Camp Cooking #12: Way Easier Watermelon

A trip to Lockhart State Park wouldn't be complete without dropping by the Farmer's Market in Lulling and picking up one of their famous watermelons!

Now, you might be wondering: how on earth is a post about watermelon necessary? I mean, you jut cut it, and enjoy it. Simple, right?

Well, yes! But I'm about to make it even easier for you!

It was honestly the SMALLEST watermelon we could find!

First, grab your supplies:

Watermelon

Large Knife

Cheese Cutter

Screwdriver

Salt

So, yes, a cheese cutter.  I would never have thought about this had I not seen Alton Brown post his secret weapon for watermelon cutting on Facebook during our trip - but it's AWESOME! and totally worth repeating.  Here we go:

Slice your watermelon in half width wise.

Cut it into two inch slices.

Cut a small slit into the rind.

Use the screwdriver to unscrew and remove the bar under the wire that determines the thickness of a cheese slice (when used for it's actual intended purpose...) from your cheese slicer.

Hello, new watermelon cutter!

With your new watermelon cutter, insert the wire into the slit you cut in the rind.

And follow the rind all the way around back to your starting point.

Now, pop the center fruit out from the rind.

And there you have it! Repeat for the other slices of your watermelon!

Cut your slices into wedges....

... sprinkle some salt over the top (coarse, kosher, or flakes is best!)....

and enjoy your perfect summer treat!

All Is Calm

I can't help but smile - we went to Lockhart State Park for our first trip with the Castle, and it's right outside of the city of Lulling.  

See lull, think "calm."

And I am so much more calm and happy now that we're camping again.  The hat RBD bought me for this trip truly says it all:

It's always a bit of a mess when you're moving into a new camper - I think we made 4 (5?) trips to Wal-mart along the way regathering items (and food!).  We were so excited to head out after closing on the camper that we didn't have any of our gear from the old camper that we had in storage.  I can tell you, THAT makes for an interesting weekend - knowing you have the stuff, but you don't have the stuff.

I'll tell you though, the one thing we did have was ice! 

OMG, y'all our new camper has an in-freezer ICE MAKER!!!!

 I have nothing but coffee mugs, but we. have. an ICE MAKER!! 

*swoon*

Lockhart SP is a fun campground - its a loop of hookups right on a golf course.  So, of course, we spent the evenings taking walks and enjoying the stars.  (I'd forgotten how wonderful the dark skys are when you get out of town.)

Lulling also happens to be a really neat little town to visit (Check out the write up from the Day Tripper).  We greatly enjoyed the bar-b-que the last time we were here, and this time, we went down to the local farmer's market.

Y'all - support the locals. We enjoyed a little lunch at Mom's Front Porch  - the chicken salad salads were delicious, and the smell of fresh baked bread wafting out the front door was like a hug and a kiss on the cheek from Grandma.

The Farmer's Market just down main street was another great place to help support the locals - we bought fresh veggies for breakfast on Sunday, and the smallest watermelon they had - which was still big enough to fill the whole freezer! 

I'll have a whole post about a trick I learned to cut watermelons.. Look forward to that shortly!

We also made an appointment to visit the Lulling Lavender Fields (made an appointment, because Covid-19 is still rampant, and even more-so in Texas where we've "reopened the economy" before mandating mask wearing and because of the Memorial Day weekend, we're now seeing unprecedented outbreaks and the maxing out of our hospital systems....  but I'm not going to make this blog about Covid, and the 19 bazillion things that are being discussed elsewhere. Camping is about getting _away_ from all that, so that's where we're going to focus.) 

M-kay?  Okay.

Now, where was I? 

Oh, yeah - Lulling Lavender Fields.

Our visit was short, but we found several items to take back to our new home-on-wheels: CBD peppermint tea, a few bundles of dried lavender, and a CBD/lavender/frankincense balm for me.  RBD and I have both found CBD to be a wonderful addition to our daily lives - for me, it's been a huge aide in pain relief from the nerve pain that still lingers from a car accident five years ago.  So, it was nice to find another local place that we could support, and take home a few items we know we'd enjoy.

For dinner that evening, we used some of the jalapeños that we picked up at the farmer's market and made one of our camping favorites: bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers.  

New Camper, Tasty Dinner, Good Movie

I mentioned that Lockhart is on a golf course, right?  Well, we enjoyed walking the course and taking picture, but the park headquarters had a little bit of free fun around it, too. I always try to drop into the park HQ, because you never know what you'll find!

It was such a great weekend to be back camping again - though, RDB says we should start calling it "RV-ing" because we've definitely moved up a bit aways from where we started.  To-may-to, to-mah-to. I'm just glad we're back!

We were in Site #5 of the full hooks loop at Lockhart State Park.  I know I used to tell you if the sites were relatively level or not, but the Castle has auto leveling (something RDB really desired) so all we do is push a button and viola! We're leveled!  We've been to this park before: Really Good Bar-b-que, Really Bad Gas, and a Game of I-Spy.

For more camping photos, go here.

Buying our Rollin' Home; Ron Hoover RV

Nothing like taking time away from work to go camping....and not being able to go camping.  

RDB and I had a long weekend over 4th of July, and with all the troubles we were having with the the Wildcat, we did what we're known for doing: making a big move, spur of the moment. 

And I don't regret it one bit! 

Rusty:  281-381-4505

Working with Rusty at Ron Hoover was a really enjoyable experience.  He's a boat guy by trade, but did a really great job of listening to what it was that we were looking for, understanding our price point, and showing us "a little bit of luxury" that culminated in us purchasing a 2019 38" Palomino Columbus.  And y'all? It's the most luxurious thing I think we've ever bought! 

To put the nail in the coffin on this whole debacle with buying a camper in 2020: Rusty had a quote on the wall of his office, and after our experience with the Wildcat (AKA Cut Bait), I couldn't help but snap a picture of it - it just resonated so much with me:

And a final note: Damian - one of the service techs at Ron Hoover - was INCREDIBLE.  The level of detail he took in giving us the walk thru of the camper, and the incredible amount of honesty that he shared with us about our unit and hte industry as a whole, and the fact that it was Friday afternoon and he had already clocked out and was heading to vacation for the next week- but remained behind to make sure we were hooked up and ok before he left.... its all of those things that really made an incredible difference for us in our experience with Ron Hoover over the other guys.  And it's likely why we'll be customers for life.

We couldn't WAIT to go camping - in fact? We closed on it Friday afternoon and immediately hit the road for Lockhart State park.....

For more new camper photos, click here. 

Cut Bait

 The old and the new, side by side.

I'm kinda laughing at that statement: I wrote it thinking the old was the Rubicon and the new is the Wildcat, but really, the old is the new and the new is the old.  Whoever purchases our Rubicon is going to get one hell of a nice, clean, NOTHING'S WRONG WITH IT camper.

*sigh*

Our first trip out with the Beauty and we're not even going to get to stay in  it.  But, this is the next step - getting it up to Camper Revampers so that Chris can work his magic and make her like-new again. 

And, oh, what a list to make that happen:

• Mold remediation
• Repair walls
• Slides:
• Replace seals as needed
• Repair mechanics in the living room 
• Install slide covers on all three
• Reinforce slide floor in living room
• Replace carpet throughout
• Roof coating/repair
• Replace sky light
• Replace edging/trim in interior
• Ceilings
• Front door
• Paint interior
• Ceilings - white
• Walls - Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray
• Dispose of old mattress
• Extend bad platform for new mattress
• Drill holes for SleepNumber bed tubing
• Replace battery
• Replace water heater anode rod
• Possibly replace water heater
• Replace broken handles on cabinets 
• Install MaxAir fan in bathroom
• maybe a second one in living room
• Replace fire extinguisher
• Install Wifi antenna - Wineguard Air 360
• Repair water damage in basement area

Diesel's tuckered out just _thinking_ about all the work that's going to be required to make it happen!  And you know, so were we.

So, we've decided to "cut bait." We're not going to move forward with the Wildcat camper that we bought back in February and ran up to Chris in May.  I don't think he was all that surprised that we were stepping away from what was  going to be a long and extensive project.  

It was 4th of July weekend, and we just. want. to. go. camping. 

In the space of about a weekend, we went down to Ron Hoover in Katy and purchased a NEW 2019 Palomino Columbus.

Not a Happy Camper

Ok, so, last we talked, I was right about here:

...having discovered a serious mold problem in our new-to-us Wildcat.  I followed the black, white, dark, and icky mold trail up the side and over the top of the kitchen slide.  And when I gave up, Rich kept working on pulling back more and more of the wall paper, revealing the true extent of the damage behind it.  Not only was it over the kitchen slide out, but we found more of the tell-tale bumpy wallpaper over the top of the living room slide out.  This was not good. (understatement)

I commiserated with one of the Facebook camping groups we had joined when we moved up to the 5th wheel.  LOTS of compassion and sympathy from the campers there - truth be told, NO ONE wants to deal with mold in their home on wheels; it's often a death sentence.  

There are a lot of things lately (too many too blog about) that remind me that Providence is real, and watching out for RDB and me.  It was another one of those moments when Chris, from Camper Revampers, reached out to me and offered help.  

We talked for maybe an hour that week - and I left thinking, "Ok, it's not a burn it to the ground situation; maybe we can do this."  And so I went to work, starting out by sanding the walls I knew we were planning to paint.  To be honest, I was a bit too chicken to tackle the mold just yet.

Wearing homemade masks before it was cool.

That was about the second week of March, 2020.  For future reference, that was also about the time that the world turned upside-down with the novel coronavirus, Covid-19.  Much of the work we had planned to do on the camper was put on hold - as travel was restricted and stores shut down.  To add to the frustration, many of the RV parks and all of the state parks closed to the public for a period of weeks.  As I type (third week of May) RDB and I are still practicing physical distancing, and only making trips away from the house for essentials.

A small dose of good luck in all this was that RDB and I were able to secure covered parking for our camper at the same lot RDB stores his kayak.  We couldn't help but laugh at the fact that we would be parking next to a nearly identical Forest River Wildcat! Haven't met the owners yet, but they have good taste in rigs!

We're the gray one on the right.

We had a laundry list of things that needed to be done - from repairs to upgrades, decor and "wants."  And when we discovered the mold, it really set us back on our heels. We knew how critical it would be to repair that and whatever hole was causing water to get in, and we knew as well, that some of the wood panelling in the camper would need to be replaced (it was rotted thru from the mold and wet).  It was just such a task, and we had zero experience in doing it right.

Looks like an angry dog.  

So we reached back out to Chris at Camper Revampers and made arrangements to haul the trailer up to the Dallas area to let him do the repairs.  It was raining the Saturday morning we had planned to drive up, so we coordinated to try again Sunday. The morning arrived, the weather was beautiful - this was it! Let's hook her up for the first time and drive her to Chris.

We arrived at the storage unit, our covered, gated lot, only to find that our camper was not in the same state when we last saw it.  The back windows had been opened and shoved out - and I knew that RDB wouldn't have left the camper that way when he parked it last.  Someone had broken into our camper. 

We called HCSO and it took about 30 minutes (yes, that's normal response time for a non-emergency) for a deputy to arrive.  

Deputy: How's your day, ma'am?   

Me: Well, I had to call you, so.... 

Deputy: Yeah, it sucks when idiots steal your stuff.

Ya damn right. 

We had waited till he arrived to go inside and see what had transpired: a TV stolen from the bed room, RDB's new Bose sound bar pulled form the living room (but not the TV - it was bolted onto the mount), and a bucket full of various tools...  thankfully, no vandalism, and the only damage was to the back window where they obviously slide the TV out and the window screen where they forced entry.

When I mentioned that one of the tools that was stolen was a folding razor-blade knife, the deputy decided he wanted to see if he could pull a few prints from the window that was used for entry.  It was when we pulled the camper forward that we noticed our "twin" neighbor also had the same back window jimmied open; they likely had ben burgled, too.  As a friend said: some people suck.

Well, here we were: a camper full of mold and other problems, and now a police report for stolen property and damaged windows.  What do you do?

Let Chris know there's going to be a few more repairs and make your way towards Dallas.

...to be continued....

Beauty and the Beast

Hi.

It's been a while, I know.

Don't think I haven't thought about it - you know, run away and live in the woods. Every post I read back thru after we've had a big gap in camping trips admonishes me the same way: I say over and over again how much I love camping, how it brings me back to center, how it calms the deep currents running thru my soul.

(This is the point where I normally would say "But....." and give some reason about life and work and trying to balance things, etc, etc. Ehn.  Let's just not and say we did. Cool? Ok.)

I think RDB and I realized pretty quickly that the Rubicon wasn't our best set-up for camping. Yes, we loved having the bike with us, and yes, it fit a need - but we weren't camping.  When you're sleeping in separate bunks, and not using the shower, well, we needed a change.

So, we did a thing (you knew this was coming, right?!)

Say hello to Beauty and the BEAST.

Ahhh, new truck smell.

I'll save the "How We Saved $5000 on the RAM by Driving 350 Miles" saga for some time around the campfire and get right to the story of our new, beautiful 30' Forest River Wildcat.  

Once again, we used PPL for the purchase, and really appreciate the way they're set up: go online, find a unit you'd like to look at, show up on the lot and spend as much time as you want hanging out inspecting it, then get paired up with a sales person who will walk you thru the paperwork.  I think it was less than two weeks from start to finish.

Only, y'all, we ain't no where near finished yet.  That was February.

Now....?

(Sorry - gotta keep laughing or I'm gonna cry.) We've not slept one. single. night. in our new-to-us camper.  Mind you, yes, there IS a global pandemic going on, but THAT actually isn't the problem.

Let's start back the beginning again:

So, we used PPL for the purchase - knowing it was a used camper, and that the prior owner disclosed that the living room slide had "issues" and the gray tank value was leaking.  Ok, we thought, that's doable; the floor plan of the unit was what we wanted, we can have those two items fixed. 

We didn't even take possession of the camper the day we closed - we just went straight from sales over to service at PPL and left them the keys to work out those issues.  Four (or was it five?) weeks, and several thousands of dollars later, we finally took possession of our camper - with the slide still broken.  When the service guy tells you to come pick it up at 5pm on a Friday, and you find out from his colleagues that he leaves at 4:30, that's probably your first clue that you've been swindled.  (When the service manager never returns your calls, that's probably the second clue...)

RDB started poking around underneath the slide that weekend trying to determine the cause - and y'all, in less than 30 minutes, he'd undone this and detached that and found a gear that had missing teeth which was likely what was making the awful banging noise when the slide went in and out.  (When it takes your hubby only 30 MINUTES to find what the likely problem was, that's probably clue #3 that you've been hosed.  Three strikes, PPL. You're out!!)

Running down random parts for the underbelly of a '15 Forest River Wildcat is its own story y'all.  I'll just leave it here that RDB is INCREDIBLY PATIENT. 

Ok, so, while he was working on the outside, I had big plans for the inside.  I've never re-decor'd any of our campers - but this one? I couldn't wait to paint walls, replace furnishings, and really make it the retreat that we'll enjoy for the next decade of our camping adventures.

A little pre-view of my vision for the Beauty.

So, Diesel and I began a bit of prep work - clearing out the old and making way for the new. With painting, I wanted to make sure I prepped it correctly (there are a lot of horror stories of peeling paint and worse!). Needless to say, Diesel likes "his spot" in the new place already!

Speaking of spots.... notice the kinda rough looking wallpaper there by Rich's elbow?  Well, before I painted, I wanted to make sure that random texture like that - it was on that wall by the slide and then over the top of the kitchen slide as well - wouldn't show up with the new paint job, so, I pulled a little bit back to see what was causing the rumpling in the wallpaper beneath.

The more experienced camper owner at this point knows the music in the back ground has just turned ominous; for the, well, less in-tuned (ahem, me) you'll be just as surprised as I was to find....

MOLD.

With a capital OLD.  This was no recent one-time incident.  This stuff had been there for a while, and likely? The past owners knew about it. Knew about it, and sold it as-is, with no disclosure.  

So, I'm gonna stop the story there for a while.  Because that's exactly what happen - we just.... stopped.  

Our Beauty had turned, rightly so, into a beast.

...to be continued...

(Are you one of those who likes to flip ahead to the end of the story? Then go here.)