I woke up this morning in Colorado sick and congested and ready for Indian food to decongest my painful sinuses. What better thing to do on a Tuesday evening then attend homemade authentic Paratha making class? My boyfriend’s mother is traveling with us for three weeks from our home in southern California to Lake Powell in Utah, Telluride in Colorado and eventually Yellowstone National Park. Our RV is currently a melting pot of Indian culture. So I thought I would take my snotty face and try to perfect my Indian nod.
I also decided my Indian nod might get a lot more authentic after a mixture of happy hour cocktails and Dayquil.
And that is exactly why I was nominated to be the photographer for homemade authentic paratha making class and not the chef.
Or maybe it’s because I am oozing germs.
One way or another I was in charge of taking photos and turning wine bottles into rolling pins which is a much better job for someone as congested as I am. When I traveled to India six months ago parathas were one of the amazing foods I inhaled by the handfuls at every restaurant we encountered on our overseas voyage. Now that I have lost the thirteen pounds I gained on the streets of Bangalore and in the red booths of Empire Restaurant I’m ready to learn how to shape the dough, roll it out, fold it into squares and grill up my own homemade authentic paratha in grass fed goat’s ghee.
As soon as I stop oozing snot everywhere.
Tonight we are going to dine on butter goat and homemade authentic paratha in our 34 foot RV and I’m pretty sure the smells sneaking out of our RV have everyone else in this camp ground wondering where that amazing ghee, cumin and coriander scent is coming from.
And why it smells like north India in here?
I mean that’s what I’m assuming anyways as I have not been able to smell for the past twenty four hours. But the food we are churning out of our tiny RV kitchen tonight is literally the best Indian food I have had in the six months since we left the colorful streets of Bangalore (And we eat a lot of homemade Indian food at home, so that is really saying something) The grasses organic goats leg my friend delivered to our campsite the other evening was from a goat a friend of hers had raised herself and had to be the most delicious tasting goat I have ever had in my life. Instead of making a butter chicken dish, my boyfriend decided to try a new take on butter chicken; Butter Goat; seasoning the goat with yogurt and garam masala and obviously lots of garlic and ginger and cashew powder.
After an hour in the pressure cooker he finished the goat on the campfire grill to make room on the stove for the parathas being fried up in goat’s ghee. Yes, this was a very goaty meal but so absolutely delicious. The photos really do not do it justice.
This had to be the most authentic and delicious Indian meals I have had since we were in Bangalore months ago. Our campsite dance club was not to bad either.
This week I’m linking up this awesome recipe over at
Three years ago I thought of pickle hand in hand with burgers. This was three years prior to trying my first fresh baked parathas on the cow dung filled streets of Bangalore. In the month we spent in Bangalore, I picked my way amid the piles of trash on every street corner and yes maybe I pushed a bovine or two out of my way to get more and more authentic Indian food that tasted nothing like what you can buy in ‘Mercian back at home.
Out of my way trash cow. I need some pickle!
The states had nothing on these fresh baked Parathas that I would tear into pieces then dip in tomato-y butter chicken, scoping up the spicy cashew filled sauce and glaring at any cow that dared to get between me and my Indian street food lunch. The Hindi’s may worship this garbage eating poop four legged poop machine but I’ve never been a big fan of cows. Especially when they are playing in traffic.
This little incident with the cows was on the streets of bangalore, three years before I would gladly try Bheja Fry (Yes, brains. Goats brains actually) at the highly popular Bangalore restaurant chain, Empire Restaurant. This was three years before I had heard the term (And experienced first hand) curry bum and this was three years before I experienced first hand all the sights, sounds and yes sometimes smells, of India.
Homemade Garlic Ginger Pickle
Of all the delicious I tried when I was on the streets of India trying to avoid piles of cow poo, India’s version of pickle, this spicy, salty condiment was my favorite. If you are a fan of Indian food the way that I am, you really need to make up a fresh batch of this easy condiment for your next Indian dinner party.
Ginger Garlic Pickle, Bangalore Style
3 heads garlic, peeled
3 tablespoons minced ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
4 tablespoons canola oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
6 Chinese dried red chilies
Toast the coriander, cumin car, and fenugreek seeds for two minutes until you can smell them. Grind the spices in a blender and set aside. Peel the garlic and and roughly chop up. In a sauce pan heat the oil and add the mustard seeds for just a minute, then add the garlic salt and Turmeric. Add the ginger and cook for just two minutes or so until the garlic starts to turn translucent. Mix in the toasted spices and the chili and let cook one more minute add the sugar and lemon juices and cook One minute and then turn off the heat.
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There are a lot of odd things about Southern California but one of the top ones is that people who live in smoggy, hot, humid Southern California rarely leave. Myself I don’t get it, why not escape from this barren desert as often as possible? We have many municipal airports at our disposal. Here in the 909 we live just off the 10 Freeway that connects us to Arizona, Colorado and the rest of this beautiful country and yet those that live from Palm Springs to Riverside seem unable to sprout wings and explore.Their loss is my gain I guess as the highways of the southwest were barren this weekend as we explored areas of the great southwest this morning. We explored the grand red rock cliffs and burnt red canyons penatrating deep into the rusty land as far as the eye could see. You would expect to see water in these deep canyons snaking between Arizona, Utah and New Mexico before meeting up with Lake Powell but all we saw was empty dirt dust dry canyons, deserted highways and the red dust of the south west.
This is Navajo country and the towns are tiny outcroppings of 100 people as the sun bakes the land in the hundred degree winds and we fly faster towards Lake Powell.
Well that is until I get the tow car stuck in the hot Utah sand as I’m trying to find a camp site on the Colorado river.
The people of Utah are friendlier then you could believe as they help me pull our SUV out of the desert sand and summer vacation can commence again.
Campsite found it’s time to wander our way through the prickly sage weeds of the Utah riverside to the mouth of the river and time to relax! I mean if your idea of relaxation is throwing this bitch in the Colorado River!
This dog can hike 20 miles in a day but try to make her swim in Lake Powell and she is the words biggest baby.
All in a day of fun in the great American southwest!
Colorado is terrifying. I have literally been about to shit myself half of this gorgeous green cowboy and cow horse filled state.
In between hikes up 12,000 foot mountain passes and glorious meals of Indian food delights, we decided to take the 35 foot RV up and over Monarch Pass.
I seriously can not even look at the road anymore.
There are no guard rails!
11,000 Pass!
When we get to the bottom I swear I will google how many cars have gone over the side of this crazy mountain highway.
If I wasn’t holding onto my seatbelt for dear life I would be blogging this from the toilet.
PS
I’m about to bust a gasket and instead of keeping his hands on the steering wheel at 10 and 2, my boyfriend THE DRIVER is petting our dog.
I don’t think I have ever prayed as much in my life as when we were driving through Monarch Pass in Colorado in our 35 foot RV.
“Please God, let there be guard rails” Our day of RVing through Colorado was supposed to be fun and easy and only a 4 hour drive!
Well that was before we lost a bearing which destroyed our serpentine belt in our tow car, which I was driving by the way.
Yes our tow car was not being towed because two days and 280 miles earlier we had lost a pin in our tow kit and our toad almost went to that great swimming hole in the sky and no auto parts or hardware store in Colorado seemed to carry a pin that would have been easy to find in Southern California.
Back to that whole God looking out for us thing; So when the bearing/serpentine eruption happened in the Toad we happened to be in the friendliness town in the Wild West of Colorado; Montrose. Seriously I have never been in a town with friendlier people!
Which is great as we needed help and lots of it and quickly as we had decided to drive our RV the scenic route to Fairplay, Colorado, a route that more and more people were telling us might not be the best idea in a 35 foot RV.
God must have been watching over us and the engine on our little four banger Suzuki tow car as we rolled down through the San Juan Mountains because the engine troubles could have happened on the winding mountain roads of the San Juan Mountains with no cell reception but instead it happened in the parking lot of a tow lot where my boyfriend parked to go try, again to find another pin for our 35 foot RV.
This is where I met the nicest mechanic ever who opened the hood of the Toad right after the steering became ridiculous right and told me
“Yup, you’re serpentine built is shot”
He did hand it to me as a souvenir.
Then told me to drive 1/4 mile (about as far as I could drive with no power steering) to the shop next door to get it fixed.
Where the super nice people working there offered to fix it on their lunch break so we could get back on the road.
So yea. That was our morning.
I don’t think I’m cut out for this RV lifestyle. I’m pretty much ready to poop myself every crazy mountain pass we drive up or down.
I’m sick and tired of being in the insanely pretty Wild West, with its crazy 11,000 foot mountain passes with 70 mile per hour wind gusts and no guard rails.
Yes, it is official, I have become that crazy cat lady! I just made home made cat food. I have a very good reason. My one cat is super sensitive and has horrible allergies so I’m switching him over to holistic cat food and also starting to make some of his food from scratch with no wheat or soy ingredients. Making your own home made cat food is extremely easy. Getting your finicky cats to eat the home made cat food is another matter entirely.
I eatz home made cat food?
Home Made Cat Food
1 cup chicken, poached and shredded
1 cup chicken liver, baked
1 large sweet potato
1 carrot
1 cup cooked spinach
Bake the livers, sweet potato and the carrots on a cookie sheet at 375 for 40 minutes. Let all ingredients cool down and take the meat of the sweet potatoes and the rest of the ingredients and put all in a food processor. Grind up and terrify your pets with the noise. Serve this homemade cat food to them on a silver platter and hope your cats do not turn their noses up at it.
Later that night….
Well, of course the cat who does not have the allergies loves the homemade cat food and Sierra (The oozy cat) doesn’t care at all. Asshole.
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As far as Carly is concerned this is our tent. Carly has farted all over this Coleman pop up tent in nearly every campsite in the eastern sierras. Carly has definitely left her mark on our Coleman pop up tent and if you ask this little pugle this is Carly’s tent.
So this morning waking up just outside of Telluride in the forests of Colorado at over 9,000 feet, Carly was exceptionally upset to see that my good friend had camped out in her tent the night before.
But of course I didn’t know that at 7AM.
All I knew was that this little ding-dong was freaking the fuck out and was desperate to get off her tether and both scared and angry about something to the left of our campsite. I was sure she had seen her first Coloradian moose as I had never, ever seen this little dog so extremely upset. As I sat outside listening to the sounds of the rushing Dolores River and sipping on my hot dark roast coffee topped off with local organic cream from a farm in Paonia, I had my camera in hand, sure at any second I was going to se my first moose.
This went on for about an hour until my boyfriend came out with his coffee and let her off the tether, thinking this would calm her down. It did. I figured whatever forest creature she had seen or smelled was long gone. I had no idea that forest creature was a dear friend of mine.
About 8AM my friend emerged from OUR Coleman popup Tent and Carly nearly jumped out of her skin! I have never seen this dog so terrified in her life! I think a moose or bison would have terrified her less than a skinny hippie girl from Paonia! Carly literally jumped about five feet in the air and was standing there whimpering and shivering, so extremely upset that there was someone in our Coleman popup tent!
She was almost too upset to go for a little mountain bike ride a few hours later. Almost. But she sucked it up and spent the afternoon racing back in forth through fields of dandelions and racing through crystal clear Rocky Mountain Streams.
This little pup may have had to share OUR tent with a friend last night but she is having the time of her life in the gorgeous San Juan Mountains of Colorado.
I’ve put these boots through a hell of a lot. It’s fitting that instead of throwing them out I decided to upcycle them and make them into a whole new boot. Yea for leather restoration.
These boots could really use some leather restoration TLC!
I love recycling clothing, boots included. In order to live a sustainable lifestyle sometimes you have to give boots a new life instead of just going to Nordstrom and buying a new pair of Jessica Simpson fancy boots. Luckily there are companies out there with awesome leather restoration products like Rub ‘N Restore.
These fake leather boots have carried me through a few adventures. 16 months ago my clutch went out in my Subaru on my way to work. Dressed in a business skirt, I tried to push my clutch less Japanese made car through an intersection that I have driven through many times. I suddenly realized that this particular intersection actually slanted slightly downhill and my SUV was getting away from me! A smarter gal may have let go of the steering wheel and let her SUV crash into the cement wall ahead of her but I thought, hey I work out! I have upper body strength! So I tried to haul my business skirt clad body and my black synthetic leather covered heels back into my Subaru Outback. (Meanwhile the lovely citizen’s of Arcadia, California were honking at me)
It did not work out well for my Subaru or my fake leather boots and my SUV dragged me through the intersection. Did I stop wearing my distressed boots after this little incident? Nope, I still wore them to work and got so many complements on my distressed vintage looking leather boots! Yeah, but I did not purposely distress them! That day was quite stressful but these boots would see better days.
These boots have seen better days
Like the last time I wore them in public.
Where the hell is the Richard Baltas barn?
It was a rainy morning at Santa Anita Park. I showed up at 7AM with the worst coffee I have ever had in my life in my hands (Don’t ever order a coffee at Whole Foods. The employee refused to make my dirty chai with milk and used almond milk. Almond milk belongs in smoothies. Almonds don’t belong any where near coffee beans.) It was so bad, yes I am still complaining 8 months later. After watching the last of the runners complete morning workouts, Judy, Amy and I wandered the back stretch in the rain looking for their horse, Gator Don’t Play.
#worstcoffeeeverthehorsedidntevenwantit
And we looked, and we looked. We wandered through the entire back stretch in the rain and the mud and the puddles and could not find Richard Baltas barn. In this time I walked through so much sticky back stretch mud. Also I discovered these boots were no where near water proof. Let me tell you something about back stretch mud; It is a special kind of mud that will stain your boots forever.
Unless your friend runs a delightful company called Rub ‘N Restore and sends you product to not only remove back stretch mud but also refurbish your old synthetic leather boots into a pretty cherry red color. Every time I use Rub ‘N Restore’s awesome products I’m shocked at how easy at home leather restoration can be. It makes me want to go to the thrift store and buy more vintage boots to restore!
Thank you Lessandra for giving these black boots a whole new will to live! Not only that but the vinyl filler filled in all the cracks and holes in theses boots from being drug through a parking lot once upon a time!
Thanks to Rub N Restore’s amazing products, these boots are once again made for walking! I can’t wait to start wearing my newly restored vintage boots to work in the fall!
This week I’m linking up once again with these fantastic blog hops!
It was after dinner and I was working on masking the left side of the house, part of my week long painting project. We were getting ready to watch one of our T.V. shows and honestly go to bed soon after a depressing day of horse racing where we watched the best horse in the world disappoint big time.
And then our friends called to say they had free tickets to the Colin Hay concert. If only we could arrange a miracle; I mean find an Uber in a small mountain resort town. Well Arrogate did not win today at 1-20 odds but somehow we found the only Uber on the mountain and we were on our way to The Cave with plenty of time before the show.
We were just at The Cave, our local music venue the week before to see the Big Bad Voo Doo Daddies, or the Big Bad Voo Doo Dolls as we call them after a few Clinton’s. ( That would be a vodka tonic with bitters served to you by a waitress named Hillary who doesn’t think it’s funny) Last week at The Cave was nothing but drama as our friend who was the DD changed her mind on driving us home because “She didn’t like driving drunk people” and kicked us out of her car, allowing us to walk five miles home. But hours before that my boyfriend tried to sweet talk everyone who worked at The Cave into hooking us up with a table to no avail. One week later we discoovered the trick to getting a table at The Cave.
We were standing outside of The Cave waiting for our friends when all of a sudden my shirt was soaking wet.
Yeah, the show hadn’t even started yet and a drunk guy got kicked out and threw a drink at me as we waited outside the club.
I was fucking pissed and ready to kick this old man’s ass.
But luckily the security guards felt really bad for me and offered us a VIP table, pretty much the best table in the house. Get a drunk guy to throw a drink on you before you even get inside the club to get all the locak perks!
Now that is how you have a good time in a small town.
Also have your friend drive you home in their awesome off road Polaris RZR. Now this is what life in a mountain town is all about!
It kills me to say it but this pup is on lockdown. All because of the asshole of the forest, the majestic Western Timber Rattlesnake.
Yes, today we marked the beginning of summer, I mean rattlesnake season, here in our home in the San Bernardino Mountains. We saw not one, but two angry as fuck rattlers yesterday on our hike near Sugarloaf Mountain over a course of two miles. I really don’t like rattlesnakes and I like them even less when they go and bite our friends awesome dog the very next day.
Bolt is going to be fine but hearing the tale (And hearing about the $4,000 vet bill) was a stark reality about the dangers of dogs vs. rattlesnakes. Unfortunately after being screwed over by Subaru which in it is still an ongoing saga of terrible customer service, I have no money left for anti venom.
So Carly is now an on the leash pup, at least until the cooler autumn months. How do I keep my pup safe from rattlesnakes in the warmer summer months you may be asking? Let me give you just a few tips on how to keep Fido out of harms way and away from a rattler’s fangs.
Invest in anti venom
Seriously, you can buy anti venom on Amazon in 2017. You can buy everything on Amazon these days including this medication to keep your pup safe from nature’s bite-y reptile asshole! Investing in anti venom gives you a few precious hours to get your pup to the vet if he or she does get bit by this asshole of the wilderness.
Don’t hike or run with headphones on
I love my tunes as much as anyone but this is just common sense! The great thing about rattlesnakes (The only great thing!) Is that they warn you before they bite the fuck out of you! If you are listening to headphones how are you going to hear them if they rattle at your pup? A rattlesnake’s warning is loud but still if you are listening to the newest One Republic song you may not hear it if your mutt decides to play with Bite-y McRattlesnake.
Rattlesnake Avoidance classes
Let’s shock some sense into Fido! Okay, it may seem a bit mean but if young shock your dog when they try to smell rattlenakes, as soon as they hear that rattle they will learn. I don’t honestly feel bad when our dog gets shocked because she is kind of an asshole.
Also it will (We hope) keep her snake bite free in the future. Always go to your vet or a licensed trainer for rattlesnake training and avoidance classes. Do not try this at home!
Keep your dogs on leash
This is a hard one for us because we like to let our dogs run free off leash but we also kind of like our dogs and don’t want them to die. So we leash the bitches, every month June-September. It sucks, for us and for them but it’s just the safe option. It’s hard enough for us humans to spot rattlesnakes on the trail, it’s harder still to be watching your pup 24/7 and also if you happen to spot a rattler, have the bitches listen to you! Because rattlesnakes sound fun, right?
Stay on well maintained trails
The easiest way to avoid rattlesnakes (Well, besides sitting on the couch and watching T.V. and not getting outside) is to stay on maintained trails. It’s just way easier to spot rattlesnakes on these trails. Sure it’s fun to go rock climbing and check out new off the trail spots but it’s hard to see rattlesnakes when you are climbing through leaves and off trail. There have been many times I have come across a Western Diamondback that does not rattle a warning. (Sometimes snakes sleep too!)
We all love our pooches and having them off leash is always a fun time but take my advice; Wait for the cooler autumn days for this! It’s just way safer in the long run for your dogs saftey and your pocketbook!
Today I biked twenty miles on a Tuesday. I am so blessed that I can commit a few hours on some days to a amazing mountain bike ride on a gorgeous spring day.
I’m also blessed that although I hurt my ankle the damages were minimal and I was able to enjoy this lakeside view and cycle home and still stand on my own two feet to make donuts. Not just any donuts but healthy lemon, millet and chia seed donuts!
On a day when I mountain bike twenty miles in a morning those last few miles I am always thinking to my self why yes I deserve a donut.
Except I don’t like crap donuts and the closest amazing donut store to me is one hundred miles away. Because of this terrible problem I have to make my own donuts.
But wait there are advantages to making your own donuts! Making your own donuts mean you can make them healthy! (Well some what) This recipe is absolute devious and yes, healthy but if you did a twenty mile ride today, gone ahead and deep fry these babies (In coconut oil of course!) You deserve it!
I made this Lemon Zucchini Donuts a few months ago and it was fantastic, so it would taste great donut style as well, right?
Baked Lemon Zucchini Donuts
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tab Meyer lemon juice
1 zucchini, shredded
1 tab baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 350.
Mix one tablespoon. coconut oil, the Greek Yogurt, the egg and the almond milk. Fold in the Zucchini and the lemon juice. Add all the dry ingredients. Use one tablespoon coconut oil to grease the donut trays.
Bake at 350 for 11-13 minutes. Stir ingredients for glaze. Let donuts cool ten minutes than dunk in glaze.
Glaze
1/4 cup cream cheese
2 tab Meyer lemon juice
1 tab vanilla
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Combine all and glaze the delicious donuts with this lemony glaze.
Love this healthy recipe? Don’t forget to pin it!
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We drove 2000 miles staring at this RV dash and the shoddy job I did repairing it on our California to Yellowstone Road Trip.
This shoddy RV dash repair was time-consuming as I started over at least six times before giving up and calling in the advice of an expert. Luckily I call one of the (former) Vinyl Ladies a great friend and would be meeting up with her for a rendezvous halfway through our trip near Telluride Colorado.
When Lessandra moved to the organic agriculture center of Colorado last year I started missing a dear friend; And not just because she is an expert in color matching and can talk a mean conversation about the best place in Colorado to buy organic eggs. Luckily our three-week road trip would take us pretty close to Paonia, Lessandra’s new stomping grounds and she had a few days free to meet us just outside of Telluride for some hiking, Indian food cooking classes and tips on improving the looks of the RV. When looking to make improvements to an older model RV look no farther than Rub ‘N Restorethese guys have all the high quality
Using the 3M kit from Amazon. It did not look great
equipment and perfectly matched colors to fix many small flaws in an older model RV, like the tears in our RVs dash.
Months before we hit the highways of Colorado and followed the raging Dolores River to our campsite in the densely pine filled San Juan Forest my boyfriend bought a do it yourself dash repair kit on Amazon. This 3M leather and vinyl repair kit was easy to use with great directions but I just had one hell of a time matching the color before I finally gave up and sought out an experts advice.
If you are planning to repair an RV dash you can go the easy way and have Amazon deliver a kit like this straight to your door in two days and get away with mediocre results or you can drive your rig 800 miles to the actual expert (Who just happens to be in an exceptionally gorgeous place for fishing, hiking and all around RV camping fun)
The Hungry Mountaineer says “Lets repair an RV dash!”The RV lifestyle; Cocktails and this southwest sunset
Using Rub ‘NRestore’s leather and vinyl restoration kit was so unbelievably easy and I can’t believe I wasted all that time and effort on the cheaper kit! The directions included with the kit or unbelievably easy to follow and every step of the process went so smoothly and I couldn’t believe how much better the dash looked when I was finished.
After using Rub ‘N Restore’s awesome product!
We were lucky, as our repair area was very small and didn’t take a lot of time but for a larger area it would definitely take a lot more time to repair, especially if the rep in your vinyl or leather is larger and takes a lot more work. The thing that impressed me the most about the Rub ‘N Restore product was how close the color match was. I had been attempting to match the color myself for two weeks with incorrect results.
Thehungrymountaineer gives this fantastic leather and vinyl restoration kit an A+ for ease to use, quality of product and all over convenience making our 20 year old RV dash look as good as new!
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This week I’m linking up once again with these fantastic blog hops!
“Who wants to go camping in Pomona?” I must really love this man of mine because he convinced me to camp in the gangs and smog capital of sunny east Los Angeles in the hottest weekend in September, Labor Day weekend, 2017. Yes as we made our way out of the rainy thunderstorm mountains where I had to put on sweat pants and a sweat shirt this morning, no joke because it was actually cold, I thought to myself, I am going to need a lot of cocktails at the pool this weekend to survive 114 degree heat.
If it wasn’t for the children in our lives you would not find us tackling the Los Angeles County Fair in 114 degree heat, because lets face it, the fair is just not the same since they took out the Fairplex Thoroughbred Race Track (And everyone I speak to recently mentions this to me, it’s not just I and my degenerate gambler friends and boyfriend. The Fairplex bull ring horse races were what made this “county” fair great. If you are from the Midwest or Texas the Los Angeles County Fair is not what you would expect of a county fair. There are no draft horses to hug, there are no pig races and you will be lucky to find any mutton busting sheep racing.
Our plan was to stay at the Pomona KOA and walk across parking lots to the Los Angeles County Fair. Our friends from Colorado were staying at the Sheraton across the parking lot so we had plans to rendezvous at any large body of chlorinated water we could find, in between sweating and riding the Ferris wheel at the Los Angeles County Fair. This was our first time staying at a KOA and after seeing them featured on Undercover Boss I thought it would be a delightful experience.
Prepare to see how wrong I was.
It started at check in. As we walked into the “general store” I noticed that the general store had ice to sell and a few candy bars on the shelves,. It was a big building and it looked complexly wiped out food wise. I briefly wondered if we had waltzed into a general store in Hurricane Harvey’s wake, that’s how few items were stocked in the big “store” area.
This must be a really fun story, considering how many equation marks I have used so far.
Then we started talking to the two ladies at check in, who were bickering amongst each other and complaining about everything and not at all friendly like what I saw on Undercover Boss. What the hell, Television! You lied to me! This is not the friendly KOA experience I imagined. I asked what was included in the continental breakfast and they said carbs.
And more carbs.
And some sugary breakfast cereal.
More carbs! Yea! We were going to have to really walk and sweat all over the Los Angeles County Fair Grounds to work off all those carbs! Good thing I brought my own Greek yogurt and organic blackberries!
I then asked where the sauna was that was promoted on the website and the first girl said “We don’t have a sauna” I told her it was advertised on their website and she just said simply “Well we don’t have one” We would soon come to see this is normal at the Pomona KOA, to advertise things they don’t have. Like cable. It’s probably good that I have to break the umbilical cord that has me tied to watching CNN twenty-four seven since the hurricane hit, but still, it’s a little frustrating that they advertise cable and our site didn’t even have a hook up for cable.
After we said goodbye to the girls at the front desk so they could get back to looking at Facebook on their phones, we tried to find our campsite. Which could have been easier if we had good directions on how to find it. It’s beyond frustrating to be given wrong directions when you are driving a 34 foot motor home and towing a tow car. It’s even more frustrating when the campsite you are staying in does not have the sites clearly marked at all. The campsite numbers had all worn off and I literally had to walk through the campsite to each one trying to find our numbered campsite. This must be very hard to park a RV if you don’t have an assistant helping the driver!
Finally finding our campsite we parked the RV and started unpacking. That’s when we realized our site was so insanely tiny the motor home just barely fit. No joke to go down the stairs of the motor home we have to step on our neighbors picnic table. That’s how close the sites are! Its ridicules!
Should I put this mat on our neighbors picnic table, babe?
The sites were so small our slideout was just inches from the tree!
I would love to say that’s the end of the story but then we went to the pool to watch the sunset and all get bit by insects because the pool area was so dirty and bug infested. Also my boyfriend cleaned the extremely Filthy pool before we could even think about swimming in it. If he’s going to drag me to 114 degree Pomona I will put him to work!
Lets go camping in Pomona!
We couldn’t even open the compartment doors of the RV all the way!
Next time we pay one hundred dollars a night to “camp” Smokey the Bear better give me a personal foot rub for that price!
If there is anything that could possibly make pork anymore tasty than it has to be the combination of Sriracha Sauce and pork. I have been making Srircha Bacon Jerky for a few years now and it is so delicious my boyfriend and I could literally eat the whole batch in one setting. We don’t though, because that is just to much pig fat clogging our arteries. We thought the bacon jerky was the perfect pork item. Than I came up with this recipe; Spicy and Sweet Sriracha Pork Ribs.
Do you heart bacon? Do you heart Sriracha? Than meet Sriracha Pork Ribs!
Sriracha Pork Ribs take my absolute favorite (And super easy!) Sriracha Marinade and slather it on really any of your favorite pork products (I prefer pork ribs in this instance) It’s great on beef ribs too and it is a fantastic baste for grilled salmon.
While hitting the open road in our brand new RV (To us anyways) I had to make a vat of Sriracha BBQ Sauce to take to Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Idaho and Utah on our multi-state voyage. Number one, I was feeding ten people at times. Number two besides making lots of Sriracha Bacon Jerky to top my famous Cobb salad, we were planning to have Sriracha Pork Ribs at least two nights of this journey.
Just in time for a Labor Day weekend full of BBQing, try these tasty and easy pork ribs today!
Spicy and Sweet Sriracha Pork Ribs
BBQ Sauce
3/4 cup Sriracha sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons grated ginger
2 tablespoons crushed garlic
As many ribs as you need
2 tablespoons balsamic vinager
I usually boil my ribs of choice in water with two tablespoons balsamic vinegar for thirty minutes. I than season the ribs with my favorite rub; equal parts good quality chili powder, garlic salt and brown sugar.
Cook the ribs on the grill, basting with the Sriracha BBQ Sauce.
The first time we put gas in our new but actually old RV the pump switched off at one hundred dollars. Well this was one of many new experiences into the RV world. Did you know most credit card companies will only let you buy one hundred dollars worth of gas at a gas station? In the great big world of RV adventures buying one hundred dollars worth of gasoline barely gave us three quarters of a tank.
And that was just that first tank of gas! That was just the beginning of our foray into the world of RV ownership. In the last six months we have done a hell of a lot of work to our ’99 Fleetwood Southwind Storm, including;
$100 for new seat covers
$3 a square foot in laminate flooring
$ in materials to completely re-texture and paint the shower
$25 in new dishes and kitchen do-dads from the Salvation Army
$ new toilet for the RV bathroom
$ collapsible ottomans
$ leather repair kit for the dash
$ window screens
Buying an old RV is expensive enough. Trying to make it a home away from home and be budget conscience is not easy. Neither is looking at this very dated nineties furniture while traveling sixty miles an hour on the 5 freeway some where between Mexico and Canada.
Let me tell you a few helpful hints on how to make the inside of your old RV look like the cozy home away from home you need while away from your actual home.
Your new on the road home away from home
This fancy cat would really like to go camping.
Any time we go out to the RV to work on little projects; From fixing the vinyl on the dash to completely redoing the shower area we bring Uncle Sy to hang out. He loves to sit on the dash and guard the neighborhood against chipmunks and bunny rabbits.
All this 13 year old hairy beast wants is to go camping. I’ll admit it, Uncle Sy has inhaled a few paint fumes in his day, or in the past few weeks hanging out in the RV with us as we insert laminate hardwood floors in the kitchen where the hideous ripped linoleum used to be, and completely gut and repaint the inside of the shower stall.
Don’t judge Sy! He’s old!
When you are done judging this old ding dong just because he wants to go on vacation with us think about buying a few baskets to hang and stuff with fluffy towels. This is a great way to have towels handy in the bathroom without taking up any much needed space.
Or you can put up hooks everywhere, as we have done. You can literally hang wet towels anywhere you want! Or just outside on the awning support after a day of dogs being dogs at the lake and in the lake. You may have a few wet beach towels to dry out.
Need a little privacy for those days out in the RV roughing it? You may be nudists but even in a crowded campground the families around you don’t need to know that! These awesome screens fit over the windows of the front of the RV and you can lounge away in your birthday suit and your neighbors (And the camp host) will never know!
Cover old ugly couches in cute pooches!
I mean cover old ugly couches with festive blankets. At home this little lady is not allowed on the couch. Nope, not ever. Then my boyfriends eleven year old daughter decided there are no rules on vacation. We may have created a monster (Who thinks she is allowed on the couch now) I’m obviously talking about our dog and not an 11 year old girl. Festive blankets like this one I bought in Mexico bring some bright and lively colors to this drab old RV.
When we brought our old RV home the captains chairs were thrashed! Replacing the captains chairs is extremely pricy; Think over eight hundred dollars a chair. We bought these chair covers on Amazon for just around one hundred dollars and the chairs are more comfortable for driving (I mean you can’t tell by my face in this photo as I white knuckle the steering wheel but I swear I’m comfortable!) and they look way classier then the old torn captains seats.
The salvation Army is your BFF
Thrift store shopping and spending afternoons wading through some one elses crap has never been the way I spend my afternoons. Than we bought an RV and I realized we needed EVERYTHING for the kitchen. The timing could not have been worse as eight months ago I sold my home and donated a couple thousand dollars worth of junk to my local thrift store.
On this early March morning I find myself thinking, could I please have my junk back? As I march up and down the dusty moth ball smelling isles and throw silverware sets and coffee mugs in my basket, and then I got distracted and threw in a summer romper for four dollars. (For future trips to Lake Powell in the RV of course, lounging lakeside with a margarita in hand. The new RV does not even have it’s full tank of gas and we are already planning out all the adventures it will take us on!)
I bought this vintage dish set for three dollars at our local thrift store one afternoon while we waited on our new Toad (tow car) to get smogged. This is going to look fantastic with some pork Vindaloo one cold summers evening when we are camping in Yellowstone National Park.
One evening after work I raided our local Big Lots and stocked up on these inexpensive kitchen plates, breakfast bowls and plastic cups. Yup these babies are going to be great for breakfast sandwichwhen we are camping.
I searched Amazon for hours for the perfect tablecloth and pillow case covers to add some color to the dour nineties look of our 2009 Fleetwood Storm motor home. I love theses pillow case covers covered with maps. These are perfect for the wanderlust filled traveler.
Some upgrades are more pricy
When we bought Mac the 2009 Fleetwood the carpet was not in great condition. Replacing beat up old carpet in a 34 foot RV with laminate hardwood is not expensive. Even for this larger size RV it only took 6 boxes of laminate flooring at three dollars a square foot from Home Depot to get the job done. Having hardwood floors in an RV when you are out on the road completely beats carpet! You only have so much space inside a 34 foot RV and lets face it when traveling to exotic destinations like Cody, Wyoming I would need to stock up all the cupboards with organic avocados from California, Rudy’s gluten free breads from Whole Foods and everything cashew butter from Trader Joe’s. There is no extra room for a vacumn cleaner because I just had to pack the Nutribullet and the tortilla maker! (Do you think I’m joking about the tortilla maker?)
Having fake hardwood floors in the RV not only classes up this older model RV but is convenient from a no carpet perspective. The 2009 carpet stank when we pulled it out too. I feel like the whole RV will smell much better (Even with the two drowling, farting beasts in it) sans the nasty old carpet. If you do still have carpet in your older model RV defiantly shampoo it and those boxes of carpet refresher that you shake onto the carpet and vacumn up are very helpful in covering up old smells (Like old farty dog smell)
Our old RV; What the hell is that smell?
Where is that God awful smell coming from?
We asked ourselves this question about thirty times in the two weeks after we came back from our first camping trip. It was a practice trip and we had camped for two nights less then an hour from our house. How on earth did the RV smell so terrible? We had made Indian foodone night and I swear the smell of rotting onions just filled the inside of the old RV. I seriously looked everywhere trying to figure out where the stench was coming from. My boyfriend even took apart the pipes under the sink to see if it was clogged with rotting onions. Nope.
We came to the conclusion that even though we had emptied the grey tank the smell must be coming from the inside of the grey tank.
The first thing I tried using was the organic approach; I mixed hot water and about a cup of baking soda and rinsed this mixture down the drain. It did seem to help somewhat but the smell did fester. My boyfriend found lemon scented grey tank cleaner on Amazon and this seemed to actually mask the smell! Will we stop making Indian food in our 34 foot old RV?
Hell no! This adventure is just beginning!
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Nothing says hot summer days like BBQ and coleslaw. Or maybe 108 degree heat and humidity and thunderstorms. 108 heat is exactly why I chose not to drive down into the smoggy, humid hot and muggy valley today even though I’m dying to drive 100 miles to the west to Artesia, our local authentic all things India Mecca. Then I heard that thunderstorms were in the forecast for our pine filled mountain town and I though to myself, hmm… rain and 55 degrees temperatures siting on the front porch with a latté and reading a good book or sweating and melting nearly to death in the hot, hot valley.
So instead I compromised and finished staining the pergola before the thunderstorms began this afternoon, oh and I also ran errands on my mountain. I rode over 17 miles this mountain between the farmers market, the post office and just enjoying one of the last days of summer before our ski town begins a ski town again and winter is here.
Summer may be almost over but on this, one of the hottest days of summer and at the tale end of the summertime I have discovered the most amazing and slightly lower in fat coleslaw salad. This coleslaw is savory, spicy and a little sour. And it’s devious with your favorite BBQed meat.
Or Tofu.
I don’t judge.
What I love about this recipe is it can be made last minute with ingredients I always have in my cupboard! The other tuning I love about it is Greek yogurt! I love Greek yogurt as it’s one of the only dairy foods I can eat without running to the toilet. So I maybe be a bit Greek yogurt obsessed.
Pineapple, Pomegranate, Greek Yogurt and Mint Coleslaw
2 cups shredded green cabbage
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1 cup shredded carrots
1 green onion, chopped
1/8 cup mint, chopped
1/2 cup Pineapple, chopped
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
Coleslaw dressing
1/4 cup white vinager
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
Chop up the veggies and mint and layer in a large salad bowl. Add the dressing ingredients to a mason jar and shake well. Add dressing to the salad and serve.
This morning was supposed to be a relaxing a.m. full of deserted sandy beaches and California’s cloud studded blue skies. I was supposed to sit on the beach in my decrepit Tommy Bahamas beach chair and read my book as dolphins frolicked in the Pacific Ocean. I was going to eat one of my favorite healthy or fishy delicacies from one of my favorite Orange County Restaurants like Active Cultureor The Crab Cooker. Yes, that was what was supposed to happen.
Now this is how you relax at the beach!
Instead I found myself sitting on a extremely crowded Orange County beach surrounded by screaming children and dipping my hand into a bag of fish poo stew while a crazy homeless man sang to me.
Here is my tale of how to succeed in having an awesome fun day in Orange County, California. Or why you should never buy a meal on Groupon no matter how inexpensive the lobster sounds.
Let me tell you a thing about Orange County, California. Orange County is full of the most amazing restaurants ever. The best part is a lot of them are healthy and many offer fantastic fresh seafood. These are some of my favorite food options. So the very rare times that I go to Orange County, as a healthy foodie I plan out in advance where I’m going to eat and all of the delicious things I will eat that day. Sometimes I even go to my favorite restaurants and bring an ice chest so that I can bring all of the amazing food back to home (Big Bear Lake) with me.
I do not live in Telluride
I live in a small rural ski resort town that is not Telluride, Colorado. We do not have healthy restaurants. When I’m at a beach city like Newport Beach or Laguna Beach, California I take advantage of all the quinoa, brown rice and beets I can find.
This morning on my trip all over Orange County, I had plans to hit up four or five of my favorite vintage, consignment and thrift stores in between quinoa salads and kale smoothies. It was going to be a busy day, with mass amounts of traffic and mass amounts of organic cold brewed iced coffee. I mixed in 45 minutes to take a brief stop at Corona Del Mar because I would be so close to the beach. I also decided to try out a new restaurant because I found a Groupon that made a lobster lunch sound so reasonably priced!
Life lesson # 1 for a day in Orange County
Do not follow a friends recommendation to go to a restaurant with boiled fishes unless that person is actually a foodie.
When I pulled into the parking lot at The Kickin Crab the first thing I had to notice was that I literally felt like I was back in Hong Kong. All the restaurants and shops were so high-end and brand new and literally every single person I could see it was Asian. I also passed three Ferrari’s between picking up my bag of boiled fishes and backing out of the parking spot and heading to the beach.
I guess I was surprised at the amount of yuppie-ness and distracted by the pretty shiny ridiculous expensive cars because I did not notice that when I was handed my bag of boiled fishes there were no spoons, no forks, no napkins; Just a bag of boiled fishes. This would come to be a problem in about 20 minutes when I reached the beach. My plan was to spend 45 minutes enjoying my picnic seafood lunch on beautiful Corona Del Mar’s beach and then head back across Orange County and finish my shopping before meeting a friend for beers later in the evening. As soon as I sat down on the beach with my bag of boiled fishes (I still at this point thought it was a magical bag of lobster’s though) the most lovely (and by lovely I mean scary) and yet melodious musical homeless man sat down next to me. He then spent half an hour singing to me and laughing hysterically, I’m honestly not sure if he was laughing hysterically because I was trying to eat a bag of what was pretty much boiled fish soup with my fingers and up to boiled lobster to my elbows, or if he was just crazy.
I am not exaggerating, I was dripping with boiled fish up to my elbows as I sat on the hot and humid beach. Crazy homeless man thought it was hilarious and he just kept up the musical cackling until I went to wash off my honesty really not good at all fish meal in the Pacific Ocean. I love me some lobster, I really do, and I have honestly never in my life had a lobster that I did not enjoy so much. It wasn’t the flavor of the lobster that was so bad but it was honestly so completely rubbery that I almost couldn’t even bite into it. If I had been at the restaurant I obviously would’ve sent it back because it was nearly impossible to eat.
Yeah that would’ve been because I didn’t have a fork or knife or any kind of napkins for that matter. I managed to choke down my lobster. I can’t believe I am writing the words choking down a lobster, the most magical of all the crustaceans. But the Kickin Crab in Irvine literally made me hate my lobster experience.
To make matters worse the lobster was the first thing that I ate in the bag of fish fun. When I got the meat out of the body of the lobster, I saw that the body of the lobster was full of lobster poo, which is not the restaurants fault. I mean everybody has to poo, even lobsters, the king of the sea. But the problem with the lobster poo was I accidentally turned the lobster to the side and all of the poo rolled into the rest of my bag of fishes. As my musical homeless man tried to turn my bag of fish experience into his own personal version of RENT, I stared at my bag of fish poo soup and thought, there’s no fucking way I can eat this even if it did taste good in any way.
Life lesson # 2 for a day in Orange County
Always have a back up plan
Thank God I had a back up plan. I ended up driving toTLT Foodand getting a sashimi taco to go. Yes, only here in southern California can you order a sashimi taco and let me tell, you, it is an amazing concoction. And yes that is how I found myself on the 405 freeway heading towards Anaheim eating a sashimi taco. And yes I know that is so California.
After I finished my delicious sashimi taco, I stopped at Plato’s Closet in Costa Mesa which used to be my favorite consignment store. That was six months ago and in that six months I lost my fashion sense. If anyone has found it I think it’s hidden among the Southwest ponchos, Citizens of Humanity denim skinny jeans and definitely leggings. I’m pretty sure I left it by the leggings.
When I walked into the store they told me that right now they are only buying items that have been in the mall in the last year. I figure that’s not really an issue because I have some great stuff to sell even if it did all come from the Arcadia Goodwill, which I’m sorry has the best recycled clothing that you can find in Los Angeles and for a fraction of the ridiculous prices they sell things for in Macy’s and Nordstrom’s.
Life Lesson # 3 for a day in Orange County
No one wants your used ponchos
Thrift store finds!
I should have taken a very quick look around the store before I handed over my bag of ponchos and was told it would be a 45 minute wait. If I had just opened my eyes briefly I would’ve noticed that the entire fucking store was 100% full of crop tops and body suits. Literally that was all they had in the store, beside some flannel shirts. Apparently all the things I wore in middle school are now the latest and greatest fashion trend. If I had any idea that my used body suits from middle school we’re going to be worth so much money, I would’ve kept those babies. Maybe it’s just me, and my germ-a-phobic self but the thought of buying somebody slightly used bodysuit sounds disgusting. I feel like I need to go buy some Monistat Seven just thinking about it. Plato’s Closet 2017; If you love body suits and other people’s crotch germs.
So that was my day in the 714. Thankfully I did hit up two locations of my favorite thrift store for gently used clothing, Saver’s. I found a few cool summer dresses in Saver’s but just looking at the strappy sundresses and thinking how much hassle it is to put on my stick on boobs not crookedly dissuaded me from purchasing them. It’s just too much work and who wants crooked boobs? I did however walk out of Saver’s with some awesome new boots for work in the fall, a new blazer for work and an extremely great New Balance running jacket that is waterproof. And I got to try an Orange County edibles delicacy, fish poo soup. Thank you Kickin Crab!
Life lesson # 4 for a day in Orange County
Find an open bar!
Before my day out and about in Orange County could end though I met up with a friend for cocktails and we discovered her apartment complex was having a free Luau! Also, neither of us were sure how to spell Luau after a mai tai (open bar, yea!) Luckily we hollered to her daughter,
“Hey Lauren, go ask that adult how to spell luau” While we lounged by the pool. I would love to say the food at the luau was Hawaiian and spectacular but I asked the hostess surviving up the food
“What kind of beef is that?” And she said,
“It’s beef” That is not an answer! Suffice to say after a morning of fish poo stew my intestines could not also take mystery beef products.
An hour earlier I had been driving up Carbon Canyon Highway trying to avoid the terrible Orange County traffic when I realize that the baby cattle grazing on the side of the highway were so freaking adorable and so different from the cattle that I was used to seeing in India recently. And then I realized it’s because they are happy California cows and they don’t graze on trash. Welcome to the 714! And I’m ready to take my newly recycled fashion, my leggings and my ponchos and go back to my ski resort town now!
Today I realized I am no longer a beginner mountain biker. I may ride my brand new Cannondale mountain bike exceptionally slow on all the dirt fire roads I can find because let me tell you, I learned the hard way, you know what is really not fun? Flying over the handle bars! Nope!
But today I graduated to the advanced beginner level of mountain bike fun! I was even invited on an advanced beginner mountain bike ride in September! And then they invited me to a class on how to repair a tire tube and told me there would be free wine! I think I found my people? A love of the outdoors, fitness and alcohol? I will be there!
I had to peace out of the beginners mountain bike class early this morning as I literally had a mountain of zucchini waiting for me at home and I had promised all of our neighbors homemade lemon zucchini bread just as soon as I finished digesting all that agave after the Tacos and Tequila Party the night before.
#Tacostequilaandbigasszucchinis
Also I found myself just a bit bored practicing braking and shifting on the dirt fire road. I’m no longer a newbie! I know how to use my brakes and shift! I honestly never knew before this class a lot of super easy things about mountain biking; Like I have been holding my feet wrong this whole time and you should gently lay a feathered finger across your brakes while riding (feathering) in case you need to brake suddenly. I also learned that mountain bike girls are pretty fun to hang out with on a Sunday morning and they love their gluten-free organic snacks. (Kindred spirits?)
I also learned you will get on the shit list real quick if you show up to a beginners mountain bike class and start bragging about your latest and greatest fall (My physical therapist was in the group and I was explaining to her my newest scars)
“We try not to scare the new people by talking about crashing” Whoopsie. You really can’t take me anywhere. So it turns out I’m one of these
No longer a newbie!
#girlswhobikenow
We use hashtags like #BRAP, buy padded pants and know way to much about gears. At the class this morning I learned how to lube the chain on my bike and also that I can take the front tire off my bike without even using a tool!
This lemon zucchini bread is excellent after you sweat out the tequila on a kick ass mountain bike ride. Before hitting the trails for a day of hiking or packing my Subaru for a camping adventure I like to make this healthy whole grain lemon zucchini bread in advance. There is something about cooking with coconut oil that is just delicious! I find when I bake with coconut oil that the coconut flavor is so much more pronounced on the second day.
Meyer Lemon Zucchini Bread
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 lemons, zested
1 lemon juiced
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup high fiber supplement (I Use one with quinoa, chia and millet)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sift the dry ingredients together. Mix all the wet ingredients together and slowly sift in the dry. Grease a baking pan with more coconut oil and add the batter.
Lets face it, as Americans ninety percent of us take road trips each year and the hot and sunny summer months are the best times to escape on these family vacations and hit the open road. Being environmentally conscientious on an RV trip may sound like a big joke but it’s possible if you love our earth as well as the open road and the great outdoors. (And you also love buying things on Amazon) I personally love this fantastic planet of ours and I see the reality of road trips being a thing of the past some day soon. When my boyfriends daughter is my age I really don’t think road trips will be the great American past time they are today and let’s face it; Every child deserves that memory of the adults arguing over the Thomas Guide and fighting over choices like Tommy Burger or In and Out.
“In and Out! Driving this baby through a drive thru is what camping is all about!”
As an 80’s child of Los Angeles California, obviously I’m joking; How on earth could you drive a 35 foot RV through the Whittier California, Tommy Burger drive thru? We joke but I’m sure my mullet sportin, Kenny Rogers listening, chili cheese burger lov’in father could make it happen. ( But he might lose the stairs on the RV again)
I may be a child of the 80’s and I may have memories of awesome child hood memory road trips that still to this day leave my mother rocking back and forth and holding herself, but even with all the calamities that ensued road trips are awesome! Especially when you are a kid and you can sleep from Vegas to Grand Junction, Colorado. And also not worry about the cost of gas and dear Lord is that a bison on the highway?
Bison crossing?
It’s easier to be on a road trip when you are a kid and the troubles are minimal (is my iPhone charged? IS MY IPHONE CHARGED?) but when you are an adult the troubles get a lot more worldly,
Sustainably living or going to hell? You decide!
As in we are getting 7 miles to the gallon. I’m pretty sure we are going to environmental hell.
It’s hard to feel like you are saving the environment when you are rolling down the open highway in a vehicle that gets (On a good day) 7 miles per gallon. I love to be Environmentally conscientious as much as the next person but I also love vacations and living the good life in our 35 foot RV. When we hit the open roads of America in our 35 foot Fleetwood RV we try to curtail our carbon footprint as much as possible while still enjoying the caravan lifestyle.
Recycling seems to be the easiest tip but when travelling to different campsites it’s normally not always very convent. On our recent trip through the pacific northwest I was shocked at how many camp sites did not have a place to recycle! I ended up lugging our bags of cans and bottles from camp site to camp site. Luckily we finally stayed at a campsite with recycling near West Yellowstone and I could recycle to my heart’s content! So aside from recycling those cans and bottles how else can you be environmentally Conscientious on s RV road trip?
Install solar panels
The easiest way to help the Earth even as you are getting seven miles to the gallon is to install a few solar panels on your RV. Companies like Outside Supplymake installing solar panels pretty easy. I wouldn’t recommend installing them yourself unless you have experience as an electrician. (But if you do have experience as an electrician you can find the solar panels reasonably priced from WalMart.com orAmazon.
minimize disposable dishes
To help minimize waste and disposable dishes we use plastic cutlery and dishes as much as possible while out on the open road. Sometimes it is a pain in the butt to wash dishes for ten guests when we host a complicated Indian dinner in our tiny RV kitchen but we love our planet so we try. Water consumption may go down when you are not constantly washing dishes but it’s so much waste to be constantly making so much garbage.
Water the forest with grey water
Some camp sites make it legal to dispose of your grey water on plants. Check with your campsite host before doing this as every campsite has different rules and you for sure do not want to do anything illegal while enjoying a summer in the great outdoors. Help keep those outdoor plants green and happy when it’s allowed!
Keep campfires small to minimize pollution
Who does not love having a camp fire whilst camping? I myself relay enjoy relaxing at the end of a day with a cocktail by the campfire but I also love our earth and the smoke a campfire produces is really bad news for the environment. While trying to be environmentally conscientious on a RV trip try to only have a campfire on the colder nights. The earth will thank you later!
collect pet waste
Got poop bags?
No one likes poo. I certainly don’t but one thing you can do while camping is don’t forget the poop bags! Always clean up after Fidos messes and leave your campsite cleaner than you found it! We love our mutts but we don’t love the messes they leave behind!
Select an environmentally friendly tow car
If you are towing a “Toad” as we caravan holograms call our tow cars, try to pick one that is better for the environment. Even if you can’t afford a Prius ( Back to that whole RV getting 7 miles to the gallon again and spending all that money on gas) try to purchase a tow car that gets great gas mileage for your side trips when the RV will be parked.
It’s not easy to go green while RVing but the earth will thank you later! RVing is such a fun lifestyle and really works when you are traveling with all your pets or a big family or lots of friends. Or all of the above as we constantly do. Try to make small improvements in your RV lifestyle to curb your carbon footprint and make your caravan life just a little more environmentally Conscientious.
Shop locally
When we are on the open roads of America we try to buy local and shop at organic markets as much as possible. We try to help out small businesses and shop less at Walmart and more at small town mom and pop stores. When visiting lovely organic friendly Paonia, Colorado we were shocked at the selection of organic cheeses, bakeries and even the farm raised goat leg that we tried. Any time you are on the back roads of America try to visit local farmers markets where the foods are locally produced and super fresh.
When you hear the expression Environmentally Conscientious in an RV some people may roll their eyes but it is actually possible with a little planning and a little money invested to make your rig an earth friendly vehicle. You can go on some fantastic RV friendly road trips and also try to curb your carbon footprint just a bit.
Love our planet and these sustainable ideas? Don’t forget to pin me?
This week I’m linking up once again with these fantastic blog hops!
In the last two years my Indian cooking has gone from three recipes which all kind of revolved on cheap curry powder, Greek yogurt and lime juice to hand grinding my own curry powder with a mixture of fifteen different spices. I’ve ground so many hard things in my Nutri Bullet that the last cinnamon sticks I ground down for curry powder (or homemade garam masala powder, I can’t recall now) cause my Nutri Bullets motor to putter out after five years of grinding up all kinds of delicious goodness in it’s red bullet.
In two years I feel like I have really expanded my horizons from coconut oil, goat cheese and bacon; the three staples in my kitchen in 2014. Don’t get me wrong these are three excellent ingredients but my culinary horizon has definitely widened since I found a sexy brown man of my very own. (who taught me a thing or two about spices)
In a month we are hoping on a plane and taking a ridicules long flight to land of the spices and the worst toilet situations ever.
I’m going to learn to poo in a hole! Yea!
I’m also going to learn a whole lot more about an ethnic cuisine that I find extremely interesting and intriguing.
I can’t wait to be in Kerala South India and try some amazing Indian dishes that you can’t get anywhere else on earth!
But until than I’m in our little mountain town on a breezy day when a cold wind is biting through my Prana sweater off the peaks of San Gorgonio where we have a recent dusting of the first snow of the season. It was 17 degrees when we woke up this morning and this authentic acorn squash curry is going to be delicious on a cold autumn night!
Acorn Squash and Chicken in a South Indian Curry
1 acorn squash, baked skin removed and cut into bite size pieces
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/8 red onion diced very fine
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ginger, minced
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 can coconut milk
1 cup tomatoes
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon gram masala
1-3 serranos, diced
1 lime
1 cup water
Toast the cumin seeds and set aside.
Cook the onion in the coconut oil. Add all the dry spices and the cumin seeds until slightly fragrant. Add the serranos and the tomatoes.
Add the water and let simmer and reduce for thirty minutes. Add the coconut milk, the cinnamon stick and the bay leave. Let simmer twenty minutes. Add the acorn squash and let simmer for ten minutes.
Serve over brown rice with slices of lime and cilantro garnish.
You can also add shredded chicken to this curry if you like a meat option. I would poach the chicken thighs and add them after the spices.
Or maybe it’s because I am oozing germs.
