Whitefish Lake and the Secret Indian Fishing Chant

Posted on May 25, 2011 by W&W Mudd

We kept hearing about the fabulous Lake Trout fishing on Whitefish Lake, and decided to dedicate one day of our week taking a shot at them. Not knowing the area, we first set out a strategy to get some local knowledge, where to fish, what to use, when to fish, that sort of stuff. We got lots of opinions, and the trick with local knowledge is to sort out the gold from the garbage. We were well into our knowledge quest when I stumbled upon an ancient Indian in a bait shop. There are lots of Indians around here, mostly from the Flathead Tribe. Anyway, this old leathery guy imparts to me that he’s a Tribal Elder that holds authority over much of the tribal fishing lands. And, just because I’m a real nice guy, he gives me the dirt on how to nail Mackinaws on Whitefish Lake.

“I always use our ancient fish harvesting chant”, says he. “It never fails me”. So, figuring I’ve hit the mother lode I ask him to teach it to me. I was fascinated. Not only do we get to spend a week in this most beautiful of National Parks, we get a personal lesson of Indian Lore to boot!

Whitefish Lake from Les Mason State Park

Well-armed with bait and chant, we set out on our own harvest, anticipating just how wonderful that fresh trout would taste for dinner. Because Whitefish is mostly a high-dollar resort area, access to the lake is pretty limited, but we found our way to Les Mason State Park and set to it. 

Wendy fishing (and chanting) at Whitefish Lake
“Ta keet a’el dag, Ki nah al wat…….”

You can catch some of the live action here at the Whitefish Highlight Reel. Anyway, we got skunked I couldn’t believe it. We had the right bait, were fishing at the right time, and according to the Camp Host we were fishing in a spot that produced lake trout for the past 2 days. And we had the magic chant! At least I thought we had the magic chant. I’m rethinking that chant thing. After a little further study, and some advice from yet another passing Indian in the State Park, we may have mis-interpreted the chant. In the Flathead language it goes like this: 

            “Ta keet a’el dag, Ki nah al wat, Wan’e co’na um kialeh pow’rbate”

 Which, according to Chief Big Heels at the State Park translates as:

“Big fat fish, don’t make me wait, Come and bite my PowerBait”

Does anyone else out there believe this translation? Or do you have a better one? I’m hoping someone can send along a chant that works before we blast out of here, cause this one was as big a turkey as this one we saw outside the bait shop.

This Turkey should be named Indian Chief Fishing Chant
And then there’s Tippy! Don’t forget to scroll down past the “About W&W Mudd” and “Like” our blog!
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Armchair Tour of Wells Nevada

Posted on May 17, 2011 by W&W Mudd

When Warren set out our route to get to Glacier National Park he was looking for stopping points that were between 300 and 400 miles apart.  That’s how we ended up in Wells, NV…population around 1,300 at an elevation of 5,600 ft. smack in the middle of nowhere!  There’s even a sign on I-80 that bills it as “halfway to everywhere”. But we’re here for 4 days so we figured we’d make the best of our situation. Angel Lake RV promised big-rig-friendly pull through spots, high speed internet, full 50 amp hook-ups, cable TV, great reviews and a great price. It doesn’t look like much but their services are as good as billed, and check out our view.

Angels Lake RV does a great job at a really great price!

One of many spectacular views from our camp site

Just a few miles short of Wells, we were tickled to see that northern Nevada has their own high rent district. There wasn’t any sign of a town, and we speculated that the local boys were at one point fond of Beverly’s hills and gave her a personal off ramp. 

Notice the bullet holes city slickers!

For those who might think poorly of Wells, we’re here to change your thinking. So, in this installation of the Muddscape we take you on an armchair tour of the garden spot of northeastern Nevada. For starters our accommodations were rugged but very sufficient. 

Not too fancy, but great utilities and internet!

We ran into a bit of bad luck when the wind whipped open the driver’s door on the truck and sprung the hinges. It would close, but it wouldn’t open more than about 2”. So we spent the first morning here fixing that while the weather was reasonably warm. If you even care, you can check out the details at our Unspringing the Chevy Door blog. Once that job was done, we filled the tank ($3.78 a gallon!) and headed off for a 100 mile loop tour around the area. Wells is the jumping off point for Angels Lake, one of the premier fishing lakes in the western states. But at this time of year the road has about 4 feet of snow on it so we settled for some lower elevation driving. 100 miles sounds like a long distance, but at 85 mph it goes pretty quickly. We saw a total of 4 cars for 98 miles of the trip, and only exceeded the posted speed limit by 10 mph. 

The Great Basin is cow country!

The Great Basin surrounded by snow capped mountains

One of many working ranches in The Great Basin

To get your oriented correctly for the city tour, here’s the map they offer up on their website at www.wellsnevada.com. That’s right folks, Wells in on the internet! 

Wells is a rugged, scrappy little city full of people with the pioneer spirit. It has a huge supply of motels on the main drag, which I suspect are fully booked during the deer and elk hunting season. It has dozens of fishing streams, lakes, and reservoirs that yield, we are told, giant brown trout, large rainbow trout, and black bass. We are going to test that theory while we’re here. In 2009 there was a 6.3 earthquake that devastated the main part of the city, and it looks like they started to clean it up but abandoned it due to the economy.  

The old Main Drag on Front Street

Wells is at the junction of I-80, which is the main route between Reno and Salt Lake City, and State Road 93, which runs north and south and is the main route to Idaho Falls and Pocatello. There is a big Flying J truck stop at that intersection which has great people watching because truckers and road-trippers from all over are constantly coming and going. We saw some very interesting vehicles here in just the short time it took to gas up the truck. There were 2 very customized cars with racing numbers on them, a Dodge Viper and a highly modified Porsche that I think were on their way to the dry lake south of town. And there was this little beauty of a trailer custom built for a Harley. 

Check out the caboose on this baby!

And what tour of a northern Nevada cow town would be complete without a stop at the Red Light District? See the city map above for the location, it’s a tiny circle on the outskirts. It’s on the other side of the tracks, of course, and is accessible only via a dirt road.  

It's across the tracks and down a really nice dirt road

When we drove down the road what looked like the mayor and some of the town council boys were out there with a road grader keeping it in good shape. There were 2 “Gentlemen’s Clubs”, Donna’s and Bella’s. We couldn’t make up our mind which was more charming, they both had their qualities. Bella’s clearly had a more modern and polished exterior with a fancy neon sign, but we think Donna has her beat with her 130 plus years of upstanding service to the community.  

You have to love that neon sign!

 

130 Years of Upstanding Service to the Community

This is a major trucking route, and business is apparently good. There are even billboards along I-80 that announce “Truckers Welcome”. While we could clearly see why there was room for more than one bordello, we wondered a little at how Bella’s got her start. Maybe Bella was once one of Donna’s girls but wanted a bigger piece of the action? Why don’t you take a shot at your theory and let us know in the comments section? 

We are enjoying our stay out here “halfway to everywhere”. Although the RV park is between the interstate and the railroad tracks, we don’t really hear either. The weather is on the cold side and windy at times. And we are getting snow as I write this. But when it clears and the sun comes out it’s really pretty. The air is very fresh (and crisp), the water is cold and clean, and the people are very friendly. The owner of the park is a nice lady, and her father (who works here with her) has been fishing and hunting these parts his whole life. We are going to get some local knowledge out of him later and use that to see if we can’t fish up some of those tasty big trout they keep talking about.

Tippy has a word or two also. And don’t forget to scroll down below “About W&W Mudd” and give us a big old click on the “Like” button! We are getting noticed because of all those clicks, so thanks!

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Unspringing the Chevy Door

Posted on May 16, 2011 by W&W Mudd

We made our stop in Wells Nevada on a very very windy day. When we pulled into a gas station we were unfortunately headed downwind and the wind grabbed the door out of my hand and whipped it open. Boom! a sprung hinge. I got it closed, but it wouldn’t open. So now what?

Wendy jumped online and quickly found a blog that described what someone did to fix the door of their Chevy Impala. It even had sketches and a few photos. I took the hint and went looking for something more specific to a Chevy Silverado. After consulting several more blog sites, I decided the first thing I would try is the old “jam the hinge and unjamb the door” trick. This is where you open the door (if you can), insert some sort of block into the hinge, and gently slam it a few times to bend back the stuff that got bent when it swung too far out. 

The symptom for my door was that it was popped out about 1/16” away from the centerline of the truck, that is the door got “wider”.

The door sprung out just a tiny bit, enough to jam

When I tried to open the door, the leading edge hung up on the trailing edge of the fender. I didn’t want to scratch or bend either of them, so I decided to try a little persuasion. I applied painters tape to both edges to act as both a protectant and a lubricant when I tried to get them to slide by each other. Painters tape has a waxy surface, so I thought it might help.  I used a screwdriver in the gap and gently pried and pushed until the door slid open. 

Painters tape applied so it wraps into the gap

 

Painters tape and a screwdriver let the door slide by the fender

Once the door was open I could examine the two hinges to see what bent. In this case it looked like both the hinges on the top and bottom pulled a little away from the jamb and door.

Upper hinge at jamb side before the fix

 

Door side Upper hinge before the fix

I needed something that was a little smaller than the open gap in the hinge. I tried a couple of sockets from my wrench kit, but they were either too short or too long. I settled for the head of my mini-crescent wrench. Perfect! I jammed it into the gap of both hinges, first at the top of the top hinge, then the bottom of the bottom hinge, then the bottom of the top, and finally the top of the bottom. A few gentle pulls toward me on each jam did the trick. Pull gently at first, then check the clearance of the door and fender, then pull some more if it needs it. You’ll get the feel of it pretty quickly.   

The head of the wrench goes into the hinge gap

 

Pull gently at first, then more firmly if needed

It went amazingly quick. Before I knew it there was a noticeable improvement in the hinges, mostly from bending back the sheet metal of the jambs. They fit much better. And the door opened and closed smoothly.

 

After the "Unsprong" jamming

This is such an easy fix it’s hard to believe that a body shop might get a few hundred bucks for it and keep your vehicle for a day or two. In fact, two of the online blogs described this procedure as a routine door adjustment on the Toyota assembly line at the NUMMI plant in Fremont California. If it’s good enough for Toyota, it’s good enough for me! The tools needed? Here’s more than what I needed! 

I really only needed the Mini Crescent Wrench

Tippy (remember he has NO opposable thumbs) still has a little to offer here. And don’t forget to scroll down below the “About W&W Mudd” and give us a “Like”! Our page rank has gotten the interest of Woodall’s, one of the best RV organizations around!

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Ah Memories! The Chilnualna Falls Hike

Posted on May 15, 2011 by W&W Mudd

After spending a day last week hiking shoulder-to-shoulder with a swarm of tourists in Yosemite Valley we were hungry for a beautiful hike “far from the madding crowds”. 

The Yosemite Sardine Can

Of course, all of the falls were incredible as a result of huge snow fall in the area (see the Waterworks blog) but some solitude was what we were craving. 

Huge High Country Snowpack in Yosemite

Luckily, I remembered a hike I had done many times as a child and we wouldn’t have to drive the extra 30 miles to the Valley. Wawona is located just four miles from the South entrance on the way to Yosemite. This is where my family went every year for our 5 day vacation. It had to be in September because the only time dad could close the bakery was during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It meant taking a few days off of school but that wasn’t a problem back then. We stayed in a small two room cabin; all seven of us managed to share the one bathroom.

 
The 5 Day Vacation Cabin at Wawona

Elaine, Robert, Julie and I could go off and explore without a worry. There were swings, the river, lots of pine cones and it was always a thrill to see the first deer show up at our door…usually as dad was tending the barbeque. Before shuttles came to be, we actually drove to Yosemite and all around the valley making many stops to see the waterfalls and check out the water levels. In September the water levels were so low we could wade in the river.  Oops, I seem to have gotten myself back to another time – where was I going with this?  Oh yeah, the hike. I don’t know how he did it but dad managed to talk all of us into going on this very long hike to see a waterfall. Fifty some years ago I just remember being hot, tired and going back and forth on this very steep trail to get to some small pools of water at the very top. When I mentioned the hike to Warren, my thought was that I wanted to see if the hike was every bit as difficult as I remembered. Our spirit was good as we started the steep assent on this beautiful spring day but the ol’ bods took a mighty beating from this very strenuous trail. I didn’t remember the hike as it was but that’s because the beginning was very different with the amount of water we heard, saw and felt as cooling mist… and the granite staircases – so many steps! My sister, Elaine, confirmed that there were no granite stairs when we hiked years ago. We started the 8.2 mile hike at 11:15. 

The start of the Chilnualna Falls Trail
  
The lowest cascade at the trail start

The hike was labeled as strenuous and steep and lived up to all of that. We took our time, catching our breath while taking many photos of numerous falls along the trail. We had to cross over water about 5 or 6 times where side falls were flowing, but it was manageable. 

One of many small and seasonal side waterfalls

There was a lot of evidence of some of the big winter storms. Wendy stands in the gap cut through a big redwood that fell over the trail. The fresh cut redwood smelled great! 

A freshly fallen redwood

She also found a miniature cedar forest growing inside the hollowed out trunk of a much larger cedar felled many years ago.  

A Cedar Forest Diorama

And here’s one of a gnarly old oak that will someday get a gap cut into it after it falls over the trail. 

A very old and gnarly Oak

And a massive Sugar Pine that will probably stand for a few more  hundred years. 

Massive (but not old yet!) Sugar Pine

After a long 2 ½ hours we reached the staircase that leads to the top of the falls, and the climb proved worth it. 

The climb to the top of the falls

Chilnualna Falls

I think the photos say it all! We returned to the truck at 3:20 and almost forgot how much our knees and feet hurt as we ate our lunch reclining on the white Adirondack chairs outside of the historic Wawona Hotel. A perfect ending to our beautiful day. You can see a video highlight reel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyBMXOgBOkI. And don’t forget to scroll down a little more for Tippy, and then below the “About the Authors” to “Like” our blog!

Wawona Adirondacks

And, of course, even though he doesn’t do TOO much hiking, Tippy has some hiking tips!
 
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The Ultimate Mother’s Day Treat

Posted on May 8, 2011 by W&W Mudd

I had a real tough time coming up with a clever gift for Wendy on Mother’s Day until I had a real epiphany. What mother wouldn’t just JUMP at the opportunity to recoat the roof of an RV with EPDM liquid rubber! This could explain why Wendy is my third wife, but I still think this is really “the gift that keeps on giving”.

This is really a technical blog, full of tips on roof maintenance for other RVers, so we will understand if you click away now and wait for our next installment. But, you never know if there might be a little gem buried in among the maintenance lessons, do you? And don’t forget to check out Tippy. And if you REALLY like us, skip to the bottom and click the “Like” button. We’re still trying to climb the ladder to the top of the Google search page…

Our roof was in dire shape. The previous owner had coated over it with a cheap paint, and last winter had really torn it up. It was blistered and peeling off in giant sheets. So we bit the bullet and decided it needed to be redone before it started leaking. 

BEFORE: Winter had really taken its toll

The estimate to have it done by someone else was about $3700, so we researched doing it ourselves and found it to be much more affordable. Because it was so much cheaper we decided to use the best stuff we could get, and EPDM Liquid Rubber from Pro Guard Coatings was the same material as our factory rubber roof. Tip: research all of the companies selling this product, we bought from one offering free shipping and saved a bunch of dough. 

You will need this stuff as well as the EPDM material

We gave it a little forethought and made a list of the tools and things we would need to get the job done. And we decided in advance that it was all going to be disposable since the cleanup promised to be a real bear. Two buckets, one with a pour spout, 2 squeegees (12″ and 16″), a pole for the larger squeegee, some painters tape, a paint mixing wand, a couple of 2″ brushes, a 5 pack of disposable gardening gloves (the type with rubber palms, ours cost $5 for 5 pairs), a big box of cloth/paper rags (at Lowe’s, $10 for a box of 200), and DON’T FORGET THE MINERAL SPIRITS. The only stuff that will really get the goo off of you.

Doing the roof is a 3 step process. First we had to strip off the old coating. Luckily it peeled off in big chunks so this whole part only took 2 hours. Next, we had to scrub the roof with a light soapy water solution, and this had to be done the night before. That only took us an hour. And then, because the weather was forecast to be a little cooler, we jumped out of bed on Mother’s Day and got right to it. A final sweep to clear off a few leaves, masking tape on the rain gutters to keep them from getting clogged up, and we then pre-mixed the EPDM with the catalyst. Because it was only about 60 degrees outside, we mixed in the catalyst and let it all sit for about 2 hours before applying. On a day warmer than 70 degrees, one hour of sitting after mixing is sufficient, but make it at least 1 hour.

 The material has a very long working time at 65-75 degrees. We mixed at about 8:30AM and finished about 12:30PM, and the remaining goo still had plenty of work time left in it. The liquid stops setting up below 50 degrees, so if you need to you can immerse cans or buckets of mixed material in an ice bath or your refrigerator to keep it workable for hours, days, even weeks.

We also remembered the rule about not painting yourself into a corner. Start at the front and work back toward the ladder! Wendy used a brush to cut in all of the vents and stuff on the roof, and also to edge the perimeter. I poured the material onto the roof in puddles and used a 16” squeegee attached to a 5’ pole to spread it. The instructions indicate that you can also use a roller, but I found the squeegee to be great at flowing the material onto the flat surfaces. You can push the puddle of goo away from you, and pull it toward you. Slow even strokes with some down pressure keeps the materrial flowing, and it just coveres the bare surface great! Our rig is 36’ long, and has 4 slides that also needed their roofs coated. 2 of the slides are 72” wide and 40” deep, and the other 2 are 72” X 20” deep. We purchased 6 gallons of Liquid Rubber and had well over ½ gallon left when we were done.  By the way, we bought the Liquid Rubber instead of the Liquid Roof. Liquid Roof is advertised specifically for RV roof coating, but the Liquid Rubber is exactly the same material, and without the RV name on the label it’s about $100 cheaper.

Cuttting in the front edge with a brush

Cut in anything going through the roof

Cut in the edges

At last, the finished product

Clean up was pretty easy. All of the stuff we bought for the application got thrown away after the material hardened. Using the disposable gloves kept a lot off of us, and mineral spirits worked like a charm on us and the roof ladder. 

The ladder, of course, bore the brunt of the mess

It took the 2 of us about 3 hours total (not counting the time the mixed material sat) to finish the coating part of the job. The peeling of the old coat was about 2 hours, and the scrub job was 1 hour. So we invested about $450 in materials ($350 for the Liquid Rubber, $100 for squeegees, paint brushes, buckets, painters tape, mineral spirits, disposable gardening gloves, disposable rags, and a mixing wand) and 6 hours of our time, including clean up, to save about $3200.

 There are lots of videos on applying Liquid Rubber on YouTube. And we put up some more of this job at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKNgsZ4LHyM.

Tippy doesn’t have opposable thumbs, so he couldn’t help us with this job. But he sure knows where to get the information to get it done!

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For all the Moms on Mothers Day

Posted on May 7, 2011 by W&W Mudd

First and foremost, Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms of the world! We all know who’s in charge, don’t we? To honor OUR moms we’ve posted up a couple of classic photos of Lil and Jane.

This one’s of Lil as a very young child. Quite the charmer!
 
 
 
 And here’s Jane as a young mom.
 

It doesn’t really matter how young or old our moms look in a photo, they never change in our hearts. They are made a mom in an instant, and they remain that way forever. And forever is a long, long time.

Lil has been gone for nearly 8 years now, but we still tell stories about how kind she could be to anyone who walked in the house, and how wickedly crafty she could be if you were sitting across the card table from her. Her kitchen was always open, and even if every scallop she ever cooked came out like a hockey puck, she never failed to put something good and yummy on the table. Her memorial was a thing to remember (such a crowded house that day!), and we all swear we can hear her pounding out the news on the family drum line like she so frequently did. 

Lil, Marion, Ruth, Dora, & Jeanette

 Jane still rules the roost in Escondido. My mom is the only person I know who has had more addresses than me. She ran our family a bit like a drill instructor mostly because she had to. She had enough boys to fill out a basketball team, and my only sister became the default cheerleader. I can’t imagine raising that many kids and keeping my sanity. 

Morgan, Mary, Emma & Jane

 Happy Mother’s Day. We love you.

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Yosemite Waterworks Cinco de Mayo ’11

Posted on May 6, 2011 by W&W Mudd

Our little trek to Yosemite yesterday was pretty darn spectacular. Of course, when spring is in the air, then everything is under repair, there. We’re used to seeing lots of road repair and tree removal, especially after the major winter the area had. But it’s still just as beautiful as ever! (except for the old guy standing in front of our camera).

I can never resist stopping for The Tunnel View

Don’t miss the link to our video farther down!

Our goals were two-fold: get a little exercise and fresh air, and check out how much water was pouring down from the snow pack. But, as it always is with our National Parks, we got so much more. We got stopped 3 times on the drive in for road repair crews, and this cut into the hiking time so we decided to concentrate our energies on just 2 treks. The first was a short but steep walk up to Vernal Falls. We weren’t thinking too much about the fact that we had gained a bit of altitude just being in Yosemite until we got about half way up the 1000 foot rise. Wow, what a climb! Luckily it’s a wide, paved trail with easy access, and you get some excellent natural air conditioning when you hit the bridge/view area.

That stream behind Wendy is usually a quiet little creek

 We also spotted Illilouette Fall from the Vernal Falls Trail. It’s usually hidden with a small flow, but it peaks in May, especially with the winter snow pack, and was running like a water cannon!

  

Illilouette Falls coming out of her shell for the spring

 Although we saw a ton of road repair, and it seemed like there were trees cut down virtually everywhere, for the first time ever we saw some trail repair going on. With all of the heavy run off, there was lots of trail erosion, so crews of forest service folks were busy cracking granite into chunks and hammering them into place.

These guys break rocks with their bare hands (sort of!)

And what trip to Yosemite would be complete without a beautiful panoramic photo of YosemiteFalls?

Yosemite Falls looks really dramatic in the spring

Check out the 2 minute highlight reel on YouTube (sound effects say it all!), (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8fHyqRIRXE). Don’t forget to scroll down and “Like” our post, and of course Tippy has to put his $.02 in!

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Spring is in the Air

Posted on May 4, 2011 by W&W Mudd

Aah, the smells and sounds of spring are in the air here in the Sierra foothills. We’re camped at one of our all-time favorite parks, Park Sierra SKP in Coarsegold CA. And at this time of year, the smells here are a luscious blend of flora and fresh air. And the sounds are all those you would want of a spring in the foothills: the chirp of the birds, the hammering of the woodpeckers, the buzz of the bees, the whirr of the swarm of golf carts going here-and-there, and an occasional hoot or howl from some form of wildlife. And then there are the weed whackers.

We arrived last Sunday and requested our favorite spot (#436 for those of you who might come to visit). It was available OK, but alas was scheduled for weed removal that was not yet complete. But wait! We can do that! What fun to have some real farming to do! So we happily accepted the overgrown site because it’s one of our very favorites, and promised like Boy Scouts to make our way to the utility shed to check out a couple of Stihl FSE 60’s, the tool of choice for the “occasional” weed trimmer.

The job was just a WEE bit larger than we imagined, but we rolled up our sleeves, stretched out the extension cords, and attacked. This particular site is about 100′ wide and about 90′ deep, with slopes on two sides that lead to the wonderful gully that anchors our privacy here. The weeds went from 24″ high to 3″ high in about 2 hours.

The Easy Part – Patio Edging
Watch it – She’s got a Weed Whacker!
The Reward – A beautiful Camp Site

Buzz buzz, whir whir, whack whack. And then, silence. The photos show us in action, and our reward, the beautifully landscaped site we will call home until May 14. So now we can kick back in silent splendor, well except for the OTHER weed whackers that buzz around for about 5 hours a day, and enjoy some beautiful late spring weather while we plan our travels to Glacier National Park.

 
Of course, Tippy always has SOMETHING to add, and don’t forget to scroll down and “Like” this page. We’re still climbing our way to the top of the Google search listings. And do us ONE MORE special favor. If you belong to Facebook (and you can always join just for this) navigate your way to http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Vintage-Fashion-Tips/199767710047295 and click the “LIKE” button. This way my Mom can get her cool URL for the fan page that will help us to sell her vintage sewing pattern collection so she can feed her cats.
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Gastropalooza II was a HUGE sucess!

Posted on April 28, 2011 by W&W Mudd
 

We traveled to San Diego yesterday for Gastropalooza II, a day devoted to fine dining and friendship. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive each way, but well worth it! This is the second time that the Hartwell’s home has been the “G” spot (so to speak), and the garden was in full bloom for our feast. Fresh sweet peas and green beans, tender young green onions, a huge variety of salad greens, beets (with greens), and even a couple of artichokes donated from our niece Morgan’s garden all complimented the super sauted scallop salad that Frankie and Wally found on one of their favorite food shows, “Mexican Made Easy”. Add in grilled tiger shrimps and take us to heaven! But none of this got properly started until Wally rendered a round of Hartwell Pure Citrus Margaritas. Well, to be honest, he insured his success by starting everyone with shots of Milagro tequila. Which were downed while everyone drooled over his platter of fixin’s.

Wally’s Fruitopalooza Pure Citrus Margarita Fixins

 Take all of this stuff and add in Cabo Wabo, Cointreau, Grand Marnier and fresh squeezed lime juice and KABOOM!, it magically transforms into the Hartwell Pure Citrus Margarita!

The Hartwel Pure Citrus Margarita

 Frankie’s Kitchen is a true delight. It just LOOKS like good stuff to eat long before there has been any cooking done. Everyone is invited to jump into the preparation, and when just the right amount of Milagro’s and Hartwell Pure Citrus is poured into the crew a Gastropalooza jumps out of the pans and onto the plates! It’s a magical thing to see.

Frankie’s Kitchen – Gastropalooza II Central

 This happy group is about to chow down on the perfect early dinner for a very warm San Diego day. The salad contained fresh cut greens (don’t ask how many different kinds), scallops sauteed in a citrus anato marinade (which was also used to dress the salad), sugar sprinkled avocados grilled until carmelized, and grapefruit wedges. The tiger shrimp were also marinated in the anato sauce and grilled hot and fast. We warmed up our taste buds on grilled baby green onions and green beans, which were perfect just drizzled with olive oil and sea salt, and fresh garden peas and roasted artichokes with a small ranch dressing to dip.

The Dining was definitely Fine

 Of course, there is ALWAYS dessert. We somehow missed taking pictures of these, and I attribute that to the Hartwell Pure Citrus hand grenades. There was a “really homely but totally delicious” layer cake from Barbara, and Piggy Cake Pops from Wendy. If you are interested in cake pops, visit Morgan and her tutorial at The Little Hen House.

The Gastropaloozites

 A GREAT time was had by all, our thanks to Frankie and Wally, Barbara and Joe, and Mary and Jeff. We thought of each of you, and how nice it must have been to put your head on your pillow, as we make the long trek back to the rig in LA.

And now, don’t forget to “Like” this post so Hartwell gets his props. Oh yeah, and Tippy has a thing or two to say about things!

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The Road Ahead – Spring 2011

Posted on April 25, 2011 by W&W Mudd

We’ve been camped here in Northridge for over 3 weeks, and it’s getting close to time to move on. We tried to negotiate one more day (Sunday May 1) onto our stay but the park here can’t accomodate us. After all, it’s the start of the rv travel season, and folks are on the move!

Speaking of on the move, I have just finished getting our route planned that will take us to Depoe Bay for Rachel and Greg’s wedding at the end of July. Some juggling was done to our original plan to visit the Tetons during this time when we were informed that nothing really opens in the Tetons until early June when they can plow the area out and open the campgrounds. So we put a detour into the plan and are headed instead to Glacier National Park. I think we’ll be happy we did, the pictures we have seen from the internet are fabulous. We will be sure to post a bunch while were up there.

For those of you who are interested in seeing where we will be blogging from over the next 3 months, here’s a graphic of our plan.

So, we’re all welded back together. We’ve gotten the family visit tank refilled. We’ve eaten more than about a million calories of holiday and birthday food. Our tans have started to recover after our winter up north. And the temperature has stayed above 40 for almost a full month! We have a few more events to attend to (Gastropalooza II in San Diego, Dana’s Birthday dinner in Valley Village, The Cake Pop Class, and a final clean up and rig prep, this time with a full check of the undercarraige added to the pilot’s stroll around the beast) and then we’re on the road again.

Don’t forget to register for email updates, and look below the authors box to “Like” this page. I Googled “mudd rv” this morning, and we got 2 of the top 10 listings out of 1,260,000 found, that’s “Above the Fold on Page 1” in search parlance! With your help by clicking that little “Like” box, we could be top dogs! I don’t think it pays much, but it sure would be fun hitting the top of page 1 just once!

And, of course, here’s Tippy!

                                                   

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