Camping a la Murphy's Law

We sure had a great time at Seaside Beach... once we got there on our last day. My, my... the RV rookies, Dad and Mom, sure climbed a steep learning curve throughout our camping trip, but they persevered, stubborn as they are, and also met some really nice "advanced" folks, who literally saved their butts (so we could get out and play finally!) Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that we drove to Fort Bragg near Mendocino - normally about a 3-hour drive, in four hours. Not bad. Mom drove/towed the trailer and did okay, maybe due to the fact that she used to drive horse trailers a lot in younger days. We found our spot at Mackerricher State Park - beautiful - and Mom backed right in. They leveled the camper just fine, but couldn't uncouple because the ball was frozen to the hitch (Dad forgot to grease the ball). So we set up camp a little and after dinner for both us and MomDad, we took a little walk down a nice boardwalk towards the sea and saw some cool fluffy ground squirrels I just wanted to chase so bad! Not to be, so back to our site for bed cause we were all very tired. At 3 a.m., we all woke up to a shrill beeping sound - the CO monitor was making a disturbingly loud noise. Dad told us all to get out and finish up our sleeping in the Jeep. He grabbed the car keys and pushed the panic button by mistake (headlights flashing brightly, horn honking loudly). And he couldn't get it to stop. After morning showers close by, Dad ran into a very generous camper with 30 years' RV experience. He fixed us all up, teaching my parents how to fire up their generator for power (the CO monitor had simply lost power; the whole 12-volt system had died). He helped us uncouple the jeep from the trailer and re-level it properly. He got the hot water heater to function and lots more stuff. Dad and Mom were armed for the rest of the trip (well... sort of) but extremely grateful. Anyway, we got to play, visit some friends for a dinner out, see some sea lions, run around on beaches and walk around a pretty lake. Here's a little movie of part of the "path" around Lake Cleone - a rickety boardwalk!

If you want to check out the longer movie of the Sea Lions feeding at the Fort Bragg wharf, you can catch it here. And below is a little slideshow of some of the things we did and places we went.
And a little hint about Part II! See Ya!

Teeth

The leaves of honey bush look dangerous to touch, but aren't.

Silliness

Some would say that it's silly to ride 173km over two mountains with a total of over 2,400 metres of climbing in the middle of the summer heat in Queensland. After yesterday I'd probably agree with them. That said, I'd probably do it all again exactly the same way. It was obvious fairly early that it was going to be a hot day, and the delay in having to detour around a triathlon course probably didn't help things. Nevertheless, I managed to make reasonable, if not spectacular progress through the gorge to Canungra, and up the old winding road to O'Reillys.

The road winding up the mountain has a gentle gradient for about 15km, and a lot of old-world charm. Personally, I think narrow winding roads like this should be heritage-listed and never altered in anyway beyond basic maintenance. In other words, f*ck the hoons. The fact that a few of them wipe themselves out there isn't necessarily a bad thing, and certainly no reason to destroy a part of our heritage.

Of course, the forest at the top where the gradients steepen has as much charm as the road has character, with all sorts of creatures calling it home. There was mild frustration at the picnic ground at the top -- with "improvements" making water refills difficult. It was virtually all downhill back to Canungra, but the temperature rose by 16 degrees C in little over an hour on that descent.
In Canungra I had a decision, do I ride home the normal way, and possibly forego a century and the back climb of Beechmont on account of the heat (it was 34 degrees C at this stage), or do I just climb it anyway. I opted for the latter option. The western climb of Beechmont is much harder than the front road. It's gradients are steep and it sees little breeze. Early on it wasn't such a problem, but the kick near the Marian Valley monastery was a killer. I made it, just. I've had some great times up on Beechmont Plateau, but I've never been so glad to reach the summit as I was on this sweltering afternoon.

I now had to ride the familiar roads across the plateau to Lower Beechmont, before the descent back to the coast. The trouble was that my legs were toast after the last climb, and with the northerly blowing like crazy on the mountain, I really had to take my time. Fortunately, the scenery provided plenty of compensation for that.

The final descent back to the coast, and even the final 15km from Nerang were strangely quiet. Not that I was complaining about this fact. Somehow I found the power to finish the ride strongly, before heading straight for a cold shower on my return. I know I made plans to destroy summer this year, but it's going to be a little more difficult than I thought. Still, this gives me century number three for the month (and year), and takes my total climbing above 12,000 metres. Next stop, Crows Nest next weekend.

Mountain Men Rendezvous

This week has been the Mountain Man Rendezvous at the Western Historic trails Center. I stopped by there yesterday morning after breakfast to check it out.
Since it was relatively early in the morning, there were not many visitors. One of the vendors was cooking up breakfast. Of course, I had already had mine. Visited with one of the "Mountain Men). we is a VietNam vet. Had a good conversation.
In the afternoon I was back one the bike. A few more visitors of the gathering. Since it was mid-afternoon, I was getting a little hungry. In I was in the 4-corners area. Kept seeing signs about "frybread".
Had never tried it. Since they had some at the rendezvous, I just had to try it. What I got was much like a large, flat doughnut. The "bread" was sprinkled with sugar. Washed it down with lemonade. Got my sugar fix for the ride back.

Burleigh House, My Ancestral Home

This grand estate is Burleigh House in Stamford, England. It was built for William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, Queen Elizabeth I's right hand man.
You may recognize it from the Keira Knightley version of Pride & Prejudice. In that movie it belonged to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Collins' patroness. It was called Rosings and the scene at the dinner table was filmed inside Burleigh House.
During a trip a few years ago, my husband and I serendipitously stumbled upon this great house. Inside was a display of the clothes that Lizzy Bennett and Mr. Darcy wore in the .. movie version. From the town of Stamford, the walk across the park to get to this house was probably close to a mile.
Lord Burleigh's daughter, Countess Anne, my 12th back maternal great grandmother, married Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, who is a very good contender named in the mystery that is William Shakespeare. Some think that Shakespeare was his pen name and that he actually wrote all the work attributed to the bard. Will we ever know? In 1596, Edmund Spenser wrote a dedicatory verse to Edward de Vere in Fairie Queen, his tribute to Queen Elizabeth. Anne is buried in Westminster Abbey.
And to think that I walked where my ancestors walked, saw their house and personal items...it's just too much to take in. I'll have to go back now that I know the history of our family.
Edward owned the ship Bonaventure which shipwrecked in Bermuda. That story later became Shakespeare's (or Edward's) The Temptest. The craziest thing about that wreck is that on board was a man named Jordan, who was my husband's ancestor! I guess the world has always been smaller than we thought.
My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Deaver. It was changed from de Vere when my ancestors came to America. It's of French origin and has been traced back to 1045. Another de Vere ancestor fought alongside William the Conqueror in the battle of Hastings in 1066.
Sorry to ramble, but I just love this stuff! It just makes history come alive. I'm trying to engage my soon-to-be teenager with our family stories hoping to fan into flame her smouldering interest in history. Wish me luck!

Our boat

I wondered if I was seeing things.

It was several months after we bought the land. We were driving on one of the paths, when I thought I spied something a bit odd. "Stop! Back up!"
Yep, it really was a boat. In the middle of the woods.

World's biggest planter?
Many country people don't see the point in paying to take things to the county landfill, when they've got so much perfectly good land of their own on which to dump stuff. So we're continually finding surprises in the woods.

Ginger Lemonade

Ugh. That's 43°C outside, 26°C inside.
Healthy Chef Alex's Sweet Ginger Lemonade (Serves 4)
4 cups filtered water
4 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 Tbsp. fresh squeezed ginger juice
2 Tbsp. raw honey
You're supposed to make the ginger juice by grating fresh ginger and squeezing the pulp with your hand. Then you're supposed to simmer everything together until the honey is melted. Of course this makes warm lemonade, and if you want cool lemonade like most rational people, you have to wait for it to chill.
I'm glad to have gotten the recipe from Healthy Chef Alex, but this is how I really make it:
Karen's Quick and Dirty Ginger Lemonade (Serves 1)
(When you're in a hurry and don't have time to worry with all that)
2 Tbsp bottled lemon juice
2 Tbsp sugar
3/4 cup tap water
Small amount (to taste) bottled minced ginger
Stir it all up, and plunk in a few ice cubes. No waiting.
The amount of ginger you have to use is miniscule. The ginger I linked to is so fine that it practically dissolves.