Louie and Tom trekking on ice covered Sessions Lake. A few fishing shanties are across the lake.

Michigan doesn’t get many sunny days in the winter, but Sunday was one of the exceptions. Tom and I stuffed Louie the World’s Cutest Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in the van, picked up my mom and cruised on over to the Ionia State Recreation Area where Sessions Lake is the center of activity. It’s about a 40 minute drive east of Grand Rapids.

We were there just long enough to get our cheeks wind burned from a biting breeze. It was a short afternoon, but it was great to get outdoors in the sunshine and snap some shots of the ice-covered lake and the clear blue sky.

And speaking of clear, let’s be clear on this: we do not have cabin fever. We have Campin’ Fever!

Alas, the truck camper’s in storage and the campground at the Ionia State Recreation Area is closed for the season.

But we can dream, can’t we? And in my dream, the weather is perfect, the steaks are sizzlin’ on the grill, and the fishing has been mostly “crappie.”

Keep on Trippin’! Road Trippin,’ that is!

Bridge at the far end of Sessions Lake leads to the campground and equestrian camping/staging area.

Portion of the picnic area at the Ionia State Recreation Area, looking west with frozen Sessions Lake in the background.

No picnic today! Frozen Sessions Lake, Ionia State Recreation Area.

Snow covered pathway to the handicap fishing pier on Sessions Lake, Ionia State Recreation Area.

Handicap fishing pier at Sessions Lake, Ionia State Recreation Area

One of the bat houses at Sessions Lake, Ionia State Recreation Area

Ye Olde Hand Pump at a picnic area at Sessions Lake.

OK, I’m not camping yet, but I will be. And I don’t want to spend all my camping time fixin’ the fixins, know what I mean, Vern? So one goal of this blog is to bring you a monthly recipe that’s quick, easy and fun to fix at the campsite so’s y’all can get back to swimming, fishing, sunning, sleeping and reading this blog.

(After) Winter-Blues-B-Gone! Winter Chili by John Rumery, Foodie In Residence

DEBUT O’ DE FOODIE

This month marks the debut of the recipe blog. Tom and I are pleased to introduce to you John Rumery, Knower Of All Things Grill and Barbecue Related, who will provide his expertise, preparation tips and mouth-watering recipes each month.

Please tune in regularly so you don’t miss any tips on gas grilling, charcoal grilling and campfire food prep. And you might want to check out John’s barbecue blog Grilladelic to stay abreast of his grilling hijinks and competition standings.

JOHN SAYS

Last year I decided to compete in The Fenn Valley Chili Cookoff. I am an amateur chili guy, but barbecue and chili share some flavor profiles and I enjoy cooking competitions, so

John Rumery, Road Trip's Foodie In Residence

I thought I would give it a whirl.  I researched recipes and tried several variations.  I decided to compete in the White Chili category because it seemed to have a little more flexibility.  I know that some judges can get very picky if a recipe is not “authentic enough”.

These links take you to Grilladelic for the background and recipes I tried out — check them out if you want to try some variations on a theme: Chili recipe #1 Chile Recipe #2 Chili Recipe #3 Chili Recipe #4 The Fenn Valley Entry

When Deborah asked me to be the Foodie In Residence for the Road Trip blog I thought chili would be a good January food: flavorful, simple, and you can make it at a campsite and pretty much get the ingredients anywhere. Following is an adaptation of a recipe I found in Bon Appetit.

Warning: the chipotle chile powder packs a punch.  You certainly could substitute a mild chile powder.   You could also use leftover turkey in this instead of the chicken. Enjoy!

WINTER-BLUES-B-GONE! WINTER CHILI

• 1 large white onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 bell peppers (any color), cut into 1-inch pieces (I used red and yellow for the visual appeal)
  

  (Before) Winter-Blues-B-Gone Winter Chili

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
• 2 teaspoon packed brown sugar
• 3 cans Rotel Tomatoes and Green Chiles (about 26-28 ounces)
• 1 (19-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup water
• 12 oz. beer (I used Dos Equis)
• 1 whole rotisserie chicken, cut into 1-inch pieces
• Salt and pepper to taste (I also used a little homemade seasoned salt; cumin, garlic, white pepper…but these could be omitted with no problem)

Preparation

Cook onion and peppers in oil in a heavy medium pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is golden (12 to 15 minutes). Add spices and brown sugar and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the Rotel Tomatoes and Green Chilies with juice, then add beans, water, beer, and 1 teaspoon salt. Simmer, covered, 15 minutes.

Stir in chicken and let stand, covered, until heated through, 5 minutes.

Serve with grated cheese and tortilla chips.

Today the neighborhood, tomorrow the world,

John Rumery

Find John at Posterous, LinkedIn, and Grilladelic. Follow him on Twitter.

The approach to Grand Haven's lighthouse pier.

Today Tom, Louie and I took a drive to Grand Haven State Park in Grand Haven, Michigan, about 40 minutes from our home in Grand Rapids. Can you tell we have a bad dose of The Camping Bug?

The wind was bitterly cold. Tom took a nap in the warm van while Louie and I walked to the pier then hiked a short distance along the beach and grabbed some shots of the campground in snow. (Correction: Louie didn’t grab any shots — he doesn’t have opposable thumbs and keeps dropping the camera.)

The gray clouds in the photos could be seen coming in a bank across Lake Michigan, but when they hit the warmer air above the land they “skidded” to the south. They’re carrying lake effect snow, but even now, hours later, we haven’t seen any flurries in Grand Rapids.

Grand Haven State Park. View of lighthouse and pier from the south. The wind is bitter.

Grand Haven lighthouse from the dunes to the south.

Grand Haven lighthouse pier January 2010. Note the ice underfoot.

Swimming, anyone? A smidge of the expansive beach at Grand Haven State Park, Grand Haven, MI. Jan 2010.

Summer campin' dreamin' at Grand Haven State Park. Lake Michigan edges the line between earth and sky.

Nice shot of the Grand Haven channel looking north from Grand Haven State Park. Cottages and year-round homes line the channel on the opposite shore.

If Louie had his way, he'd have his head shoved all the way under the snow. Luckily it's not deep enough here on the beach. He seems content to scratch up some beach sand for a whiff of summer.

Deborah, back in the warm van trying to shake the chill after the winter hike. Yes, my glasses really are THAT fogged up.

Grand Haven State Park was the first park to debut eco-friendly shower houses, a new model for showers and bathroom facilities  in Michigan’s state parks. The buildings, designed by Grand Rapids-based Integrated Architecture, will replace older shower buildings throughout the state as they become obsolete. Below are a couple of photos of the building at Grand Haven State Park, and here is a link to a short article I wrote about the green design for the online magazine Rapid Growth. Grand Haven State Park debuts ‘green’ showers

New green showers and bathrooms at Grand Haven State Park. The showers are in individual rooms with doors accessed from the building perimeter, and include Family shower rooms and A.D.A.-compliant facilities. Pretty cool.

Individual, A.D.A.-compliant and family shower facilities are self-contained for privacy and accessible from the outside of the building. Grand Haven State Park, Grand Haven, MI. January 2010.

I read or heard or dreamed that it was a good idea to raise the front of the camper — and thus, the head of the bed — slightly above level for the best sleeping. It would be a cinch to do it quickly, despite it being dark and me being tired and frustrated. After all, this is just a 3,500 pound camper and the Atwood power jacks are easy to adjust using the remote control, and, well, the remote’s buttons don’t stick that often.

The buttons are covered by a plastic laminate which requires that considerable pressure be applied to the buttons in order to engage them. Apply enough pressure over a period of years and the laminate punches through, making some pretty inconvenient holes where the buttons are supposed to be.

The All-But-Totally-Defunct power jack remote, holes and all. Time for a new one? Nah.

In the few times we’ve used the truck camper since buying it in September, I’ve discovered that the cracked laminate is really good at sticking inside the holes and keeping the control buttons engaged, even after you’ve lifted your finger.

The remedy for this is simple really — just hold the remote in one hand and use your fingernail to pop up the laminate. Wallah! The button is freed from the laminate and the jack stops moving within a reasonable amount of time, pretty close to the actual desired stopping position.

This works great until the cracks around the hole worsen and something other than your fingernail is required to disengage the laminate-wedged button. A nail works pretty good, a flat head screwdriver is ok, but unless you plan ahead you may not have these handy.

The high-tech fix for stuck buttons. I'm considering applying for a patent.

Don’t panic, no need to invest in a new remote or even fix the surface of the damaged one. When the buttons stick, just pop the battery out of the remote!

It’s kind of fun really, and requires a level of coordination and dexterity that can make you feel pretty good about yourself. Besides, now you have time to use a variety of tools to free up the stuck button.

It may have been the darkness, maybe the tiredness, perhaps the frustration, but I think it was the kind of cocky high I felt as the result of the clever way I beat the remote manufacturer’s planned obsolescence trap, because when I went to tweak the camper’s front right corner down just a touch I put the battery back in before checking to see if any buttons were stuck in the engaged position. One was. The right front, stuck in UP. It was then that I realized that the camper was still tied down to the truck by Happijac tie downs.

You know that sick feeling you get when something bad is about to happen and all you can do is watch it? As I fumbled with the battery cover, my thumb sliding over the smooth-from-wear ridges, the whine of the jack motor begins to deepen. Bang! the Happijac turnbuckle breaks in two and Whump! the camper drops back on the truck with a 3500-pound vengeance.

The Happijac had neatly separated the screw from the piston. It was the first time in my life I can ever remember being happy about breaking something. At first I though it was Divine Intervention that saved the camper and my truck — there was no damage to be seen — but then I realized that some smart engineer at the Happijac company had thought to build this “tear-away” feature into the turnbuckle.

That was when I realized where they came up with the name Happijac. Well, I’d like to say to all the good folks at Happijac, and to the engineer with the forethought to prevent tired and frustrated campers from maximizing their potential for destruction, you have one Happicustomer.

Driving our pre-owned cars until they disintegrate into rusty dust.

Getting groceries only after the cupboard yields a bounty of near-empty rice bags and outdated cans of smoked oysters.

Tom and I push the envelope on many things in our lives, and now, after just our third trip out with our truck camper, we’ve added not getting propane until we’re totally out to the list.

I’m not saying that pushing the envelope is a bad way to live. It keeps things interesting. But running out of propane — translation: HEAT– at 11:30 p.m. on a night with wind chills of 20 below zero after driving for 10 hours… need I say more?

Wash me!

It was two days after Christmas and we were on our way back home to Grand Rapids, Michigan after spending the holiday with our kids and grandkids in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We decided to overnight it in the Middle Range Service Plaza along the westbound Ohio Turnpike. That location is one of several on the pike that has RV overnight facilities including electric hookups, fresh water and a dump station for just $15.

http://www.ohioturnpike.org/travelers/map/service_plazas/#SPG

You just feed 15 bucks into a machine, it spits out a ticket and you have a place to spend the night.

Our rig at the Middle Ridge Ohio Service Plaza RV overnight parking ticket station.

The service plaza building is right next door for eats, coffee, restrooms and travel information. There’s a dog walk area and a designated lot on the opposite side of the service plaza building for 18-wheelers. Gas and diesel are also on-site. The service plaza Folks-In-Charge really thought of everything to help make a traveler’s journey more enjoyable.

Our Lance 820 truck camper at the Middle Ridge Ohio Service Plaza RV overnight parking -- plaza building is in the background.

But the winter wind whipping across acres of parking lots just to swirl under our truck was bitter cold.

The electric heat strip on the ceiling took the edge off. Under our down comforter was a cloud of warmth. My hoodie’s hood, tied snugly under my chin, kept the frost off my neck and head. Tom’s new knit sleep hat (a Christmas gift I monogrammed with “Z-z-z Top”) capped his body heat. And, of course, Louie did his part — one dog asleep between us on a three-dog night. All of it worked together to keep us toasty.

But in the morning when my feet, all snuggly in a pair of black crew socks covered by a pair of fuzzy purple slipper socks, hit the icy floor and the cold seeped into my “very sole,” I wanted HEAT. So, a warm breakfast was in order — right after I got Louie in his parka and took him out in the 24-degree chill to do his morning business.

Louie the unhappy camper -- deciding if his need to go is worth braving the minus-20 windchill.

No propane meant no gas stove, so instant oatmeal topped with hot milk was the microwave cuisine of choice. I nuked the oatmeal and milk, then nuked some water and made Tom a cup of joe in the French press. Then I rousted Tom from bed. (It must be awesome being married to me.)

All was well… until…

I popped the oatmeal into the ‘wave for a quick re-heat at the exact moment the heat strip kicked on. That’s when I discovered that truck campers have circuit breakers…

We’ve been back home now for a few days and we still haven’t figured out how to flip the circuit breaker back on.

I think we’ll figure it out soon, though — right after the furnace repairman gets heat back in our house and Tom gets over the flu.

The truck just kept climbing the hills, heading for the high camp. Temperature: 29 and dropping. Sky: clear with Orion’s belt so close we could have put it on! The crescent moon showed its bottom, as it does only in December. And as I turned the corner into the campground a 16-point buck raced across our path!!!!!!

A 16-pointer! As near as we could tell. My first thought was that it was an elk. It was incredible. It was in view for a good 30 yards before it hit the treeline. Afterward, Tom and I decided it could have been a 20-pointer for all we knew. We’ve both been hunters in the past, but neither of us have ever seen anything like this.

We were definitely in the “buck eyed” state!

We hadn’t had the heater on in the camper for weeks and it took a long time for the place to get warm. Hot tea was a nice treat after setting up camp in the dark, in the wee hours, in the fuh-reezing cold. Tom hooked up the electric, cranked on the propane and took a moment with me to wonder at the sight of the Milky Way overhead. Then he was back inside.

I had to wait for Louie to take care of business before getting inside to warm my fingers. which I was pretty sure were

A dog's life: Louie snuggles in the down comforter on the queen bed in the truck camper.

still attached to my hands but couldn’t tell unless I looked. Louie, however, had been cooped up in the truck all day and was in need of a romp in the snow, regardless of the cold. He was in no hurry to relinquish his power, if you catch my drift.

We’ve been in North Carolina since Christmas Eve, spending the holiday with our kids and grandkids, and head home tomorrow morning. We’ll take a couple of days. Hope the weather clears a bit by the time we hit Michigan, but if doesn’t, we have our house on our back and food in the traveling larder; a good winter’s nap while boondocking might be a great way to end the adventure.

Tom is setting up camp in the freezing cold (29 degrees) just after midnight, Salt Fork State Park in Ohio. December 24, 2009.

The view out our window at Salt Fork State Park, Ohio -- early dawn and fuh-reezing cold. The quiet was eery but wonderful.

View from the rest area along southbound I-77 between Charleston and Beckley -- one of my favorite places to stop.

View from the rest area along southbound I-77 between Charleston and Beckley -- one of my favorite places to stop. Our rig is in the background.

]]> http://tcroadtrip.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/photo-gallery/feed/ 0 Deborah IMG00131-20091224-0027 IMG00139-20091224-0733 IMG00141-20091224-1149 IMG00144-20091224-1151 http://tcroadtrip.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/2009/ http://tcroadtrip.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/2009/#comments Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:57:28 +0000 Deborah http://tcroadtrip.wordpress.com/?p=35 ]]> Dawn at Salt Fork State Park in Ohio, December 24, 2009. It was about 27 degrees and silent — except for the ducks, which cued me in that there was a lake just over the ridge, something we couldn’t see when making camp at midnight the night before. When we pulled in a huge buck ran across the road in front of us — Tom and I guessed it to be a 16 to 20 pointer. Beautiful.

Setting up camp was cold, cold, cold but the night sky was crammed with stars — we were directly under Orion’s belt and the Milky Way was the clearest, and closest, it’s seemed in years. Totally awesome.

We’ll definitely stay at this park again. Hopefully we’ll get to spend more time there on a future trip.

Our new fun machine

out of storage and I’ll start packing it tomorrow. Hope to get some good photos on the way down and back to post here on the blog. We’ll probably boondock somewhere on the way down — not sure where yet.

Along 80, we discovered over Thanksgiving weekend that there is $15 overnight RV parking at several Ohio rest areas — one web site says they’re at mile posts 76.9, 139.5 and 197. They have a dump station and fresh water, plus the travel plaza with food, coffee, information and restrooms.

We’re also considering three of the Ohio State Parks along 77 — Portage Lakes, Salt Fork and Wolf Run. All are open year-round. http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/tabid/80/Default.aspx If anyone knows about any of these parks, please let us know.

We’ll see how far south we get on the first leg of the trip, Grand Rapids, MI to ?? That will make the decision for us. Then on to W-S the next day.

Gotta go. Got presents to wrap, bedding to wash and packing to do! Lovin’ it!