Month: September 2020

I think about why I’m on this trip and then…. I make Navajo Tacos.

She looked across the silent fields to the West. She was conscious of an unbroken sweep of land to the Rockies, to Alaska; a dominion which will rise to unexampled greatness when other empires have grown senile. Before that time, she knew, a hundred generations of Carols will aspire and go down in tragedy devoid of palls and solemn chanting, the humdrum inevitable tragedy of the struggle against inertia. – Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Maybe this is why we went out on the road. Maybe somewhere deep down inside we were fed up with life as usual. Maybe we realized that our time was limited but that the forces of inertia are not. Maybe we realized that even though it was going to be a struggle from time to time that we needed to do …Something!

*****

Here we are “stuck” in Flagstaff, AZ because the living room slide-out on our trailer is broken. I say “stuck” because Flagstaff is not a bad place to be right now. The weather is beautiful and the Grand Canyon is close by. We’ll probably go there in a day or two and while there we will linger like we have never been able to do before. What do they say? If life gives you lemons…

The broken slide presents a cascade of other problems. Because we can’t go down the road with a slide stuck in the out position we can’t empty our gray and black water tanks and we can’t get fresh water refill. To deal with this requires some sacrifice and ingenuity. From now on we will use the camp restrooms even though they are not even close. I’m sorry but I’m not trudging out to the far-away restroom in the middle of the night so we have a bucket that will get emptied as soon as possible in the morning. The camp host is going to allow us to dump gray water right where we are and as needed. Marty has devised a way to get a large water container to refill the fresh water a little bit at a time.

So, I’m not stressing. It is what it is.

Living full time in an RV is a whole different kettle of fish. Especially if you move around and don’t stay in one spot and don’t have full hook ups. We are not willing to make the sacrifice of staying in what we call “RV Park(ing Lots)” where, for the privilege of having water, sewer and electric hookups, you have to live cheek by jowl with other RVers. Not my idea of a good time in This Time of Covid or any other time for that matter.

The sky is blue. The air is clean. The breeze is mild.

We have food on the table. We have each other. Life is good.

And so, in celebration of being in Arizona which is home to the Navajo Nation I offer my recipe for Navajo Tacos which was taught to me by 2 lovely Navajo women we met recently at this campground.

Authentic Navajo Tacos

Native Americans substitute fry bread for the tortilla and create something uniquely their own and delicious

Eat fry bread when it’s hot right out of the pan. This dish is good vegetarian, vegan or carnivorian. Whatever you like and however you wish to make it.

6-8 servings

Make the dough first.

Fry Bread

About 2 cups flour

About 4 teaspoons baking powder

¼ to 1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 – 1 cup lukewarm water

1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.

2. Add warm water to the flour mixture, and working with your hands, make a smooth dough. Don’t overwork it or it will become tough. It will be a little bit sticky – not too dry, not too sticky is the key.

3. Cover the dough and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

While the fry bread dough is resting make the toppings.

Make a simple chili with:

4 cups pinto beans

1 lb. ground beef, browned

Season to taste with chili powder, cumin and salt and pepper

1 large onion, chopped fine

1 large tomato, chopped small

1 head shredded iceberg lettuce

1/2 pound cheddar or Mexican style cheese, shredded

8 ounces sour cream

Green or red salsa or pico de gallo for garnish

About pound of lard or Crisco for frying

Once the dough has rested and you have the toppings ready it’s time to fry the bread. I’ve found that fry bread is best hot right out of the pan. This is why it’s important to have all the toppings ready before you start the bread. The simple chili can sit on the warming burner. Everything else is cold.

1. Heat 2 inches of lard or Crisco, in a heavy pan at a medium-high heat. If using a thermometer go for 350 degrees. Fat must be hot enough. Pinch off a little bit of dough and put it in the hot fat to see if it fries.

2. Once the fat is hot enough we’re ready to fry. Pinch off dough balls about the size of a lemon. Roll between your hands into balls. Pat balls into round flat shape and stretch further until they’re about a ¼ inch thick. Immediately and gently lay dough in hot fat.

3. Fry the dough quickly, one circle at a time, until golden on both sides, turning once with a fork or tongs. Watch so they don’t burn. Drain on paper towels.

Putting the tacos together

Put a fry bread on a plate. Add the toppings in this order: a layer of chili, some lettuce, chopped onion, shredded cheese, and chopped tomatoes. If you like add a dollop of sour cream and any kind of salsa.

In truth you can put anything you like on a fry bread taco but traditional ingredients always have some kind of beans and meat.

We skim the surface at Devil’s Tower, Deadwood, Southern Wyoming, Northeastern Colorado and finally hit pay dirt at Moab, Utah after a rainstorm.

I’ve been Madame Navigator for this trip. I read maps very well and have a good sense of direction. I can also memorize landmarks even if I’ve only been there once so it’s not easy for me to get lost. Because of this, Marty drives the rig and I’m happy to let him do it. What if we encounter a kerfuffle along the highway? I trust him to handle the kerfuffle. So, Marty has been Monsieur Pilot. This is a good division of labor but it has not made for an abundance of good will. For one, Marty will ask me for the same clarification over and over after I have already told him. This gets me frustrated and then I get tense and my voice broadcasts this irritation loud and clear when I answer. After many failures I have figured out what sequence he needs the direction to be in. Destination, followed by mileage, followed by direction of turn. Repeated twice in a loud voice. Sometimes this works, sometimes this doesn’t. But we muddle through.

Preamble: I’m shorting you on the description of our trip from Black Hills to Arches because as it turns out Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park are in a word – spectacular. Don’t miss it. Don’t even be late.

Wednesday Sept 2^nd

The day before we leave Connor Battlefield State Historic Site in Ranchester WY it’s hot and windy. At dusk it goes from clear to thick-with-smoke in about 5 minutes. There’s a wildfire someplace very close. Because I’m bored I say let’s go find it. We’ve got the headlights on because the smoke is so thick and we chase the fire trucks but don’t catch them. We don’t find where it’s coming from and by the time we get back to camp the smoke is already gone.

Thursday Sept 3^rd

We leave Ranchester and head to a Forest Service camp that’s close to Devil’s Tower and the Black Hills. We go to Devil’s Tower as it’s still early enough in the day. Amazing.

Friday Sept 4^th

Deadwood today is really the same Deadwood as it was in the beginning. A modernized version of the original camp without the gold mining. All Gambling. Eating. Drinking. I didn’t see whore houses. Maybe they’re there. Maybe they aren’t.

Saturday Sept 5^th

Saturday is re-supply day. We buy groceries and meds. Then we stay in camp and read and surf the web because it’s hot. We do research on campgrounds where we are headed. As the day cools I reorganize our stuff. We have so much stuff we are not using.

Sunday Sept 6^th

Bad, cold, rainy weather is coming tomorrow. Supposed to get down to 26 and snow. We head south to Ryan campground near Saratoga WY which is our first stop on the way to Utah. We’re racing ahead of the storm. We can see it in the rearview mirror almost so we better hurry.

Monday Sept 7^th

I really like the beautiful country south of Saratoga. There’s a sweet little town called Encampment WY. Their Trading Post – filling station, grocery store, bakery smells nice. I could live here.

Further on we pass over the continental divide.

Our next camp on the way to Utah is Cobbetts Lake campground outside of Cedaredge, CO but it’s a long, long uphill grind and we smell the motor over heating so we stop and turn around. Luckily we’re self-sufficient so we can stay anywhere we feel safe and can turn the rig around. It’s getting late and we find a flat area next to a creek pullout in a sandstone canyon near I-70 and Grand Junction. That night a man pulls up, frantic. He’s running out of gas and his cell phone has no bars. He doesn’t know what to do. We pull out the paper map to prove that to continue driving up the road is fruitless. He should turn around and go back. Old fashioned still works and actually works better sometimes.

Tuesday Sept 8^th

The day the camping world stood still.

I make a big mistake. We drive through a lot of rain to get to Moab and when we arrive it’s dry. We pull into our spectacular first-choice camp site Goose Island on the Colorado River just outside of Moab but it’s full so we go on to the next but it’s too far and we don’t want a repeat of yesterday, so we go back to the first camp. We see a spot that seems to be empty and the guy next door says, “Those people packed up this morning. It was raining and I think they left early.” So even though there’s a receipt for the previous campers still attached to the post we pull in. Marty is leery. He says since it’s raining and we can’t do anything anyway let’s stay and do stuff in the trailer in case they come back. We have a quiet afternoon and even make dinner but at 7 p.m. here they come in their painted up rental van and we have to leave.

Where to go? We drive south mulling over our non-existent options. Up ahead there’s a KOA. Shoot! Those guys are usually very, very expensive and they’re probably full but we pull in anyway not expecting them to have an opening but they have one and it’s $110! Teeth grinding. Hair pulling. Banging of heads.

We take it. What can we do?

It’s getting dark and there’s the looming certainty of not finding anything else. Bad Renee. It was me that advocated moving into the people’s site. I was going on this rationale: every Forest Service camp we have been in so far ALWAYS has sites that people reserve and then don’t show up or they leave early. What I didn’t take into consideration was that this Moab is a very popular place. I should have known by all the traffic. Lesson learned.

Wednesday Sept 9^th

We get up early at KOA and go back to Goose Island to look at all the reserved tags. Who is leaving today? We ask someone, “Are you leaving today?” We find two camps that are leaving and we take one. Badda bing! Problem solved! Now we have a base. We can unhitch and go sightseeing. Thank ya, Jesus!

That afternoon the Gods of Travel reward our “suffering” with a spectacular drive through Arches. It rains off and on today which is beyond welcome to me.

Wednesday August 26^th

We leave YS and head to Livingston MT. Livingston has the caché as the place where the story by Norman MacLean called “A River Runs Through It” was set. We are disappointed. LV is a nothing little town on I-90. The only thing good I can say about it is they have a good taco stand that reminds us of California. So, we keep driving towards Great Falls. On the way to GF we stop outside of White Sulphur Springs to camp and there is wind and it threatens to rain but it doesn’t.

As I gaze out on to the Great Plains, the short grass prairie, I think about the early peoples:  the indigenous peoples, the trappers, the explorers, the emigrants. These people were tough. The unpredictable weather. The unreliable water sources. The exposure to the elements. We also stay in a different camp almost every night. When we stop, I’m so relieved to not be in motion and set up housekeeping. Did emigrant women feel the way I feel? How about the fleeing Nez Perce? How would you like to be hunting and cooking with the U.S. Cavalry hot on your heels?

Thursday August 27th

The terrible, awful, very bad, no good day.

We make it to Great Falls. It is also nothing special. It has a big ugly refinery. Too bad. It could have been nice. We argue about communication, where to go next and if he’s still interested in researching a new place to live. We try to visit the CM Russell Museum but it’s closed due to Covid. We try to find the Great Falls water fall but turns out the vandals dammed the river and wrecked the falls. The trailer hampers our efforts to travel any road we feel like. So, we give up. We move down the road feeling disgruntled and cranky as we head towards Havre and on to the seriously wide open spaces.

Enroute we would have liked to stop in Fort Benton, MT for the night but can’t find anything that is not crazy expensive and stupid. Read RV park(ing) lot.

We go on to the half-horse town of Big Sandy, MT and stop for the night at their Rest Area which is in between the town and the railroad tracks. Teddy barks at 2:30 a.m. and we have to get up and let him out. Damn dog. Now I can’t get back to sleep.

Friday August 28^th

We leave Big Sandy and head toward Havre. If I’d known this area was so historic I would have paid more attention. I have been reading “Wolf Willow” by Wallace Stegner. It’s about where he grew up in southern Saskatchewan, Canada so close to the border and in between chapters of memoir he gives the history of this area. Stegner is such a great writer. He really brings it alive.

The Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument is a disappointment. You can’t get there from here. Literally. We are told we would have to make an hour and a half drive to Judith Landing to get on a boat to float down the river to really see The Breaks.

Again, and again we cross the trail of Chief Joseph trying to escape with his people to the safety of Canada or Lewis and Clark as they explored for the Northwest Passage. Bears Paw Mountains. Milk River. Chinook. Harlem.

We are so tired from not sleeping last night. We accidentally find a camp at Antelope Creek which is an American Prairie Reserve camp site.  It has hook-ups and a dump station. It’s in the middle of NO where! Thank you, Jesus! They have thought of everything. We loved all the Exhibits. We saw deer and sage hens and prairie duggers (dogs). Quiet. Spacious.

Saturday August 29^th

Moving on we drive past the Little Rocky Mountains and come into Billings. I’m sorry for anyone who reads this that loves Billings but my honest opinion is Billings is toxic. It’s mostly oil refinery. The people look beleaguered. I would be if I lived there. We get outta this Dodge asap and since it’s getting late and near dusk we camp at 7^th ranch near the Little Big Horn.  There’s a decent thunderstorm which is nice for viewing out the trailer window.

Sunday August 30^th

The Battle of the Little Bighorn Memorial is such a sad place. People! Why do (some) white people think they need to do whatever they want, break promises and then force other people to do things they don’t want to do? What do they think will happen? Completely lacking in imagination. Does this sound familiar? It’s still happening. Good ole family tradition.

 

We drive into Sheridan and there’s a cold windy rain. We hunker down next to a creek at a wayside. We’re in for the night. Rev up the generator and binge watch The Sopranos.

Monday August 31^st

I do a little research now that we have internet access and I find a great camp in Ranchester 10 miles north of Sheridan.  We decide to stay for a few days. We’re the only ones there.

Tuesday Sept 1st

The day is bright and sunny, warming up. We drive into Sheridan and go to Kings Saddlery. KS is a store that I’ve mail ordered ropes from when I was learning to rope. I buy some very nice gloves. A (cow)girl, no matter how old, cannot have too many gloves. I want to buy Marty a bull whip but he won’t accept the pricey gift.

Wednesday Sept 2^nd

Camp day. Beginning to write my piece for Grit on “No Post Hole Fencing” and catching up on blog posts.

What I’ve learned in the month that we’ve been traveling”

I can now cut Marty’s hair well enough to get by.

I can now take a cold shower without dying. I just wait until my scalp starts to hurt and I know it’s time to quit.

I know how many gigs it takes to watch a Sopranos episode. (>1 per day. Anymore and run the risk of running out before end of cycle and having bad ole throttling.)

I know how to budget my gas, food, laundry, camping fees to keep within my budget.

I know where the line is where I am in danger of going over and infuriating Marty into sullenness. I don’t cross it. Yea, I stay far back from it.

I know what I want to do with my future: Live near Bozeman in the summer, write, and live near Tucson in the winter and also write. I’d like to start doing this next spring

I don’t do well not knowing where I’m going to sleep that night.

Green and wide open spaces are important to me. I think I knew this before but I settled a lot for the opposite before.