Sunday morning, Frank Dobos discovered that the piece of the frame that held up his engine and transmission had broken and we left Frank rolling around under his truck trying to push it back in place. As usual Frank was able to patch it together somehow and got back to LA about noon. Frank is not sure how many times the odometer has turned over on his 1977 vintage truck.
Twenty eight people started
off to do Old Woman a little before 10, and by noon 27 had made it to the top.
I led the fast group going up with Greg Roach sweeping. Karen Leonard led the
2nd group with Patty Kline sweeping. Coming down we broke into three groups,
with Asher Waxman sweeping the adventure group that checked out a new ridge
that looked rough but proved easy. Greg and Mirna Roach led the medium group
while Karen Leonard led the slow group and Patty swept once again. All went
smoothly and everyone got down by 2:30. --- John McCully
February 27-28, 1993, Jones'/Mamedalins
The skeptics should have come in spite of the weather! This perhaps was the best Chili cookoff yet. The cooks had assured me that each of them would win, so the competition heated up (so to speak). we met in Indio at the Shields Date Gardens (intersection of Jefferson and Hwy ill). Jon Lutz claimed it to have the best date shakes around as was worth the drive of f Hwy 10 as an alternative to Hadleys. After learning all you needed to know about the sex life of a date, we traveled along Hwy 111 on the east side of the Salton Sea and drove in on the south approach toward Orocopia.
We could drive only to 650 ft, just below the first mine tailings, as the road was badly washed out one mile of the Route "B" trailhead. We found a great place for the cookoff, with a beach view of the Salton Sea.
As the afternoon came, the sun shone brightly and provided a delightful t-shirt/shorts kind of day. The 12 cooks began preparing their delectable delights and after an extensive happy hour, (including veteran DPSer Bill Bradley's Brownies which took first prize for desert), we started tasting. There were hot, mild, vegetarian, pork, beef, black bean, kidney bean, "fartless" and original Texas chilis to choose from. We even had fresh warm baked cornbread, carrot cake and charcoal baked onions.
After the ballots were counted, we announced the results. Ron Jones had honorable mention for his dutch oven entry "Black & White" chili. 4th place went to Jon Lutz for his good tasting "fartless" Desert Rat chili. Third place went to Linda McDermott for her delicious vegetarian chili. Second place went to last year's first place winner, Suzanne Mamedalin for her hot and spicy Italian sausage chili with "50% too much of everything". First place, by a landslide, went to Evelyn Chadwell for her down home Texas chili. She has participated in all 3 cookoffs and has every time cooked enough for an army with several courses including fresh baked carrot cake. This year she took the grand prize. Congratulations Evelyn! (see her recipe in this Sage)
All cooks were given "BEANO" caps. Beano is a liquid enzyme used to prevent/minimize gas. They were also given a bottle of Beano which was available for all tasters. Evelyn also got a beautiful green windbreaker, compliments of Beano.
John Carson brought the tub from the inside of a washing machine which made a perfect container for our blazing campfire. Conversations, Bob Michael's insurance song, jokes and discussion over the desert bill lasted well into the evening.