Tandoids
Current
Location:Brookings, Southern Oregon, USA
Total
Distance: 13,687 Km
Best
Sausage Roll Competition: Abandoned due to lack of entries south of the
Canadian border.
Backsides:
Mike the Captain: 9.0 out of possible 10; Judy the Stoker: 7.5.
One Pot Primus Pasta
One Pot Primus Pasta |
Ingredients
Canola
oil (in spray can)
2-3
cloves garlic
2
shallots (or 1 onion)
1
capsicum (green pepper)
1
courgette (zucchini)
1
or 2 tomatoes
1
foil packet or tin of tuna
Yum, burnt toast minus two bites. |
To Make
Chop
or dice all the vegetables
Spray
canola oil in pot, add water and boil enough pasta for two hungry cyclists –
drain
Put
pasta in two bowls and cover with towel.
In
pot, add canola oil and fry onion and shallots, then add capsicum, courgette
and tomatoes. Cook until greens begin to
soften. Add tuna and heat through.
Put
hot ingredients over the pasta and stir in well.
Top
with parmesan if desired and eat with fresh bread and bottle of red wine.
The Joy of Comfort Food
“The
coldest winter I ever spent, was a summer in San Francisco.” Mark Twain.
Twain clearly never made it to Brookings, Oregon. It’s summer here, north of San Francisco but a chill wind won’t leave us alone.
Afternoon near Devils Elbow and it’s hard to tell if the fog is coming or going. |
The wreck of the Peter Iredale at Fort Stevens, Oregon. |
It
sneaks down our collars as we ride, our hands are always cold even with gloves
and we ride with an extra layer on top. On the hills we sweat, on the downhills
the sweat chills us until we start to climb again. The only relief is in the
afternoons when usually the fog clears, the sun comes out and we find shelter from
the wind.
As
a result of this weather, suddenly comfort food is in. Pasta, rice, noodles and
soup are old favourites, but now we’ve been introduced to a new delight.
Jake from Seattle (honorary member of the “Wild Squirrels”), Bruce, 16-year-old Eric, Kelly (recently returned from Guatemala), Alan and Mike at Jessie M Honeyman Memorial State Park. |
Among
the dozens of cyclists we’ve met recently were Alan and his teenage son Eric – travelling as part of a group of teachers from Victorville, southern California. One evening father and son were tucking into mashed potato with tuna mixed in –
we eyed it with envy until eventually Alan presented us with a packet of Idahoian
Butter Fried Instant Potatoes. The next evening Judy poured boiling water into
the white flakes, added a packet of tuna and a tin of peas - ”covering off
three food groups”, she said – and dinner was served. On a cold night it
was perfect.
South of Cannon Beach, Northern Oregon |
Food is one of the joys of cycling – it doesn’t need to be anything flash, quantity and calories are all that matter.
Notes from the Road
We
have been living beside the Pacific for days now – by day we look seawards from
vantage points like Cape Foulweather, (named by Captain Cook who sighted it in
1778) where we spotted a grey whale. At night we are lulled to sleep by the
sound of the surf.
About to test fly a tiny kite – a perfect birthday present for a touring cyclist who has everything except room in his panniers. |
These
are easy days and we are enjoying them. Our route south down the Pacific Coast
Highway remains spectacular and we have plenty of time, which means we can keep
our mileages low – our record so far is a daily run of 25 miles or 40 km.
To
cap it off we are meeting some wonderful people, and a few dodgy ones including
two knife wielding young men from Wyoming.
Art deco bridge at Newport with obelisks – trademarks of its architect Conde B. McCullough. |
Campsite at Beachside State Park, south of Waldport, Oregon. |
Cranes in an Oriental pond at Shore Acres Botanical Gardens, a property once owned by lumberman and ship builder Louis J Simpson. |
Once we had established it wasn’t a pin but a pen they wanted, we handed one over and one of them laboriously scratched out the words “WE ARE GOOD PEOPLE” on the cardboard. He pulled out a vicious looking, curved knife and cut his placard to the size he wanted while his younger brother did his own sign,”Evrey (sic) $ counts”, his one read after he had asked how to spell the word “count".He too pulled out a knife and when we asked why they carried them they reassured us they would never use them against anyone. “You’re not allowed to carry concealed weapons back in Wyoming”, one said. They were drifting, making a little money by catching crabs on the coast and undercutting the prices charged by the supermarkets. It seemed an aimless life and we weren’t convinced they were the “good people” they claimed to be. We got our pen back, and left.
Adam from Toronto on his recumbent Ice Trike – solar panel on his chest. |
That
encounter was just one of at least three we’ve had with people living on the
fringes, and we are not finding anything romantic or adventurous about their
lives. These are not the characters of Kerouac’s “On the Road” burning with a
passion for life and new experiences. They are lost souls for whom hope of a
decent future has vanished.
Alongside the campfire at Cape Lookout (L to R) David from Sacramento, Mikaelle from Quebec and cycling with her father, John from Virginia, Tom from Corpus Christie, Texas and Daniel, from Quebec. |
Fortunately
those encounters have been overshadowed by many others including that one with
Alan and Eric of the mashed potato and the others in their group – they called
themselves the “Wild Squirrels” and were riding south like us.
Judy, Tom, Adam and John. |
We
also met Kelly, just back from Guatemala where she worked with the U.S. Peace
Corp helping local people grow their own vegetables and improve their diets. She
was young and bursting with energy and eventually told us she couldn’t wait
until her “sweetie” arrived from Melbourne.
Shirine, a young Canadian just after setting out from her present home in Oregon on what she hopes will be a three year world tour by bicycle. |
We’ve
met many other cyclists recently and enjoyed their company, but perhaps none
more so than 20-year-old Shirine, cycling the Pacific Coast to test her
equipment before setting off on what she hopes will be a three year world tour.
We put her in the category of “Most Likely to Succeed”. When we asked her why
she was doing it, she said one of the reasons was to try to prove the goodness
of humanity and that a young, single woman could cycle all that way without
coming to harm. To check out how she’s doing, her blog is at:
Grandiflora – “Tournament of Roses” at Shore Acres Botanical Gardens. |
Quotable Quote from John, Cyclist from Portland, met at Beachside State Park, Oregon:
“Sometimes this feels just one up from being a homeless person.”
John (again), Bart and 13-year-old Eliah at Sunset Bay State Park. |
Time to make ourselves more visible. An orange pennant goes up on the back of the bike, Judy gets a new hi viz vest, and Mike gets a helmet mirror. |
North Jetty, Columbia River mouth, Cape Disappointment, Washington State.
|
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