Camping, Princess Style

[Porthos]

I  just coudn't figure out that particular rebus. So I went to Lone Star for the answer.

[Smithy]

28 minutes ago, Porthos said:

I  just coudn't figure out that particular rebus. So I went to Lone Star for the answer.

 

It's more of a stretch than most. As JoNorvelleWalker commented regarding another rebus, there's a bit of an accent involved. Accent from where, I'm not sure.  

[Smithy]

I'm having beans for breakfast again.

 

 

That means we're back in Llano, Texas!

 

 

Yes, we know there's a pandemic. Our reasoning is that we can shelter in place as easily in the Princessmobile as we can at home. More to the point, more than a foot of snow fell in mid-October, and then the temperature dropped to 11F. Nothing would keep my darling home at that point. We winterized the trailer to prevent damage from water pipes freezing, and headed south on November 5, 2 days after the General Election. By then it had warmed up at home again, to an unseasonable mid-70's, but we knew it wouldn't last. (It hasn't.)

 

There are two flaws in the shelter-in-place-while-mobile reasoning, one of which we foresaw (laundromats rather than our own washing machine) and one of which we didn't but should have (trailer repairs). The trip already has been eventful. I'll write more about the events, and the packing-up, and the food we've brought along or purchased along the way, later. Consider this a place-holder while we wait for the repair team. Here's a preview of good ol' Texas 'cue:

 

[Anna N]

It will be a very different adventure this year I suspect but I’m awfully happy you’re taking us along as usual. Please stay safe. 

[Shelby]

Oh @SmithyI hate that you're having problems.  You know, all these years traveling with you and it never crossed my mind about having to go to a laundry mat.  The princess mobile needs to buck up and realize it's a pandemic and she can't break down!  

[Porthos]

46 minutes ago, Smithy said:

We need a "drool" icon.

[kayb]

Glad the Princessmobile is rolling! Hope you can find deserted laundromats, and the needed repairs are only minor.

 

 

BTW, I don't blame him. I wouldn't willingly stay where it was 11 degrees, either.

[ElsieD]

Love the lights!

[Smithy]

8 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Love the lights!

 

They're fun, aren't they? The Christmas lights began going up the day after we arrived. The park is also setting up for their annual light festival, called something like "Starry Nights in Llano". Lighted archways define walkways, with playful displays along the way. There are lighted Christmas trees at the top of the hill, where the walks start.

 

 

There's a "Snowflake Express" train, and a display of Santa working on his pickup, and Santa catching a fish,

 

 

and a reindeer (Rudolph?) catching a fish, and lovely angels and poinsettias and doves and other holiday decorations.

 

 

I wish we'd be around to enjoy it in its lit-up glory, but that happens sometime after Thanksgiving. We'll be long gone by then.

 

The trailer is repaired, hooray! That tale is still to be told, but right now it's time to start dinner. Lest you think that we aren't eating any greens in this haven of Texas 'cue, here was lunch:

 

 

Green salad, with a side of chicken salad spiked with Little Green Dress, from Vivian Howard's latest cookbook. (See this topic for more information. The fuss over LGD in particular starts here.) Delicious. I've learned that LGD changes its character depending on what it's mixed with: where in a salad dressing I pick up more of the tart savory flavor of the olives and capers, in this chicken salad with mayonnaise I taste more of the herbs.

 

The crackers are something I'm trying for the first time. Okay by themselves, great for scooping up chicken salad!

 

[FauxPas]

10 hours ago, Smithy said:

There are two flaws in the shelter-in-place-while-mobile reasoning, one of which we foresaw (laundromats rather than our own washing machine) and one of which we didn't but should have (trailer repairs).

 

Can't help you with the trailer repairs, but as for laundry.... have you ever read Travels with Charley: In Search of America by Steinbeck? 😃

 

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/how-to-do-laundry-on-a-road-trip-like-john-steinbeck/

 

 

 

 

[Jacksoup]

Thanks for taking us along, once again.  I love your stories and scenery.

[Smithy]

21 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

 

Can't help you with the trailer repairs, but as for laundry.... have you ever read Travels with Charley: In Search of America by Steinbeck? 😃

 

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/how-to-do-laundry-on-a-road-trip-like-john-steinbeck/

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for that reminder! Yes, I've read Travels with Charley, and in fact one of my parents' good friends used to tell me that her parents did the same thing when they were on the road in their trailer. Barbara didn't describe it as colorfully as Steinbeck did, but the idea was the same. Yes, I think I'll adopt that. At least, I'll try it.

 

Our first trailer, the Montana, came with a washer/dryer combination machine. We didn't use it until very late in our first trip, when we were hooked up to a water source and a sewer disposal. The thing relied on water to cool the dryer, so it was quite the water (and energy) hog. Nonetheless we moved it to the next trailer and used it occasionally. When we moved to this current trailer, Princessmobile Mark III, we decided we couldn't spare the space. But we didn't imagine a pandemic in which public interaction would be a problem.

 

One clear difference between this trip and previous trips, to answer @Anna N's comment, is that there won't be as much exploration of interesting shops. I doubt we'll be meeting up with people and joining them (or inviting them) for shared meals. Shopping is, and will continue to be, circumspect - with masks and social distancing. Nonetheless (despite my overpacking - stories and photos to follow) there have been, and will continue to be, visits to food places.

 

Yesterday, as we expected it to be our last day here (it wasn't) I went off to Miller's Meat Market and Smokehouse to acquire some of their variations on stuffed jalapenos. Their store seems to be as well-stocked as ever. I hadn't noticed the P.D.Q meals before; I don't know whether they're a new addition.

 

 

Their meat counter is the main attraction. You want beef roulades, or stuffed chicken? Get it here. You want stuffed jalapenos, in many different flavor combinations? This is the place. Note that the sign in the upper left of this photo was outside the door. Most customers wore masks. As I recall, the counter clerks wore them although they weren't as careful as I'd have liked about keeping their noses covered.

 

 

I came away with 4 each of their Gator Toes, Brisket Poppers and Armadillo Eggs. i'd really like to work out how to make these things!

 

I was surprised to see that the Armadillo Eggs were not stuffed jalapenos, but rather jalapeno sausage balls (wrapped around...what?) wrapped in bacon. The "eggs" had a very different size and geometry than the poppers. They were all good. The Armadillo Eggs lacked the sweet spiciness of the two poppers I tried. Was it the lack of cream cheese, or the smaller concentration of jalapeno? I don't know.

 

I also went to the local grocery store to get a few supplies that, incredibly, we needed. We're only a week on the road! I haven't shown you the refrigerator, or the freezer, or the cupboards or the coolers. Still, there was a shopping list. Lettuce goes off fast, and my citrus was old before we started.

 

When I spotted the prices and quantities of limes, I thought of @JoNorvelleWalker and her woes at getting limes. On the other hand, I'd say the romaine hearts more than made up for the savings on limes. 

 

 

Back at home - and a day later - it was time to eat those poppers and armadillo eggs.

 

 

They were all good. I wish I had cooked fewer of them and served them over rice, or potatoes.

[Shelby]

Sheesh, that lettuce is a bit pricey lol.   I need some heavy cream so last time at the store I went to get some.  Almost $10.  It didn't land in my cart.

[rotuts]

I had to look up Armadillo Eggs :

 

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=armadilloo+eggs&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

 

most seem to be pork-sausage wrapped jelepeno , which is stuffed w some sort of cheese

 

the ones you made sone seem to have the inner-jalepeno .

 

but Id love any of  those items from Millers.

 

big morale boost it would be.

 

thank you for taking us along this year.  

 

much more therapeutic for us this year.

 

just don't go out there and regret it later

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

Smithy, I'm glad to see you're back on the road again. We didn't go north this past summer, for obvious reasons, and I really miss it. (I find myself obsessively reading Campendium's reports every day, but for the sake of my mental health I have to stop doing that!) Can't blame you for leaving when the temperature gets that low. I am hopeful that we will be able to get the  Pleasure-Way out of storage next summer. In the meantime life here in Pátzcuaro is pleasant albeit slightly dull, and the weather can't be beat. 70s during the day, 50s at night, doors and windows open. We're heading to the beach with friends who have a house in Nayrarit for Thanksgiving; normally we have a huge party with as many as 60 folks, but of course not this year.

 

Safe travels, and I hope your trailer repairs don't get you down.

[Smithy]

Thanks for the encouragement, folks. I often wonder whether this topic is too much "same 'ol, same 'ol" and this year the pandemic will certainly add a wrinkle of isolation. Since some of you are enjoying it, I'll keep going.

 

We were back on the road yesterday. "Nice to have trailer brakes again!" said my darling, and while I agreed I was also delighted to have fresh water again without being hooked up to a city campground.

 

This was our road snack for the day. I couldn't have done this safely a few days before; the roads were that bad.

 

 

What happened to the trailer was something that no public highway, especially one that CHARGES TOLLS, should subject one to. Nonetheless, the Oklahoma Turnpike - especially that portion just south of Oklahoma City - has a terrible rhythmic jolt. (At 50 - 55 mph we're a rolling speedbump, with irritated traffic trying to get around. Perhaps slowing down would have helped. I'm not sure it crossed our minds to try it.) Roughly every 8 feet - about the length of a concrete pour - there'd be another jolt. LUMP LUMP LUMP...our teeth rattled, and we swore never to travel that road again. I think we swore the same thing last year. Maybe after this year we'll remember. 

 

At our next fueling stop: Eek! the Princessmobile's belly liner was sagging and coming loose, and water was pouring out from underneath the belly.  It could have been worse: at least it was the freshwater tank, rather than one of the wastewater tanks, that was leaking. Still, it meant we had no fresh water until we could get the leak fixed, and we had no idea what had caused it. Had the tank ruptured? Had a hose fitting come loose? The question occupied a good deal of our conversation until we reached Mineral Wells, where we stopped and parked for the night in a Walmart parking lot. We bought 3 or 4 gallons of distilled water. That would be our drinking and cleaning water until we found a repair place.

 

An additional wrinkle was that the trailer brakes were no longer working, although the signal lights were. This was safe enough on fairly flat land, but had to be fixed before going into the Intermountain West.

 

Mineral Wells has been a preferred stopping point for the last few years. We first discovered it when we stayed for a couple of days at the Texas State Park there. It's a nice place. Whether we could have found room under the current pandemic restrictions is another question, but we didn't ask because we planned to move on in the morning anyway. The Walmart lot would do. It's noisy but safe, and a good place to get items we'd forgotten or suddenly needed - like jugs of water.

 

We disconnected the trailer, and while my darling stayed home and safe I masked up, purchased our left-behind supplies, and went to the Mesquite Pit Steakhouse, where I'd placed an order for no-contact pickup. I wrote about the place here, when we tried it a few years ago. We loved it, and had picked Mineral Wells as a stopover point on purpose to take advantage of the place.

 

I'm afraid it was a disappointment this time. We had ordered pork ribs, brisket and Armadillo Eggs (yes, there's a theme here) and it was ready, along with their generous sides, at the appointed time. The brisket came sliced -- my online request to leave it whole had been overlooked -- and it was dry. I thought the pork ribs were tasty, but my darling had expected them to be more tender and to be slathered with sauce. The barbecue sauce they gave us was quite good (we have more) but in his mind didn't make up for the textural issues. I didn't get any pictures of those foods. I also didn't take photos of the interior. It looked much the same as before (here's another link to that post), and I was intent on getting in and getting out. They did seem to have good business, judging by the noise. I don't know how far apart the tables were. 

 

The armadillo eggs, now, those were good. They're quite different from the ones I got at Miller's, which tells you something about recipe interpretation. The obvious difference is that the Mesquite Pit's 'eggs' don't have a bacon wrapping, but the seasonings are also different. The sauce they come with is tasty. It's a bit sweet, a bit tart, a bit hot. It has a mayonnaise base, and is probably close kin to Louisiana remoulade or, bringing it closer to home, Texas petal sauce minus the horseradish. Funny, I see that during our last visit I thought it too sweet!

 

 

So the 'eggs' were good, the stopover safe. Still, between the need to find a different route (not through OK City, and preferably not through Dallas!) and the disappointing food, we're scratching the place off our route unless there's a really good reason to go.

 

I don't know what we had for road-food breakfast the next day. Probably a sandwich. I'll talk about our road food, both as planned and as executed, in another post.

[Shelby]

Are you kidding me?  Even with no pandemic we're always glued to your travels! 

 

I've been re-reading the hunting blog.....I'll have to make a note next year (hopefully) as to why 2020 is missing (not that we won't remember).

 

edited to say that every time you post about armadillo eggs I make a mental note that I want to make these and then I forget lol.

Edited November 14, 2020 by Shelby (log)

[ElsieD]

It's really disappointing when you go back to a place that you loved when you went the first time is not up to snuff.  In Newfoundland, there are two places that we have been to in 3 out of our 4 trips.  I was afraid the second visit would not be as good as the first, but it was.  Then the third time I was SURE one or the other or both would disappoint but they were both as good as the first two times.  We felt like we'd won the lottery.

[Smithy]

Now, on to the question of road food and packing up to leave for 6 months.

 

If I had bothered to snap a photo of our refrigerator a month ago, it would have looked promisingly empty...appropriate for someone getting ready to transfer the contents to another refrigerator, or to move. Think of the topics Challenge: Cook your way through your freezer (Part 1) and (Part 2) as a model. There are others. Our freezers were full but the refrigerator seemed headed in the right direction.

 

Then I started thinking of all the foods I adore locally that I can't get on the road. A particular brand of sliced salami. A favorite deli's smoked salmon. Bacon that I'd been looking for and had trouble finding. The New England Brown Bread that I can't find out of our area and don't know how to bake. Inexpensive hummus with choice seasonings. Yes, I can make hummus but this is easy.

 

There were recipes I wanted to try, as I had time, so those ingredients crept into the fridge. There were bargains on chicken and pork. My darling wanted to stock up on specialty sausages.

 

I reasoned that we wouldn't be going into fast-food joints much along the way because of the pandemic. Better plan to make our own sandwiches. That opened the door to a surfeit of sliced meats and cheeses. And more bread.

 

Then there was my darling's usual approach to travel: we cover 300 - 400 miles each day for the first few days,  and nobody feels like cooking when we arrive, and the Princessmobile isn't especially conducive to cooking when it's in road-mode and the "dining room" is impassible. Better make a bunch of easily-microwaved dinners, distributed into single-serving containers and frozen. His specialties are split pea soup, and chili. He cooked enough for a half-dozen containers of each. They're ALL in the freezer, or they were. The plan was that each of us would select one in the morning, leave it to thaw during the day's drive, and at day's end eat it. Simple.

 

So here's what the fridge looked like at home, just before I started packing the trailer fridge. I didn't photograph the freezer contents at home. Too tired, I think.

 

 

I haven't even discussed the pantry ingredients! Many of my impulse purchases or specially-bought-for-special-occasions purchases were still in cabinets. They're in the Princessmobile's cabinets or in coolers. Some, to be honest, stayed in the Princessmobile all summer.

 

Simplify? Of course I could, but I fear missing out...especially this trip. My sole nod to simplification was to weed through the plastic containers and get rid of everything but a few containers of 2 or 3 types we use a lot. I left a lot of room to accommodate the pre-cooked dinner containers as they were emptied. I also rightly suspected there would be deli containers along the way, and left room for them. (Cooper's hasn't disappointed in that regard.)

 

So, we've been on the road a week and two days now. Want to see the Princessmobile's freezer and fridge?  TA-DAA!

 

 

We had pea stew one night. Actually, my darling ate only half of his and finished it the next night. His appetite and waistline are getting smaller.

 

 

I had crawfish fettucine that I unearthed from the freezer one night. That fettucine was an impulse buy from Miller's Smokehouse last spring, and had lain frozen at our house all summer. (I won't get it again. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exciting.)

 

 

We knew we were headed for Llano. We should have realized that all this "road food" advance preparation was overkill.

 

So it goes.

[Shelby]

In this strange pandemic time, I don't think you can do any overkill.  I know I always sound like the voice of doom about this, but I read a lot...every day...and it's smart to be prepared.

[Shelby]

Also, your fridge both at home and in the PM are amazingly clean and organized.  Mine is shameful in comparison lol.

[catdaddy]

I'll chime in here to say I love to read about your daily travels and travails in the camper and in the kitchen. I cooked professionally for many years and still get lots of joy doing it at home. Mrs catdaddy and I are planning to go on the road in the near future so posts about rv life are doubley interesting. I guess the most valuable posts are the ones discussing mistakes or unfortunate turns of fate and how you deal with them.

 

So please carry on there's lots of folks interested. And thanks.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

After I read your tale of woe about the road surfaces, I took out our road atlas and saw that there's really no easy way to get through Oklahoma without going through Oklahoma City. Not if you want to stay on the Interstates. I guess you want to get south as quickly as possible, and avoiding cold weather sounds like the imperative. But you're past that now and you'll only have to worry about it on the way back to Minnesota!

[Smithy]

15 hours ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

After I read your tale of woe about the road surfaces, I took out our road atlas and saw that there's really no easy way to get through Oklahoma without going through Oklahoma City. Not if you want to stay on the Interstates. I guess you want to get south as quickly as possible, and avoiding cold weather sounds like the imperative. But you're past that now and you'll only have to worry about it on the way back to Minnesota!

 

When we first started doing this road tripping, we used to skip Oklahoma altogether, not on purpose, but because we'd go south through Mississippi and then along the Gulf Coast to Florida to visit relatives, then back again along the Gulf Coast. Once we got far enough south in Texas, we'd cut across.

 

Alas, the weather along the Gulf Coast has not been conducive to that trip for what, 3 or 4 years? Even if it doesn't happen to be storming at the time, we figure the good folks of southern Louisiana and all the other areas cleaning up from storm damage don't need us there. This year, of course, there's no question of going to Florida to visit relatives. 

 

An alternative route is to take US 54 down through New Mexico. It's a beautiful drive, but New Mexico's state parks are all closed due to the pandemic and we aren't sure where we'd stay. Besides, we really wanted to go to Llano. 🙂

[Smithy]

I still have lots of beans from Cooper's that I can have for breakfast - including, embarrassingly, some frozen last spring, brought home and forgotten until we were packing for this trip(!) - but today's breakfast is of the no-heat variety. While I'm eating, I'll talk about trailer improvements we made last summer. Those of you thinking about going on the road, or who have done so, may get some good ideas.

 

 

Last year we more or less remodeled the Princessmobile rather than purchase a new trailer. This one is 4 years old, nearly out of its extended service warranty, and 4 years is the trailer age at which we've generally traded one in. We couldn't find one with the same features or with a better floor plan, so we decided to improve what we had. It saved a bunch of money. I've read that trailers and campers are difficult to come by in these pandemic times anyway, so it was probably a doubly smart move.

 

First I'll talk about the dining room. For those of you who aren't familiar with trailers that are designated as "toy haulers", I'll explain that the back room is a garage for bicycles, 4-wheelers, whatever gear you want to carry out of the weather when you're on the road. The entire back wall is a gate that serves as a ramp to get the gear in and out, and then can be set level as a deck. When we're parked for several days the toys come out, a pair of dinette benches comes down, a table opens out and the garage becomes our dining room. (There's also a bunk bed that can come down, but we've never used it.) 

 

If you ever buy a toy hauler, I recommend you make a point of spending the extra money to get a "3-season door" setup. The standard toy hauler comes with a screen that pulls down to cover the back when the door is open. It may keep the bugs out, but it doesn't do a thing for dust or cold, so you have to hoist that heavy door whenever the weather is inclement. The doors are a 4-panel arrangement in which the inner two slide over the outer two, and then the pairs can unlatch to open wide for gear. Each door comes with a screen and with a clear vinyl "window" that VelcroesTM to the door frame to keep the wind and dust out. You can pull the vinyl away from the screen to allow more air through, like this:

 

 

It gives a pretty good view. Problem is, it's difficult to get the vinyl stretched enough to fully cover the screen again. This summer, after my darling had a brainstorm and I wielded the calculator, we had a local window maker cut polycarbonate panels that would cover the same screens. We bought the VelcroTM with industrial-strength backing, got some plastic channels to mate the panels together, and voila! The view is even clearer, and we can consistently cover screens when we want them covered. We think it's a great improvement to our dining room.

 

 

When we're on the road day after day, the garage is stuffed with toys and coolers, and doesn't provide a living or eating space. So we also improved the main living area. 

 

The trailer came with a "couch" that was really 4 leather recliners linked together. They're comfortable, but they all face the same direction: that is, the TV wall. We very rarely watch TV, and I at least hate not having any sort of conversational grouping. Not that we're likely to have company this trip, but one hopes for better times in the future. Besides, that couch was a serious space hog.

 

 

So we got rid of it. My daughter-in-law was delighted to have it. We replaced it with 2 comfortable recliners and a small drop-leaf table that serves as a breakfast bar or a dining table while on the road. Everyone's happy!

 

 

It's a much more comfortable setup for eating and relaxing when the entire living space isn't available.