Living Our Dream

Memorial Day Weekend

Berlin, OH - Events of Thursday, May 26 to Monday, May 30, 2016

Lora, J. Michael and Lydia pulled into Scenic Hills RV Park a little before 8 p.m. on Thursday. We watched Lydia while Lora and J. Michael were setting up. During that time, we went for a short walk, and Lydia took along her toy stroller.

Lydia with her stroller

After Lora and J. Michael got set up, we visited a while. Then it was off to bed for Lydia, and we went back to our rig for the rest of the evening.

The next morning, we headed out bright and early to Der Dutchman for their breakfast buffet. Afterward, we stopped at Walnut Creek Cheese to look around and to pick up a few things. Walnut Creek Cheese has a wide variety of bulk foods, a nice deli department (they make a lot of their own cheeses and lunch meats) and a good meat department. They also have a section that features pots and pans and kitchen gadgets.

Lydia enjoying her ride in the shopping cart in Walnut Creek Cheese

After visiting Walnut Creek Cheese, we hit both the area flea markets. Walnut Creek Amish Flea Market is located in Sugarcreek a little to the east of Der Dutchman and the Holmes County Flea Market is located just a short distance to the west of the RV park. The markets are similar in that they are both indoors and they both sell primarily new merchandise, most of it with a country theme.

Lydia likes jigsaw puzzles, and she stopped to look at the ones for sale by one of the vendors. She is starting to take an interest in letters and numbers, so Grammy and Poppy ended up buying her a puzzle with numbers. 

Lydia checking out a jigsaw puzzle

Lydia also got a couple of new Beanie Babies - one is a bunny and the other is a cow. Lydia really seems to be fond of cows, and she likes to moo loudly just about every time someone mentions the word "cow." The next photo shows Lydia mooing as she holds her new Beanie Babies.

Lydia mooing as she holds her new cow Beanie Baby

After the flea markets, we headed back to the campground so Lydia (and several of the adults) could nap. Afterward, Lora made us all a delicious dinner of burrito bowls (burrito ingredients served in a bowl rather than wrapped in a tortilla). It was too warm for a campfire, so we just sat around and chatted a while and watched Lydia. We all headed back to our respective rigs when it was time for Lydia to go to bed.

After Lora fixed us all breakfast on Saturday, we headed to Keim Lumber in nearby Charm. As we entered the store, the lady at the information desk gave Lydia a balloon.

Lydia with her balloon

Keim Lumber has just about anything you can think of for the home and garden. They also have quite a few household items and even some toys for kids. In the toy department, J. Michael picked up a puppet and starting talking to Lydia.

Lydia watching J. Michael's puppet show

From Keim Lumber, we headed up the road to Hershberger's Farm Market. In addition to produce and baked goods, the market has a petting zoo.

Lydia and Lora petting a sheep at Hershberger's

Getting ready to feed a goat

Hershberger's is where we got our flower basket that we wrote about a couple of posts ago. They have the biggest selection in the area, and it looked like they got in another shipment in time for the busy holiday weekend.

So many flowers!

Lydia stopping to smell the flowers

After Lydia's nap, we all went to Der Dutchman for dinner. Afterward, we went back to the campground to relax a while before heading back out to the new Dairy Queen in downtown Berlin.

On Sunday morning, it was Margery's turn to make breakfast. It was a delicious, crustless quiche with ham and smoked Gouda cheese. After breakfast, we drove to a playground in nearby Millersburg.

Lydia had a ball. Her favorite was the slide. They had three of them, and one was just her size.

J. Michael preparing to catch Lydia on the slide

Lydia grinning as she comes down the slide

Next to the slide was a bouncy ride. After Grammy demonstrated the ride, Lydia ran over to try it.

Grammy demonstrating the bouncy ride

Lydia bouncing on a red porpoise

Lydia also liked the merry go round.

Lydia riding the merry go round

For dinner on Sunday, Paul smoked some shrimp we had gotten for the occasion back when we visited Lower Alabama. It was finally cool enough for a campfire, so we enjoyed a short one between dinner and Lydia's bedtime.

After breakfast on Monday, we watched Lydia while Lora and J. Michael packed up and prepared to head home. They pulled out around 11 a.m. It was a fun weekend with lots of good Lydia time, and we are looking forward to seeing them again soon.

As we sat watching TV after dinner, Margery noticed flames and heavy black smoke from the property adjacent to the campground. We couldn't see what was burning because of a small rise between us and the fire, so we ran over to check it out. It turned out the fire department was conducting a controlled burn of a house that was scheduled to be demolished.

Controlled burn of a house scheduled to be demolished

They apparently waited until the end of the Memorial Day weekend when all the local businesses would be closed and most of the out of town visitors would be gone so there would be less traffic. The fire did, however, attract plenty of locals. The parking lot of the business across the street was filled with cars, trucks and buggies, and people were lined up along the berm watching the action.

People watching the fire from across the road

After about 20 or 30 minutes, the intensity of the fire started to diminish noticeably, so we headed back to our rig to resume watching TV. Stay tuned for our next update.

Quailcrest Farm

Berlin, OH - Events of Tuesday, May 24, 2016

On Tuesday, we drove about an hour to the northwest to the Ohio Station Outlet Mall in Lodi, Ohio, which is a little to the north of Wooster. The outlet mall has an SAS Shoe outlet, and Margery was looking for some new tennis shoes.

The recent stretch of cool, rainy weather was replaced with sunny weather and more seasonal temperatures, so we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and stop at Quailcrest Farm after we got Margery's shoes. Quailcrest is located about half way between the outlet mall and Wooster right on our way back to Scenic Hills. Quailcrest has an extensive greenhouse, a gift shop with garden-themed merchandise and nice demonstration gardens. We always enjoy looking around.

We started in the gardens, which are arranged more or less like islands of landscape beds amidst a large lawn area. The islands present views that vary when approached from different directions.

View of the demonstration garden

Another view on the garden

Perennials were just starting to bloom, and even though there were no large masses of color in the garden, there were pops of color here and there. The next photo shows examples of some of the perennials that were in bloom.

Some of the perennials that were in bloom

Colorful foliage, stone walls, fences and garden ornaments add interest to the garden.

Colorful foliage, a stone wall and a garden ornament add interest.

More colorful foliage plus a fence and a sundial

There is also a formal herb garden with a wide variety of herbs. Note how the fence, the brick walkways, the trellis and the bench add structure and interest.

Herb garden

Closer view of some of the many herbs

After strolling around the gardens, we headed to the greenhouse. Since it was the week before Memorial Day, they had a very good supply of hanging baskets, herbs, annuals and perennials. We didn't buy anything, but we always like to look.

View inside the greenhouse

From Quailcrest Farm, we headed back to the 5th wheel where we relaxed for the rest of the day. Lora, J. Michael and Lydia will be joining us at Scenic Hills in their travel trailer for the Memorial Day weekend. We'll tell you about our time with them in our next post.

Spring Flowers and Another Project

Berlin, OH - Events of Friday, May 13 to Wednesday, May 19, 2016

We have been enjoying spring here in Amish country. Tulips are up, the Amish are out in the fields plowing and many of the local stores have flowers and plants for sale. Last year, we got a beautiful pot of flowers from Hershberger's Farm Market, so we wanted more flowers to dress up our site again this year. We looked at a couple of other places on our travels around the area, then headed to Hershberger's last Friday.

Margery checking out the flower selection at Hershberger's

With so many to choose from, it took us quite a while to decide what basket we wanted. We eventually ended up with petunias mixed with verbena.

Petunias and verbena

When Lora and J. Michael bought their travel trailer several years ago, they didn't order the optional bedroom TV because they didn't really need it at the time. Now that they have Lydia, who goes to bed early and who sleeps in a portable crib in the living/dining area when they go camping, Lora and J. Michael retreat to the bedroom. Therefore, the addition of a TV in the bedroom would be a welcomed asset.

On our last couple of visits to Pittsburgh, Paul took measurements in the bedroom of their trailer and subsequently did some research online into TVs and mounting brackets. Lora and J. Michael decided to go with a TV/DVD combo because they frequently like to watch movies on DVD in the evening when they are camping, and they don't have room anywhere in the bedroom for a separate DVD player.

Both the TV and mounting bracket were ordered online. They both came in late last week, so we scheduled a trip to Pittsburgh on Wednesday so Paul could work on the installation.

Grammy watched Lydia while Lora went grocery shopping and while Paul installed the TV. Margery took time out from playing with Lydia to snap a photo.

Lydia playing

Meanwhile, Paul got busy with the installation of the TV. Fortunately, Forest River (the manufacturer of the travel trailer) put an aluminum plate in the wall for the attachment screws for a TV mounting bracket. There was a sticker on the wall saying "mount TV here" when Lora and J. Michael first got the trailer, but the sticker has since been removed. Fortunately, Lora remembered about where it was, and Paul was able to locate the plate with a stud finder.

It was a little scary drilling holes in the wall of someone else's trailer, but Paul started with a tiny drill bit just in case he had misidentified the location of the aluminum plate. As the drill bit went into the wall, silver chips came out indicating success at hitting the plate. Paul successfully drilled the other three holes and installed the mounting bracket.

Paul tightening the screws for the mounting bracket

After a trip to the hardware to get longer screws to attach the mounting plate to the back of the TV, Paul was able to marry the TV itself to the bracket.

Paul attaching the TV to the bracket

TV installed

The TV isn't very heavy, but just to be safe, we decided it would be better to detach the TV for travel leaving just the bracket on the wall. J. Michael was at work, so Paul explained to Lora how everything is attached so she could teach J. Michael.

Paul showing Lora how the wires are attached to the TV

A while back, we got a coupon from Bahama Breeze for $10 off a $30 purchase. Since there is a Bahama Breeze only about 10 minutes from Lora and J. Michael's house and since the coupon was about to expire, we planned to go there for dinner before heading back to Ohio.

Poppy and Lydia heading into the restaurant

Bahama Breeze has Happy Hour from 4 to 6 p.m. on weekdays with discounted drinks and half-price appetizers, so we all had appetizers for our dinner. After dinner, we had a Chocolate Island for dessert. Lydia liked the Chocolate Island so much, she attacked it with two forks.

Lydia eating dessert with two forks

After our dinner, we said our good-byes before heading back to Ohio. In the next photo, Lydia is about to get what we call a "sandwich kiss" from Grammy and Poppy.

Grammy and Poppy saying good-bye to Lydia

We got back to Scenic Hills just in time to catch a glimpse of the setting sun peeking under a bank of clouds.

Sunset at Scenic Hills RV Park

Stay tuned for our next update.

Mother's Day

Berlin, OH - Events of Friday, May 6 to Monday, May 9, 2016

After hanging around the RV park last Thursday, we headed to North Canton on Friday to pick up a few things we needed from Sam's Club. The Sam's Club in North Canton is right next door to Smoke the Burger Joint, and we just happen to have gotten an email coupon from them for $5 off. Stopping in for a late lunch after we finished our shopping at Sam's was a no-brainer.

Smoke the Burger Joint

Smoke specializes in smoked burgers and dogs. We both had a build-your-own burger. Margery had blue cheese on hers, and Paul had American. We split an order of their hand-cut, twice-cooked fries. Everything was delish!

Margery with her blue cheese burger

We did our usual cleaning chores around the 5th wheel on Saturday. Margery also did some cooking in preparation for going to Lora and J. Michael's for Mother's Day. We headed there around noon on Sunday.

We had fun playing with Lydia as soon as she got up from her nap.

Margery helping Lydia sort through some of her toys

J. Michael's mom came over for dinner, and we all had some of the delicious beef brisket J. Michael had smoked. Since it was Mother's Day, we didn't want to have to rush to leave and make the two-hour drive back to Ohio, so we planned to stay overnight. That gave us the opportunity to go outside after dinner to watch Lydia ride in her Barbie Jeep.

As soon as we got outside, we stopped fop a "mommy-daughter" photo with Margery and Lora.

Margery and Lora

We tried to get Lydia in the photo, but J. Michael had already gotten the Jeep out so she was way too interested in that to be bothered with being included in the photo with Mom and Grammy.

Lydia in her Barbie Jeep

She's still a little small for the Jeep so she has trouble reaching the pedals, and she hasn't quite gotten the hang of steering. Therefore, someone has to follow along behind and push the gas pedal with a cane and make periodic steering corrections. The good news is their backyard is big so there is little chance of Lydia hitting anything. The bad news is their backyard is big so the person following behind, who almost has to run to keep up with the Jeep, gets worn out very quickly. Fortunately, the person following behind is the one controlling the gas pedal, so they can stop and rest if they want.

Margery helping Lydia drive the Jeep

Lora helping Lydia drive the Jeep

Lydia eventually decided she was done with the Jeep, so she abandoned it and headed for the swing leaving Lora and J. Michael to bring the now empty Jeep up from the lower part of the yard.

Lydia heading for the swing

J. Michael's mom pushing Lydia on the swing

Of course, Lydia also got to do her favorite thing on the swing - have it twisted up so she could spin 'round and 'round.

Lydia giggling as she spins on the swing

It was getting close to Lydia's bed time, so we went inside so she could get ready. After she got her jammies on, there was still time for a little more play. Paul started tickling Lydia's belly. As he did, Lydia would back up and eventually get out of his reach. She would then walk back over to him, stick her belly out and say, "More, more!" Lydia was having great fun, but we had to stop to give her time to settle down for bed.

Paul getting ready to tickle Lydia's belly

The next day, we went to lunch with Paul's step mom at Bella Frutteto in the North Hills. J. Michael was at work, but Lora and Lydia joined us. Afterward, we dropped Paul's step mom off at her place, drove back to Lora and J. Michael's house, said our good-byes and headed back to Ohio.

Arrival in Ohio's Amish Country and a Quick Trip to Pittsburgh

Berlin, OH - Events of Monday, May 2 to Wednesday, May 4, 2016

We headed out from Piedmont, South Carolina, fairly early last Monday morning toward Berlin, Ohio, which is in the heart of Amish Country. After about a 4-hour drive, we made an overnight stop at Ft. Chiswell RV Park in Max Meadows, Virginia near Wytheville. Ft. Chiswell RV is located along a stretch where I-77 and I-81 run concurrently for a few miles. That coupled with the fact most of the sites are long pull-throughs with full hookups and 20/30/50-amp electric make this a very popular place for overnight stops. We have stayed here several times before, and the campground is almost empty when we arrive because we usually arrive early in the day, and the place is just about filled by 5 or 6 p.m.

Ft. Chiswell RV has about 90 sites. The entrance road is paved, and the secondary roads past the sites are gravel, as are most of the sites. They have a row of 8 or 9 sites that are paved, and we have gotten one of these paved sites the last couple of times we stayed there.

Our site at Ft. Chiswell RV

View of some of the sites behind us

There is free Wi-fi that is fairly fast even when the campground is full, and there also is good Verizon 4G service in the area. Even though the campground is conveniently located less than half a mile from the interstate exit, it is behind a hill so there is very little traffic noise. The cost for our site for one night was $34.75. That included a 10% Good Sam discount and tax.

We always like to get a pull-through site when we make overnight stops so we don't have to unhook. That was a good thing for this stop because we had a long (for us) drive of a little over 6 hours to Amish Country the next day, and not having to hook up in the morning would allow us to get on the road nice and early. We pulled into Scenic Hills RV Park around 2:30.

Scenic Hills has about 110 sites that are a mix of pull-throughs and back-ins. All sites have full hookups, some with 20/30-amp electric and some with 20/30/50-amp electric. The roads are tar and chip, and the pads are gravel. The gravel is always nice and fresh so there are no bare spots. The sites are on three levels - the ones on the middle level are all gravel, and the ones on the other two levels have well-manicured grass between the sites. A few of the sites are a little narrow, but most aren't too bad for a private campground. The overnight rate is $35, but there are various discounts for stays of three nights or longer. We are paying the monthly rate of $595, which includes electricity.

The next photo shows our site in the back row of the upper level where they like to put long-term guests.

Our site at Scenic Hills RV Park

Since it was early in the season, there weren't that many RVs there yet as the next photo of some of the upper level sites shows.

Only a few sites taken this early in the season

After we got set up, we relaxed the rest of the day, but we didn't waste any time heading for Pittsburgh to see Lydia first thing Wednesday morning. On the way, we made a quick stop at Der Dutchman Bakery for our first cream sticks of the season - undoubtedly the first of many.

Paul with his first cream stick of the season

Even though Lora sends us photos of Lydia all the time and we FaceTime with them frequently, we were still surprised at how much Lydia has changed since we last saw her at Christmas. She is no longer a baby, but a toddler. She has quite a large vocabulary and speaks in sentences, although we frequently need Lora to translate some of the words for us. And she picks up new words and grasps the meaning very quickly.

Lora and J. Michael's two boxers get along very well with Lydia, but she really likes playing with Freeway probably because he is more her size. However, Freeway is used to being around adults so he was a little wary of Lydia because she is a little noisy, and she moves pretty fast. Although he still seemed a little cautious, it didn't take Freeway too long to start playing with Lydia. It was fun listening to her giggle.

Lydia playing tug-o-war with Freeway

Talk about being born into the electronic age - at the age of less than two years, Lydia likes to play with Lora's iPad. She knows how push the button to turn it on, and she knows how to swipe the screen; but she can't unlock it because her fingerprint isn't programmed in, and she doesn't know the pass code.

Lydia playing with Lora's iPad

Lydia also knows her colors. When she was playing with her stacking rings, we could tell her which color to put on next.

Lydia playing with her stacking rings

The best part of seeing Lydia in person was being able to interact with her and to play with her. In the next photo, Paul and Lydia are playing with her Plaskool Stack 'n' Spin Gears. Lydia would take a gear off and stack it on top of another one. Paul would then take a different gear and replace the one Lydia just removed. Instead of getting frustrated that Paul was undoing what she just did, she caught on right away that it is was a game he was playing. She then started doing the same thing to Paul by moving yet another gear to the replace the one he had just taken away. It went on for quite a while as they both swapped gears back and forth.

Paul and Lydia playing

Grammy got into the act, too. In the next photo, Margery started swaying her hands in time with music that was playing. Lydia quickly followed suit.

Margery and Lydia keeping time with the music

After Lydia's nap, we took her outside to the swing.

Margery pushing Lydia on the swing

Lydia likes to swing, but what she really loves is for you to twist the swing up and let it go so she spins 'round and 'round. She giggles and giggles as the swing unwinds.

Lydia spinning in the swing

J. Michael stopped at Hunner's Pizza on his way home from work and picked up a pizza. We love their pizza, and it seems every time we are in Pittsburgh and want to get one, it happens to be a Monday, which is the day they are closed. The pizza was as good as we remembered.

After we ate, we chatted a while then headed back to Ohio to chill out for a couple of days and rest up from our travel days. We'll have another update before long, so check back.