Got up slowly, for the first time in a long time, and watched the morning develop outside the window while enjoying a little air conditioning (more for noise abatement than for cold, the mornings have been lovely).

Threw the board on the rack and the dog in the back and cruised down to Tamarindo Rivermouth to catch some overhead waves with offshore winds.  Good surf, and darn fun despite the brief and painful longboard-nose incident.   No permanent damage to either part.

The slightly crowded beach (for here) gives me hope for a little micro-scale economic recovery, which is welcome.

Back to the house to do some yard maintenance, hand watering the yard on a windy, sunny day might not do much for the plants, but it feels good for the person doing the watering.

Baked a few loaves of bread, made some marinated cherry tomatoes and eventually cooked the pork roast that has been marinating for the better part of a week.   Jocelyn whipped up some yucca/sweet potato "mashed potatoes" that were wonderful, as well as an arugula and peccorino salad.  We enjoyed some delicious Zin brought by Ben last month, while cooking, then a little more of the same while eating. 

We dined by candlelight under the stars, on the pool deck, enjoying the evening breezes and an intermittent meteor shower to the southwest.   Eventually we turned out the lights, extinguished the candles and struggled through a losing battle with sleeping vs. star-gazing while enjoying some dark chocolate and a little more of that bottle of Zin.

Labels: food, tamarindo, weather

Finally got my roof rack re-installed yesterday, took much longer than it should have to prep it, and also too long to just plain get it installed. Sharp drill bits work much better than dull drill bits.  Drilling 1/4" steel is time consuming, even with sharp bits, especially when you mis-measure 6 of 12 holes and have to redo them. Jocelyn was a super star, lifting sun-heated metal overhead on a hot day is unpleasant work but she helped immensely, taking the rack back off, then re-drilling, then putting back on was a drag.

With the rack finally in place, we figured "hey, lets take a spin over to the hill behind the estuary to snap a photo and enjoy an afternoon beverage".   The hill is only about a mile away, nice n easy, no worries.

As this is the very beginning of the dry season, there are many wildflowers on the roadside, choking  the roadway... no worries, just stay in the middle and drive on up.  Sure, the road has a few little ruts, 4wd, onward and upward...   we jog this road all the time, nothing to see here.

Um...

Why did we suddenly shift 2 feet to the right and are now sitting at 45 degrees with two wheels spinning in the air?   This isn't the way it is supposed to work.

Stuck.   Totally and completely.  What we couldn't see for the shrubbery is that along the right side of the road, a ditch very suddenly forms-  within a car length it goes from 12" deep and 36" wide, to suddenly 4 or 5 feet deep (no exaggeration) and 18" wide.    I was resting on both axles, the front passenger side fender, and one rear tire.  Nothing else.   Great.

I tried reversing out, you never know, right?  But didn't even have enough traction to notice a change.  Ok.   So be it.   I jumped (literally) down out of the driver's seat and finally convinced Jocelyn to climb over and jump out too.  She was (not without some reason) worried that climbing around might upset the balance of the truck and topple it.  I *said* it was impossible, but truth is that I was wondering how much further the truck could tip without flopping.  At least it fell into the ditch on the uphill part of the road.  I guess that's good.  Still, I preferred it didn't flop all the way onto its side.  That would complicate the extraction.

For sure it was good that we were less than a mile from home.  We trotted back and borrowed a neighbor's 4Runner, grabbed my hilift out of the garage, and a 5ftx8" log that was in the garage as well.  

To minimize potential damage to the 4Runner's IFS front end, I reversed up to where we were stuck.  That alone would have been nearly impossible without Jocelyn's very able spotting. 

Remember, I was in 4wd on the lifted Cruiser on 33's to get to where we were stuck, driving up in reverse in a stock 4runner on 31s was....  slow.  Of course I was also hyper-aware of not getting near the sides of the road (and potential invisible ditches).

Got to the Cruiser and wedged the log under the rear tire to act as a ramp out of the ditch. Hooked up the strap (factory tow points on the 4runner could be improved) and Jocelyn jumped behind the wheel.  I clambored up into the Cruiser thinking, "Ok, this'll be over quickly."

She starts driving down hill, in low, reaches the end of the strap, I'm ready for the jolt....

Nothing.  Just spinning tires on the 4Runner.  Not even so much as a shudder on the Cruiser.  Not so good.    "Ok, back it up, try it again, give it a little gusto!"   She hits the end of the strap going .... 5mph?  ...  Nothing.  I can barely feel the Cruiser move when she hits the end.  No chance that we are pulling it out this way.   We did try two or three more times, but didn't want to hit it hard because the front fender was resting on the bank and I didn't want to leave it there.

Jocelyn (wisely) suggested that we dig out the bank a little bit, so I broke out the shovel and the Max-Ax (with shovel) and started digging.  Side note:  the Max is super-versatile, but like most "does everything" tools, it is not the ideal solution for any given job, in this case, digging.  It is very heavy and the ax head is unwieldy. But it sure beats using branches or bare hands.

We dug for a while, and realized the extent of how badly stuck the truck really was.  It was pretty bad.  Front tire was in midair in a 4-5ft ditch, back tire was hitting dirt, but it was pretty crumbly dirt.  Driver's front was on dirt, solidly, but I don't have lockers in front, so that didn't help us any, driver's rear was in the air.  Great.

Eventually my approach evolved into digging out the sides of the ditches to basically fill the ditch, also digging out the dirt from under the driver's front tire, to lower that corner of the truck and level it out a little.   As much as I could reach without crawling under the truck (no sense killing myself) I also dug out the dirt under the axles, further leveling the truck.

The real improvement was strapping the axle to the frame, dropping the hilift into the ditch, and lifting the front corner, to lift the front tire, to fill underneath it with stones and dirt.

I think that the hilift is both one of the best and scariest recovery tools made.  I'm impressed as all get-out that you can lift a ton or three.  That's amazing to me.  Even more impressed that you can lower the same weight in a controlled way.  Awesome machine.

But standing within a foot or two of a ton or two of Land Cruiser being held up by only a 1" x 2" perforated steel bar....  makes me nervous.   Especially when weight is sitting just about near the end of the 60" hilift.    I felt a little better for being uphill, I guess that meant that at least I wouldn't be crushed by a rolling vehicle after being impaled by steel from a failed jack.  There's that. Gotta look on the bright side.

The jack held, I got some dirt and rock under the tire. No damage to me and no additional damage to the truck.

At some point while I was doing my excavation project, I managed to raise another friend on the phone.  I told Jon that I was stuck and asked if he wouldn't mind stopping off at my house to grab Jocelyn (who had returned the 4Runner) and bringing his Discovery up to help me get out. Not only did he bring Jocelyn and the disco, he brought his gal and their 3 (4?) month old baby, Benno.   It was like a pleasant Sunday picnic, only no delicious food, no wicker basket, and a very stuck Land Cruiser.  I guess it wasn't much like a picnic at all.

The girls took a walk up the hill while I continued digging with Jon's help.  I don't think I would have been able to keep going without someone pitching in, I was pretty beat already after two hours of hacking away at the rocky dirt in the 90 degree heat. Jon's enthusiasm was at least as welcome as his digging (which was very welcome).

I should take a brief moment to be thankful that we were in the shade, on a hillside with some breeze.  It could have been much hotter.   We also had (have) a can of Off! in the truck.  Were it not for that, this would have been a much itchier story.

So as the darkness descended, and with an awful lot of dirt moved from under the truck into the ditch, Jocelyn made the executive decision to either pull the truck now or give up for the night and back the disco down the trail.  See, we hadn't planned quite as well when driving the disco up, and while backing down the trail was going to be a hassle in the fading daylight, it was going to be borderline dangerous (ok, maybe not so borderline) to do it in the dark.

So we hooked up the trucks again (side note:  factory tow points on the front the discovery are very robust, but also very small and difficult to access.  Probably ideal for some shipping device that is used in transport, but tired hands and a tow strap and shackle... required patience.)  and gave it a little tug.  First try=nothing.   2nd try, with a very little bit of force, and the Cruiser got both back tires on the ground and backed right out, as if from a parking space.  Free!!  At last!

I did leave about 6" of fender flare on the ground, for which I'm a little bummed because going flare-less here isn't really an option due to the Revision Tecnica (road safety test).  But one damaged flare is a small price to pay vs. a flopped Cruiser.  The front bumper may have gotten some damage in the process.  Hard to tell- my bumper is pretty trashed already.  If it is further damaged, I may never know and certainly don't mind.   I will be designing easy hi-lift attachment points into whatever bumper I build in the future.  And whatever repair work is needed on the flare, I'll get it done when I eventually repair the marker light on the other side.  Still brightsiding here- at least I hadn't just repaired/replaced the factory bumper right before busting it again.  There's that.

I detached the strap and jumped behind the wheel of Jon's truck to back him down the hill.  He ran ahead (behind) with a small maglite (better than the flashlight I didn't have in my truck, bad planning!) and did a fine job of spotting.  I was tired and more tired, so his conservative spotting was probably a very good thing.  Driving an automatic in reverse down rough terrain is not as pleasant to me as using a manual transmission.  By a large margin.  I wonder if the disco doesn't have some of those fancy features where it should moderate speed/braking automatically, but at night with an exhausted driver was not the time to find out. 

The trail widened just enough to do an 8 point turn to get the truck pointed straight, then we drove  down a little further to where Jon and I decided that he would be fine completing the road on his own (and I would have less dark and bumpy uphill to jog back to my own truck).

I borrowed his light (again, must remember to put a few in my truck, bad planning on my behalf) and started jogging uphill again.  For about the first time I realized that 36 really isn't 26.  I couldn't jog.  I wanted to jog.  My mind was jogging.  My arms were swinging in a jogging-like style.  My legs, on the other hand, were walking.  I know I'm no shining example of physical fitness, but usually that just means feeling more sore in the morning, not "unable to continue at my desired pace".   It was humbling.  But walking up didn't take that much longer and while I was walking Jocelyn had stowed all the recovery gear and generally prepped the cruiser for our return.   So I handed over the light, she spotted me down (much less conservatively than Jon had, which was also fine) to where we could turn around, and then we headed off down the hill. 

Defeated, but triumphant.  Somehow.

Jon and Philine (and Benno) were waiting for us at the bottom with two cold beers.  That sure tasted good!  We thanked them profusely and inadequately for their help, then returned home for a much needed hot shower then headed over to our neighbor's house for a delicious bbq and some more liquid therapy.

All in all, not the quick jaunt that we expected, but it was a pretty fun day anyway and we impressed ourselves at how well we work together in a situation like this.  I'm very grateful to Camilla for loaning us the 4Runner, and to Jon and Philine who spent their Sunday afternoon helping us out.  Of course I'm also very impressed by my lovely wife, as I don't think that most wives would have come back to help dig more and spot and generally participate in the extraction.

Oh, and the roof rack performed flawlessly, but I still don't have a decent picture of it.

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, Costa Rica, day trip, food, land cruiser, photo, tamarindo

I had a very nice birthday party last night.  Thanks to all who attended.
For whatever reason, I got into my head that it would be a delicious appetizer spread.  Jocelyn and I spent a few hours prepping on Wednesday, then some more hours baking Thursday morning, then finishing on Thursday night.    It was a blast.  I don't plan to make so many apps any time soon.
The menu included:

• Pan Seared Oven Roasted Pork Loin with an onion/soy glaze, sliced thin and served on lettuce leaves with red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, and some shredded white onion.
• Basil leaves topped with sardine and a guava reduction
• Turrialba cheese with red bell pepper and basil, drizzled with balsamic reduction, on picks
• Fried Chicken Wings plated on celery leaves
  
• Basil, Oregano, Parsley & Garlic bread topped with a black olive and sour cream tapenade garnished with parsley and red bell pepper
• French bread with same tapenade, etc.
• Whole wheat baguette with same tapenade, etc.
• Turrialba cheese cubes, plated with chopped parsley
• Six fresh-baked loaves, sliced, with olive oil for drizzling
• Carrot stick
• Celery slices/sticks

There may have been something else, I don't recall exactly.
Some friends (Judd and Jacqueline) were nice enough to bring over two whole additional platters of appetizers- including some puff pastry, fried zucchini, ham-wrapped plantains (yum!), and more.

Many brought wine or other libations, one of the standouts is a Costa Rican produced passion-fruit wine that is a "demi-sec" and very interesting.  I'd like to try it ice-cold on a hot afternoon.  I think it would also make for an excellent mimosa-style beverage, or a dessert wine.   But sipping it mostly-cold after eating a lot of spicy/salty food was not the best pairing.

Of course, the people present are what really makes any party, and I always enjoy the company of good friends.  We are very lucky in that regard.

We finished off the evening with some chocolate cupcakes smothered in spicy chocolate frosting.  Yummy!

A nice change from a 'normal' party for us was that we made everything finger-edible, so instead of doing a bunch of dishes and silver, we just threw some napkins in the washing machine, and had glasses and serving plates to clean.  More prepping, but less cleaning.  Prepping is more fun.

Labels: birthday, bread, food, photo, tamarindo

Fresh Red Snapper. Fresh Corn. Delicious Spicy Salad. Ice Cold Beer. Yum.
It was an easy meal to make, and both delicious and healthy. Wish I had taken a picture before I devoured it.

• Snapper
  
  • 1 fresh Pargo Rojo (as big as you can fit in your pan), scaled, gutted.
  
  
  • White Onion, diced fine. (about 1/2 cup)
  
  
  • 1/2 head of garlic. Diced fine.
  
  
  • Several stems cilantro, whole
  
  
  • Several stems Coyote, chopped
  
  
  • 1 tabasco pepper, chopped.
  
  
  • enough oil to cover the bottom of the fry pan
  
  Stuff cilantro and some onion into fish. Add everything to pan, add medium heat. Cook 3 minutes, flip, cook 3 minutes, cover, cook 3 minutes, flip, cook 1-4 minutes until white and flaky. Use your judgement*. Generally speaking 10 minutes per inch of thickness should be enough. Overcooked is not yummy. Baste the fish w/ the onion/garlic/herb/peppers that are simmering away nicely as you cook it. Use tongs to pull the fish out, use a slotted spoon to pull the rest. Plate with yummy stuff on the fish.


• Corn. Shuck it. Boil it. Till its done. Serve w/ butter and salt.


• Spicy Salad
  
  • 1 avocado
  
  
  • 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
  
  
  • 1 small jalapeno. Seeded and chopped
  
  
  • 1/2 lime
  
  
  • cilantro to taste, chopped
  
  
  • some of the chopped onion from the fish recipe (raw)
  
  
  • 4 or 5 lettuce leaves
  
  Put avocado, jalapeno, onion, and cilantro in bowl w/ lime juice. Mash it into very chunky guacamole. Put rinses and chopped lettuce in a serving bowl. Add a layer of chopped red bell. Put chunky avocado mix on top. Drizzle with olive oil if wanted. Sprinkle with salt if wanted. Not too spicy, because you seeded the jalapeno. If you like it hotter, leave some seeds in.


• Ice Cold Beer. Put cold bottle of beer in freezer while you are cooking. Open, drink. Enjoy.

That's all. Just enjoying good, local food.

*Aside: Apparently there is controversy over the "proper" way to spell judg(e)ment. Blogger's spellcheck thinks we should omit the e, but Webster's accepts both spellings as correct. Click this link for more. I'm sticking with the e.

Labels: food

Another hot one yesterday. I spent the day finishing phase II of my gate project while catching the cellphone every so often*. I am feeling proud of the difference- note the old wood on the main portion of the gate vs. the newly refinished wood on the smaller gate. Yes, I know it has imperfections. Now that phase II is done, it doesn't look like as much work as it felt like while I was doing it! I'm sure that the heat played a role. Also stopping to catch the phone takes its toll on productivity. Occasional play breaks with the pooches didn't make it go any faster either.

This project has been a good reminder of the efficiency of specialized work. Once I figured out the best way to do a particular aspect of the job, and assembled the correct tools, it went much more smoothly. Of course, by the time I got all of that figured out, I was also done ;P One of the hazards of doing it yourself.

*Sometimes I like to take a second to enjoy technological advances. While I did have several very important business phone calls to handle, I was able to do so while doing some much-needed home maintenance. It was awfully convenient to be untethered from my desk!

In contrast to the gate project, I think I've pretty much got basic bread making down to a simple, efficient system. For those that aren't interested in a lot of time invested but do enjoy homemade bread, I think you'll have a hard time getting more streamlined than the following:

1. Grab flour container, yeast, and salt from wherever you store them. (this requires pre-planning in that I keep my flours in rubbermaid plastic bins that are large enough to dip a measuring cup, makes it easier to get the flour later and keeps it fresh).
2. Put ingredients on counter with 1C liquid measuring cup, 1 1/2 C dry measure cup, 1 teaspoon, 1 mixing spoon, 1 medium mixing bowl.
3. Put 2 tsp of dry yeast into 1 C liquid measuring cup, fill with hot tap water, set aside.
4. Put 2 tsp of salt into bowl
5. Put 3 Cups of flour(s) into bowl.
6. Go do something else that takes at least 5 minutes.
7. Add yeasty water to flour, mix well. If too dry, add a very very little bit more water. For me, it is usually a near-perfect wetness if I do it as above.
8. Cover with a towel, let sit for an hour, put in fridge.
9. Get up in the morning, pull dough out of fridge, pour a cup of coffee and go do something that takes 15-30 minutes (so the dough can warm up a little).
10. Remove dough, fold it two or three times, put it onto a cookie sheet or pie tin with some olive oil rubbed onto dough and pan, sprinkle a pinch of salt on top.
11. Set a timer for 45 minutes. Go do something else.
12. When timer rings, turn on oven to 475 degrees. If your oven chimes when it hits temp (mine does), then go do something else.
13. When oven is hot, slice some lines on top of the bread, add to oven, spritz oven with some water to increase humidity for a nicer crust (alternately, throw a handful of icecubes on the bottom of the oven, no bowl needed).
14. Set cooking time to 27 minutes (cooking time may vary). Go do something else.
15. Done. If you want a darker crust, let it sit in the cooling oven for a little while- you can basically toast the loaf like in this photo.

That's it. The actual "work" part is probably less than 15 minutes. You just have to start it the night before and also be around to do the little parts in the morning. Fresh bread is worth it.

Labels: bread, dog, food, house, weather

Steve's older brother and his wife and kids came for a visit. It was wonderful to have them here and I think it is safe to say that everyone had a good time together.

Because I backed up their photos prior to their departure, I've got a few highlights to share, in no particular order and without any particular agenda, here we go!

Nothing says "great start to a vacation" like an air conditioner failure!	A/C or no, the pool worked fine	I'm just as tall as my 13 year old neice, unless we both stand flat-footed :(	Austin was enthralled by the complete works of Calvin & Hobbes (thanks Ky!)
	Steve's first attempt at homemade pasta. His dough came out well, his ravioli looked a little like a poached egg, in a bad way. Isabelle is much more skilled in that arena.	Clue. Good fun for everyone. (Wine helps)	Marty rolls pasta
...wine helps...	Lazy Saturday, a little beach and surf in the morning... some darts in the afternoon	Such form! Such Grace (I lost)	Brave photographer
There was also a game of Scrabble	Breezy and shady	Austin throws well for his first time
Caly: keeping it real	everybody wins at Scrabble!	Sorting beach treasure

Labels: dog, family, food, house, photo, tamarindo, visitor, weather

The 2nd loaf came out excellent! I'm so happy.
Need to lower the rack in the oven or back off from 500 degrees- the top got a little overcooked, looks more like toast than bread. The flavor is still excellent, and the interior is fine.

I like the mouthfeel of white bread better, but a little whole wheat in there makes me think that it is a tad healthier.

While baking, we also saw a new-to-us bird in the tree out front. Turns out it is a Masked Tityra (Tityra semifasciata). White feathers, black mask, red bill/eyes. Pretty interesting looking bird that reminds me of a penguin. (image linked from RioRvPark.com).

Feeling good about the morning so far.

Labels: bird, bread, food, garden, tamarindo

Some people get grumpy about birthdays, saying things like "Oh.... just wait till you reach my age".

To this I say "Poppycock! Balderdash! Nay!"

I will not be bamboozled into thinking that getting older is, in any way, negative.


Just stop and consider the alternative for a second.

Jocelyn was born on May 30, 30-something years ago. We celebrated that fact yesterday with good friends, libations, delicious food, and it was a very nice day.

K&L: Jocelyn giggled over her breakfast heart. Thanks.

Labels: birthday, food, tamarindo

Saturday morning we found ourselves at loose ends in Liberia. We drove the hour up there for an 8:15 appointment, by nine or so we were figuring out what to do next.

Seeing as how I've spent the better part of the last 15 days on the road, looking at farms, you might get the idea that I would want to do anything but look at farms. Not so! This is the part of my job that I like the best! We opted to drive around the area north-east of Liberia for an hour or three, just poking around down various roads unknown. It was a nice way to spend a cloudy morning, and Jocelyn got a chance to see an area that really is very different than where we live. The downside is that in the future I'm going to have trouble getting sympathy from her for my long days of driving all over heck and back- truth is that exploring Costa Rica in a 4x4 with some tunes on and no specific itinerary is exactly what so many tourists pay good money to do with their time, and I get to do it with the realistic hope of compensation (note: not the assurance of, which is all that it would take to make it that much better!).

One of Costa Rica's most amazing traits is that in an hour drive you can pass through 3 or more topographies and flora types that seem radically different from each other. Fun stuff. We enjoyed the white "cascajo" of Liberia- chalky stone with a thin cap of dried out vegetation above it, as well as groves of oaky-looking trees in canyons, and full-fledged forest with soaring hardwoods. All within view of a towering volcano.

Unfortunately, we didn't take the camera. Next time.

After a few hours of aimless exploration we ended up back in Liberia at the central market. Despite its not-very-central location (it is by the bus station on the edge of town) this hodge-podge of little shops is usually bustling. I can't help but wonder if walmart's presence across the street is killing the traditional marketplace's business, but it looked busy on a Saturday afternoon, even if not full. The primary emphasis seems to be meat- which makes sense as the sterile meat counter at the big box stores continues to under-whelm me, and must be equally blah to folks living here. There is something reassuring to me about buying meat from a smiling, heavyset fella with a big knife in his paw as opposed to some bewildered teenager with a hairnet and a snarl. For the butcher's sake, I hope that others continue to value his contribution.

We ate a decent (enormous) $9 lunch at a noisy but clean little spot with a view of the bus station. She got arroz con camarones, that could have been called shrimp with rice for the relative proportion of ingredients (yum!), I got a light-on-flavor but heavy-on-spices fried fish fillet that was purported to be mahi but might have been catfish for all I could tell. The fried plantains were perfect. Watching people milling around the bus station might not sound all that scenic, but I enjoy traveling vicariously through others. Seeing all ages carrying all manner of bundles, bags, and whatnot is great imagination fodder.

On the way home we detoured down some more unknown roads, including a brief flyby of the town of Filadelfia. I've driven past their fancy arch (picture coming someday) at least 200 times, and always wondered what the town is like. Yesterday we found out that it is a cute little traditional Tico city. We're already planning a return trip to check it out, but this time, with camera(s) in tow and perhaps some snacks. There are at least two well manicured parks with benches, a long levy to keep the Tempisque river out of town, which also seems to serve as a promenade of sorts, and plenty of little taverns, bars, and shops in which to polish off a frosty beverage, sitting in the shade watching the world slowly pass by in the rippling heat waves.

Taking yet another turn off of the main road, I nearly managed to get us completely stuck in a rutted out ox-cart track in the middle of who-knows-where. The truck wasn't so much stuck, really. It was just that we didn't have much traction, were on a path that was only about 18 inches wider than the doors, and going forward involved straddling a 5ft-deep rut that was about 3 feet wide, with less than 10 inches on one side of it.

This, to me, is about as good as it gets. To the lovely and long-suffering lady in the city-shoes sitting next to me in the truck, it held less appeal. Choosing the better part of valor; with a little smart driving and a few devilish "ain't this great?" grins I reversed up a few hundreds yards of rutted track and rotted logs, to a little gate in the fence, instead of risking much Land Cruiser damage, and a few hours of "how are we getting this out?" time.

We followed a much nicer trail but soon found ourselves at a locked metal gate. Someone had recently invested in a shiny new padlock and a massive length of chain snaked through the 1" steel bar of the gate, then around a rotting but still-solid wooden fencepost.

Jocelyn: "Now what? [implied: All hope is lost]".

"No worries", says I, as I jumped out of the truck and proceeded to untwist the single strand of coaxial cable that was holding the other side of the gate to the tilting fencepost.

Jocelyn: "Been touring many farms recently?" as we drove through laughing at this typically Costa Rican moment.

We finished up the day with some pool time, then a sunset walk with the pooch while the sky and sun amazed us with gold, pink, and blue. Fired up the BBQ for some grilled squash, beets, fresh corn in the husk, and spicy sausage all accompanied by a tasty bottle of "Druid's Fluid" provided by my friend Bob as a thanks for the time he spent visiting a little while back.

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, Costa Rica, day trip, food, land cruiser, liberia

• 4 small green mangoes. Small. Before they have hard seeds.
  
• 2 cloves garlic
  
• as much fresh ginger root as garlic
  
• Sesame Oil
  
• Soy Sauce
  
• Salt
  

Peel the mango, mince it (remove the seed). Mash the garlic and peeled ginger together, then chop them as finely as you can. Put it all in a small bowl. Add a generous pinch of fine sea salt, then drizzle the mixture with sesame oil and soy sauce until all the ingredients are doused, but not drowned.

Stir well, let it sit while you prep the salad.

Salad:

• 1 large ripe tomato diced
  
• A couple handfulls of lettuce, however you like your lettuce.
  
• ~1 cup of parsley, chopped into marble-sized bits (not necessarily the same as a cup of chopped parsley, which would be a lot of parsley. Put in more parsley than you think you'll want, though.
  
• 1/2 can of garbanzo beans
  
• 1/2 large cucumber, cut into chunks (not slices, chunks)
  
• 1/2 can of sliced mushrooms (unless you hate mushrooms)
  
• just a bit of red onion- maybe 3 Tbl, diced
  
• 1/2 large carrot, grated
  

Toss the salad, serve the 'garnish' on top.

You may think that the parsley will overwhelm the other flavors, but the tangy goodness of the mango and sesame will balance things out.

Good stuff.

Labels: food

Holy Late posting, Batman! If I don't get this wrapped up in the next few days, I'm about to get lapped by a whole year of procrastination! Yikes!
In case you haven't been sitting on the edge of your seat awaiting this installment in the saga you go back to the all the Moab trip posts or each installment: Day 1-3, Day 4, Day 5.

We started the day in Bryce Canyon, UT at a huge hotel where we zonked out the night before after a very long afternoon of trying to nurse along an automatic transmission that didn't want to go. You can also go see this story with fewer pictures per page.

woke up to see a teepee (tipi? teapea? TP?) across the pond	Ducks, too. You just never know what to expect in exotic Bryce Canyon.	Always sad to see a Cruiser on a towtruck. But better than seeing it drive 12mph for 4 hours. The truck and our travel buddies rolled off towards an auto transmission shop that came highly recommended by a friend in California. Soop and I pointed in that general direction, but figured we had many hours to kill exploring.	First step: drive through hole in rock.
I could post dozen of pretty shots with interesting rocks in them. I probably will. These are "hoodoos" and the stuff for which Bryce Canyon is famous.	The park itself is on my list of future places to visit, but they don't allow dogs, so it wasn't such a good idea for us on this trip.	This may look like your average, shot up road sign...	...but in fact, it is a shot-up road sign that limits access to a road that doesn't exist. Not the weirdest thing we would see today.
Old School Camper!	We climbed up into the mountains again, headed towards Cedar Breaks, which is purported to be lovely.	Turned off on a random fire road, trying to make the drive take longer, and see some sights. Great fire roads!	"the fence...protect from livestock..." Might work better if it were a little less.... broken.
Along the way, we stumbled onto this nifty spot. Big underground cave. Very big.	The entrance is basically a hole in the ground- lava formations- bats- good stuff.	Look! I'm in a cave! In Utah!	Colman was a little reluctant... so we left him at the surface, probably better for the cave denizens anyway.
Cave interior. I'll bet it is a lot of fun to go spelunking here, but that wasn't on our agenda for the day.	... and the batty areas are blocked off so that folks like us don't disturb their hibernation, which can be lethal as they could lose precious heat/energy that they need to make it till spring.	The mountains here are much different than those we were seeing just a few hours before. And the fire from 20 years ago had really left its mark on them.	Another entrance (exit?) for the same cave, some distance away from the first one.

But wait! There's more!

Antelope. They were pretty frequent along the road. Driving at night around here must be a little dodgy.	Crazy lava flow in the middle of nothing. We never did find out what the story is behind these... they seem to just be a big seam of lava rock that stretches a few miles from one non-descript point to another non-descript point.	Adding a Steve for scale	More lava flow (floe?)
Up up up goes the random road we chose.	Another change in trees.	Hmmm.... Ya think the road isn't open just yet? Bummer. No Cedar Breaks for us. :( We debated pushing through, it wasn't far to where we wanted to go, but we didn't have a winch, no snow clothes, didn't expect anyone else to come by, and didn't want to spend several hours shoveling ourselves out of being stuck. Discretion won the day.	So instead we stopped on the highway and had lunch. I'll bet that when the road is open, this isn't nearly as peaceful a place to eat.
Since we were killing time anyway, we made delicious fried sausage sandwinches and soaked up the view.	What a view!		Summit, Brian's Head in the background (which is probably more interesting when you are traveling with someone named Brian) Starkly beautiful.
Nice looking little town of Parowan, UT	Not hard to find churches in Utah, some are impressive.	We finally arrived at the Transmission Wizard- I've since forgotten his name, but the guy was great. He got Seth and Annette's truck running better than ever (a few tweaks) in just a few hours. Apparently we had the good luck to get a guy who had spent years perfecting the art or repairing this particular transmission.	Not every car gets in and out of there in just a few hours, apparently.
Considering the drug problem in this part of the world, we think they might consider changing the name of the place.	The old train station (mission?) in Caliente. I think Nevada, by now. Cool old building.	Gratuitous self potrait	Not much else to photograph out on highway 375

...and a few more...

Uhm, "How much fuel de we have?" "I'm sure that there is a gas station... somewhere"	You've seen these mountains before, in movies about barren places.	"So this is it? The actual *middle* of nowhere?"	Nowhere to the left
More nowhere that way too.	But there must be water, somewhere. Read the sign. I'm guessing this isn't such a fresh-smelling place on a hot day.	Impressive.	Yet another type of rocky rock
And then we found Rachel, Nevada. Probably the weirdest place I've ever been. But they had some gas, and they had cold beer, and the people were really friendly.	Yup. Rachel.	As it was getting late, and the "whole town" was sold out of rooms due to a bike ride, we pushed onward.	The bar. Rachel, NV. Not an outpost of liberal thinking.
Rachel's bar	What alien town bar would be complete without a mind-scan protector?	Happy travelers: Soop, Steve, Annette, Seth	They filmed part of ID4 here, apparently.
Rachel. I'll never forget you.	The Lisa Loeb look-alike bartender told us about some hot springs nearby where we could camp, but to be careful, because the owner was a real jerk and got mad at people for camping there... we checked it out...	...but decided to move along as it gave us a distinct "beginning of a bad story" vibe. After driving too far, we ended up in Tonopah, NV: the stargazing capital. Also a big stinky casino. But it was a warm place to rest and it had been a very long day.	The "view" from our room at the Ramada in Tonopah.

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, day trip, expedition, food, fuel, land cruiser, moab, nevada, travel, utah