Category Archives: Beer

Between Bend and La Pine

The warm weather continued on Monday with a high in the 90s. I rode the Spyder down to La Pine to buy beer and water and check out Ray’s grocery store. After I came back and had lunch with Donna, I realized that Ray’s in La Pine was only about a mile closer than the Walmart Supercenter in Bend. So we rode to Bend to get groceries there – it’s a much larger store than Ray’s.

With the hot weather, we didn’t have much activity Monday afternoon. Donna marinated Jamaican Jerk chicken which I grilled. She served it with a mango salsa topping – we haven’t had this dish in quite a while – it’s a favorite.

Jamaican Jerk chicken with green beans and rice

Jamaican Jerk chicken with green beans and brown rice

Donna served it with steamed green beans and a short grain brown rice she bought at the farmers’ market in Chico. The rice has a nutty flavor and a firm texture. We used paper plates – we’re in a gray water conservation mode since we don’t have sewer hook ups here at Sun River Thousand Trails. I’ve scheduled a pump-out for Friday – that’ll be nine days without dumping the tanks.

On Tuesday morning we joined Julie, Lance, Bonnie, Mike and Michelle for coffee. Mike brews a pot every morning and invites everyone for coffee talk. We exchanged stories for about an hour, then we went to the pickleball courts. Lance, Bonnie, Julie and TJ are avid pickleballers. Donna and I were surprised to find several other people on the courts – we haven’t noticed much activity there other than our group. A couple of youngsters joined in a few games and played surprisingly well. I got my exercise in for the day.

Plenty of activity on the pickleball courts

I’ve ordered new suspension for the Spyder – a custom set of Elka shocks and springs. Good suspension is one of the best upgrades you can make to a vehicle. Most of the motorcycles I’ve owned were upgraded to either Fox, Penske or Ohlins suspension. The folks at Elka specialize in powersports suspension and they make a range of shocks and springs for Spyders. While I was on the pickleball court, John at Elka phoned. He said I needed to measure the rear shock length as Can Am used two different set-ups for our Spyder and he wanted to be sure he was building the right shock for it. I measured the rear shock after lunch and gave him the length. I hope to get the new shocks in a few weeks.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading while Donna worked on writing her organizing newsletter. The high temperature reached 90 degrees. We heard thunder but the showers bypassed us. We had a brief period of rain Monday night – not much, just a few minutes of rain drops.

Donna made a pot of chili and by 7pm it was cool enough in the shade to sit out at the picnic table and dine.

Dinner al fresco at the picnic table

I had a bottle of IPA with my chili – Ray’s had a large selection of northwest brewed IPA. Oregon has the best prices on 22-ounce bomber bottles of craft beer.

Portland Brewing IPA

Today there will be a change in the weather. The high is expected to be a comfortable 74 degrees – the start of a cooling trend. By Friday, the high will only be in the 60s. Donna and Julie are going to Bend for a lunch meetup with their friends and colleagues from their SendOut Cards team. (That’s how Julie and Donna met.) I’m planning to meet Donna in Bend and we’ll ride the Spyder to the farmers’ market.

Little Deschutes River

The campground here at Sun River Thousand Trails is carved out of a pine forest. The tall trees are preventing me from acquiring a Dish network satellite signal. We don’t watch many TV shows, but I like to watch racing – especially Moto GP and Formula One.

On Sunday morning there was a Moto GP race at the Catalunya track in Barcelona, Spain. I looked at our data usage and it appeared that we were on pace to end our data cycle with a couple of gigabytes to spare. So, I found the race in a 1.6GB file and downloaded it to watch later.

Donna and I walked down to the pickleball courts and found friends we’d met the night before, Lance and Bonnie. We warmed up a bit, then joined them for a doubles game. I haven’t played in weeks and Donna’s been off the court even longer. I expected to be a little rusty but I didn’t think I would play as poorly as I did. I’ll need to stay on it while we’re here! Later, Julie and TJ joined us on the courts. They were all playing at a higher level than we were.

The heat wave in the west continues and we expected the high temperature to reach the 90s – it topped out at 94 degrees yesterday. After lunch we loaded our Sea Eagle kayak in TJ’s truck and rode with TJ and Julie to the east end of the campground where the Little Deschutes River runs past it. On the way there, we spotted a young buck and a couple of does in the campground.

Deer in the campground

The Little Deschutes River runs north and empties into the Deschutes River. We found the rest of the group from the night before there – they had air mattresses and inner tubes and were floating down the river.

Donna and I inflated and assembled the kayak and entered the river. We floated downstream past the area where TJ, Julie, Lance, Bonnie, Mike and all the kids were hanging out.

Little Deschutes River

Then we turned around and paddled our way upstream to our entry point and pulled out. It was a good workout coming back upstream.

Paddling upstream

After packing up the kayak and putting it in TJ’s truck, I walked back home while Donna floated on her back down the river and then hung out with the group. I wanted to get out of the heat and watch the Moto GP race I’d downloaded. It turned out to be a very good race.

Last night I grilled green chile turkey burgers on the Weber Q. I paired the burger with an unusual IPA – Hopocalypse Double IPA from Drake’s Brewing. It was brewed with blood oranges and was very tasty.

Hopocalypse Blood Orange Double IPA

This morning we walked over to have coffee with Lance, Bonnie and Julie. We sat at Mike and Michelle’s site and talked. Mike was on a call and I think TJ was sleeping in. After my cup of coffee, I left the group to write this post.

Today will be another hot one with temperatures in the 90s. Tommorow is supposed to be warm also, then we’ll have a cooling trend with the highs in the 60s by the weekend.

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

A Day in Bend

We dry camped in the Bend Elks Lodge parking lot Friday. I unloaded the Spyder and we took a ride into town. We rode down Colorado Avenue so Donna could see where the hair salon is located – she has an appointment there next week. Then we crossed over the Deschutes River at Mirror Pond where Tumalo Avenue becomes Galveston Avenue. This is an older neighborhood with commercial buildings on Galveston mixed with residential housing on the side streets.

This is also an area with many brew pubs and small restaurants. We parked on a side street between 10 Barrel Brewing and the Sun River Brewing Galveston Pub. We went into 10 Barrel first and found seats at the bar. Donna is getting more adventuresome with her beer tastings and went for their Deep Root – an ale with honey and ginger which she absolutely loved. I had their Apocalypse IPA.

Deep Root – ale with honey and ginger

The woman sitting next to us at the bar was a local. She told us a few things about the area – including the fact the residents in the area aren’t too happy about all of the brew pubs. The parking is limited, so on busy nights the side streets are full of cars parked in front of their houses. She also told us her parents were full-time RVers and she is contemplating making a move to the RV lifestyle.

After we finished our beer we moved on to Sun River Brewing. I had their Vicious Mosquito IPA and Donna tried their SUP summer ale. Two beers was our limit – we had to ride the Spyder back to the Elks Lodge.

We went into the lodge for dinner. I had fish and chips while Donna had a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. This lodge is very nice and we especially liked that no smoking is allowed. We’ve found that some Elks Lodges are exempt from public smoking laws because they’re private clubs. Not so in Oregon. This lodge also had a selection of local brews on tap.

On Saturday morning, I got Donna’s bike out of the trailer so she could take a ride. She was out for about an hour and called me for directions once after making a wrong turn. We packed up and pulled out of the Elks Lodge a little past 10am. The drive to the Thousand Trails Sun River RV park was only about half an hour.

We checked in and were told there may be some sites long enough for us to back in without dropping our trailer. We drove slowly through the dusty dirt roads in the park. I found a long back-in site, unloaded the Spyder and backed the rig into it. It was so narrow that I had to crowd the door side of the coach near trees to have enough room to put the slides out on the driver’s side. I rode the Spyder down the road and found another long site that was wider.

We decided to move to the other site. With Donna directing me with her handheld Cobra CB radio, I maneuvered slowly but always ended up with obstacles – trees and a dumpster – preventing me from being able to get us into the site. We finally gave up and went back to the first site we found. I backed into it, but we still weren’t happy with the situation. Our neighbor told us there were some big, open sites on a grassy area by the road. I rode the Spyder there and saw all the those sites were full. On the way back, I saw a few long, wide sites in the “F” area.

I pulled out of the narrow site with Donna following me on the Spyder. We backed into a long, wider site and are much happier with it.

Long and wide site F12

We were set up in no time. Ozark the cat is always excited to see new surroundings outside the windows. Donna calls it cat TV when Ozark sits and stares out the window watching birds and other wildlife or people with dogs walking by.

Ozark watching cat TV

Donna’s friend Julie Muller and her husband TJ stopped by our coach. They’re in a site near us with their twin teenage sons. The four of them have been on the road for four years. They invited us to come over and join their group for a taco bar dinner.

We went over to their area around 5pm and found them along with four other families they often camp with. They are all full-timers. We had a nice meal and enjoyed meeting new people. It was a little different for us – we don’t often find ourselves among families with children. All of them had kids and were home (road) schooling them. One of the children was a baby celebrating her first birthday.

It was a fun evening. We came home around 8pm and sat outside until the mosquitoes chased us inside. Today the forecast calls for partly cloudy skies with a high of 91 degrees and a slight chance of a shower. We plan to play pickleball with the group we met last night and maybe get the kayak out on the river.

Mount Shasta View

Wednesday was our last full day in Corning, California. Donna went for a bike ride in the morning. It was already well into the 80s when she left and the temperature would top 100 degrees by the time she returned. But she pledged to ride 250 miles in the month of June and raise $500 for children’s cancer research in the Great Cycle Challenge and wanted to log some miles on day one.

After her ride, she helped me prep a whole chicken to roast on the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker/grill. The chicken was lightly coated with olive oil, then I rubbed it with Lambert’s Sweet Rub O’Mine – my go-to rub for chicken.

Chicken prepped for the Traeger

I took it off the grill at 2pm. I cooked it at a lower temperature and kept it on the grill longer than the recipe I used called for. It came out great. Excellent flavor, juicy with crispy skin. We had a late lunch/early dinner of chicken, sauteed kale and a blend of brown and wild rice.

Traeger chicken, sauteed kale and brown rice-wild rice blend

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the grills and loading the trailer. I had the Spyder in the trailer and everything buttoned up by 5pm.

Me, taking a break between chores

We were up early and on the road by 9am on Thursday. I don’t know what I was thinking when we left the Rolling Hills Casino RV Park – I got on I-5 south. When Nally – our Rand McNally RVND7720 GPS told me to take the next exit – five miles down the road – I wondered why. Then it dawned on me – I should have got on I-5 north! So, I wasted about 20 minutes and a gallon of fuel before we were headed in the right direction.

Corning, California is just under 300 feet above sea level. Our route had us climbing a gentle incline to Redding, California, then we hit some steeper grades. We drove past Shasta Lake and stopped at a scenic viewpoint to look at Mount Shasta – a 14,179-foot volcanic peak that last erupted in the 1700s. I took a photo, but it really doesn’t do justice to the spectacular sight.

Mount Shasta – 14,179 feet above sea level

There are seven glaciers on Mount Shasta. At the viewpoint there were a few signs with facts about the mountain. One of them showed routes climbers use to climb the mountain. It said that about 15,000 people attempt to climb the mountain every year, but only about a third of them make it to the summit.

Mount Shasta climbers routes

We got off I-5 at the town of Weed, California at an elevation of 3,400 feet and continued north on US97. We crossed a couple of passes through the Klamath National Forest that were over 5,400 feet high. The Cummins ISL pushed our coach along comfortably. Even on the steepest grades we kept our speed over 50mph and the coolant temperature never exceeded 200.

After crossing into Oregon, we stopped in Klamath Falls at the Pilot/Flying J travel center. I put 57 gallons of fuel in the tank and we got Subway sandwiches for lunch. We continued north on US 97 for about 15 miles and pulled into the Kla-Mo-Ya Casino. I had checked out the parking there on Google Earth and it looked doable.

We arrived a little before 2pm and the lot was mostly empty. We found a prime area of pavement on the west side of the lot that was fairly level and parked. Donna and I walked down to the casino and I asked the guy at the security desk about staying overnight. He said, “No problem as long as you don’t plan to stay for weeks at a time.”

The casino is very RV friendly. First-time visitors get a $10 credit on their club card to gamble with. When they heard we were in an RV, they added an extra two dollars! They also gave us a 20% discount coupon for the restaurant – and added a two dollar discount on top of that for being RVers!

Kla-Mo-Ya Casino dry camp – look close and you’ll see Donna in the living room window

Donna and I played a few hands on the poker machines, then went back to coach. Later, we went back to the casino to spend the rest of our free credits. I should have quit while I was ahead but ended up spending all of the free money.

Our spot in the lot was good, but it was close to the highway and somewhat noisy. It wasn’t a problem for me though, I slept soundly. The overnight temperature dropped below 50 degrees. By morning there were more than a half-dozen RVs in the lot.

This morning we had breakfast in the casino restaurant and used our discount coupons. Full breakfast for two came out to eight bucks. Nice! We hit the road around 9:30am and continued north on US97. We had a short climb north of Chiloquin as we drove through the Willamette National Forest. We went past the Sun River Thousand Trails campground where we’ll set up for two weeks beginning tomorrow.

We went another 20 miles north to the Elks Lodge in Bend, Oregon. We’ll dry camp in their lot for the night, then head back to Sun River. This afternoon we’ll take the Spyder out and hit a couple of brew pubs downtown.

Sierra Nevada Brewery

We made another trip on the Spyder from Rolling Hills Casino RV Park to Chico. This time our destination was Sierra Nevada Brewery. We had a reservation for the 2pm brewery tour. We arrived early and spent some time in the gift shop and looking at old photos and equipment upstairs in what they call “The Big Room.”

The tour began with a short video presentation and the guide told us some of the history of the company while we sipped a two-ounce taster of pale ale. The founder of the company, Ken Grossman, learned about home brewing when he was a kid growing up in southern California. The father of one of his friends was a home brewer.

After taking a bicycle tour in northern California, Ken decided to move to Chico. He opened a home brew supply store there. He sold it after a couple of years and decided to build his own brewery. This is interesting to think about, given the state of the beer industry at the time. Before Prohibition in 1920, small breweries were common – there were reported to be over 4,000 breweries in America. After Prohibition – from 1933 to 1978 – there were 42 breweries in America. There weren’t any small scale commercial breweries.

For Ken Grossman, the first challenge was finding equipment that would allow him to brew on a commercially viable scale, but not the large scale of existing breweries. He ended up finding used dairy equipment and made his own 10-barrel brew system. He started his new venture in the fall of 1980. Another challenge was finding the ingredients he needed in small quantities. He drove to Yakima, Washington and bought whole hop cones from growers, returning with 100 pounds.

His first beer was a stout – the recipe has stayed the same for decades. Then he experimented until he perfected a hop forward pale ale – the signature beer of Sierra Nevada Brewing. He would load cases of the beer in his car and peddle it to local bars and clubs. He would collect the empty bottles and re-use them.

At first, 90% of the people that tried his pale ale didn’t like it. Hop forward beer is an acquired taste and at that time, light lagers were popular. But the 10% that liked the pale ale really liked it and a loyal following was born. His beer started to become known in the San Francisco Bay area. He met a guy that worked for Safeway – he liked the beer and wanted to get it in the store.

Ken knew he would have to ramp up production if he would ever be able to sell in grocery stores. He found a used 100-barrel copper brewing system for sale in Germany for the price of scrap metal. The catch was – he had to go to Germany to disassemble it and ship back to California.

In 1987, he bought property on 20th Street in Chico to build a brewery to house the 100-barrel system. This is the brewery we visited. His 100-barrel system is still there, but today he has much larger equipment.

Sierra Nevada was at the sharp end of the micro-brew movement and today they are one of the largest craft brewers in the country. The tour took us through the production area and started in a hop storage room. The aroma was incredible – large quantities of whole hops – predominately cascade and magnum hops with their piney-citrusy scent.

Many of the tuns – the vats where the beer is processed in various stages of brewing – extend 20 feet into the ground below the floor.

Stainless lauter tun

The lauter tun is where the mash is separated from the wort – the liquid full of sugars and flavors from the grain mash. We tasted samples of the wort. Because the sugars haven’t been fermented and converted to alcohol, the wort is sweet and tastes like cereal.

Copper fermenter tun

The wort is pumped to the fermenter where yeast is introduced and hops are added. The yeast consumes the sugars converting them to alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2). The yeast eventually becomes spent when the alcohol and CO2 levels are high enough to slow or stop fermentation.

The fermentation for most of their beers takes seven days. It takes another seven days to clarify the beer and flavor it with more hops. They have two bottling lines that are mirror images of each other – we were told that each line caps about 625 bottles per minute – more than a million bottles per day. They also have a smaller canning operation and a keg line.

Bottling line

The other bottling line

The company is very green with more than 10,700 solar panels producing 1.5 megawatts of electricity. They recycle and haul the spent mash to farms for use as feed.

We finished the tour with a flight of seven tasters. We started with the lightest style and worked our way up to Torpedo IPA and finished with Hoptimum – an Imperial IPA.

As we exited the tasting bar, we had company waiting for us. Darrell and Lorna Bartlett met up with us. Lorna follows this blog and also Donna’s blog. They full-time in a Roadtrek 210 – a 21-foot class B RV. We went to the Sierra Nevada Taproom for another beer and food. We enjoyed talking with them and had pretzels with beer cheese and Donna also ordered lamb meatballs.

Darrell and Lorna own a house in Chico, but they’ve been on the road since December. They plan to sell the house and continue their travels. Being smaller and more maneuverable than us, they rarely book ahead and just go with the flow.

The ride back to Corning was hot – the temperature topped out at 102 degrees yesterday. Today the forecast calls for more of the same. I’ll roast a whole chicken on the Traeger for lunch – we were too spent from the heat to grill last night – so we’ll have that in the refrigerator for our travels. Then I’ll get the trailer packed. Tomorrow I’ll load the Spyder, dump and flush our tanks and we hope to hit the road fairly early to beat the heat.

Our plan is to go to Klamath Falls, Oregon. I’ll get fuel there – the diesel fuel price in Oregon is more than 40 cents less per gallon than California. Then we’ll find a place to boondock. We’ll have two nights out before we check in at Sun River near Bend, Oregon.

Black Butte Lake

Donna and I took a ride on the Spyder yesterday after Donna’s morning workout. We wanted to take a look at the Black Butte Recreation Area and the campground at the Buckhorn Recreation Area (map). The recreation areas surround Black Butte Lake – located about nine miles west of Orland, about 20 miles away from our location.

We rode south on I-5 to the Orland exit and followed Newville Road west to the lake. Black Butte Lake is a reservoir created when a dam was built on Stony Creek by the Army Corp of Engineers (COE) in 1963. The purpose of the dam was to control flooding and provide irrigation through a series of canals.

Newville Road was smooth with good pavement through Glenn County. When we hit the Tehama County line about a mile outside of the recreation area, the surface deteriorated, but was still in reasonable shape. I wouldn’t have any problem driving a big rig to this area.

We pulled off at a section called Eagle Pass Recreation Area. This area had a boat ramp with a large paved parking lot and a paved road to a picnic area.

View from the boat ramp parking area

We rode over to the picnic area where a couple of families had claimed tables. There were a few boats on the water including couple of kayakers.

Covered picnic tables by the lake

They have a sign saying a day use fee of five dollars per vehicle is required and there’s a honor system kiosk by the picnic parking area.

Lake view from the picnic area

We left the picnic area and followed the COE signs to a scenic overlook by the dam.

View from scenic overlook by the dam

The lake is large and from the Eagle Pass Recreation Area you only see small portion of it. We rode back to Newville Road and followed it north, then west around the northeastern end of the lake. The lake is about 7 miles long with 40 miles of shoreline. The surface area is approximately 4,400 acres.

We pulled into the Buckhorn Recreation Area. This is a COE campground with 93 total sites including a group area and five walk-in tent sites. They have a day use fee of five dollars and dry camp sites are $20/night. There’s an attendant at the entrance. We asked the attendant if we could ride in to look at the sites and he waved us through.

The first campground area wasn’t much more than a paved parking lot lined out with long parking spots that are RV sites. None of the sites appeared to be level. We rode further into the campground and found a couple of loops with campsites.

The next loop we came to was called 23-6. This had a variety of sites ranging from 35 to 100 feet long. Again most of the sites weren’t level, but it was much better than the first area. Then we went to loop 1-22 which is on high ground above a boat ramp. Again, we found a variety of sites ranging from 28 feet to 90 feet long. If I were to come here I would look for a site in this loop. They take reservations and their web site contains information on the size of each site. The only thing that would concern me is some overhanging trees in a few sites. I wouldn’t want hit a low tree branch and break an air conditioner housing – or worse.

After looking around, we rode out and headed back. This time we turned north on Black Butte Road – which Google maps calls Tapscott Road. We’ve found name discrepancies on a few of the roads around here. The road surface is uneven with dips and cambers. It also has a few narrow twists to it. I wouldn’t want to get to the campground in a big rig on this road – Newville Road is the preferred route.

A few miles up Black Butte Road we saw a herd of buffalo. There was a sign that said it was federal bison reserve land. There was also a sign over a gate that identified a privately owned ranch. I tried to find more information online, but didn’t come up with much.

Federal bison reserve

Lots of bison

Another sign by the ranch gate said 1/4 or 1/2 sides of bison were offered for sale.

We continued up Black Butte Road to Corning Road and followed it east into town. We made a stop at Safeway for a few groceries. We picked up a whole chicken and also baby back ribs which were on sale at $2.99/lb. We decided to have the ribs for our Memorial Day dinner.

When we got home I used a different dry rub on the ribs. It’s a highly rated rub called Pappy’s Choice Seasoning. After seasoning the rack of ribs, I wrapped them and put them in the refrigerator. I broke out the Traeger wood pellet fired grill from the trailer and set it up. I haven’t used the Traeger for a few weeks and it was time to Traegerize a rack of ribs.

We also bought fresh corn on the cob. I soaked the corn in the husks for about 20 minutes. After removing the corn silk, I put them directly on the Weber Q grill still in the husk. I like to cook corn on the cob this way. The wet husks steam the corn while it roasts.

Meanwhile Donna made a red potato salad. The corn took about 20 minutes of grill time and I timed it to be ready when the ribs were done.

Baby back ribs dry rubbed Memphis-style

A great Memorial Day dinner plate

The Pappy’s Choice Seasoning had good flavor but it was a little on the salty side. Next time I’ll use less of it to cut down on the salt. Lucky for me, I had a bottle of ale to wash it down.

Double Down Imperial Red Ale

It was another beer from Wildcard Brewing in Redding, California. This one was an Imperial red ale called Double Down. Anytime you see the term Imperial on a beer label, you can bet it’s a strong beer. Double Down is no exception – it had 7.5% ABV.

The thermometer reached the upper 90s yesterday. Today is forecast to be even warmer with a high of 103 degrees! We’ll be heading over to Chico this afternoon for a tour of Sierra Nevada Brewing.

Another Chico Farmers’ Market

Saturday we were out and about on the Spyder again. We rode to Chico in the morning for the farmers’ market. The Saturday farmers’ market is held in downtown Chico at the municipal parking lot located at 2nd and Wall Streets. This is the old downtown district a few blocks away from the California State University, Chico campus – also known as Chico State.

Chico has a population of close to 90,000 people. The local economy is driven by Chico State and the many retail establishments. It’s a popular shopping destination for many of the residents in the small towns of the northern Sacramento Valley.

The Saturday farmers’ market is much larger than the one we went to on Wednesday. It has more than 100 vendor booths. Once again we found an abundance of locally grown produce with prices that can’t be beat.

Huge broccoli heads

We saw the lady from Guzzetti’s Catering and Indian Food. We bought garden bread and dipping sauce from her at the Wednesday market and couldn’t resist buying more. The bread is soft but dense and no thicker than a flour tortilla with a thin layer of filling inside. The sauces are incredibly flavorful.

We ended up with quite a haul. I had packed a small cooler with ice packs to keep the produce fresh in the Spyder trunk. We had lunch at the market – huge burritos filled with pork chili verde, rice and beans. Neither of us could eat the whole thing, so we packed the leftovers home with us.

I took a different route home – we blasted up US99 to South Avenue. I soon regretted the choice. We were riding into a stiff headwind – about 20 mph sustained wind with higher gusts. As we cruised at 65 mph, the gusts would buffet my helmet, snapping my neck back and forth. I didn’t enjoy that 20-mile stretch.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. The lunch was so filling that we just had appetizer snacks for happy hour and called it dinner. I opened a bottle of beer from The Bruery called Humulus Terreux. It’s a hoppy, slightly sour concoction. The Bruery comes out with some beers that are really out there and this is one of them. I enjoyed it though.

Hoppy, funky and a little bit sour

I had a message from RVillage – a couple had pulled into the park two sites away from us and were members of RVillage. Their names were Mike and Donna! We chatted with them for a while and I learned that Donna has a group on RVillage that’s for Elks members. The group shares information about Elks lodges that can accommodate RVs. I joined the group – it looks like it’ll be a great resource.

On Sunday morning, Donna went for a bike ride on the quiet farm roads around here. The wind was calm for a change, making it a good time for a ride. I watched the Formula One race at Monaco. Memorial Day weekend is a big weekend for race fans. The Indianapolis 500, the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 and the Monaco Grand Prix all happened on Sunday. For me, the Monaco Grand Prix was the race to watch.

We stayed home and had a relaxing day. I cleaned the Spyder – that was about as ambitious as I got all day. The temperature reached the 90s. With the wind calm, I had the awning out and sat underneath reading a book.

I broke out the Weber Q. This gave me the opportunity to try another product the people at Weber gave me at the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. It’s called Citrusafe BBQ Grill Cleaner. It’s a non-toxic citrus-based cleaner that cuts grease and is easy to use.

Citrusafe BBQ grill cleaner

Donna marinated a pork tenderloin with her mojo marinade. I grilled it and it was tasty!

Grilled mojo marinade pork tenderloin

Donna served it with sweet potato hash – a perfect side dish complementing the pork. I paired it with a more traditional west coast IPA from Wildcard Brewing in Redding, California.

Mojo marinade pork tenderloin with XXX hash

Mojo marinade pork tenderloin with sweet potato hash

West coast IPA

Today I’ll take time to remember those who’ve fallen while serving their country. I’m also thinking about those who’ll continue to risk their lives while protecting our nation from acts of terror.

We’re heading for a hot spell here. The predicted high for today will be 99 degrees. It’s supposed to exceed 100 degrees in the next few days. Tomorrow we’ll go back to Chico to tour the Sierra Nevada Brewery. We’ll pull out of here on Thursday.

Olive City

We headed out around 11:15am yesterday. Our first stop was at the Lucero olive oil mill and store about two miles from our current home at Rolling Hills Casino RV Park. I had called ahead and was told they would give us a tour when we arrived. Our tour guide was a young man named Eddie. He was very knowledgeable about the Lucero company, olives and olive oil in general.

The Lucero company was founded by H.R. Crane and has been growing olives in the Corning area since 1947. In 2009, two of H.R. Crane’s grandsons purchased an olive mill with the intention of producing high-quality extra virgin olive oil. Today, the two grandsons and two great-grandsons run the company along with 25 employees.

They have more than 500 acres of olive orchards. Some of the orchards are old-time table olive orchards while most of their holdings are high-density or medium-density plantings. They grow 16 varieties of olives. The term density in olive orchards refers to how close the trees are planted. Some modern varieties are more like bushes and high-density plantings are close enough to touch each other. These can be harvested by machine using an implement originally designed to harvest grapes. The older, low-density orchards must be harvested by hand.

Extra virgin olive oil is made from a single pressing of the olives and must meet a standard for acidity and taste. I’ve read that nearly 70% of the extra virgin olive oil sold in America doesn’t meet the standards – in fact some of it is cut with cheaper vegetable oils and isn’t even 100% olive oil! You can read about it here.

I took photos of a series of posters showing the olive oil milling process.

This poster shows the olive flowers and a young olive on top. High-density olive plants are being machine harvested in the bottom pictures.

The olives are rinsed and stems, leaves or any other debris is removed. Then they travel via conveyor to a crusher. The crusher turns the olives into a paste. Lucero makes some olive oils with citrus added. They add Meyer lemons or Mandarin oranges and crush them with the olives to make agrumato olive oil. They also have infused olive oils. We found the lemon agrumato was more flavorful when taste-tested alongside lemon infused olive oil. It should be great for cooking any lemon-flavored recipes and as a salad dressing.

The paste goes into a malaxer which stirs the paste for up 90 minutes. The malaxer is double-walled and the temperature is controlled with a water jacket between the inner and outer stainless steel walls.

After the malaxer, the paste is strained with a horizontal centrifuge. The one used at Lucero spins the paste at 3,500 rpm and strains the oil from the paste.

A second stage is used at Lucero where the oil is run through a vertical centrifuge that spins at 6,000 rpm separating more sediment from the oil.

The oil is poured into large plastic containers and stored in a temperature-controlled room. Any remaining sediment drops to the bottom of the container. The oil is then siphoned from the top down in the final bottling process.

Since Lucero owns their own orchards, all of their olives are transported less than 25 miles before processing. They place a big emphasis on freshness.

Donna examines young olives on a Sevillano olive tree in front of the Lucero mill

After our tour, we went into the Lucero retail store and had tastings of oil, tapenades and balsamic vinegar. We bought lemon agrumato olive oil, garlic-infused olive oil and white (blanco) balsamic vinegar along with a lemon artichoke tapenade. It was a fun tour and I learned a lot things about olives in general and olive oils.

After the tour, we rode the Spyder into town and stopped at The Olive Pit. We hit their tasting room where Donna had red wine samples and I had local beer. We had a plate of crackers with salami, white cheddar cheese and olives to go with the tasting. The server lived in Corning her entire life and was talkative. She convinced us to go to the New Clairvaux Vineyard and Abbey. It’s a Trappist monastery in nearby Vina – they make wine and have daily tastings. I asked about the signs referring to Corning as the Olive City. I remember signs here in the past that claimed Corning was the Olive Capital of the World. We were told they can no longer make that claim as a town in Italy now produces more olives than Corning.

I bought a bottle of wine for Donna and also picked up four cans of the Key Lime Gose beer that we liked so much. They have a limit of two cans per customer, so Donna bought two and I bought two.

Last night, I tried another beer I found at The Olive Pit that’s unusual. It was brewed by Six Rivers Brewery. It’s called Weatherman Kettle Sour Wheat Ale. Sour beer isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I like it for a change of pace every now and then.

Weatherman Kettle Sour Wheat Ale

Donna tried a new recipe for dinner – turmeric chicken with artichokes, green olives, chick peas and lemon. It turned out to be a complex process but the results were good. She probably won’t make it again as it was too labor intensive and used a lot of dishes to make. She keeps saying she has to start making simpler meals! She served the chicken with steamed green beans, fresh from the farmers’ market.

Boneless turmeric chicken thighs with artichoke and lemon

Today’s forecast calls for temperatures in the mid 80s and breezy winds out of the northwest. We plan to go to the Pedrozo Dairy and Cheese company for a tour then we’ll hit the Clairvaux wine tasting. Tonight we have a dinner reservation at Timbers Steakhouse to celebrate Donna’s birthday – it’s also my youngest daughter Shauna’s birthday. Happy birthday, girls!

Things to do Around Corning

If you’ve been following our travels, you might remember that we attended the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. I met a few vendors and received a few product samples, but I haven’t had the opportunity to try them out – until Tuesday. Donna’s dining table chair was coming apart. The horizontal wood back rest is attached to vertical uprights that extend from the rear legs with dowel pins. The glue had failed and the pins were loose.

I had a sample of a product called Wonderlok ‘Em Tite Chairs. It’s a cyanoacrylate adhesive. The liquid glue has very low viscosity and is as thin as water. To use it, you hold the parts you want to join together and apply a bead of adhesive. It runs into the joint and sets up in a few seconds. It’s that simple.

Tite Chairs adhesive

The small bottle of adhesive came with reusable applicator nozzles, making it very easy to use. It worked like a champ.

On Tuesday, Donna worked on an article she had to submit by the end of the week. I rode the Spyder to town and had a look around. I picked up a few items at Safeway, then rode over to the Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center to see what’s happening in the area. This area is mostly agricultural – olives, walnuts and almonds are the main crops along with cattle ranches.

Our location, outside of Corning, is in the northern end of California’s central valley. The central valley extends north-northwest to south-southeast around 450 miles. It’s 40 to 60 miles wide for the most part. The coastal mountain ranges border the west while the Sierra Nevada range is on the east. It’s one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.

North of Sacramento is the Sacramento River watershed. This area is sometimes referred to as the Sacramento Valley – a subset of the central valley. South of Sacramento the valley is the San Joaquin River watershed. The southern central valley is likewise called the San Joaquin Valley.

The Sacramento River flows from north to south down to Sacramento while the San Joaquin River flows from south to north. They meet in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta and empty into the San Francisco Bay. These watersheds are the reason for such fertile land.

It turned out there wasn’t much in the way of special events happening in the area for the Memorial Day weekend. But I did find information for some things to see and do. We’ve found that no matter where we are, there’s always something interesting. I also stopped at The Olive Pit – a local point of interest that sells olives of every type imaginable and also has a good selection of wine and craft beer. I bought a jar of anchovy stuffed olives for Donna – she loves them as a snack. I found a few interesting beers as well.

After I came home, I poured a couple of glasses of Key Lime Gose from New Glory Brewing for Donna and me. We sat outside and enjoyed the refreshing beer. It’s a sour wheat ale flavored with coriander, sea salt and fresh squeezed key limes. It’s almost like lemonade but not as sweet and it has a slightly salty aftertaste. We both loved it. I’ll buy more – The Olive Pit limits each customer to only two 16-ounce cans. Apparently it’s in short supply.

Key Lime Gose

We took a stroll and watched the sunset. There were clouds to the west making a colorful sky at sunset.

Colorful clouds at sunset

Clouds moved in overhead and we had rain falling by the time we went to bed.

On Wednesday morning, the clouds were gone and the ground was dry. After breakfast, we hopped on the Spyder and rode east to US99 and followed it south to Chico (map). I had mapped out a couple of routes to a shopping center in Chico where they have an open air farmers’ market on Wednesday. We love shopping for local foods at farmers’ markets.

Chico Wednesday farmers’ market

The produce at this market was so fresh and Donna said the prices were the best she’s ever seen anywhere.

Colorful table of produce

Another table of fresh produce

We bought a few items and checked out just about every display. They have another farmers’ market in downtown Chico on Saturday. We plan to go to that one as well.

While we were at the shopping center, we went into Sportsman’s Warehouse. I like this store! It’s kind of a poor man’s Cabela’s. I found a bag of fruitwood wood pellets for the Traeger and Donna bought a pair of shorts. I also bought a couple of shirts.

We had lunch nearby at Mekkala Thai restaurant. I’ve had a hankering for Thai food lately. It was good but very spicy! Great service, I’d eat there again for sure.

We also made plans to do some touristy things. Donna made a reservation for a tour at a farm that makes cheese – we’ll go there on Friday. We also have a reservation for a tour next Tuesday at the Sierra Nevada brewery. Speaking of beer, I opened another interesting bottle last night. It’s from Mad River Brewing in Humboldt County. It was a double brown ale called Humboldt Brownie. It’s flavored with chocolate nibs and has a very balanced blend that belies the high alcohol content at 9% ABV.

Humboldt Brownie

Last evening we took another walk around the park. We met a couple that have been on the road for 25 years! Their rig was even longer than ours – their coach and trailer were about 70 feet long. We also saw what I believe is the shortest class A motorhome I’ve ever seen. It was an Itasca Reyo built on a Mercedes Benz Sprinter F50 chassis. It’s about 25 feet long and powered by a 3.0 liter diesel engine.

Short class A motorhome

The weather forecast for the coming week calls for warmer temperatures – upwards of 90 degrees – with zero percent chance of rain. Today we plan to go to the Lucero olive oil mill for a tour. It’s located less than two miles away from us.

Day Full of Twists

After breakfast on Sunday, I wrote my post and watched the Moto GP race from Mugello, Italy. It looked to be an exciting battle between hometown favorite Valentino Rossi and his team mate Jorge Lorenzo. Unfortunately for Rossi, he suffered a rare engine failure and did not finish the race.

I then got started on preparations for travel. I moved our Sea Eagle kayak to the right rear of the trailer and installed a D-ring to secure it in its canvas duffel bag. This is much better than leaving it on the floor, plus I wanted to redistribute some of the weight in the trailer. I did the usual tire pressure checks and lug nut torque on the trailer.

I made a run to Safeway – the Safeway store in Susanville has a good selection of craft beer. I picked an old favorite – a bottle of Lagunitas Equinox oat pale ale. Then I found something that looked interesting. It was a bottle of beer from Sudwerk Brewing in Davis, California. Sudwerk only brews lagers, not ale. This brew was called Rye of the Lager. The label claimed it was brewed with heirloom rye from Germany and hopped with simcoe and amarillo hops to give it a west coast kick.

Rye of the Lager

At 7.0% ABV, they call it an Imperial pale lager. It was over-hopped in my opinion. The lager doesn’t have enough malt body to carry 70 IBUs of hoppiness. I was disappointed.

Meanwhile, Donna prepared a stir-fry with flank steak and assorted veggies with a spicy sauce. It was very tasty.

Spicy beef stir-fry with sesame seeds

On Monday morning, I loaded the Spyder in the trailer, dumped and flushed our holding tanks and made final road preparations. We left Susanville a little past 10am and headed west on CA36 (map). Our route took us on the same road we took to Westwood on the Spyder. It climbs immediately outside of town and tops out at Fredonyer pass at over 5,700 feet above sea level.

We dropped elevation and hit a few rain showers as we passed through the Lake Almanor basin to Chester. West of Chester it got interesting. The road winds through the Lassen National Forest. It climbs with sharp curves and no shoulder through pine forests. We topped out at 5,750 feet at Morgan Summit, then began to descend. Some of the downhill grades were steep – 7% or more. The road twisted with many speed advisories for turns marked 30mph and a couple at 20mph.

Ozark the cat wasn’t enjoying the twisty ride and ended up losing her breakfast in her crate. Donna cleaned up the mess as best as she could and then placed Ozark in her lap where she stayed for the remainder of the ride. That was a first. In the past, when Ozark was out of her crate, she would become over-stimulated by all of the motion of travel and run around in the coach. That’s why we started putting her in a cat carrier for travel. But she is almost a year and a half old now – maybe she’s settling down.

It was a downhill run all the way to Red Bluff where we hit I-5. We were about 500 feet above sea level at that point. We took I-5 south about 15 miles to Corning. I knew there was a Blue Beacon truck wash off South Boulevard in Corning and I saw it from the Interstate. We pulled off so I could have the coach and trailer washed – it was so dirty from the rain in Susanville and the drive here. I’ve had mixed results at Blue Beacon truck washes, but I have to say the crew in Corning did a great job. The coach and trailer are all shiny again.

We pulled into the Rolling Hills RV park at the Rolling Hills Casino a few miles south of town. I had checked out the entry to the park on Google Earth to find the best way in. Their signage is good, but the entry is a little different. We entered through a truck stop and found the casino’s travelers’ center at the back of the truck stop parking area. I checked in and paid for 10 nights. They told me the sites were 70 feet long and to drive into the park and take my pick.

We drove through the park and could see the sites weren’t all 70 feet long. They were all pull-throughs, but some were longer than others. We thought we would just take a lap or two around the park before we chose a site. The park host caught up with us in a golf cart. I stopped and he told me which sites were the longest. He suggested site 71, right next to where we stopped. Donna liked the view and it’s at the western end of the park – farthest from the road.

The park host advised me to drive out of the park and turn around in the truck stop so I could re-enter and be oriented in the right direction for site 71. This was good advice and we pulled into the site without any difficulty. We were set up in no time.

The weather forecast for Corning showed 0% chance of rain when I checked on Monday morning. By the afternoon, it was showing 15% chance of rain. While I was out putting on the windshield cover, the camp host stopped by and said they were now calling for rain for sure before nightfall. Great, I just had the coach washed.

Windshield view – rain in the hills to the west

Donna went out for walk to explore the area. Later we sat in chairs outside and read while enjoying a cold one. It’s surprisingly quiet here given the proximity to I-5.

Clean coach and trailer in site 71

The rain passed to the west of us and we didn’t get a drop. This morning it’s cloudy. The weather guessers are calling for a high temperature in the mid-70s today with a 15% chance of rain. We’ll see how that works out. Corning is about 300 feet above sea level, located in the northern end of California’s central valley. It’s billed as The Olive Capital. Olive, walnut and almond orchards surround the area. Northern California is also home to many large cattle ranches. Corning has a population of around 7,500 people.

We plan to make a few trips to Corning and also over to Chico. That will be fodder for another post.

The sign says The Olive City

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Beer

Between Bend and La Pine

Little Deschutes River

A Day in Bend

Mount Shasta View

Sierra Nevada Brewery

Black Butte Lake

Another Chico Farmers’ Market

Olive City

Things to do Around Corning

Day Full of Twists

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