Lazy Days RV resort near Tampa, Florida

After Thanksgiving we left South Carolina for a trip to Lazy Days RV in Tampa.  Wow!What a facility! 126 acres of all kinds of RVs and campers for sale. Over 100 sales reps and 300 bays for maintenance.  The campground is great and they include free tickets for breakfast and lunch in their cafeteria. They also have another campground on the grounds for the Crown Club. These are people who own high dollar RVs. They even have their own swimming pool, spa, cafeteria.  All of the inventory for sale is open and you can look through any of it that you like. Wow! People really have money! We have met great people. Pam and Jim who own a Zephyr. Beautiful! We also spent a lot of time with new friends, Lori and Brian from South Dakota. So many are spending the winter months in Florida. We also had a chance to meet up with friends we met in

Nashville, Tennessee last August, Roy and Nan. Oh, I have to tell you; I took the driving test. I now can officially drive the coach.  I will still need alot of practice.

 The trolley to hitch a ride over to the cafeteria or service or sales center. They also have golf carts driving all over the place who will pick you up. Most people who come here are having some work done or swapping an old camper for a new one.  We just had two free nights we received at the YMCA rally in Asheville. We liked it so much we lengthened our stay.

 The swimming pool and spa.

 A café built like a motorcoach.

Inside the cafeteria.

Dillard,Georgia the Highlands N C

These pictures were taken the end of September, 2015 when we took a quick trip up to Dillard, Georgia and the nearby Highlands of NC. Charles and Terri and Charles and Joey, our good friends from Dewberry went with us. Some of these waterfall pictures were taken I think on highway 28 leading out of the Highlands. Beautiful little town with specialty shops, very expensive, up in the Highlands.  

The Dillard House, family style eating in Dillard, Georgia. It's close to Franklin, NC, and Cherokee. We visited all of these areas while we were there. We stayed at River Vista RV Resort in Dillard. It was very nice with a full pool indoor hot tub.

Sierra Nevada Brewery near Asheville,NC

This week in October after the FMCA rally we joined the Tiffin Travelers, a group we met there. For those of you who don't know our motor coach is a Tiffin, made by Tiffin Coaches out of Red Bay, Alabama. Anyway, we all drive Tiffin and they were staying this week at the Rutledge RV Resort. We joined in their club activities and visited the Sierra Nevada Brewery yesterday. What a BEAUTIFUL complex. This company originated in Chico, California. North Carolina changed their laws to allow for businesses and industries such as these to build and distribute here. This is our tour of the facility.  About 24 of us toured and then we ate at the resturant, part of the complex. Just four years ago Buncombe County was a dry county and of course is still located in the Bible Belt. For those of you who don't know, a dry county means no alcoholic beverages could be bought or sold here. I believe the tour guide said Asheville has three million dollar microbreweries here and around 40 small breweries. The process was amazing, very automotive. Out of 300 employees on site 250 work in the resturant. I hope you get to visit one day.  We tried many varieties of beer in the tap room. I liked the pale ales, like their Octoberfest.

Asheville, N C October, 2015

Hi! It's been awhile since I posted. I may go back and post some of our adventures since August. Jeffrey's phone died in August and we had to invest in a new one. Then we discovered my tablet was no longer compatible and hence my absence. I'll show youwhat we did today. This week we are at Rutledge Lake RV Resort outside of Asheville, N C. We came up here last week for a FMCA (Family Motor Coach Ass.) rally last week with our friends, Terri and Charles Setzler. It was great to get away as we have been parked in our oldest son's backyard in Leesville, S C since sometime in September. Now we feel like we don't want to go back, but our son, Bryan is getting married November 21 and he is buying the house from us. We' ll stay
near until the day after Christmas when we will head down to the Keys again and possibly stay in Florida for the winter. Jeffrey didn't take alto of pictures today. We took a trolley tour through the city. There were 10 stops all over the city.  The ride itself takes about 1 hour and 1/2, but we got on and off to tour the various areas. The pictures don't do the city justice. It is beautiful.  The temperature today was in the low 70s.  The leaves have not begun to change colors yet, but the mountainous region is vibrant. To tell you about the economy here, they are building six new hotels in Asheville this year. I loved touring the downtown area. Lots of small businesses, boutiques, eateries, etc. One of the pictures shows the shops at Grove Park and the trolley tour included a stop at the famous Grove Park Inn.  Even president Obama stayed there. Beautiful old architecture homes. Another area worth visiting is stop number 7, the River Arts District, but it requires lots of walking between the various artists studios. They recommended driving your car down to this area and moving from the different artists' studios to access the better. Another stop, actually, stops, 8, 9, and 10 take you over to the Biltmore Village Shops. Specialty shops and great places to eat and visit.  Of course, Asheville is known for the Biltmore House which was built for George Vanderbilt near the 1900s. Don,t quote me, but it's one of the largest mansions built in the U S. It's phenomenal to visit, but we've visited twice before.  Another beautiful area to view is the Blue Ridge Parkway which is a drive through the Pisgah National Forest.  You can view the Appalachian mountains through western North Carolina. Just to let you know, the campground we are staying in is easy access near the Asheville Airport.  I really think I could maybe settle in this are, but not for all of the seasons of the year. It' s still too early to even consider, but I want to keep that thought. For those of you who have followed my blog,you missed out on me sharing our ending weeks in Michigan in August and our trips into Indiana Amish Country and the motorcoaches manufacturers.  We also enjoyed Loretta Lynn's Dude Ranch and Campground near Nashville, Tennessee. And we visited Nashville. When planning your travels, don't miss either one.  We got to see Loretta Lynn and her sister, Crystal Gail perform the week we were there and it is a nice campground but close to nowhere but Loretta's developed town, Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. We enjoyed it, but had to drive 7 or more miles for groceries and eateries. We did like eating country, home cooking at Lorreta Lynn's Restaurant at the interstate 40 exit. Okay, I'm going to check on other photos and share something else. See ya!

Amish Country in Indiana

We took these pictures when we visited Amish Country near Nappanee, Indiana. There is a replica of a working farm with all of the out buildings. The Amish provide as many of their products as they can so as not to rely on others-the grocery store,etc.

The state taxed a house determined by the number of closets. Therefore, the Amish hung their clothes on pegs around the room. They make all of their clothes-very plain and only solid colors using the same patterns.

 Their farms have dairy cows, chickens, beef cows, horses, ducks,etc. These animals provide their food or help with chores.  The Amish do not have electricity in their homes and they travel in horse and buggy.

  

The Amish children use this to learn how to saddle up the horses. They had very simple toys that usually had a learning purpose.

They painted the bottom of the fruit trees white to ward off bugs.  They also put maple syrup in cans on the trees to attract bees for pollination. 

The one room schoolhouse was also on the farm property.  The children only go to school through the 8th grade. Other buildings on the farm were the smokehouse, the root cellar, the blacksmith shop and huge barns. The Amish usually have many children to help with running the farm.   They still make their own butter and wash their clothes without electrical devices.  The Amish meet with about 20 other families taking turns in their homes every other Sunday for worship.  Each of these groups elect a bishop for their group. You can tell the married men because they don' t shave after they get married. The women stay at home and raise the children, but we saw young girls who had not married working in the RV manufacturers. Now many of the Amish provide the cabinets and other word working for the camper and RV manufacturers. They have to wear the white bonnets on their heads and now alto of the younger Amish ride bicycles for traveling from place to place.  The roads had larger shoulders for the horse and buggies to travel.  The buggies now have tail lights for safer travel. The different towns we visited near this area were. Shipshewana, Middlebury, Howe, and LaGrange. These are in western Indiana. 

On this farm they had converted one of the barns to a huge restaurant. They serve foods typically eaten by an Amish family. It is served family style. We had Navy bean soup and cabbage slow and homemade pickles and homemade bread as an appetizer.  Then for the main part of the meal, they served green beans, mashed potatoes, dressing, noodles, turkey and roast beef, and you could choose dessert.  I had chocolate pie and Jeffrey had apple pie and ice cream.

The Round House is also on the property and is used as a theater. Several times a year actors come in and play in various plays. 

Before I go I have to tell you to visit Das Dutchman Essenhaus. This is a restaurant near Middlebury. Country Amish cooking, buffet style.  Great food!  There are also gift shops on the grounds. 

A work in progress

Hey, I think I figured out how. To upload pictures from my tablet. However, I am limited to how many pictures I've taken from my tablet. We've always used Jeffrey's phone. For some reason I haven't been able to pull pictures from Jeffrey's phone lately and I haven't been able to share with you in a while. I don't know what Jeffrey is doing different with the pictures he has on his phone and why I can' t pull them on here. I want to learn more about the cloud.  I'll keep practicing. We are in Kentucky now.  I still need to tell you about Indiana.

Marquette, Michigan

Marquette, Michigan is located at the top of the Upper Peninsula, but not the highest point. It is a big city located on Lake Superior. We were only 16 miles away when we camped in Gwinn, Michigan. The city is quite vibrant with beautiful parks. We took a picture of a young girl who had a rope tied between two trees and she was practicing walking on a balanced beam. Another picture is of a huge structure in the water where ships load and unload iron ore. We also rode out to Prestique Island-another pretty park. Some of the architecture was beautiful. It looked very French- made with sandstone rocks and domes on top. City Hall and a Catholic Church to name a few.

This sailing vessel was for hire.  We saw it out sailing on Lake Superior with it's three sails.  Quite spectacular! 

 That's Joye, Charles Irons and me walking towards one of the inner city parks. We would leave our RV s parked at the campground and travel out to the various sites we want to visit.