TO GO -- OR NOT TO GO

It was just about three weeks ago that we left the farm in order to prepare for “The Great Pumpkin Excursion” to Denver. 

 

It’s a whole different world at Gilbert now.

Yesterday, Mike suggested we run to the farm today just to check on things. Okay, I said. This morning he asked if I would prefer to spend a couple of days. Well, it seemed silly to do that in this cold spell unless we planned a longer stay. (It takes a day just to heat the house when it’s cold.) We then considered abandoning the day trip and going later in the week when it’s a little warmer. And then we returned to the original plan – make a short trip today for peace of mind. That’s what we did. I’m so glad we can still think and make our own decisions! We arrived at the farm about 10:15 and stayed until after lunch.

I had a few things to do. I packed up my Sunbeam/Oster Kitchen Center and set in its place my red KitchenAid. I love it there! And the fact that the KitchenAid stands a little tall is not an issue on that counter. Actually, my plan was to use it in the farm kitchen anyway, so it’s finally where it belongs. And while I was working in the kitchen, I traded out the apple plates for the Christmas plates. I put the Halloween books back on the shelf and checked out some vintage cookbooks with holiday ideas. Soon I was packed for the return trip.

 

Mike had planned to cut some kindling but it just wasn’t the right day. He said he wasn’t feeling energetic. (Three days of hunting in a row and a sleepless night will do that.) And besides, the temp hovered at freezing and he made frequent trips to the wall furnace to warm his hands. He folded the clothesline and tied it for the winter, checked out the barn, and brought furniture in off the porch.  He also disposed of three mice and re-set the traps.

 

After a hot lunch of leftovers, we packed up and returned to town. The sky was dark and we saw a few snowflakes. Can’t say if it will amount to much. KW

CUISINART 5.5-QUART STAND MIXER

Once upon a time, my mother would occasionally give each of her children a practical gift – something we probably wouldn’t purchase for ourselves. One year she gave me an Oster Kitchen Center, a stand mixer with attachments – salad maker, blender, and meat grinder. Many cakes and cookies later, mine was dying, so Mother let me have hers when she moved to a retirement home. And now it’s time to replace that one. I still like the concept of a “kitchen center,” so I researched for a new one.

Things come and things go. Sunbeam/Oster is no longer in the forefront of the stand mixer manufacturers. If one wants a kitchen center, the closest thing is a Cuisinart, so I decided to try one. The thing is, Cuisinart stand mixers are not readily available in my local market. (Is anything?)

Of course, Mike (ever the frugal one) suggested Hamilton Beach or today’s Sunbeam, which can be found at the "nameless mart" of your choice. “It’s not what I want,” I would say. I’ve been mixing and baking for these 37 years and more, and I’m still mixing and baking. I won’t be talked out of this decision.

So, when we were in Denver, Kelly agreed to help me look for the Cuisinart, and we found it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It was on sale and the store agreed to ship it to me free of charge. It came the other day, and now I must learn to use it, though I don’t anticipate problems. Using a mixer is mostly using a mixer.

It’s always a little scary, though, to step outside the bounds of what is available and accepted and try something new.

So, with a new mixer, you’d think I’d love to give it a try first thing. However, I try to keep goodies to a minimum, and we were eating on cookies and cake when the mixer arrived. And then – I just couldn’t make up my mind what to bake. It seemed like the first product should be something really special. In the end I took a box from the shelf and mixed up a devil’s food cake, and then I whipped up some butter cream frosting.

What’s my opinion so far? The Cuisinart is a little noisy, but otherwise I love it. And -- the ingredients stay in the bowl. KW

Dead Horse and Teapot Caves

On our recent trip to Denver (see previous postings) we stopped in Gooding for a visit with son, Clint, and family.  Saturday, Clint and I along with Nellie had a great time exploring a couple of caves located in the lava fields northwest of Gooding.  I had visited the general area a year before with Clint looking for some geocaches.  Most of the geocaches in this area are placed by one person and judging from our lack of success in finding them, I think they are gone.  We found only 2 out of 6 attempts on this trip and the two we found were hidden by someone else.

The first cave we visited was called Dead Horse Cave.  It had a large opening and extended back a couple hundred feet or so.  It was very large inside almost like a small auditorium.  Some years back one of the local service clubs in Gooding had built some concrete steps and benches in the cave.

 The second cave was Teapot Cave and probably one of the neatest caves I have ever seen.  We had the choice of taking a very rough road or hiking the 2+ miles to the cave and we decided to walk.  We saw several large craters in the lava field on the way there and climbed through one looking (unsuccessfully) for a geacache.  The cave has a very small entrance (about 3’x4’) and opens almost immediately to a 15’ chute down to a lower level.  On that level is a small bench above a large round cavern with the floor about 8 or 10 feet below.  You have to climb down this fairly abrupt cliff to the bottom.  At this point there is good visibility because of a round 50 foot diameter hole high above in the ceiling of the cave.  We found an owl and a pigeon down in the cave.  There was a little grove of ferns growing directly under the hole in the ceiling.  

 Clint in Dead Horse.

 One of the geocaches we found near the entrance to the Teapot.

 Clint in the Teapot chute.

 Clint at the bottom of the chute.

 The hole in the ceiling.

 Fern in the bottom.

 Another look at the hole.

 This shows no more than 1/4 of the area at the bottom of the cave.

 The adventurers at the mouth of the cave.

 The hole from ground level.  You don't want to slip down there.

Clint looks across the lava fields.

TRIP SUMMARY

A year or so ago, I requested that Mike get a “talking” GPS for the car so that the driver might not be so distracted by the hand-held GPS. Therefore, he purchased Ms. Nuvi Garmen, who is now the navigator’s tool. Ms. Nuvi does not replace the standard GPS, but we admit that she has her place. She’s especially helpful in city driving as she talks us through the turns.

Bear in mind that we did not have Utah, Wyoming, or Colorado maps on this trip, owing to oversight. A GPS is no substitute for a map, but the navigator had to work from a 1986 AAA United States road map, inadequate especially on the return trip where we used secondary routes. Ms. Nuvi always selects the most direct or shortest route and does not care for detours and side roads. “Turn left, turn left,” she would say as we left the interstate. “Travel 100 feet and turn left, turn left. Recalculating . . .  recalculating . . . turn left.” At one point I dubbed her “Ms. Smarty-Pants” for her superior, “I’m-always-right” tone. It seemed as though we finally broke her down. She just kept saying, “Recalculating . . . recalculating . . . recalculating . . . recalculating . . .” and I unplugged the poor dear.

Chuck requested trip details. While it isn’t particularly interesting reading, perhaps summarizing is of value.

·        Total miles: 2368

·        Average mpg driving 2006 Dodge Magnum: 21.47

·        Average driving speed: 77-78 mph (one speeding stop, forgiven, at Brigham City, UT)

·        Total caches, including Thornton, CO: 38

Additional Montana Counties gained (geocaches):

·        Silver Bow

·        Deer Lodge

·        Granite

·        Powell

To Thornton:

First day: left Clarkston at 7:45 a.m.

·        Hwy 95 to I84

·        I84 to Gooding

Second day: left Gooding at 4:45 a.m.

·        I84 to I80 at Ogden

·        I80E to Cheyenne (We drove Echo Canyon Road paralleling I80E for several miles.)

·        I25S to Thornton, arriving 5:00 p.m. (MDT)

Return:

First Day: left Thornton at 4:45 a.m.

·        I70W to Rifle, CO

·        13 to Rangely

·        40 to Vernal (stopped at museum in Dinosaur where we were provided a free Colorado map now that we were leaving the state)

·        191 north through Flaming Gorge (the scenic route through the Uinta National Forest)

·        191 became 44 (somehow)

·        43 to I80

·        189 to Kemmerer

·        30 to Montpelier, Soda Springs, and Lava Hot Springs

·        I15 at McCammon (where we had a Subway sandwich) into Idaho Falls, arriving at 8:00 p.m.

Perhaps now you understand why the navigator was getting a little testy, and the driver said, “We’re just a couple of oldsters having fun.”

The second day of return:

·        Explored Idaho Falls, leaving town about 8:15 a.m.

·        I15N to I90 just west of Butte

·        Off on Frontage Road for caches, including Anaconda area, and coming back to I90 at Drummond

·        I90 to Missoula where we took Hwy 12 to the Lewis Clark Valley

And that’s it. More than you ever wanted to know. 

Photos:
1) "Time Bridge" at Riggins where the Pacific time zone becomes Mountain time.
2) Mike finds a geocache at Bruno Rock in the middle of nowhere before Cambridge, Idaho.
3) A Colorado rest stop. I just thought the mountain shrouded by clouds was beautiful.
4) Mike finds a geocache at "Pay Gold" near Butte, MT.
5) Nellie at Fish Creek off Highway 12. KW

OLDSTERS HAVING FUN

We started home from the Denver area at 4:45 a.m. on Thursday, November 1. We had already said our good-byes after the Halloween festivities the previous night. I explained to young Emmy that we would be gone when she got up in the morning, and she gave me an ever-so-tight good-bye hug.

There’s no sneaking out of the Mile High house. Blanche and Abe, the Boston terriers, are pretty good watch dogs, and they announced their displeasure that we were moving about the house during the dark hours. Oh well. I took the liberty of making a couple of sandwiches for the road. Mike tasted the witch’s brew in the cauldron, pronounced it still fit to drink, and ladled some into our juice bottle. It was dark as we set out, but the interstate never sleeps. Even so, as we left the city, traffic thinned out a bit. By the time it was light, we had chosen a less-traveled road so that we could stop frequently for geocaches.

I admit that I take life rather seriously, and as I was ready to argue with Mike about our route, he said, “We’re just a couple of oldsters having fun.” Okay – I was defused.

We arrived in Idaho Falls about 8:00 Thursday evening and checked into the Super 8 Motel where Nellie could stay in the room for an additional $10. We allowed ourselves to sleep in the next morning, and before we breakfasted, Mike took a load of stuff to the car. Unfortunately he spilled Nellie’s chow in the hallway outside our door, so I helped him scoop that up and returned to the room.

Some minutes later I heard a car alarm nearby. “No-o-o-o,” I said to myself; “it couldn’t be.” I was half-tempted to go out and see but decided even if Mike did set off the car alarm, I really didn’t want to get involved, especially since I didn’t know how to turn it off. It went on and on – and I hoped against hope that it wasn’t our car. How useless car alarms are, I thought to myself, when we just accept that they’ve been triggered accidentally.

“That was me,” Mike announced in disgust as he came into our room. “Somehow I set off the car alarm and I couldn’t get it to shut off. It finally just ran out.” We figured out how he managed to trigger it, but we must learn how to turn it off. It’s not something with which one really cares to experiment.

Before we left Idaho Falls, we found the house where Mike and family lived in 1968. Then we drove to 1804 So. Boulevard (yes, the name of the street is Boulevard), which was my Uncle Earle’s home until 1960. We didn’t pause to take pictures.

Discussing our return travel plans with Yancey, I explained that when we arrived at Missoula we would travel on home no matter what the time of day. In a sense, Highway 12 from Missoula to Lewiston is some of the most arduous driving of the whole trip, but it feels like home to us. We reached Missoula at 2:45 p.m. (MDT), which was 1:45 our time. Plenty of time to drive the four hours to Clarkston as well as to stop for geocaches.

As we traveled the Lewis Clark Trail over Lolo Pass (Highway 12), I had to continuously remind myself that it was November and not late September. The temperature was mild – in the 50s – with no visible snow. But of course, darkness would fall much sooner than in September.

If Mike and I were happy to be home, Nellie was ecstatic. She jumped out of the car, waited impatiently as I unlocked the door, then leaped to her perpetual feeder and began to chow down. As I prepared supper, she kept running into the kitchen to see if she could help. And she insisted that I open the pantry door so that she could check the floor for Sugar Babies and peanuts. When the dishes were done, she napped on her pillow until bedtime. KW