Gone Walkabout in the Outback
A1
Hello from beautiful downtown Winnemucca!
Nice ‘n’ quiet as we pulled in on the last day of Run-a-Mucca—a bike run that is, refreshingly, not comprised of grim-faced, cranky-looking Harley-ites. [Hey, fella - you rode alla way out here on your wonderful bike; why you lookin’ like someone just pooped in your Cheerios?] All sortsa bikes from Road Kings to Honda knock-offs [some with ape hangers ?!?] [yes—on a Honda. Even saw a nicely decked out Boss Hoss! [wood trim on the dashboard, lights underneath!] Thought I saw an adventure bike or two, too.
The ‘in’ thing on this run is apparently putting glow-lights on your bike. There was a booth and folks were lined up for miles. ...ok - blocks. ...ok - across the parking lot. I think they’re kinda kewl, but in more ‘urban’ areas they might come off as a leedle… uhm, South of the Border. Maybe next they’ll sell welded chain handlebars! *snerk*
And you’ll never guess what we had for dinner last night—in a smoking dining room, no less [hey, baby - that’s the stench of Freeeedom!]— iceberg salad with Blue Cheese and a coupla mushrooms for that haute cuisine touch, rib eye - rare, huge Idaho baked with everything, and a big fat Cosmo! *happy girl dance* MMmmmmmmmmmmm!
Today is bright and clear and cool and it only took me 35 minutes to create coffee.... It was the penalty I hadda pay for my misdeed…
I always carry the precious bean [Sumatran is my latest crush] and filters with me and usually there is a coffee maker in the room. Not this time. So I *hangs head* went to WalMart after doing a thorough search of town [both streets] for a real local hardware/appliance store. Alas—WalMart already ate ‘em… After wandering around for phu-knows how long, I finally found the right section; but I already had that odd kind of numb-brain that giant over-stuffed stores and casinos cause in me. I grabbed what [I thought] was a little Sunbeam coffee maker and beat feet outta there.
This am - whining for coffee - I remove the damthing from its box only to discover it’s a hot water maker. crap. CRAP!
......Ok—I can McGiver something. Now, all I need is milk. Go down to the ‘continental breakfast’—fako “creamer” is all they have. Powdered. coffee whitener. yeech…
Off to Raileys for milk, I decide to check and see if The Mister was *cough* right *cough* and see if they do sell coffeemakers there. They do. I bought one and gave him a giant, heaping serving of “You were Right: I was Wrong” for breakfast.
That oughta hold him ‘til dinner.
So now, coffee-d up, we’re off to find the last traces of abandoned turquoise mines on BLM land and see if we can pick up any float. Keep yer fingers crossed. At the very least, I’m sure I’ll get some good pictures! Its beeee-youuuu-deee-ful here.
My usual carryalong of late is a Black & Decker Brew & Go one-cup coffee brewer using #2 filter cones. I usually also carry along some of the basket-type paper filters so I can use the 4-cup Mr. Coffee-type makers often provided by chains that really ought to know better (like the TraveLodge and Marriott—now there’s a pair . . .): nowadays they are using pre-packaged (i.e., pre-staled) industrial-gunk coffee-in-a-bag for people who don’t have a palate. You can’t get the best coffee out of a basket-type, but you can get a lot better if you bring your own grounds.
If I’m going into terra incognito I typically carry a heating coil and one of those plastic Melitta filter cones with me—though in your case, since you don’t mind sludge, you could probably get away with carrying one of the gold-plated wire cones instead and thus eliminate the paper filters.
You might also like one of the French Presses, if you haven’t tried it. The French Press is just a glass jar with a filter plate attached to a plunger. Both the wire cone and the French Press need nothing more than boiling water to produce a fine—well, a—cup of coffee.
I’ve never discovered a convenient solution to the cream problem—not so much a problem if I can brew my own coffee as I actually like coffee and drink it without additives most of the time. It’s only really necessary when confronted with coffee incognito . . .
The best I’ve been able to do on the road is to buy cream whenever you find a source (it’s surprising, but there are a number of roadside convenience stores that carry it) (and half-and-half will do in a pinch, of course—and for latte-esques, the same thing applies to whole milk, but generally speaking the denser the creaming-factor you can get, the better off you are, the more options you can give yourself, and the less volume you have to protect thermally) and keep it in a bag or other container of ice, replenished as necessary. A half-pint of cream can be kept for several days this way—usually long enough to find another source for fresh. Same can be done with those half-ounce containers of half & half you can get at fast-food joints, though you need to keep the paper covers out of the water—another bag inside the bag of ice. Repackaging is always a good idea once the original container is opened. And if you don’t mind the taste of condensed milk, of course, that comes in cans and transport is not such a problem.
I used to see canned milk or cream from England occasionally, though it’s something of a specialty item and I wouldn’t know where to find it now—that’s why God made Google . . .
Another possible solution, since you often take it in the form of a mocha, is to make up a ganache before you leave the house. Ganaches are shelf-stable a lot longer than cream by itself, dunno why—possibly scalding the cream before adding it to the chocolate. But do try to keep it insulated from hot weather. Cool water or ice surrounding the container always a good idea.
Posted by on 06/03/06 at 07:09 AM
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