Typical Saturday in Ocotillo

This morning George came over to my new friend Jimmy's house. He asked how it was going.

I told him that after three months, "I can't find anything hot enough to eat or fast enough to drive."

He got out one of his quads for me to run in the desert. I ran out Jimmy's yard and out onto the trail that a couple weeks ago I wrote about. You know, the one where I got in a little over my head. Well, lets just say the learning curve has improved a little (I ran 091 at 50mph two nights ago).

Anyway, quads ROCK! Crazy cool. Like riding a go-cart on a roller coaster. I am beginning to understand why people come out to the desert to run their quads and dirt bikes.


Then at noon, I ran over to the Lazy Lizard to be a guest VIP judge at the Roadkill Stew Cook Off. A fundraiser for the Optimist Club.

There were 11 stews put up for the competition: Calamity Chowder, Freeway Possum, Crushed on 98, Fouled Up, and several that I can't mention. Plus one that was called Gas Station Stew, a venison dish named because the cook got the recipe as a "prize" for filling her tank during a "gas war" before the energy crisis of the 1970s.

My favorite was the Calamity Chowder, a clam chowder potato soup that was very smooth on the pallet but with a hot aftertaste. The winner, however, was Crushed on 98, a tomato-based stew with sweet potatoes, pineapple, bell peppers, and hot Italian sausage meatballs. This stew released a variety of flavors and textures with each bite.

I sent a message to Deneen and she replied that, "You know you're a redneck when you are the VIP judge at a Roadkill Stew Cook Off."

For me, it's just a typical Saturday in Ocotillo.