and that he loved me. If you aren't an Eagles fan you may not get the reference.

 

 

Yes Route 66 / I-40 has a ton of musical references. When we drive that part of the country, road signs trigger songs including 'Get Your Kicks on Route 66' (you could probably navigate without GPS via that song, "from Chicago to LA") and Little Feat's 'Willin' ("I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah").

 

That first picture is gorgeous, too.

[FauxPas]

16 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

Actually, it was originally lallygag and only changed later to lollygag. Also, it originally meant to act flirtatiously.

 

 

I don't think the Bee cares about original usage, it's more about current usage. And lallygag ain't it.   😄

 

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by FauxPas (log)