RV Home Yet?

Watch your weight

Besides watching the weight of your RV and making sure you don't exceed the gross vehicle weigh rating, there is good reason to watch your own weight.

In a study of 38,000 people, the Institute for Health Policy Studies found that "the average person added .24 to their body mass index upon retirement." This translates to two to four pounds. While that isn't a whole lot, women tend to gain more as do men who were physically active in their careers.

Where weight gain can cost you is in health care. People are having to pay more out-of-pocket expenses. A MarketWatch.com article cited another study by George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services. "The study showed that each year, morbidly obese people pay $2,845 more in medical costs than their normal-weight counterparts; severely obese, $1,566; moderately obese, $807; and overweight, $346."

Rona Lewis, author of Does This Cookbook Make Me Look Fat?, also cited in the article, suggests that as we age we need to eat less. Each decade after 40 we should eat 5 percent less calories or we'll gain. Bummer!

Some RVers lead a very active lifestyle, biking, hiking, swimming or using a WII. It is easy, though, to forgo exercise on travel days and munch in the vehicle. Or you may stay at a park that is not conducive to walking or you're too tired.Those days it is easy for calorie intake to exceed output. Too many days like that add to the belt line.

So, save your health and your pocketbook by being conscious of what you eat and how much exercise you get. On RV travel days, eat less. Remember that some calories - and food choices - are better than others, but that's a whole other post. Your choices will, however, affect how long you can live the RV lifestyle and the quality of your RV life. Jaimie Hall Bruzenak.

Fun meals for foodies

Our grandson, Chris, is a pretty picky eater, but we did get him to try a couple of new things on his visit. He sure surprised his parents!

In Tucson, Cafe Desta serves Ethiopian food. It's not a fancy place, but we like to eat there once a month or so when we are in Tucson. At lunch you can get the special where you pick any three dishes - meat or vegetarian - that are served with your choice of injera bread or rice. Injera is a pancake-like sourdough bread made from a mixture of teff, sorghum and wheat flour (vegan). You tear off a small piece of injera and use it to scoop up the stew-like dishes. Some of the dishes are pretty spicy. Chris tried one beef, one chicken and one fish dish. None of us cared for the fish. He ate some of the chicken dish he ordered. I have to give him credit for that. They also have soup and salad, deserts and a variety of drinks. You can bring your own beer or wine and no corking fee is charged.

While in Tombstone, we ate at the Longhorn Restaurant. The Longhorn is the oldest continually operated restaurant in Tombstone. According to the website, the Longhorn Restaurant is located in what used to be the Bucket of Blood Saloon, the Holiday Water Company, and the Owl Cafe and Hotel. Virgil Earp was shot from the second floor. No blood on the floor now, but interesting scenes painted on glass and a rustic look. Chris went for the one-pound "Too-tough-to-die" burger. It wasn't surprising he chose a burger, but he could barely get that in his mouth. He ate the whole thing!

Finally, back in Phoenix before he flew home, we went to one of my favorites- The Cornish Pasty Co. I had been to the University Street location but not to the Mesa location. The Mesa location is larger- more tables - and brighter. Pasties were originally used by miners as their meal when working in the mines. It is a sealed pocket bread, crimped on one side to make a handle. Meat, potatoes, onions and rutabagas are the traditional filling but the Cornish Pasty Co has expanded the fillings to appeal to most any taste. George got the traditional one- the Oggie. Chris went for Italian and I got my favorite - portobello chicken (pictured). Surprisingly, Chris liked his and, again, ate the whole thing.

In Tucson and Phoenix, I would not want to take my RV to the restaurant unless it was a small one. Parking is limited in both places. Cafe Desta has street parking. You could probably find a place to park an RV, but it would be easier to drive your tow or toad vehicle. With the Cornish Pasty Co., the lot has very small spaces. You might find something in the area, but would probably have to walk. In Tombstone, if you stay at an RV park, you might be able to walk. Otherwise, you'd park a block or two away and walk.

Maybe grandparents can get away with getting kids to try new things. Then again, sometimes not. However, we were very pleased to see Chris expanding his food horizons. Maybe someday we can even say he is adventurous! And it's a good excuse for us to go back to favorite places and try new ones. Jaimie Hall Bruzenak

Meat- now has nutrition labels

As of this week, raw meat must have nutrition labels. What will be interesting is the percentage of fat in a "serving." However, there is no standard size of a serving of meat, so consumers will have to sleuth out the real meaning. The USDA considers three ounces to be a serving, but the packager could decide it's four ounces, or a cup, slices, or any other measured amount.RVers may notice even more differences as they travel.

To read more, including how much fat meat can have and still be considered "lean," see the article at Calorie Count. It will be interesting to see how consumer labels affect consumer spending on meat- if at all. Jaimie Hall Bruzenak

Free breakfast with MO park stay

Stay in selected Missouri State Parks and receive a free breakfast. Bring your receipt for camping on September 23 to breakfast on Saturday morning the 24th and receive a free breakfast at 11 Missouri State Parks. See the listing of parks plus menu and details at their website. Campers, RVers and lodging guests are included. Sounds like a great deal! Jaimie Hall Bruzenak

Boothbay Harbor and Southport Island, ME

We have some favorites when we visit Maine, things we go back to each year. Boothbay Harbor is one. There are interesting shops for unique gifts, Sherman's Bookstore, Enchantments (new age and all sorts of cool things), tons of gift shops and galleries, an ancient bowling alley and, of course, many places to eat.

The day after Hurricane Irene, a gloriously sunny day, we decided to drive there. As the crow flies, it's maybe 20 or 30 miles, but typical Maine coastline- you have to go up the Pemaquid peninsula to Route 1, then over to the top of Boothbay, then down. It's about an hour's drive.

Besides wandering around, George was hoping to find another pair of so-comfortable moose-hide moccasins, which he'd found in a gift shop. No luck in the store, but he got the website where he can purchase them. I found some fun birthday cards and a few small gifts for friends.

We decided to eat again- for the third time at least - at Andrew's Harborside Restaurant. The location is superb, overlooking the harbor, with a pleasant breeze blowing into the screened porch. However, we were disappointed this time. Our salads were so-so. What did not make me happy is that instead of refilling my iced tea glass as I requested, the waitress brought me another glass and charged me for it! Iced tea is so cheap to make. I don't think I've ever had that happen before. Last time, though. We'll find a new place next visit.

Just south of Boothbay is Southport Island. We had never been there before. George has a shirttail relative living there and my kayak partner from last week lives there too. We decided to drive across the bridge to the island and follow the main roads. We didn't find either house, but we did get photos of two lighthouses. Hendrick's Head Lighthouse is on the east side of the island. It is now privately owned. It was decommissioned in 1933 and sold. In 1951, the owner allowed the Coast Guard to automate and reactivate the lighthouse. It now has a new owner who has totally renovated it. You can see it from the water or from a protected beach nearby. The owners do not permit visitors. 

At the south end at the town landing, you can view the Cuckold Fog Signal and Lighthouse. In 2004 the lighthouse was deemed to be excess and a local group purchased it. They are actively restoring it. The sign said it was available for rental but I can find nothing about that at the website. Maybe that's in the future when it is restored. It's a picturesque lighthouse, perched on a rather small islet. (My camera was tilted- the lighthouse was unaffected by Irene!) The other photo is taken from the landing, looking back at the cove at the end of Southport.

There is one campground on Southport. Gray Homestead Oceanfront Campground is the only oceanfront campground in the Boothbay area. It has 40 RV and tent sites. I wouldn't want to take a big RV through Boothbay Harbor, though they show some longer RVs on the sites. And since there are so few sites, I'd be sure there was availability and what size RV available sites could accommodate. It's a fair drive from Highway 1 to get there and find you don't have a site. The views, though, are spectacular.

Something old, something new. Spectacular day. What more could we ask for? Jaimie Hall Bruzenak

Lobsta delicious!

We had our first lobster the other night at Shaw's Fish and Lobster Wharf. We choose the standard pound and a quarter, but the tank had lobsters that were much larger. Tempting!

Shaw's appeared in the film, Message in a Bottle. It was painted white for the film, with the proviso that they return it to its normal red color after filming. The deck overlooking New Harbor is packed with people in the evenings, especially on weekends.

We also had a lobster roll for lunch one day in Damariscotta at Larson's Lunch Box. It was ok, but after you've had lobster roll at Red's in Wiscasset, they don't quite measure up. Red's is on our list for later.

RVers can camp one of the two RV parks in the area: Sherwood Forest Campsite and Cabins or at Pemaquid Point Campground. Both are fairly close to Shaw's and south of Damariscotta. I would not take an RV to Shaw's.

We'll probably have more lobster- good source of protein and it helps the local economy. Tough job, but someone's gotta do it! Jaimie Hall Bruzenak

Fried green beans and other Southern food

George and I tried a number of foods on our trip - lots of fried foods. It is the South. The most unique was fried green beans. With the breading and spices I couldn't taste the green beans, but they were good!

The most unusual restaurant was Mammy's Cupboard on Highway 61 south of Natchez. They serve lunch. I remembered it from a prior visit and was surprised to find it still there. Is it politically correct? I would think not. It was built in 1940 to attract customers to the Shell gas station. It has housed other businesses since then.

The restaurant with the most food, if you ate at the Round Table, was Walnut Hills Round Table Restaurant in Vicksburg. A huge Lazy Susan in the middle rotated 20 or more dishes. I loved the okra-tomato dish. It reminded me of ratatouille. I tasted fried okra - good- and passed on fried dill pickles, one of their specialities.  l also blogged about the delicious meal served at Port Gibson under a tent with chilled strawberry soup and tomato cobbler (below). 

We did have PoBoys- the Southern version of a sub. The ones we had were filled with - you guessed it- fried food. I dabbled in crawfish a few times- it was usually fried too. Below is a PoBoy from Breauds in Natchez with fried soft crabs (at least not breaded) and a rice and bean dish that George ordered.

We didn't eat in any place as fancy as the dining rooms we saw in the antebellum houses in Natchez. Below is a table set for a feast with a punkah or shoo fly hanging from the ceiling. In the days before screens and air conditioning, a young slave would stand at the edge of the room, pulling the punkah or fan back and forth to keep the flies off the dishes and move the air.

Not everything was fried. RV friends who have settled in Kosciusko to help take care of her aunt fixed a delicious pasta salad with a choice of chicken salad or shrimp. Bev is a creative cook, adding ingredients to the chicken salad that made it colorful and extra tasty.

It was fun experimenting, trying different foods. Both George and I prefer plainer foods in much smaller quantities, though. As you can imagine, we both gained a few pounds! Southern food is indeed comfort food but it's an advantage of RV travel that you can go back to the rig and cook at least some of your own meals. Jaimie Hall Bruzenak

 

Nanny state? or does it make sense?

Two food-related items in the news caught my eye. First, at ABC News, the governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, has proposed that Medicaid recipients who are obese or smoke be charged (fined?) $50 a year in order to receive medical services. Second, Gothamist.com reports that the FDA will now require all restaurant chains to post calories for each meal. Interestingly enough, bowling alleys and movie theaters are exempt. (You can click on a link in the story to find the calorie count in various movie chains' popcorn.)

Is how much someone eats the government's business? Should you, as a taxpaper, have to foot the bill for someone who is grossly overweight and costs taxpapers thousands of dollars more each year? If so, where do we draw the line on personal habits? Do these regulations help change behavior? Should extra charges for health insurance be across the board rather than limited to the poor?

Our bodies were originally designed for a much different lifestyle. Early man was nomadic. Food wasn't always readily available so we learned to eat a lot when food was available to store up for times when it wasn't. Most of us still tend to want to eat when food is available- often too much. But now the famine never comes! It is so easy to gain weight if you like food.

As RVers, we can often travel at a more leisurely pace and create plenty of time to exercise. And, the opposite is true. If we drive hundreds of miles each day, we feel like we were really busy, but you don't burn many calories or use your muscles while driving or sitting in the passenger seat. You can be a couch potato in your RV as well as in a stix n brix. Computers and other electronic gadgets also encourage that.

I think it is good that calories are displayed on menus. It helps consumers make better choices- if they are so inclined. And, implementing a law like that has a dollar cost for the establishments that must provide that information. Someone has to establish the calorie count. Menus have to be redone.

What do you think? Are we moving in a positive direction? or into Brave New World/1984 territory? Should we make our legislators and government bureaucrats part-time workers so they don't have time to come up with all these restrictive laws? Leave a comment below. Jaimie Hall Bruzenak

 

 

Adventures in food

We had two especially interesting eating experiences while in Tucson. One was in Sells on the Tohono O'odham reservation at the Desert Rain Cafe; the other was at Cafe Desta, an Ethiopian eatery in Tucson.

After arriving in Sells, we first drove down Indian Road 19 to the Tohono O'odam Cultural Center. After enjoying the exhibits, we came back into town to the Desert Rain Cafe. What is unique about this cafe is that every food and drink offering includes at least one native foods ingredient: tepary beans, prickly pear, chia seeds, saguaro seed, mesquite. We each had the special, which was a large meal with red chili, a bowl of tepary beans with pieces of tomato, green chilis and onions plus spices; and a tasty salad of greens, tiny chunks of apples, pumpkins seeds with prickly pear vinegrette. Warm tortillas also came with that. The oatmeal cookies had mesquite flour in them and they offered tea and lemonade sweetened with agave syrup. We also ordered an appetizer of bean dip made with tepary beans with chips. That came late and the meals were large so we had some to take home for dinner. This is a popular place with both indoor and outdoor seating.

We bought a package of tepary beans in the adjoining gallery. Several recipes for brown and white tepary beans are available in a free brochure if you buy the beans.

Sells is about 65 miles east of Tucson off AZ Highway 86, which goes to Ajo. Desert Rain is in the Tohono Plaza on Main Street. There aren't too many street signs so we found Main at the east end of town and followed that around to the Plaza. Main had just turned back toward the highway.

The other eating adventure came at the recommendation of Tucson friends. They actually tested out Cafe Desta last night. They gave such a good report, we went today for lunch. The reviews I saw were also good.

The menu has 5 or 6 vegetarian choices and 4 or 5 meat choices. The best deal is to get the lunch special where you get a choice of three entrees plus the Injera, the sourdough pancake-like bread of Ethiopia. That is your utensil! (You can request a fork.) The bread is used to scoop up a bite full of food, which is like a thick stew. Many dishes are spicy, so be warned! I had a spicy red lentil dish plus a chicken and spicy lamb dish. George's dishes were all spicy- a green bean dish plus chicken and lamb. If you have a larger group, there are other sampler choices that work for lunch or dinner.

Cafe Desta is located at 758 S Stone Ave in downtown Tucson where 6th and Stone come together at 18th Street. (Use your GPS)

 

We would not recommend taking a large RV to either one. The parking lot at Desert Rain would be difficult to maneuver, though you might be able to find parking on the street. It would be much easier and more relaxing to make this a day trip from Tucson in your toad or tow vehicle and visit both the cultureal center and the cafe. Also, it's not fun to take a large RV in downtown Tucson. There is street parking, but no guarantee you'd get two or three meters empty where you could easily park and leave.

Tucson has lots of good restaurants. Here's where knowing a local helps. In any case, here are two tried and recommended ones to put on your Tucson list for the next time you visit. Niether is the usual eating experience. Jaimie Hall Bruzenak

The Weirdest Restaurants in the World

If you are looking for something to add interest to your RV lifestyle, check out the weirdest restaurants in the world. Most are located out of North America, but you could sample a few that are here:

• Experience life on Mars in Times Square in New York City
• Experience what is to be visually impaired by dining in the dark in three West Coast cities.
• Also in New York City, experience dining in a Japanese restaurant modeled after an ancient Ninja castle.
• Eat aboard a 1953 Boeing KC-97 tanker plane in Colorado Springs.
• And, if you are wealthy and not afraid of heights, you can hire a company called Dining in the Sky to serve an elegant meter suspended on a platform high above the ground!

There are lots of restaurants that are interesting, if not so dramatic, when you get away from the chains. For example, in Missouri, we ate at Lamberts, home of the "throwed rolls," where waiters actually toss dinner rolls to diners from afar. And at the Ajax in Port Hadlock, WA, you pick out a silly hat to wear while eating your meal. Road Food by Jane Stern is a good resource.

Check out the article on the weirdest restaurants, Road Food, or keep your eyes open for fun places to eat and add some spice to your RV travels. By the way, do you have any favorite restaurants? Add them in the comments.  Jaimie Hall Bruzenak