Living Our Dream

Memorial Day Weekend

Berlin, OH - Events of Thursday, May 26 to Monday, May 29, 2017

We were excited that Lora, J. Michael, and Lydia were going to be camping with us over the Memorial Day weekend. They pulled into the site behind us late on Thursday evening. Lydia stayed with us while they got set up. By the time they were done, it was raining so Lora and J. Michael just called it a night since it was Lydia's bed time anyway.

On Friday morning, we all headed out to Der Dutchman in nearby Walnut Creek for the breakfast buffet. After that, it was on to the Walnut Creek Flea Market, which is bigger than the Holmes County Flea Market we went to the previous week. That plus the fact the one in Walnut Creek has a few extra attractions like an Amish family who makes kettle corn and home-made potato chips over an open fire outside the entrance or the chain saw carver demonstrating his craft are some of the reasons the Walnut Creek Flea Market is usually more crowded than the Holmes County Flea Market.

Entrance to Walnut Creek Flea Market

The Walnut Creek Flea Market also has cages with ducks and peacocks that attract kids. Lydia sure wanted to see them before we went inside.

Lora, Lydia, and Margery checking out the ducks and peacocks

In spite of the rain, there were a good many shoppers. The photo below shows one of the aisles that had fewer shoppers than most.

View down one of the aisles inside the flea market

Lydia was attracted to miniature farm animals in a booth right inside the door. Look at the delight on her face!

Lydia admiring miniature farm animals

J. Michael likes to golf so he bought Lydia a toy golf club and balls. She carried it all around the flea market.

Lydia with her toy golf club

After we were done at the flea market, we made a stop at Walnut Creek Cheese then headed back to Scenic Hills. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon.

J. Michael grilled up some chicken breasts for dinner. After dinner and after Lydia's bath, we enjoyed the fry pies we had gotten at Der Dutchman Bakery after breakfast as we sat around a campfire. Lydia had a sugar cookie.

Lydia with her sugar cookie at the campfire

Lora and J. Michael's boxers enjoyed relaxing at the campfire, too.

Lora and J. Michael's boxers relaxing around the campfire

Keim Lumber is only open until noon on Saturdays, so we headed there right after breakfast the next morning. We had a good time looking around. Lydia got a free balloon and a free teddy bear that she named Chester.

Lora and J. Michael are looking to replace their old backyard shed. There are numerous places in Amish country that build sheds, and many of them will deliver them all the way to Pittsburgh. In fact, we had a shed at our sticks-and-bricks house made by Alpine Structures in Berlin. Lora and J. Michael have looked at sheds at several places in the area, and they decided they liked the ones from Alpine, too. They wanted to go there to look at colors so they could finalize their decision and get the shed on order. We headed to Alpine after we were done at Keim.

Grammy and Poppy kept Lydia entertained part of the time while Lora and J. Michael looked at sheds. Like most of the other people who make sheds, Alpine also makes play houses for kids. Lydia had a good time exploring the display model.

Lydia exploring the play house at Alpine Structures

After Lora and J. Michael completed the order for their shed, we headed down the road to Hershberger's Farm Market. No trip to Berlin would be complete without stopping for Lydia to see the animals in the petting zoo at the market. In the photo below, she and Lora come face to face with a goat.

Lora and Lydia come face to face with a goat

This is the first year Lydia was big enough to ride the ponies. At first she wasn't too sure, but once she tried it, she wanted to go again.

Lydia riding a pony

In addition to a farm market, bakery, and petting zoo, Hershberger's also has a nice selection of wooden toys. Lora showed Lydia how to operate the levers on the toy backhoe they had on display outside.

Lora showing Lydia how to work the toy backhoe

After leaving Hershberger's, we headed back to Scenic Hills for Lydia (and some of the adults) to have a little nap time. After that, we went back out to Der Dutchman where we all had the salad bar for lupper. Yum!

Amish men, in keeping with longstanding tradition, wear hats when they go out in public. As we left the restaurant, Paul noticed a whole row of hats on the shelf above the coat rack. Since the hats are all the same, how on earth do they know which one is theirs?

Row of hats by the exit of the restaurant

Since almost everything in Berlin is closed on Sundays, we headed to nearby Massillon on Sunday afternoon to go to Smoke the Burger Joint for a late lunch. On the way, we stopped at Menard's to browse. Lora and J. Michael ended up buying a couple of lamps, and we got a new door mat for outside the 5th wheel.

We're happy Smoke opened a new location in Massillon because it's only about half an hour's drive from Berlin instead of an hour all the way to North Canton to the old location where we used to go. They have smoked burgers, smoked hot dogs, and gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches that cost from about $4 to $10. We all had house burgers ($6.49) that have cheddar cheese, house-made ketchup, house-made mustard, and house-made pickles. The burgers and the twice-cooked fries were delish!

Since we had such a late lunch, we didn't plan dinner for Sunday. However, by early evening we were all a little hungry so we headed to the Dairy Queen right outside downtown Berlin. The Dairy Queen is just about the only thing in the immediate area that is open on Sundays. Lora, Margery, and Paul all had cones, J. Michael had a small sundae, and Lydia had a kiddie-sized cup. It really hit the spot!

We had another campfire when we got back to Scenic Hills. Pretty soon, Lydia was off to bed, and we went back to the 5th wheel for some TV while Lora and J. Michael waited at the campfire for Lydia to fall asleep.

Margery made breakfast for the group and watched Lydia while Lora and J. Michael packed and hitched up on Monday morning. After breakfast, they headed home. It was really great spending the long weekend with them.

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Settling In for the Summer

Berlin, OH - Events of Tuesday, May 16 to Tuesday, May 23, 2017

After we got back from our Mother's Day trip to Pittsburgh, Paul got busy with a couple of chores around the 5th wheel. He took off the tire pressure monitors (it saves the batteries because they do not transmit data if the pressure is zero), he flushed out our fresh water tank, he touched up the caulk on a couple of seams, and he dragged out the ladder and cleaned the all windows and screens.

In between the chores, Paul fired up the smoker. As we said in our last post, we didn't do much smoking over the winter so we were really looking forward to making some of our favorites and trying some new recipes. On the Tuesday after Mother's Day, we made honey-barbecued chicken thighs, which is one of our favorites. We made enough for two meals.

Smoked chicken thighs

Because smoking is done at low temperatures, it leaves the skin somewhat rubbery. Paul likes to grill the thighs for 10 or 15 minutes after smoking to crisp the skin. Grilling is also a good way to heat up the extras we made for the next meal. We served the thighs with honey-barbecue sauce. They were delish!

This past Tuesday, we tried a new recipe for turkey. We usually smoke a whole turkey breast, but this recipe was for a boneless breast. However, since we both like dark meat, we decided to substitute a boneless turkey roast, which is similar to boneless breast except it is a combination of both white and dark meat. Paul brined the roast for 4 to 5 hours before smoking. Brining makes the meat juicy and tender. Rather than the plain brine we usually use that consists of water, Kosher salt and brown sugar, this brine recipe adds herbs, garlic, ground black pepper, and red pepper flakes.

We said the turkey roast contained both white and dark meat, but the photo below shows mostly white meat. After another couple of slices, more dark meat showed up. We like dark meat, because we think it has more flavor and we think it is juicier. The turkey was outstanding! The addition of garlic, herbs, and pepper to the brine really made a difference by adding a whole new depth of flavor.

Smoked boneless turkey roast

Last Friday, we were looking for something to do so we headed over to the Holmes County Flea Market which is located only minutes from the RV park. In fact, we can see the flea market from our site. However, we took a detour to Der Dutchman Bakery on the way to pick up fry pies for later that evening. While at the bakery, we succumbed to temptation and split a cream stick. Yum!

The Holmes County Flea Market and the other flea market in the area, Walnut Creek Flea Market, are both primarily indoor flea markets that sell mostly new merchandise. In spite of its the close proximity to downtown Berlin with all its shopping, of the Holmes County Flea Market seems to be waning in popularity in recent years while the Walnut Creek Flea Market seems to be growing. There were only a few cars in the parking lot, and the aisles inside looked even more deserted. Even though it's still before Memorial Day, there were plenty of cars on the road indicating there were a good many tourists in the area so we expected to see a lot more people at the flea market. We didn't buy anything, but we had fun looking.

Deserted aisles at the flea market

New friends of ours from the co-op in Florida, Kevin and Julie, arrived at Scenic Hills late last week. They stopped by our rig to visit shortly after they got here, and we made plans to go to lupper at Der Dutchman with them on Monday. We had a good time getting to know them better.

So far, our stay in Berlin has been pretty relaxing, but we do have plans for the Labor Day weekend. We'll tell you about them in our next post.

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More Favorite Foods and a Trip to Pittsburgh

Berlin, OH - Events of Wednesday, May 10 to Sunday, May 14, 2017

Last Wednesday, we went to Walmart to restock the larder. On the way, we stopped at Hershberger's Farm Market and picked out a hanging basket. In our opinion, Hershberger's has the best selection of hanging baskets in the area. We hung the flowers outside the door of the rig when we got back. A few days later, we also found a nice pot of Gerber Daisies at Lowe's, so we added them to our display.

Hanging basket and pot of Gerber Daisies outside our door

On Thursday, we headed out to Walnut Creek Cheese to do more grocery shopping. In addition to a huge selection of bulk items like spices, snacks, candy, and dry mixes, Walnut Creek Cheese has a big deli with lunch meats and cheeses. They also have a butcher shop with good quality meats at very reasonable prices. On the way to Walnut Creek Cheese, we stopped at Der Dutchman Bakery for cream sticks.

Margery with her cream stick

After we got what we needed at Walnut Creek Cheese, we headed to Lowe's in nearby Massillon to get some charcoal for our smoker. While in Massillon, we also stopped at the new location of Smoke the Burger Joint for a late lunch. Smoke has delicious smoked burgers that are available with a variety of toppings. They also have gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and smoked hot dogs. We used to have to drive about an hour to Canton, Ohio, to eat at Smoke the Burger Joint, but their new location in Massillon is only about half an hour away so we'll probably be eating there more often.

New location of Smoke the Burger Joint in Massillon, Ohio

Margery decided to try a new, jalapeño popper toasted cheese sandwich that had cheddar cheese, American cheese, pepper jack cheese, cream cheese, grilled bacon, jalepeño relish, and a dipping sauce made from raspberry preserves. The cheese sandwich also included either house-made kettle chips or twice-cooked fries for $8.49. Margery chose the fries, which we shared. Paul had a house burger, which is 1/3 pound of Angus beef with cheddar cheese, house-made ketchup, house-made mustard, and house-made pickles on a toasted bun for $6.49. Everything was yummy!

Paul with his burger

Margery had gotten an email coupon for $5 off at Smoke for her birthday, but when she had trouble bringing up the coupon on her phone, they took pity on her and ended up comping us the burger instead. Everything was delish!

On Saturday, we headed to Lora and J. Michael's house in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Lora had a couple of Mary Kay appointments in the morning and early afternoon. J. Michael needed to cut the grass and then had some errands to run so we watched Lydia.

Lydia likes to help cook and bake, so Margery brought along ingredients for mini monster energy balls (similar to monster cookies except smaller and baking is not required). Lydia was a big help. Not only did she help mix, she also helped do dishes.

Lydia helping wash dishes

Later in the afternoon, the sun came out so we headed outside with Lydia. She still likes her swing, and she likes to be pushed quite high.

Lidia on her swing

After Lydia's nap, we went to Bahama Breeze for dinner. As usual, the food was delish! We finished off our meal by sharing a Chocolate Island for dessert.

Chocolate Island

We spent the night, and on Sunday morning, we went to church with Lora and J. Michael. After the service, the church had a photo booth set up in the lobby so people could have pictures taken with their moms.

Lydia, Lora, and Margery

After church, we enjoyed a delicious casserole Lora made for brunch. In the early afternoon, we headed back to the 5th wheel in Berlin.

We planned to work on a couple of small projects over the next few days and to fire up the smoker. We didn't use it much over the winter due to our involvement in co-op activities and due to working on projects for our new site. We'll have another update soon so stay tuned.

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Charleston, SC to Berlin, OH

Berlin, OH - Events of Monday, May 8 to Thursday, May 11, 2017

After visiting Magnolia Plantation in Charleston on Saturday, we relaxed around the rig on Sunday and watched the NASCAR race. On Monday morning, we headed out on the third leg of our northward journey.

This leg took us to Ft. Chiswell RV Park in Max Meadows, Virginia. We got to Charlotte after the morning rush so traffic wasn't bad there. However, traffic on I-77 north of Charlotte is almost always heavy no matter what time of day it is, and now it is worse than ever because there is construction going on to finally widen that section of road. We got delayed north of Charlotte near Statesville where one lane was closed because they were working on a bridge. The drive for this leg, which we thought would be about 5 hours, ended up being more than 5½ hours.

We have stopped at Ft. Chiswell RV many times before because it is a pretty nice campground with full hookups and almost all pull-through sites. Lots of other people obviously like it too because the RV park is almost always full by the end of the day.

The main road in the campground is paved, and the rest of the roads are gravel. Most of the sites are also gravel, but there is one row of about 10 sites where the parking pads are paved. We have gotten one of the paved sites the last few times we were there.

Our site at Ft. Chiswell RV

View of the row behind us at Ft. Chiswell RV before it filled up later in the day

In addition to full hookups with 30/50-amp electric, Ft. Chiswell also has free Wi-fi that is pretty fast and reliable, and they have free cable. There is also a good Verizon signal. We paid just under $35 a night at Ft. Chiswell with our Good Sam discount.

On Tuesday morning, we got another early start on the final leg of our northward journey to Berlin, Ohio, where we'll be spending the summer. Fortunately, we didn't run into any traffic delays on this leg because at 6 hours, it was the longest leg of the journey. We pulled into Scenic Hills RV Park around 2:30.

Scenic Hills has a little over 100 sites on three levels. The roads are tar and chip, the parking pads are gravel, and the gravel is always fresh and plentiful. There is well-manicured grass between the sites on the upper and lower levels while the sites on the middle level are all gravel. The sites all have full hookups. There is a laundry, but there is no bathhouse so all units must be fully self-contained. About half the sites have 30-amp electric and half have 30/50-amp electric. There is free Wi-fi that is not very fast, but it is usable except when the campground is nearly full like it is on most summer and fall weekends. There is a good Verizon signal on the upper and middle levels, but it is weak on parts of the lower level.

Our site for the summer at Scenic Hills

View down our row

The nightly rate at Scenic Hills is $38, which is up a bit from the past several years. There are discounts for stays of 3 nights or longer. We are paying the monthly rate of $650 (no extra charge for electricity), which is also up from $595 last year.

Berlin is located in the heart of Amish Country. Some of the things we like about Amish Country are the well-kept farms and the friendly, hard-working people. Another thing we like is the food. As soon as we got set up, we headed out to get some of that good food at our favorite restaurant in the area - Der Dutchman in nearby Walnut Creek. We both had the salad bar for dinner. Afterward, we stopped in the bakery and got fry pies for later that evening.

Over the next couple of days, we ran more errands and did more shopping. We also enjoyed more of our favorite foods, and we had a trip to Pittsburgh planned. We'll tell you about all of that in our next post.

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Magnolia Plantation

St. George, SC - Events of Saturday, May 6, 2017

As we said in our last post, we scheduled a weekend break from our northward travels in St. George, South Carolina, because it gave us the option to do some sightseeing in nearby Charleston. After checking out several possibilities, we decided to visit Magnolia Plantation primarily because the plantation is on the same side of the Ashley River as the campground and was therefore closer than all of the other things we were considering.

Magnolia Plantation was founded in 1676 on the banks of the Ashley River by Thomas Drayton and his wife, Ann. Magnolia was a rice plantation, as were most of the plantations in this area.

Rev. John Grimke-Drayton inherited the plantation from his grandfather in the 1820s. He greatly expanded the gardens because he wanted to make his northern-born wife feel more at home in South Carolina low country. Grimke-Drayton adopted a more naturalized garden theme rather than the French-influenced formal gardens of the day. The gardens became known for its azaleas, which are said to have been introduced to America by Grimke-Drayton, and its camellias.

Admission to the gardens and grounds at Magnolia Plantation is $15. There are a number of special tours for $8 each that include a guided tour of the house, a nature tram, a boat tour on the river, a Slavery to Freedom tour, and a boardwalk tour of the swamp.

We opted for the guided tour of the house. We had a little over an hour before the start of our tour, so we visited the gardens first.

Entrance to the garden

As we said, the garden is primarily a natural, woodland garden. There is a camellia garden and there are lots of azaleas scattered throughout the woodland garden and in small clearings; but the camellias were done blooming, and the azaleas were almost done. There are some annuals to provide some pops of color here and there like the snapdragons, larkspur, and dusty miller at the entrance to the garden shown in the photo above and the red, mauve, and cream-colored salvia surrounding the bench in the photo below.

Bench surrounded by blooming salvia

Salvia

Planter boxes with snapdragons and pansies added color along the side of a bridge over a pond.

Bridge with planter boxes along the side

Closer view of flowers along the bridge

Speaking of bridges, there is a well-known one in the garden called Long Bridge. This bridge is the subject of many, many photographs. It is usually seen surrounded by a spectacular display of azaleas; but as we said earlier, there were very few azaleas still blooming when we were there. You can see a just couple of red azalea flowers at the left end of the bridge.

Long Bridge

Another place at Magnolia Plantation that is full of color is the conservatory. It is loaded with colorful tropical plants and dozens of orchids.

View inside the conservatory

Some of the many orchids in the conservatory

We finished up our tour of the garden just in time to head to the house for our 1:30 tour.

The house at Magnolia Plantation

Unfortunately, photography is not permitted inside the house, but we did learn a lot about Magnolia Plantation on the tour. The current house is the third house on the plantation. The first house was completed in 1680 by Thomas Drayton. It burned to the ground in 1811. A second house was built nearby using cypress wood and some of the bricks salvaged from the first house.

Rev. John Grimke-Drayton that we mentioned earlier was the owner of Magnolia Plantation during the Civil War. The second house was burned by Union troops in 1865.

The Drayton family had a cottage located about 14 miles up the Ashley River. Shortly after the end of the war, John Grimke-Drayton dismantled the cottage, floated it down the river to Magnolia Plantation on barges, and reassembled it on the burned out foundation of the second home. The cottage was to the left side of the house in the photo above. The porch, the tower (which contains a water cistern), and the right side were later additions.

The South was devastated after the war. Confederate money was worthless, and what wasn't looted was burned including homes like the one at Magnolia. John Grimke-Drayton had to sell another plantation as well as some of the acreage of Magnolia to raise money. He also opened the gardens to the public to help keep the plantation going.

Magnolia Plantation has been owned by the Drayton family for over 300 years. That was made possible by the fact it was always willed to blood relatives, never to a spouse. It is still owned and operated by 5 members of the original family.

We enjoyed our time at Magnolia Plantation. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the gardens - warm sun and relatively cool air with low humidity. We loved learning about the rich, family history of Magnolia Plantation.

As is usually the case, we had scoped out places to eat after our sightseeing. We were both hungry for barbecue because we didn't do much smoking over the winter due to the fact we were so busy with our involvement in the co-op and with our projects for our new site. We chose Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ from the list of several barbecue joints with good online reviews Margery found nearby. Home Team BBQ has several locations in and around Charleston, and one of them was about 10 minutes from Magnolia Plantation.

Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ

Home Team BBQ has pulled pork, smoked chicken, brisket, smoked turkey, and ribs. Sandwiches range in price from $10 to $12 and include one side. Platters are $12.50 to $14 and include two sides. A full rack of ribs is $24.

We both had pulled pork platters with slaw and mac and cheese for our sides. The pulled pork wasn't very smokey, but it was nice and moist and tender. They have 6 different barbecue sauces. We both liked the sweet sauce because it provided a nice balance to the slaw, which was a little on the tart side. The mac and cheese was to die for! It was full of ooey, gooey, cheesy goodness. The portions were also very generous.

Margery with her pulled pork platter

We headed back to the 5th wheel to relax for the rest of the day and all day Sunday. On Monday morning, we continued our journey north. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

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