Bob the Birthday Boy

We took a short break from driving yesterday so Bob wouldn’t have to drive, and to celebrate his birthday. We decided to visit a Granite City Food & Brewery, which apparently is a chain with locations in 11 states. Reviews were good and so we gave it a try.

Bob had a turkey burger with pepper jack cheese, avocado, arugula, and red onion, plus waffle fries. I had an Impossible Burger and green beans with almonds, and we both enjoyed our lunch very much. The beer was good, too! As we were getting ready to leave we asked our waitress if she would mind taking our picture since it was Bob’s birthday, and she said, “Wait—don’t leave yet!” And ran off, reappearing a few minutes later with a birthday dessert. It was like a hot, soft chocolate chip cookie topped with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

We have been camping at the Lancaster Event Center for two nights in Lincoln, NE, which is a place we’ve stayed at before. While there’s only water and electrical hookups, the manager gave us the code for the (free) laundry which is usually reserved for people staying a week or longer. That allowed us to wash all our clothes and not overfill the gray water tank.

Today we are driving across Nebraska, 289 miles to Ogallala and changing time zones again. We’ll be on mountain time, two hours behind eastern time for anyone who may want to call us.

Missouri Star Quilt Company

When I made campground reservations early this summer, I was focusing more on not having to drive long distances between stops, rather than on sightseeing along the way. Therefore, when we were approaching yesterday’s campground I was pleasantly surprised to see such a pretty little town only a half mile away from our day’s destination.

And then I saw the sign on the building. Missouri Star Quilt Company. Quilt murals. Twelve themed quilting shops. And I realized we were in a quilter’s Mecca.

We checked into our campsite and as soon as I could I waved goodbye to Bob and drove to check out the town. What a fun place! I do make quilts at times but our house is small and I have no wall space to display them, so quilting is not one of my top crafts. Even so, this place is a quilter’s dream, and I enjoyed walking through all the shops. It was a very hot day and the air conditioning inside was very welcoming as I browsed. I checked out J.C. Penney’s childhood home, too, which has been relocated from 2 1/2 miles away and set up as a tiny museum.

It was not air conditioned, though, so I didn’t stay long!

When I returned to the campground I discovered that there was an issue with the electrical service at our site and Bob was running the generator to keep the coach cool. By evening, Bob had figured out that we could run the front AC without circuits tripping, but not the one in the bedroom. We set up fans to blow cooler air towards our bed but it still was hot all night and neither of us slept that well. 

That’s ok, we are off to Lincoln, Nebraska today where we’ll stop for two nights.

On another note, today marks the seventh anniversary of the start of this blog, so happy blogiversary to me! It continues to be fun to write, and I hope to continue for many more years.

Rochester, IL

Even though I titled this post “Rochester, IL,” we really haven’t seen any of it. At this point we are picking up the pace of our travel and driving 3 nights, then resting a night, until we get to Idaho. We are keeping our “hops” between 200 and 250 miles a day so it’s not too bad, between 3 and 4 hours of travel a day. Bob and I are getting ready to leave within the hour for Hamilton, MO.

On our way here yesterday I took my obligatory state sign photo, and shot one pic of Illinois as we drove across it. Illinois is flat and most views are of large farmlands with a barn in the distance. It’s pretty scenery.

It has been hot; yesterday was 88 degrees and felt hotter, with lots of humidity, but it’s going to be 94 degrees in Hamilton. Time to get myself in gear so we can leave!

Indianapolis, IN

We had a great time with our friends, Retha and Mike, here in Indianapolis. Regular readers of this blog know that we try and meet up with these folks whenever our paths cross, or when we can make them cross. They were heading east to New England as we went west to Idaho, so the stars aligned.

On Sunday night we went for pizza and beer. The waitstaff were a hoot and we enjoyed our food. I’m finding that pizza without cheese is really good—you just have to load it up with veggies. Yesterday we hung out for most of the day. Despite some rain in the forecast (and finding that almost every possible activity was closed for the day) we managed to find fun. We visited the largest mall in Indiana, Castleton Square. We were underwhelmed by its size but walked around it several times for the exercise and as an excuse to just walk and talk. We ate lunch in the food court, too.

Afterwards we set out to find ice cream for dessert, and found Brics, a homemade ice cream place that had both regular and vegan ice cream. It was so yummy!

There’s a lot of construction going on in Indianapolis at the moment so we tried and failed to go to an antique store; there were no open exits off the highway to get there. So we returned to the campground, had a glass of wine, and just enjoyed our visit.

All too soon it was time to say farewell until next time. Our next stop is just south of Springfield, IL, which is in Central time so we’ll hit a time change today.

Heading to Indianapolis

Look what we passed on our way to Galena, Ohio!

The big Longaberger building in Newark, Ohio appeared on our left and I had to snap a photo. I used to sell Longaberger years ago, and still travel with a few of their baskets.  Unfortunately, the company has gone out of business and the building now sits vacant. Hopefully someone will repurpose it one day.

We’ve had a nice, quiet couple of days in Galena. Chores start to pile up when you take up time playing tourist! But we did get out yesterday for a little bit and visited the IKEA in Columbus. I couldn’t resist, since it was only a little over ten minutes away. We didn’t buy too much there; a tiny clock to sit on the bathroom counter for $1.49, some tea, chocolate bars for Bob, and some frozen “veggie balls” to toss into our spaghetti sauce. After a quick stop at Walmart on the way back we were back to doing laundry.

This morning we got off to a leisurely start and left the campground at about 11:00. Soon we were passing the “leaving Ohio” sign and entering Indiana.

We’ll meet up with our good friends Mike and Retha for two days before moving on.

New Stanton, PA

We arrived in New Stanton on Wednesday afternoon, having traveled the PA Turnpike from Manheim, PA. I’ve been keeping track of tolls lately so we’ll know how much money to load into our NH EZPass account ahead of time. Automatic replenishment doesn’t work for us; first of all, the system takes a day or two to post tolls to the account so it you travel daily or even skip a day here and there, you can use up more than the auto-replenish amount of thirty dollars before the money gets into your account. Also, we pay a larger toll than a car, since between the RV and the towed car, we have four axles. We use a transponder on the motorhome and tuck the car’s transponder into its foil bag when we travel. Otherwise we’d be charged twice. 

The toll between Manheim and New Stanton was $66 (and the Commodore Barry Bridge cost us $30) so not paying twice is very important! I have to check my account frequently and add money as needed.

New Stanton is a a quiet area with not a lot of places to see, so we contented ourselves with just a visit to Bella Terra Winery. Their wines were excellent and we added to our wine cellar. And they didn’t charge for the tasting of five wines each, so we appreciated that. Bob and I always choose different wines, then take a sip from each other’s glass, so we were able to each sample ten wines and make the best choice. After purchasing our bottles, we each took a glass to the patio where we enjoyed the pretty setting.

Friday morning we double checked our next destination. Uh oh, the Ohio Expo Center is hosting the Ohio State Fair right now. That wasn’t on the website when I planned our trip. And they don’t take outside campers during the State Fair. Scramble time! We both started researching places to stay for two nights, and Bob found one that would take us. Whew! 

So tonight and the next night we’ll be in Ohio. I always enjoy driving through this state, with its rolling farmlands. Very picturesque.

Fun in Lancaster, PA

Bob and I try and take a couple of days at least in Lancaster County each year. There are always new things for us to discover, and we look forward to the relaxed pace. Our trip was fairly easy (despite rain) and we made decent time. Bob commented that the squeak he’s been hearing as he drove the MH was finally gone. I have to say, that squeak has bothered us foe YEARS. This summer Bob took down the driver’s side shade and made a narrow shelf for it to hang on, installing the shade end pieces on the wooden board. And hip hip hooray, no more squeak!

So Sunday we arrived at Pinch Pond Campground in Manheim, a new area for us. The site was nice and the place was fine except for the sounds from a nearby shooting range. For that reason alone, we probably wouldn’t stay there again. But we found things to do, so on Monday Bob and I drove to Brickerville Antiques Barn in Lititz, PA. I prefer multi-dealer antique places whenever possible, and this place fit the bill. It was fun poking around through all the old things.

Afterwards, we returned to Manheim and stopped into the Stitch and Craft shop so I could look for a piece of fabric or two for upcoming projects. They had a nice selection, and the shop owners were very pleasant.

Then it was on to Waltz Winery for a tasting. We found a few bottles for our “wine cellar” in the motorhome to take with us.

On Tuesday we drove to downtown Lancaster where we visited the Central Market. Downtown Lancaster reminds me very much of a small-scale Philadelphia, with its large, historical buildings, cobblestones and brick sidewalks, and a market similar to Reading Terminal Market.

We purchased farm-fresh fruits and veggies, tea, spices, and pickles. Afterwards we strolled around the area and found Cross Keys Woodworks, which was full of inspirational pieces for Bob.

Today is a traveling day; we are headed for New Stanton for two nights.