Living Our Dream

Another Trip to Pittsburgh Part I: Picnic at Kennywood Park

Berlin, OH/Pittsburgh, PA - Events of Saturday, July 23, 2016

We left last Saturday morning for a two-day trip to Pittsburgh. As we have done before, we left the rig in Ohio and stayed at Lora and J. Michael's house. We were invited to a picnic on Saturday sponsored by Colussy Chevrolet at Kennywood Park. Colussy Chevrolet is the car dealership J. Michael works for. Every year, they have a picnic for employees and their families. We went last year and had a good time with Lydia, so we were happy to be included again because Lydia would be able to ride many more rides this year.

After we arrived at the house and unpacked, we all headed out to Kennywood. On our way to the Potato Patch for some fresh-cut French fries, we stopped at the merry-go-round. Even though she rode the merry-go-round last year, Lydia was a little wary of the large size of the horses so she started out riding on one of the benches.

Lydia and Lora on the merry-go-round

After we had our fries at the Potato Patch, we headed to the Olde Kennywood Railroad. Opened in 1945, the narrow gauge railroad traverses the top of the bluff overlooking the Monongahela River. The ride features displays of old photos of the park while a recording tells about the park's history. The locomotives, which are gasoline powered, are from the 1939 World's Fair.

Train pulling into the station

J. Michael, Lydia and Lora on the train

After our train ride, we headed next door to Kiddieland. Kiddieland has some rides sized for children only and some that are big enough for adults to ride and accompany the kids. Lydia's first Kiddieland ride was the Lil' Phantom roller coaster, which is one of the rides that adults can ride. Lydia was a little scared on the first run; but after riding a couple more times, she really started enjoying it.

Lora and Lydia on their first ride on the Lil' Phantom

We then headed to Kenny's Karousel. This is one of the rides for kids only, so Lydia started out on one of the benches just like she did on the big merry-go-round.

Lydia ridding the merry-go-round in Kiddieland by herself

On subsequent rides on the Kiddieland merry-go-round (there were many, many more throughout the remainder of the afternoon), Lydia rode a horse, and it was always one of the ones that went up and down. She was even confident enough to take one hand off the pole and wave. We were happy to see one of the ride attendants always rode the merry-go-round standing near the youngest of the kids in case their assistance was needed.

Lydia on a horse on the Kiddieland merry-go-round

Next, it was on to the Whip, which was another ride for kids only. The first time around the track, Lydia was all smiles. However, as the car rounded the bend at the end and sped up as it swung outward, she wasn't too sure. By the end of the ride, she was more that ready to get off. That was her one and only ride on the Whip

Lydia on the Kiddieland Whip

Lydia's second-favorite ride after the merry-go-round was the Turtle. Not only was it pretty tame, but Mom could ride, too.

Lora and Lydia on the Turtle

The Pounce Bounce raises up about 15 feet then drops the riders, but it doesn't drop the whole distance all at once. It drops only a few feet, pauses, then drops some more. Lydia seemed to enjoy it and went on a couple of times.

Lora and Lydia on the Pounce Bounce

Before we left Kiddieland, we stopped for a photo beside Kenny the Kangaroo. Kenny is the Kennywood mascot.

J. Michael's mom, J. Michael, Lydia and Lora with Kenny the Kangaroo

From Kiddieland, we headed back to the main part of the park with another stop at the big merry-go-round. This time, with the confidence she built up riding the one in Kiddieland, Lydia asked to ride on the tiger.

Lydia riding a tiger on the big merry-go-round

We then headed to the Fish Pond where Lydia tried her hand. She was more interested in fishing than getting the prize. It almost seemed like she was trying to avoid the floating fish with her hook.

Lydia at the Fish Pond

Colussy Chevrolet reserves a pavilion and provides a nice catered dinner. We headed to the pavilion and arrived just in time to find a table under the roof. It was very hot that day, and we wanted to avoid the tables that were in partial sun. This year, we had hot dogs, grilled chicken, pulled pork, cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans, fruit salad and cookies. Yum!

Lora and Margery enjoying their dinner

After dinner, we headed back to the house where Lydia got ready for bed. Paul read her a story after her bath.

Paul reading Lydia a story

Lydia headed off to bed, and Paul and Margery weren't too far behind. We all needed our rest because Lydia's birthday party was the next day. We'll tell you about that in our next post.

Doughty Valley Steam Days and More New Smoker Recipes

Berlin, OH - Events of Thursday, July 21, 2016

Last Thursday, we went to the Doughty Valley Steam Days. The event, which is held every year on Thursday, Friday and Saturday near the end of July, takes place at a field we pass frequently. However, even though the field is only a few minutes from the RV Park, we have never made time to go check out the show until this year.

The show features steam traction engines, antique tractors and antique engines. Steam traction engines, sometimes called road locomotives, are large, self-propelled steam engines that were used to move heavy loads and to provide a power source that could be moved from location to location. They were sometimes used to plow fields, although their use for plowing was somewhat limited because they were not very maneuverable and they were heavy and would compact the soil that was just plowed. There were some models that were equipped with a drum and a long cable so the tractor could sit at the edge of the field and use the cable to drag the plow across the field.

Steam tractors were frequently used to power saw mills and threshing machines. They could not only haul the equipment to where it was needed, they could then provide power for it.

Some steam tractors are coal-fired and some are fueled by wood. As we walked from where we parked toward the exhibit area, we passed a large pile of wood and a large pile of coal. A small steam tractor pulling a wagon was picking up wood to be delivered to some of the exhibitors.

Small tractor with wagon picking up wood

Steam traction engines started out as portable power plants in the 1850s. They were simply steam engines mounted on skids that were dragged where they were needed by horses to be used to power various types of equipment. The self-propelled units were developed a little later. Steam traction engines were used into the 1920s when the development of larger gasoline and diesel engines made the heavy, more expensive steam engines obsolete.

Steam traction engine enthusiasts collect and show their equipment all across the country at events like Doughty Valley Steam Days. There were 15 or 20 steam engines at this show.

A few of the many steam traction engines

Eclipse engine by the Frick Co.

In addition to steam engines, there were also about a dozen antique farm tractors. The next photo shows a few of them.

Antique tractors

One old Oliver tractor had a matching pedal tractor displayed beside it.

Antique Oliver tractor with matching toy pedal tractor

There were also a number of Rumley Oil Pull tractors. They were manufactured from 1910 to 1929. They had internal combustion engines that were primarily fueled by kerosene.

Rumely Oil Pull tractors 

There are several HGTV programs that feature tiny houses, which are houses that are only a few hundred square feet in size. Obviously, since we live in an RV, we can relate. There was an antique tiny house at the show that looked like it was built on an old farm wagon frame.

Tiny house

As we mentioned, the steam traction engines were frequently used to power threshing machines. There was one parked at the far end of the field. We suspect there was a demonstration scheduled for later in the day.

Threshing machine

In addition to displays and demonstrations of antique farm equipment during the day, the evening schedule includes live music, a pony and draft horse pull and a steam engine tug-o-war. There was also an auction on the schedule.

Auction tent

One of the items we liked in the flea market area was a miniature carousel. It had tractors instead of horses.

Carousel with tractors

As we headed back down the hill toward the steam engine display, we noticed many more of them had been fired up.

Steam tractors fired up

There were a couple of antique vehicles at the show. One was a 1922 Model T Ford pickup. We stopped on our way down the hill to check it out.

Model T Ford pickup

When we got back down to the bottom of the hill, we were happy to see the saw mill demonstration was just starting up. The operator rolled a log down the ramp and onto the machine's carriage. Then he pulled the lever to advance the log through the rotating blade. The blade is powered by the tractor to the right in the photo below by means of a loooong belt. Helpers handling the cut lumber work within a few feet of the fast-moving belt.

Portable saw mill powered by a steam traction engine

Notice how close the operator is standing to the spinning blade. This is not a good job for anyone with a poor sense of balance.

Operator standing close to spinning blade

We watched the sawmill for quite a while then headed back to Scenic Hills. When we got back, Paul began to prep the smoker for a couple of new items we wanted to try - smoked hot dogs and smoked baloney. Both items only take a couple of hours to smoke, so we had plenty of time after going to the steam show.

We smoked hot dogs three ways - plain hot dogs, hot dogs coated with dry rub, and spiral-cut hot dogs coated with dry rub.

Smoked baloney is apparently an Oklahoma thing. In fact, we've even heard it being called Oklahoma prime rib. There are lots of recipe variations. The one we tried is called Bloomin' Baloney. You're supposed to use a baloney chub, which is a 3 to 5 pound mini-baloney; but since we wanted to try a smaller quantity and since regular-sized baloney is more readily available, we just got a 2" thick slab of regular baloney from Walnut Creek Cheese. Paul cross-cut the end of the slab about 2/3 of the way down, coated the top and down into the cuts with yellow mustard, then sprinkled on dry rub before smoking it.

Baloney and hot dogs on the smoker

Smoked baloney and hot dogs

We had the baloney for dinner that evening, but it would also make a great snack for something like a Super Bowl party. We smoked the hot dogs at the same time out of convenience intending to save them for lunches, but we couldn't resist also trying the spiral-cut dogs that evening right along with the baloney. The baloney was good with excellent flavor. We liked the spiral-cut hot dogs even better because they had even more dry rub caramelized onto them. We also preferred the firmer texture of the hot dogs over the baloney, but the baloney is still good and won't go to waste.

On Friday, we did our weekly cleaning chores a day early because we were planning to go Pittsburgh to stay with Lora, J. Michael and Lydia for the weekend. Colussy Chevrolet, J. Michael's employer, had their annual picnic at Kennywood Park scheduled for Saturday, and Lydia's birthday party was scheduled for Sunday. We'll tell you about them in the next post.

A New Smoker Recipe and Kingwood Center Gardens

Berlin, OH - Events of Saturday, July 16 to Tuesday, July 19, 2016

We continue to use our smoker almost weekly. Most of the time we don't mention it in our blog because we're making one of our favorites that we have written about before. Last Saturday, however, we tried a new recipe for burnt ends.

Burnt ends come from Kansas City, which is known for their barbecued beef brisket. Burnt ends were originally trimmings and oddly-shaped pieces (ends) of the crusty exterior of smoked brisket that were set aside when the brisket was sliced. Most of these pieces contained a good bit of juicy fat and were coated with plenty of caramelized (dark in color, but not really burnt) dry rub. The pieces were often put into stews or were given away.

When customers began asking for burnt ends, pitmasters realized they had been giving away little nuggets of flavor that they could potentially profit from so they devised ways to make burnt ends in larger quantities from whole cuts of meat.

The recipe we found was for burnt ends made from chuck roast rather than the more traditionally-used brisket. Although you could easily use the same recipe for brisket, we decided to stick with chuck. Chuck is generally cheaper than brisket and it was even more so this time because it was on sale at Walnut Creek Cheese. We get really spoiled over the summer when we are able to purchase our meat there because it is always outstanding in quality and price.

After smoking the meat until it was almost done, Paul cut it into cubes, coated the cubes with a little barbecue sauce and some dry rub, put the cubes into a pan and then put the pan back into the smoker.

Cubes of beef coated with barbecue sauce and dry rub

Paul smoked the cubes another two hours stirring them every half hour or so. The fun part is the chef gets to sample a cube or two every time he stirs them. The finished burnt ends were tender, smokey little gems crusted with caramelized barbecue sauce and rub. They were yummy!

Burnt ends

In our last post, we mentioned we had some sightseeing in mind. On Tuesday, we drove about 75 minutes to the west to Mansfield, Ohio, to visit Kingwood Center Gardens. We went there last year and were so impressed with the creativity of the plant selection with its rich displays of color and texture we decided to return this year. Not only are the gardens beautiful, but the admission price is very reasonable at only $5 per car or $2 per person for walk-ins.

Kingwood Center is the 47-acre estate that once belonged to Charles Kelley King, who made his fortune working for the Ohio Brass Company in Mansfield. King started working for Ohio Brass in 1898 as an electrical engineer and eventually became President and Chairman of the Board. He led Ohio Brass to success in the manufacture of electrical components for railroads and trolleys.

We entered the garden by way of a path that went up a set of terraces. The colors were different from last year so it was almost like visiting a different garden.

Border near the bottom of the terrace path

Detail showing different colors and textures

Looking up the terraces

Border surrounding the fountain on the second terrace

Tiger swallowtail butterfly

Mr. King built Kingwood in 1926. He was married and divorced twice, and he had no children by either marriage. Since he had no direct heirs, he left much of his fortune and his estate to a foundation which he established before his death. He endowed the foundation with sufficient funds to not only maintain the estate, but also to make future improvements. The sunken garden on the third terrace didn't exist in Mr. King's time. It was one of those improvements.

Sunken garden on the third terrace

View back down from the top (5th) terrace

The 5th terrace is the site of the mansion's swimming pool. It has now been filled in and made into a garden.

Garden area at the site of the filled-in swimming pool

Side garden off the 5th terrace

Near the top of the terraces, we paused for a photo of Margery on a garden bench.

Margery at Kingwood Center Gardens

We followed the path down the eastern side of the property through daylily garden. The next composite photo shows just a few examples of the beautiful daylilies in bloom.

Daylilies

Interspersed with beds of daylilies are more annuals and more inviting garden benches.

Daylilies (left and top) and more annuals surrounding another bench

We stopped for a selfie on one of the benches.

Selfie

At the bottom of the daylily path, we stopped at the greenhouses where there are displays of herbs, tropicals and cacti. Between the two greenhouses is another attractive outdoor garden.

Garden between the greenhouses

Near the greenhouses are the rose garden and the gazebo garden. The roses were pretty much done blooming, but there were plenty of attractive annuals surrounding the gazebo

Gazebo garden

We headed from the gazebo to the area in front of the mansion. Guided tours of Kingwood Mansion are available at specific times on weekends and by prior arrangement for groups. Self-guided tours are available any time, but we didn't go inside on this visit. Unlike the gardens which have a new color scheme every year, we knew the mansion would be pretty much unchanged from last year. Besides, it was getting late, we were getting hungry, and we still had more gardens to see.

Looking down from the area in front of the mansion onto the lawn

Garden in front of the mansion

We then followed a meandering path beside the lawn back to the parking lot. We enjoyed our visit to Kingwood Center Gardens. The colors and textures were as good as or better than the year before. The next two composite photos show just some of the many flowers we saw.

Some of the many flowers

More flowers

Last year after visiting the garden we stopped for lupper at Athens Greek Restaurant. They have three locations - one in downtown Mansfield; one about 20 or 30 miles south of Mansfield; and the one a couple of miles to the west of Mansfield that we went to last year. Although the one in downtown Mansfield is a little farther from the preferred route back to Berlin, it is closer to the garden so we decided to go the downtown location this year.

Athens Greek Restaurant in downtown Mansfield

We each had a gyro plate, which is a de-constructed gyro with the meat, tomato, onion, and tzatziki sauce served on a plate with triangles of pita on the side. The gyro plate is a lot easier to eat than a regular gyro that has all the ingredients wrapped in the pita in the traditional way. Everything was yummy!

Margery with her gyro plate

With our bellies full, we headed back to the 5th wheel for an evening of TV. We had more sightseeing planned for Thursday. Stay tuned.

5th Wheel Project: Replace Bathroom Faucets

Berlin, OH - Events of Friday, July 8 to Friday, July 15, 2016

We have always liked single-handle faucets because you can turn on the water and adjust the temperature quickly with only one hand. Our 5th wheel came with a single-handle kitchen faucet, but the faucets for both the shower and bathroom sink had two handles. We have been thinking about replacing both bathroom faucets almost since we first picked up the new 5th wheel. Because the faucets were brand new, however, and since installing the shower faucet looked a little difficult because of limited access to the plumbing behind the shower wall, Paul put off the replacement.

Then last winter we noticed the satin nickel finish on the shower faucet, the handheld shower head and the slide bar for the shower head was beginning to flake off leaving those items with a dull, mottled finish. It was disappointing that happened in such a short time, but it gave Paul the impetus he needed think a little more seriously about replacements. Paul researched different brands and styles of faucets and came up with a list of components last winter, but it took him until just recently to finally order all faucets and parts we need.

Old shower faucet with flaking satin nickel

Old shower head and slide bar with flaking satin nickel finish

Paul ordered the major components for the project from Amazon (shower faucet trim, handheld shower head, slide bar support for the shower head, and bathroom sink faucet) and from faucetdirect.com (shower valve and wall-mounted elbow for the attachment of the hose for the shower head).

The parts came in the week after July 4th, and Paul tackled installing the new shower head and slide bar on Friday of that week. The installation of the slide bar was pretty easy because the new bar Paul chose has mounting supports whose position is adjustable. Therefore, he was able to just unscrew the old bar, adjust the position of the mounting posts on the new bar, put on dab of silicone sealant, and screw the new bar in place using existing screw holes. The shower head was even easier - just unscrew the old hose and attach the new one.

New shower head and slide bar

We're very happy with the new shower head. It is a Moen Reliant with three sprays - a gentle, wide angle spray; a concentrated, hard spray; and a pulsing spray. We've had handheld showers in our RVs dating all the way back to the 1970s from the inexpensive white plastic ones that come in entry-level travel trailers to the highly-rated Oxygenetics shower head we put into the motor home we used to have, and this one is beyond a doubt the best one we have ever had. It has excellent flow on all three settings even with low water pressure.

Over the next few days, Paul picked up fittings he thought he would need for the rest of the project at Keim Lumber in Charm and at Orme Hardware in downtown Berlin. As Paul pre-assembled some of the components, he found he needed to make several more trips to get all the right parts. What's plumbing without at least two trips to the hardware store? Matching new fixtures to existing plumbing is always a trial and error process.

By late Monday, Paul thought he finally had everything figured out, so he began on Tuesday morning with the easier installation of the bathroom sink faucet. The installation went well, and within an hour or so it was complete with no leaks.

Old sink faucet

New sink faucet

Although it was still early in the day when Paul finished installing the new faucet on the sink, he held off starting on the shower faucet because we were planning to go to Pittsburgh on Wednesday to visit with Lora, J. Michael and Lydia. In case something didn't go right with the installation, he didn't want to leave the the project unfinished.

We headed out to Pittsburgh on Wednesday morning and arrived before noon. As usual, we had a good time playing with Lydia.

Grammy playing with Lydia while Freeway looks on

It has been only about two weeks since we last saw Lydia, and we can see changes in just that short amount of time. She is building a big vocabulary, and her pronunciation of words has improved. She can repeat almost anything she hears, so we have to be careful what we say. She has been able to speak in phrases for quite some time, but now she speaks in full sentences most of the time.

We finished off our visit to Pittsburgh with a delicious pepperoni pizza for Lora, J. Michael and Margery and half an Italian sub for Paul from Hunner's Pizza. We got back to Scenic Hills a little before dark.

On Friday, Paul tackled the job of installing the shower faucet. He started by removing the old faucet, which was fairly easy.

The scary part was when Paul had to use a hole saw to cut a 3" diameter hole in the fiberglass shower wall for the new faucet. It was difficult to maneuver the new faucet into place because, not only is there is very little room behind the shower itself, Paul had to work through a small opening in the back of a narrow closet.

Small access opening in back of a narrow closet

After Paul got the faucet installed and made all the water connections, he turned on the water. Hooray, No leaks!

New shower faucet

Paul cleaned up and put all the tools away then relaxed most of the rest of the day. We planned to do some sightseeing the following week. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

10th Anniversary

Berlin, OH - July 10, 2016

July 10th marks our 10th anniversary of full-timing. Ten years ago today, we closed on the sale of our house in the morning, went to lunch with our daughter, Lora, and then hit the road.

Over the last 10 years, we have traveled over 75,000 miles in two different RVs and have visited 46 states. Most of that travel was in the first 7 or 8 years. After that time, we started to slow down considerably.

Almost two years ago, our granddaughter, Lydia, came along and that changed everything. We made the decision to be part of her life and try to spend most of the summer fairly close by. Because our travel had already started to slow on its own even before Lydia arrived, we were already considering switching from a motor home to a 5th wheel. Lydia's arrival cemented our decision to switch because, while the motor home was well suited to our travel style in our early years of full-timing when we moved from place to place frequently, we felt a 5th wheel was more residential and was better for sitting still for longer periods.

After investigating many different 5th wheel makes and models, we ended up ordering a Tradition by DRV Mobile Suites late in the fall of 2014. We picked up the new 5th wheel in January, 2015, so we have had it for about a year and a half now. We have been very happy with our decision to switch.

Our travels for the last two years have been quite leisurely. We spent the winter in Florida like we always have, and we spent all of last summer and we plan to spend all of this summer in Berlin, Ohio, which is only about two hours from where Lora, J. Michael and Lydia live in Pittsburgh. That gives us the opportunity to visit Lydia often.

When we left Ohio last fall, we headed south to Lower Alabama with only a few overnight stops and a 5-night stay in Knoxville, Tennessee, along the way. After staying in Lower Alabama for a month, we headed to our snowbird roost at Blueberry Hill RV Resort in Bushnell, Florida. Then after 5 months in Florida, we headed back to Ohio this past April with a short stop in Lower Alabama, a few overnight stops, and a weekend sightseeing stop in South Carolina. Since we are mostly staying in places where we have stayed many times before, we are doing less sightseeing. We spend much of our time relaxing, eating at our favorite restaurants and trying a few new ones.

Highlights of year 10

Speaking of eating, year 10 brought a new hobby. While we were in Ohio last summer, we bought a smoker. It's a small one that we are able to carry with us. We use the smoker just about every week to 10 days smoking one of our many favorites or trying new recipes. Our favorites include turkey breast (delicious cold on sandwiches), meatloaf (also delicious on sandwiches), shrimp, mac and cheese, and pork shoulder.

Some of the delicious food we have prepared in our new smoker

Something else new for us last year was changing our domicile from South Dakota to Florida. Being South Dakota residents worked well for us for us for 9 years. However, our drivers licenses were up for renewal this year, and with our more relaxed travel style, we weren't very excited about driving all the way to South Dakota to renew our licenses. Not only that, but we spend a lot of time in Florida and feel very much at home there, so we decided to make the switch.

In year 10 we traveled almost the same distance we did in year 9 - about 3,000 miles. We made 14 stops, which was identical to the year before.

Travel route for year 10

While we are traveling and sightseeing less, we still like being mobile so we can be close to Lydia in the summer and so we can be where it is warm in the winter. We're looking forward to another year of slow-paced travel.