Living Our Dream

Hartville, OH

Berlin, OH - Events of Friday, August 15, 2014

Margery has a friend from college who lives a couple of hours from Berlin, and they have stayed in touch off and on over the years. Last year, Margery's friend Marilyn and her friend Larry drove all the way to Walnut Creek to meet us for lupper at Der Dutchman.

This year, we offered to meet them somewhere in between. Hartville, which is near the Akron/Canton area, is just about half way, so we suggested Hartville Kitchen. Hartville Kitchen happens to be right next door to the enormous Hartville Hardware, so we left the motor home early so Paul could spend some time browsing the store while Margery sat in the car and read.

Hartville Hardware

Hartville Hardware has just about every hand and power tool you can imagine. Although we don't have anywhere to store any more tools, let alone large power tools, Paul headed there first.

Tool department at Hartville hardware

There were sanders, planers, chop saws, table saws, jointers, hand drills, drill presses, compressors, and more hand tools than you can shake a stick at - Paul was in heaven.

After drooling over the tools, Paul began to wander around the rest of the store. There is a full-sized house right in the middle of the store. It has rooms filled with all kinds of decorating ideas from the kitchen to the patio.

Full-sized house inside the store

Behind the house is another row of rooms consisting mostly of kitchens with even more ideas. They displayed different countertops, cabinets and appliances.

The hardware also has a huge garden/patio shop, a clothing department (mostly work clothes), an automotive department and a pet/livestock department. That's in addition to all the usual nuts and bolts, electrical supplies, plumbing supplies, paint and flooring. Oh, yeah. There's a downstairs where doors and windows are displayed.

After spending over an hour looking around, Paul headed back to the car. We then head next door Hartville Kitchen to meet Marilyn and Larry.

Heartville Kitchen

We met Marilyn and Larry at 1:00 hoping the lunch rush would be over; but when we got inside, there was a still a line waiting to get seated. Oh well, that gave us time to start catching up while we waited. Also while waiting in line, we got to enjoy the many 3-dimensional rural scenes that decorate the lobby.

3-dimensional farm scene

It took about 20 minutes for us to be seated, and it took us another 20 minutes to study the extensive menu and decide what we wanted. There was also a fair amount of yackety-yack in between.

Larry got a delicious-looking summer salad of romaine and iceberg lettuce that was covered with fresh strawberries, pineapples and mandarin oranges. Marilyn had chicken salad on a bed of lettuce, and we both had hot roast beef sandwiches. Paul had his with the traditional mashed potatoes and gravy while Margery substituted onion rings. The food was delish, but Paul thought the roast beef wasn't quite as good as Der Dutchman.

Margery, Paul, Marilyn and Larry

Fortunately, by the time we were finished eating, the line of people waiting for tables had disappeared so we were able to stay and continue to chat. It's always good seeing old friends. After our late lunch, we headed back to the motor home for an evening of relaxation.

Chalet in the Valley Swiss Restaurant

Berlin, OH - Events of Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Last summer when we camped with Lora and J. Michael in Berlin over the 4th of July holiday, we went to the Chalet in the Valley one day for dinner. We really liked the cheese fondue we had when we were there, so we wanted to have it again when we stopped back in Berlin last fall before heading south. We waited until our last day there, which was a Sunday (the Chalet is one of the few places in the area that is open on Sundays). Unfortunately, the Chalet serves a buffet all day on Sundays and does not serve from the regular menu, so we weren't able to get cheese fondue. We've been hungry for it ever since.

We have been enjoying an occasional cream stick at Der Dutchman Bakery plus a few other treats, so we have been trying to space out our restaurant meals to try to save our waistlines. Last Wednesday, we finally went back to the Chalet in the Valley for cheese fondue.

The Chalet in the Valley is owned by the same people as Guggisberg Cheese and Guggisberg Swiss Inn. The whole complex is located right outside Charm, OH about 5 minutes from where we are staying.

Alfred Guggisberg, founder of Guggisberg Cheese, was Swiss. He studied cheese-making in Switzerland before coming to this country in 1947. Guggisberg settled in Ohio's Amish Country because the Amish dairy farms would provide a good source of milk for cheese-making.

The restaurant, cheese house and inn all have a Swiss decor in keeping with Alfred Guggisberg's Swiss heritage.

Chalet in the Valley

The inn is up the hill from the restaurant, so we couldn't see it; but Guggisberg Cheese is right across the road.

Guggisberg Cheese

Chalet in the Valley has burgers and sandwiches that include one side for around $10 to $12. Dinners include traditional German/Swiss dishes like wiener schnitzel and jaeger schnitzel as well as other entrées for $12 to $17.

We started off with an appetizer of sauerkraut balls. They are served in a paper cone with spicy mustard on the side for dipping.

Margery sampling a sauerkraut ball

After we enjoyed the yummy sauerkraut balls, we moved on to our fondue. The fondue is a blend of Guggisberg Baby Swiss cheese, Gruyere cheese, sauterne and sherry.

Paul dipping into the cheese fondue

The cheese fondue was delish, and it was very filling. We waddled back to the motor home for an evening of TV. We had another outing scheduled, so stay tuned.

Everything Rubbermaid and Ashery Country Store

Berlin, OH - Events of Wednesday, August 14 and Thursday, August 15, 2014

Rubbermaid, the well known housewares manufacturer, was founded in 1920 in Wooster, OH as the Wooster Rubber Co. Wooster Rubber originally made toy balloons. In 1933, the founder received a patent for a red rubber dustpan, and the Rubbermaid line of household products was born. Wooster Rubber changed its name to Rubbermaid in 1957.

Although no longer headquartered in Wooster, Rubbermaid maintains an outlet store there called Everything Rubbermaid. The store sells just about every consumer product Rubbermaid makes, including some that are discontinued or are very hard to find elsewhere. The store also sells some products from their commercial line.

Wooster is only about half an hour from Berlin, so when staying in Berlin we frequently end up at Everything Rubbermaid looking for some storage container or other. We headed to Everything Rubbermaid last Wednesday to get a new dishpan, a couple of food storage containers and a bin to help organize the large storage space over the washer/dryer in the back of the motor home.

Everything Rubbermaid is located in downtown Wooster in a 4-story building that used to be a department store.

Everything Rubbermaid

The first floor has mostly commercial products. We bypassed those and headed to the housewares on the second floor where Margery picked out some food storage containers.

Margery picking out food storage containers

Rubbermaid used to own Little Tikes, which is a company that makes large, molded plastic toys like sandboxes, play houses and slides. Rubbermaid sold Little Tikes in 2006, so Everything Rubbermaid now has a partnership with Step2, which makes toys similar to Little Tikes. On our previous stops, we always bypassed the third floor where the Step2 items are displayed; but now that we have a granddaughter, we stopped to look at some Step2 toys.

Margery checking out a baby doll carriage

Although meals are a good bit more simple now that we're full-timers, Margery still likes to cook, so it was only natural that she would check out the play kitchen set.

Margery checking out the play kitchen set

Back when Lora was three, Paul built a kitchen set for her for Christmas. He might be doing another one a few years from now. Notice the avocado color and the bright, floral wallpaper in the background that scream 1970s.

Lora at age 3 with the kitchen set Paul made for her

Paul spent a little time looking at playhouses. Most of them have a doorbell that actually rings. Now that would drive Mommy crazy!

Paul ringing the doorbell of the playhouse

We made our purchases and headed back to the motor home. Not only are many of the prices at Everything Rubbermaid lower than even Walmart, there is also a 10% senior discount. What a deal!

When we got back to the motor home, we realized we forgot to get the dishpan, which was one of the main things we went for in the first place. Oh, well. We decided we needed to go back to Everything Rubbermaid anyway because the storage bin we got for the cupboard over the washer/dryer worked out so well, we decided we wanted to get a smaller one to use in addition to the first one.

On Thursday, we headed back to Everything Rubbermaid to get the dishpan we forgot and to get the second storage bin. Since we knew exactly what we wanted, that stop didn't take very long, so we decided to make another one on our way back to the motor home.

The Ashery Country Store specializes in bulk foods. Margery likes buying bulk spices at Walnut Creek Cheese because the prices are so much cheaper than the spices in the grocery store. Therefore, we also wanted to check out Ashery Country Store to see how their selection was.

Unfortunately, the store wasn't where we thought it was, but we eventually found it. The mailing address is Fredericksburg, OH, which is due south of Wooster, so that's where we headed first. We finally figured out the store is actually located 5 or 6 miles southeast of Fredericksburg near Mount Hope. Addresses in rural areas can get confusing because not every town has a post office so mail might be delivered by a post office that is located some distance away. The mailing address might be different from the town where the place is actually located.

Ashery Country Store

Inside Ashery Country Store

Ashery has a selection of bulk items similar to Walnut Creek Cheese. They have a some things Walnut Creek doesn't have and vice versa. The Amish like noodles, so both stores have a good selection. The next photo shows just a few of at least 15 or 20 different kinds of noodles.

Noodles

One thing we really liked about Ashery is the way they have the herbs and spices displayed. Each item is in a separate, well-marked compartment arranged alphabetically making everything very easy to find. Another thing we liked is Ashery has many herbs and spices available in smaller containers. We really like that because we don't have a lot of storage space in the RV for large quantities of anything. We were able to get about ¾ ounce of ground coriander for $.23.

Herbs and spices displayed in individual compartments

From the Ashery Country Store, we headed back to the motor home. Except for running a few additional errands, we chilled out around the motor home for the next few days.

David Warther Carvings

Berlin, OH - Events of Monday, August 11, 2014

When we decided to spend most of the summer in Berlin, OH, we wanted mostly to relax, enjoy the rural atmosphere and occasionally indulge in the good food that's available in the area. We didn't plan on doing much sightseeing, but we did want to do some. Since last Monday was a rainy day, it was a good time to do something indoors so we headed to David Warther Carvings located a few miles to the east of Berlin between Walnut Creek and Sugarcreek.

David Warther is the grandson of Ernest "Mooney" Warther, who was a self-taught carver of locomotives and trains. We visited the Warther Museum in nearby Dover, OH back in 2012. Click here to read about that visit.

While his grandfather carved trains, David carves ships. The exhibit of David's carvings just opened a little over a year ago in a brand new building with 10,000 square feet of exhibit space.

David Warther Carvings

Admission to David Warther Carvings is $10 for adults. There are guided tours that tell about David's work and point out important features of selected ship models. After the tour, visitors are free to roam around on their own.

David Warther was only 14 when his grandfather died, but his interest in carving and in ships had already taken root. The exhibit has several of David's early ship models, including the first one he did at age 6. It is a Viking ship, and it's in center of the photo below.

David Warther's childhood ship models

Like his grandfather, David uses ivory as a major material for his carvings. When we think of ivory, we generally think of elephant tusks. However, ivory can be obtained from the teeth and tusks of many animals including walrus, whales and even wild boars. There was a display of ivory from various sources. The long one at the top of the next photo is the tusk from a narwhal, which is a medium-sized whale. The dark one in the center is a tusk from the extinct woolly mammoth. Even though the mammoth tusk is partially fossilized (some of the original tusk has been replaced by minerals), ivory can still be found toward the center. There were also several examples of ivory on the table that visitors could touch and lift. We were surprised at how heavy ivory is.

Examples of legal antique ivory

The importation of ivory has been banned in the United States and many foreign countries due to the dramatic decline of elephant populations in Africa and India. Therefore, all ivory used for the carvings is antique ivory, which is legal to sell and own. It is bought or is donated from museums and private collections.

Warther's carvings depict the history of the ship from about 3000 BC to the present. There are 4 or 5 exhibit rooms, each containing 15 to 20 models. The first room has mostly ancient Egyptian, Phoenician and Greek vessels.

Some of the models have magnifying lenses next to them to make it easier to see the intricate details. Warther uses scrimshaw to add additional features like windows, planking and decorative elements. Below is the model of King Tutankhamen's royal ship looking through the magnifying lens. Click on the photo if you want an even closer view. King Tut reigned from 1339 to 1327 BC. The scale of the model is 1/8 inch = 1 foot. The original ship was 88 feet long.

Detail of the model of King Tut's royal ship

Incidentally, the rigging on all the ships is ivory, not thread or wire. When David was only 13, he developed a method to make ivory strands for the rigging. Over the years, he has perfected the method so he is now able to make strands that are only seven thousandths of an inch (.007") in diameter. It takes him about 90 minutes to make one strand about 9 inches long.

The next room features Viking ships. The Vikings raided and explored from their Scandinavian homelands from about the 800s to the 1100s.

Margery listening to the tour guide tell us about Viking ships

From the Viking ships, we moved to the sailing ships of the 1400s to 1600s. Models included Columbus' ships - the Santa Clara (better known by its nickname the Niña), the Pinta and the Santa Maria. There is also a model of the Susan Constant, which brought settlers to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1606-1607 and the Mayflower, which brought settlers to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.

 

Model of the Susan Constant

Model of the Mayflower

The last room contains models from the 1800s and early 1900s. The entrance to the room is flanked by massive tusks from a 12-foot elephant.

Entrance to the last room flanked by two elephant tusks

Last summer, we saw a half-scale replica of the whaling ship Lagoda at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. David Warther's model of the Lagoda is built to a scale of 1/16 inch = 1 foot (1/192nd actual size).

Whaling ship Lagoda

We also learned about clipper ships at the Maine Maritime Museum last year. Clipper ships were built with a narrower hull and with a large sail area. They had a smaller cargo capacity, but were much faster than standard ships. They were built primarily for the China tea trade.

Warther has a carving of the British clipper ship Cutty Sark. The Cutty Sark was built in 1869. The restored ship is on display in London. You can see how much more slender the hull is than that of the Lagoda pictured above.

British clipper ship Cutty Sark

Also on display is David Warther's first major ship model, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle. By the way, David is now working on his 81st major ship model. Warther built the model of the Eagle from walnut and ivory when he was only 17 years old. The real ship was built in 1936 and is still in use today as a Coast Guard training ship.

David Warther's first major ship model, the Eagle

The last room of the exhibit building also contains a model of an F4U Corsair from WWII and early in the Korean War. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you will see it is covered by tiny white dots. Those white dots are ivory pins that are inserted into the surface individually to simulate rivets.

F4U Corsair with hundreds of ivory rivets

David's workshop is also off the last exhibit room. During the week, visitors can usually watch him work through a big picture window. Unfortunately, he took the day off when we were there. The shop is filled with hundreds of small tools, many of which David had to make himself because there was no existing tool small enough to do the job.

David Warther's workshop

With our tour of the carvings complete, we exited through the gift shop. There were items with a nautical theme and items with a country theme. There were also a few items of women's apparel and accessories like jewelry, scarves and purses. Margery was impressed with the variety and quality of all the items.

Margery in the gift shop

We (especially Paul) really liked David Warther Carvings. Paul used to build model kits when he was a kid, and he used to play around with model railroading. He also had a summer job when he was in college building custom models from scratch for plant layouts and for industrial exhibits, so he really appreciates what goes into building models like these.

The rain was predicted to continue for the next couple of days, so we headed back to the motor home to take it easy and wait it out. Look for our next post to see what else we find to do.

Visit to Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA - Events of Thursday, August 7 to Sunday, August 10, 2014

We're planning to take the motor home to Pittsburgh at the end of the summer to stay in Lora and J. Michael's driveway for a week or so for our annual doctor appointments before heading south. However, we just couldn't wait that long to see Lydia again, so we left the motor home in Berlin and drove to the Pittsburgh area in the car to stay in Lora and J. Michael's spare bedroom for a couple of days to get a Lydia fix. We got a relatively early start on Thursday morning and stopped by the bakery at Der Dutchman to pick up some cream sticks and other treats to take along. We got to Lora and J. Michael's house around 11:00.

My, how Lydia has changed! She has gotten bigger in only a couple of weeks since we saw her last.

Lydia

Lydia is such a good baby. In our last post, we mentioned it's hard to have a routine with a newborn, but Lydia is an exception. She goes about 4 hours between feedings - sometimes a little less during the day, and sometimes a little more at night. During her awake times between feedings and naps, she hardly ever raises a fuss. She is so good, we all decided to go out for dinner on Thursday evening. Lydia, who was fed right before we left, pretty much slept the whole time.

Lora and J. Michael found a new Mexican restaurant nearby they wanted to introduce us to. Don Jose Mexican Restaurant is located in a small strip mall adjacent to Robinson Town Center in Robinson Township west of Pittsburgh. They have a very extensive menu with dinners ranging in price from about $8 to $14. They have all the usual Mexican dishes plus some that have a bit of a different twist.

We started off with the traditional corn chips and salsa. The corn chips were good (they could have been a little crisper), and the salsa was excellent. It was nice and thick with just a little bit of a kick.

Margery, Lora and J. Michael with Lydia sleeping in the background

We both had a Special Texas dinner, which consists of a chimichanga (choice of chicken or beef - we both had chicken) and a chicken quesadilla. The chicken in the chimis had so much flavor! The chimis were smothered in a rich, creamy, cheese sauce. In addition to the chicken, the quesadillas had refried beans and the some of same cheese sauce on the inside. The tortillas on both the chimis and quesadillas were deliciously crunchy. Yum!

Chimichanga and chicken quesadilla

After Lydia had breakfast on Friday morning, she had play time on her Baby Einstein mat. Baby Einstein makes toys for infants and toddlers that are designed to stimulate with color, shape, movement, music and rhythm. Paul had a good time snapping pictures of Lydia as she watched the lights and listened to the music played by one of the toys beside her on the mat.

Lydia on her Baby Einstein play mat

After a while, Lydia's eyelids started to get heavy.

Lydia's eyelids getting heavy

Then she was done. It was like she suddenly said, "Grandpap, stop with the pictures already and leave me alone. I'm ready for a nap." Then she turned her head as if to say, "Talk to the hand, the face ain't listenin'."

Talk to the hand, the face ain't listenin'

After lunch on Friday, the girls (all three of them) went shopping. They came back with several new outfits for Lydia. Margery reports it is so much fun clothes shopping for a little girl!

Paul had a couple of pieces of wood he wanted to cut to make a new napkin holder for the motor home, so he got out his old table saw from where it is being stored in Lora and J. Michael's garage while the girls were gone. He took the pieces he cut back to Berlin to sand and assemble later.

On Saturday morning, Margery got to feed Lydia. Freeway watched Lydia, and Lydia watched Freeway.

Freeway watching Lydia while Lydia is watching Freeway

After lunch on Saturday, we took time for some family photos before saying our good-byes.

Lora, Lydia and J. Michael

Margery, Lydia and Paul

It was only about a two-hour drive back to the motor home on Saturday, and we were unpacked in plenty of time for supper. We hung around and relaxed the rest of the weekend. It was fun to be able to spend a couple of days with Lydia to watch her and just be with her.