Category Archives: Beer

Iowa Cheese and Beer

Friday morning Donna marinated a pork tenderloin with her mojo marinade sauce. I grilled it on the Weber Q for dinner and Donna prepared acorn squash and asparagus for side dishes. I cooked the pork to an internal temperature of 135 degrees – perfect.

Mojo marinated pork loin with acorn squash and asparagus

Saturday morning we headed out on the Spyder around 9am. We went to downtown Des Moines for the Saturday farmers’ market. The market is huge – it covers nine city blocks in the historic courthouse district.

Des Moines farmer’s market – Polk County Courthouse in the background

We spent an hour and a half wandering and shopping the vendor stalls. Donna bought lots of fresh veggies. We also bought some cheeses – I bought a quarter pound of Maytag blue cheese that came from the Maytag farm near Newton, Iowa. This delicious cheese differs from most blue cheeses in that it’s made from cow’s milk instead of the traditional sheep milk or goat milk. Maytag blue cheese was developed in 1938 by Iowa State University and was first produced at the Maytag farm in Newton, Iowa in 1941. Frederick L. Maytag II and Robert Maytag, grandsons of the founder of the Maytag appliance company, Frederick L Maytag, first made it commercially available. It is delicious – a little bit goes a long way!

We left the farmers’ market around 11am as the crowd grew heavier and the temperature started to rise. The temperature hit 90 degrees in the afternoon. We mostly hung out in the air-conditioned coach and read in the afternoon. Griff’s Valley View RV Park is very quiet. The grounds are well-maintained and the clubhouse right behind our site (one of two on the property) is immaculate. The bathrooms look more like something you would see in a fancy restaurant or hotel – nice tile floors and backsplashes with granite counters. The shower stalls are also nicely finished, clean and private with individual exhaust fans in each of the showers. Saturday someone reserved the clubhouse for a party and it was still quiet!

Saturday evening Donna manned the grill and made chicken breasts that she spiced simply and served them with a kale salad – made with fresh kale from the farmer’s market, green apple, chopped dates and almonds and crumbled Maytag blue cheese. A nutritious, delicious meal!

Chicken breast and kale salad

I paired the meal with an IPA from Kolona Brewing Company in Kolona, Iowa. The ale was called Sucha Much and it was made with only two hop varieties – Nugget for bittering and CItra for finishing. But they use five different malts in the wort. It’s unfiltered and the cloudy brew has yeast dregs – it was interesting, flavorful and I liked it. I read that their brewery has four 15-barrel fermenters and two 30-barrel fermenters but only two 15-barrel bright tanks – no wonder some of their beers aren’t clarified.

Sucha Much Today

A thunderstorm passed through around 4am this morning. With it came high winds, but it didn’t last long. After breakfast, Donna went out for a 25-mile bike ride (her fourth ride this past week) before it got too hot. I watched a very entertaining Moto GP race from the Czech Republic.

I don’t think I mentioned the ponds here at Griff’s Valley View RV Park – they have two of them and they have fish in them. I fished for a bit on Thursday and caught half a dozen fish in about 45 minutes. I braved the 96-degree temperature and fished again this afternoon. I caught 12 bluegills in about an hour! The fish weren’t very large, but fishing is always fun when you’re catching fish and I was releasing them anyway.

A couple of bluegills from the pond

When it cools down a bit this evening, I’ll pack the grill and Donna’s bike in the trailer. Tomorrow we’ll head out of here. I’m not sure where we’ll stop tomorrow – somewhere between here and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We’ve booked a week at Tower Campground there beginning on Tuesday. We plan to make doctor visits and check out our new mail service location while we’re there.

It looks like we could be in for another wet driving day. Hopefully we won’t be caught in any severe thunderstorms.

 

Satellites and Trains

We’ve been enjoying our stay at Griff’s Valley View RV Park in Altoona – near Des Moines, Iowa. The park is super clean and well-maintained and it’s also very quiet – both day and night. Now that we’re west of the Mississippi, it was time to reset our DISH Network satellite antenna to the western arc.

DISH Network broadcasts from clusters of satellites in different locations. They have multiple satellites in each location – some are for redundancy and others are used for various channels, pay-per-view and High Definition. I don’t know for sure how many satellites they use. The main television broadcast satellites are located at a longitude of 110 degrees west and 119 degrees west. Additional satellites are at 129 degrees west and 61.5 degrees west. The 61.5 degree satellites are for the eastern arc. The western and eastern arc overlap in the midwest.

When we’re in the northeast, we cannot receive a signal from 129. We have to locate satellites at 61.5 degrees. Our Winegard Road Trip satellite antenna has to be reconfigured to locate 61.5. This is done with DIP (dual-inline package) switches on the unit. There are eight DIP switches. By opening or closing various switches, the motherboard for the antenna is reconfigured. Anyway, while we were in the northeast, I set up the satellite antenna for 61.5 degrees – DISH eastern arc. Now I had to reset it to the western arc – 110, 119 and 129 degrees. It entailed climbing on the roof, removed the antenna dome cover and configuring the switch. Not a big deal.

Satellite antenna controller

Tuesday afternoon Donna and I rode the Spyder to Bondurant – a small town a few miles away from here. We went to the Reclaimed Rails Brewery. They have some good beer brewed onsite in their 15-barrel system and the finish work of the interior of the pub is unique.

The have reclaimed and repurposed wood and corrugated tin for the finish work. The bar top surface was cut out of an old trailer they found in Branson, Missouri. The bar was trimmed with a cove taken from an old train depot. The ceiling was lined with corrugated tin they found on an old barn in Minnesota. The table tops on the deck were made from the lids of old oak bourbon barrels. It was all nicely done – I wish I’d taken some photos.

After we came home, Donna whipped up seared scallops with a jalapeno vinaigrette and sweet potato spinach hash for dinner.

Seared scallops and sweet potato hash

Thursday morning Donna was getting ready to head out on the Chichaqua Valley Trail on her bike when she found a problem with our door. Our door had a check lever that stops it from opening more than 90 degrees. The check lever has a pawl that locks the lever in place, holding the door in the open position. To close the door, you have to release the pawl with either the inside or the outside door handle. The door wasn’t locking in place – it was swinging about in the breeze.

I was afraid the pawl was broken. This can happen if someone unfamiliar with the door mechanism tries to force the door closed without releasing the pawl with the door handle. We haven’t had any visitors lately, but it could have been damaged at an earlier time. I got the ladder out of the trailer and inspected it. The pawl wasn’t broken – it was sticking in the open position.

Door check lever pawl

The pawl is spring-loaded and is operated by a cable attached to the door lock mechanism in the door. I pushed the pawl into the locked position and it seemed fine. I released the pawl with the handle, then closed and opened the door. The pawl didn’t catch on the door check lever. I inspected everything and didn’t find anything broken, so I cleaned and lubed the cable and the pawl rod. It’s working nicely now. Job done.

Door panel removed to expose lock mechanism

Donna rode up the bike trail past Valeria and back – about 26 miles – and got home before it was too hot out. After lunch, we took the Spyder north on US65 and rode through the little village of Valeria and continued east for a few miles until we found Trainland USA. Trainland USA is a museum/display featuring Lionel “O” gauge model trains and accessories.

It was conceived and built by Red Atwood and many friends. He began collecting Lionel trains in 1961. He eventually built a 2600-square-foot building to display trains and accessories – including model trains dating back to 1916.

It has 4,000 feet of track, 35,000 hand-cut ties and 120 automatic switches. The display is set up to depict train activity across the country. You take a walking tour that begins with a diorama of Grand Central in New York, then follow along as the dioramas take you through the southern states to the west coast, up the coast and back to Omaha. I shot a few pictures, but the lighting was challenging and I was shooting through glass, so the pictures aren’t the sharpest.

 

On the way back, we made another stop at Reclaimed Rails Brewery for a cold one. I really enjoyed their red lager. Last night, Donna prepared tortilla-crusted tilapia for a dinner – always a favorite.

Tortilla-crusted tilapia with a dollop of salsa and green beans

The weather had been warm – in the low to mid 80s and breezy. Today will be the start of a heat wave. The forecast calls for a high of 97 degrees and the weekend will continue to have highs of 90 or greater. Tomorrow we plan to go to the farmers’ market in downtown Des Moines – rated one of the best in the country.

 

Maintenance and Mail

We’ve had a good time here in Springfield, Illinois. We played pickleball Thursday morning at Iles Park and had some great matches. Thursday afternoon I had a maintenance chore to take care of.

When we bought our coach four and a half years ago, the generator had about 400 hours on it. I change the oil and oil filter on it every 150 hours of operation and change the air and fuel filters at 500-hour intervals. On May 31st, just eight weeks ago, it had 1,364 hours on it when I last changed the oil and filter. Since then we’ve done a lot of boondocking, plus we had the battery bank problem which had me running the generator more often than usual. We now have 1,505 hours on it and it was time to change the oil and filter again plus change the fuel and air filters.

1,505.8 hours on our Onan generator

They don’t have any rule against performing maintenance here at the Springfield Fairgrounds, so that was my chore for Thursday afternoon. While I was at it, I changed the fuel filter for our Cummins ISL diesel engine – an annual maintenance item.

Friday morning we started with pickleball until noon then I took it easy for the remainder of the day. While I was scrolling through Facebook, I saw a post in an RV group that said MyDakotaAddress.com was closing. What? Terri at MyDakotaAddress.com has been receiving and forwarding our mail since 2013. She also assisted us with vehicle registrations and our first South Dakota driver’s license applications. I phoned Terri and was shocked to find out it was true. I don’t know what the circumstances are, but something suddenly went bad as she told me she was closing on the 31st – next Tuesday!

I needed to act fast so we don’t have our mail service interrupted. After some research, I decided to sign up with YourBestAddress.com in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I worked with Tanyel in their billing department and she e-mailed the forms I need to get on board.

Meanwhile, Donna prepared pork kababs which I grilled along with peppers and onions while she made potato salad and corn on the cob that she picked up at the farmers’ market here at the fairgrounds.

Grilled pork kababs with peppers, potato salad and corn

One of the forms I needed to submit for our new mailing address was Postal Form 1583 which needed to be notarized. The nearest notary I could find on Saturday morning was at a shipper called Box and Go about 10 miles away. Donna and I both had to have our signatures notarized.

On the way there, just blocks away from Box and Go, Donna spied a Chase Bank branch that was open. The one nearest to the fairgrounds was closed on Saturday. We went to Chase since we bank there and have free notary service. The notary there stared at the form for a couple of minutes, then said, “I can’t notarize two signatures – there’s only a space for one signature on this form.” I told her we had submitted one of these forms before and I was sure we had both names and signatures on one form. She looked at the form again and said, “It says right here a separate form is needed for each applicant.” I had only printed one form. I asked if I could send the form from my phone to her e-mail and then she could print one for us. She said no, we would have get new forms and come back. I couldn’t believe it.

We rode the 10 miles back to the fairgrounds and I printed new forms. I looked at the instruction where it said a separate form was needed for each applicant. The next line stated “except for spouses, spouses may use one form.” I knew we used one form before! We went back and this time we were helped by a different notary and she had no problem with both of us signing one form. Grrr…20 unnecessary miles and wasted time.

We went to the Lincoln Museum downtown in the afternoon. Although Springfield is the state capital, there are only about 120,000 residents and the downtown area isn’t too large. It has a lot of nice historic buildings though and the museum was nice.

Pedestrian only section of Adams Street with Abraham and Mary Lincoln statue

After touring the museum, Donna and I walked a few blocks away to Buzz Bomb Brewery and Taproom to sample a couple of local beers. The museum and brew was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

After dinner, Donna went for a walk while I enjoyed a cigar. On her way back, she discovered that barrel racing was about to begin at the arena here at the fairgrounds. So we went down and watched about 15 girls compete and then receive their awards.

This morning we woke up to rain – the first we’ve had since we decided to bug out of Ohio. We’ll be packing up and making the rig road worthy this morning. We’re in no hurry. Our plan is to go to Mount Pleasant, Iowa for the night and then move on to Des Moines. We only have about 160 miles to cover today. It will be another rainy driving day.

Four States, Two Detours

We ended up spending eight nights moochdocking at Donna’s parents’ place, west of Old Bennington, Vermont. I haven’t posted in a week – this was one of the rare places where we had trouble getting a good internet connection or phone service with Verizon. I could take my laptop into the house and use Duke and Lorraine’s wifi, but it was awkward and I wasn’t very motivated to post.

Donna spent a lot of time doing yardwork. She spread mulch that was piled under a tree in the yard to create a plot about 12 feet by 20 feet. She also did a lot of weeding and learned to operate a weedwacker! The weedwacking would have kicked my allergies into high gear.

The highlight of the week was a trip for brew and dinner at Brown’s Brewing Walloomsac Taproom. This is located in Hoosick Falls, New York where Donna attended high school. Bennington, Vermont is less than 10 miles from the New York state line. The taproom and brewery is in an old building on the banks of the Walloomsac River.

Brown’s Brewery and Walloomsac Taproom

The brick building was originally built in 1854 and housed a papermill making wallpaper. In 1943, the site was purchased by the White-Flomatic Corporation and was a factory for the valves they made.

In 2006, Gary Brown bought the place with the intent of converting it to a brewery and taproom – an expansion of his operation in Troy, New York. The renovation took some time and the brewery and taproom finally opened in 2013.

We had a couple of cold ones and dinner with a view of the Walloomsac.

Donna, Duke and Lorraine

While we were dry camped, our Verizon Jetpack was giving us trouble. It was shutting itself off randomly. Sometimes it would shut off only a few seconds after booting up; other times it would work fine for an hour or so before shutting down. We’ve had it for more than five years.

On Thursday morning, Donna and I had breakfast at a diner in Bennington called The Blue Benn – excellent breakfast menu! Then we hit the Verizon store in town. Our old 291L Jetpack needed to be replaced. I upgraded to the 6620L. Five years is a long time for wireless technology. After we returned to the coach, we were surprised to find a 4G connection with the new Jetpack. The improvements in antennas and signal boosting made all the difference in the world.

Donna’s sister Sheila and Sheila’s son Connor flew in from California in the afternoon. Duke drove to Albany, New York and picked them up. We had a late dinner together.

Our site at the Connor’homestead – Mount Anthony in the background

This morning we were packed and ready to go early. We said our goodbyes and pulled out a little before 9am. We took the scenic route out of Bennington, knowing it would make for a long day. Our route took us south on Route 7 into Massachusetts.  The speed limits in Massachusetts keep you on your toes. The speed limit on Route 7 would change – it seemed like every mile or so – without warning or reason. One section might have a speed limit of 45 mph, then suddenly it’s 35 mph. Then it might go up to 50 mph only to drop to 40 mph without any notification of a reduction ahead. You need to keep an eye out for speed limit signs. In Great Barrington, we picked up Route 23 west and headed toward Catskill, New York. We planned to take 9W south to US209, but I made in a mistake in the route plan. We weren’t using our GPS – I planned the route the old-fashioned way with a map.

9W had a sign saying vehicles over 12 feet tall needed to stay on Route 23. There was a low clearance in West Camp. I usually rely on our RV specific GPS for routing for this reason. It has our vehicle parameters programmed in and wouldn’t route us along a road with clearance or weight limits that we exceed. Donna did some navigation on the fly and we made our way back to 9W south of West Camp and all was good. The only problem with the re-route came when we had to go through the village of Saugerties. We had to go through town on very narrow roads – I squeezed through at one point with a parked car inches off our right and oncoming traffic inches away on the left.

We hit US209 and thought we were home-free. But then we hit another detour – the road was closed for construction! We got back on track after traversing a couple of narrow county roads. We made a stop at Subway for lunch – it was conveniently located in a plaza with a large parking lot – and then continued south. At Port Jervis, we crossed into Pennsylvania – our fourth state for the day.

US 209 took us through the Delaware Gap National Recreation Area. We were on the west bank of the Delaware River with New Jersey just across the water. It was a long, slow slog today. Donna found free overnight parking at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center off of I-80 at exit 310. That’s where we stopped for the day. We only covered about 200 miles, but it took us seven hours!

We crossed several notable mountain ranges – the Berkshires in Massachusetts, the Catskills in New York and now we’re in the Poconos. These mountains aren’t as big as the mountains in the west, but they’re plenty steep in places.

Tomorrow we’ll head west. We plan to stop at the Cabela’s in Hamburg to dump our holding tanks and hopefully find fresh water. We’ve been dry camped for nine days. We’re just winging it and will see what tomorrow brings.

A Thousand People in the Street

I hit a milestone this week – I’ve written more than 1,000 posts on this blog. Today’s post will be number 1,003. Little Deer Isle, where we’re currently based, is in a region of Maine known as Downeast. This name originated long ago – when ships sailed to Maine from the south they were sailing downwind and eastward. Sailors called this course Downeast.

Downeast Maine has numerous islands – some large, others small and uninhabited. It also has an extreme tidal swing. The difference between low tide and high tide is usually nine or 10 feet of water. I took the photo below in the morning at high tide in front of Roger’ and Georgia’s place on Little Deer Isle.

High tide

The next photo was shot from the same spot about six hours later at low tide.

Low tide

That’s a pretty big change. In Maine, the shoreline between the high and low tide levels are considered public land. Waterfront landowners cannot legally keep you out as long as you stay below the high tide mark.

The other thing that shifts drastically around here is the weather – more about that later. Yesterday, we borrowed Roger’s car and headed out to Mt. Desert Island (MDI). Due to all of the inlets, coves and whatnot, the route was circuitous. We first headed northeast through Blue Hill and Surry to Ellsworth. The traffic steadily built up as neared Ellsworth. From Ellsworth, we followed a caravan of cars south down route 3 to MDI and on to Bar Harbor.

Along the way, we passed several cafes and I was getting hungry. Donna and I decided we would wait until we reached the town of Bar Harbor to eat since we planned to take a walk through town anyway. It was sunny with mostly clear skies – a bit of haze over the ocean.

Traffic was a bumper-to-bumper in Bar Harbor.  Parking near the waterfront was impossible. The streets and sidewalks were filled with people – thousands of people. I found a place to park uptown a bit. We sat in the car for a few minutes watching people walking shoulder-to-shoulder on the sidewalk. We thought out loud, “What are we doing here? Why would we want to join that throng of people?”

It turned out that the cruise ship Norwegian Gem from the Norwegian Cruise Line was in the harbor. This ship is 965 feet long and has the capacity to carry 2,394 passengers along with 1,070 crew. That explained the thousands of people on the streets. It didn’t explain the number of cars filling all of the available parking though.

We decided to get out of town, but as we did, I missed the turn to route 233. I wanted to cut across 233 to Acadia National Park then on to Southwest Harbor. Our friends, Clarke and Elaine are work camping there. I say our friends, but I’ve actually only met them in person once – a few years ago in northern California. But I feel like I know them because I’ve been following Clarke’s blog for nearly six years.

We found ourselves on route 3 heading to the south east side of MDI. I was really wanting to stop for lunch and we finally made a stop at Northeast Harbor. Parking was easy and it was fairly quiet there. We had lunch at a cafe called Colonel’s. I had to have a lobster roll – it’s a Maine thing and I’ve never had one. It’s a toasted hot dog roll filled with chunks of lobster meat and mayonnaise. Good eats – but a lobster roll with fries set me back $19.

Donna and I talked about what to do for the rest of the afternoon. To get to Southwest Harbor from where we were would entail a drive north the length of Somes Sound, then back south on the west side of the sound. I knew Clarke and Elaine were off from their duties at Smuggler’s Den Campground on Tuesday and Wednesday and I figured they were probably out and about on such a fine day. As much as I would have liked to meet up with them, I really hadn’t made any arrangement to do so.

We decided to head back into Acadia National Park and go up Cadillac Mountain. First we made a stop near Thunder Hole where the ocean waves erupt like a geyser through a blowhole. I took about 20 steps from the car when I felt like lightning had struck my lower back and went to my right hip. I nearly fell over. Somehow I’d pinched a nerve and could barely walk back to the car. We didn’t make it to Thunder Hole but later we were told we didn’t miss much. With the calm seas, it wasn’t spouting much.

We continued on to Cadillac Mountain.The peak at Cadillac Mountain is 1,530 feet above sea level. It’s the highest point in Hancock County and offers spectacular views. I walked around the top of the mountain gingerly. The pain in my back and hip was sporadic. Nearly paralyzing with one step, then easily bearable a few steps later.

View of islands and ocean south of Cadillac Mountain

More islands and ocean to the south east

View of Bar Harbor to the northeast of Cadillac Mountain. The Cruise ship Norwegian Gem is in the harbor, center right

We made the 50-mile drive back and stopped first at Blue Hill to gas up the car, then at Strong Brewery for a cold one. It was a warm day – in the upper 70s all afternoon.

We had dinner with Georgia back on Little Deer Isle – she made a chicken dish and Donna made pecan rice – we bought that at Konriko in Louisiana. The temperature dropped quickly before sunset. I took it easy and had a cigar while I watched the sun go down. Donna and Georgia hung out inside chatting.

Rain moved in during the night. It’s been raining off and on all morning with some heavy squalls. This is forecast to continue all day and into the night. I don’t think the thermometer will reach 60 today. They say we’ll have sunny skies again tomorrow afternoon and a high in the upper 70s – I hope they’re right.

 

The Real Maine Thing

We enjoyed our week at Donna’s parents’ place in Bennington, Vermont. I was able to complete a couple of projects while we were there and also enjoy time with family. We pulled out on Thursday around 10am. We went east across the state on route 9 through Brattleboro into New Hampshire. Route 9 took us through Keene and on to Concord where we picked up US202/4. The terrain was hilly with short, steep climbs and descents.

When we crossed the southern tier of New York, it was rural with small towns – some of them thriving on tourism, especially in the Finger Lakes wine country while other small towns showed economic struggle. In between was mostly farm land. Vermont and New Hampshire were more of the same but instead of farm land, the small towns are separated by heavily forested hills. It was mostly pleasant scenery to drive through. We paid one toll in New Hampshire – I think it was three dollars. On the toll roads, the rest areas are plazas with a food court, fuel stations and some shopping. We stopped for a late lunch at a plaza before we left New Hampshire – it also had a large discount liquor store.

We entered Maine at Kittery, east of Portsmouth and made our way up I-95 to Scarborough. This was another toll road and I paid $10.50 on this leg. We stopped at Cabela’s in Scarborough. I was dismayed to see signs warning that local ordinance prohibits overnight parking. We pulled to the end of the lot and parked near a Dutch Star motorhome that had the bedroom slide out.
Their door was open so I walked over to say hello and see what the deal was. The couple in the coach told me they were full-timers and had been on the road for five years – just like us. They were originally from Scarborough and returned every year. They said the city tries to make noise about overnight parking, but Cabela’s didn’t care and they had never been hassled in this parking lot.

We set up for the night. Donna had been in touch with our friend Kris Downey who was in the area visiting kids and they got together to walk a portion of the Eastern Trail. Then Donna and I walked over to Famous Dave’s for a cold one and then across the parking lot to a Thai restaurant where we got takeout. By the time we returned to the coach there were five other RVs in the lot.

We used the Cabela’s dump station before we hit the road Friday morning. There was a sign advising a $5 dump fee would be charged in the future, but for now it was free. We drove up I-295 and stopped for fuel in Gardiner. We paid another toll of $4, bringing our total toll-road fee to $17.50. Near Augusta, we left the Interstate and followed Route 3 to Belfast. The road was freshly paved and very smooth. Past Bucksport, we turned on route 175 and found the road surface to be terrible. It was bumpy and had potholes. It was slow going.

Our destination was Roger Eaton’s property on Little Deer Isle. We met Roger in Albuquerque – he owns a summer residence on the island right on the waterfront. Donna was texting back and forth with Roger while I drove. He mentioned something about crossing the bridge over Eggemoggin Reach to the island being a bit of a challenge.

Suspension bridge to Little Deer Isle

It was a steep climb up the narrow lane on the bridge, but it wasn’t too bad. The next challenge was entering the private road to Roger’s place. It had brick monuments at the sides of the entry, trees and low branches.

Narrow entry to Roger’s place

We made it in without scraping anything other than a few small tree branches. Getting the coach positioned on his property was much harder than I anticipated. I ended up
dropping the trailer in a temporary location, then struggled to get the coach in place between two stumps on the left and bushes and trees on the right. Once we had it in place, we found the 30-amp pedestal didn’t work. Roger called his cousin’s son and he came out with another guy and rewired the pedestal in a matter of minutes. We were in business! I repositioned the trailer with Roger’s pickup truck.

After settling in, we joined Roger and his wife Georgia along with their neighbor, Russ and his friend Darelynne for happy hour on the porch. We weren’t expecting dinner, but Georgia had prepared a chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, roasted carrots and cornbread!

View of bridge from Russ’ pier

Roger’s sailboat

Our windshield view of Eggemoggin Reach

Sunset over Penobscot Bay

On Saturday morning, we joined Roger and Georgia for a drive up to Blue Hill for the farmers’ market. Donna bought a few things while I enjoyed the bluegrass band. They did an excellent
rendition of the Byrds’ Mr. Spaceman.

Farmers’ market band

Later Donna and I rode the Spyder over the causeway to the next island – Deer Isle. Of course Deer Isle is larger area-wise than Little Deer Isle. We rode down to Stonington on the southern tip of the island. Stonington is the largest lobster port in Maine. The town only has about 1,100 residents, but more lobsters are landed there than anywhere else in Maine.

Lots of fishing boats and lobstermen in Stonington

On Saturday evening, we were in for a treat. Roger bought four lobsters that were about a pound and a half each. He boiled the lobsters over a wood fire in the yard while
Georgia prepared baby red potatoes and corn on the cob. It was a feast fit for a king!

Home cooked lobstah – the real Maine thing

I paired the lobstah with barrel-aged old ale I bought a few months ago in Tombstone

While we were in Blue Hill yesterday, I bought two racks of babyback ribs. I prepared them this morning and I plan to smoke them Memphis-style this afternoon on the Traeger wood pellet-fired grill.

Please excuse any formatting errors in this post. Our Internet connectivity is spotty and I’ve been working for a couple of hours to put this post up. I also had to reduce the photo quality to a smaller file size.

Grist Iron and Two Goats

On Friday afternoon, Donna and I rode the Spyder up highway 414 on the east side of Seneca Lake past several wineries. We stopped at Grist Iron Brewing for a cold one. This is a very nice brew pub in an awesome setting. They have a great view of the lake, large grounds and an inn with 14 rooms. Their brewmaster has to be one busy guy – they only have a 15-barrel system and half a dozen fermenters. Four of the fermenters are 30-barrel, so they can ferment double batches. Even a double batch only results in 50 kegs of beer or so. Their beer is sold at some of the restaurants and bars in the area, so that’s not a lot of volume to meet demand.

Restroom signage at Grist Iron Brewing

Their property is located on the east side of the highway but it still gives a nice view of the lake

Pond and lake view from Grist Iron Brewing

We chatted with one of the bartenders for a while, then we rode a few miles up the road to Two Goats Brewing. This brewery is on the west side of the highway. Their brew system is only half the size of Grist Iron – 7.5 barrels. Somehow they manage to keep six to eight different beer styles on tap. The view from the deck behind their small pub is grapevines and Seneca Lake.

View from the deck at Two Goats Brewing

Looking across the vineyards at the lake reminded me of terraced vineyards in the Cinque Terre region of Italy, overlooking the Ligurian Sea.

On the ride back to Watkins Glen, I pulled over and shot a photo of Hector Falls – it’s right next to the highway.

Hector Falls

We rode into town to the farmers’ market at Lafayette Park. It’s too early in the season though – there were only half a dozen booths there. Donna bought beet greens there – she’s planning to make beans and greens with crab cakes for dinner tonight.

On Saturday, the water looked calm, so Donna got the Sea Eagle kayak out of the trailer. She’s become proficient at setting it up and putting the cart together to get it to the water. She took it to the canal and paddled up the Barge Canal to Glen Creek. I stayed back at the coach and watched the qualifying for the Formula One Grand Prix of Canada.

For dinner, Donna rubbed skin-on bone-in chicken thighs with a mixture of olive oil and chopped garlic, rosemary, basil, and thyme and I grilled them in the evening. I have to say, they came out darn near perfect. The skin was crispy and the meat tender and moist at an internal temperature of 165 degrees – I used an instant read meat thermometer.

This morning Donna is out for a quick spin on her bike. Later, her old college roommate, Kathy Romans Shay, is coming down from Canandaiga with her daughters. They plan to go out for brunch at the Stonecat Cafe. I’ll be watching the Formula One race.

Sunset over the south end of Seneca Lake

We’ve had nice weather with the temperature reaching the mid- to upper 70s the past couple of days. When clouds block the sun, it sure feels cooler than that though. The forecast for the next couple of days calls for warm temperatures – near 80. We’ll pull out of Watkins Glen on Tuesday.

 

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to purchase anything, 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!

Erie Festivals

We found some fun things to do in Erie, Pennsylvania over the weekend. Donna started out Saturday by walking to the Goodwill store near the Elks Lodge and donated clothing and a few odds and ends we weren’t using. Then she went for a three mile run. I watched the Moto GP qualifying from Mugello, Italy. Then we headed out on the Spyder.

We went to Perry Square park for the Erie Wild Rib Cook-off and Music Festival – also known as the Erie Ribfest. Perry Square was a little smaller than we expected – it covers about a city block of land in an old part of town at State Street and 6th Street. The parking on the street there was all metered – a quarter gets you half an hour of parking time.

We wandered around, then ordered lunch. I bought pork ribs from a vendor called Pork Brothers BBQ. Their slogan is “Spiced and Smoked not Boiled and Soaked.” I got four bones and sides of baked beans and mac and cheese for $13. Donna went to another vendor for mac and cheese with brisket.

Barbeque vendors

While we dined at a picnic table, a band was onstage. They were playing some heavy metal headbanger stuff, so we weren’t real interested.

Local heavy metal

Later, a solo woman took the stage and played acoustic guitar and sang. We liked her music. We walked through the vendor stalls and Donna bought a couple of things before we headed out. On the way home, we made a pitstop at Lavery Brewing. Donna had a smoked black porter and I had an IPA. We both enjoyed our beers and then headed home.

On Saturday evening, Donna played Bingo at the lodge. She met a fun group of people and I joined them later for a cocktail on the patio. Their table won 3 out of 11 games. But no one won the big prize of $2,000. One of the guys we met – Tom – makes his own wine and dropped off a bottle the next day. Another guy – Dave – organizes running races in Erie and gave us some running swag.

On Sunday morning, I watched the Moto GP race from Italy. The we got on the Spyder again and headed downtown. Our destination was the Russian Orthodox Church of the Nativity on Front Street about four or five miles away. I thought it would be easy to find – all I had to do was turn north on German Street from 12th and hit Front Street. It turned out German Street was one-way southbound, so I took Holland instead. But Holland didn’t intersect with Front and we ended up down on the Bayfront Parkway. I knew this wasn’t the right way, then I saw the onion domes of the church up on the bluff overlooking the bay. We found it.

Domes on the church

The Troika Festival was happening there. It’s a Russian Festival featuring traditional Russian foods and entertainment. We found out the meaning of Troika – it’s the name of a carriage drawn by three horses abreast. It can also be a reference to group of three such as a small committee or ruling body.

They had a system where you bought tickets and then paid for food and drink with the tickets. This way, no money was changing hands at the food tables or bar. I really didn’t have a clue as to what traditional Russian food was all about, so we walked through the food tent and looked things over.

Donna and I opted for golubsty – this was minced pork, beef and rice wrapped in cabbage leaves, stewed in a mixture of sour cream and tomato sauce. They were very good.

Golubsty

We followed that with a dessert of Bird’s Milk custard. This was a white custard topped with a layer of milk chocolate.

The entertainment consisted of a emcee who was also a comedian and played guitar and accordion. He introduced Russian dancers and also a woman that played the balalaika. A balalaika is a traditional Russian stringed instrument with a triangular body. It has three strings that are plucked or strummed. It doesn’t have much sustain, so the strumming or plucking is usually done quickly.

Woman with a balalaika

The woman playing the balalaika was really talented. The first song we heard her play sounded much like Django Reinhardt gypsy jazz with lightning fast runs and licks. I loved it. The emcee called her the Jimi Hendrix of balalaika. Later she played a Russian classical piece that was very complicated.

They had a dance troupe in traditional costumes and also a couple that did some fancy choreographed ballroom dancing.

Dancers in traditional costumes

Ballroom dancers

We couldn’t leave the festival without a stop at the Siberian Express Ice Bar. They built a temporary bar that had three removable panels about four feet long and a foot and a half wide. They filled these panels with water and froze them, making an ice bar top. Periodically they would change out the panels with a newly frozen one. They drilled blind holes in the ice just the right diameter for shot glasses. They had a menu of vodka shot cocktails.

Siberian Express Ice Bar menu

Donna and I opted for the Ivan the Terrible – basically a very spicy Bloody Mary in a shot glass.

Our drinks in the ice bar

We rode back west on Bayfront Parkway and found the Millcreek Brewery on West Lake. We stopped in for a cold one. On Sundays they have all of the beers brewed in house for only $3.50/pint. Good deal. After we ordered a beer – a brown ale for Donna and an IPA for me – I checked the Radar Express app on my phone. Oh, no! A large storm front was off to the west and quickly advancing toward us. We finished our pints and came back to the lodge where I loaded the Spyder in the trailer.

We sat on the back patio of the lodge to stay dry while I had a cigar. We were joined by other Elks members and had lots of laughs and conversation. The storm passed quickly with the heavier rain and lightning off to the south of us.

Today we’ll pull out and head east. We’ll stop for the night and dry camp at the Seneca Allegany Resort and Casino in New York. From there we plan to go to Watkins Glen tomorrow. We’ll stay there for a week. The forecast looks favorable there – a couple of cool days in the mid-to-upper 60s followed by mid-70s.

 

Spoonbills, Alligators and Horses

We jumped on the Spyder Monday and headed east from Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville on highway 14 past Delcambre. Our destination  was Rip Van Winkle’s Gardens. We weren’t that interested in touring the gardens – our intention was to visit the rookery to see the birds and look for alligators.

Click to enlarge

The rookery is a favored nesting ground for roseate spoonbills, ibis and egrets. The birds congregate on the three islands in the pond created by water recycled from the gardens. They prefer to nest in islands where alligators keep snakes, raccoons and other predators away from their eggs.

A little hard to see, but these trees are full of birds

Donna and I walked the path around the pond – it’s about three quarters of a mile around. As we reached the far side of the pond, something thrashed in the water. There it was – an alligator – eyes and head popped up looking at us. Then I saw a much larger ‘gator swimming in the channel between two of the islands.

We continued our walk and met a woman from Baton Rouge who was visiting the area and photographing the birds. She warned us about taking I-10 into Baton Rouge. She told us there was construction before the bridge into Baton Rouge taking the interstate down to one lane. She said there are crashes reported on a regular basis as an inattentive driver slams into the suddenly stopped traffic. It’s always nice to have local knowledge – we planned to avoid the I-10 bridge over the Mississippi.

As we made our way around the pond, we heard a sound. It was almost like someone snoring. We moved slowly toward the sound. The sound stopped. A few more steps and there he was – an alligator just a couple of feet from the shore. I estimated him to be between five and six feet long.

Alligator snoozing

He didn’t pay any attention to us and only opened his eyes a couple of times.

Zzzzz

We rode into Rip Van Winkle Gardens to visit the gift shop and look around. We found several peacocks and hens by the gift shop.

Peacocks and hens

Peacock in a tree

Donna bought a couple of items and we headed home. I got busy stowing things in the trailer and getting us ready to move. We had our final Betty’s Famous Happy hour – until next time. The name Betty’s Famous Happy Hour comes from an app called Untapped. On this app, people check in and rate the beer they’re drinking. Someone checked in and put their location as Betty’s Famous Happy Hour! So now, if you open the Untapped app at Betty’s, you can check in and it’ll give that name for the location.

On Tuesday morning, I finished making us ready for travel. I moved slowly as it was hot and very humid. I kept the air conditioners running until the last moment before I unplugged from the 50-amp pedestal. Once I had the trailer hooked up, I started the generator and turned on the front roof air conditioner for the drive to Baton Rouge.

We took a roundabout route that took us up US167 to Lafayette and up to Opalousas where we hit US190 east. The road surfaces were atrocious, but I figured I-10 probably wasn’t much better and we would cross the mighty Mississippi into Baton Rouge on the US190 bridge avoiding I-10 altogether.

The drive through Lafayette and Baton Rouge wasn’t much fun, but metro areas never are in a big rig. We found our way to the BREC Farr Park Equestrian Center. This is a large park on the east bank of the Mississippi River. They have 108 RV sites with water and 50-amp electrical pedestals. We squeezed our coach and trailer into site A4 – a pull through site – and left the trailer a little crooked to make us fit without hanging into the road.

Site A4 – a tight fit

After setting up and showering, Donna and I rode the Spyder to town. We went to Tin Roof Brewing for a cold one. It’s about five miles away from the park. Donna had a beer called River Rosé – it’s a mild ale like a Gose but it was brewed with beets. She liked it and said it was refreshing.

River Rosé

On the way back, I rode up on the levee of the Mississippi. We saw a large tow of 28 barges behind a couple of freighters. I wrote about barge tows here. The river is very high right now and there are flood warnings in effect. The levee here is so high, I don’t think we have any worries.

Barge tow behind the freighters

Later, we sat in the shade of the coach. I puffed a cigar and we watched a group of girls riding horses.

Girls horseback riding

It was very quiet and peaceful last night. However, Ozark the cat didn’t let us enjoy a restful night. For some reason, the cat kept waking us up. This morning, I thought I could hear a rooster crowing. When I stepped outside at 6:30am, it turned out to be a horse whinnying. He was kicking up dust prancing around the pasture and making a racket.

Feeling his oats and kicking up dust

Today will be another hot one. The forecast calls for a high of 90 degrees. Donna and I want to explore a bit and go to the Old State Capital Museum. Tomorrow we’ll head out and make our way to Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Tail Lights and Cajuns

Saturday was Cinco de Mayo. It also happened to be our wedding anniversary – Donna and I were married on the fifth day of May, 2006. We usually go out to dinner to celebrate – this year we celebrated with dinner at Shuck’s – The Louisiana Seafood House – a day early on Friday evening.

We both started with a cup of seafood gumbo, followed by a crab cake plate made with locally caught blue crab. Donna had hers house style, served with a dill sauce over the cake. I had mine smothered with crawfish etoufee. Crawfish etoufee is a Cajun dish  with crawfish meat in a gravy-like sauce. It was delicious. I had a bottle of Abita Amber beer to go with it. It was a rich and very filling meal!

The forecast called for thundershowers on Saturday. I started the day by changing the tail light housings on our coach. I found replacement parts on Amazon and they arrived on Friday. The tail lights used by Western RV on our Alpine Coach were original equipment on a Ford Econoline van from the 1990s. Our tail lights were hazy and had cracks in the lenses where someone previously over-tightened the mounting screws. The replacements I bought were made in Taiwan and are an exact copy of the originals. Installation was easy. First I removed the four tail light housing mounting screws, then gave each bulb holder a quarter turn to release them.

Tail light housing removed and bulb holders hanging from the harness

When I first fitted the new housing, it wouldn’t fit flush. Then I noticed they had extra mounting points. There were four holes that lined up perfectly with the originals, but there were also two stand-offs molded in the plastic back plate that interfered with the body of our coach. Apparently they use a one-size-fits-all back plate on the housing and these extra points are for another application. I snipped them off with side cutters and the housings fit perfectly.

The new tail lights look much better. Along with the headlights I replaced in Mesa, we’re looking sharp on all four corners!

Old tail light

New tail light

I tracked the storm front in the forecast on the Radar Express app on my phone and it looked like it would stay to the north of us. Betty mentioned a farmers’ market in Delcambre, about 10 miles away. I looked it up and we decided to check it out. We’re finding Louisiana to be interesting – it’s culture is unique.

Delcambre farmers’ market at Bayou Carlin Cove

This market is seasonal and only open on the first weekend of each month. When we arrived at the farmers’ market at the Bayou Carlin Cove, I knew we were in for a treat. This was the first farmers’ market we’ve been to that had shrimp boats tied up to the dock selling fresh caught shrimp.

Shrimp boat

The locals came to the market prepared – many had coolers with ice to pack the fresh shrimp and crayfish for sale. We walked through the vendor area and sampled food and sauces. The owner of Brasseaux’s Hardware in Abbeville had a Traeger demo set up and gave us free pulled pork sliders! Another vendor had Creole tamales and gave us one for a sample. Creole tamales are different than the usual – these had pork and beef ground very fine to about the same consistency of the corn meal used and it’s all mixed together. They were delicious and we bought half a dozen. Donna also bought a jar of persimmon pepper jelly – another food new to us.

At another vendor, I saw a guy shucking fresh oysters. The woman there put a little olive oil and garlic on the oyster on the half shell, added shredded parmesan and then put them on the grill. Donna bought a plate with half a dozen oysters. I’m not much of an oyster eater, but after trying one, I had to have another! At the next table two ladies were mixing up Bloody Marys – we each had one with the oysters and they were the spiciest Bloody Marys ever.

Char-grilled oysters

We came home around noon, then headed out in the other direction toward Maurice a little after 1pm. Our destination was Touchet’s Bar – the locals call it Two-checks. They had a Cajun jam session starting at 2pm. It was a fun time. We sat back and I had a beer while Donna sipped a Bloody Mary. The people were all so friendly and the music was good. I couldn’t understand half of the lyrics as they sang in a mixture of English and French patois. Actually I had a hard time understanding the dialect spoken by some of the people at the bar.

Cajun jam session

Last night we sat at Betty’s famous happy hour and everyone planned a potluck brunch for today and fish dinner for this afternoon. One of the guys here, Mike, caught a bunch of redfish and our neighbor Daniel volunteered to grill 10 pounds of fresh fish filets! Yum!

Potluck brunch this morning

The forecast calls for abundant sunshine today and a high in the mid-80s. Tomorrow will be slightly warmer. I’ll need to prepare for the road tomorrow. We’ll head out on Tuesday and probably make our next stop in Baton Rouge.