The Gale Hill Radio Hour

Leslie Kelly, Freelance Food Writer and Nomad

• Kate Jones • Season 2 • Episode 31

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For a lot of years, I worked with Leslie Kelly and her husband, John Nelson, in the features department of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. We had a great boss and a good time there, but eventually all three of us went on to other jobs in different locales.

Leslie and John's adventures included newspapers —  The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal and The Seattle Post Intelligencer (known as the Seattle PI) —  as well as dream jobs at Microsoft Corporation and Allrecipes.com.

Read about one of Leslie's career highlights during her time at Allrecipes.com.

Since 2018, they've been on an adventure of a different sort, traveling around in their 23-foot Thor Gemini mobile home, writing articles and meeting a wide range of fun and interesting people. This adventurous pursuit has had plenty of high points that included camping in a fancy RV park in New Orleans' French Quarter and the memorable experience of attending the Luck Reunion  on Willie Nelson's land in Texas, where they also stayed.

They've had their challenges as well, most notably dealing with mechanical problems (their RV apparently wasn't built for daily wear and tear) and the closeness of living in a space that Leslie describes as "about the size of some people's walk-in closet."

Read John's story about their RV travels in the Los Angeles Times.

In this episode, Leslie covers several aspects of their journey including the "life-affirming human connections" they've made on the road.  For example, she had a delightful time interviewing world-famous drag queen Trixie Mattel and her partner David Silver, co-proprietors of a Palm Springs motel that's been rehabbed in 16 shades of pink.

Leslie's story about the Trixie Motel is on Forbes.com, where she's been a contributor of food and travel stories since the beginning of the Kelly-Nelson RV journey.

The couple also has a Going Mobile column, which appears Fridays in The Spokesman-Review auto section and is available on the paper's website. 

Leslie enjoys hearing from readers and welcomes their own road warrior stories and travel tips. She can be reached by visiting the S-R's Going Mobile page or either of her two Instagram accounts: ourgrandtour and lesliedines58. Her email address is leslie.dines@gmail.com.

With an upcoming swing through Nevada, Leslie and John are particularly interested in what to see and do there.  And, of course, any food recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.







[00:00:23.050] - Kate
Hello, and welcome to The Gale Hill Radio Hour. I'm your host Kate Jones, here with veteran food writer Leslie Kelly. Leslie's work has appeared in print and online publications, including the Memphis Commercial Appeal and Seattle Post Intelligencer newspapers and Seattle Magazine, Serious Eats and on other sites. And she's on an epic road trip around the country with her husband, John, a fellow freelancer. Leslie, welcome to the show.

[00:00:59.810] - Leslie
Thank you so much.

[00:01:01.650] - Kate
I am so happy to have you on because I've been wanting to talk about this epic adventure for a long time.

[00:01:09.750] - Leslie
Well, here we are. We're going on year five now.

[00:01:15.420] - Kate
I know. Incredible. So you and John have been traveling around in your RV, experiencing different parts of the country, and along the way you write entertaining articles about the places you go, the people you talk to, and of course, the food you eat. You, Leslie, have a knack for telling a good story in a tidy way, and I think that's a pretty nice gig you've got there. How did all this come about?

[00:01:46.690] - Leslie
I'm going to go way back to The Spokesman Review in Spokane and credit you for giving me one of my first gigs writing about food. And I'm not even sure exactly how that happened, but I was the restaurant critic for The Spokesman Review for many years and wrote about food. And I still have people telling me to this day that some of the things I wrote were very impactful for them. And it's very uplifting to hear that kind of feedback.

[00:02:22.270] - Kate
No kidding! And The Spokesman-Review is in Spokane, Washington. I don't know if you mentioned that. I don't know if everybody is familiar with that newspaper.

[00:02:29.640] - Leslie
Yeah, well, the world wide web, that's where our Going Mobile column runs every Friday in the auto section talking about our travels. That's kind of how it started.

[00:02:48.470] - Kate
How long have you been doing Going Mobile?

[00:02:52.230] - Leslie
Since 2018. So we started writing that even before we bought our 23-foot Thor Gemini motorhome, in the fall of 2018. We tried so many different vans and even a vintage VW van, which was a delight and really cute, but not practical at all for our purposes. We tried a trailer. We got stuck. Dealing with the trailer is really tricky business, but we found this rig at the Camping World in Spokane, Washington, believe it or not, and got a good deal on it and took it down the road and we've been going ever since.

[00:03:53.040] - Kate
So what prompted you to do this?

[00:03:56.570] - Leslie
Well, we were living in Seattle. We had bought a beautiful town home in the Queen Anne neighborhood. It was kind of our dream home. Had a view of the Space Needle, and all that. And while we were working for The Seattle PI, we were like very sure this is the place we were meant to be forever and ever. And then that newspaper went to digital-only and reduced its staff from 160 to, like, less than a dozen. And we were out of work and wondering what the heck we're going to do and how we're going to pay our bills. And since 2009, it's been kind of a hustle hustle for me, doing various freelance gigs, also for John. He went back to school and got a master's in elementary education and started teaching for a little bit and then got an offer to go do a really cool project at Microsoft. I, on the other hand, got my dream job. I never thought I would work in an office again, but I was working at allrecipes.com in the editorial department. Loved that job so much. Had a ball doing it for two years. And then I got laid off in 2017, and we were still trying to figure out how we were going to stay in Seattle.

[00:05:39.840] - Leslie
We were going to airbnb our house. We were going to do all this and that. And then our neighbor — we lived in a quad of townhomes — our neighbor sold his house for a stunning amount of money, and we're like, okay, the writing is on the wall. So we sold our house and took it from there. We didn't really have a big-picture plan. We were just like, okay, let's try this. This is a chapter in our lives, and it's working out.

[00:06:18.650] - Kate
What are some of the high points for these last almost five years?

[00:06:24.330] - Leslie
Well, the very first year, we got to go all the way across country. That was in 2019. That was a really dramatic trip. That included camping on Willie Nelson's ranch in Texas and going to the Luck Reunion, which was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of treat. And we wrote about that.

[00:07:07.610] - Kate
What reunion was that again?

[00:07:10.090] - Leslie
It's called the Luck Reunion. It's at his ranch every spring, and it's artists, just top-level artists. We saw Mavis Staples. We saw Steve Earle. He gave me a hug. I mean, it's unreal. I just can't even believe that I had the luck to be at the Luck Reunion and writing about it, covering it. That was just a stunning episode.

[00:07:47.070] - Kate
Oh, my gosh, that's great. I'm sorry to interrupt you. Please go on.

[00:07:51.740] - Leslie
No, I could talk about that for an hour. It's just those kind of things that happen as you're traveling.

[00:08:08.850] - Kate
Opportunities open up to you because you're open to them. You're open to this other lifestyle beyond what you and your husband thought you were going to do with the rest of your lives. So you open yourself up, and then you open yourself up to grander things than you could have imagined.

[00:08:26.450] - Leslie
Now I'm going to tell you a few more highlights, and then we’ve got to talk about the bad times, too, because we visited many service departments across the country. We've had things go wrong, and that was part of the learning curve of this whole process. It's just figuring out, oh, yeah, this thing probably isn't meant to drive as far as we've been driving it. It's kind of probably a little weekend recreational vehicle. It's not really a tiny home on wheels, which is how we treat it. But anyway, that same trip, we went to all sorts of fantastic national parks. That was my first time seeing the Grand Canyon, which you have to see in person. You can see pictures of it all your life, and it just takes your breath away. It's a cliche, but yeah, it really does. And we went to Florida. We were practically in a hurricane. We spent some time in New Orleans. We had a very fancy RV park in the French Quarter, so we were all over the place, and it was thrilling. But there were challenges.

[00:09:52.570] - Kate
And what were some of the bumps in the road?

[00:09:55.850] - Leslie
Well, learning to live in a space that is about as big as some people's walk-in closet. This is for two people. It's a real adjustment. We've been together for many years. I can't even do the math anymore. It's many years, and still we're learning new things about each other all the time. But one of the things I didn't even know was an issue until I read it in a story that John wrote for the LA Times about our RV life. And I'll send you a link to that story if you want to serve it up to the readers. He was saying that I was taking great issue because he left a pair of socks on my side of the bed. I own it. Give me my space. Do not put your socks on my side of the bed.

[00:11:11.350] - Leslie
And then one thing that we discovered last year, we took our car. We didn't tow it, but when you drive it separately, it's called the chase car. And we took our Toyota Camry on the road with us in addition to the RV, and it gives you so much more freedom. It's really handy to have a car to do grocery shopping and run errands and go to places that are a little harder to get to. And I really discovered on that trip, I don't like to drive long distances.

[00:11:57.410] - Leslie
He's a pedal to the metal. You know, put on 500 miles a day. That's no problem. I'm like, get me out of this car. So this year, we did a little bit of an adjustment, and I got an e-bike, and so we didn't bring the car, and I rarely drive, which is how I like it.


[00:12:25.620] - Kate
So besides learning about each other, what else would you say you've learned by doing this adventure, and how have you grown?

[00:12:39.570] - Leslie
Well, I would say that putting yourself out there in the world in this way, I'm a very social person, so I learned something every day from talking with other people. Right now, I'm staying in Palm Springs. John is up in Bellingham skiing because he loves the snow and the skiing. And I had a flat fire on my bike the other day, and I was talking to somebody in the RV park, and they said, oh, I'll fix it for you. And those kind of connections, those kind of small, random connections are so life affirming to me. We live in this time where we get fed a lot of really negative headlines constantly because the world is troubled, but when you're out making human connections, it just feels good.

[00:13:48.880] - Kate
Yes. That's wonderful.

[00:13:52.730] - Leslie
I still don't know how to fix a flat myself, but…

[00:13:58.010] - Kate
That’s something on the list.

[00:14:00.090] - Leslie
Something on the list. Also, I love to cook. That is my absolute joy. And I've had to make some big adjustments in how my approach to the kitchen, because truly, the kitchen, my prep space is about the size of a pizza box. It is tiny. And one thing that we like to do is set up an outdoor kitchen. I have a really awesome George Foreman smokeless grill. It looks kind of like a broiler pan, but you plug it in and that thing really works. I just made some honey glazed tofu last night on the grill and grilled up some purple asparagus that I got at the farmers market. So I’m just kind of approaching my time in the kitchen in a whole new way again. When you are open to new experiences and try new things, I think it makes you feel more alive.

[00:15:09.500] - Kate
Yes. And it develops different skills, too. It has. You develop different skills when you're flexible like that and you adapt, and you can be really proud of that.

[00:15:29.370] - Leslie
Yeah, well, you're kind of forced to. And then I think it was at the end of our trip last year, and we do spend the summers in the Northwest, and last year we did something fun that I want to talk about in a minute, but toward the end of our trip last year, we were like, I think we've really figured this out. I think we've really got this. And of course, then the engine started smoking.


[00:16:05.110] - Leslie
Just when you think you've got it all figured out… But we dealt with it. I'm just really grateful that we have this opportunity to do this. And it has also been an incredible experience being out on the road and meeting up with friends who are far flung and being in Palm Springs, a lot of people from the Northwest come down, and I've met up with people who are visiting, and it's just such a joy to reconnect.

[00:16:47.370] - Kate
I bet. So you said that was it last summer that you did something different? Not this past summer, but the summer before? Was that the one you were referencing?

[00:17:01.770] - Leslie
No, I was referencing summer 2022.

[00:17:02.790] - Leslie
We started doing this volunteer work for the state parks department in Washington state. We volunteered as camp host, and we did three different places. We were up on Lopez island at Spencer Spit State Park for the month of May and did some — now, I'm going to give John the credit for this. He did some maintenance of the campsites, and it was such a joy for him to kind of master some power tools. He learned how to split wood, work a log splitter, and just kind of basic chores around the campsite, selling camp wood to the campers. And again, putting yourself into a scenario that you can't even imagine doing in exchange for being in this incredibly beautiful place. And, yeah, we did that. And we did Cape Disappointment down there on the Columbia River. We worked in the interpretive center there at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and learned so much about history. So it's always like the joy of learning new things and that was a really fruitful experience. We're going to do that again this coming summer. We're going to go back up to Lopez Island and we're also going to be at a working lighthouse at Fort Casey, which is on Whidbey Island.

[00:18:52.720] - Leslie
So if you hear this and you're on Whidbey Island in July, come by and say hi.

[00:18:59.070] - Kate
That is very cool. That must be incredible. The people you would talk to doing that kind of volunteer work and the things that you learn, how wonderful that is.

[00:19:14.110] - Leslie
It really is wonderful.

[00:19:16.190] - Kate
So I did see some of your Instagram posts about your time doing this volunteering at state parks, and you have such a robust Instagram feed, I think. How did you get so good at social media?

[00:19:37.850] - Leslie
Really? Okay, I think I take it back to the early days when I signed up for Myspace page so I could spy on my kid, keep track of what my kid was up to. I think that was the start of it. But as I mentioned before, I just love engaging with people. That's what kept me going in my journalism career all these years. I found that I love interviewing people. That's my favorite thing about the job. And social media gives you that chance to engage with people, with strangers, with people who I'm still engaging on Twitter. I'm still doing the Twitter thing. I do love Instagram. I like taking pictures when we're getting ready to eat. The phrase that we use time and again is “the iPhone eats first,” so we’ve got to take the picture before.

[00:20:55.400] - Kate
You don’t want to show bites out of your meal.

[00:20:59.090] - Leslie
I could do better. And I have taken some little food photography workshop here and there, but it's just fun. It's a good record of what you're doing at a particular time. I just enjoy it. And I've had some unexpected hits here and there. I have two Instagram accounts. One of the most popular was I did a reel, which is the short films, giving a tour of the inside of our motorhome because we talk a lot about what we do outside, our outdoor adventures, our hikes and biking trips and just going around various places. But people were saying, “Show us what's inside. Take us inside on the tour.” And that got close to 10,000 views.

[00:22:06.410] - Kate
So you have two accounts then you said?

[00:22:14.010] - Leslie
Yeah, one is my personal account that is more geared toward my other line of work, which is writing about food and travel for Forbes.com.

[00:22:30.530] - Kate
Okay, so how do people find you on Instagram? Can they go to one of those?

[00:22:38.530] - Leslie
My personal instagram is leslie.dines58 And I've got a little bit more than 3,000 followers on that. And then ourgrandtour has something like 1,500, I think. But it's a fun way to keep in touch with people.

[00:23:10.460] - Kate
So let's talk about your articles. So you've already mentioned that Going Mobile is on The Spokesman- Review site, and I can include a link to that in the show's description. You just mentioned Forbes too.

[00:23:29.010] - Leslie
That started in 2018, right around the time that we started this crazy journey. And it was a bit of a random. I reached out to pitch an editor a story about Paul Allen, who had recently passed away, one of the founders of Microsoft. I had become friends with his personal chef and the culinary team. He was very interested in food. His culinary team was getting ready to open a restaurant near Zion National Park. This is one of the places that he loved visiting. It's an absolutely gorgeous spot. And he and his team had been working to open a new Mexican-style restaurant in Springdale, Utah, which seems very random, and so I pitched this story to an editor at Forbes who said, “Well, we're not really interested in one-off stories, but would you be interested in becoming a contributor?” And I said, yeah, I would think so.

[00:24:55.470] - Kate
Oh, my gosh, yes.

[00:24:59.460] - Leslie
So it's a pretty cool gig. I get to basically write about whatever presents itself to me. I've done some really fun stories. I've done amazing interviews. I've interviewed Jacques Pépin and Wolfgang Puck and some very high-level culinary geniuses. And also just hanging out with people in the barbecue world and just people who are working really hard to feed good people. And in November, I was out in Memphis, back in Memphis, Tennessee, which is a very special place to me.

[00:25:52.830] - Kate
You worked there at the newspaper there for how long?

[00:25:56.770] - Leslie
I was there for three years. But it seemed longer.

[00:26:00.770] - Kate
And as I recall, you were a star, a food star in Memphis.

[00:26:07.030] - Leslie
No, I don't want to say that I remember that. I just really embraced that city. I know this sounds cliche, but it's a really special place. And I wasn't sure exactly why I felt so at home there, but I just went with it, and I loved it, and it loved me back. I still have some very good friends there. And that is where I really learned so much about barbecue. I have a friend there who was a photographer, grew up in Mississippi, and he really took me under his wing, so to speak, and taught me took me to all his favorite places. We once did a story, his name is Dave Darnell. He's an incredible photographer. We once did a story where we ate barbecue in four states in one day.

[00:27:11.120] - Kate
Oh, my goodness. Were you a little full after that?

[00:27:17.320] - Leslie
Oh, no. And we ended up back in Memphis, of course, at his favorite place, which has become my absolute favorite place. It's a family business now, run by the son. It's Payne’s Bar-B-Que on Lamar, which the cross street is, get this, Seattle. You can't even make this up, but it’s my favorite barbecue in the world. So barbecue whole pork sandwich. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. The Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest is something every barbecue lover should put on their wish list. It is something like 300 teams competing in several categories. There's whole hog ribs, barbecue shoulder. They show up and set up these elaborate booths on the Mississippi River at Tom Lee Park in downtown Memphis. And it is the most incredible party you ever want to see. It's hard to explain — it’s kind of like going to the Grand Canyon of barbecue because you can see pictures of it, but you can't really know what it is unless you go and experience it. And it's been a few years since I've been there, and I'm really, really wanting to go back. Probably isn't going to happen this year.

[00:29:00.830] - Kate
So I would like to talk about one story that you published in late 2022. It was on the Forbes site, I believe. And it was headlined “Our Cakes Don't Hate." Would you talk about that?

[00:29:20.130] - Leslie
Well, yeah. And this was a story idea that was completely generated from social media. I follow Matt Bumpus, who had started an ice cream business in Seattle and then moved back to North Carolina, where he was originally from. And he started this custom cake company, which, if you look at the site, it's some of the most gorgeous cakes that you're ever going to see. And somebody had left a voicemail with some very hateful comment, and he turned it around and tried to bring the love and to remind people that this is just a cake. Calm down, people. And it was around the LGBTQ rainbow cake or something. I think food is something that has so much power to bring people together or to cause controversy. People are going to find controversy wherever they can these days. But that was just a prime example of somebody taking something that could have been a very acrimonious exchange and trying to remind people, hey, just be good to each other, be sweet.

[00:31:12.030] - Kate
Yes, we're all on this planet together, and we need do something about it. Try to get along in some ways.

[00:31:23.370] - Leslie
Well, going back to my time in Memphis, one of the most memorable experiences for me was I had been there for a little while and I joined an organization called the Southern Foodways Alliance. And they bring people together and talk about food in an academic way and also a very fun setting. And there was a field trip to Birmingham, Alabama, that summer, the summer of 2004, and it was called Alabama in Black and White: Racial Reconciliation Through Food. And we visited some of the, you know, famous places in Birmingham, the Baptist Church and the National Civil Rights Museum, and really heard the words of Dr. King and the message that stuck with me is like, we could do a lot about coming together if we could just bring people to the table together. And I know that sounds very naive, and when I went back to Memphis and kind of tried to get something like that started through the newspaper, I was basically told, yeah, you're crazy. But I still believe that if you got some people together who were not like-minded because we have to sit down and talk to each other and find some common ground, we have more in common with some of the people who want to be at odds with that.

[00:33:24.130] - Kate
Yeah, because we do have all the basic things in common, the big things, what we need, and we're born and we die. Those are big things. Well, I just have to tell you and that when I first started doing a podcast early on in, I don't know, 2020 sometime, I interviewed a woman who had been in the Ohio Statehouse. Since her time there, she wrote a book called “United We Eat.” And what she did when she was in the Statehouse was she'd always bring food, and she was on one side of the aisle. A lot of people in the Statehouse are on the other side from where she was, and yet they got along, and she ended up having all these recipes from different politicians, former politicians, whatever. And from every state she did, she did one from every single state. I think you'd really enjoy that. It's “United We Eat” by Capri Cafaro.

[00:34:37.130] - Leslie
Oh, I will definitely look that up.

[00:34:40.570] - Kate
It goes with what you're talking about completely. And she made it happen. And that's not an easy thing to do in politics.

[00:34:49.630] - Leslie
No, it's not. Although there's an interesting decorum where I think when you're not on the floor making your speeches, people are a lot more friendly and casual in person, like some of the newer members of Congress would say. Like, so and so came up and just started talking to me, who had earlier been ripping them a new one on the floor kind of thing. And I think that a lot of it is political theater. And again, when it comes right down to it, and we can sit down and enjoy a nice chocolate cupcake or something together and talk about, like, really, let's make it work, right?

[00:35:46.910] - Kate
So we must talk about the Trixie Motel.

[00:35:51.970] - Leslie
Oh, my goodness, yes. That's my latest story. Well, again, this was an opportunity that just kind of presented itself. I've been looking at that motel in the Palm Springs area for some time because I kind of had this hunch. My grandmother, at some point in my childhood, owned a hotel in Palm Springs, and it was, excuse me, a motel. And I kept thinking, Is that the place? Anyway, fast forward to this year, and the Trixie Motel got a massive rehab and is featured on a show called the Trixie Motel. It is the most entertaining makeover show I've ever seen. And it walks us through the process of turning this kind of dump into an art installation. It's gorgeous. There's so many fine features in this little funky motel. It’s not funny anymore. It's gorgeous. Beautiful.

[00:37:06.170] - Kate
And pink. At least the pictures I saw.

[00:37:08.410] - Leslie
It's so much about pink. Pink makes you so happy. And the owners are Trixie Mattel, who is a world-famous drag queen, and won the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race, and her partner, David Silver. They found this property a few years ago during the pandemic. They were doing pandemic scrolling and found this property, bought it, made a deal to do a reality show and just opened it last fall. So I got to go and interview Trixie and David and take a look at the place. And my grown-up kiddo was out for the weekend, who is a huge fan, so they got to tag along with me. It was really a lovely experience. And I wrote a story which is already a big hit on the Forbes site. I think I sent you a link.

[00:38:21.010] - Kate
I've read it. I like the story very much.

[00:38:24.930] - Leslie
It's such a heartwarming story. I mean, again, it's about building community. People who come there and stay there end up there's this cute little pool, and people gather around the pool and they talk about where they're going to go out, and some of them end up going out together in the town of Palm Springs. Usually people who are there for the weekend, they all say, oh, I want to take a look at your cool room. And so they go and do a room tour. Each room has a different theme, and it is really one of a kind, and I hope that they roll out a bunch of them. And I just think it's so cool. And again, about creating a place where people feel safe and happy.

[00:39:28.710] - Kate
Well, I love this quote toward the end, and it's a quote from Trixie, and it says, “It's always meant to feel like a community, like a place you don't want to leave. We've actually had guests cry when they check out, telling us they've never been any place like this before.” That's just so terrific.

[00:39:53.070] - Leslie
I can feel that. And it's cool because it's not something that's closed off that you can even if you're not staying there, you can call up and try to get a table in the lounge area. They do have a menu with pizza and casual food and cookies made by the mom and craft cocktails and just this fun vibe. And I think they told me in and around the property, there are at least 16 shades of pink represented. I know maybe there's more, but it is some serious eye candy. And it was such a pleasure to meet them. They were very nice, and I think they're really on to something.

[00:40:56.070] - Kate
It really seems that way. And the response that your story has received says that, too.

[00:41:02.770] - Leslie
Yeah, it's definitely Palm Springs. It's famous for its kind of unofficial motto is a place for gays and graves. So it's a very rainbow friendly town. There's a lot of gay bars and gay friendly, rainbow friendly businesses, but it really, really lights up on the weekends, especially this time of year. So it can be super chill during the week. And then on the weekends, the sidewalks are so crowded you can't even walk down them. If anybody is thinking about coming out Palm Springs, and you absolutely should, because it's a magical place, it's definitely best to come mid week if you want to get a little bit more chill experience.

[00:42:07.130] - Kate
Good advice. So we need to shift just a little bit here and talk about Elvis's meatloaf recipe, because that was a popular article, wasn't it?

[00:42:21.950] - Leslie
Oh, man. Yeah. Again, I don't really exactly remember how this popped onto my radar. Could have been a social media thing, but Elvis's birthday January 8, and of course, the movie is huge right now, and somehow Elvis has become forever associated with the peanut butter and banana sandwich. And while that was certainly a big part of some of his favorite things out of the kitchen, I know from experience, from touring Graceland for a number of times and also looking at Cookbooks officially sanctioned cookbooks, that he loved meatloaf. And so I reached out to the folks at Graceland and asked, can I get this recipe? I think the recipe is even on a postcard. If you go to Graceland and they've got various recipes on postcards, it's pretty cool. But they send me the recipe, and I'm like, oh, this is the very essence of what meatloaf was in the first place, which it has some wheat germ in it. I think meat loaf was originally intended to try to stretch the little bits of meat, put a lot of filler in with some ground beef, and you can feed a family of six or more rather than just making a couple of hamburger patty.

[00:44:14.590] - Leslie
And that was the thing that really stood out to me. And so I wrote a story about it, and of course, it got some big clicks. And you know where speaking of social media, I kept seeing that Forbes in Uruguay was posting this. Okay, yeah, Elvis is worldwide, and they're probably like, what is meatloaf?

[00:44:50.750] - Kate
Well, you must have a well-developed palate to write about food all the time, and it must be a lot of fun. Is this your dream gig?

[00:45:06.530] - Leslie
Of course, yes. I don't know if I have a well-developed palate. I just know that I love experiencing a place through its food. I love going to New Orleans and having gumbo. I love going to the coast of Washington and getting fresh oysters this time of year, they're just amazing. So going to the various places, you know how a lot of people think of going to the grocery store as such a chore? I go to the store in a new place, and I'm just in awe of what you can get in various locations that you don't see elsewhere. I think I have an album of some of the crazy finds that I've got, but I also have an incredibly limited storage space. So I have one cupboard that's kind of dedicated to pantry items. And I have some Delta grind grits up there that I brought back from Memphis. What else do I have from Palm Springs? I'm looking at this incredibly beautiful persimmon that I got at the farmers market a couple of weeks ago, and it's finally getting ripe. And I'm wondering now, what am I going to do with this? Sometimes I'm just inspired by one ingredient.

[00:46:56.950] - Leslie
Okay, I'm going to put this persimmon in a beautiful salad and pair it with some goat cheese or something.

[00:47:12.530] - Leslie
Actually, I think it's about making connections with again, going to the farmers market and talking to farmers. For years, I was on the board of the Seattle neighborhood farmers market and just feel it is so important to encourage those kind of small farm operations that keep people doing things that they love to do, which is raise food. Again, I shop at the supermarket like everybody else, but going to farm stands and out of the way places where there's things that people are doing with such care and integrity, it just really speaks to me. And I got to tell you one story about that. I mentioned how John is the number one driver, and we were in rural Tennessee on our way to Dollywood, believe it or not, back in 2019 on our big cross country trip. And once we go past a place, it's very rare that I'm able to get him to turn around. And so I saw this place, this famous bacon purveyor. It's called Benton's Bacon. It's in Madisonville, Tennessee. It's the best bacon in the world, hands down. And I knew about it through the Southern Foodways Alliance.

[00:48:47.220] - Kate
Well, he's got to turn around for bacon!

[00:49:00.190] - Leslie
I got him to stop, and I ran in and there was the owner, Mr. Alan Benton. You walk into the place and it's like going into an old-fashioned smokehouse. It just smells like the wood. And I'm not kidding, that bacon, I've since ordered it online, but that was absolutely one of the highlights of our cross country trip for me, getting to experience that special place that doesn't exist elsewhere in the world. And then that turned into a story.

[00:49:42.810] - Kate
Of course. What's on the horizon for you?

[00:49:49.630] - Leslie
Well, as a matter of fact, I am going to fly back up to Bellingham for a week to go do a story. I'm going to go do a story in Vancouver, BC. There's a very cool hotel and restaurant there owned by indigenous people. And I'm going to go check that out while my husband goes up and gets his vertical up at Whistler. And that's in the short term. And then I'm flying back to Palm Springs and staying here until the end of next month. He will join me next month and we will head down the road. We're going back to the Grand Canyon. We're going back to Sedona on our way back to the Northwest. We've got a little bit of planning to do on that trip back. I mean, we've done a lot of the same things now time and again, and we want to explore some new areas. So we're putting in a little research time on Nevada. That's an area where we haven't really explored. So we're wide open to anybody who has Nevada camping suggestions.

[00:51:15.760] - Kate
So how do they reach you?

[00:51:18.710] - Leslie
Oh, well, I'm going to give you my email address, but you can certainly reach out via Instagram and through The Spokesman-Review Going Mobile column. But my personal email is leslie.dines@gmail.com. And I would love to hear anybody's travel tips and road warrior stories. And it's been fun to connect with readers just on this trip. For instance, when we were driving down the California coast and posting about where we were staying, we were at this beautiful California state park called Montaña de Oro
and it is the most dramatic coastline that you'll ever see. And I heard from a reader who was also in the area and they said, “Can we stop by and see you?” They drove and over to the campground and we had a nice visit. That's a great way to connect with people who are doing a similar path. It's great because, again, as you said, you're always learning and that again keeps you feeling alive.

[00:52:56.770] - Kate
Absolutely. Well, Leslie, this has been marvelous. Thank you so much for sharing your story and for just entertaining us.

[00:53:16.430] - Leslie
Life on the road is never dull, I'll tell you that.

[00:53:20.160] - Kate
Do you have any last piece of advice for anybody who might think of going mobile?

[00:53:28.370] - Leslie
Well, I think it's really important to do your research and really have a good sense of what kind of vehicle you want and need and to really take some time. There are many rental services you can use now to kind of get a sense of whether you really want to invest the time and money into this kind of enterprise, because it's not for everyone. But it is if you commit and you get the hang of it. One thing I want to say for sure is you need to make reservations as far out as possible because thanks to the pandemic, a lot more people are doing this. There’s a lot more competition for those great campsites. So be prepared.

[00:54:21.960] - Kate
Okay. Good advice. Thank you again for being on the show. It's been terrific.

[00:54:27.500] - Leslie
Well, thank you. I really appreciate chatting with you. It's always good to hear your voice.

[00:54:34.010] - Kate
Same here.

This is Kate Jones with The Gale Hill Radio Hour. Until next time, thanks for joining us. Please share this episode with all your food- and travel-loving friends.


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