Posts from the ‘Photos’ category

Getting ready to roll

After a weekend that felt more like mid-July, than mid-May, we are now feeling like mid-April …wonderfully cool 50 degree temperatures and lovely, gentle, “turn everything green” rain. The stuff that should be green mostly is, but things dry out so fast and the mountain snow pack is a bit light and everyone hopes for a good fire season as in no fires so the spring rains are good. We typically get very little rain in July and August.

As I’ve written previously, probably ad nauseum, Memorial Day weekend is most often cold and rainy, no matter how far away from the real Memorial Day we celebrate it. And it usually snows, if not flurries, at least snow in the mountains.

Ho….this year looks to be a bit different. The forecast is for warm (70’s) and sunny with just the slightest chance of a shower.

And below, my route to California – it looks really good all the way excepting the heat in CA where the A/C will get a workout.

The above for any interested, is courtesy of Weather.com Gold subscription. I pay $19.95 per year for this screen as well as the ability to completely customize all screens and remove all ads and extraneous stuff I don’t want to see. But it is the ability to look at weather for 10 cities that makes it worth it to me. I travel by rv any time of the year and have used this to see my route forecast. It has worked very well for me and is more efficient than manually looking at several cities as I move along. As a one woman show, I am all about efficiency :) !

The plan is to leave Friday morning and pedal to the metal on interstates after St. Regis. I hope to arrive Vacaville, CA (southwest of Sacramento) on Sunday afternoon and will park there 2 nights at what looks to be a lovely and hopefully shady, vineyard RV park. It will be a rest up and prepare for the last 100 miles of urban jungle driving. I have reservations in Pacifica, south of San Francisco, for a week. The rv park there is basically a parking lot for rvs – very narrow spots. It is on the ocean and across from a BART station (Bay Area Rapid Transit) AND there is a woman who does dog walking and checking in the park so Karl and Bob will be checked on and hopefully Karl will agree to a midday walk-about…Mama’s boy will not always go with just anyone… I hope we’ll have a chance to meet the woman and have her take Karl for a spin with my encouragement which usually works.

The details of getting house and yard ready to leave have come along nicely. I managed to purchase the same water timer that neighbors Mike and Nancy did so they will be able to adjust mine easily if needed.

A last service appointment to check a few rv items has been completed and all is loaded except for the usual last minute things like me, pets, computers and frig food.

The only somewhat sad thing is that the lilacs and lilies of the valley are close but not close enough. I’ll miss them blooming. Maybe next year. I might pick a few sprigs to take with and see if they’ll bloom along the way.

We’re getting ready to roll.

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

You start with this…

This link for the recipe: Smitten Kitchen’s Rhubarb Coffee Cake. I made a gluten free version using Pamela’s Ultimate Bread and Baking mix. I also used all of the rhubarb pictured, a bit over 2 cups – the recipe calls for 1/2 pound. I had about 3/4 cup of rhubarb earlier in the week, added some pie cherries and made this recipe. I thought it needed more fruit and less sugar – the crumb topping is very sweet. I decreased the sugar in the rhubarb and the topping and only used 2/3 of the topping.

I added a few chocolate chips to about a third of the cake also. These are Ghiradelli 60% cocoa – BIG chips and GOOD chocolate!

The cake bakes for 45-55 minutes, but the gluten free combo seemed to need a bit longer – 15 minutes longer at my house. Then it has to completely cool… **

So Karl and I went for a walk.

The sun was already high in the sky at 7:30 a.m., but a few rays were lighting up the peaks. And it was warm enough (for me :)! ) to walk in shorts.

The cake was cool when we got back and this piece was enjoyed with a last cup of coffee…on the Front Porch!

**this recipe tastes best the 2nd day. If I was making it for others, I would make it the night before. Last batch leftover I warmed slightly and topped with a bit of fresh whipped cream. And the chocolate chips were great!