2009 National Dutch Oven Gathering

Remember, scroll down to start and work up to get things in the right order. Also, just click on any picture to make it larger.

The dark spots are cinnamon, not burned spots.

Sandy made a double crust peach pie in a 14-inch oven. I made the crust, and she did the filling. She also did the decorations on the top.

This guy had built a large "Dutch Oven" on a trailer. The lid could be raised by cables. and his cooking station was inside. The large red tongs are patterned after those used to move hot charcoal around. Of course, he was from Texas!

Cooking set-ups were also widely varied.

...to large Class A rigs.

People were there in anything from tents.....

Pies after removing from ovens.

Freshly baked pies, cooling.

Baking the pies.

The crust was put into the oven and unfolded.

Then the bottom crust was folded into quarters to make it easier to place into the Dutch oven.

She rolled out the pie crust between two sheets of baking parchment.

This class was large also.

Pieces of baking parchment were placed in the Dutch oven so the baked, cooled pie could be lifted out.

Another class was taught by Gay Ann Grace about making nut pies (like pecan) directly in Dutch ovens.

Baking the biscuits.

Ready to bake!

People were eager to learn how to make biscuits directly in a Dutch oven.

Several classes were given on Dutch oven cooking. Terry Cobb is introducing Ken Jones who taught a class on baking powder bisduits.

On October 15, we arrived at Kaw Lake near Ponca City Oklahoma for the 2009 National Dutch Oven Gathering. 113 RVs were there plus a lot of people who jusgt came in for the day, or stayed in motels. Those who wanted to brought gift baskets of items representing their state, and trades were made by blind drawing on the last full day.

Our 2009 trip for Fall colors in Arkansas

Greetings again!

We left Houston this morning and drove to Wichita Falls, TX, pulling our trailer. We are staying in an RV park near the center of town that has about 2 dozen fire plugs in a field for dog "walking". We will visit Sandy's aunt here tomorrow, and then head north to Ponca City, OK for a National Dutch Oven Gathering (outdoor cooking club). Then we head north and east to visit my sister in Wichita, and a cousin in eastern Kansas. Then we go to Branson, MO to see some shows. We end up in an RV campground near Cotter, AR where we might stay a while for some fishing, and to take day trips to see the fall colors in the area. I will post some pictures when we get some worth posting. Dutch

The route we took on the 2009 Summer Trip

This is the trip that we took. The black line represents where we towed the trailer. We took lots of small side trips, and the small red lines are some of the more significant ones.

The Trip Home

When we got near San Antonio, we stopped taking pictures. We made it home safely on Saturday August 15. The only major problem we had was that we lost the exhaust brake (again!), but after most of the worst mountain passes. We got bad (watery) diesel a couple of times, but that was fixed with some diesel additive that dries it out. Other than that, the trip was relatively trouble free. We ran into a few RV parks where the electrical power was at low voltage because everyone was running air conditioners. I used my Autoformer, and all was well. The trailer had no problems at all. Total milage on the truck was just under 9,000 miles, and milage on the trailer was about 6,500 miles. I'll post a picture of the route we took.

West Texas is very beautiful when it has been raining.

Here is some of it.

West Texas was also very green. They had been having a lot of rain.

West texas showed some very colorful rock formations.

This area in New Mexico was called Texas Valley.

Nice rock formations in New Mexico.

We starterd to run into areas of Sequarro (sp?) cactus.

A turkey buzzard eating roadkill (a ground squirrel).

More wind farms in Arizona.

It was so dry, most rivers were dry, and most lakes were very low. This lake should have been right up to the road. It was down at least 100 feet.

Eventually, we started to head east, out of California.

We got off the Interstate and ate lunch in a smal town called Desert Center. They weren't kidding!

We started to run into large groups of wind generators.

As we neared Los Angeles, the smog became intensely apparant.

We left there and drove south.

They had Hummingbirds too.

They had a cat. This is a picture in their back yard.

We stopped in Sunnyvale, California (neart San Francisco) to visit with Sandy's sister-in-law. The weather there was in the low 60's at night and in the 70's during the day. It was perfect for growing tomatoes. I love vine ripened tomatoes, and was able to eat my fill while there. Thanks, Joan.