Things I Never Want to Forget About Europe

First, I always want to remember how grateful I am to my mother for giving me the opportunity to share this experience with her, creating memories for both of us forever.

Houses are very narrow because they were taxed on the amount of land they use and then they built up. Many of these houses are over 500 years old and are sliding sideways, making them look very tipsy.

Holland is just two provinces--The Netherlands is the name of the whole country

The Red Light District of Amsterdam--I've always heard of it and always wanted to see it. Two kind fellow passengers took me out with them to see the sights. Incredibly narrow alleys with real red lights over 400 windows. 1000 girls (to cover the various shifts). They pay about $100/night for a window. The girls were all completely dressed. After negotiating with the customer they close the drapes for privacy. Photos are not allowed or you may find yourself in the canal.

The "coffeehouses" are numerous and no one pays any attention to them, but they do emit a strong aroma.

One thing that made me crazy were all the people on bikes (no one wears a helmet) and no hats or umbrellas. It didn't matter how hard it was raining, they just went on without them.

Outdoor urinals--can you imagine! right out on the street!

They have a Museum of Bags and Purses.


Augenroller--The Eye Roller--his eyes move back and forth and he sticks out his tongue on the hour.

Schmuck means gem or jewelry.

Gas costs $9 a gallon.

For public toilets, you must pay a "fee to pee." Usually 50 cents. In one place we paid 70 cents, but that's because a brush came out to clean the rotating seat after every use.

"Let's have a reviver, Georgie!"

In the Cologne area, beer is served in tall narrow glasses and they will keep bring you more and more until you put a coaster over the glass to indicate that you are finished.

There is a purity law regarding beer brewing--you may only use four ingredients: hops, barley, yeast and water.

During a night out in the Drosselgasse wine alley of Rudesheim, we went wine tasting and had to fish the little bugs out of our glasses. We were each served a liter of Riesling wine with dinner and they all sang the whole way home on the bus.

Contrary to popular belief, in the middle ages chastity belts were not used to keep wives and daughters pure. They were used on prostitutes who didn't pay their taxes.

The gigantic slabs of wurst people ate at lunch.

In Bamburg, the Church owned the land and would not give the townspeople a place for their city hall, so they built it in the middle of the river.

Our friend had to go into the hospital for two days while on the trip. For breakfast they served her a bread roll, a piece of cheese and 3 slices of salami--in a hospital!!

Schneeballen--a round pastry ball deep-fried and coated with different toppings.

The little old ladies who spoke to me in German, assuming that I understood, as I nodded along.

The Mainz cathedral was built in 8 years and burned to the ground on the day of its inaugeration.

The Marksburg castle is the the only intact remaining castle. In the bed chamber there is a bed that is approximately 4 ft by 4 ft for two adults to sleep in. They slept sitting upright because of all the smoke from the fires and candles.

It is a saying that a women's blouse should be well constructed, so you can "see how much wood she has stacked in front of her cabin."

When the ship approaches low bridges, the wheelhouse lowers to the level of the deck. The captain pokes his head out a hatch on top. Once he asked me to sit beside him as we went under and he stuck his hand up to touch the bottom of the bridge.

So, what have we done so far? In Amsterdam, there was the canal boat trip with the houseboats lining the edges, a long walk in the rain and a short trip to see the Red Light District.

Next, we sailed to Cologne to see the cathedral and the old town. The town of Koblenz  was lovely to wander through. We toured the only intact castle left in Germany called Marksburg followed by beer, sausages and pretzels at a brewery.

The highlight of the trip is the little villages lining the Rhine, including the rock of Lorili. They waited until morning to sail for us to have the best views. Of course, it was a shivery cold, foggy morning, so that didn't work out so well. But I managed to take a few pictures.

We toured Mainz, which was supposed to include the Gutenberg Museum, but we ditched it because we were tired. There was a special tour of Rudesheim with a winery and then dinner with lots of oompah music and a liter of wine each! They sang all the way home on the bus.

Today we saw castle and town of Heidelberg.

What's left? Only Wertheim, Karlstadt, Gerlachshausen, Schweinfurt, Bamberg and Nuremberg. Other than that, we just eat ALL THE TIME! 

Dream of my lifetime--Europe! Specifically, a riverboat cruise of the Rhine River from Amsterdam to Nuremburg. We started with two rainy days in Amsterdam, but trooped through it to see the sights. The canals, tipsy houses, coffeeshops and of course, the Red Light District.

Today we had a day in Cologne. When I came around the corner and saw the awesome of the catherdal, the power of it was breathtaking. The town was mostly destroyed during World War II, and has been reconstructed around the main square.

We skipped out on the ship board dinner tonight and ate bratwurst, cabbage and potatoes in an authentic German pub.

Arenal Volcano

We slept 5 miles from here for the last two nights!

More Camping Foods

We are heading out to the High Sierra Music Festival for 4 days of hippie heaven--peace, love, and music. We don't want to mess with food too much while we are out there, so I pre-made a lot of it yesterday morning. Because I wanted to be done before it got hot, I started the oven the minute I got out of bed.

First order of business--quiche. In the mixer, blend ricotta cheese, 7 eggs, fresh thyme, bacon, spinach, lots of bits of cheese. Pour into a pie dish. Cook in 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes.

Next, sundried tomato pasta salad from Pioneer Woman. Try it, amazingly delicious. I added prosciutto and left out the fresh tomatoes because we are traveling and will probably eat it over several days.

Also, Stuffed Bell Peppers. I just steamed two bell peppers and then packed them with cooked hamburger, sauteed onion, pasta sauce, Worcester sauce. Topped with smoky Gouda cheese and wrapped in foil, we can just pop them in the solar oven.

Then, these Energy Bars that are simply over-the-top rice crispy treats, and the perfect camping food.

Energy Bars

1. Warm the following in 250 degrees oven

2.5 cups of Rice Krispies
2 cups of instant oatmeal
1/2 cup to 1 cup of raisins
1/2 cup chopped unsalted peanuts
1 package of sesame seeds


2. While the above is being heated, melt the following:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 to 3/4 cups peanut butter
2 packages of 10 oz marshmallows (I just buy 2 bags as they don't come in 10 oz size anyway)
Add: 1 cup coconut to melted mixture and stir.

3. Combine the heated ingredients to melted mixture.

4. Butter or Pam spray a 9 x 13" pan. Put 1/2 of the mixture into bottom of pan and press down. Sprinkle 1 cup of chocolate chips and press down. Then spoon the rest of the mixture on chocolate chips, spread and press.

HINT: Whatever tool you're using to spread the heated mixture, dip it in water before spreading each time as it's sticky as heck. Even a rice paddle is totally the bomb to do this.

Since the hot stuff was done, I could now cut up a pineapple, and a jicama to go with the fresh berries, watermelon, and cherries. We will also bring Smoked Chicken, Apple, and Chardonnay sausages and Mango Passion Granola from Trader Joe's. Sun Tea, Beer, Wine, Chai and Limoncello to drink.

Had everything done, dishes cleaned, and kitchen in order before noon. I didn't feel guilty about laying around in the hammock all afternoon at all.

Camp Food

Yes, we are camping again. I thought I'd talk about some of the things we like to eat when we are camping. The criteria is that they must be easy to cook and easy to clean up too.

First, Brad pre-makes a few meals. These can be things like lasagna or enchiladas that can be cooked in the solar oven. He put them in disposable pans, so the mess was all in our home kitchen, where the dishwasher is.

I tend to make the dessert items. This time I baked a batch of homemade oatmeal/raisin cookies. I also pre-made the crumble for the Cherry Crumble recipe and put it in a ziplock bag. I will layer it later and pop it in the solar oven too.

Sometimes we make dishes like a pasta salad or a Mexican corn salad. It's wonderful to just spoon it right out when you want something delicious to eat.

At Trader Joe's I bought a package of sliced salami and cheeses, a little container of marinated mozzarella, and another one with mixed olives. Along with a baguette and some fresh tomatoes, this will make a delicious antipasto for cocktail hour.

Other than that, we BBQ a lot. Eat cereal and fresh fruit for breakfast, sandwiches or quesidillas for lunch. We clear out our frig and bring almost everything with us. No point in having it rot while we're gone.

Northern California Music Festivals

Time once again to look ahead to the shows that we will be attending this year. I put an asterisk next to the ones we are planning on attending.

*April 19 -- Horsemen's Club -- Michael Burks, Tommy Castro, Roy Gaines

*May 9 -- Metro Fountain Blues Fest, San Jose -- Derek Trucks, Tommy Castro, Chris Cain, Kandye Kane, others

May 23-24 -- Santa Cruz Blues Fest -- BB King, Joe Cocker, Keb Mo, others

May 24 -- Avila Beach Blues Festival -- Kenny Wayne Shepard, Susan Tedeschi, Shemekia Copeland, others

*June 6 -- Coloma Blues Fest -- Kenny Wayne Shepard, Joe Louis Walker, Rick Estrin, others

June -- Fair Oaks Blues Fest -- cancelled

June 18-21 -- Father's Day Bluegrass Fest, Grass Valley -- SteelDrivers & others

June 26-28 -- Kate Wolf Fest, Laytonville -- EmmyLou Harris, Richard Thompson, Dave Alvin, Mavis Staples, many more

June 26-28 -- Monterey Blues Festival -- Neville Bros, Lucky Peterson, Elvin Bishop, more

*July 10-11 -- Solar Cook-Off, Taylorsville -- unknown

July 11-12 -- Hayward Russell City Festival -- Zac Harmon, Vasti Jackson, others

*July 31-Aug 2 -- Mammoth Blues Fest -- Kenny Wayne Shepard, Rod Piazza, Eric Sardinas, Javina Magness

Aug 1 -- Sonoma County Fair, Santa Rosa -- unknown

Aug 8 -- Fire on the Mountain, Sonora -- Coco Montoya, Johnny Winter, Paul Thorn, more

Aug 29 -- Petuluma Wine, Jazz & Blues -- Charlie Musselwhite and others

Sept 12 & 13--Northern Calif Blues Festival, South Sacramento

Sept 13 -- Russian River Blues Festival, Guerneville -- unknown

*Sept 19 -- Delta Blues Fest, Antioch -- unknown

San Francisco Blues Fest has been cancelled this year

*Oct 2-4 -- Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Fest, San Francisco -- unknown

Sea Glass

I knew there would be much sea glass to be found at low tide after the big storm last weekend. Brad is excellent at spotting the little gleaming pieces, twinkling in the sunlight. He hands his discovers to me and I edit out the ones that are too big, or too small, or not polished enough. We are so pleased when we find a soft green or teal blue.

I have a large clear vase that I keep them in at home. I bring it out in the summer. Inside the vase I have a clear drinking glass with a candle inside. The sea glass fills the space between the two. When the candle is lit, the glass glows very cheerfully.

Grateful Friday

Three roadrunners came strolling slowly through our camp
a frosty ice cream cone
Todd Snider on a Wednesday night in a little club in Phoenix
walking through an icy stream after a hot walk
petroglyphs--imagining these ancient civilizations living here so long ago

Living Museum

It's called a museum, but it's really a zoo. The Desert Museum displays an abundance of desert flora and fauna. It took us about four hours to wander among the mountain lions, bighorn sheep, foxes, bobcats, reptiles, and javalina (wild pigs). It's so fun to be a grown up in a zoo!

Junga Game of the Gods

It is astounding that most Americans don't even know Chiricahua National Monument exists. It is more visually stunning than the Grand Canyon. You can walk down around the spires to be awed by their size and shapes, wondering at how they defy gravity and stay in place. I kept thinking how much my dad would love this place.

Bisbee/Queen Mine

We liked Bisbee so much that we stayed a few extra days. We were staying in this cute little RV park overlooking the gigantic pit mine, close enough to easily walk to town. This is a town with a lot of personality--old buildings, teetering houses, real handcrafted arts, even the junk shops are creatively arranged. We ate in several small restaurants--Roma Bella, Bisbee Grill, and Cafe Cornucopia--with high quality foods at reasonable prices. We hung out for an evening at the local saloon, Brad played pool and we listened to a local singer/songwriter, who was quite good. It was also a great location for several day trips around the southeast corner of Arizona--so much to see there!The Queen Mine is just on the edge of town. It was in operation until 1975. They have found an amazing variety of ores here, but mostly copper. They give tours underground that last about an hour. You have to don yellow slickers, hard hats and lanterns to ride on the little tram into the mine. I certainly learned a lot about the mining industry.

Grateful Friday

Being without a television, I don't have to watch all the bad news at all
The opportunity to learn so many new things--history, birds and their habitats, the mining industry, geology, and vegetation
The town of Bisbee, I'd live here if I could
These chrysanthemums have lasted since Jan 4, almost 4 weeks

Eat a Burger, See a Murder

Tombstone is a lot like Virginia City NV; once an important mining town, now just a tourist trap. The main street is lined with gift shops. People dressed in costumes come up to you on the street and invite you into their restaurant or shop or museum. They hold silly fake shoot-outs in the middle of road. One guy stopped us and really said, "Come on in. Eat a burger, see a murder."

In reality, Tombstone was a highly dangerous, nasty place. We went to the Boothill Cemetery, where 250 people are buried. Most of them died awful deaths--found in mine shafts with bullet holes, hanged, lynched, suicides, stoned to death.

The OK Corral is now completely enclosed with bleachers, where they charge you to watch a fake gun battle of a real shoot-out that lasted a total of 30 seconds.

The most worthwhile thing in the town is the old Courthouse, now run as an Arizona state park--a very well done museum.

Cave Kissed

So far, the best experience of this trip has been the Kartchner Caverns, outside of Benson, AZ. Discovered in 1974 by two cavers, they kept it secret for 14 years. In 1999, it was opened to the public.

They have two different tours of the two biggest areas of the caverns. Of course, since we don't know if we'll ever be back, we had to do both. They last about an hour and a half each. The first one was called "The Big Room." We learned so much about how they are formed by hard water (calcite) at the rate of 1/400 of an inch every 500 years! The bacon formations were fascinating. No photos are allowed, so I can't show you pictures (the photo above is from their website). But we felt the second tour, "The Rotunda Room and the Throne Room" was even more thrilling. It is here that the massive 58ft tall Kubla Khan column is. They do a lovely light and music show that really makes you stop in wonder.

Female bats roost in the Big Room from Oct to April, so it is closed. The bat only weighs half an ounce and her one pup is half the weight. There were bones from a 86,000 year old sloth found here--think about that.

We camped at there campground for two days while we explored the area. We were told that usually you need reservations to get in, but tourism is down by 50% here. That's pretty scary.

Yes, I was "Cave Kissed," meaning that a drop of water fell from the ceiling and kissed me.

Patagonia Lake/Madera Canyon

At Patagonia Lake they have avian patoon boat tours for only $3! such a deal! We got an hour ride with experienced birders pointing out all the waterfowl and other birds. My favorite find was the black capped night herons roosting in the trees. Also the brilliant red cardinals were heart stopping. The red headed gila woodpecker, above, spent three days drilling the tree beside our campsite.
An absolute jewel in Southern Arizona is the Madera Canyon. Lovely hikes and spectacular scenery. We got caught in a downpour, but it was worth it to see all that beautiful countryside. From the top of the nature trail, if you look south, it looks like Peru; if you look north, it looks the African savannah. They have a lodge and a B&B, but no camping. I would say it would definitely be worth staying there.

Organ Pipe Cactus Monument

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is a fascinating adventure. We were lucky enough to be there while a storm was brewing up from Mexico, giving us cool temps for walking and brilliant skies for dramatic scenery. The highlight of the park is the 20 mile circular drive to the Ajo Mountains, where there are two arches. The views were so spectacular that we wanted to do it again & again.

One day we did a 4 mile hike to an old silver mine, abandoned in 1977. The trail wound around up over hills and down through washes. The next day, we did the 3 mile Desert View to the top of a hill, overlooking big wide Sonoran Desert valleys into Mexico.

Organ Pipe cactus have many upright branches grouped close together. I had never seen one before; they are very rare in the US. The terrain is also covered in ocotillo, saguaro, cholla and barrel cactus, making it appear to be a fantasyland.

Grateful Saturday

saguaro sunsets
joyful rain/glorious sun
prickly pear and date milkshakes
the road through the Ajo mountains
avian pontoon boat tour--herons, coots, mergansers, and cardinals
nice little country duet during dinner last night--old country, not new country

Slab City

OK, now that we've been here for awhile and I have a feel for the place, I will try and describe some of the most interesting aspects of Slab City. Everyone says that the population is way down this year; there used to be around 5000 RV's here at one time. Now there's maybe 500. Apparently everyone now goes to Quartzite where there is a massive flea market with over 250,000 vendors.
There are definitely neighborhoods here, the locals, the snowbirds, the hippies, the single old broads. (Sorry, I apologize, but they were pretty rude to us). So where do we fit? Well, really we don't. We ended up with the snowbirds, who are all at least 10-20 years older than us, but very welcoming and friendly. They love to talk. We've met people who have been coming here for 8, 10, or even 25 years. We went to dinner at the Oasis Club: taco dinner $3 each and also the Travel'n Pals Club: pot roast dinner $7 each. These affairs are BYOB and a plate, they provide the food. You can join the clubs for an annual membership fee and they have lots of activities, movies, libraries, tools to share.

We are bordered on the east by the Chocolate Mountain Gunnery Range, which means that at any time of the night or day, missiles and bombs can go off with no warning at all. Just KABOOM! Quite exciting. The locals say that they don't even notice any more.

One of the things we liked the best is the Gopher Flats Golf Course. It reminds me of the one in MASH--18 holes in gravel and bushes. Brad played a few holes and I just laughed.
The library was established many years ago. People keep bringing more books than they take away, so it keeps growing. It is a cool oasis of shade, clean & organized. I found three books I will definitely read.


Brad and I get up pretty early and have our tea in the refreshing cool morning light. Sometimes I climb up to the roof of the RV to survey the landscape. Then we head out for a walk before it gets too hot. We wander through the streets, into the desert, weaving whichever way we want to go. Then it's time to read or socialize or head into town for supplies. Evenings are very relaxing with an early dinner and watching the stars. Some nights we stay at camp and others we are invited to join other campers at their campfire. It's a relaxing way to spend some time.

We will leave tomorrow, after being here for a week. I have spent the time wondering what it would be like to live like this permanently. Certainly there are some wonderful people making a very happy life for themselves here. But really, we are simply not ready to just come and sit in the sun for months at a time. We are not old enough for this life yet--maybe someday.