Ricker Ramblings

Brought to you by the same nutty folks who brought you

The Carmi Chronicle

First, a little history is in order. The recent, untimely passing of my father on June 19^th had necessitated Cherie’s and my moving to the family homestead in Milton, Vermont as caretakers until we can purchase said homestead. The homestead is a rambling (Real Estate talk for poorly maintained) 19^th Century Farmhouse, on 4.5 acres of land. Nice place, but not home, not yet.

We had gone through the trials and tribulations of moving some, but not nearly all, of our belongings in, to make our stay as comfortable as possible, all things considered. Hence, when it came time to load up our camping gear on July 3^rd, all our camping stuff was “at the other house”, a phrase we shall be repeating throughout the summer it seems. We loaded the ‘Burb up in blisteringly hot weather (mid 90s)

We were to be camping at Ricker Pond State Park, which for those of you without a doctorate in Vermont state Geography, is about 15 miles East of Barre, just off Route 302. Hence, the closest thing approaching a town is Wells River, about two thirds of the way between White River Junction, and Saint J.

The closest thing approaching a town with any kind of stores, etc, would be Woodsville, NH, just across the Connecticut River from Wells River.

On the way out, we headed East from Montpelier on Route 2, and stopped for the obligatory lunch and cooling iced tea at “Rainbow Sweets” in Marshfield, VT. For those of you not in the know, “Rainbow Sweets” is a taste of NYC in Vermont. Celebrating his 27^th year, William Tekowski (probably misspelled) is definitely a man who knows good eats. We lunched on some sort of Greek thing with chicken, saffron rice, and other good things between layers of phyllo dough, accompanied with a nice Greek salad. But dessert was what I really stopped for, something called “Saint Honorife” or something or other… two custard-filled, caramel dipped balls, on a biscuit, topped with fresh whipped cream (not from a can, please)

These balls are “to be fingered, not forked”, as they will roll onto the floor, which brought to mind several visions, which we will not go into here.

Continuing our trip after an excellent lunch, we headed south on Route 232 past Lake Groton State Park, and finally arrived at our campsite mid afternoon. Unpacking, we noticed, alas we (read that as ME) had forgotten not only the gas stove, but also the swim trunks, towels, cameras, and about a dozen other little things. Guess the heat had gotten to me or something. So, once we got the campsite set up, we headed into Woodsville, NH for the first of many trips this weekend. Thanks God for Ames Department Store in Woodsville. They supplied us with towels, a new gas stove, and several other minor things we had forgotten. We were able to settle into camp life, and try to beat the heat.

But Whoops, I can’t remember now what is was, but we forgot something else, and had to do a return trip to Ames Wednesday evening, as I knew we’d find nothing open on July 4^th. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that Woodsville, NH is a 20 minute ride each way from the campground. So passed our first day.

On our Second day, July 4^th, we awoke to intermittent drizzles. We still managed a climb up “Owl’s Head”, a nice little mountain of some 1900 or so feet. In the 1930’s, the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC built a nice trail up Owl’s Head and a swell rock lookout building on top. Lots of resting, relaxation, and in general getting into the camping spirit of life. We got some fishing in too. I actually took a short swim in Ricker sans Swim trunks of Course (Yes, I was actually clothed, just in hiking shorts) We went to bed with thoughts of Pop in our head, as someone across the pond had a karaoke machine going throughout the evening, which conjured up images of Pop singing endlessly years ago when my Uncle Guy brought a Karaoke machine to a family gathering in the mid 1990’s. The campers did a pretty decent job of celebrating the 4^th with fireworks (must have been people from New Hampshire, because every Vermont knows they are illegal here) but Mother Nature did a much better job of fireworks of her own, opening up with a truly spectacular thunderstorm. So ended our Second day.

Day three. We ventured out, took stock of what, if anything had blown away, and what needed to be set out to dry. Breakfast was nearly bacon tartare, as the gas grill tank was nearly out. I’d sworn I had grabbed the nearly full one when we left Wednesday. Oh well, no matter, we’ll head into, you guessed it Woodsville, NH. Actually, this time, we headed into Saint J, about 40 minutes from camp. I had wanted to check out the Athenaeum there, a combination art gallery and library, donated to the town by the late Mister Fairbanks, for whom the Fairbanks museum is named. We headed North on 91, and let her go. We spent some time wandering through town, hit the Aubuchon Hardware store, and the Natural foods market, and in general had a nice time doing a little retail therapy. Oh yes, and the painting in the Athenaeum called “Domes of Yosemite” is well worth the trip. The Athenaeum is the kind of place I would spend most if not all of my waking hours in, a beautiful little library with exquisite woodwork. We headed back to camp, and decided to go out for a bike ride before dinner to build up a bit of an appetite.

This is where things got a little interesting. We biked down to the boat launch. When we headed up hill, Cherie’ got her bike tire in some soft sand, and went “ass over teakettle into the puckerbrush” off the road and down about a 3 foot embankment. I was blissfully oblivious to this, as I had headed up the hill full steam ahead. I got to the top, stopped to catch my breath, and waited. And waited. And Waited. After a minute or so, it became obvious something was up so I headed back down to check her out. I got there just as she was getting herself back onto the road, when she informed me she was pretty sure she had just broken her wrist. We walked both bikes back to camp (it didn’t seem nearly this far on the way out), jumped into the trusty ‘Burb, and headed for you guessed it, Woodsville, NH. There is a swell little not-for-profit hospital there called Cottage Hospital where they took excellent care of her, despite being overwhelmed with other folks who had hurt themselves over the 4^th. After x-rays, they determined she had in fact broken her radius, and would need a splint until the swelling went down. They put on a temporary hard splint, and we headed back to camp for a late dinner. So ended day three.

Day four. A little slow getting out of bed this morning. More rain overnight (lessee, was there actually a day without SOME rain?!?!?) Cherie’ had promised me a surprise breakfast. I really made her mad when I had the same idea, not half an hour later, and “Scooped her”. Here it is:

Fractured Corn Griddlecakes

About 2/3-cup leftover corn from the previous night cut off the cob.

¼ cup finely diced green pepper

¼ cup snipped fresh chives, optional if you have it, we didn’t

1/3 cup finely shredded cheese, either sharp cheddar or fresh Parmesan

1 box anybody’s corn muffin mix

whatever you need for the muffin mix

Emeril’s Essence for Extra BAM

Cabot Salsa Grande sour cream dip for topping

Mix the corn muffin mix per instructions, except mix it a bit thin using extra oil, or milk. Consistency should be pancake batter thin.

While the skillet is heating, roast the corn and warm the chives and green pepper on the skillet. When the corn is nicely browned, pour into the pancake batter, along with the cheese and stir to mix.

Pour a little oil onto the skillet. The skillet is hot enough when a drop of water “Dances” before evaporating.

Pour the batter onto the griddle, about ¼ cup at a time, and flip as you would regular pancakes, when the top gets lots of little bubbles. Add the Essence while cooking, or stir into the batter before if you prefer. Serve hot, buttered, or topped with the Salsa Sour Cream for a real taste treat. These are very filling. And Very Delicious.

We did start to have some good things happen to us today. The Father and son from next campsite came over with a leftover ice block, as we were finishing breakfast. They were Jack and Tim, from around Milford, Ct, and I complimented them on the fact that they were camping together as adults. Jack (Father) had been coming up here for the past 40 years or so, with His dad) Pretty neat guys, and they gave the Fractured Corn cakes 4 thumbs up.

Not to make us feel too secure, the gas grill died today. We took another trip into Woodsville; to you guessed it, Ames again. The clerks are starting to look at us funny. Good thing we’re going home soon. I am waiting for the “other shoe to drop” wondering what’s going to break next for us. We had a nice, quiet day. Took a walk through Wells River (took all of 30 seconds) and stopped at the Ace Hardware in Woodsville too, where I drooled over an antique radio I wanted to take home.

Despite the threat of rain, we decided to take a short hike from the Nature Center over at Groton State Park, up the road a mile or two. We drove to the nature Center, and headed out on one of the trails. For the first time all weekend, I started to be bothered by the bugs. Up until this point, I hadn’t even sprayed on bug spray. Now I am bothered. Really Bothered. Bothered like the elk are bothered in Alaska when they go berserk from the mosquitoes bothered. We decide to take a shortcut back to the center on a road, because Cherie’s arm is really starting to throb… time for more Perks. We head down the road for about 20 minutes at a good pace, and it dead-ends at a river, with a pickup truck parked there. We quietly back up, not knowing who or what we are about to disturb, and set out at an even better pace in the other direction. After about 10 minutes of hard and fast walking the pickup catches us up, the local guys have quite fishing or whatever it was, and are headed home due to the rain. They offer us a lift in the pickup bed, and we both graciously accept, figuring its better to get wet than eaten up more. They drive, and drive, and drive. We seem to remember it wasn’t nearly this far, and we’re both getting that uneasy feeling when you add two and two together using that new math and come up with 37,200,658.02.

Still, we aren’t about to let on we’re a bit worried. After all, they did offer me a spare hat to keep the rain off, and people who are going to kill you don’t usually don’t do that, do they?

After what seems like hours, but was probably only 5 minutes, they deposit us in a downpour at our truck at the Nature Center.

We thank them profusely, and duck into the ‘Burb to change into the clean, dry clothes we don’t have.

Day Five. Sunday. We’re going home today, even though we are booked through Monday. We have breakfast, pack up and head out. We don’t even stop in Marshfield at Rainbow Sweets for a Saint Whats-his-thingy or anything. We DO stop in Montpelier at the Coop store and pick up a few trifles to make us smile, some 4 year old cheese, chocolate covered cashews, iced tea for Cherie’, and coffee for me. We are still smiling after all we’ve been through. We still have our sense of humor intact. We are stronger. We sure SMELL stronger. We DO have a noticeable eye tick going on now that we didn’t have before. Hmmm….