The Wine Cyclist

The close of 2009 brings also to an end my travels far and wide, and though I still have some recapping to do and pictures to post, that will all come in good time. Before we end the first month of this new year, I wanted to tell you all where I am and what I’ll be getting myself up to in the year ahead.

It’s official. I’m now a resident of the great state of Oregon and the fine city of Portland therein. With a Honda Accord full of as much stuff as I could haul, I drove across the northern states, following to a certain extent my bicycling route of the summer, but this time in the dead of winter, to my new home in the Pacific Northwest. And though most of my stuff is still in fairly disorganized piles on the floor, I couldn’t be happier about my new home.

What does being a Portlander now entail for me? Well, at the moment, it means tolerating annoyingly short days, being just over a month past the winter solstice and a hair north of the 45th parallel. I have retrieved my bicycle from it’s super secret stashing place here in Portland, a spot I left her in back at the end of August, and she is in fine riding shape, but alas the days are too short. But I do not let that get my spirits down! There may not be any riding of great distance in my immediate future, but I have many new neighborhoods to check out that are within a few miles ride. And this is good, as there is much I want to explore locally before I expand out to the rest of the region.

With the spring will come nicer weather, more hours of sunlight, and doubtless the exploration of many a Pacific Northwest wine region by bicycle. The Willamette Valley, naturally, offers many great weekend destinations for me at a fairly reasonable cycling distance. And when the opportunities arise, I hope to also spend some time in the southern parts of Oregon and in the various AVAs of Washington. Perhaps the summer will even bring some trips down into California and the myriad of wineries there.

In the meantime, having a base of operations will be nice again, as it means I get to spend some time working on musical projects, something I’ve sorely missed during 2009. It’s hard to say what shape those projects will take just yet; things are still ramping back up in that department. In the past I’ve gotten very involved in house and techno. More recently, I’ve been rediscovering my passion for jazz. The future likely lies somewhere in between. Should be an interesting year…

I like maps. I’m even a bit of a map geek. And I’m of the opinion that maps are the best way to sum up all the insanity that was 2009. So I give you, the maps of 2009:

You may remember that cycling trip I was doing this summer, well, here’s a close approximation of the route.

And then there was driving/car camping tour of the southwest more recently. This autumn’s route looked something like this.

I didn’t check these for overwhelming accuracy. It is, after all, New Year’s Eve, and I’ve got some very important drinking to do tonight. I hope your 2009 went well. I wish you all the best for 2010.

A photographic recap of the first month of my recent travels in the southwest.

Great Sand Dunes

(more…)

This saves me from the effort of actually writing something at the moment (working on it, I promise).

I think I’ve found a new tradition. One that is all manner of fun. Thanksgiving in the woods.

Failing to find a spot indoors for our Thanksgiving feast this year, we opted to put together our own little feast — one cooked up over the campfire. I really can’t take too much credit here, as my traveling companion did most of the food prep and cooking work, but hey, I payed for the food, so I get some appreciation, yeah?

It was Wednesday night we had our feast, instead of the usual Thursday, as we wanted to spend that whole day soaking in some hot springs near where we were camped out in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. We grabbed some turkey legs from a little food co-op in Dixon the night before, but they weren’t quite thawed out by midday. So, we popped them on the manifold of my car’s engine to defrost over the remainder of the drive (some 100 miles or so).

Nicely thawed, and even slightly roasted on the manifold, the turkey legs were ready for cooking just as soon as we got a campfire going. With some sourdough bread, there was to be a most delicious stuffing (not that we could really stuff it in the turkey legs, but that matters not). And we had an assortment of other sides: mashed potatoes, asparagus and applesauce. All (excepting the applesauce) cooked over the campfire you see here.

I popped open a Dolcetto from Black Mesa Winery (Velarde, NM) to go with the feast and a feast it was. Just look at that spread. We even had the requisite leftovers for munching over the next couple of days. Actually, we only had turkey left over. The stuffing was just too delicious to leave any of it behind, and we were modest enough in cooking the portions of potatoes and asparagus that there were none left over. Of course, killing off a single bottle of wine between two people is hardly ever a challenge.

This was so much fun, that I think this is going to be my Thanksgiving tradition from now on. In the future, I will find a good spot in the forests of Oregon or Washington or somesuchwhere, invite a whole crew of people, and have a big camp-out Thanksgiving feast. More than just turkey legs, I intend to learn how to roast a whole bird in the campfire. Who’s in?

In other traveling news, we have departed the Land of Enchantment for the great state of Texas. First order of business: hike up the highest point in Texas. Here’s some video from the top of Guadalupe Peak. Enjoy…