Our Web Log

We intend to make periodic entries to this blog to chronicle our full time travel adventures. If you would like to contact us, please send us an email at Harrison@HarrisonPhillips.com.

The recipes that have appeared in these entrees can be found at Recipes.

October 20, 2011

We have moved our blog to www.pegandharrison.wordpress.com so that we may manage it better. It will be easier to follow for those who want to get email notices when posts are made.

October 6, 2011

I started exhibiting and selling my photographic art in 1998 at small shows and farmers markets. The next year Peg and I started traveling to nearby art shows and staying in motels. By 2003, the shows were more numerus and farther from home and we had had enough of motels. We started looking at RV's - comparing floor plans, construction, weight, and asthetics then deciding on a Casita. We picked ours up in March of 2004 and started putting the miles on it. By that time, we were traveling between half and two thirds time - doing southern shows in the winter and northern shows in the summer. We would often boon dock at the shows then spend three or four days traveling and creating and washing clothes, shopping, etc.

By the end of the summer season of 2010, we decided that we would like to enjoy the areas of the nation that we had sped through - spending a day here and two days there. So we got rid of everything that would not fit in our large van tow vehicle and the Castita and took off full time.

September 23, 2011

Sometime back, my niece, Tammy, reminded us that she used to live in the Rapid City South Dakota area which is near Custer State Park. We remembered our visit there in June when we drove the wildlife scenic drive through Custer State Park. The park in known for the large bison herds that range there. There are also herds or bands of burros that were left by prospectors years ago. They have thrived happily and reproduced well. Nearly half way along the scenic drive we came upon a large group of burros in the road blocking traffic. There quite a few young burros in the group that stayed very close to their mothers. There were cars stopped in both directions watching and waiting for an opportunity to wind through the herd and proceed along the drive. We got out of the truck and walked among the burros with a camera that could hardly be used for the closeness. One of the burros tried to eat the camera.

Farther down the road, a bull bison had stacked claim to the center of the road. At first he was very defiant about allowing us through but as we slowly closed on him with our big black van with an extended chassis, he slowly began to meander just far enough for us to pass. I think he would have liked to fight but was unsure about the strength of the big black thing that was closing on him.

The pronghorn sheep were scattered here and there in the park meadows.

We enjoyed the drive very much and look forward to visiting there again some day.

I made mayonnaise this morning because we had run out. I have been using this recipe for many many years.

Harrison & Peg Phillips Recipe: mayonnaise

Into a large glass measuring cup or similar container, pour an eighth to a quarter cup or so of vinegar then enough vegetable oil to make 1 2/3 cup.

Add to that a center (hand) palm covered with salt, a larger center palm of pepper, a larger yet center palm of powdered mustard, the same amount of powdered garlic and one large egg at room temperature.

Immerse a hand blender to the bottom of the mixture with the blade over the egg yolk and begin to blend. As the mixture thickens, gradually raise the blender allowing the remaining oil to gradually blend into the mayonnaise. The thickness of the mayonnaise is a function of the amount of oil - more oil means thicker mayonnaise and vise versa.

September 20, 2011

Well we are delayed again. We have been in Champaign IL for routine doctors appointments during September and have had to extend our stay twice for additional consultations. The latest is a follow up check two weeks after Harrison's cataract surgery on the 22nd. So we will now be out of here on October 10. It will be great to be on the road again although it has been nice visiting with son Gregg and his Genia.

We will head south in short hops through southern Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida - mostly at Corps of Engineers Campgrounds. We get into those for half price!!!

September 15, 2011

We baked yeast dough buns today in our toaster oven. We adapted our loaf bread recipe and punched the dough out thin then cut discs with a glass like biscuits. They came out beautifully.

Harrison & Peggy Phillips Recipe: Simple Bread Dough

Ingredients:
2 Cups Flour,
1 1/2 Teaspoons Yeast,
1 Teaspoon Salt,
1 Tablespoon Sugar,
1 Tablespoon Dry Milk Powder,
1 Tablespoon Salad Oil,
7 Ounces Warm Tap Water.

Directions:
Combine and mix together dry ingredients. Add oil and water and stir until a doughy consistency. Sprinkle with flour and knead by hand until a smooth dough. Cover and set aside for an hour or so to rise. Remove from bowl with floured hands and knead once or twice. Set aside for a few minutes then shape into the desired shape or place into a greased loaf pan and let rise again. Bake at 375 for 20 to 30 minutes.

This dough works great for pizzas. Roll out the dough to fit into a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet after the first rising. oil the pan and cover with corn flour before placing dough into the pan to rise. After second rising, bake the dough at 425 F for 4 minutes or so then add the pizza ingredients and bake another 8 or 10 minutes at 435 F.

We usually skip both risings to save time when we have pizzas. It works pretty well providing a thin crust pizza that can be fixed after conventional working hours.

I like this dough recipe because it uses a minimum of utensils. I knead the dough right in the large bowl used for the initial mixing so I don't need to mess up the counter or get out a bread board.

September 14, 2011

We baked biscuits today in a toaster oven we bought at a garage sale for 6 or 7 dollars. We cut the recipe in half and served some of them with chicken pot pie filling. The biscuit recipe we have used for a long time is from the 1979 Better Homes and Gardens All-Time Favorite Bread Recipes which has a price sticker for $3.95 on the front.

Harrison & Peggy Phillips Recipe: Biscuits

Ingredients: 2 cups flour, 4 tsps baking powder, 2 tsps sugar, 1/2 tsp cream of tarter, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup shortening, 2/3 cup milk. For buttermilk use 3/4 cup buttermilk instead of 2/3 cup milk and add 1/4 tsp baking soda into flour.

Directions: Combine dry ingredients then cut in shortening and add milk. Stir only until mixed then knead gently 10 to 12 strokes. Pat down to 1/2 inch thick and cut with a 2 1/2 inch cutter dipped in flour. If you don't mind square biscuits, it is easiest to cut into squares.

Bake at 450 F for 10 to 12 minutes. Makes 10 to 12 biscuits.

September 13, 2011

We have decided that chronicling our travel adventures does not necessarily mean creating a travel log. We find that our adventures are more involved with eating, logistics, and people watching.

Our home is a 17 foot Casita (Little House) and an extended GMC 3500 van. The van is our basement/garage/storage shed.

Sweeping the floor of the Casita and shaking the rug takes about 5 minutes. Washing the windows takes a little more time - maybe 20 minutes - but we don't do that as often.

We don't have a clothes washer/dryer but washing clothes is now much more efficient than when we did have a washer/dryer. We can wash all of our dirty clothes at once in a coin laundry in about an hour and a half.

July 14, 2011

We have now had our annual physicals and will return to Champaign for further follow ups in September.

We enjoyed camping at the base of the Devils Tower National Monument (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and in the Badlands National Park. The prairie dog town where these guys live is near the Devils Tower.

We are currently in Minnesota heading for Wisconsin and Michigan then Champaign.

May 30, 2011

We have not kept up with our web log very well. We seem to be busier than anticipated - or is it that time goes faster now that we are old and relaxed.

We spent a good part of May camping at several campgrounds along the Tenn-Tom Waterway on our way to Champaign from Texas. The campgrounds are very nice. The barges passed so close that it seemed you could reach out and touch them. We didn't even know the waterway existed but it is a major player in alternate Mississippi river traffic. It connects the Tennessee River with the Tombigbee River - 260 miles or so with a cut through a watershed divide - a major Corps of Engineers project.

We will now visit with Gregg and Genia and have our annual physicals before heading north to get our new titles and licenses in South Dakota.

April 22, 2011

It has been an interesting Winter in Texas. It was cold and windy but we had a good time. We passed through New Mexico and Arizona and arrived in Southern California a little earlier in the Spring than we had planned. That was a mistake! We were essentially snowed out - in Southern California! Since we were not enjoying California anyway, we decided to backtrack to Texas and change gears. Of coarse Texas is breaking records for heat and drought. Wild fires are springing up all over the state so we are going to head east.

December 4, 2010

We are in the final stages of preparing for our launch into full time travel in our travel trailer. Launch is planned for December 10, 2010.

We will go from Illinois to Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and back to Illinois for our annual physicals. When passing through South Dakota, we will get our new driver's licenses eight or nine months after we start out.

Our second year, we are thinking of going east and south - we'll see.

Harrison & Peg Phillips professional travelers
217-352-3989 Harrison@HarrisonPhillips.com...home