What I Did Last Summer - Part Three (Wyoming)

I have a strange (or maybe it's not so strange) fascination with Wyoming. I just love those endless fields of scrubby sagebrush. I had the opportunity to see and explore the Snowy Mountain Range in Wyoming last summer from a cabin in Mountain Home, WY on the Colorado border, not far from Laramie. (Notable meal in Laramie: Sweet Melissa's Cafe, found via iPhone app "Urban Spoon." I'm not one to rule out food groups, but this vegetarian restaurant serves up some tasty roasted portabella sandwiches, and pasta with fresh greens.)

After a hearty country breakfast, "the boys" decided they'd go riding on the dirt (borrrrring!), so I opted for my own ride on WY 130, a scenic and fun road near Medicine Bow Peak, aptly named the Snowy Range Scenic Byway. Have you picked up on this yet? If it's a "scenic byway," you know it's going to be good. It was! "I'm going to do this again tomorrow, and THIS time I'm going to take pictures! Yay!"

Except...

When I got back the boys were nowhere to be found, one motorcycle had returned, and one car and trailer was missing. Uh oh. They've had a bit too much fun, and someone's moto didn't quite survive the day. I didn't think too much of it. I left this note and enjoyed a short run on a forest road.



I started thinking a little more of it when I saw not one but two police vehicles emerging from the general direction the boys were riding that day. Turns out one of our crew smashed his leg into a zillion pieces (insert sad-funny trombone sound) and we spent the rest of our week hanging out here:


It's all good, folks!

What I Did Last Summer - Part Two (Grand Teton and Yellowstone)

The Tetons are one of my favorite places on the planet. Teton Trip 2009 included a ride in eastern Idaho, west of both parks, which was until then unknown to me. The Teton Scenic Byway is shockingly beautiful, and has the added bonus of the Seed Potato Capitol of the World, Ashton, ID. Probably every french fry you've ever eaten began its life in this part of the world. This ride was unspeakably beautiful, and I sorely regret not having even one photo. The wind was so fierce that day that I was in danger of toppling over any time I stopped. So fumbling around in my tank bag whilst balancing on tippy toe was just not an option. I'm hoping for another go at it this summer, to include Mesa Falls Scenic Byway, which was under construction at the time. It's supposed to feature "two of the last undisturbed waterfalls of consequence in the US." Whatever that means. All I know is that I want to ride it.

Loaded up at the Tetons!



2009 was the summer of the Buffalo. 2008 it was Moose. What will 2010 bring?


Sunrise at the Jackson Lake Lodge


Peaceful little scenes like this can be overlooked when there are such majestic mountains all around.




I have a love-hate relationship with Yellowstone National Park. Construction delays are inevitable and interminable, crowds can be worse than the mall the Saturday before Christmas, and trying to escape the parking area of "Old Faithful" leaves me kicking myself for entering the park at all. But after one up close and personal big game sighting, or one peek at a steaming, vividly colored, prehistoric hot pool and all is forgiven. At the end of the day, I find myself regretfully passing through the park exit with a lump in my throat.

On this particular trip, I was reminded of both these extremes. I'm willing to bet that, if one is fit enough, an ideal way to see the park would be on bicycle. The stopping and starting to view the attractions (as fascinating as they are) can leave me glazed over in a car, and a bit frustrated on moto (gearing up and gearing "down" are time consuming and tedious). But these stops would be welcome respite over the course of, say, a 40 mile bicycle ride. Perhaps I'll put that on my "bucket list." One week of bicycling through Yellowstone. Until then I'll happily make do with my moto! A few pictures, admittedly from an earlier trip:


Lily pads on the Continental Divide! Who knew? Isa Lake at Craig's Pass.


Canary Springs at Mammoth Hot Springs.



Sapphire Pool at Biscuit Basin

I got to meet my greatest fear on my way home. US 89 was being chip sealed, and was, at the moment I was riding back to UT, a nice bed of deep, loose, and terrifying gravel. I'm downright phobic about setting foot (or tire, I should say) on anything other than terra firma asphalt. Fly along at double the speed limit and I'm hardly breaking a sweat. Set me in front of 20 yards of unpaved road and my heart pounds in terror. If I had to choose between riding a motorcycle across a few yards of gravel road, and jumping out of an airplane using a parachute packed by a three year old, I really would have a tough time picking the lesser evil. Even though riding "off-road" can be tricky, and deep gravel is one of the most difficult surfaces to deal with, the stakes are not very high. Dropping one's bike in such a situation has all the drama of a toddler tipping over a tricycle from a dead stop. Pretty benign and hardly exciting. The only difference is that every inch of the motorcyclist (me) is covered in safety gear designed, tested and certified to high standards to protect the rider in the event of a serious crash. Fear is not always rational, I guess. I'm happy to report I successfully navigated many miles of my personal nemesis, although I think I was emotionally scarred by it.

I was rewarded for my trials by having Logan Canyon completely to myself on the final part of my journey. Forty miles of thrilling sporty goodness! Just as I rounded the corner towards my apartment complex, what did I find? A torn up street covered in gravel! This time I was able to go around most of it. Hah!

What I Did Last Summer - Part One (Utah Scenic Highway 12)

I bought a computer last summer. Which means, for most of the summer, I did not HAVE a computer. Which is why I never told you what I did. Sooo... before THIS summer begins, I'll quickly recap Summer 2009. It began with my realization upon my arrival to Logan, UT, that I had dropped my moto keys over 200 miles back, and was not able to unload it from my trailer without driving an extra 450 miles. Applaud my excellence!

Then I went to Bryce Canyon. Via Bear Lake and the Uintas. (Excellent for real!)


First gas stop near Bear Lake. Cool clouds!



Lots of people think driving across Wyoming is boring. Maybe it's because I'm from CT, but this landscape never fails to amaze me.





Approaching the Unitas! Super-cool, since they have evaded me for a few years in a row, thanks to scheduling snafus and a leaky fuel valve. (Thank you, Steve, for putting together my trailer and driving my car waaaay out to Evanston, WY, to rescue me and my fuel-spewing motorcycle that time... you earned your paella "thank you" dinner many times over!)



Hello Mirror Lake Scenic Byway! Here I am at the top - Bald Mountain Pass. I thought I'd spend the night in the Unitas, but it's not even lunchtime, so I enjoy this fun road and continue on my way. (Plus there's still way too much snow for camping, although this picture doesn't really demonstrate that fact.)



I go. And I go. And I look at the threatening sky and skirt this storm. And that one. Almost 450 miles later, I find myself at Red Canyon campground, right next to Bryce Canyon National Park. Yay! For those not in the know, 435 miles on moto in one day is nothing to sneeze at. It was a record for me, actually. There's no way you can compare it to 435 miles in a car.
No. Way. At. All.

Here's a little walk on the Birdseye Trail at Red Canyon Campground.









The next morning - Bryce Canyon (Natural Bridge and Bryce Point shown here). I've never seen anything like it! Extraordinary! I can't believe I didn't make the time to hike it, but I had more important plans for this trip...






...specifically speaking, the wondrous Highway 12, mecca for motorcyclists the world over. I've been a passenger there before, but this time it was MY turn at the helm. At the other end? Cafe Diablo, fancy, fancy, yummy, yummy food. I have fond memories of their Rattlesnake Cakes, and I was eager for a repeat performance from them.

It rained. A lot. The whole way. Accompanied by the boom and flash of exciting (terrifying?) storms.


Cafe Diabolo was closed.


Sigh. So much for testing my "sport" skills. But my uber-cool rain suit passed with flying colors! So did my until now un-tested riding-in-scary-weather skills! (There'd be more of that in my future, oh yes.) Not so for my makeshift tank bag cover, a.k.a. hotel shower cap. That blew off in, oh, 45 seconds. The fine folks at the Capitol Reef Inn and Cafe supplied me with some satisfying fish and chips and peach pie, along with some replacement hefty bags, which was my keep-the-luggage-dry method at that point. You'll find out why I don't do that any more during "What I Did Last Summer Part Five."

I reach Utah Lake State Park and the skies cleared up to at least let me set up camp in dry weather. The campground host says "Do you have insect repellent? You're going to need it." He wasn't kidding. I did, except the bottle was empty. Again, you may applaud my excellence!

Next stop, Mt. Timpanogos!

Except...

It looked like this:



What's that? You can't see it? My point exactly. The road up Mt. Timpanogos looks like it was made by and for a pack of Shriners. You know, the guys that ride those teeeny tricycles wearing fezes? The road is reeeallly narrow. And reeeallly twisty. Which is, of course, exactly why I wanted to ride it. But not in that weather, no thank you, I'll pass. I'm only so stupid. Or so I thought. I did, basically, just that, on another trip which I'll tell you about later.

Time to head home...

...in the hail.

Hail hurts!

(Part Two coming soon.)


Update: Timpanogos wasn't completely lost to me. I made it there, on a lovely day, about a month later. Here I am!

Chocolate cache in Bisbee, AZ

This month I've taken two geocaching rides to Bisbee, AZ. I love the ride, I love the little town, and the hunt for a geocache gives my ride a "purpose," (as if I need one.) Between my limited budget of late, and a freezer bursting with goodness, I've taken to packing a lunch, and treating myself to something simple, like a darned good espresso from the Bisbee Coffee Company. A couple of weeks ago I found a particularly interesting cache by following this trail of photographic clues. I felt very clever indeed.


A few days ago I found a cache hidden somewhere up here (with the aid of a GPS enabled iPhone and sturdy boots):



Here's the view from the cache site. Lovely!



Bisbee is a popular place, so parking is always a little tricky. I usually park a bit off the beaten path and enjoy the walk. On this last trip, my parking strategy proved worthwhile. Oh happy day! - I found myself directly across the street from micro-chocolatier Gordon Terpening's shop, Chocolate (accent on the a, I've no idea how to do that from this blog interface.) At this lovely boutique, they not only hand make stunningly beautiful and tasty bonbons, but they first make the chocolate itself. By that, I mean they import cacao beans from around the world, and then roast, grind and conch them (a full 60 hours, thank you very much) right in their tiny workroom.

Chocolate, in its original form:

I got to see and taste the cacao nibs themselves, along with dark chocolates made from different varietals from around the world. My favorite? Definitely the Madagascar West African blend. I also had a nice little espresso cup taster of their hot chocolate. Doubting that a wide selection of low melting point treats would survive the trip in my sun heated top case, I had to make my small purchase wisely. The pressure! I opted for an orange chiltipin ganache filled confection to start my day and a dark chocolate rosemary lime treat to end it. Excellent!

Once the goods in my freezer run out, I'm checking out Cafe Roka, also in Bisbee, which I'm told should not be missed.

Bisbee is a town of artists. You can see funky artwork like this on practically every street corner.

A Happy Rider!

I believe in reincarnation

Reheating a plate of last night's leftovers seems to me to be some sort of karmic penance for yesterday's excess. Boring and never as good as the first time around (with a few noteworthy exceptions), I'd almost rather not eat. But transfigure those leftovers to something bigger, better.... well now you've captured my interest. For example, the cake in the picture is filled with leftover chestnut puree that had been taking up real estate in my freezer way too long. I felt very clever when I pulled out individual slices of it for my house guests last week.

I had my work cut out for me this week. I threw an opera party last weekend, and per the usual made, oh, ten times the food I needed. The job ahead of me, to reincarnate the party leftovers, was almost overwhelming even for me. But I did well, if I do say so myself, and now my freezer is bursting with tasty treats and quick meals that I look forward to enjoying over the next few weeks.

The party menu was as follows:

• Pastry spirals filled with either ham/cheese or sweet potato/caramelized onion
• Crostini with toppings: carrot salad, garlicky greens, sagey tuscan white beans, mushrooms with white wine and cream
• One bad ass artichoke dip
• The usual cheese nut and fruit board
• Greek platter with hummous, dressed feta, tapenade, pita
• Meatballs adobada (the goal was a no-silver ware party)
• Dark chocolate truffles with the barest hint of cinnamon and ancho chile
  
• Little "finger sandwiches" of cake filled with Mexican lime curd cream (You might remember said limes from this post. I preserved some curd for later use.)
• Mini turnovers made of my UT blueberries
• In addition, I had some leftover pork loin from earlier in the week, but not enough to turn it into a party item.

So you see, I had a LOT of food to process. Certain things can be tossed in the freezer as is - the turnovers, the pastry spirals, the cake (only a few pieces of each left, anyway.) Somehow they will be more enjoyable when "there's nothing in the house" to eat. Call it Christmas in March. The spinach and feta were a no brainer - Greek pielets. The tapenade? Another pastry spiral to be pulled out of the freezer when I find myself needing something clever without the time to produce it. The artichoke dip is lovely spread on a hot ham sandwich using ham left over from the pastry spiral project. The meatballs were frozen into little portions just right for a spicy taco. The truffles surprised me. I don't feel like a good hostess unless I make something intensely chocolate for my guests, even though I personally prefer the blueberry turnovers. But I guess the rest of my guests agreed, because I have loads of truffles left. Into the freezer they go, and will likely come back out as ganache for a cake. That's what they are made of, in the first place.

The real reincarnation happened with the pork loin and the mushrooms. The mushrooms are now contained within pasta in the form of ravioli. Homemade ravioli are so easy (once they make it to the freezer) and are one of my favorite elegant quick dinners. The pork loin became something I've wanted to make for a long time - char siu bao, or Chinese steamed pork buns. I've made the buns before, but never with pork. Wow - they are good! So much better than the original roast pork. (The roast was a few degrees over done in my opinion, and unless meat is done exactly to my taste, I hardly want to take the trouble to eat it.) I minced and shredded the pork as finely as possible, tossed in some mushrooms (yes, leftover!), added lots of garlic, ginger, soy, a dash of sesame oil, hot sauce and scallions. All this gets tucked into cute little buns of simple bread dough which is then steamed. They grow enormously in the steamer (I never fail to gasp when I open the lid), and come out as the original Wonder Bread (soft and white, but in a good way) with a moist savory surprise within.

What does this have to do with riding? Nothing. I haven't been riding in ages. I wonder if I even remember how. But I am going this Saturday no matter what. And my char siu bao are coming with me.

Turkey Soup for My Soul

My greatest honor to date was making turkey soup for my dying friend Margot. The miracle of soup never fails to amaze me. Throw some old bones into water with a few root vegetables, and a few hours later you have liquid gold. A preview taste of the broth brought a delighted smile to Margot's face and joy to my heart.

All the emotion of the entire weekend was contained in the moment that I, with a lump in my throat, and tears brimming over, tenderly placed a bowl of that soup before her. She took a warm, nourishing spoonful and, in a way only Margot can, wrinkled her nose - no, her entire face - and asked "Is there anything green in this?" Of course! Margot doesn't eat anything that doesn't have spinach or arugula in it. When she lived in Tucson, she had a veritable arugula forest growing in her backyard, just for this purpose.

This memory had flitted through my brain while I was preparing my family's traditional post Thanksgiving meal, but even under these circumstances I was unwilling to change the recipe. Spinach belongs in red soup, not yellow! I had plans to personalize Margot's serving to what I knew her taste to be, but the household greens supply was too well hidden behind the avalanche of holiday leftovers for me to find. Soon thereafter, I became lost in the task of skimming the soup. Later, a second tour of the refrigerator yielded what the first did not. Fresh organic spinach. All was right with the world then, oddly, when in reality, there was nothing right at all in my life. How is it that a visit to a dying friend can be so utterly restorative for me? I was and will always be humbled by the quiet moments I spent with her during Thanksgiving 2009.

Thank you, Margot. I love you!

Margot died peacefully in her home Saturday afternoon (December 26), surrounded by her loved ones.

Turkeys, Crocodiles and Solonoid Valves

Back in the innocent days when I actually thought I'd be riding to the Black Mesa Ranch and Goat Cheese Dairy, I though it unfortunate that our CSA "field trip" to Josh's Foraging Fowl fell on the same weekend. But the ride to Josh's Foraging Fowl is far from exciting, whereas the ride to Black Mesa is all one could ask for and more, so the choice was clear. Plus, the trip to Josh's would be easier to schedule later. Well, you may remember that my little trip to northern Arizona did not work out as planned. If you missed that exciting story, see here and here.

It pained me greatly to set out in the car to Josh's, but I managed. It helped a teeny tiny bit that the route is not very exciting. I wasn't missing too much in the way thrilling riding. Still, it hurt.

While you might see the term "free range" quite often in the grocery store, it's not quite what you think it is. Often, it means that the birds have access to the outdoors for a portion of their bizarrely accelerated lives. But there is no mention of what this "outdoor" environment is, nor the fact that the birds, having lived their first few weeks locked up in a warehouse, are often unconditioned to the outdoors and do not exercise their so called free range privilege. Josh's birds live in real pastures, scratch and forage naturally, and, for this reason give eggs that are incomparable to any egg you might buy in a grocery despite an organic and/or free range label. The birds themselves are pretty dang tasty, too, and have become "special occasion" fare in my household. Three cheers for Josh, who brings us not just chicken, eggs, and turkey, but grass fed beef as well.

I resist the temptation to put up too many pictures of fowl, but I can't help but share this one movie clip of our future Thanksgiving dinners storming the alfalfa field. Funny, they sound like barking dogs. And, unlike chickens, they rush towards you when you approach them, rather than scatter away.

Even if I had immediately diagnosed the problem with my motorcycle (which I decidedly did not), I still would not have made it to Black Mesa Ranch. As it turned out, I needed a solonoid valve, or, as Kawasaki cleverly disguises it in their parts diagrams, the "magnetic switch." The part was not in stock anywhere in Tucson. I did happen to learn that it was in stock in San Antonio, however, and still in the "I'm doing whatever I want this weekend, because I'm so sad I missed my trip" mode, and airfare being low, I decided it prudent to fly there to pick it up and settle for being a motorcycle passenger. I saved so much money not having the part shipped to me! While collecting my magnetic switch at the shop, I had to the good fortune to meet "Clutch" the Chihuahua pup.





One must have Barbecue whilst in Texas. Here's the spread at the Coopers' Barbecue I've written about before, this time the New Braufels location.



No trip to New Braunfels would be complete without a visit to the Snake Farm. (???) Here, in addition to viewing any number of exotic snakes (why?), you can:

watch large numbers of crocodiles rush the guy feeding them (the alligators are much more polite),

(movie clip too big to load, use your imagination)



see just how strong a snapping turtle's jaw really is (Answer: very),



and, of course, pet goats! So I did get my goat fix, after all.