So I took an unexpected zero day in Lake Isabella (and today is looking to be a "near-o" if I don't get back to the trail soon). This place has an AMAZING diner called Nelda's with what can only be called an ENORMOUS selection of incredible milkshakes. Seriously, JUST the milkshake flavor combinations takes up two whole sides of a menu page. Ridiculous. For breakfast yesterday along with a huge shake -best I've ever had- I had the Mountain Burger but "Stranglerized," meaning upgraded to a 2/3 lb slab of ground beef and double toppings including mushrooms and swiss and cheddar cheese. Wtf. I was in heaven. The Rite Aid, where I was gonna offload some photos from my card and burn them to DVD, let me know that their burny machine thingy was broken. SO, I asked the waitresses at Nelda's for ideas and one offered her new laptop...then her couch. Awesome. After shopping for more food we rode to her place and I was able to take care of the photo back-up chores (That's why I am not posting many pictures of the last few weeks - I deleted all of the photos from the card to make room for the sierras) and get started on cooking her the chicken and sausage gumbo that my big mouth mentioned I would make if I could avoid staying at a motel. HA, I forgot how much work goes into those things seeing as the last time I made one it had guinea pig in it. After hiking 63 miles in two consecutive days, I needed rest more than to cook in a 90 degree house trailer without AC, but I made it happen and the results, ready to eat after about 10PM (an hour past "hiker midnight"), were magnificent. After eating there was nothing left to do but give in to the blackness of sleeeeeeeeeep. Above is pictured the mix of the Cajun Holy Trinity, onions, bell pepper, and celery as it started to cook down.


And there I am throwing the massive amounts of chicken and sausage into the mix.


Early in the day I was the happy customer, but now she is. Giant gumbo pot simmering in the background. Impossible to explain how stiflingly hot it got in there with all that liquid boiling and no AC.


Testing for flavor goodness and structural rigidity.


The house trailer with one of her cool dogs out back.