TIME TO RESUME OUR TRAVELS

Tuesday, September 8 - With the kids back in school, it's time to hit the road for our winter travels. We will be departing our summer home here in Canton, Ohio, after Labor Day and heading toward Augusta. GA. Paul's brother lives there and we usually like to spend several days visiting on our way south.

Karen, John, Paul, Marsha

We will then head to Florida to do a circular tour of the state. This will be our first complete RV trip to Florida. We have only been to the Amelia Island. We'll start in St. Augustine and then head down the Atlantic Coast visiting Daytona, Palm Beaches, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and other places before ending up in the Keys.

We will then head back North along the Gulf Coast stopping in Fort Myers, Clearwater/St. Petersburg, Tampa, Sarasota, Tallahassee and Pensacola. We'll be stopping at hundreds of places Marsha has mapped out along the way. As of today, she has an eight…that is 8…page itinerary. Those are just a few of the places she has planned on visiting. Yes, Paul will be exhausted. If you have any “must-see” adventures, please let us know.

From Florida, we will travel along the Gulf to Texas. We want to be in Texas by November. We always plan on Thanksgiving dinner at our daughter Carrie's place. The RV will remain in the Houston area through the Christmas holiday. We will again fly back to Ohio to spend Christmas with Kelly and Dave, Marsha's dad and the rest of the family. Carrie flies in from Houston to spend the holiday too!

Our plans after the New Years are a little unsettled at this point. Our thinking is to spend January in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. We may head to Big Bend National Park in Southwest Texas in early February, weather permitting. We will then relax the remaining days of winter in the Houston area before returning North for the summer.

So, that's “The Plan” for this winter. Things could possibly change but at least that's our thinking at this point in time. Of course, we will surely cross paths with several RV friends along the way and renew old friendships. If it appears your path will mesh with ours, be sure to get in touch.

We had a new adventure just a few weeks back…a humming bird in our garage. It wouldn’t leave.

Marsha ran to the computer to figure out how to get it out of the garage. Many articles said that the birds can’t find their way out and sometimes die of exhaustion from flying around looking for an exit. We definitely didn’t want that to happen. We did try to put a feeder close to the garage door, but it wasn’t interested. So we tried the next most popular solution…

Yes….a rake. The articles showed how to hold a rank close to where the bird lands. It will then land on it, and we were then to walk it slowly to the opening.

It landed many times over the next hour and a half but didn’t remain long enough on the rank for either of us to get it to the opening.

Finally! Success! Marsha was able to slowly walk it to the door and away it went.

What an ordeal. But glad to report we have a happy ending to our story.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

OHIO WINE COUNTRY WITH FAMILY

Saturday, August 29 – As stated in an earlier blog, our daughter and son-in-law live in Ohio Wine Country. One is required by local law to visit several of these wineries periodically. So, to fulfill that obligation, we headed out after lunch to visit four wineries. There were six of us on the trip. Along with Kelly and Dave (daughter & son-in-law), we had Rod and Katie (Marsha's brother and his wife). We all fit nicely in Dave's new Ford F-150. It was wonderful that we could all go in one vehicle.

Wine tasting isn't all fun – there's work involved! Especially if you are an emergency room nurse. Poor Katie. Being a nurse in the ER she can't turn her back on an accident. The first TWO wineries we visited had people needing help. One elderly lady had a little too much to drink and fell down the bus steps and gashed her head. Dave had to assist Katie on that one since he sells medical supplies and had a well stocked first aid kit in his truck. The second winery also had a lady down. She actually slipped going up the steps and was knocked unconscious. This was a little more serious, and the rescue squad had to be called. Eventually, things calmed down, and we were all able to enjoy a couple glasses of wine and relax overlooking the vineyard.

Our first stop…South River vineyard. Yep, in an old church.

Beautiful view.

We enjoyed an excellent bottle of wine called Creation.

Second stop…Hundley Cellars.

This winery just opened a few months ago. They are still putting some final touches on it.

Yummy wine at a great price.

Our third winery was just to check out the place. Kelly and Dave stopped at Laurentia Winery before and found the it to be a bit pricey. It is a gorgeous place though.

Our final stop of the day was Grand River Cellars.

We shared one bottle of delicious semi-dry white wine.

There is a covered bridge car tour in this NE part of Ohio. We visited just one of the bridges with plans to do the tour next spring/summer.

The 228-foot-long Harpersfield Covered bridge is the longest covered bridge in Ohio.

Here comes Dave’s new Ford F-150.

After our wine tour, we returned to Kelly and Dave's home to chat, relax and spend the night.

What a great day it was. L-R: Dave, Kelly, Paul, Marsha, Katie, Rod

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

FOURTH ANNUAL WINE TASTING PARTY

Saturday, August 22 - Marsha loves to have a party! One of the things she likes to do is purchase wines from the different areas we travel and then have a group of family and friends over for a wine tasting party. This was our 4^th year with fourteen different wines to taste. Wines from California, Arizona and Michigan were on the table this year.

Kelly and Dave act as the host and hostess.

Our son-in-law, Dave, acts as the wine sommelier, and did a wonderful job again this year. He hams it up pretty good giving a prompt description of the wine, what foods it is best served with, and what hidden tastes to look for during the tasting. We have a feeling he has some “wine country” in his genes.

The panel of judges.

Dave gives each taster a more than adequate sample of wine to smell, swirl and taste. We then simple hold up our fingers rating it from one to five. Not very scientific, but we like to keep it pretty simple. We judge the reds and whites separately and then at the end choose the over-all winner between the best red and the best white. This year's winner was Unruly Red. A California Red Wine bottled in 2013.

This year’s winner flaked by past winners.

We also had a few games of cornhole as a warm-up activity while we waited for the tasters to arrive. Of course, there was plenty of food to eat and tons of “catching-up” on the latest happening of friends and family.

Look at Paul’s form.

We all had a wonderful time and can't wait till next summer to see what wines Marsha manages to collect over the winter.

Before the big wine tasting party, Paul borrowed Dave’s pressure washer.

  That’s not wet.  It’s the difference between the dirty and cleaned area. What a difference!

Marsha finished another plastic bag mat. She is so proud of her stripes.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!