Camping, Princess Style

[Smithy]

12 hours ago, rotuts said:

@Smithy 

 

indeed !

 

not so much the CkFat for me

 

but some like it 

 

 

You're right... some in our household like it. 🙂 I'm more pleased with the jelly. It's going to help some potatoes or rice in a few days. 

 

Tonight's dinner is breaded and baked pork steaks, and (slightly overcooked, doggone it) asparagus with butter. You've all seen it before, so unless the pics are fabulous I won't bother. Tomorrow I'm off on an excursion with friends for a couple of days. I may not be updating here until I get back on Friday. 

 

Edited to add: the dinner was very much to our tastes and the asparagus was not, as I'd feared, overcooked. The picture isn't stellar but the dinner deserves to be remembered. 

 

 

So does tonight's moonrise.

 

Edited March 31, 2021 by Smithy
Added photos and commentary (log)

[Smithy]

Time to go!!

 

 

We went. Our last few days in the desert were more or less the same: very hot in the trailer, almost as hot outside, not a breath of a breeze. When I snapped this photo the outdoor thermometer said 97F.

 

Hanging out so late in the season paid off: we finally started seeing flowers we'd normally expect to see a month earlier. It wasn't the lush desert bloom we love, but it was rewarding.

 

 

 

 

 

We couldn't get excited about a campfire, although it cooled deliciously during the evenings. We enjoyed stargazing and satellite-watching instead. We enjoyed one last campstove cookout. Hash, I think, though it might have been kielbasa.

 

 

One night he cooked the last superburger and I cooked a package of Zatarain's Jambalaya mix augmented with Zatarain's Andouille sausage. It wasn't photogenic, and I don't seem to have bothered with pictures. Here's a comparison shot from a taste test a couple of days later. I'll tell about that in another post.

 

 

We enjoyed one last sunset and sunrise.

 

 

In the time we were there, the days lengthened from 10:02 on December 18 to 12:33 on April 3. We wondered how much farther north the sun would swing before it started back southward at the Summer Solstice. We'll have to simply estimate.

 

It's very easy to spread out and settle in when we're in one place for even a week. After all the time we'd been there, we had this to pack up in the heat:

 

 

(The chair with the scorched back was abandoned by campers at a nearby spot. It's easily repairable. I bought the fabric but haven't sewn it yet. In any case we weren't going to leave it behind as garbage.)

 

We packed slowly, the day before we left: pack a little, rest a bit. Pack a little, rest a bit. Drink lots of water. That night neither of us was terribly hungry, and we didn't want to make much of a mess. We ate salad and slices of leftover roast chicken (me) or ham (him).

 

 

You've seen our campsite before we began packing. This is as we left it:

 

 

We're pretty sure that when/if we come back next year we'll find that folks don't understand the value of a small U-shaped campfire ring for cooking, and they'll have destroyed it. That's all right: we know what we're doing, and if they want the oversized campfire rings for toasting marshmallows they can do that instead! At any rate they'll probably appreciate the firewood.

 

The next morning when we left at 09:30 it was already 92F outside. We made one more stop at Gold Rock Ranch to dump the holding tanks and, we'd hoped, say goodbye to our friends there. Nobody was around, so we left a note. We admired their golf course on the way to the RV dump.

 

 

Then we hit the road for Tucson. Re-entry is hard, and the campground was too crowded for our liking although we had very nice neighbors, and the afternoon temperature was 98F and predicted to continue so. We'd have had to hide from the heat inside an air-conditioned trailer, thanks to campground electricity, and that seemed silly. We moved on after one night. I have a Tucson story to tell, but I'l save it for another post.

[ElsieD]

Those are nice looking tomatoes on the salad.  Were they as tasty as they looked?

[Smithy]

6 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Those are nice looking tomatoes on the salad.  Were they as tasty as they looked?

 

Yes. I have become very fond of Campari tomatoes, even though they come in a plastic clamshell. I seek them out because they seem to be reliably tasty. At our last grocery stop in Yuma they were out of the Camparis, so I took a flyer on these Private Selection brand "Cocktail Tomatoes on the Vine". They're also quite good.

 

[Kim Shook]

22 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Yes. I have become very fond of Campari tomatoes, even though they come in a plastic clamshell. I seek them out because they seem to be reliably tasty. At our last grocery stop in Yuma they were out of the Camparis, so I took a flyer on these Private Selection brand "Cocktail Tomatoes on the Vine". They're also quite good.

 

Those and tiny grape tomatoes are the only grocery store tomatoes we buy.

[Smithy]

21 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

Those and tiny grape tomatoes are the only grocery store tomatoes we buy.

 

Sometimes the grape tomatoes are disappointing, though. That was our only choice yesterday that seemed to have any hope of being decent. We haven't gotten into them yet but I remember this brand being a disappointment last year. I do think the Cherubs are generally good.

[blue_dolphin]

Not sure if you're still enroute but if so, safe travels and, as always, thanks for taking us along!

[Shelby]

Ugh that high temp --yeah time to go for sure IMO lol.  I hope you are having a good trip home.  Be safe....I just can't not say enough to wear your masks and wash hands etc.  It's not over yet around here for sure.    

 

I'm pretty sure you're ready to get back to your house :). 

 

Thanks for alllllll of the photos and taking us along.  Always loved by all of us!!!

[kayb]

Greatly enjoyed another trip, as always. Safe travels. If you come through Arkansas, holla!

 

[Smithy]

17 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Not sure if you're still enroute but if so, safe travels and, as always, thanks for taking us along!

 

17 hours ago, Shelby said:

Ugh that high temp --yeah time to go for sure IMO lol.  I hope you are having a good trip home.  Be safe....I just can't not say enough to wear your masks and wash hands etc.  It's not over yet around here for sure.    

 

I'm pretty sure you're ready to get back to your house :). 

 

Thanks for alllllll of the photos and taking us along.  Always loved by all of us!!!

 

1 hour ago, kayb said:

Greatly enjoyed another trip, as always. Safe travels. If you come through Arkansas, holla!

 

Thank you! We are still far from home, and I have a few more stories that may be of interest. 

 

I'll start with my trip to Tucson just before we left. My best friends, who live in San Diego, masterminded an outing for themselves, 3 other friends and me. They're all suburban dwellers who've been severely more locked down than we have due to crowded living conditions. All of us been fully vaccinated and were outside the 14 day post-vaccination window, so they decided that an excursion to Tucson would be great fun. They swung by the Princessmobile for a picnic lunch and to pick me up. Everyone packed lunches, both for ease of cleanup afterward and because of various dietary restraints. (One person is gluten-intolerant. Another can't have garlic.) My darling and I showed them around the Princessmobile and camp, then dined and visited. There were several salads to share. Mine was a tomato and basil salad, dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I hesitate to call it "Caprese" because I forgot the mozzarella, but it went over well. It featured some of the tomatoes discussed above, and basil leaves from a plant I bought some time ago and have managed to keep alive. For dessert there was a delicious gluten-free apricot and almond tart, courtesy of our gluten-intolerant guest, and a passion fruit panna cotta that I'd made. Both were big hits. I plan to add them to my regular rotation of desserts for dinner guests. I didn't take photos of the picnic, but there was a small amount of panna cotta left for later.

 

 

 

On our first night we ate at Mariscos Chihuahua. It was strange and a bit discomfiting to actually go into a restaurant! This place's Covid-19 precautions seemed thorough and reassuring. Customers wore masks except when seated at table. The tables were spaced far apart. The wait staff all wore masks. The ventilation was good. The food was excellent, and once again I got no photos. (We all love food, but none of these friends 'gets' the food-blogging thing.) We split a bottle of wine - Chateau Souverain Merlot, a new favorite for me - and two of our party had margaritas served in massive tumblers. We split an order of oysters on the half shell. Several of us had their Camarones Culichi, which they describe as "The dish that mad us famous. Shrimp sauteed in our house spices served in a creamy green sauce, house salad and rice." It was delicious. Others tried fish with the same treatment. We tried to work out what the creamy green sauce was and couldn't get any hints from the waiter. It wasn't spicy-hot. The green might simply have been from parsley. The creaminess was quite rich and may have come from actual cream, or Mexican crema. The web site to which I linked above is under construction right now. Go here for a menu. Sorry about the dearth of photos! It gets better.

 

The purpose of our trip was to visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The ASDM is still partially shut down due to the pandemic lockdown, and some of my favorite exhibits weren't available. There was still plenty to see. Masks were required, even outdoors. They made their point with amusing displays at the entrance.

 

 

 

The restaurant was a real disappointment, alas. Knowing the dietary restrictions of our guests, I'd said there would be plenty of choice for everyone. I've shown the Ironwood Grill in pre-pandemic times although I can't find pictures right now. It came under new management a few years ago and, in my opinion, the quality of their sandwiches went down then although they stress locally sourced and sustainably grown foods. I was counting on their salad/taco/tamale counter. It was closed! Our only options were sandwiches or pizza. My green chile cheeseburger came on a cold bun. The fries were good. I don't think anyone was impressed, but we had a chance to sit outside in a courtyard and cool down before resuming our walking.

 

We made up for the poor lunch with dinner and a new discovery. If you're ever in Tucson, I highly recommend Bianchi's. It's a one-off, second-generation-owned Italian restaurant. Like Mariscos Chihuahua, they seemed to take Covid-19 precautions seriously, with cleanups, spacing, and masks. The young man who came to our table turned out to be the son of the proprietor, whose mother and father established the restaurant. The recipes are his mother's. He soon had us laughing through our masks, and before we knew it half of us had been talked into that night's special, the beef lasagna.

 

 

Let me tell you, that lasagna was a revelation. Is "pillowy" the right word for a fluffy, delicious, multi-layered pasta dish? "Fluffy" suggests that it was mushy or would fall apart, but it held together for every delightful bite. The sauce was delicious. This was my plate before I dug in. By the time I finished there wasn't a speck of that sauce left.

 

 

The salad may look like an ordinary salad, but their house dressing was also outstanding: a vinaigrette with herbs we couldn't identify. No, he laughed when we asked: "If I told you, I'd have to kill you...and my mother would kill me anyway!"

 

Here's the rest of the menu.

 

 

 

 

I've forgotten which salad my friend across the table ordered, but I managed a shot of her dinner also.

 

 

This place was a wonderful find. I hope to go visit with my darling, or with more friends, another time.

 

The next day, we went home by way of Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakhouse in Yuma. Another restaurant chain I'd never heard of or noticed!  I think they'd give In 'n' Out a run for their money, yet they weren't overwhelmed with a line. Two friends added frozen custard to their sandwich orders, then shared around. It's a marvel my clothing fit by the time I got home.

[Shelby]

I just swooned over that lasagna.  I don't think I've ever seen a more perfect picture of deliciousness.

[heidih]

My mind went to creamy cilantro sauce on your shrimp - popular round here.

I'm not usually a beef lasagna person but "pillowy" intrigued me. I envisioned it as maybe thin freshly made pasta sheets and a ricotta whipped with egg. Probably totally wrong.

[Smithy]

1 minute ago, heidih said:

My mind went to creamy cilantro sauce on your shrimp - popular round here.

I'm not usually a beef lasagna person but "pillowy" intrigued me. I envisioned it as maybe thin freshly made pasta sheets and a ricotta whipped with egg. Probably totally wrong.

 

The color of the sauce was right for cilantro, but we couldn't detect that distinctive cilantro flavor.

 

You might have a good guess about how that lasagna is made! I'll have to try that and see whether it gets the texture right. Fresh pasta especially sounds on the target as far as the texture goes. I have no idea how one would accomplish the characteristic ruffles of lasagna noodles, though. They weren't flat.

[Smithy]

I mentioned that the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum was only partly opened, and that the restaurants my friends and I visited were opened with reduced capacity. I'm sorry to report that Old Tucson, the theme park and movie studio, was not as fortunate.

 

 

It isn't a temporary closure. According to news articles I found, Old Tucson's attendance and revenues had been declining for years. When their Paycheck Protection Program funds ran out, they closed indefinitely. In September 2020 they announced that it was permanent. I'm sorry they didn't survive, and glad we went when we did. You can read my best entry about it here.

 

On the other hand, it appears that Columbus, New Mexico has managed to hang on and even invest some money in improvements. The small downtown area has new sidewalks and fresh paint, and looks downright spiffy. Los Milagros Hotel, formerly known as Martha's Place, is a fine example. Maybe it took a few miracles to stay alive.

 

 

Pancho Villa State Park is only marginally open. The State of New Mexico has cut back on available campsites, perhaps for capacity limitations, and the museum and offices are closed. That's a mixed blessing. The museum has been closed since May 2020 (how can they keep operating?) but we have a lot more elbow room than we had in Tucson. 

 

I got takeout from the Borderland Cafe, which had its soft opening when we were here 4 years ago. I put on my mask and waited inside so I could snap photos and chat with the owner, who was operating the grill.

 

 

He says they're doing steady business and the place is sustaining itself. They've hired help - at least one staff member, who took my order and my money. They have outdoor dining as well as indoor. If you look online you'll find they don't have their own web page, but you'll find menus others have posted online. Those menus are out of date. This is the current menu.

 

 

 

I was disappointed to find that they've taken gyros and any other Middle Eastern food they used to have off the menu. When the place first opened there was the standard "American" food (burgers and the like) and predictable Mexican food, but there were also some selections reflecting the Jordanian heritage of the husband. I asked about it and was told that the gyros (etc.) had been dropped from the menu when they hired staff, to make it easier for them. I suspect it had more to do with not getting enough sales. This is probably not a hot spot for Middle Eastern cuisine. Still, I was disappointed.

 

I brought home a Pershing Burger with regular fries for my darling and a Pancho Burger with enchilada fries for myself. I'd asked for all the fixings - including pickles. As you see, the burgers were huge. The buns were grilled and warm, and the burgers far better than anything we could have gotten at the ASDM's Ironwood Grill. Both sets of fries were also delicious, and I learned today that the leftovers reheat nicely although they look like something even the dog wouldn't touch.

 

 

Still. It was what I'd call standard American fare, with a nice green chile twist. I wish them well, but we'll probably save our future calorie splurges on our own food, or on less-familiar (to us) cuisine.

 

Gratuitous photo of a palo verde in bloom, seen enroute to Tucson. Aren't those yellow-frosted limbs beautiful?

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Smithy
Corrected the heritage of the husband: not Lebanese, but Jordanian (log)

[Smithy]

Yesterday we drove south 3 miles from Columbus, New Mexico and braved the border crossing into Palomas, Chihuahua. 

 

 

Our objective was The Pink Store, quite distinctive for its garish pink exterior. It's a Mexican import shop of sorts, carrying goods from all over that country at inexpensive prices. I love to shop there, and the food is good.

 

We'd been told that the Pink Store paid careful attention to Covid-19 precautions, and it seemed to be the case. A masked woman met us at the door with a spray bottle of hand sanitizer. Masks were required inside the store except at table, or when perusing the shelves and enjoying a complimentary margarita.

 

 There's pottery,

 

 

glassware that I find endlessly tempting,

 

 

blankets and jewelry and marionettes,

 

 

clothing and statuary and decorative tiles and gewgaws of all sorts and sizes. I was on a mission for a friend, but also selected some place mats for myself.

 

 

The self-indulgence wasn't just due to the margarita I was having.  I've learned the hard way that one can't count on finding quite the same items from one trip to the next. I have blue-rimmed glasses (you'll see some below, on our lunch table) and a big blue-rimmed salad bowl of the same pattern that I inherited from my parents. One year the store had individual salad bowls of that pattern. I resisted the temptation. On our following trip I'd decided to buy them, but there were none to be found. I've never seen them since.

 

We went into the restaurant.

 

 

The tables were spaced much farther apart than in previous visits. Wait staff wore masks. There were no mariachis strolling and singing from table to table. We sat, and a waiter came promptly to us. Would we like drinks? Yes, please. More margaritas! They brought them with freshly fried tortilla chips, a delicious mild red salsa and a hotter-than-heck pico de gallo. We left that alone after a bite or two.

 

 

We agonized over the menu. So many choices!

 

 

 

After we ordered, we asked our waiter about the plaza outside. "Didn't there used to be a statue of General Pershing out there, in answer to the statue of Pancho Villa in the main plaza?" He thought there had been, and it had been sold. "Everything out there and in here is for sale. Furniture, decorations, everything. If it doesn't move, it's for sale. That's why we never stand still!" 

 

My darling ordered a taco salad, the first he's tried that actually came in a formed tortilla bowl. See how nicely puffed that tortilla is? 

 

 

I dithered and debated and finally asked our waiter for advice, and he recommended the chiles rellenos. I'm glad I took his advice.

 

 

Yes, it was huge. Yes, it was delicious. Yes, I ate it all!

 

I was curious what kind of chile I was eating. It was about the size and shape of a poblano, but much lighter green and without any heat. My waiter said they call it a Chile California. When I asked further, he pulled up his cell phone to show me a picture. His picture was of Anaheim chiles. I've never seen them so big. The filling was tender chicken, and Mennonite cheese, and the batter around the chile was delicate. The mild green chile sauce and the shredded cheese set it off to perfection. The refried beans were also wonderful. While I was swooning over my food, my darling discovered that his salad had generous quantities of meat, and that the bowl was edible! He was delighted too.

 

 

On the way back across the border we found a wall decoration depicting Columbus, Palomas, and various businesses on both sides of the border. A photo of the whole thing wouldn't have done it justice because of its long, squiggly shape. Here are excerpts

 

[heidih]

I love those blue rimmed glasses. Managed to break every one I ever bought in Mexico but did get  pitcher at Home Goods here. Then I poured hot jamaica aka hibiscus  tea in it -  brilliant, It broke in this bizarrely beautiful way. Those multi colored glasses I would want to drop a tea light in and see how it glows. 

 

Your husband's delight in his edible bowl is sweet. Always the decision - when do you start breaking it up...

[Shelby]

That food looks delicious.  I love chili rellenos and I hardly ever make them. And, no, I could not have resisted buying those glasses.  I, too, have some of the thick blue rimmed glasses.  I think I got them at Pier One a zillion years ago.  I'm down to three.  And, I broke my pitcher also.

[rotuts]

I remember when that style of glasses was all over Pier One !

[Smithy]

32 minutes ago, rotuts said:

I remember when that style of glasses was all over Pier One !

 

...and I remember being able to wander Pier 1 stores! I was so sorry when they announced they were closing the stores; they were favorite Retail Therapy places for me.

[blue_dolphin]

@Smithy, in either direction, did you note any Covid-linked differences in border crossing protocols?  Were you driving or is there a pedestrian crossing?

 

And sign me up for the glassware club!

 

 

[Shelby]

8 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

...and I remember being able to wander Pier 1 stores! I was so sorry when they announced they were closing the stores; they were favorite Retail Therapy places for me.

Me too  

[Smithy]

19 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

@Smithy, in either direction, did you note any Covid-linked differences in border crossing protocols?  Were you driving or is there a pedestrian crossing?

 

And sign me up for the glassware club!

 

No, we didn't see a difference either way as far as Covid-19 precautions. Officials in both directions were masked. Signs in both directions (and languages) said to wear masks. It was easier to cross into Mexico, as it always has been in our opinion, than to come back. (We always bring passports.) We were on foot. There's $5 parking next to the border crossing, so it's quite easy to leave the pickup and walk.

[Smithy]

I have one more New Mexico post. We drove 30 miles north to Deming one day for groceries. There are two grocery stores in town - three, if you count the Walmart Superstore - but we prefer Pepper's. We're pretty sure it's a one-off grocery store rather than a chain. Their produce is pretty good, and their selection of ingredients for Mexican or New Mexican food is very good.

 

 

 

I was surprised by the diminutive size of these pomegranates. I didn't buy any.

 

 

Their tortilla selection is broad: flour or masa, large or small, with or without lard. Then there are these stacks of tortillas that are made each day. This huge cooler is, in this case, a warmer. The aroma whenever someone opens the lid is marvelous!

 

 

The meat section is decent. We kinda wanted ribs, and he always wants more pork, but we bought neither. We knew we had plenty for the time being, and our cooking time is running out.

 

 

Outside the store, we drove around Deming and admired some of the building murals and artwork.

 

 

When we got back to Columbus we made this amusing restaurant discovery:

 

 

We didn't go in, but we loved the name!

[Shelby]

Oh the cactus and the aloe!!!!

[rotuts]

El What Ever

 

big mistake to not take a look.

 

you wont be sleeping well tonight