Chuck waggin' tails - Day 5

Hello from the Chuck Wagon... He's Losing, I'm It...

Day 5!! We are both amazed that we made it thru day 5 relatively quickly and somewhat gracefully. Regardless, it's chilly and we're up and at 'em at 5:00, unpacking the van (had to pack the van due to another bear warning) and getting ready for breakfast. By the time we're done unpacking, Sabrina (Eliott) and fellow Starbuckian is asking where all the French Presses are so she can get coffee going. YIPPEE!!

Breakfast is pretty decadent as Ron (Lila) and Kelly (Lucas) are dipping and flipping French Toast. Along with the maple syrup we had the usual suspects such as yogurt, cereal and OJ all out in the beautiful outdoors...ala noisy hwy 84. Not long after breakfast, kids are loading their stuff onto the bus and saying good-bye as they move onto the next stop.

Ok...kinda of a large task today...what's for lunch? and get Fresh Apple pie. First thing first, start Googling the words Apple Pie, Bakery, and Diners in the nearby small cities. Nothing, nada and zilch. We soon learned that not only did most of the apple pies that we found have filling from a can, we also figured out that local apples out of season. For those reasons we ditched the thought... but Dave-the-pie-maker had a vision of fresh empanadas and turn-overs...but since oven facilities were lacking, that thought also dissipated as well. Maybe we can talk Dave into making us some pies at the end of the year when apples are back in season???

Next job: Lunch. So we're in poh-dunk Pendleton OR, at an ol' Albertson...looking for inspiration. After wondering the aisles, we see some fresh baked french bread just baked 2 hours ago... and a full case of cold cuts. Aha! we're gonna make 2 foot long subs....so we got 3 types of meat, with 2 types of cheese, 2 types of lettuce with real mayonnaise and mustard. In front of the Waste Manage Station (aka "the dump") we set up table and Dave puts the sandwiches together and adds a little EVOO, salt and pepper while I shoo away flies. (ahem). Anyways, we slice 8 ways. The vegetarian option is chibatta bread filled with hummus, lettuce cheese and EVOO. NICE! For dessert in the desert... we have fresh cut watermelon (no, not local) , apples & pears on ice and rice pudding. And just as quickly as the kids got off the bus and devoured lunch, they were back on the bus and headed up the the hill to see the garbage get dumped. As the Chuck Wagon pushes onto Goldendale.

Of course, it's not as interesting if you don't get lost...so we did... Instead of turning on Blalock Canyon Rd to get back to 84, we miss our turn all together and go straight onto Barnett rd...which is a dirt road that heads into oblivion...never ending road of farm land...



well...we go back to where we started...not without a few more distractions tho...and get to Goldendale. Along the way we run into Abby (Isabel) at the Stonehenge memorial. By the time we pre-check the driver in at his motel, shop for dinner tonight, the kids arrive as well...ready for some swimming... and they "smell" like they need it too.

Dinner is pretty easy, especially with all the kitchen help tonight... a nice 3 lettuce Ceasar salad as the main course, soba noodles with dipping sauce and fried tofu. To boot, the kids ate outside on the grass under the sun as they watched a HS track meet just a yards away. Soon after, they went swimming 6 blocks away.

Upon their return, Dave crafted a to-die-for caramel sauce from scratch which we used to dip cut apples on toothpicks...thank you Sarah (Gabriel) and Ron (Lila)...and also used it to coat pop corn...thanks to popcorn-machine cranker Rob (Emmet). Other popcorn toppings included butter and fresh Parmesan cheese. When kids are happy, I'm happy....

ok it's late, and I'm having a who-can-stay-up-the-latest contest with Rob...he wins. It's no-cook breakfast tomorrow. good night!
get along little doggies...

The kids are all swimming in Goldendale Pool right now, There happens to be a water slide here. The kids think they're having fun but really it was our devious way to get them to take a shower.

Earlier today there was a fashion show with all the fashions made of recycled materials.

We've been treated to great food, tremendous organization, perfect weather, marvelous lessons taught by the groups, excellent tours and of course, wonderful kids.

I think most would agree that the trip has been quite a success and all too soon, over. A very full day tomorrow and then we will see many of you at school.

Thanks to the hard work of everyone! I feel there should be a special shout out to Koichi and Dave. They worked their tails off to make sure everything was set up and taken down. They were first to arrive at camp and last to leave, thus assuring that we could keep to what turned out to be a very ambitious schedule. Thanks.

See you all tomorrow.

Made it to middle school. Kids working on designing outfits from recyled materials. Fashion show in 10 min

Going up the onramp to the highway was enough of an incline that the fuel drained to back of tank and bus stalled as we crested the hill. Driver was able to start it on the fly and luckily it was a flay 2 miles to the gas station.

Another reason the bus goes slow up hill: running out of fuel!!!

In true orca fashion the kids asked a lot of questions about how worms and compost fit into the system here. Answer: they don't. All about containment and dealing with the gas produced.

Waste Management facility: piling up 2 million tons of garbage a year. At their current pace, it will take them 140 years to fill this location.

Cows on conveyers! Thousands of them. We just saw industrial milking on a grand scale.

Just now leaving the dairy. The kids had an endless supply of great questions. The stats of this place were truly amazing: 70k cows; 20k milkings a day; each cow produces 60-85 lbs of milk a day; they are largest single dairy location in US, and very close to largest in the world. They're owned by the largest potato farmer in the world. 

I think the kids are getting pretty tired of me in their face with a camera but I keep telling them their families will want to see them. 

The center had a lot of "stuffed animal"!

Few random shots:  Shira and Ella Mae pair up for scavenger hunt. 

Step three: review answers on the bus. (Lucas leading this part of the lesson)

Um, "finding answers"

Step two: find answers 

Chuck waggin' tails - Day 4

Hi from Chuck & Wagon...I'm Wagon, he's Chuck...

Day 4 started out great. We had the most amount of parents on this day, so we had plenty of help for breakfast (granola parfait, cereal and lotsa fruit), clean up and packing.

We also celebrated Rob's (Emmet) birthday with a candle lit strawberry plate:



Lunch was totally awesome delicious as well. Stuffed Pita pockets with a cold crispy cucumber salad and crumbled feta on the grass in the open sun in front of the Tamastslikt cultural institute. Kent personally stuffed my pita, so mine had a bit of extra love in it.

As always, enroute to the final destination Dave and I are thinking of dinner. As we passed thru Walla Walla we purchased two humongous slabs of tri-tips from Thundering Hooves butcher shop thanks to Kelly's (Lucas) recco. They stress the fact that all of their beef is 100% grass fed. We also picked up some super crunchy croutons at Walla Walla Bakery. The espresso was ok, but the pastries and breads are not to be missed if you pass thru here.

Soooo... we have 2 giant slabs of meat, a bunch tortillas, and some fresh chopped salsa made by father and son team of David & Gabriel...so what's for dinner? Here's what we came up with:



1. your choice of a warmed wheat or flour tortillas
2. your choice of charcoal broiled rare or pan seared sliced tri-tips, ground taco beef with fresh tomatoes and mushrooms from Nash's farm, or refried beans (or a little bit of everything)
3. top your fajita off with organic lettuce, sour cream, freshly sliced avacados, chopped cilantro, and fresh salsa
4. 2 types of rice: brown and basmati
5. crispy snap peas

All this was done and ready to go thank you to the rockin' team of Mary (Grace), Ron (Lila) and Sara (Isabell's grandmother). Sara was a trooper thru & thru and truly inspiring. This night would've been different if it weren't for Sara. Thank you!!

Of course, if you have a campfire you gotta have s'mores. Which led to the most hilarious moment between Dave (Nikko) and Lila. Lila who is helping us get set up for s'mores looks at the ingredients in the marshmallows looking to see what type of gelatin was used. Most marshmallows use a gelatin that is derived from animal hides and bones. So she looks at Dave and says..."so what kind of marshmallows are these?" Hoping to hear that they are gelatin-free. Instead Dave's response was "oh...these are (reading the name on the front of the package) Great Value marhmallows". Lila responds out the side of mouth with one eye brow up and one down, "...uhhh...yeah right...I bet these were a "great value". I love Orca!

Ok... in my tent and off to bed...breakfast is French Toast
"Get along little doggies..."

A few more shots from yesterday  Scavenger hunt at O trail center. Step one: find a human clipboard  

A few more. (note:these are from yesterday)

Some of the rescued birds they saw at the Tamastslikt cultural institute

Kids walking Oregon Trail.  A lot of them really connected with this part since we've been listening to a recording Kent made reading Stout-Hearted Seven while on bus. 

Thanks for the bball update. Big cheers and sneers from back of bus. And yes Elijah was one if those interested.

We just got through walking in the actual ruts of the Oregon Trail. This is history education at its finest. Next time a teacher decides to teach about the pioneers on the trail, our kids can say they walked on it. How cool is that?

Sports fever

A few of the boys are really wanting to know who won the celtics:cavs game and are asking to use my phone to check. I said my phone is restricted to blogging and emergency use. So we came up with the idea to post the question on the blog and hope for a response from one of the readers. So, what was the score?

Logs

Going down super steep road. Kent is explaining to class that the pioneers would tie logs to their wagons here to keep them from going to fast.

Plans

Back on the road. First stop is Echo Meadows trail ruts where the kids will walk the path of the pioneers. After that is Three Mile Canyon Farm, the largest dairy farm in the US. They claim to be green but the orca kids will have sone tough questions for th for sure.

French toast for 35 people

Chuckwagon is an impressive operation.