Day #9 - March 9 2011 - Chuck Wagon Report #1

Today was an Rest day for Jo Ann.  Her plan is to take a Day Off about every seven days, with no riding and a stay in a Motel with a real bed.  We stretched it out an extra day this time because the forecast called for rain today and tonight.  So I am stepping in with a filler post.

The question I get asked the most (after “Is your wife crazy?”) is why I call the car the “Chuck Wagon”.  As anyone that has seen enough Westerns or read enough Louis L’Amour can tell you, the Chuck Wagon’s job is to go ahead to prepare camp and have a meal ready when the Saddle Sore/Weary rider come straggling in.  I felt that described my role: get Jo Ann in the saddle every morning, break camp, meet her somewhere with Lunch ready, and then make camp and have Dinner ready when she gets out of the shower.  The Chuck Wagon is the original cross-country trek support vehicle.

Cookware from the 1966 Dream Tour

As Jo Ann mentioned in an earlier post, we are using the cookware from the Epic Trip that inspired her present journey.  It forms the core of our Kitchen, along with an old-style Coffee Pot (used to heat water for Breakfast Cocoa and Oatmeal) and other utensils thrown into two Storage Tubs in the hasty last minute packing.  At least I have not had to improvise any implements out of scrap #12 electrical wire.  Belying its humble origins, it turns out the flatware is engraved!

Jo Ann's Father's Initials

As I work preparing meals with just three pans I imagine Jo Ann’s Sainted Mother preparing meals for five people in even more rugged conditions than the modern Campgrounds we are staying in.  I use the example of my own Sainted Mother preparing meals for six on our camping trips across the country.  I repeat the trips to the Water Spigot for a bucket of water that I made as a kid, I repeat the heating a large pot of water to wash dishes that I saw my mother put on the stove as we sat down to eat.  The actual meal preparation I missed because we kids were always off checking out the pool or playground after our setup chores were done.  When I walk into a Grocery in even the small towns we pass through and find fresh Produce and aisles of anything else you could possibly need I think “Is America a great country, or what?”.  Partly because I remember the meager pickings in the Camp Stores in the Campgrounds we stayed in.  I also missed any trips to real Grocery Stores because it was better to leave the kids at camp, or in the car, than try to ride herd on them in a strange store (and after being cooped up in a car for days, it was probably the real “vacation” for Mom to get away from us kids, and Dad, for even that brief period).  I just hope my cooking lives up to what my Mother did with even more limited resources, and that I can do as good a job with my “family” as the example my Mother, and Father, set.

So you “Sainted Mothers” reading this, what meals do y’all remember preparing?  And you other readers, what were your favorite camp meals?