Tuesday, January 21, 2003
We decided to drive up A1A to Sebastian Inlet State Park and do the walk there. We wanted to see the coast to the north. The drive up A1A was surprisingly non-commercial—some of the seashore was built up in high-rise condominiums, gated communities, and a lot of undeveloped land, some it state preserves and public beach access. I saw no gas stations or fast food joints for almost the entire drive north. There were also very few stoplights and very little traffic, which made for a steady and relaxing drive. Another surprise was the number of people we saw walking on the sidewalk alongside the road—far more than I have ever seen on any similar stretch of highway.

Sebastian Inlet State Park has a north and south section on either side of the inlet. The Volksmarch started in the northern section of the park and after a very short stretch along the beach we walked out to A1A and north to the nature trail, which was rather a long stretch with confusing directions. Hint: if you walk this trail, the “white and black X” direction really means a square with white and black triangles painted on the sidewalk beside A1A. Also beware that the map is REALLY not to scale, so you can’t use the time you’ve spent walking as a clue to where you are. However, the nature trail was a very nice with signs for many native flora. Unfortunately, some of the older, carved wood signs were hard to read. We returned back down A1A and we wished that the route would have gone inland in the scrub forest or even along the beach rather than doing essentially an out-and-back on the highway. Returning to the parking lot, we saw a pileated woodpecker, which is not a common sight, and it was fun watching him hammering away at the palm tree trunks.

We picked up the truck and drove across the inlet bridge to do the southern section loop, which was shorter. The route again led out to a fishing jetty (well populated with hopeful anglers!) and back along the seashore to the Intracoastal Waterway. We had nice views of the ocean, the inlet, and the intracoastal. The route went past a fish-cleaning station where hopeful birds abounded, waiting for tidbits. We curled back thru the campground, which had low-lying dune vegetation rather than nice trees like our campground—it seemed somewhat barren. The sites also seemed somewhat small and crowded together as if they were designed for RVs rather than tents.

We drove back along Route 1, which is somewhat inland from A1A, desperately hungry for lunch. We hit the first fast-food place we found, a McDonalds, where we had two sandwiches and shared an extra large fries and drink. The remaining drive back down Route 1 was as different from the drive up on A1A as night from day. Here was all the commercial that was lacking on the beachfront road and all the missing traffic, traffic lights, and road construction. This made for a hectic and far less enjoyable drive back, but we relaxed around a campfire for the rest of the afternoon and evening and had some nice hot showers.

So the idea is to cook quickly and with as few dirty dishes as possible—after all, the dish you save may be the one you don’t have to wash!

“Gumbob” is one of my contributions. Gumbob comes from Gumbo and Bob, and can either be pronounced with a long “o” or a short “o”, depending on whether you are emphasizing Gumbo or Bob—it doesn’t matter. The basic utensils for Gumbob are a can opener, stirring spoon, and a pot. The steps of the recipe are:

1. Open a can of vegetables and put it all in the pot. (It doesn’t matter what kind of vegetable)
2. Carnivore version: open a can of meat and put it all in the pot. Herbivore version: open a can of mushrooms and put it all in the pot. Omnivore version: open a can of meat and a can of mushrooms and put it all in the pot. Make the pot is big enough to hold all this or throw some of it out.
3. Heat to boiling. This can either be “little bubbles” or “big bubbles”—it doesn’t matter as long as it is hot enough. If you’re brave, add spices like oregano, pepper, cinnamon, curry, and my favorite, allspice. But you might not want to add them all at once the first time—like body building, you want to work up to it gradually.
4. Remove from heat and stir in mashed potato flakes until it becomes a solid, whitish mass. If you want it more white, stir in milk powder.

You’re done! To save plates you can eat it directly from the pot. However, if in mixed company you may consider using dishes. This may seem like violating #3 above, but may make it more likely to get to # 1 above.

“Flatelet” is another contribution. Flatlet comes from flat, as in pancake, and omelet, as in the egg thing, so the proper pronunciation is “Flat-ah-let”, not “Flate-let”. The basic utensils for Flatalet are a griddle and a spatula, which my dad called a “spat-oo-lah” until my mom, of course, corrected him. That’s why I always give the proper pronunciation for my recipes, in case you’re wondering, which you probably aren’t. The steps of the Flatelet recipe are:

1. Put some greasy stuff on the griddle and get it hot.
2. Put slices of ham on either side of the griddle.
3. Pour eggs mix or egg substitute onto middle between the 2 ham slices and use spatula to keep it from running off to the sides. You want a rectangular mass of cooked egg between the ham slices.
4. Put layers of good stuff on the cooked egg. I usually use a layer of cheese and a layer of mushrooms, but you can put on almost anything that will stick to the egg. I tried using a layer of salsa, but this did not stick to the egg and turned out to be a mess in the next “flipping” step—salsa everywhere!
5. Flip the ham slices over on top of the good stuff which is on top of the egg layer. Push down the ham slices so it all sticks together (hopefully). Now flip the entire ensemble so that the ham is underneath and let if cook from that side until everything is melted together. Here is where you get into trouble with salsa because the layers don’t stick together very well and everything splats out every which way when you flip it!

You’re done! To save plates you can eat it directly from the spatula, but once again this is not recommended in mixed company, and especially not if you tried using salsa!