Back online and back on the road….

Just to bring you up to speed. This past Saturday Kelly and I and Ryan went into Bellingham, WA to check out the farmers market. How cool. How nice. Scored some fabulous jalepeno jelly as well as some raspberry chipotle sauce from the folks at Aldrich Farms. Good, good stuff. Tried a pluot for the first time. A half apricot half plum concoction that was delicious. We also picked up some fresh caught Pacific Sockeye and Coho Salmon, to be made later that evening. Got back home to find out the clamming was successful in that clams were found and caught, but unsuccessful in that they were apparently a lot of work to figure out what was good and what wasn’t edible. The fresh clams in the chowder idea was scrapped, and the team moved forward by heading to the grocery store for some store bought versions. Dinner that night was great. Chef Owens (look for her new book on butter coming soon. Where she details her methods and recipes for using butter in everything from BnG to her own homemade brews) whipped up the chowder and I took care of the fish. I must say I am a bit disappointed that I didn’t pick up an y of the blackberries we saw. They were almost as big as an apple. We’ll have plenty once we move

The next day, Sunday, the team headed out to hike the Lake Ann trail. A 9 mile in and out, in the Baker-Snowqualamie Forest, near MT. Shuksan and Mt. Baker. The end goal being the views of the 2, Lake Ann and the Curtis Glacier hanging off Shuksan. Great day for a hike, except that it was 90 and sunny with no tree cover .

Most of the team, sans Mac and Fred and Seamus made the entire hike. The three of us opted out when the sun became just too much. Seamus spent quite a bit of time in the several streams we crossed in the 6 miles we did hike:

The following day, Monday, The Team left Birch Bay, WA and the PNW and headed towards Moab, Utah to visit Arches and Mesa Verde National Parks. The ride into Moab was pretty uneventful, though it did take us 2 days to knock out the 1200 miles.

Woke up today in Moab, and hit up the 2 parks, which are absolutely beautiful. We did the granny tour (drive around the park, hardly get out of the car, take pics and say you were there. This is not too be confused with exploring the park, which requires that you leave your car and hike.) Seamus was glad though, because the heat was, well, hot. After getting our share of pics we kept on rolling east towards the San Juan Mountains and Durango, CO.

We just arrived in Durango, CO a bit ago. I’ll try and get some more pics up tomorrow, but we have to shower (been 2 days) and head into town to visit Mr Scott Sindelar, proud new owner of the Summit Bar and Grill in downtown Durango. He said he is sending a driver for us!!! Now that is service.

You can check it here:

www.durangosummit.com

Updates to come.