Kicking back in Kansas

Heinz and I are still up in Kansas, kicking back and enjoying being around relatives for the holiday season.  We are still selling off our household goods a little at a time and being reasonably successful between Craigslist and EBay.

Since we haven't been traveling the past few weeks, I got to thinking about all the great places we went since we retired in 2010 and the great people we met.  I thought I'd take a short walk along memory lane for today's post.  Hope you'll bear with me. :)

October 2010 - New England

Leaves turning - New England

Pumpkin patches at their best - New England

Jess and Pete taking us to the LL Bean Mothership - Portland ME

November 2010, California

Saying goodbye to old friends - Fairfield CA

What IS THAT?

One last motorcycle ride with Keith and Jesse - NorCal

Packing up our household good in California - Fairfield CA

December 2010 - Kansas/Louisiana 

The famous Santa cookies by Annelee - Lawrence KS

Cheers (hic!) 

Christmas - Shreveport LA

Takes licking and keeps on ticking - 89 and counting!

Post-present opening exhaustion

January 2011 - Texas

Woke up, got out of bed, and found some ice outside our bed...

23 degrees in San Antonio

Exploring the Mission Trail - San Antonio TX

February - Texas/New Mexico

Swapping Kansas zoysia grass for Texas cactus

Even the horse shoes are bigger in Texas - Marfa TX

Just another beautiful sunset along the way

A southwest Christmas card in the making

Walking 4 1/2 miles of the White Sands National Monument

Petroglyphs 

March - Arizona

Old town - Tucson AZ

Something about this landscape strikes a note with us

The fish are STILL scared - Rose Canyon Lake AZ

Simply magical - Sedona AZ

April - Back in New Mexico

Trout fly fishing Mecca - Navajo Dam NM

Thank you George Michelin and Andy Kim

Shiprock NM

1800s-vintage trading Post - Toadlena NM

Gathering of the Nations - Albuquerque NM

May - Kansas/Texas

The Frankster staking his claim - Overland Park KS

Gretel and Kevin cooking up some steaks - Overland Park KS

The Littlejohn family reunion - Texarkana TX

Trading family stories - Littlejohn family reunion

June - Colorado/Utah/Idaho

Abert's squirrel on Pete/Maureens' porch - Estes Park CO

Sunset at Delicate Arch - Moab UT

Cactus blooms - Moab UT

Sunrise at Arches National Park - Moab UT

Aspen - Park City UT

Lunch on Antelope Island - Salt Lake City UT

Sawtooth National Forest - Idaho

Fourth of July celebration - Mountain Home AFB ID

First salmon ever - Clearwater River ID

July - Alberta, Canada

Trekking northward

Did someone lose a hat?

Fancy Dancer - Calgary Stampede

Chuck wagon racing - Calgary Stampede

Some rodeo action - Calgary Stampede

Meeting new friends - Banff National Park

Another boring view from the Airstream doorway - Canadian Rockies

Looking out the window at one of the many "friends of the day"

Canada in bloom

Pam and Buzz - Jasper Canada

 Got a little color in that water - eh?

August - Montana/So. Dakota/Colorado/Louisiana

 A crappy little camping spot - Ennis MT

 Crappy view from crappy camping spot - Ennis MT

 This trip is all about taking the main highways

Right on time - Yellowstone National Park

Wild flowers - Gallatin National Forest

Annual rally - Sturgis SD

 View from campground - Estes Park CO

 Sunset in Rocky Mountain National Park - Estes Park CO

 Reflections in Bear Lake - Rocky Mountain National Park CO

Marsh family reunion - Estes Park CO

 Rick talking shit

Pops turns.... wait for it.... 90 - Shreveport LA

September - New Mexico/California

 Chasing the chilies - Hatch NM

If only the smell could come through your computer monitor - Hatch NM

 Should have had an Airstream - Silver City NM

Another "friend of the day" 

Campground with character - Silver City NM

Jess sniffin' the roasted chillies - Los Angeles CA

One-year retirement anniversary dinner - San Francisco CA

 Farmer's Market - Napa Valley Ca

A casualty of the Farmer's Market - Napa Valley Ca

October - California to Kansas

 Makin' raisins - Apple Hill CA

 Linda getting lubed after "working us to death" - Apple Hill CA

 Early snow - Mammoth Lakes CA

 The not-so-great fishermen - Mammoth Lakes CA

 Sunset headed towards Wyoming

 Shooting pictures instead of racing - Bonneville Salt Flats

 Passing through - Badlands SD

Festival time in the Plaza - Kansas City MO

As we keep saying, it was a great year, with lots of memories.  But of all the places Heinz and I traveled, and of all the sights we saw, I have to say that the most memorable was one that I never expected to see and will always thank Heinz for showing me:

We'll be hitting the road again just after Christmas and will continue the blog entries then.  Since our one-year travel adventure has been extended indefinitely, our rate of travel will most likely slow, as we attempt to see fewer sights, but spend more time exploring the ones we visit.  The blog will most likely see some changes as well, as we shift focus and experiences.   Stay tuned!

Trying to Stay Warm in the Midwest, Current Temp: 30

Mea Culpa to all you loyal blog followers who have been emailing us wanting an update.  We have been incredibly lazy when it comes to posting over the past couple of months.  Heinz and I left the middle of California back in early October and pointed the truck and trailer east yet again.

After pulling out of Fairfield we drove all the way to Sacramento in one day...a whole 45 miles for those unfamiliar with the area.  We spent a wonderful weekend catching up with friends in the Sacramento area.  Bert and Kathy treated us royally with a meal fit for a king, lots of laughs, and some fine wines.  Scott and Linda offered up their front yard for the Airstream and once again a ton of laughter mixed with political junkie ramblings and gossip about old friends.  They also fit in a great little side trip over to Apple Hill and a fun ramble through the apple stands and wineries.

Apple Hill Vineyard

L-R: Scott, Heinz, Linda checking out local offerings

Trying to remember what we learned in the wine club:)

Following that we found yet another squirrel to chase and headed down to Mammoth Lakes to meet up with a couple of old friends from our Edwards AFB days.  Heinz, Jesse, and Keith spent a couple of days out on the water trying to outsmart the fish while I poked around the town, read books and was generally lazy.  I'll leave it to you to figure out who won, the fish or the guys.  Heinz did come home bragging about the fish that he caught but having nothing to show for it.  He claimed that he had caught it, gutted it, and bagged it, but must have inadvertently left it behind when they packed their gear.  Yeah, yeah, I've heard that before...then lo and behold, Keith showed up the next morning with one bagged fish, slightly the worse for wear.  He says he accidentally picked it up, tucked it in his bag, then promptly forgot about it until he was going through his stuff to prep for the day.  Heinz thinks he was simply jealous and petty because he couldn't catch anything... but refuses to talk about who caught what the next day.  Personally I think my catch was the best of the bunch...Golden Trout Pilsner, brewed in Mammoth Lakes...delicious!

Summer's over

Wishful thinking...Heinz, Keith, and Jesse mourn the end of summer

Wow, he really did catch a fish!

After leaving Mammoth Lakes we drove about two hours and pulled into Minden, NV for a few days of sightseeing and a little casino play.  We found a couple of great bakeries, one German and one Dutch, enjoyed the leaves turning, and broke even at the casino.  All in all, a nice little side trip.  We REALLY liked the Minden/Carson City/Gardnervill area and can see it as a potential retirement spot!!!!

Salt water aquarium inside Sheels Sporting Goods in Sparks, NV

Then it was time to head for Kansas City yet once again.  This trip we took our time and finally made it into Heinz's sister's 5 days later.  The scenery along the way was beautiful with the trees turning colors, the nights crisp and the days filled with sunshine.  The route passed right by the Bonneville Salt Flats, so of course we pulled off to see what it looked like.  Heinz had plans to break the combined Ford/Airstream land speed record, but his plans were foiled - it had rained a few days before, so the flats were one huge, shallow ocean of water.

Vistas around Salt Lake City

Now that's a dump truck!

Bonneville Salt Flats after the rain

It ain't easy getting some pictures!

How many land speed records do you think we could've set?

We made it to KC without incident and kicked back while waiting for our household goods to be delivered.  Ah yes, 12,000 lbs. of our "stuff" the Air Force had been holding in storage for a year.  But that year was almost up and they wanted to offload it back on us.  Heinz and I had been talking for a while about how much we are enjoying this lifestyle and so we made the decision...we're staying on the road for the foreseeable future.  This meant that we had 12K of stuff to either store or get rid of.  We had everything shipped to a storage unit in Kansas and are in the process of going through everything and separating it into give away, donate, sell, and save piles.  I think every charity in town has been the recipient of something, family and friends have absorbed some, there is a long list on Craigslist and the garage sale pile continues to grow while the save pile is shrinking as we sort and re-sort boxes.  It is amazing how freeing it is to see truckload after truckload drive away.  At the same time... it's REALLY weird watching your stuff walk out the door forever (sniff, sniff).  When you're down to 290 square feet you really get a sense of what is vital for psychic satisfaction.  As far as the "save" pile goes, our goal is to start with a 5' x 5' shed and work our way down, although Heinz's LP collection may take most of that space!  The hardest parting was between me and my books... that was wrenching, but I found that sorting through them quickly and making instant decisions was MUCH easier on the emotions - we donated 16 boxes of books.  Later Heinz gave me a hug and told me how proud he was of me... think he'll notice the 3 boxes still in storage and the two in the truck?

Another load heads for Goodwill, or Salvation Army, or the Boy Scouts, or somebody.

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving with family and friends and hope you had the same.  I promise to be a little more regular with our postings in the future.  Oops, think I've made that promise before so maybe I'll make it an early New Year's resolution!

Back in the promised land, aka California

Hello again from California. We've been here about a week now and keeping looking around expecting everything to be the same.  Somehow however, things kept on moving without us (imagine that)and there are some new sights to see.

After leaving Louisiana we decided to drift our way back out west rather than making another mad dash across many miles.  The trip into Texas heading toward Dallas was a bit surreal in places.  That was the time of the massive wildfires west of Fort Worth/Dallas and the air was filled with smoke until we got west of the area.  Then further on we ran across an oil well fire that left a smoke trail for 30+ miles.

Smoke along the highway heading to Dallas

Oil well fire

Our first stop was Abilene, TX at the local KOA.  It was a small park, but friendly people and a low key atmosphere.  This was only an overnight stop, so we didn't try to do any sight-seeing.  Heinz remembered a great little steak place from his days of traveling to Dyess AFB on TDYs, so off we went for dinner.  Guess we should have read the reviews on Trip Advisor and Yelp first.  Joe Allen's was definitely not the restaurant Heinz remembered.  The steaks were bad, the service mediocre, and the price was WAY too high for the experience.  I read the reviews afterward and most seemed to agree that when the owner and his wife divorced, the wife took the good parts from the restaurant (recipes, cooks, etc.) and opened her own place.  It had rave reviews.  Oh well, lesson learned!

The next day we headed off to Las Cruces, NM.  We stayed in a nice little RV park in the middle of town, Sunny Acres RV Park.  This was a great little park with wide spots, lots of shade, and even a covered parking spot for your car - a nice touch in the desert sun!  This was our second time in Las Cruces and we checked out La Posta for dinner again - still some of the best Mexican food we've had.  While there we took a little side trip to Hatch, NM since it's pepper season there - we picked up a 35 lb. bag of chiles.  That night I roasted and cleaned a few and made a nice batch of chile rellenos.  If you've never had Hatch chiles you gotta try them.  Fresh is best of course, but you can buy roasted ones in a can in most grocery stores these days, just look in the Mexican food section.  They come in medium and hot in the cans.  Be warned, when they say hot, they mean it!

Riastra of fresh chiles

Roasting fresh chiles in Hatch

Riastras

Leaving out of Las Cruces, we headed up to Silver City, NM by the Gila Mountains.  This is a town that keeps cropping up on the "best places to retire" lists.  It's a quirky little artist's community, full of free spirits, okay restaurants, and beautiful scenery.  But as Heinz put it, after a month of exploring the area, what do you do for entertainment?  This is the town that Billy the Kid was raised in, so a lot of the tourism is geared in that direction.  We did drive the Trail of Mountain Spirits National Scenic Byway.  This 93 mile loop runs from Silver City through the Gila National Forest, across the Continental Divide, and into the Mimbres River Valley and past the world's largest open pit copper mine.  It also travels through Pinos Altos, a tiny town established in 1859 that's famous for having Judge Roy Bean live there for a time.

Drummers in the local park in Silver City

Open pit copper mine

Morning Glory

Old adobe walls around a house in Pinos Altos

Oldest continously running hotel in New Mexico, opened in 1882

Just a cool pic!

Next stop was Tucson for a couple of nights.  We stayed at Davis Monthan AFB's FamCamp again.  It certainly looked different than when we were there in February, when there wasn't a spot in the joint except for overflow.  This time we had our pick of places to park and stay.  We didn't do much except laze around and check out a couple of restaurants again.  Oh yes, we did finally go see the last Harry Potter movie.

Then it was off to Phoenix (I did mention slowly "drifting" across the country didn't I?).  We stayed in our first "RV resort".  This was a planned community where a lot of snowbirds and fulltime RV'ers spend the winter.  Apparently the Phoenix area alone has 120+ of these RV parks.  There were great facilities: 2 pools, 2 jacuzzis, game rooms, tennis courts, horseshoe courts, shuffleboard courts, card rooms, wood shop, jewelry making studio, etc.  But wow, there were 1,126 (RV and Mobile Home) parking spaces in this park alone, and mobile homes were tucked in with not even 4 feet between them.  In all, 1126 spaces for this park AND anther 119+ parks in the immediate area - not our cup of tea at all!

At this time of the year, residents of the resort were mostly 70-80 year old women, so Heinz made quite the impression on the local ladies...face it, he was the youngest man for 20 miles!  He had a few stop and ask if he was a new neighbor.  The man could have made a fortune if he wanted to try the gigolo business :)

Retirement at it's finest??

Then it was off to Los Angeles.  We stayed at the FamCam on the Naval Weapons Station in Seal Beach on the south side of LA.  First experience at a Navy Camp, very nice place.  While there we met up with Jess and Pete (daughter and son-in-law) for a couple of meals and a day at the Santa Monica Good Food Festival.  This was the first year for the festival and while small, had some great food and demonstrations.  For those foodies and Food Channel addicts out there, we got to see demonstrations by Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken of the Border Grill and Nancy Silverton of Osteria Mozza.  On Saturday I did a little cooking demo of my own and roasted about 15 lbs of the Hatch chiles to put in our freezer (the remaining 20 lbs went to Jess) and fixed Pork Stuffed Hatch Chiles with Walnut Cream Sauce (recipe at the end of today's blog).  

Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken demo

Jess sniffin' out the smoked Chipotle chiles

Tray of peppers from Susan Feniger...what?  No Hatch chiles??

Some of the peppers waiting for the grill back at the trailer

Roasting chiles - you should smell these puppies... oh yeah!

Pork Stuffed Chiles with Walnut Cream Sauce

We're now up in Fairfield, CA checking in on old friends, having our annual doctor visits, and just kicking back and relaxing.  Friday night we were off to Crustaceans in San Francisco for dinner to celebrate our one year anniversary of not working.  We both indulged in their famous roasted crabs. Yum!!

Garlic Roasted Crab with a side order of Garlic Infused Noodles

Well, here's the recipe for the stuffed chiles I promised you.  The recipe calls for Poblano chiles which I use when I don't have fresh Hatch chiles to use.

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Pork Stuffed Poblanos with Walnut Cream Sauce

Makes 8 peppers

8 large poblano peppers

1 lb ground pork

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 tsp ground cumin

¾ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground red pepper

2 large tomatoes, chopped

1 small apple, cored and chopped

1/3 cup raisins

1/3 cup diced almonds, toasted

1 tbsp cider vinegar

1 tsp salt

1 cup tomato sauce

1 tsp sugar

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp crushed red pepper

Walnut cream sauce

Broil peppers on grill until blistered.  Place in bag and seal x 10 min.  Peel peppers, split open lengthwise and remove seeds and veins.  Set aside.

Cook pork in hot oil in skillet over medium-high heat until it crumbles and is no longer pink; drain. Add onion through ground red pepper; cook, stirring often, 7 minutes or until onion is soft.

Stir in tomatoes through vinegar.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.  Stir in salt.  Set aside.

Combine tomato sauce through crushed red pepper in small saucepan over low heat x 5 minutes.

Spoon about ½ cup pork mixture into each pepper and place in a slightly greased 13 x 9 pan. Pour tomato sauce mixture over peppers.

Bake, covered, at 350 deg. x 30 minutes.  Top with cream sauce. 

Walnut Cream Sauce:

Makes 1 ½ cups

1 (3 oz) pkg. cream cheese, softened

½ cup sour cream

¼ cup milk

½ cup walnuts, toasted

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground red pepper

½ tsp sugar

¼ tsp salt

Process all ingredients in food processor until smooth.

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Here's our friends of the day, although they're a little tinier than usual:

When did September get here??

Deep breath everyone.  September 23 will be one year since Heinz and I retired.  Where did all that time go?  Mostly into having a great time!

We're currently down in Louisiana.  If I had to describe the state in one word it would be HOT!  I don't envy the folks who had to spend the summer down here.  The daytime temps have been 100-103 since we got here with 45-75% humidity and they've been having this kind of weather for around 60+ days.  It finally dropped to double digit weather over the weekend, double digit being 98-99 of course.

We left Kansas City on the 17th of August and drove all night to get to Estes Park, CO by sunrise.  Once there we met up with Heinz's sister, brother-in-law, and aunt who also traveled up from Kansas.  We spent some time trying to get the trailer into the drive of the cabin Suzi, Carl and Annelee were staying at to no avail.  The roadbed was too soft (dirt and gravel) to get good traction to make the turn in reverse.  So off we went to the Elk Meadows RV Park instead.  As usual, we ended up with a "lousy" view from the trailer.

Sunset from the trailer

We spent the next few days hanging out with relatives, laughing, eating, swapping tall tales and family stories.  Suzi, et al, stayed at a cabin that was built by another aunt's father back in the 50's that was a great little place.  

Relaxing in the Rockies

Cabin fireplace

We went out at sunset to Rocky Mountain National Park in an attempt to see some wildlife, but seems like the animal union was on strike, so no luck.  Actually, a park ranger told us that the late snowfall and wet summer was keeping too much grazing on the upper slopes, so the wildlife was not having to venture down to the lower meadows.  Of course, as soon as we pulled back into Estes Park there were elk wandering the parking lots.

We also wandered into the park before sunrise the next morning (yawn, up at 0400!) to check out the wildlife possibilities.  We saw a wonderful sunrise, a mirror smooth lake, some beautiful wildflower patches, a roaring stream, and, you guessed it...NO wildlife!  

Sunrise in Rocky Mountain National Park

Bear Lake

Wildflower patch

Snowmelt makes for great running water

After dragging ourselves out of bed before sunrise, driving around for 2 hours, and doing a little sightseeing of the area we gave up and headed back home, with a brief stop for some doughnuts, arriving back at the RV park around 0800 only to find, you guessed it, a herd of 16 or so elk hanging out by the front parking lot.  Wow, could've slept in, made a leisurely cup of coffee and wandered over in our slippers to watch the wildlife!  Sigh...

Elk at the park

Since the family was gathered in Estes Park, we decided to have an early Thanksgiving feast on Sunday.  The menu was planned, all family members had their assignments and all preparations were well in hand, except Heinz woke up not feeling well.  By the end of the day he had decided to try immersing himself fully into the local culture and got himself admitted to the Estes Park Medical Center for pain management...passing a kidney stone.  I have to admit, while encountering a strange hospital is NOT what we wanted to do, this is one nice little hospital.  The staff was friendly and efficient, the room was large and comfortable (right down to radiant heating in the bathroom), the food very tasty and ordered via room service by the patient anytime between 0600 and 1900, and Heinz highly recommends the morphine IV drip. Needless to say, we missed the family meal.  

Heinz is doing fine now, but our departure from Colorado was delayed by a day.  But, leave we did and headed for Louisiana, arriving in time for my dad's 90th birthday.  We took him out for dinner at Jan's River Restaurant and some of the best fried catfish in the south.  That Saturday my brother, sister, and I threw him one big birthday bash...150 people for a catfish/shrimp/chicken buffet luncheon.  He's still talking about how much fun he had.

Prepping for the festivities

We've spent most of our time here just chilling out and spending time with my relatives.  Wednesday we head back out west on the next leg of our adventure.

Here's our friends of the day.

Marmot on the mountaintop

Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel

Clark's Nutcracker