September 16, 2008

We are experiencing some very nice temperatures now. It has been in the low to mid seventies during the day and lower fifties at night. I don’t think we could ask for anything better. We are really enjoying this.

Today Karl’s parents, Linc & Donna, and his sister, Martha came to visit and see our motor home. While looking at our home, I had the feeling Martha would like to have a motor home. Go Martha! This is a fun way to travel.

After the tour of our place, we had a good time catching up on everything that has happened in the last year. What a joy it is to talk with Linc and Donna. They told us about all the remodeling they have been doing at their house. Perhaps next year when we come back we will have an opportunity to see their new kitchen and den. Linc enlightened us with facts about some of Donna’s ancestors who settled in the Pennsylvania and Ohio areas in the mid 1600’s. He has done a lot of work tracing their family histories. Several years ago he went to Europe to complete some of his research. Linc’s experiences are very interesting. We discussed Donna’s recent diagnosis of Celiac. Our friend Richard suffers from the same thing and we are going to ask him to send some of his recipes to Donna. She now will have to adjust to a new gluten free diet.

Later, we had a wonderful dinner at Boone Tavern Hotel in Berea. The food was good and the company was great. We always enjoy visiting with Linc and Donna and tonight was especially nice because Martha was here also.

Martha, let us know if you have questions about owning a motor home. We will be very happy to provide some answers. Good luck Donna on your new lifestyle and Linc on your many projects.

September 13,2008

Today we visited with Ernie and Bernice Maples. Ernie and I worked together for Sears. They have a beautiful home on a nice little farm north of Lexington. Ernie keeps busy with a wonderful garden, fruit trees and ten acres of grass to mow. Bernice stills works for one of the horse farms nearby. Both are in good health and enjoy keeping active.

We had the opportunity to visit with their sons, Todd and Eric also. Both remodel and refurbish homes, barns and various buildings in the surrounding area.

Eric is on the left and Todd is on the right.

It was fun talking of the good old days when Ernie raised tobacco. He would let me help strip and put it in hands for market. Ernie still has his tobacco base but no longer grows any. We had a great afternoon and evening. Ernie and Bernice still believe strongly in sharing so when we left we had fresh picked pears, peaches and tomatoes.

September 12, 2008

In 1985, we moved from Kentucky to Florida. Now we are back to see this great state and visit with old friends. It sure is fantastic to see friends that you haven’t seen in many years. Today we spend time with Mutt & Betty Howard, our neighbors when we lived in Lexington. It was fun reminiscing about all the things our families did and trips we took together. Today they took us for a tour of the area to see the many changes in the last twenty-three years. Like most places, Lexington has grown out into the rural areas we remembered. The names of the streets are the same but very little looked the same as when we lived here. I’m glad we had someone to guide us. We would have been lost many times navigating on our own.

We stopped at Fayette Mall where I used to work. Like Lexington, the mall has greatly expanded. We had a light lunch in the food court and then the guys watched as the girls did a little shopping. Betty took us to some of her favorite stores.

Char found two blouses at Macy’s that were outstanding buys.

We had a pleasant treat for dinner this evening. We drove to Ravenna, Ky. to Michael’s for a wonderful country buffet. The food was great and plentiful and the deserts were terrific. Char and I had never had “butter roll” for desert before. It looks simple to make and tastes delicious. This is a desert you want the recipe for or want to live close by the restaurant so you can have it often.

September 9, 2008

One of the best places to visit when in the Dayton, Ohio area is the National Museum of the United States Air Force. It is on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the admission fee is unbelievable. It is FREE! Here visitors can travel through the history of aviation from the Wright Brothers to the Stealth planes. This museum has 10 acres of indoor exhibits, with over 400 aircraft and missiles and thousands of artifacts. We were fortunate to have good friends, Ron and Anna Hall, as our tour guides. Ron and Anna have a home in Huber Heights near Dayton and are our winter neighbors at Ponderosa RV Park in Kissimmee, Florida.

Ron and Anna

Both Anna and Char wanted to be astronauts.

Thanks to our guides, we saw a lot of the museum and had a wonderful time. It was great to see Anna and Ron again. Ron shared experiences from his Air Force career as we looked at the many planes. It was very interesting to get first-hand knowledge from Ron who was a Crew Chief for planes like these. I wish we could have seen “CREW CHIEF: MSGT R. HALL” painted on one of the planes below the pilot’s name. This is definitely a must see and we want to return again to see the rest of this great museum.

Later we had a terrific dinner and conversation at Ron and Anna’s home. Ron cooked chicken on the grill while inside Anna cut up potatoes to make delicious French fries. Thank you Ron and Anna for a great day.

September 5, 2008

We went to the Longaberger Homestead today. What a wonderful place. Today was busier than normal because this was the first of two days commemorating the 10th anniversary of The Crawford Barn Raising. I’ll share more about the barn later. There were lots of serious collectors on hand for the festivities today. On the shuttle to the Factory Tour we met a lady who comes here 7 or 8 times a year and has a collection of over 100 Longaberger Baskets. Seeing everyone reminded us of our days at Walt Disney World helping guests with Disney Collectables.

In the factory we watched from an elevated walkway as the employees made baskets. We met Lisa Sowards, a 15-year veteran basket maker, on the walkway demonstrating how she makes a basket. Lisa told us it takes approximately 10-15 minutes to make a simple basket. The more difficult shapes can take a lot longer. She usually makes 25-30 baskets per day when not doing the demonstrations.

In this area you can make your own basket with help from a basket maker.

This is one section of the factory floor where the baskets are made.

This is looking down the main avenue towards a 29-foot tall basket of apples.

I snapped a picture of this beautiful tourist in front of the apple basket.

The opposite end of the main avenue is the Crawford Barn. This 24,000 square foot 118 year old hand-hewn barn was moved to the Homestead in September 1998. The barn was originally used for horse-trading and sales. By 1915 over 50,000 horses passed through this barn. Now inside the barn is The Heartland Deli for sandwiches, hot soups and BBQ favorites, a gift shop and special activities.

This is one of the many pictures opportunities in the area.

No trip can be complete without some gorgeous flowers.

On the way home we went past the Longaberger Home Office in nearby Newark. This 7-story, 180,000 square foot building can be home to approximately 500 employees. The attached handles weigh approximately 150 tons and are heated in the winter to prevent ice from forming. The gold leaf painted tag is 25’ long x 7’ tall x 3” thick and weighs 725 pounds. Tours of the building are available but we didn’t have time for one today.

September 4, 2008

We are at Mohican Adventures Campground a little south of Loudonville, Ohio. After Labor Day is a good time to travel and check out the local hot spots without all the crowds. Today we went to nearby Malabar Farm State Park. We had lunch at the beautiful Farm Restaurant in the scenic hills of central Ohio. After lunch we went to the top of Mt. Jeez Overlook to enjoy the great weather and the fine view.

Here you can see some of the buildings at Malabar Farm State Park.

As you can see, there was a haze over the area until late in the day.

Later, we drove through the “Ohio Amish Country” of Holmes County. It was a nice peaceful drive amid the farms. We passed several horse drawn buggies containing families of all ages. In the town of Berlin, we wandered in and out of many craft and souvenir shops but didn’t buy anything even though we did see lots of things we really liked. When we think of the small space we now have, it is easy to refrain from buying most things. On the way back to the motor home we stopped at a cheese factory store and purchased some Apple Butter and two fried pies for tonight’s desert.