As you can see from my weather radar screen, we’re getting some rain. It’s not too heavy but it’s enough to keep us inside today. That’s fine…lots to do.
JUNE 12, 2014
QUINAULT CAMPGROUND, OCEAN SHORES, WASHINGTON. We’re still camped by the dunes and the beach at Ocean Shores. Today is a rainy day…it’s a good day to relax, play board games and read a book. If you’ve looked at my “Recent Reads” page lately, you’ll see that I’m chugging right along. I’ve read more books of interest in the last year than ever before, I think. One of the things I like to do on this kind of a day is cook. I had a fresh turkey breast in the refrigerator so I decided today would be the perfect day to prepare it. I’ve already cooked big “holiday meals” several times in the RV during the year that we’ve been traveling and it works out pretty well, considering the space limitations. So on this evening’s menu will be: Fresh roast turkey, pan gravy, cranberry relish, fresh green beans and cornbread stuffing with nuts and raisins. No relish tray, no creamed onions and no berry pie for dessert, but hey: not bad for a tiny mini-kitchen and a pretty small refrigerator.
Fresh roast turkey for dinner tonight. The kind of camping we’re doing isn’t exactly “roughing it.”
A GOOD DAY TO ROAST A TURKEY: As always, after I cook a turkey I make soup from scratch…using the carcass, so I may be up a bit late tonight slicing and dicing. However: good turkey soup is so tasty and, remember my retirement mantra: “What’s the rush?” If I’m up late making soup and want to sleep late in the morning…no problem. No more 8:30 am court appearances downtown San Diego that got me going early every day for decades! And no canned soup for this guy, ever. If the soup isn’t home-made, I’ll pass, thank you.
BLACK BEAR SIGHTING: This morning Florence drove about 15 miles to a little grocery store to get some things for our turkey dinner. On the way back, just as she turned into our camping area…what should appear? A black bear! We’ve seen lots of deer, but today’s the first bear. We’re in an isolated enough space that there are no trash receptacles nearby. That’s good, because garbage in a dumpster can definitely attract bears, and I sure don’t want to be attracting a bunch of them to our RV spot. I remember years ago when we had rented a vacation home at Lake Tahoe. We barbecued steaks one evening, did the dishes, discarded the steak bones in the nearby trash can and went to see a movie. When we got home later that evening a black bear was eating steak on our deck! Scared the heck out of us.! Steph was in a panic…pestering Florence to 
unlock the front door. She got Florence so rattled she could hardly get the key in the lock..as the bear curiously approached. They barely made it inside before having a real face-to-face. As I recall, Brad, Kim and I watched all this unfolding from the car, where we remained ’til the bear left the area.
YESTERDAY WAS A LUCKY DAY: Anticipating that I’d be cooking lots today, we went to the buffet at the Quinault Resort last night. The food was mediocre at best, but I had great luck in the casino after dinner. I decided to “invest” 100 bucks in slot- play. Within a couple of hours, I was able to present a voucher at the cage for a bit more than $1,200.00. Not bad for just a couple of hours “work.”
Cha-ching!
NEXT UP: WE’RE HEADED TOWARD “THE END OF THE WORLD.” (I know you’re curious…so keep reading.) Tomorrow we’ve got a few “household chores” to do. Then we’ll be getting ready to head toward Hoodsport, as we make our way north to the northernmost tip of the Olympic Penensula. “It isn’t the end of the world, but you can see it from there.” So goes a popular Northwest saying about this vicinity.
