Camping – Boots and Coffee

Cooking On The Road

Published on November 24, 2017November 24, 2017 by sbbenzil1 Comment

(Or, given the timing of this post and today’s holiday, Happy Thanksgiving to all!)

Initial Camping Kitchen Set-Up

You will recall that when we left Maryland on December 26, 2016 on this road trip, we were tent camping. At the time, we were carrying a fairly sophisticated arrangement of camping “rooms” – a traditional dome tent for sleeping, a screen tent for our outdoor living area and tarps to frame and shield our outdoor kitchen, usually “built” around a park-supplied picnic table. We had long before dispensed with the traditional Coleman-type 2 burner camp stove and had upgraded to a more powerful 2 burner Mr. Heater Basecamp camp stove which is rated at 15,000 BTU per burner.

In addition to the camp stove, based upon an ingenious idea obtained from Pinterest, our camp kitchen was housed in a Stanley Tool Fatmax rolling toolbox. Within it were utensils, foil, baggies and plastic wrap, spices, cutlery and silverware, pots and dishes alongside our dishwashing and drying necessaries. We also had one large bear-proof box (creatively named the “bear box”) that housed other kitchen items such as charcoal and fire starter, larger pots, cutting boards, pantry items, etc. We were traveling with a 63 quart ARB 12-volt refrigerator which we powered using the cigarette lighter adapter while driving and our 100 watt solar panel and Goal Zero Yeti 400 solar “generator” while stationary.

We brought as many spices, sauces and pantry ingredients as we could fit into the Kitchen and Bear Box because we wanted to continue to cook and eat as we did in our brick-and-mortar home. While it is not completely clear how other overlanders cook and eat on the road –- whether they stick to basics or bring a little of home with them – we thought that since we planned to be on the road for well over a year, we wanted to eat the same (or similar) broad range of foods that we ate before we left on the trip. This included cooking with flavors from the Mediterranean, Asia, India and elsewhere.

This all worked pretty well. It was cumbersome but workable. We packed an amazingly large amount of sauces, condiments, spices and pantry items as well as kitchen utensils, including an electric coffee/spice grinder and a small electric chopper/food processor (in addition to a manual coffee grinder). We scaled down to several pots and pans – a cast iron skillet, cast iron Dutch oven, cast iron plancha (grill/griddle combo) and small pot with lid.

Before we left on the trip, we added frequently used recipes to the Pepperplate app for easy access along the road. Pepperplate is a website/app that allows users to upload recipes (user generated or obtained from other websites) and create menus, from which shopping lists can be generated and more. It’s a powerful and handy app for anyone who enjoys cooking, recipe collecting and entertaining (the shopping list feature is worth its weight in gold as it aggregates ingredients — so handy for holiday meal preparations!).

Life After Wolfie

When we acquired Wolfie, we moved our kitchen from the Kitchen and Bear Box inside. Wolfie’s kitchen has a 2 burner propane stove, a small sink, a microwave and a small fridge that runs on propane or electric. Of course, the microwave works only when we have electricity. (More on electricity below). We also have a small counter space next to the sink and a couple of storage areas above, below and next to the sink/stove areas.

Roque very cleverly used one of our 3 door plastic “dressers” (previously used for clothes when we were tent camping) inside one of Wolfie’s storage cabinets which now houses spices, pantry items, some canned goods and sauces. A $2 tin bucket from Michaels’ houses our most frequently used utensils – wooden spoons, spatulas, whisk, knives and cutting boards have a place alongside Wolfie’s 2-burner stove. We house our pots and pans under the sink with our dishes (plastic and paper) and our additional pantry items are in a cabinet or under the benches at the dinette (together with all sorts of other stuff). Prep space in Wolfie is extremely limited now that we are using our counter space for a dish drain so most of our food prep is done on a cutting board placed on the sink.

Despite the compact space we live within, we have added a couple of kitchen gadgets along the trip including a dehydrator for making jerky (ours is better, more healthy and less expensive than from the store), a small electric drip coffee maker (the French press uses too much water to clean when we are wild camping), dish drainer and a couple of extra cups for when we have “company” but otherwise we are using the same equipment as when we were in a tent. The Stanley Fatmax tool box was returned to its originally intended function as a tool box and the bear box is being used for hoses and Wolfie-related items. Wolfie’s fridge added a tiny freezer that allows for some ice and additional fridge space.

Note on Electricity:

Electricity for us is a bit like other technology in that it’s a work in progress kind of thing . . . For those familiar with RVing, you know that RVs have a “house” battery (usually some form of 12 volt car or marine battery) that charges when you are driving and that runs some of the RV’s essential functions such as lights, water pump, USB power outlets (for newer models), RV fridge, hot water heater, kitchen and bathroom fan and perhaps a little more. The battery does not supply sufficient power to run AC, microwave, or “regular” power outlets. You can add batteries to the RV battery bank but that will only extend the amount of time you can run essential functions without recharging UNLESS you also add a power inverter that will “convert” (which is really inverting) 12 volts power into AC power to run small appliances such as drip coffee makers. Many modern RVs are sold with solar connections that allow for solar panels to connect into the RV electrical system and then recharges the battery when the RV is stationary and not hooked to electricity.

In order to run a powered appliance, you need either an inverter (which simply converts stored power from DC to AC) or a generator, which actually creates usable electricity for power-hungry functions like the microwave or air conditioning.

Many in RVs never sweat any of this because larger RVs usually come with generators built into the rig, drawing gasoline directly from the gas tank of the rig, or they just rely on campground-supplied power. It’s great to have power supplied at a campsite but camping only in campgrounds supplying power limits you to certain kinds of camping.

Our Goal Zero solar “generator” is really just a beautifully packaged battery with an inverter attached . . . The model we bought was the Yeti 400 and the “400” denotes the watts that are “generated” by the inverter. Our Goal Zero produces enough power to power our ARB fridge and to recharge our phones and tablets. It can also be used for our small coffee grinder or tiny food chopper but that is about its limits.

After we wild camped a few times, we realized that there were times when we were going to want more power so that we could recharge the house battery, or we could run the coffee maker or we could run the air conditioner. For these needs, we knew we needed a generator, which we decided to purchase while on the road to Alaska, ordered online for store pick up in Anchorage.

We opted to purchase a Champion generator that can produce sufficient watts to run the air conditioning in Wolfie because it seemed to make little sense to have a generator that supplied some but not all of our needs. We believed, as well, that the generator might come in handy for future non-RV applications and we could, therefore, justify the purchase for several reasons. The one we bought works well but it is quite loud – the much quieter Honda generators are extremely costly so while we would have loved less noise, we couldn’t justify the additional cost.

To counter the generator noise issue, we later decided to add a 1500 watt power inverter into our set up. The inverter is silent because it is not generating electricity but just inverting power from 12 volt to AC. It is connected to Wolfie’s house battery (which is now chained to an additional AGM marine battery that we were using with the Goal Zero in Gertie) and allows us to run an extension cord to the coffee maker or coffee grinder in the morning without starting up the generator.

Most Pan American Highway overlanders do not appear to be traveling in any sort of RV and are likely doing just fine with a solar panel and battery plus some type of inverter. Most RVers are likely fully self sufficient with factory-supplied generators connected to the RV’s electrical system and gas supply. We are kind of in between. The sort of “hit and miss”-learning by experience that has emerged over our time on the road has probably resulted in a hodgepodge of solutions that might make others howl with laughter but it seems, finally, to be working for us.

Our Eating Repertoire

Our breakfasts and lunches are simple affairs – most of our thought and energy go into planning and making our dinners. On average, we will cook 6 out of 7 dinners – or 20 out of 21 weekly meals. They are also mostly simple affairs consisting of a grilled source of protein and a vegetable or salad or a fruit. Keeping fresh veggies and fruits around is a challenge – they take up a LOT of refrigerator space and spoil easily so often we have one or the other with dinner but rarely both. Roque is a master at grilling, whether over gas, charcoal or firewood and we have enjoyed many meals of grilled whole fish, steaks, racks of lamb, pork of all sorts and more. Grilling is not always possible, particularly when parks restrict fires and charcoal grills and grilling over a propane heated, cast iron plancha does not always produce excellent results. So, when we are not grilling, we have enjoyed pan seared Pacific halibut, pan seared steaks, freshly shucked local oysters and more. We have learned how to “bake” mini pizzas in the Dutch oven, made stews, prepared curries, scrambled eggs, blackened salmon, stir-fried Asian meals, “doctored” ramen packets with veggies, pork belly and aromatics, and created chicken lettuce wraps just like when we lived in DC. On Passover, we prepared a small sedar, complete with gefilte fish (store bought), hard-boiled eggs, matzo and homemade matzo ball soup. We have learned that much is possible with a bit of thought and a healthy dose of creativity. Still, we have also de-emphasized meal prep over the course of this trip largely because the therapeutic value of cooking was significantly reduced after retirement and because we just didn’t feel the urge to spend a lot of time in the kitchen/fire pit when there was so much other stuff to do.

Our Shopping Regimen

A friend asked us about our shopping routine one day and the question stopped me in my tracks: what WAS our shopping routine? Earlier in our trip, we learned from shopping trips to grocery “stores” in Terlingua, Texas (on the western edge of Big Bend National Park) and in Springdale, UT (on the western edge of Zion National Park) that while there is often some source of grocery items, the selection and cost for “our” staples made it essential that we ensure these items were stockpiled, when possible.

After passing through tiny towns with little more than convenience stores within gas stations as a source of procuring grocery items, we learned to take mental stock of “meals” on hand – eggs and cans of salmon and tuna as well as PB&J were always in our pantry. After spending substantial time in Canada, we learned that sugar-free beverages were scarce and that we had to make adjustments when it came to our preferred non-alcoholic drinks. (Note: alcoholic beverages in Canada are HIGHLY taxed and much more expensive than in the US – we learned to stock up on liquor in Alaska before heading back through Canada). In short, as long as we could count on at least 2 meals within our pantry and fridge, we knew we wouldn’t go hungry.

When in new towns, one of our great pleasures is to visit new grocery stores. Within the US, grocery store chains are often more familiar than not and we learned that our store courtesy card/phone numbers worked in stores where we had NEVER shopped before, making clear that some chains are linked whether we are aware of this or not. For example, Albertson’s, which we have visited throughout the western US, is a chain related to Safeway in some manner.

In short, we shop when necessary – when we are out of essentials or when we have “nothing to eat.” This pattern is not unlike how we shopped when we resided in a brick-and-mortar home – we shopped nearly daily for dinner items and bought our staples at the same time. While we cannot, as a general rule, purchase Costco-sized packages, we buy our racks of lamb only at Costco and have made many batches of curried chicken salad from the rotisserie chickens we buy at warehouse clubs.

What We Crave

Despite our expansive cooking repertoire, broad palate and willingness to eat what the locals eat, there are things we don’t get to eat often enough to fulfill our inner (eating) souls. Among these things are good sushi. Bagels. Dim sum. Good fried chicken. Chopped liver. Anything braised. And a delicious piece of cake or pastry. The take-away is that it is worth waiting for the right place (or kinda-right place) before trying to satisfy the craving, even if it means waiting 6 months for sushi. Or learn how to make it yourself. (Ask Roque about shucking Pacific oysters – a topic for another day.)

Cooking in Mexico

Since we just arrived in Mexico, it is not clear how our eating and cooking will change. The first several days felt like we were on vacation and we succumbed to the temptation to eat out – one late lunch at a beautiful vineyard, El Cielo, in the Valle de Guadeloupe, an early lunch of tostadas on the street at La Guerrerense, and a fabulous early dinner at Manzanilla in Ensenada. The meals were each memorable and, frankly, better than most of the restaurant meals we’ve eaten along this trip. They were also, predictably, much less expensive than most of the meals that we have eaten (in or out) over the past year of travel and so, the dilemma, both in terms of pocketbook and waistline, for us will be in finding some balance.

We have already learned, from visits to local markets and grocery stores, that we will not be without good (and familiar) food, however, meat is butchered differently in Mexico than in the US and the broad selection of cuts and types (lamb has been absent from all of the stores we have visited including Costco and Sam’s Club) may limit what we purchase until we become more familiar and, perhaps, more adventurous. It is exciting to find huge bins of different dried chilies, unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, and ones that we recognize but do not know how to cut or prepare (prickly pear being among them). And the spices! We replenished our ground cumin the other day with a 40 gram packet that cost under $1; the same was true for aji molido (garlic powder).

Our favorite beverages are not available in any store so we will need to make adjustments but we are flexible and are sure we will adapt. And when we are able, we look forward to cooking classes and more research on how to use some of the local ingredients and, perhaps, will find the courage to learn to cook things we love to eat but have never cooked. Pulpo anyone?

In case you are interested, here is a list of what we have and try to keep on hand:

Spices

Salt, white pepper, black pepper (whole and ground), garlic powder, onion powder, cumin (whole and ground), Montreal steak seasoning, coriander, cardamom, turmeric, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, tarragon, mustard powder, Old Bay, curry powder, garam masala, sumac, ras el hanout, ginger powder, cinnamon sticks, ground cinnamon, whole nutmeg, allspice (whole and ground), cayenne, bay leaves, fennel seeds, and celery seeds.

Sauces and Pantry Items

Oil (canola and extra virgin olive oil), soy sauce, vinegar (champagne and balsamic) chicken and beef bouillon, Tabasco and 2 other hot sauces, Worcestershire sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, Asian fish sauce, Chinese rice wine, hoisin, flour, white and brown sugar, splenda, dried whole milk, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, rice, canned sardines, canned tuna, canned anchovies, canned salmon, Rotel, peanut butter, maple syrup, mustard, ketchup, mayo, grape jam, Naomi Benzil’s mango chutney and peach mango honey, fresh garlic, minced ginger, lemons, limes, tomato paste (in a tube), panko, bread crumbs, various dried beans and legumes and some other items that we’ve likely overlooked.

El Cielo Winery and Restaurant

Smoked duck tostadas

Pork belly tacos

Ceviche

Dining al fresco

Tostada #1

Salsas

Oysters

Tostada #2

The Journey Is More Important Than The Destination

Published on August 10, 2017August 13, 2017 by sbbenzil9 Comments

We’re Baaack

It’s been 7 months and 27,000 miles since we left Maryland on December 26, 2016. This post was started in Alaska, continued in Canada and re-started in Alaska again and finalized in the Yakima, Washington area when we were able to locate and connect to wifi strong enough to upload the blog post plus photos. In other words, this long overdue post is slightly long in the tooth as well as overdue . . . so much so that we nearly scrapped it for an updated one. Despite the delay in posting and despite whatever new ideas are floating in our heads now that we have returned to the lower 48, we share this with you because, among other things, it accurately reflects our state of mind when we wrote it and a lot has happened since we last wrote.

At the end of May, when we last posted, we crossed into Canada from Montana. Since crossing the border, we traveled through Canadian National Parks in Alberta, across northwestern Canada and through parts of British Columbia and the Yukon Territories. We drove north past the Arctic Circle to Inuvik, in the Northwest Territories: Inuvik is the most northern Canadian city that can be reached during the summer (in the winter, one can drive farther north on ice roads, thankfully not present when we arrived on June 20). When we returned from Inuvik, we headed into Alaska after crossing the Yukon River by ferry at Dawson City, YT.

While north of the border to the lower 48, we traveled every major highway in Alaska, returned back into Canada, back again into southeastern Alaska and dead-ended at Skagway. From there, we took advantage of touring the Inside Passage on the Alaskan Maritime Highway (the public ferry system) to Juneau and then further south to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, with stops in Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan. After our ferry trip, we will continue by road again through British Columbia into the Okanagan Valley to visit family and then end our time in Canada in the Vancouver area before we re-enter the lower 48.

During our summer north of the US-Canadian border, we visited Calgary, Banff, Yoho and Jasper National Parks in Canada and Denali and Klondike in Alaska, Lakes Louise, Morraine and Emerald, Grand Cache and Grand Prairie, Alberta; we entered the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, British Columbia and passed through Ft. St. John and Ft. Nelson, Watson Lake, Whitehorse, and Dawson City before entering Alaska near the town of Chicken. In addition to Chicken, we visited Alaskan towns and cities named Tok, Delta Junction, Fairbanks, Denali, Talkeetna, Palmer and Wasilla, Seward, Sterling, Cooper Landing, Kenai, Soldatna, Homer, Ninilchik, Anchorage, and Valdez. We traveled highways referred to by name rather than number: the Alaska, the Klondike, The Top of the World, the Parks, the Richardson, the Glenn, the Dempster.

We learned that satellite radio (and TV presumably) doesn’t work in areas near and north of the Arctic Circle (something about pointing the satellite into the ground), and that it is exhilarating (and sometimes exhausting) to have 18-24 hours of light. We also learned that unless you catch your own salmon or halibut, there is pretty much no chance of finding inexpensive fish to buy in Alaska. Based on recommendations made by Alaskans, we bought halibut and Copper River sockeye salmon at Costco, of all places. Both were expensive and unbelievably delicious as were the incredibly large, firm and briny Alaskan oysters and sweet, meaty king crab legs. We dined on elk, wild boar, bison and reindeer meat and prepared our own elk osso busso, and grilled fish and lamb, on Roque-designed stone-rimmed fire pits next to riverbeds where we wild camped.

During these travels, we have seen more beauty that we would have thought possible and enough to sustain us for years to come. We have spied dozens of bear – grizzly and black — elk, caribou, moose, eagles, ptarmigan, Dall sheep, big horned sheep, mountain goats, wolf, coyote, mule deer, salmon and sea lions. We’ve learned how to convert gasoline from liters to gallons and then from Canadian to US dollars. We have driven through vastly different eco systems, have seen the highest mountain in North America, and have gazed upon glacial lakes and rivers in rainbow hues from emerald to turquoise to aquamarine. We’ve awakened to bright sunlight at 2 am and taken to the road in the middle of the night on several occasions. We’ve driven a thousand miles on gravel roads through Arctic tundra and hundreds of miles on roads peppered with frost heaves and washouts due to avalanches and rock slides. We’ve seen mountains frosted with snow and glaciers in July and shrouded with clouds even at midday. It’s been a feat of endurance that was worth every kilometer driven and gallon of gas consumed.

As if this was not enough, we added new friends, Tom and Stacie, who we met in Banff, to our rich lives, and reconnected with full-time RVers, Gayle and Bobby, who we met back at Big Bend National Park in March. We joined up with Tom and Stacie in Dawson Creek, BC and traveled the Alaska Highway together until Whitehorse, Yukon Territories when we parted paths: our travels took us on the Klondike Highway north to Dawson City and Inuvik and they traveled west on the Alaska Highway toward Alaska. During our hundreds of miles together, we tried dry-camping (aka wild camping, dispersed camping, boondocking, free camping), our courage buoyed by our belief that we had safety-in-numbers. We shared meals from time to time and happy hour pretty much every day we traveled together. We rejoined them in Fairbanks, Denali and Anchorage and enjoyed their company, their senses of humor, and their joy of life and we all enjoyed our time together as well as the stories of our times apart. We know we will stay in touch and we hope to see them again someday– whether along this trip, in Panama or in Florida, where they will return, to greet their newest grandchild, in November.

Alaska also allowed us to meet up again with Gayle and Bobby who we met by chance while in Big Bend National Park. There, Gayle gave us a great book about camping in Alaska that became our camping “bible” for much of Canada and Alaska. We discovered that we expected to be in Denali at the same time and pledged to meet up again. Our meals with them in Fairbanks were filled with laughter and animated conversation and, we hope, not our last times meeting up with them.

We met other people as well at nearly every campground or stop and shared travel stories and recommendations. We spoke to retail clerks, museum docents, fellow campers and others about how they grew up or ended up in Inuvik/Pelly Crossing/Denali/Soldatna/Dawson City. We tried to learn more about the folks who opt to live in these sparsely populated, distant, bitter-cold-in-winter, sometimes isolated, winter-dark places and heard that they are drawn to these areas because of the peace, the beauty, the clearness of the water and air and the amazing summers which long, long days of clear, warm temperatures and endless outdoors opportunities offset the dark and cold days of winter.

The Power of Resiliency

Looking back at the past couple of months, it feels like a thousand years has passed since we wrote our last BootsandCoffee.com post at the end of May. That post, as many before it, described some of our earlier struggles as we took to the road: living in a teeny space, living without certain creature comforts, the challenges of finding cell, wifi and TV signals, locating foods to which we had become accustomed, not having the ability to make sustained connections with other people and more. There were always beautiful things that helped balance the unsettled parts of us but the first several months of this trip definitely presented us with many logistical and emotional challenges.

Then, the light switched on and our journey changed from a moment-by-moment experience to a place of soul-deep contentment. Perhaps reflection over time will disclose why this transformation happened but for now, we have only working theories. For now, it seems that it is simply because we have settled into our new life and it has become, like broken-in hiking boots, comfortable.

Not all travel is for “vacation” – ask people who travel as part of their work – and not all travel, even for vacation is enjoyable. For many, the actual travel is the least enjoyable part of going on vacation and no matter how wonderful vacation can be, nearly everyone returns home following vacation with a sigh of relief when sinking into one’s own bed or favorite chair. It took us quite a while to adjust to the concept that this trip was not really a vacation and perhaps even longer to adjust to the concept that there would not be a return to our beloved waterbed or favorite chairs.

That said, on this trip, the journey has been more important than the destination. The sights and experiences have been spectacular but more than those are the slowly evolving internal shifts. We have traded flickering campfires for flickering TV screens and have adjusted to our phones as paperweights in many areas. We remain interested in current events but are no longer glued to the news to start and end our days. We have developed connections with people that are focused more on core values than politics and issues. We have found solace in the quiet, joy in each others’ company, amazement in the things we are learning, and appreciation for small things like the freshness of the air, clarity of the water, or a hot shower that does not required conserving water.

We still love reaching a town large enough to host a decent grocery store or finding that we have a cell signal. We still prefer smooth pavement to washboard roads. And while the lack of humidity for the last several months has been heavenly, we look forward to weather warm enough to allow us to wear shorts and sandals again.

We met a woman known as Klondike Sarah at the Yukon Territories Congdon Creek Campground. Sarah, who we estimate to be in her early 40’s, is from Great Britain, and now lives in Dawson City and works for the Yukon Territories Park system. While watching contractors complete an electric fence enclosure for tent campers (to protect them from bears), we learned that she lives in a 260 square foot cabin with no indoor plumbing and an extension cord for her electricity. Before she arrived in the Yukon, she did not consider herself particularly outdoorsy and yet she has chosen this way of life. When asked why, she replied “How many people can work 4 months a year and take 8 off?”

Sarah was not the only person we met who chooses to live with an outhouse and no indoor plumbing. The wife in a couple of Yukoners that we met at the Lliard Hot Springs told me she much prefers her outhouse to her inside bathroom because she doesn’t have to clean it. A Goddard Space Center retiree from Deale, Maryland, and her NASA rocket scientist (ret.) husband, who helped us in a shop outside Denali National Park, also chooses to live in a cabin with “his and her outhouses” and an outdoor shower only. In Alaska, we heard references to “subsistence lifestyle” which we came to learn meant those who eat only on what they trap, hunt or catch; others live differently but still fish and freeze hundreds of pounds of salmon each year to keep them going through the winter.

These lifestyles are not ones that we would choose to live but the longer we are on the road, the more we can relate to living with less. One of Roque’s friends recently asked him how he deals with the quiet time. He answered that the quiet is exhilarating and calming and soothing to the soul. This, too, has been an evolution, not unlike the period of transition that occurs when one moves from one house to the next, even in the same city, and has to learn the new routes, new shortcuts, new places to buy food and to repair shoes. I have long believed that it takes quite a bit of time for a place to start to really feel like home. Why would we think differently about life on the road?

I believe that part of what unsettled me at the beginning of this journey was the unknown in front of us. I had so many questions: where would we stay? Could we afford it? Would there be a campground vacancy and if not, what next? What would we do if we didn’t have Google Maps to help navigate or internet for email, social media and news? Would there be a grocery store where we could purchase food while in between national parks/towns/cities? How would we refill prescriptions/cut hair/fill gas tanks along our travels? Would we make it to various places “on time?” How would we be treated along our travels?

With 7 months, 27,000+ miles, 2 countries, 4 time zones and hundreds of new experiences under our belts, we have developed the confidence, the courage and more of an easy-going nature that has grown from experiencing a lot of things that might otherwise have taken the wind from our sails. We’ve had flat tires and broken windows; we’ve had to carry extra gas just to make it to the next fuel stop. We’ve visited towns without grocery stores (and not starved) and stopped for the night where we were the only people in sight. Learning that you can trust yourself, your gear, skills and knowledge is powerful. And it fortifies us for the months ahead.