I can’t seem to find the Goya here. And the nearest Asian supermarket is, like, hours away. There are, supposedly, many trout in the lovely local waters here. I have yet to catch any, but I can imagine how nice it would be if I ever did.
Recently, I was people watching and listening to I’m Going to Make a Cake by Philip Glass at the same time. Listening to that song while doing anything makes mundane things seem more cinematic.
One time I was in Washington Square Park and some guy rolled out a whole upright piano and started playing Metamorphosis in the middle of the park. I miss NYC.
Still alive and in good health! Currently hunkered down in Washington State.
Steelhead Trout is a thing here and it’s really good. We also foraged some stinging nettle back in Oregon and we made some really good pesto with it. I like it better than basil pesto.
Reports about it never raining in California are believable. The RV was covered in dust from a trip into the outback that is Williams Hill. We couldn’t get it washed off by rain until we were completely out of Cali.
Driving through the Southwest is challenging if you don’t like endless miles of the same desert scene. But the tamales there are legit.
The South is serious about their BBQ. It was more meat than I’ve ever wanted all in one go. There were also a ton of pick up trucks on the road. What is everyone hauling around?
Florida was pleasantly warm during the winter. I caught my first tasty bass there!
Even though clam chowder is a big Northeast thing, you can find it in a lot of places along the east coast. But the best Maine lobster is in, you know, Maine.
Favorite places (besides NYC): Wherever my friends/family are. But Letchworth and Flume Gorge were pretty cool.
Favorite experience: Seeing people from around the US talking about their home neighborhoods with a glowing sparkle in their eyes. They’re living in a place that makes them happy and that’s nice to see.
Least favorite experience: Travelling at a pace that’s too quick to enjoy. Driving several hours, then staying overnight at a Walmart parking lot just to drive for several hours again the next day, and then repeating this many days in a row, is not the way to go for us.
Bonus RV poop story: There are tank level indicators in our RV. One for fresh water, one for gray water (shower and sink waste water), and one for black water (anything flushed down the toilet). We usually dump our tanks when we reach 90%–100%. The waste tanks aren’t completely full at 100% (100% actually fits a lot), and the freshwater tank isn’t completely empty at 0% either.
Next to our toilet, there’s a “tank full” indicator light that turns on and disables flushing when our black tank can’t fit any more stuff. We were told it worked at our last RV service visit, but we never filled our black tank enough to ever confirm.
So one day, we decided to test it out. The black tank level hit 100% and we didn’t dump. For a couple days, actually. Finally, we got impatient and kept flushing and flushing. I went outside while this was happening and got in my truck for some quiet for a video call. I noticed a splashing sound and turned around to see a waterfall of brown sewage gushing out of our roof, down our awning, and onto the ground right next to the truck. The sewage had nowhere to go in the tank, so it went up along the air vent and exited through the roof.
Edit: Now that we’ve proven that the “tank full” thing is broken, the service center ran a diagnostic and found out our toilet assembly has some kind of unique error that even the manufacturer hasn’t heard of.
Why is this poop story not my aforementioned least favorite experience? I must have emotionally blacked out at the time because, in hindsight, I can only recall it being catastrophically hilarious. I’m certain I was quite displeased that day.
On that note, I leave you with this picture of a toilet paper shaped cake I saw in a supermarket somewhere recently.
We called the RV dealer who said we didn’t need RV driving lessons. Just go slow someplace not too busy until we feel confident. That makes me feel kind of nervous but the tension also intrigues me.
I already liked bulgur it in tabbouleh, but I didn’t know it was a whole grain. AND I can cook it by pouring boiling water over it and letting it soak! That would be nice in terms of fuel conservation. Rinsing out the bulgur before cooking didn’t use up much water either.
On the first night, I served it boiled, buttered, and salted with some ground beef and onions. Very decent.
The next night, I cut the cold, gelatinized leftovers into slabs and pan fried them. Kind of reminded me of arepas. If it weren’t for arepas, I might just have teff.
There was still some left the next morning. I stir fried it with some scallions and chopped it up in the wok with the left over beef and onions. Pretty good. Kind of like fried rice.
I was washing and cooking rice the other day. I never noticed just how much water I use just to get the grains clean. That could be a potential problem in an RV given we have limited water. Well, it’s not really limited. It just depends on how often we feel like filling the fresh water tank.
So I started looking around for different kinds of starches in hopes of finding some that require less water during cooking. Thanks to Canada’s pretty food guide graphic, I looked into a variety of whole grains.
I bought a lot of different grains.
I tried millet first. It smells a tiny bit like corn. It’s got a really mild flavor and the texture is somehow scratchy and mushy at the same time.
I don’t like it. But it might be unfair because I’m comparing my enjoyment of it to my enjoyment of Thai Jasmine rice or deep fried hash browns. That and I probably don’t know how to pair millet with other ingredients that can make it… sing?
Dan is done working for the man. Well, he was done at the end of April. And then we all got sick. Everyone took turns being sick. Or maybe it’s just terrible allergies.
Aside from that, this flexible schedule is pretty cool. Most mornings we’re not in any sort of rush. Went to the Hall of Science as a family in the middle of the week a few days ago. Before that, we went to the Sweet Cats Cafe for the oldest tot’s birthday.
No, it’s not a kitty cafe like they have in Japan where you get to play with real live cats. Sweet Cats Cafe is just an overpriced regular cafe and not particularly delicious. I was expecting more kitty themed desserts, but it’s really just the decor that’s kitty themed. The decor is cute. The fried chicken nuggets aren’t all that bad either. And if you ask for your cold drinks without ice, they won’t dilute!
The tots have been taking pictures with our Kodak Printomatic. I kind of like its graininess and wonky white balance so I’ll probably use it for photos on this blog. The only thing I’d change about this camera is that it should stop trying to print a picture when there’s no paper loaded!
