Good Thursday Morning to you World!
I wanted to take a few minutes this morning to rewind back to last Sunday morning when I got up and decided to take a whirl around the San Juan Scenic Byway.... arguably one of the most beautiful drives in America.... and the World!
It wasn't something I had planned.... the weather had been pretty overcast for several days.... but Sunday dawned clear and I realized I was planning on returning to Santa Fe and this might be my last opportunity to see this part of the country.
I mentioned in a post I did that morning that I had a lot of ratkilling to do..... and I did.
One of the main things I had to do that morning was to do my daily early morning review of furnished rentals in Durango and Santa Fe on Craigslist. I've found this is the best resource for getting reasonably priced furnished rentals in whatever destination you desire.
I hadn't found anything in Durango but had several I had emailed and called about in Santa Fe....
So I spent at least 30 mins to an hour going through Craigslist and weeding out the possibles.
The 2nd thing that was on my mind was doing a big cooking of a lot of stuff so that I had some good Paleo stuff to eat on for at least 2 - 3 days.
Now the problem was that my motel room at the Iron Horse Inn in Durango didn't have a cooktop.
I had asked the motel manager about this when I called and he told me there was another "common area" that had a stove in it that I could use.
It turned out this was an equipment storage / overflow room for appliances and other items that they were installing in newly remodeled rooms but sure enough it had a stove in it.
So I prep'd everything I was gonna cook back in my room.... how did I do all this prep?
I had all the necessary tools / utensils with me.... French Cook knife, cutting board, plastic containers and a laundry basket..... all of which I bought in Santa Fe when I first arrived there in late December.
As you can see from these pics..... I basically have a full blown kitchen with me complete with cooking oil, spices, seasonings and all my vitamins / minerals / supplements.....
Now you know why I travel with 2 suitcases...... one is clothes and personal items, the other is everything else required to maintain and sustain a healthy lifestyle....
Which includes the ways and means to cook my own meals!
So basically, I loaded everything in my laundry basket.....
Carefully packaging all the parts and pieces of the meals that were to be added to the meal in separate containers...
And then moved everything to the room where the oven was.....
After some quick leveling of the stove with some available cardboard..... I was in business!
1st layer is all the prep'd "hard" veggies - onions, peppers, carrot sticks....
Then the kale....
After that cooks down, I added the meat which was a good portion of deboned roasted chicken and a couple of links of chicken sausage.....
This is a huge 14" cast iron skillet so that's a lot of food already...
Then I beat up 4 eggs and added tabasco, balsamic and salt and pepper....
Turned down the heat and added the beaten eggs to the mix....
I rolled this mix a few times until the eggs were 3/4 cooked....
And then added a bowl of diced banana, sliced strawberry and avocado....
I didn't cook the strawberries, bananas and avocado.... just threw them on top, rolled them in and then dumped the entire skillet into 2 different containers.....
One for the next couple of days eating....
One for the road.... i.e. the day trip up the San Jan Scenic Byway.....
I always had a good drizzle of Balsamic to the dish before I put the lid on....
It combines with the stock from the veggies and meat and makes a wonderful sauce at the bottom of the bowl.
I put everything back in the laundry basket and headed back to the motel room.
The morning fog had burned off....
While I was cooking, I had put on a load of laundry....
So it was going and done by the time I finished cooking..
I returned to the room with my prep'd food and added a bag of mixed nuts and raisins, a Fuji apple and some plastic ware...
I added a couple of boiled eggs and a small container of seasoning and my standard plastic workout cup of Creatine and Fresca and ate on this all day and half the night.
This probably save me $20 - $30 on food I would've bought throughout the day...
I also prep'd what I call a little "What If" kit....
I knew this was a long drive over some wild and beautiful country so I thought....
"What if I break down..... or run off the road down into a gulley? Do I have what I need to make it through a freezing night?"
So I packed enough cold weather clothes to take care of that.
I also thought....
"What if I get up there and want to stay overnight? Do I have all my toiletries / personal items for that scenario?"
"What if I want to take a short hike? Do I have my "Backcountry Emergency Kit" with me?"
So I did 5 - 10 mins of prep and gathering stuff up to take care of a lot of contingency plans....
Meanwhile, the laundry was done so I hung it up in the upstairs bedroom to dry....
Yeah.... there was a whole 'nother bedroom in this place I didn't even use....
A 2 bedroom / 2 queen bed motel room on the north side of Durango for $40 a night..... not bad in the land of the Rich and Famous....
Another Craigslist find.
So that was what I was doing in the hour before I left to go on my drive up the San Juan Scenic Byway.
Basically..... a little bit of planning and preparation allows you to live the way you want to in nearly every environment.
Is is too much trouble?
That's for you to decide....
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