29 August 2020 Friends, Wine, and Stories

 Our friends Jerry and Janette live west of St. Louis. We arranged to meet up with them at their house near Defiance. The area south of their home is riddled with wineries, so we talked them to going to one of the wineries for some sampling of Missouri wine. They took us to Balducci Vineyard near the Missouri River. There friend Mary, and later her husband Bruce, joined us as well. We bought a bottle of Norton Reserve which was made with locally grown Norton grapes. It was a very good wine with a nice smooth finish. One we would definitely do again. There are at least 10 vineyards/wineries in the area. So we may have to return to sample a few more. After the vineyard, we went back to Jerry and Janette’s house. They took us for a ride around the private lake in the subdivision before serving all of us a wonderful salmon dinner. It was with reluctance that we had to leave around 10 to get back to poor Etta. Monday we pull out for Kansas City. 

Captain Janette and First Mate Jerry

Leslie, Mary and Bruce 

Sunset on the lake

28 August 2020 RV Life

 David ended up working a lot Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. After he wrapped up Friday, he was walking Etta when a couple, Tom and Sarah, came up to him and asked if they could ask him some questions about the Wanderer. Turns out they were on their way to the New Horizons factory in Junction City. David invited them in and we gave them a tour of the Wanderer and filled their heads with ideas and lessons learned. Another New Horizons had pulled in to the RV park on Wednesday. They had just come back from the factory after having some repairs made on a used 2014 they just bought. While we were walking that evening, the other New Horizon owners, John and Anita, were sitting outside so we walked up to say hello, then their neighbors (who had been full time RVing for 21 years) came over, and then the future New Horizon owners stopped in and we sat around talking about our RVing experiences, apps that we use, and maintenance issues we had encountered until the mosquitoes drove us home. 

 

24 August 2020 Gateway Arch National Park.

 The park staff provided us some directions to Gateway Arch NP, which lies on the edge of the Mississippi River downtown St. Louis. We had to drive through the downtown area to get to the NP. There were a lot of boarded up windows and they had the downtown streets blocked off to single lanes with concrete barriers. We decided then that we were not going to stay long. We found a place to park the Behemoth and walked to the entrance to the Arch. It was a bit surprising that there were so few people. We had to get tickets to enter even thought they are not charging for them at the moment. Then we had to go through security before entering the Museum under the Arch. The trams up to the top of the Arch were closed due to the COVID. But the museum under the arch was very interesting. We picked up our Park Stamp and 

visited the park store to get David’s hat and Leslie’s post cards. We walked around the NP Grounds and took pictures of the Arch. We learned something new in the process. Turns out there was a Revolutionary War battle fought in St. Louis. The British and their Indian allies attempted to capture Fort San Carlos in 1780, which was the center of fur trade in the western territories. 300 Town folks, consisting of Spanish Soldiers, French settlers, free men and slaves, fought off a force twice their number along what is now 4^thstreet preventing the British from taking control of the Mississippi River.

 

We decided on the way back to the Wanderer to explore old town St. Charles. St. Charles was established in the early 1800s. Many of the buildings in the Old Town district date back to the mid 1800s. Another part of town, called French Town, contains some beautiful examples of French Colonial Architecture from the French Settlers to the area in the 1800s. We walked the old town district. Some of the stores were open but nothing peaked our interest. We finally ended up at the Schlafly brewery. The beers were really good and so was the food. So much so we went back later in the week.

Entrance Sign

Arch from the river front

Entrance to the Park

Arch from the North base

Arch from the South base

From the shadow

Old Town St. Charles

Schafly Brewery sign

23 August 2020 Michigan City, Indiana to St. Charles, Missouri

 The drive to St. Charles was 346 miles which was a 7.5 hour drive. Right at our established limit. So it was a long drive through hundreds of miles of corn fields. We are staying at Sundermeirer RV Park ($52 per night, no discounts) just north of the old town of St. Charles where Louis and Clark left on their expedition to map the Northwest territory. Our plan is to visit Gateway Arch NP and visit friends in the area.

21 August 2020 In Search of a Sunset

 We headed up to New Buffalo in Michigan in search of a sunset on Lake Michigan. It was one of the places the waitress at Running Vines had recommended. It’s a cute little town just across the Indiana state line in Michigan. Only a 15 minute drive or so from where we are staying. We had dinner at the Stray Dog (another recommendation), basically a bar and grill down by the harbor. Leslie loved the 

name, and the dog logo and bought the tee shirt. Then we walked down to the city beach park, along with a few hundred other folks, to see the sunset on the lake. It was really quite a beautiful sunset with the boats going in and out of the harbor. Afterwards we stayed and watched some of the beautiful yachts come back into the harbor as the light faded. Definitely worth the trip.  

The Stray Dog sign

Sun setting on Lake Michigan

Sun Set from New Buffalo Beach

19 August 2020 Exploring The Area

 David finished up work early, so we took the opportunity to do a bit more exploring. We had checked out one of the places the Ranger said was good for sunsets on Monday and found there was a half mile walk to the beach from the parking area and a narrow strip of beach on the lake shore. The road along the beach area had no parking and was overlooked by multi-million dollar homes. So I assume they did not want the riffraff parking below their beautiful homes to access the beach. So we drove over to the other area recommended by the ranger and found a very small beach (maybe 200 yards) with a jetty, surrounded on one side by a big industrial complex and the other side by palatial home that went all the way to the water edge. But we walked out on to the jetty and got a good view of the Chicago Skyline across the lake. Not very inviting area. Having tried Ohio wines, we decided to try one of the wineries here in Indiana. We ended up at Running Vines Winery in Chesterton. We were pleasantly surprised by the wines! But they import almost all their grapes from Chile or California. The only grapes grown in Indiana are down around Bloomington and tend to be on the sweet side. But we enjoyed the tasting and walked out with half a case of wine! The waitress was very helpful and gave us some suggestions for restaurants and places to go see the sunset in the area. 

Chicago Skyline

17 August 2020 Indiana Dunes National Park

  

Indiana Dunes was a National Lake Shore (established 1965) until last fall when it was made into a National Park and expanded to include some wet lands in the area. The Park is broken up into several small sections surrounding the Indiana Dunes State Park. In between sections of the park are gated communities, large scale industrial complexes (one of the largest steel mills in the country), power plants, and large rail yards. It just does not have the feel of a natural area. It feels more like a city park. We stopped at the visitor center to get our park stamp (36^thNational Park stamp) and talk with the rangers. The ranger recommended the Cowles Bog Loop trail, her favorite hike in the park, for a hike. It’s named after Henry Cowles, father of ecology. The visitor center exhibits and theater were closed due to COVID, but the park shop was open so we were able to get David’s hat and Leslie’s post cards. The day before we arrived, three people drowned due to extreme rip tides so we were not allowed to swim or go into the water. We drove to the trailhead sandwiched between US20 and a private gate lakeshore community. The initial portion of the trail follows a gravel road under high voltage power lines, along a very busy railroad line, before turning down a dirt road between two bogs. There we saw the only critter sighting, some ducks swimming in the algae covered water and a very small toad. As we headed toward the beach we climbed over old sand dunes, which are now covered by old black oak trees. We eventually dropped down a steep soft sand dune to the beach. The waves were crashing on shore but the breeze felt great after the stifling humidity and heat in the forest. From the beach we could see the skyline of Chicago in the distance. The trail only ran 0.2 miles along the beach before turning back inland and up a steep soft sand dune and back into the woods. That climb was a good reminder of why we hate sand dunes. One step forward, slide a half step backwards, one step forward, slide a half step backwards. 

Quote of the day: “God, I hate hiking in sand!”. We can’t really say the trail was scenic (with steel mills, power plants and trains in view), but it was different. Cowles Loop Trail: 5.2 miles, 282 feet of elevation gain, 1,488 calories burned. The sand dunes formed after the last glacial period due to rising and falling lake levels which left a dune field a couple of miles deep. In between dunes are bogs where the lake water was trapped by the last retreat of the water level. We hope to get out to one of the more accessible beaches to catch a sunset later in the week. 

The park is so new they don't have a proper entrance sign yet

Looking Toward Chicago

Chicago Skyline in the distance

The lake shore dunes

The Beach!

View from the top of that tall dune

Trail to the beach

Coles Bog

Nothing like a steal plant to make you feel close to nature!

15 August 2020 1920s Main Street

 We lucked out in being in Sauder Village for the opening of their 1920s Main Street Exhibits. We had toured the vintage portion of Sauder Village when we were here back in 2018. But we wanted to visit the new 1920’s main street section. It is based on historical main streets from the small towns in the area. Some of the 

buildings were acquired and move to the site, others were built to match builds from the surrounding towns. A lot of work went into building a historically correct representation. Volunteers were in each building to explain the items in the displays and the function of the various shops in the community. Many of the display cases and tables were from local shops when they closed and moved whole sale into the exhibit. We really enjoyed the hardware store and jewelry store exhibits. We must be really old because I can remember many of the items from our childhood at our grandparents house. When we entered the building that was Dr. McGuffin’s office occupied from about 1915 to 1955, we were intrigued by old photos of people wearing masks during the era of the Spanish flu. Apparently, they suffered the same issues we suffer today due to the COVID 19 virus. Some people comply with wearing masks for safety and then there are those who refuse to cooperate for any reason.  There was even on picture of several masked folks and one lady wore a sign that stated “ No Mask, Go To Jail”.  Sounds like a couple of Mayors ad Governors we know now.  We then went and viewed some of the other exhibits we missed last time we were in the village before getting dinner at the restaurant in the village (The Barn). Its fun going to the historical parks because we learn new thing about the old things and old ways.

1920s Main Street

1920's Hardware Store

1920's Fuel Station

Fuel Pumps - Red Crown was a local gasoline brand

Motor Oil

1920's Livery Stable

1918 Water Pump

1926 Ford Fire Truck

Bank Building

Grocery Store

1910 Wagon used for housing beet workers in the field

Inside the trailer. All the modern amenities 

12 August 2020 Ohio Wine Tasting

 We noticed that there were several wineries in the area. Our experience with Ohio wines was limited to one winery in the Canton area. So we decided to give them another try, only in the COVID world we live in today. We tried a winery in Wauseon called American Winery and another closer to Archbold called Knotty Vines Farm & Winery. Our expectations were pretty low going in and we were not won over. Most of the Ohio wines are fruit based (Apple, citrus, blueberry, strawberry) or sweet grapes. But the small vineyards are starting to grow dryer type grapes and are coming out with dryer wines. Knotty Vines is also aging some of their wines in oak barrels. We tasted most of the dryer reds and whites in both 

wineries. We learned that over half the grapes grown in Ohio are grown up on the southeastern shores of Lake Erie. Knotty Vines makes half of their wines from grapes grown on the property. We did find a red wine at Knotty Vines that was an acceptable table wine so we bought one bottle to take back with us. Otherwise, we are looking forward to Texas wine country!!!

American Winery entrance sign

American Winery grounds

Knotty Vines entrance sign

Knotty Vines Grounds

Knotty Vines wine flights

Grapes on the vine

9 August 2020 Plan C begins

 We pulled out of Canton this morning to start our plan C travels. We had stayed in Canton an extra two weeks to have more time to visit Veronica and David’s cousin Amy. The first leg of our plan takes us to Archbold, Ohio in the Northwest corner of Ohio. We have stayed here before back in September of 2018. We originally only planned to stay for three days, but our next destination could not take us to the 16^th, so we extended our stay here. We are staying at the Sauder Village RV Park ($36 per night weekly rate), which is part of the Heritage Village historic park. We enjoyed our stay here last time but we intend to look around a bit more this time. There are some Wineries in the area we would like to check out and they are opening the new 1920s Main Street part of the Heritage Village later in the week. 

5 August 2020 Twisted Olive

 With our departure quickly approaching, we decided we all needed to get out to our favorite restaurant in the area, the Twisted Olive. So Veronica got dressed up for the dinner. She looks so good in the outfit she bought to match the colors in the shawl we had given her last Christmas. We had a wonderful dinner. The restaurant was doing a wonderful job of managing people and exposure due to the COVID restrictions and the food was delicious as usual. 

1 August 2020 Scrubbing Rubber

 While David was under the Wanderer greasing the three Morryde Axles, he noticed some unusual wear on the driver side rear tire. We pulled the tire and were surprised to see the rubber scrubbed off on one area of the inside tread of the tire. So we replaced it with a new tire rather than take a chance with the tire blowing out.

Major rubber missing

Almost down to the belts