Sunday, March 17, 2024

Here we go Again!

Here we go again, just when we thought we were going to take it easy for a few weeks we come up with another project. Just a little project, nothing too big or time consuming. Just a 24x48 garage to put our junk in. 

To think, just a few years ago, all our worldly possessions fit in a 40' 5th wheel. Now we have a house garage and shed that seem to be bursting at the seams. It's really Kevin's fault. We had been thinking about a garage in a few years and I mentioned it to him. He then said he was remodeling a garage that required different trusses and we could have the old ones. That is how this mess started. So, Barb and I went over there, loaded up the old trusses, brought them home and have them stacked and waiting for us to start building. 

We won't get it done by the time we leave for Alaska, but I do hope to get the dirt work done. We started by scraping all the topsoil off and setting it aside. 

Once that was done it was time to set grade and level out the site. But here's the deal, there is not much level on our property. This spot requires 2' of fill in one corner, 1' in two other corners and nothing in the 4th corner. Rather than pay for all that fill, I went down to the pond and scraped a few loads of loose dirt around the edge and loaded into Neighbor Jim's dump trailer.

Once I got all that I could take from that area it was off to the local quarry for road base gravel. 4 loads so far and it looks like I will need about 6 more. Once it is all leveled out, we will let the rain and weather compact it over the summer and carry on with this project in the fall.

Several of you commented on the map program we used to document our travels. The program we use is Travellerspoint. We looked at several, but this is the one we settled on. Travellerspoint gives you a variety of options for mapping your route. We've tried several and prefer the Curved Line.

This screenshot shows the "Drive" and Straight Line" options.

The website also has other features including a Blog feature, but we have never tried them.  Speaking of blogs, Blogger has been giving me trouble lately. Not as much as it has given other people, but I spent an hour or so putting a couple dozen blogs in the "Our Favorite Blogs" section. This is how we keep track of the blogs we read and it tells us when one of them posts a new post. They were all there initially, then some, randomly, started disappearing. Not enough that you would notice but eventually I would say to myself "XXX has not posted for a while". I would go to their blog and sure enough, they had been posting but had disappeared from our sidebar. Very frustrating!

We, along with Kevin and Cheryl, went over to Dan and Bonnie's for salmon supper one evening. It turned into quite the crazy night. There may or may not have been a video taken of Kevin near the end of the night showing him shirtless, flexing his muscles. I was traumatized seeing it in person and since many of you are probably eating breakfast as you read this, I will save you from having to view said video.

We did play a couple of dice games. I don't know if they do this in other states, but in Wisconsin almost every bar has something called Shake-a-day where everyone puts in a dollar and with 6 dice you have 3 shakes to get 6 of a kind. If you do, you get 1/2 the pot. If no one gets it, the pot carries on until eventually someone gets it another day. You can only play one time a day. 

We also played Sh#tbox which is what you see in the picture below. It is really called Shut the Box, it seems to have taken on this new name. Everyone putting in a dollar. The winner with the lowest total wins the pot. Here are the rules if you are unfamiliar with it. Of course we do not use real money for either of these games, that would be illegal!  

Last Sunday, we spent the day over at Kevin's helping him cut shiplap boards out of rough cut for their bunkhouse. I cut the boards to length, Kevin dado'ed the shiplap groove into each side of the boards, finally, Barb and Cheryl sanded them. We headed over there today (Sunday) again to continue to help them get the bunkhouse ready for renting this summer. 
Let's see, what else have we been doing? Oh! we made three Bluebird houses! We have plenty of scrap wood around the garage so we thought we would put it to good use. 
We've had a few checking them out, but so far, no one has taken up residence. 

We went for a couple of walks looking for sheds. The elk and deer have started dropping their antlers. You see a lot of interesting things out in the forest. I did find this pile of chocolate covered peanuts in the middle of the woods.
They were a little fibrous and earthy, but otherwise they tasted okay. We knew we were in the right area but have yet to find anything. There are bearing trees scattered throughout the forest. The geological service uses them instead of permanent markers. We also found numerous elk rubs like the one on the right below. 
Lastly, the weather has finally warmed up enough for us to enjoy the gazebo. We put the TV back out there, restocked the bar and hung two signs we picked up on our travels. Life, is good!


Saturday, March 9, 2024

Blog-iversary

 I am actually a month late, but it is official, our blog is 10 years old! 

But today, is the 10-year anniversary of the day Barb and I started our great RV adventure leaving Spring Valley, Wisconsin for parts unknown. 

Not only that, but last week is also 10 years since Barb retired.

Some of you have followed our blog from Day 1 and what a journey it has been!  86,769 miles, 47 states, 9 provinces and of course Mexico. So, where have we been in 10 years? Let me show you.....

You'll notice a couple of things; even before we bought and built here, the Black Hills of South Dakota was one of our favorite places. As was The Farm in North Dakota and of course Pasha north of Thunder Bay Ontario. We wintered many years and have great memories of Quartzsite Arizona only missing that area in '21 &'22. Both the kids lived in Salt Lake until '17 when one moved to Pennsylvania and the other to Oregon. Some of the years you can see where the year ended or started, like 2017 where the trail ends in Fort Stockton, TX and picks up again there in the 2018 map.

2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
So, what will the next 10 years bring? Let's start with this....our big travel adventure for this summer. I will let the map tell the story.....
Summer of '24
A three-month adventure to Alaska! Barb has the route all planned out to hit some new places, a trip to Fairbanks to see Barb's cousin as well as hitting some of our favorite fishing spots, including a month in the Homer/Soldotna area! 

We are beyond excited for this adventure. Here is to 10 more years of good health, happiness and great adventures!

Monday, March 4, 2024

Friends

Friends. Where do you meet friends? How do you meet friends?

How did we become blessed with so many good friends? Since we do not get out to the east coast very often, we planned our route to trying to visit as many of our friends as possible. I did a mental recap on how we met most of the friends we visited on this trip. The answer? Traveling. Over 1/2 of the people we stopped and saw on this adventure were people we met while on the road. We met Mike and Liz in Alaska, Shawn and Kim in Arizona, Dan and Mary in Ontario finally Guy and Sue who we also met in Arizona. Combine that with the 4 other couples we met on the road that we hoped to see but it did not work out and it obvious we have met a lot of good people on our travels. 

What made me think of this? Well, last week I mentioned a package that was waiting for us when we returned home. This package was sent to us by another friend we met on the road. But here's the kicker.... we have yet to meet her! Nancy is a fellow traveler and blogger. We have been following each other's adventures for....I actually don't know; I will just go with years. And over those years we have become friends, I would venture to say, good friends, who have never met. We have so many life experiences in common that we could not help to be friends. She is the definition of a Cowgirl. Born and raised on a ranch with a life immersed in adventure, cattle, horses and farming. 

So, when she emailed asking for our address, saying she wanted to send us something, we were excited and intrigued. She said that it was something she had that no longer fit into her house decor and she immediately thought of us! Unfortunately, we would be leaving within a few days and would not be home to receive it. So, we gave her our neighbors address to mail it to and would have to wait until we got home to see what she had that made her think of us. 

Then it was almost the package that wasn't when it totally disappeared from her house. She realized that when she was getting rid of some antique clothing, the box was accidently taken by the person who picked up the clothing! She was able to get it back and get it shipped off to us. 

When we got home it was waiting on our counter where Neighbor Jim had put it. We were too excited to take a picture of the box, we just tore into it. Was it going to be something cool that we were going to cherish, or something cheesy that was destined for the 2nd hand store? Barb tore into the box like a Tasmanian Devil. Cardboard and packing flying everywhere. 

The first thing she pulled out was this gorgeous quilt! A quilt I had known well as she had posted in her blog while she was making it. I had posted how much I liked this quilt and low and behold, here it is!

Being a non-quilter I do not realize the work that goes into making a quilt. I know it is a labor of love and take hours and hours of work. The number of pieces and detail in this thing is incredible! Just look at this one little corner. Each of those different colors and sections had to be individually cut out and sewn together. And did you notice the stitching? Bear paws!

But wait, there is more! Digging further into the box, Barb pulls out this beautiful fox pelt! This thing is huge. Just look at the size of it compared to the quilt. Nancy has seen pictures of the inside of our house and knew that it would fit in perfectly. We have a corner by the entry dedicated to furs and trapping. It fits in perfectly! It is on the left side of the door above the coyote. 

Nancy even included a letter and story of how each of these items came about. Here is a bit of what she wrote:
Then there is the story the quilt tells......
She obviously knows us very well. All this from a woman we have not even met! We are truly blessed. 

We also celebrated Barb's birthday this week. A milestone birthday, she is officially on Medicare! Have you ever tried to buy a present for the woman who has everything? Well, it's not easy. All winter I was taking note of things she said she wanted or looked at longingly before putting it back on the store rack. Do you think I could remember a single one of them when it came time to buy her a birthday gift? Nope.

Instead, I took her to Rapid and we went shopping. She has the hardest time spending money on herself, so I drug her to her (okay my) favorite store and made her pick something out. Cabela's always has the perfect gifts, right? While she walked around the store, I went and looked at the animal display. Dreaming that I too might one day, harvest one of these beasts. When I found her again, she was looking at hiking socks. She put them back saying "I am not spending that much on socks". After some prodding, she picked out a pair and away we went to the register. 
Then we were off to her next favorite store (okay, mine again) Scheels where she picked out a new Yeti mug for herself. Do I treat my woman right or what?!?!
Next up was Sam's Club where we picked out these Cowboy Cut Ribeyes and a dessert.
For supper on her birthday we got together with Dan and Bonnie, going to Jalapeno Grill in Hot Springs. Mexican food. 😬 But, Barbie loves it so so do I.
The critters were happy to have us home too. We were greeted by turkey, deer and even a huge herd of elk!


'
I know some of you might find it hard to believe, but we have not started any new projects since being home. The only work we have done is getting the house in order, installed a whole house water filtration system and spent one day out in the woods clearing brush. We have three large piles ready to burn next time we get 3" of snow or more. Barb also started a sourdough bread starter. She is on day 5, it is pretty slow going as our house rarely gets above 65 so it is definitely struggling.
Dakota and Zoey had an exhausting week reacquainting themselves with all the smells around the yard. Zoey was exhausted at the end of the day!
By the way, check out Nancy's blog for today (3/4) to see the incredible quilt she finished today!

Since everyone like teasers so much, here is another one for next week where I will reveal our summer plans. Another great North American Road trip! 

Monday, February 26, 2024

Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky

 After we cross the Florida state line, we went less than a mile before stopping at a place we have heard a lot about, but never stopped. 

The Flora-Bama Bar is on the Florida/Alabama state line. Actually, in Alabama, the property the bar sits on used to be in Florida. That was until 1962 when Florida gave Alabama a 2 mile stretch of beach along the border.

Multiple levels, live music, inside and outside seating, the Flora-Bama is a must stop tourist attraction. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. Cold, wet and windy. Despite that we did have a good time as we met our friends and fellow Custer, SD residents Merrell and Vicki there. 

Bad hair day? Windy? Both?!?!
With the weather the way it was, everyone was inside. Between the people and the live music, we could not hear each other so we opted to go across the street to the restaurant and get a bite to eat. We spent an hour and a half talking and catching up. In my mind, I saw us spending the entire day with them sitting outside in the sun and talking, but it was just not to be today so after a late lunch we headed on our way. 

Our stop for the night was a Cracker Barrel in Pensacola. It has been quite a while since we have stayed at one, nice and quiet. 

The next day we were off to our next destination and our last visit with friends on our Great Winter Adventure. Dadeville Alabama is a small town of just over 3,200, two of which are our friends Guy and Sue who live in the Stillwaters community just outside Dadeville. Guy and Sue have/had been fulltime travelers for many years but recently got off the road. Speaking of which, if someone is looking for a really nice 37' Tiffin Class A, they have one for sale!

The Stillwaters is a gated community on the shores of Lake Martin which boasts over 700 miles of shoreline. Guy and Sue were residents here for over 20 years before going on the road and are now again. They gave us a tour of the area. Really, really beautiful. 

Having just emptied out a storage unit, Guy spent a good 30 minutes going through his garage handing me stuff, saying "You need this, and you need that" as he handed me stuff he no longer needed from their RV life. I was like a kid in a candy store! Thanks again Guy!

We only had one night here so we spent it catching up over a great steak supper with the best grits I have ever eaten! Their driveway was just big enough to fit our rig, so we were able to spend the night right there and have a goodbye breakfast with them before hitting the road.

Our next destination was another one that I had been wanting to go for several years. I think Nashville was higher on my list than Barb's, but she indulged me by booking 3 nights at the Nashville KOA. We did not get in until late the first afternoon, so we just chilled and planned out our Nashville day. There is a $10/person shuttle that will take you from the campground to the Country Music Hall of Fame, so we booked the first shuttle of the day and were off!

The main thing I wanted to see there was the live music and walk the strip. Since we were planning on coming into town both days, day one was dedicated to doing just that. Our first stop was Kid Rock's place. I went to the bar, ordered two Coor Lights and gave her a $20. She came back with my two beers and $2. Back home I would have received $12-$14 in change, but apparently not in Nashville. Being the big tipper, I am I told the bartender to keep the $2 and walked bewilderedly back to Barb with the 2 beers. 

The music was good, but too loud, so after finishing our beers we headed over to Ole Red across the street where the music was more to our noise level. We ordered some nacho's and two more beers (only $8 here) and enjoyed both the music and nachos.

From there, we walked about 15 minutes to the Ole Smokey Distillery where Barb picked up a t-shirt and I, a sign for our gazebo. 

We spent the rest of our afternoon at the Luke Bryant bar on the second level. A guy by the name of Clay Bitter was playing there and we really enjoyed his music. A great afternoon, but way more than we wanted to spend. 

The next morning, we were reviewing our options for the day. Country Musci HOF, Johnny Cash Museum, and other attractions. I was still run down from this dang cough though, so we decided to just hang out and take it easy. Instead, we did laundry (Barb), cleaned the camper (Barb), cut my hair (Barb) and worked on the blog (me).

After an hour or so drive the next morning, we arrived at Mammoth Cave National Park (24th NP) just in time for our tour. 

You take a bus ride from the Visitors Center to the cave entrance. Of all the cave tours we have done across the country, I think this one would rank near the lowest as far as enjoyment. There were 25 in our group and with much of the tour being narrow passages, it was more like a conga line with you just staring at the person in front of you. Luckily, Barb was in front of me, so I had that going for me. Not a lot of interesting cave features until you get to the last 5 minutes where they have quite a few very cool formations. 

It is really hard to get good pictures in a cave. Afterall, the lighting is not the best. I did manage to get a few that were blogworthy. To be honest, most of the tour was rather boring, but the last 5 minutes was worth the wait. 

From there it was up to Frankfort Kentucky to visit Buffalo Trace Distillery again as well as a couple more tours at other distilleries. For those of you who are into bourbons and whiskeys, you know that Buffalo Trace is like THE distiller in the area. They offer a variety of products, several of which are nearly impossible to find on the open market. These are Blanton's, Weller, Eagle Rare and E.H. Taylor. 

Whoever designed the marketing strategy for Buffalo Trace is a genius. As they offer one of these 4 for sale in their gift shop every day, randomly rotating them. What other company do you know where hundreds of people line up outside 3 hours before they open, waiting, having no idea what they are going to buy? 

Here's the kicker, once you buy one of a variety, you cannot buy it again for 90 days. So, some people are in line for hours not knowing if they can even buy anything. We had bought Blanton's and Weller on our way through in December, so we were only eligible to buy Taylor and Eagle Rare. In line we went not knowing if we could even buy anything. We arrived at 7:30 each day and were probably 50th in line. By 9:00 there were hundreds of people in line. Your first clue of what is being offered is usually when one of the employees comes out at about 8:45 and spills the beans. 

There are several Facebook groups dedicated to predicting what they will offer the next day. The first day we were there the odds-on favorite for our first day there was E.H. Taylor.

About 8:45am, word started spreading through the crowd that it was indeed Taylor. We were in luck our first day! 
After making our purchases, we headed over to a local park to kill some time before our tour at Castle & Key distillery. 

The Cove Spring Park in Frankfort is absolutely beautiful. Several natural springs, a creek and a picturesque setting in the Kentucky hillside. 
The park has a really nice children's memorial with each of the bricks below a memorial to a child. The picture to the right is the head of the spring and an old structure from back in the day. 

There were a few oddities in the park, like this mini-farm in a hollowed-out tree, or this strange looking creature just randomly hanging out in the woods. 
A great way to kill a couple of hours and walk the dogs while waiting for our next tour. The Castle & Key Distillery was founded in 2018, but the building in which it sits was built by E.H. Taylor (sound familiar?) in 1887. E.H. was the nephew of President Zachery Taylor. We were more interested in the history of the building than we were of the Castle & Key products. Very cool and historic building. 



As you can see, they have an open fermentation system which is then pumped into the still. 

The following morning, we were back at Buffalo Trace in the hopes that Eagle Rare was the allocated spirit of the day. It was the odds-on favorite, could we be lucky enough to get all 4 in just 4 visits?
Again, at 8:45, Barb and I we get the word that spirit of the day was an underdog; Blanton's, one that we could not buy. Barb, not deterred, said she was going to try, so at 9:00, we go in, she grabs a bottle, goes to the register. Denied. Oh, well, 3 out of 4 isn't bad. 

Then it was off to our last tour in the area. Bulleit Distillery is located a few miles west in Shelbyville. This is by far the most modern facility that we have been in. Everything appeared to be state of the art and computerized. They were founded in 1987 and this facility was designed with tours in mind giving the touree a pretty interesting experience. Our tour guide was very good too, which really helped. 




We ended the tour with a tasting that was paired with some spices which you smelled before and after tasting each of the bourbons. It was the first time we have ever done that and was pretty interesting. 
That was our last event for our winter vacation, and it was time to head home. We made it just west of St. Louis that afternoon before we pulled into a truck stop for the night. The next day we woke up and were on the road by 6am with just over 800 miles from home. The plan was to break it up into two days, but as we got going, we just kept on going and going and going. I would drive a few hours, Barb would drive a few hours, the girls just slept between their potty breaks every few hours. The girls are such good travelers. Dakota just picks a spot and sleeps. Zoey moves around every so often tucking her head into various crevices. 


Barb just gets annoyed with me as I do not make a very good passenger. I was able to sleep a bit, but mostly annoyed her.
15 hours later, we pulled into driveway exhausted! An hour later we had a fire going in the fireplace, it is good to be home!
So, with that, our Great Winter Adventure is over. 76 days, 6,957 miles, 29 stops, 2 wineries, 5 breweries and 13 distilleries. Lots of fun, fishing and great visits with family and friends. My cough is all but gone, I am feeling much better, and we are looking forward to sleeping in our bed!
The news does not stop there though, we had a very special package waiting for us when we got home. Actually, it was mailed to our neighbor, who put it on our counter. To say we were thrilled when we opened it would be the understatement. What was it? Tune it next week to find out!