Road trip.
Just thinking the words brings forth an urge to grab my gear, gas up the truck and drive.
Time on the road is simply a matter of fact for most fly fishermen.
Most of us don’t live now, and likely haven’t for the better part of our lives, with a salmonoid inhabited river (insert your ideal fly fishing water otherwise) within walking distance out the back door. (For some reason the scenes from the movie with young Norman and Paulie running for the river after school come to mind…..)
Most of us are, willingly or not, more citified these days and have to travel to escape the noise, the crowds, the crush and the distraction of daily life in to get on the water.
Even when living with eminently fishable water in one’s relative backyard, we’ve found over the years that a road trip can become a necessary ritual, awakening that primal sense in us that wants to see just what’s over the next hill or what hatch is coming off on that river tempting us from a few hours away.
The magic of the road trip is lost on those who fly. Renting your escalade at your destination doesn’t count.
While in some circles it might be considered high treason to admit, hell, I’m pretty much convinced that some of us, albeit a minority, might even savor the road trip adventure as much as the fly fishing.
I’m probably one of those so afflicted.
Road trips hold an almost metaphysical appeal. In the right country I can make the 12 block drive to the post office and grocery store a 5 hour wander and still not get to where I set off to get to.
That’s just fine, because there’s always another road trip beckoning.
Now make it a multi-day venture and throw in camping along the way and that simple road trip can take on a life of its own.
Though considered by globe trotting extended family and friends to be simple and pedestrian, I’ve had the pleasure of setting sail on a fair number of road trips with the target intent of spending time in the great outdoors.
Most of the time the prime directive of said road trip is to fish. That is right and proper and may it continue to be so until the last days of my clan.
Sometimes the purpose of the road trip is just, well, to make the drive.
We’re about to set off on a little road trip and have spent a few days prepping, packing and anticipating the venture. Hot damn.
Gone are the days that box of Slim Jims, 2 thermoses of coffee and a brace of energy drinks suffice for nourishment.
These days we enjoy a bit higher class fair, including this fine Road Trip Granola. (Amazingly I’ve found that eating a bit more rationally along the way has a host of benefits, including outfishing my brethren who live for a week on $57 bucks spent at a motley assortment of 7 Elevens along the way.)
If truth be told, we typically have a big box of this in the house 3 out of 4 weeks, and would 4 out of 4 weeks if I wasn’t too damned lazy to make a batch every week. A handful with fresh fruit and yogurt can take the sting out of another blazing hot summer day.
Granola is a great snack to have around and is as much a philosophy as it is an actual recipe – we vary the mix just about every time we make it, but keep coming back to this not too sweet and very well spiced mix over and over again. Road Trip Granola in all its naked glory. The ancho chili powder adds a deep fruity flavor without any real heat – interesting and good.
6 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 and 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ancho chili powder (optional, though a must try)
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup honey
4 tbs vegetable oil
5 tbs packed brown sugar (less if using sweetened coconut)
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup dried blueberries
Heat. Preheat your oven to 250 and line a large rimmed backing sheet with parchment.
Mix the wet stuff. Combine the honey, vegetable oil and brown sugar over low heat until smooth and the sugar has dissolved.
Mix the dry stuff. Mix the oats, pecans, walnuts, coconut, cinnamon, ginger, ancho chili powder and salt in a large bowl; combine well. Pour the honey-oil-sugar mixture over the dry ingredients and toss to coat.
Bake. Bake until golden brown, stirring every 15 minutes; our batches take 45 to 60 minutes in high humidity. Stir, cool and then mix in the fruit.
Enjoy.
And we’ll be back to our senseless, carnivorous, grilling ways next week.
Tags: Friday Feast
{ 2 comments }
Love a good road trip. My best was Florida to Alaska to Mexico and back to Florida – when the roads to Alaska were dirt and gravel. All in a chevy Camaro.
kw
@kw – Sounds truly epic. You may be dating yourself a bit by the Camaro admission, though that trip does score big on the road trip major chi meter.