Rogue River, Oregon: We had planned today to be a special day, but it turned out to be a kinda crummy travel day. First, the weather was really bad. Wind, rain, dark skies. Traffic was light on I-5, but we didn't have far to travel to reach our luncheon stop at the famed Wolf Creek Inn. Long time readers may remember this place as a treasure, famed for their fried chicken... but then the Oregon State Park system turned it over to concessionaire-after-concessionaire until now there is no reason to even stop here.
The inn is the oldest continually-operated hotel in the Pacific Northwest, opening in 1883. Jack London wrote Valley of the Moon here. Clark Gable fished here. Orson Wells stayed here. Some feel the inn is haunted.
Though the place was in a bit of disarray due to a wedding yesterday, service was fine, but the food was terrible. The menu used to only have a few items: fried chicken with mashed potatoes, beef meatloaf with mashed potatoes, and a few other sides, salads and sandwiches. Now there are about 50 items on the menu. TOO MANY. I will not even talk about our lunches. They were too sad - literally cooked to death, but the building itself is still worth a visit (order a glass of wine or cup of coffee, tour the hotel, and get back in your car).
We continued south after our disappointing meal, stopping at Valley of the Rogue State Park for the night an hour later. (Not a big travel day, but we have always wanted to stop at this campground instead of just driving by.) Valley of the Rogue is a very nice and really large state park along the Rogue River. They have tent sites, yurts to rent, full-service sites and electric/water sites. Firewood for sale. A nice bike path - DT rode all the way into town (Rogue River, Oregon) - along the river.
Even though The New York Times steered me wrong last night (I should have known when it didn't smell inviting from the slow cooker while we were driving down the freeway), I tried another of their recipes tonight - Crispy Gnocchi With Tomatoes & Red Onion... or half of their recipe anyway... only because I had everything on hand and was reluctant to eat more chicken.
I have been sautéing shelf-staple gnocchi for a few years now and find it the very best way to prepare this wonderful ingredient - and our grandkids love it as well. After a few stumbles, the key to perfection is using De Cecco brand, specifically #401. Other brands do not work as well, including any store brand I have tried, nor Trader Joe. I have learned it takes a good 20-30 minutes to get the dumplings slowly browned in olive oil/butter on the outside - yet they still remain soft inside. Top with nothing. Top with red sauce. Top with butter and Parmesan. Tonight it was tossed with halved baby tomatoes, red onion and basil leaves (as suggested in the NYT recipe), and garnished with parsley and shredded Parmesan. NOTE: I only fried half the dumplings in the package for us tonight and placed the rest into a zip-top bag in the freezer for another day. Our salad course was a fresh peach and burrata salad with balsamic vinegar. More like dessert than a salad.
It is cold. It is rainy. This campground is on I-5, (but not like ON-ON like in Eugene last week) - though there is still some freeway noise. We have kinda hunkered down and are watching the Dodgers v Nationals inside our warm motorhome. We continue south tomorrow.
Until my next update, I remain, your boring correspondent.
Campground Information: Valley of the Rogue State Park - We camped in B-06. Full-service back-in with a fire ring and picnic table. No trees, so easy to receive satellite television. We paid $57, including a $10 "transaction" fee.