Summer-Fall-Summer

After a short day of riding, sun but cold wind, I sat in the Monmouth library feeling negative. It got dark. Rain started. I felt mildly feverish and very lethargic. My thoughts where pretty much this:

I don't want to do this. I want to be warm and safe. I want the opportunity to be lazy. I don't want to go back outside, I don't want to ride all day and crawl into a tent. I don't even want to find Ryan's friend's place in town.

I was composing this post in my head already, because I know all this negativity is a passing thing and maybe writing it down will get it out. Then, I went out in the rain and found the house. Soon after I got there, Michelle told me she and Ryan had decided to take the train to LA instead of riding down the coast. My initial reaction was uncertain, and I don't think I hid my concern well. As soon as she said it, I knew I didn't want to ride down the coast alone in rainy november. I want to be warm, dry, but still moving. Taking a train down means I can ride in southern California, Nevada, or Arizona until I run out of funds. That is a very good thing. It's just... The abruptness of the change left me feeling a bit imposed.

That was a few hours ago. I called my mother so she could listen to me talk myself through it, bringing my emotional reaction up in line with my logical response. Then I got online and sketched out some routes around the area I'll be. Next I need to look at any technical difficulties in moving my bike and trailer via train.

So, as it now stands, my vague outline of a plan is this: I'll ride to Astoria. It would be nice if this part included some sun and enjoyment. I'll go to Portland with Ryan and Michelle. I've put out some requests for a warmshowers host there. I also need, badly, to have my cracked rim replaced. After a day or two in bike paradise, I'll take the Amtrak to San Diego, and resume resting and chilling out Jeff, the first prexisting family/friend type I'll meet up with since leaving Minnesota. At some point, then, I'd like to ride up to LA, meet with with Ryan and Michelle, and visit Alex in Santa Barbara. Around this time I'll also be looking for work options. From there, I'll head east towards either Arizona or Nevada, and possibly a job. Sounds pretty simple, eh?

Ghee Making

As a person who rather enjoys good food and cooking, I've had a few worries about preparing food on the road - largely revolving around how to carry butter or cooking oil. Butters spoils too quickly unprotected from the head, vegetable oil is not economical to carry.

I had imagined shortening to be the best compromise, as it is relatively cheap, light, and travels well. Of course, it's also considered to be a pretty shoddy thing to be consuming on a daily basis. Fortunately, while reading about what a unpleasant substance shortening is, I came across a mention of ghee.

---

Melting butter for ghee

---

I'd heard of ghee before, and vaguely knew what it was. What I learned was that it, and it's close relative, clarified butter, do not require refrigeration, and in cool, stable conditions can last several months. I would therefore assume that under less ideal conditions, it would still last well past long enough to be eaten.

---

Spitting, hissing butter-froth.

---

Making good news better, ghee is simple to make. It requires nothing but unsalted butter, a steady heat source, a deep pot, and a filter of some sort. I made it over the stove today, but with careful observation it could be done over hot embers in a fire pit.

---

With the upper layer of froth skimmed off, the slightly browned milk solids and golden ghee are visible.

The solids are removed by use of a coffee filtered placed in a colander.

---

It remains to be seen if I hit the sweet spot between "too much water content" and "burned butter" correctly. I divided the final product into two jars - one to use, the other to set near my heater, which I will observe over the next few months. If it turns all fuzzy, I'll have to amend this entry, but I'm feeling rather optimistic that I got it right.

---

Ghee, freshly strained and still in liquid form.

---

CLARIFIED BUTTER, or GHEE

Materials needed:
Unsalted butter(Organic if available), a deep pot, coffee filters or cheesecloth, and some means of securing it over the container for the finished ghee.

• Make sure the pot, jar, and any utensils which will come into contact with the butter or finished ghee are completely dry.
• Melt butter over low heat.
• Once melted, the butter will begin to hiss, splutter, and form a thick white froth. Maintain the heat so that it simmers steadily. Keep the bubbles small.
• Depending on the heat and thickness of the pot, the butter will continue to foam for 30 to 45 minutes. Small nuggets of milk solids will form at the bottom later, visible if the foam is pushed aside.
• Watch and listen closely. The bubbling and foaming will lessen, the audible sizzling will become irregular, and the milk solids may turn golden brown. When any of these occur, remove from heat and cool for a few minutes. Between the solids and foam, the ghee should be clear golden.
• Skim as much of the foam as possible off the top. Pour the remaining liquid through your filter. It may be necessary to replace the filter, or rewarm the ghee if it stops dripping, so don't wash your pot until completely finished.

Note: to make clarified butter, which retains a more buttery flavour but does not keep as long, you would have stopped simmering the butter at an earlier stage and left more water content.

Update: After weeks of being stored next to my heater, the clear glass jar of ghee shows no signs of spoiling. I'm therefore going to declare it "good enough", and use it to saute some taters.

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap

On the longer of my tours last year, I brought along a bottle of Dr Bronners castile soap to use for cleaning myself and my clothing. I used it in my hair a few days before, but but long enough to really judge it's effectiveness, and I was still using conditioner. The tiny travel-sized bottle ran out after a week, and I went back to using dish liquid for all my chores.

A while back, after drinking a cup of nettle tea and subsequently wandering down a trail of links, I came across a recipe for castile-soap-and-nettle shampoo, along with a rather compelling damnation of name brand shampoos and the damaging chemicals they contain.

Now I'm looking at my store-brand dandruff shampoo, fruity-smelling conditioner, skin cleansers, astringents, and lotions in a whole new light. It sure would be convenient to replace all these things with some diluted Dr. Bronner's...

---

It may look a bit swampy, but you can bet it smells fantastic.

---

So, in the usual fit-of-motivation way I have of doing things, I picked up a 32oz bottle of Dr. Bronners, in peppermint, about two hours later. Here is the recipe I used for my shampoo and bodywash:

• 7oz distilled water. Spring water can also be used. I ended up using filtered, melted snow, having neither of the above on hand nor the patience to distill 7oz of water on the lid of a saucepan.
• 3 to 5 Tbsp various dried herbs. My selections where nettle, rosemary, lavender, and chamomile, in a peppermint soap base.
• 4 Tbsp pure castile soap.

Bring the water to boil, and add the herbs. Cover, remove from heat, and let sit for up to 30mins. Strain water through a coffee filter into container suitable for storage, and add soap. The color will change from murky green to brown overnight.

Ahead of myself

I tend to have a hard time planning. I enjoy it, especially when bicycle touring is what the planning resolves around.

It only becomes a problem when I'm planning too far in advance. I go into great detail, until the event being planned for seems further and further from reality. It breaks up into too many pieces, each individual project considered in obsessive detail, but forgotten as I move on to the next. By the time I'd learned the difference between GSM and CDMA technology, and found a plan + phone that would work for me, I'd half forgotten which concessionaire companies to avoid when I look for seasonal work. My actual route planning has dropped by wayside since I working on this blog.

Sometimes this all seems to be so much that I lose my perspective on rather or not I actually still want to do this, or if I'm just in love with the planning. Working on my campground map reminds me that I do. Every placemark is somewhere I want to see, eventually, and I feel the missing excitement again.

That being said, the map page is now online.