Short... But Sweet!

I really don't have a whole lot to say about Dungeness Crab - I mean, if you really want to know all the species, habitat, and entomology stuff etc etc- google it!  Here, in this post, in sunny Southern California, we buy them at a supermarket (on sale $4.99 a pound) previously cooked. 

This guy (literal) was about 2 pounds so.... former math teacher that I am .... about $10.00 worth give or take.  IT, along with a fresh endive salad with Crimini mushrooms, green onion, and tomatoes is more than enough to satisfy me - and that is going some.  I suppose there are some that would reheat and eat with melted butter (OK.. drawn butter if you're in a tablecloth restaurant and paying $29.00 for it) but I prefer it just as it is purchased - cold.  Although hard to see in the picture, I sprinkle Bay Seasoning all over the shell before eating.  So you might ask..."why season the shell, you're not going to eat it right"?  That is true enough, but you do eat Dungeness with your hands... your hands touch the shell during dissection, the seasoning transfers to your hands, and as you pick and eat the meat... well... you get it right?  The two dips pictured are regular cocktail sauce and the other is white vinegar with a bit of Bay Seasoning.
Those of you that know me, know that I would prefer to buy (preferably catch) the little monsters live and cook them myself.   Perhaps those options are available down here in SoCal - we haven't seen them locally.  As we move further up the left coast I assure you that there will be a "Crab Boil" post.

Mange!

Before I get on with it... I have finally figured out what to do about the clicking on the picture thing.  If you click on a picture, a new window will open with a large view of that picture.  I won't guarantee that I will REMEMBER how to do it.. but for this post, you can click!

The Ortega Highway (CA 74) winds through the mountains Easterly to Westerly from the Lake Elsinore Valley to San Juan Capistrano, CA.

Here is the Eastern entrance to The Ortega Highway.  After "The Pineapple Express" blew through last week, the road was closed due to numerous mud slides - the traffic cones you see surround a portable highway message board that read something like this ... Ortega Closed beyond Candy Street. 

In the earliest beginnings, the highway was nothing more than Indian footpaths, and a fire trail along the creek.

The earliest visionaries saw it as a highway to the Pacific Ocean.

Some of these words are from http://www.theortegahighway.com/OrtegaHighwayHistory.html.   I wasn’t denied use of this opening summary, but I didn’t exactly go through any labors to seek permission either. I do believe there is enough “me” in it to assign a very low value of plagiarism. The rest of the text is all me – as will be obvious.

Here is the view of Lake Elsinore (and Valley) with snow capped mountains in the background from the 1st pull out on the Ortega.  Becky and I both are very familiar with the California Highways that cross the mountains from The Silicone Valley up in the San Francisco area over to the Half Moon Bay area on the Pacific. 
 

 
Some of the geography is the same as those Northern passes, but some is completely different as the pictures above and below show.  Then again, if you have never been on those Bay Area passes you really wouldn't know the difference.
 

We have this view from our RV... well... the mountain is bit further off  but I did notice these folks our first day in the park.

They are not "hang gliding" or "sky diving" in the traditional sense yet their lift mechanisms look like standard parachutes.  I guess without any research I would call what they are doing... "para-sailing".  I have to check that out and determine if I have just invented a word / sport, or if that is actually what the sport is.  I know for sure they were catching "thermals" and "updrafts off the mountain.

Somewhere near the midpoint of the drive, between San Juan Hot Springs and Lakeland Village we stopped at a country store that, among much other stuff, sells wild game jerky - I have never had Elk Jerky so I paid an outrageous amount for a little vacuum packed bag.  It is really good by the way. 

Where was I... oh yeah, across the street from the country store is a "biker bar" - the message on the board outside the place speaks for itself!

I never did consider myself very good at sketching, drawing, painting etc.  Matter of fact most all forms of art have escaped me.  But in a sense, this picture I took could very well take an award at some symbolic form of nude art photography. 

 I took the picture because of the two "mounds" in the background - I admit it freely.  Come on!  They look like boobs - right?  It wasn't until I downloaded or uploaded (whatever) the pictures into the computer that I noticed the bush in the foreground and the overall subtle implication.  That's all I have to say about that!

Now then... Becky thought I was nuts when I asked her to take this picture.  It is our first view of the Pacific.  Those of you that have been following our sojourn know that we departed Bar Harbor, ME in the middle of October and took a rather zig-zagged course here to CA.  Well, I thought the first peek at the Pacific was rather exciting.

San Juan Capistrano is a beautiful town near the coast.  I am not sure if "Dana Point" is within the city limits of SJC or not.  In either case, the shot above is of the anchorage of the Dana Point Yacht Club.

The breakwater protecting the Yacht Club, Dana Harbor and public area seen above is about a quarter mile long.  Beyond is the only picture I have looking out into the Pacific.

I wasn't about to cap a 4500 mile coast to coast trip without getting my feet wet.  Yes the water is cold.

So that's about it... The Ortega Highway is a great day trip to the coast, we will return.  Come to think of it, we will return to Capistrano with the Sparrows (or whatever) in March.  Right now those cute little birdies are here in the Lake Elsinore Valley - crapping all over the roof of the RV.

And to wrap this thing up....

California Here We Come ... Right Back....

Actually the rest of the line in that song is accurate.. right back where we started from.  California!  Where Becky and I first met.  But that's another story.

I will pick up on our journey down and across the country from my last post The Rocking Chair Ranch...   I know that many of you that have driven across the country, specifically across TEXAS can relate to that all so true rhyme "the sun is rize, the sun is set, and we is still in Texas yet".  Well OK, I took some liberties there but what the hell. 

The trip across NM was uneventful and felt pretty much like the never ending journey across Western Texas. Speaking of that, I failed to mention that where it is true that it is a heck of a jaunt across the lone star state... you should try it pulling an 8+ ton trailer at 60mph. Cars flying by at the 80mph speed limit made the trip even longer. The truth be told... there were literally 3 days where we would stare out at those wide open spaces and rugged mountains in absolute awe of the naked beauty of those deserts, prairies, plains or whatever the proper name for that land is.

One day, in NM we stopped at an I-10 roadside rest for lunch.  If you look close at the bottom left of the picture you will note a masonry wall.  The picnic table was casting its shadow on the wall and that rather interesting sign beyond it.  And just out of the picture to the left is an opening in the wall.  The bottom sign reads "POISONOUS SNAKES AND INSECTS INHABIT THE AREA".  You can read the upper "No Pets in this Area".  No pets because there are likely to be rattlers and scorpions.  But it's OK for people to wander out there in that deadly, poisonous critters infested area?  Well... it just seemed funny to us at the time for there to be an inviting opening in the wall (actually there were several openings).

We spent a week in Tucson, Arizona visiting my Brother David and his wife.  Brother David is a color pressman - I think that's the correct title.  He printed up the following banner for our arrival.  His intent was to post it somewhere on our site just before our arrival but we also planned a surprise for him by arriving a day early.  Best laid plans ehh?  Anyway, we taped it to the side of the trailer for a couple quick pics.  Note the spelling of my first name - Jon - the way I use to spell it as a kid in high school.  I remember thinking that the "h" in my name was useless so I just dropped it.

Here a pic of Brother David!  No... we are not twins.

Our campground in the Tucson area was at the entrance to the Saguaro National Forest and I can't help but wonder how many others pose as Brother David and I did in the following pictures..

I am more than sure that if you did proper research you could find that someone has actually counted / estimated how many Saguaro cacti there are in the forest - must be in the 100,000's.  The sign below gives some of the statistics - they really are quite amazing.

We did make it into a campground outside of Blythe, California just in time for a Margarita and this sunset.  Again, my pictures simply do not do it justice - the sky was on fire for more than 10 minutes.

Wind Farms aren't new news - I know that.  But as we passed through the Palm Springs area, Beck and I were both taken back a bit by the farms alongside I-10.  Becky snapped the picture immediately below because of the snow on the peak of the taller mountain.  Seemed pretty impressive at the time - guess ya had to be there.

There must have been a half dozen farms like the one below in a five mile stretch of I-10.

The final leg of our journey from Blythe to Lake Elsinore, CA and the Lake Elsinore Marina and RV Resort was a hop, skip and a jump and we made it in around noon somewhere.  Took the rest of the afternoon to do a full set up but well worth the effort.  We'll be here for four months.

Most of the time here so far has been spent in the trailer as it was raining pretty much constantly.  But the skies finally cleared and we snapped a few pictures  of the campground and surroundings.

The picture above and below are taken from the boat ramp - it must be10 lanes wide which leads me to suspect that it must get awfully noisy in the park around "safe light" time in the morning.

Here's a few more shots from the RV park... note the taller mountain in the background in the picture above... picture below is of the same mountain after "The Pineapple Express" blew by and dumped more than 10" of rain about six days later.  Some of it landed with a white color.

 The picture below was taken about 10 miles from Lake Elsinore.  Many of the surrounding mountains are now covered in snow - absolutely beautiful although I know some of you might not agree with that assessment.

Well folks... that's about it.   In closing I'll use the picture below, actually I'm using it for the second time but I gave myself permission to include it.

Once again...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

(cleaver use of color ehhh?)

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas (or roughly equivilent in other religions) and a joyous New Year to all... and to all...Beck and I love ya! 

The Rocking Chair Ranch

The Rocking Chair Ranch.  After having visited this 100 acre ranch in the Hill Country of Texas, I think an appropriate rename would be The Rockin' Ranch because Jack and Linda are Rock Stars!  You'll be reading how "isolated" and "beautifully rugged" the ranch is, and it is!  But that didn't slow Linda down in the kitchen at all.  She has got to be one of the best cooks ever.  I really believe (and I do believe in reincarnation) that she was a restauranteur in her former life.  At the ranch, just as on the island, she cooks as if unexpected company was going to drop it.  and by unexpected company - I mean like an enitre COMPANY from the Army.
Here's a view of The Rocking Chair Ranch House from the road leading to it.  Actually the picture below is essentially the view of the house their "next door" neighbors have.

Yes, there is a house there - look for the white spec pretty much in the center of the picture.  See it?  From where the camera is, it's only about another mile.  And for the record, it's hardly a "spec".  The house is probably about 20' by 80' (not counting the porches and was transported to its perch from Del Rio, TX (~40 miles away) in one piece. 

The last few miles that house travelled have to be experienced to fully appreciate.  Here's the vehicle Jack and Linda have at The Ranch to navigate within the larger Bobcat Hollow Fossil Creek Ranch.  I didn't get a picture of it, but Jack also has a 6 wheel drive ATV which he uses within the confines of their place. 

The Ranch is at an elevation of approximately 2100' with the tallest hills in the area at about 2700'.  I have been to some very beautifully isolated areas' and The Ranch fits that description quite well.  On the way in you pass many rocky hills such as this one - cave and all.

When I say beautifully isolated, I mean exactly that.  The picture below is one of the views from their front porch.  The "road" you see is the driveway of one of their closest neighbors.  As dusk turns to darkness, the very faint lights of Del Rio can be seen looking in this direction

Jack and Linda built a wildlife feeder in their back yard - well, actually, it's their front yard.  You can see just the corner of it in the picture above.  The feeder attracts all manner of wildlife.  In the few days Becky and I were there we watched as many as 15 deer at one time, including an enormous 8 point buck, foxes, turkey, racoons, a skunk, of course squirrels and the one species we didn't see, but were "ready for" - Ferel Hogs.  Linda sent an email to Becky with some beautiful pictures of deer at the feeding station but for whatever the reason I cannot get them to post in my blog.   So just use your imagination for goodness sakes - can you see them now?  Yes, I know - they are beautiful.

Ready for.... here's what I mean by that.  Jack keeps a 30-30 on the back porch should a wild pig happen into the crosshairs of the scope on his rifle.  I did have a great picture of Becky steadying the rifle on her shoulder for me but she must have gotten to Kodak EZ Share and deleted it before I had a chance to include it. 

Another animal which the locals consider  "varmits" are the racoons in the area.  Now it's time for you to use your imagination again but this time all you have to do is follow the bouncing... err... the footprints to see one or two of them.

The weather was absolutely fantastic while we were there and sitting on that porch was absolutely my favorite activity.  Before the sun, during the sun, after the sun just sitting there drinking coffee, water, a brew or just drinking in the absolute silence, the rugged landscape in all directions - long sentence or not - all of it is breathtaking.  The bonus was the wildlife that would wonder silently into the feeder.   

I mean... think about it!  How would you like to have a "get away" place at the end of the driveway in the picture below?   And the porch above?  Sitting on the porch reminded me of when Becky and I were in Maine, I kiddingly referred to my two part time jobs... sitting and watching to make sure the tide went out and sitting and watching to make sure the tide came back in.  And on that porch, sometimes I sat and thought, and sometimes I just sat.

Speaking of sitting around... here are "The Boys" happily lounging inside during the only fairly hot day during our visit. They are "Harley and Merlin". Harley looks as though it is time to give up and go to sleep.

On one of "road hunting" trips in the Jeep we passed a wildlife well that the ranch owners in the area had drilled.  There are a number of these wind driven pump wells in the area which are critical to the wildlife during the mostly arid times of the year.

To be a bit more clear on these Road Hunting Trips, we jump in the Jeep with our handguns (so happened Jack and I both had 357 magnums) and drive the ranch roads looking for Ferel Hogs NOT the deer in the area.  As luck would have it, although the area is overrun with hogs, not a one showed themself.  It was a great experience none the less.

Near last but certainly far from least.... whatever new location I find myself in, I always gaze at the night skies to locate Polaris.  The North Star is a welcome friend of the night sky that helps me orient myself.  And looking in that general direction I was taken back a bit by the hazy, or "milky" view of the Galaxy.   Well, not the entire Milky Way of course, but regions of it.  I don't know how many of you have actually seen the galaxy, but I am here to tell you, if it doesn't give you a sense of isolation, you need to look a little closer.  At that time of night looking Northward I was actually seeing the spiral arm that good ole Earth is in and as I scanned towards the West, the "milk" was the furthest spiral arm out from the center of the galaxy.

Becky and I have retired to a very quiet, peaceful life, filled with the United States out our windows.  We've met some really great folks along the way, before and during.  Jack and Linda are counted in the "of the very best" category.  We could never repay them for their generosity and their friendship is very special to us.  Love ya guys! 

Deep in the Heart...

Becky and I landed in South Texas right at the 1st of November and will be preparing to leave on the 1st of December - it was a very quick month!  Before I forget... Happy Thanksgiving everyone... even our Canadian friends we've met here in South Texas.

So...South Texas....  if you've never been, what image of landscape comes to mind when you hear "South Texas"?   Flat lands, Prairies, The Bad Lands, Mexico, Cacti, Clay, Desserts or is it Deserts - never did learn the spelling of that word.  That word - meaning a really hot place with a rattlesnake behind every rock no trees no water - ya know - the stomping grounds of John Wayne, Roy Rodgers, Kit Carson, The Lone Ranger Hi Ho Hi Ho its off to work... oops, wrong jingle, and Gabby Hayes.

Speaking of John Wayne... I saw a Western on TV the other day.  Rock Hudson was in it and his role was that of an outlaw.  I'm surprised he wasn't wearing pedal pushers  instead of cowboy chaps.  I wonder if he had to run off stage to gargle after having stolen a kiss from the the Sheriff's captive daughter.  What the hell brought this up I'll never know but I wrote it under no particular duress so I will leave it where it is!

Where the heck was I?  Ahhh... South Texas!  Actually this part of South Texas is on the Gulf of Mexico with all the bays, "back lakes", rivers, deltas, and all the SEAFOOD they hold.  Like the oysters shown below.  There are so many oysters available that seafood mongers won't sell you a few dozen - you have to buy a burlap bag full of ''em - roughly 10 to 12 dozen.  As a side note, you can get a bag of them for about $27.00 - do the math folks, that's about 19 cents apiece.   

I was in the mood for oysters last week - that's when I found out that I couldn't buy 3 dozen.  I elected to pass on the peck (I'm sure "peck" isn't the proper unit of measurement for a bag of oysters but I think it's a pretty cool word) because I really wasn't in the mood for a shucking party.  Honestly...can you follow my "writing style"?  I try to avoid reading what I've written because it gives me a headache - it's like watching one of those movies where they bounce around between "present day", "4 days ago", "2 years into the future", "12 years ago"..... Gawd I hate that!  Maybe this is why my posts are so disjointed.  C'est La Vive - there goes the Canadian influence of this RV park.

OK OK... the oysters.  I was out wade fishing in a stretch of bay waters I had never fished before.  Wade fishing... I hope you don't think I was out fishing FOR wades.  Never heard of anyone fishing for them - they're just too damn tough.  I was out in water up to my butt which isn't all that deep if you know me.  Anyways I was using "live finger mullet" for bait - here we go again, a finger mullet is not a fish that looks like a finger.  Rather it indicates the size of the mullet - oddly the length of a finger and do not even start thinking which finger!   I won't go there.

After an hour of butt deep wading, and no tugs on my line, I got into an area with a sharp rocky bottom.  The water was pretty darn clear and I could see the "rocks" and picked one up.  Sure enough a OYSTER.  There were hundreds of them just laying there on the bottom.  I put my rod up on shore and let the bait do it's own thing while I went back out with a canvas bag and in 10 minutes filled it with 36 oysters.

As soon as I got home I opened one up and slurped it down.  Other than being bay water warm, it was very, VERY tasty.  I continued to rinse off the remaining oysters and put them in the fridge to get icy cold.  Last night I shucked half of them for supper - I just don't know how it could be any fresher than that and although there we slightly smaller than you might buy at a fish mongers', they were no less tasty, briny or juicy.

Now then, if you allowed your eyes to look at the picture below you might be confused.  NO!  The creatures in my hands are not South Texas Oysters... they are Blue Crab, cousins to Chesapeake Bay Crabs.  Actually, they are the same animal only instead of living in Chesapeake Bay, these guys lived in "Red fish Bay" in South Texas.

Blue Crap's are the second reason I love the Corpus Christi area of South Texas.  You can set crab traps (similar to lobster traps) out in the bays and back lakes areas as I did when we were living here full time or, you can buy them.  Buying them is a whole lot easier - these were about $1.50 each and were the largest Blue Crab I have ever seen.  If you have ever eaten this particular species of crab, you know it is a lot of work and if the crabs and on the small side, the work required to break into them increases exponentially.  I claim "writer's licence" - just as a poet would have "poetic licence".  Exponentially is certainly NOT the proper description but why not exaggerate.  I have writer's licence to do so.

Suffice to say these guys are unbelievably tasty - just douse them with Old Bay and steam them till they turn red, and then a little bit more.  Crack, crush, rip, tear em open and dip in white vinegar, open a bottle of your favorite ale and you are "good to go".  By the way.... you WILL end up with "paper (IE crab) cuts" on the fingers of one hand or the other so open each crab up with the same hand - if you get cuts on the fingers of both hands and you start dipping into the white vinegar - next time you  want to eat Blue Crab, you'll most like go to the super market and buy them already shelled and in one of those plastic tubs.  By the way, once you've had them fresh steamed, you'll never settle for one of those tubs of crab again.

And yes... I noticed the typo in the second paragraph above referring to them as "Blue Craps" - shit happens.  No pun intended!

Sacchetti's Sacchetti!

Well.... here's one I simply could not ignore.   But first, for those of you that don't know me by my [real] name... I am John Sacchetti.  And the picture immediately below is of Sacchetti & sausage.  The spelling and pronunciation of my name, and my meal at Olive Garden are both identical. 

Through the years I have introduced myself to a number of folks that, try as they may, could never quite get the pronunciation right and so I would revert to phonetics to help them through their bumbling tongues.  A few days ago we set the RV up in "The Palms" RV park in Aransas Pass, Texas - by the way, it's a really nice park, but that's another story.  I was introducing myself to my new next door neighbor and he thought out loud... sacchetti..... Sacchetti!  Like the pasta dish at Olive Garden?  With a name like Sacchetti I got accustomed to a plethora of Italian jokes - NOW, after 65 years I am  hearing laughter without the punchline. 

The picture above is of five Sacchettis';  Becky Sacchetti, Sandra Ann (and only I am allowed to call her Sammy) Sacchetti, Sacchetti & Shrimp, Sacchetti & Sausage and just plain ole Sacchetti!  Fact is, the Sacchetti is quite similar to regular ravioli, perhaps a bit less pasta, and a bit more cheese.  And true to its "roots", Sacchetti is shaped appropriately.

The name Sacchetti (and pardon my interpretation) is a derivation of the Italian word for "sack", or "sacco".  Earlier last century, the one before and who knows how many prior to that, the Sacchettis' were sack (bag) makers in the old country.  Just for the heck of it, I tested it on freetranslation.com.  The translation from Sacchetti (Italian) to English was bags.  The reverse translation from Sacchetti (English) to Italian was sack.

So just when you thought it was safe to go out to Olive Garden for a relaxing meal.... you'll see me on the menu - and like Mikey use to say... "try it, you'll like it!".