THIS AND THAT IN CANTON, OHIO

Sunday, August 7  - WOW…we haven't stopped running since we arrived in Canton last Thursday. We have been visiting family and friends, lunching, seeing doctors and dentists, going to reunions, shopping, etc. Marsha baked up a storm on Saturday. She made 40 loaves of Zucchini Bread. She gave lots away, but saved lots for us to freeze and enjoy this winter.

After we returned from a wonderful family reunion today, we had time to actually walk around the campground for the first time. This is a great family campground. They have tons to do for the entire family.

Catch and release pond.

Newly opened Putt Putt course.

First season for the new swimming pool.

There is a horseback riding stable. A group of 25 young girls were taking a ride on a rainy day right past our MH.

There are cabins that can be rented.

Game room.

There are several pavilions. This particular one holds the dances on Saturday night, all-you-can-eat breakfasts on Sunday morning and a ton of other activities.

When our girls were younger, they came here to toboggan. They had two shoots that went up the hill you see in the background. They no longer have the run. The hill now belongs to the landfill.

 

FLASHBACK – Saturday, Marsha went with her brother Rick's family to the Football Hall Of Fame Football parade. Rick's daughter, Laura, plays the drums in the band at Canton South High School. Nearly 200,000 spectators lined the 2.2 mile route to congratulate the 2011 Class of Enshrinees--Richard Dent, Marshall Faulk, Chris Hanburger, Les Richter, Ed Sabol, Deion Sanders, and Shannon Sharpe.

The parade featured about 125 entries, including floats, marching bands and balloon characters, returning Hall of Famers and the current enshrinees.

There were lots of balloons.

Tons of bands…this one is from the school our girls went to and were Paul and I taught. Jackson High School has 300 members in the marching band.

What is a parade without camels and giraffes?

Of course the clowns showed up. Lots of clowns!

Past Enshrinee, Bob Griese.

2011 Enshrinee, Deion Sanders.

Hall Of Fame Queen and Court.

It wouldn't be the HOF Parade without Frankie the Keener Weiner.

Yes, there were horses, old cars and lots of fire trucks. It was a fun morning. Marsha didn't get a picture of Laura because she was on the other side of the street…darn!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

 

A STEP BACK IN TIME

Tuesday, August 2 - Our daughter, Kelly, met us at the campground this morning for a trip to Amish Country........Yeah, shopping with the girls!!!!  :=)  We took all the back roads. What a beautiful day for a ride. This part of Ohio is lovely.

There is one Amish farm after another. Each better than the last.

There were buggies every where. We needed to be very careful not to ride too close or too fast.

We go very lucky and were able to watch several farmers cutting their hay. This was so interesting to the three of us. With all the modern equipment today, they stay true to their beliefs and work the land by hand.

How beautiful it looks.

Our first stop was Lehman's Hardware in Kidron, OH.

It's like shopping and going to a museum at the same time.

There are thousands of products you thought they quit making years ago.

Anyone out there ever use this?

Made in the USA. They had a sense of humor. Read the last line.

We remember our mom and grandma using this next product.

Originally built to serve the simpler needs of the local Amish, it is now a tourist stop for the thousands visiting this area of Ohio. With 30,000 square feet of space, including a cafe and a buggy barn, Lehman's is worth a trip to Amish Country all on its own.

Never heard of this one. Laundry SODA?

Here is one of those…what is it…why use it?

It is a clothes pin holder. Marsha remembers her mom having, not this exact one, but a holder on her clothes line for the clothes pins.

The City of Berlin, with its hundreds of small shops, was our next stop.

We strolled the street and enjoyed the chocolate shop, the bakery, book stores, coffee shops, a bulk dry goods – where Marsha found her meat curing salt she's been searching for, a cheese shop, and Boyd & Wurthmann Restaurant where we enjoyed a late lunch.

We saw a sign for handmade baskets, so we headed down a country road where we were directed to an Amish farm house. The young Amish gal, who was in the middle of doing her weekly wash using a propane driven washing machine, showed us into the house to see her hand made baskets. Her beautiful baskets were made using cane instead of the pine needles Marsha uses in making her baskets. Marsha was interested in discovering the type of dyes she used to dye her cane. She explained how she used Rite dye, the same type Marsha uses, but the powder type rather than the liquid style Marsha has tried. So hopefully this will be the solution Marsha is looking for in her needle dying.

Marsha made several purchases of jelly, pickles and a few Christmas gifts made out of cane.

Kelly intended to spend the night at the motorhome, but received the call she's been waiting to receive from Cuyahoga Falls City Schools. She's been hired as a math teacher. Since they asked her to stop in the human resource office tomorrow morning, she decided to head home to organize the paper work they requested she bring along. What an emotional relief to get that phone call. CONGRATULATIONS Kelly!!!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

BACK TO OUR OLD STOMPING GROUNDS

Thursday, July 28 – BACK TO OHIO......We pulled into the FMCA Campgrounds, Family Motor Coach Association, this afternoon. This is a very nice place! Concrete street, concrete pads, full hook-ups, we have some shade, and it's FREE!!!

You have to be an FMCA member to stay here (We are because we got 15% off at Gaffney Freightliner Service Center last fall). You can stay two days free and then it's $20 per night. Only about five miles off the interstate and plenty of shopping areas nearby. We'll make this a regular stopping point when returning to Ohio.

If you stop here, be sure to go to Newton Village Tavern. We had the best pizza EVER! Marsha said…except for the ones she had in Italy. It is just five minutes from campground on  39.

We would have been here early, EXCEPT, we lost an hour moving into the Eastern Time Zone, and we sat on I-65 for about 90 minutes in a construction delay. We never did see why the traffic was stopped. That happens frequently. You're stopped and eventually traffic resumes moving and there is no apparent reason why we were stopped in the first place.....CRAZY!!! No wreck, no bulldozer blocking the road, no flag guy, nothing! Another one of the joys of living the traveling gypsy life...LOL

 

Friday, July 29 – Back home in Canton, Ohio! After an uneventful drive from Cincinnati, other than the TERRIBLE bumpy roads around Columbus, we pulled into Bear Creek KOA. This is the first KOA we've stayed in since we began full-timing. They are usually too expensive and offer options more targeted toward families with young kids and weekend campers than what we as full-timers are looking for. Unfortunately, with the very few campgrounds in the Canton area, we decided to stay here because of its close location to Marsha's dad's house. We were a little disappointed at first with the sites available for monthly stays but once we got backed in and set-up we are quite content. The monthly rate is $500, so that works out to $16.12/day.....not bad! And we are only about five minutes from Marsha's dad and brother....cool!

We are at the top of the hill. The road is rather close to the motorhome but we get little traffic here.


This is the steep road we had to bring the MH up. The MH had an easy time navigating the hill.

Due to the tree next to our site, we can't use our satellite but fortunately, they provide cable with tons of channels. They also provide free WiFi. Not our first or second or third choice, but we will live.

This is Football Hall of Fame week in Canton. There's numerous entertainment opportunities including parades, ribs burn-off, fireworks, fashion show, the enshrines dinner, enshrinement celebration, and our favorite the Hot Air Balloon Classic. The Hall of Fame football game was canceled due to the players strike. Although, it is now ended but teams haven't had time to practice.  We have been to all events at one time or other when we lived here. We're here to visit with friends and family, so that's our first priority.

During the evening we visited with Marsha's dad and some family members. Marsha has been keeping her latest basket creation a secret because it was for her dad.

This time she died the pine needles and used a new stich called the wrap. Paul thinks it is her best basket yet.

Remember when she shared the story about picking up needles at Helen Keller's house. The needles come from the tree that went to the moon. She spray painted them a metallic gold. This is the first basket she included one of the needles. She put it in the last coil on the top. It turned out great.

Look closely at the inside top row, and you will be able to see the gold needle.

She finally got to give it to him, and boy was he surprised.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!