I thought I’d post some pictures Allen took while they were removing the tower at Fair Park. It’s crazy to me how big some of this stuff is!
the giant crane they used
all gone!
Here’s another post with some good photos also… My Boyfriend’s Crazy!
Nuts. Psychotic. Looney. Out of his mind. Cuckoo. Bonkers.
He’s also very brave. Hardworking. Courageous. Adventurous. Daring.
The proof is in the pudding.
Thank goodness he’s done with that part of his life for the rest of the year! I get to enjoy him safely on the ground for a couple of weeks!
We are taking off tomorrow, heading to Cincinnati, well, our home won’t make it all the way to Ohio but we will! Our friends put in a 50AMP outlet for us, and are letting us use their water and septic tank! How awesome are they??! Thanks Brandi and Tommy!
Haven’t decided if we are stopping once or twice along the way yet. It’s right around 1,000 miles. I have some campgrounds in mind thanks to the Good Sam trip planner. I love that thing.
We are going to go fill the propane tanks and get some food for the road (almost totally out of groceries now!) then get the bike back in the garage and strap everything down to hopefully get an early start tomorrow!
This is where I belong… On the road again.
Charlie is SO over the snow!
We are going to have to get our bedroom slide checked out soon. We are pretty sure the motor must be bad on it. Since we left San Francisco it’s been really slow coming in and out. We have to usually try it a few times with Allen pushing on the outside to help it. But this time it’s still out about a 1/2″ too far. Good enough to drive as long as we don’t hit a downpour. But, good thing it’s still under warranty with Grand Design!
Anyhow, we are headed for Council Bluffs, Iowa tonight. There’s a Horseshoe Casino with an RV park, and a bar with live music, so it should be fun! Tomorrow we are stopping in Oklahoma City at Abe’s RV Park to see our friends Karen and Bob – yay! Apparently a tower had some ice damage there so I’m hoping we can stay a few days… But either way, after that it’s on to the Dallas area to take down the tower at Fair Park that Allen worked on back in June.
Allen’s view from the tower
My view from the ground
Allen had to work today. And last Sunday. That kinda puts a damper on the so-called weekend! He works on broadcast towers, you can read more about that jazz here… But they are trying to hurry and finish this job so we can get the heck outta here… I don’t really want to be around when they close the highways! They already closed parts of I-80 that we took to get here. Seems like we left San Francisco just in time to get through the mountains with no snow…
So it’s just me and Charles hanging out today watching football. Luckily the Bengals play tomorrow night so Allen will get to see the game regardless!
I forgot to show off our new home decor I picked up while we were in South Dakota…
They are those wall decals that just peel and stick. You can remove them and move them with no damage. I think they are perfect for our camper. I try not to put holes in the wall if I don’t have to, part of the reason I love Command hooks also! “Home Sweet Home” is above the front door and the other is in the bathroom behind the toilet (I didn’t know where else to put it!)
Anyhow, the other night for dinner I made this Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork and we made tacos with it. Yum! And super simple!
Here’s the recipe:
Layer the following in the slow cooker, in this order…
- 1 large onion, quartered, and separated
- a pork butt or shoulder roast (mine was about 3lbs), make sure you salt and pepper this guy very generously
- a can of chipotle peppers in adobo
- a can of Dr. Pepper at room temp (use two cans if you have a giant roast-one was enough for me)
Stick the lid on. Turn it on low.
About 4 hours in, flip the roast over. Flip it again in an hour or two. If it is falling apart, take it out and shred the meat. If not, give it another hour and check again. Once you get the meat out, try and skim some or most of the fat off the top without getting rid of too much juice. Shred it and put it back in the pot for another hour, making sure all the meat is soaking up all that juicy goodness.
I served this on warm flour tortillas (I just heated them in a dry pan over medium heat for about a minute on each side). I topped it with some homemade pico (my version follows), a few sprigs of cilantro, and some pepper jack cheese. Delicious! And we have plenty left over for dinner tomorrow…. I think you should try this tonight! (P.S. I’ve been loving The Pioneer Woman‘s recipes, that’s where I found this one! She made hers in the oven, but since I have a camper oven, I prefer my handy dandy slow cooker.)
Pico de Gallo
- 4 roma tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and diced
- a good squirt of lime juice
- a palmful of chopped cilantro
I hope you are all having a better Sunday than my super hard-working, loving boyfriend!
Oh, and by the way, Allen said the Potato Bread I made this week beats out all the others for best yet! And I’ve kind of decided that If I keep it in a ziplock baggie vs. the bread baggies I bought, it stays softer and fresher longer…
Today is a weather day for my love.
It is NOT a day for working outside, let alone working 2,000 feet in the air! So for the first time since we got here to Hillsboro, North Dakota, he got to sleep in!
Last night we ran to Grand Forks to go to Walmart and stock up on some groceries. We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse (yum). I saved part of my steak for steak & eggs and Allen saved his ribeye bone for our little sweet bored puppy (she’s not a fan of winter, she’s a Floridian at heart like us!)
So I got up this morning and made bacon and steak & eggs. Then got ready to make some bread.
I found a recipe for Potato Bread that uses real onion and a real potato so I thought I’d try it. I’ve been having an issue lately with my bread not rising enough. My first thought was the altitude but we aren’t very high. Now I’m thinking it’s the temperature. The bread maker’s room temperature and mine must be different! Considering we are trying to maintain a steady 64 degrees I’m not too surprised.
We keep alternating between using the fireplace & space heater, and using the furnace. We are trying to balance saving propane, while also trying to keep the floor warm, as well as the huge cubby and the water compartment outside. Plus we are paying for electric here, so we don’t want to crazy run the meter up. But, we’ve already went through over $100 in propane in 2 weeks heating this huge camper we are fortunate enough to live in! We have our heated water hose plugged in and the tank heaters on, and the truck is plugged in.
Anyway, I’m warming my ingredients by the hearth! Trying to bring them up to my picky bread maker’s version of room temp, not my budget-conscious version!
Charlie is happily busy with her new bone (which I will be sneaking away when she finally wants to go outside!) and Allen is napping in bed…
Here is the recipe for the Baked Potato Bread (From redstaryeast.com) and that Pumpernickel Rye Bread (from westbound.com) I made the other day…
Baked Potato Bread
- 1/2 milk (@ 80 degrees)
- 3 tbs olive oil
- 1 egg (@ room temp)
- 2 3/4 cup bread flour
- 1/3 cup baked potato, mashed (I microwaved mine)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbs sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp yeast
- 1/2 cup onion, finely diced (added at the nut beep)
This makes a 1 1/2 lb loaf. Basic/White cycle. Medium crust color.
Pumpernickel Rye Bread
- 5 oz water (@ 80 degrees)
- 1 1/2 tbs molasses (I used syrup because that’s all I had on hand)
- 2 tbs butter
- 1 1/2 cups bread flour
- 1/3 cup rye flour
- 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp yeast
This makes a 1 lb loaf. White/Basic cycle. Medium crust color.
As always, if you want to browse some other bread machine recipes, you can do that here. I’m making this to go with this Creamy Chicken & Wild Rice Soup I’m going to try tonight. I’ll post the recipe once I find out if it’s any good! Stay warm out there!
Goodbye California! Well, we still have 7 days and a wake up! (As my brother would say…) We are getting Charlie out of the parking lot and heading for greener pastures! 
The tentative plan a few days ago included leaving here, driving to South Dakota to change our domicile, get a new mailing address, register vehicles, etc. then head on to Dallas for the next job.
But, plans changed as they usually do and the next job is in North Dakota now! So our little stop in South Dakota isn’t really out of the way at all!
I’m excited, I’ve never been to the Dakotas and I’ve never been that far north period. I’m hoping for Allen’s sake if nothing else that we don’t get snow while we are there, but it’ll be an adventure nonetheless.
We have Texas and California now. Allen says we should have New Mexico and Arizona but I say we only count the states that all three of us (Allen, Charlie and I) stay in THIS camper.. And since what I say goes (most of the time-sshhh!) they are not on the map yet!
I love traveling and I get a little hard to deal with (I think) when we sit somewhere for longer than a month or two. I just get antsy and want to get on with it already. And I can’t wait to add to our map!
The tower they are going to be working on was the tallest structure in the world when it was built in 1963. It’s now the 4th tallest structure in the world (after some buildings in Tokyo), THE tallest in the Western Hemisphere and the tallest radio mast in the world. Pretty cool…
The KVLY-TV mast is in Blanchard, ND (almost exactly halfway between Fargo and Grand Forks). Blanchard has a population of 26. Yep. Small town. And I thought Convent, Louisiana was tiny! (Population 711, right on the Mississippi River)
The closest RV park is in Hillsboro and that’s a little bigger, population 1,603 in the 2010 census. It’s 1 square mile. There is a family restaurant, a Burger King, a Subway, gas station, grocery store, bakery, and a florist and I think there MAY be 1-3 bars but I can’t really decide if they are still open. From what I gather online, the RV park is also the town laundry mat and a fried chicken place. It should be interesting!
I’m pretty sure I can walk everywhere in less than 15 minutes (if I don’t let Charlie stop and smell ALL of the roses!)
I know this isnt Charlie and these aren’t roses but I couldn’t resist the adorableness!
I’m super excited to be getting out of the city and out into the country. I get to where I need open spaces after being in a city for too long. I’m excited Charlie will have some grass! And Allen will be glad to get back to real tower work (not just painting and piddling).
Today is full of typical San Francisco fogginess so I’m making my hillbilly chili for dinner and trying out this new recipe for Chili Bread that I found… I’ll let you know if it comes out delicious!
I also made these pillow covers for our friend Brandi back in Kentucky and mailed them to her this week… Her boyfriend went and installed a 50AMP outlet for us so we can stay in their yard during the holidays. Talk about some awesome friends!
And I made these for us… I’m loving the teal and brown combo…
If you would like to see one of many tutorials on the web, this one by me, you can check out this link or this one!
For now I will leave you with some cuteness… Charlie and her parking lot pals… Cheers!
Cisco the friendly husky pup.
Cisco gets bored and tears things up… For instance, his bed.
Duke and Daisy being lazy
It’s kind of nice that Allen has been getting Saturdays off work. That doesn’t happen too often. But it gives us a chance to do more things… So this Saturday we fixed the ladder on the camper and lowered the top bunk in the garage to give us me more storage space. Continue reading
While Allen enjoys his view “from the office“…
Panoramic view from atop Sutro Tower
Allen on top of Sutro
a zoomed in view
Charlie getting in the way of my reading
This was a better spot but it didnt last long
Just keeping an eye on things
It was very successful! She turned 2 on Friday and we threw a little BBQ shindig on Saturday at our house, parked at Candlestick RV Park here in San Francisco. All the guys from work came over, along with our neighbors and their dog. I think everyone had a blast! We had really good weather so we got super lucky on that front!
The guys from work, and me
Charlie digging a hole
the tower crew
Charlie this morning… Exhausted pup.
We went to the Taste on Saturday. I was surprised that it wasn’t bigger actually. (The Taste of Cincinnati was bigger) But we had some good food. Allen and I met up with Cletis, a guy he works with. I love Cletis. We parked by he tower so therefore got in free. Sshhh…
We had alligator on a stick, a brisket sandwich, shrimp and crab on a stick, ribs, and chicken. Yum!
On our way home we stopped by Randy’s Farmers Market. We picked up some tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, onions and plums. We found some local honey too. I’ve heard that if you eat local honey it’s supposed to help with allergies. I hope it works! We also got some bbq sauce and some chips and salsa. The salsa is no joke-SO spicy! And we like hot and spicy, but this is off the charts!
When we got back we went to the pool to hang out. Allen has been teaching me how to swim and I think I’m getting the hang of it. I mean, I can doggy paddle and survive but I’ve never been able to swim on top of the water. He was a lifeguard and taught swim lessons when he was younger and he’s been pretty patient with me.
Towards the end of the day I went and got Charlie and brought her up to the pool. She’s done a lot of swimming in the last week! The other night she was running around with a pup named Tater and she ran INTO the pond and swam back out! She’s a brave little thing!
Home Sweet Home on Wheels 