Planning stages…New Jersey to Florida.

On my list of must-be-a-tourist destinations so far;

Washington D.C – Gona see the Capital b*tches..!

If Ranger E and myself merged into one person, we would be Madeline.

Annapolis, MD – Because I have an imaginary online blog/sailing/nomadic friend, whose blog I stalk follow, and I want to be able to say she is my friend IRL (In Real Life). Shut up, that is NOT weird. It is also the Capital of Maryland, home to the US Naval Academy and there are TONS of gorgeous sailboats and sailing, right up our alley 😉

Shit. How did that get in here.. Umm. I meant this..

There. Ranger E can rest easy again. Phew.

Assateague Island, MD – Only because there are hundreds of ponies roaming free, on the beaches, and you can camp there, why would you NOT want to see that? Ok, maybe you don’t have a 2yr old and 4yr old little girl, but still….Free Roaming PONIES PEOPLE!!

And I would love to see this myself, film it, and watch it periodically in slow motion.

Williamsburg, VA – To learn about ‘Merica. Something about civil war, plantations and colonial homes…But I couldn’t tell you about any of that, which is why I am going…to get smart and shit.

Might just hitch a ride on one of these and call it a day.

Fayetteville, NC – Because we need to stop in Virginia somewhere..

Charleston, SC – “Americas Most Friendly City” has got to be worth going to, plus the amazing restaurants means I don’t have to cook and we can meet nice people. I like nice people.

Also. The mother-effing Notebook was filmed here…THE Notebook. I could die happy and have my ashes spread here.

If you were hitch-hiking down the I-95 through east coast, provided you were not shank’d on the way down, where would you want to visit?

Roasted Everything (A Recipe..sort of)

I don’t plan much. Yeh, might be a downfall of mine, but I prefer to fly by the handle of my spatula on things such as cooking.

I go by whatever I have in the fridge each day, what we are in the mood for, and how intense I feel like cooking. I use recipes only as guidance for timing, creative ideas or for things I make on occasion.

Last night was the perfect explanation of how I cook. I had no protein left anywhere…no tofu, beans, meat, fish or lentils. (I know, sad, but we share a car so I wait days and days in between shopping trips and didn’t plan out the last one well.) I thought we needed a veggie-centered meal that night and I wasn’t in the mood for a gourmet cook-off.

So….

Who doesn’t love some good ‘ol roasted potatoes with a ton of olive oil and garlic? Well, don’t stop there, do as I do..

Chuck it ALL in.

(My over-sized cutting board is dwarfed by the super-zucchini here)

To those chopped potatoes add carrots, onions, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, beets, celery, zucchini, sausages and/or anything else you have that roasts well. The only must have items are EVOO (extra virgin olive oil for those that aren’t cool enough to know EVOO) and a crap-ton of garlic..like a whole head if you like it enough.

(I had mucho left over sausages and tin pans from the Park Ranger BBQ)

Throw it all in a roasting pan, or something similar, dump EVOO and garlic all over plus some salt and pepper to taste, knobs of butter if you like, and if you need some spices add any or all of the following: basil, red pepper flakes, rosemary, thyme, italian seasoning, oregano, garlic/onion powder.

In the preheated oven for 30-45 mins on 400F approx. Keep checking every 20 minutes and stir, because how small your chopped veggies are will determine how fast it cooks.

This also goes very well smothered in grated cheese (in our dairy-intolerant family that means Go Veggie shreds) of any kind.

(Two bowls each tonight!)

Next time, tune in for CHOCOLATE EVERYTHING….:-O !

 

The New Ranger Family Rig

(dueling rv’s)

Welcome to hell.

Ever moved before? No? Well let me enlighten you…

It SUCKS. No matter how far you are going or how little you have, it creates annoyed, angry, sweaty tired adults and frustrated, bored kids. In our case this only took two days, but the part that comes after that would be deemed “unpacking”, is more along the lines of “unpacking and find somewhere else to pack it” and takes a lifetime.

Once I did get things mostly figured out, and got rid of a whole lot more stuff, we were feeling much better being able to move around our new home. Do you have any idea how much stuff you just don’t need? We are a seriously consumer-driven nation and that has been ever more prevalent to us since we got all ‘nomadic’ and stuff. It feels AWESOME to just get rid of stuff you don’t need, don’t use,  and forgot about. Try it, really, it’s good for you….like wine and chocolate. Um, yes, yes it is.

Which you should definitely reward yourself with once you are done purging your belongings…you have my permission.

Rather than bore you rambling on about moving, and indulging in too much wine and chocolate, here are the photos you have all been asking me for 🙂

(The kitchen. Much less counter space than the Dutchmen, and less cabinet space. However…look at it. FREAKIN’ PRETTY!)

(Dinette and sofa are on a slide, so when traveling these pull all the way up to the kitchen counter. The octagonal table is a family heirloom I could never get rid of. Girls are watching Jurassic Park. Yeh, I know, but they LOVED it.)

(The master bedroom. The bed is smaller since we had an extension on the other which made a King. But now Tiny has her own bed, it’s just big enough for us. Dontcha LOVE my bedspread?!

(Master bathroom. Looking from living room up into master bed/bath, there are lots of entrances here. Which makes for dangerous games of chase that end in stubbed toes and crying. The girls like it too ;-))

(The girls bedroom. This is a bunk bed that is on a slide so when we travel it comes all the way in to the door. If you look at the first image of the back of the new rig, the slide on the right is the bunk bed. They also have their own bathroom in here facing the bunks.)

So far, we absolutely love the new one. It took some getting used to, like anything does, but we were just so happy to get out of the leaky-roofed, rickety, squeaky, over-sized, worthless (literally) Dutchmen that we all adapted very well. The Cougar is smaller by 4ft, but once inside you wouldn’t be able to tell thanks to the three slides adding so much needed floor space. We did get rid of quite a few extras that we left in the Dutchmen for now until we figure out what to do with it, and them.

The old RV you ask? Well, for 5 days it had to sit in the RV park with us until Ranger E was available to move it. Which was fine because we currently live on a pretty awesome park and they didn’t charge us a thing for those five days, although once our neighbors left we had to stare at the ugly thing from our beautifully large dining window for the rest of the week.

For now, it is residing in the uncovered long term storage the base offered to us. Until we either get a response from the original seller giving us: A) the title, so we can sell it -or- B) notice she is coming to pick it up -or- C) we start litigation, and we leave New Jersey, that’s where it’s new home will be.

The girls were really happy when the old RV moved and they had their ‘field’ back, where we spend most of our time, and are stoked to be able to sleep in the same room, but there is always room for more..

So who wants to come stay with us first?!

 

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Disclaimer: My photographs suck, I am aware. I will take more, replace them and make it up to you I promise!