Learning something new everyday, today I learned….

Learning something new everyday, today I learned….

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2018 Wine Tastings

During our travels, we pick up bottles of wine, not only in the grocery stores in different states, choosing the local brands that sound good, but also during our wine tasting excursions, as we taste them we will share our findings.

Cherry Moscato

Oliver Winery & Vineyards

Bloomington, Indiana

This was a bottle we picked up at a local grocery store while in the Midwest area that sounded delightful and it was. Montmorency cherries, which is a tart cherry balanced by sweet tropical Moscato with a spritz finish. This is on our list to purchase again.

Sweet White Expression

White Pine Winery

Fennville, Michigan

This was the 3^rd and last tasting room in St. Joseph that we visited and had a hard time finding a good choice for us, most were not sweet and we felt rushed by the server, he was not very friendly. This has a peach, mango taste, with a Riesling flavor, a bit on the dry side. Because it’s so dry, we would not purchase this one again.

Pink Tutu / Sweet Rose

Lazy Ballerina Winery

Fennville, Michigan

Tasted this one as well while visiting their tasting room in St. Joseph and after tasting this one, we knew we wanted a bottle to take home. Mixture of sweet red and white grapes that will keep you dancing, hence the name. The next time we are in the area, we will stop at the winery and pick up more of this deliciously sweet wine.

2017 Lake Michigan Shore Traminette

Baroda Founders Wine Cellars

Baroda, Michigan

We picked this one up at a local grocery store while in the area and we love the light taste. Not sweet but definitely not dry, just perfectly blended as one of our favorites that we will purchase again whenever we find it. It is a hybrid of the Gewürztraminer wine which is one we have previously tasted and liked.

White Catawba

Lonz Winery

Sandusky, Ohio

Another local wine that is light, clear, crisp, and just a hint of sweetness, but no dryness at all. This will be on our list of favorites to purchase again.

  

Sweet Nita’s White

Lazy Ballerina Winery

Fennville, Michigan

We stopped at their tasting room in St. Joseph and after tasting this one, we knew we wanted a bottle to take home. Inspired by Grandma Nita’s “secret recipe” homemade white wine. It has a great aroma and the taste is perfectly sweet without being overpowering. The next time we are in the area, we will stop at the winery and pick up more of this delightful wine.

Pink Catawba

Ferrante Wine Farm

Geneva, Ohio

We went to their winery a few years ago and we loved this wine, so while in the area we picked up a bottle and we were not disappointed. Not too sweet, but definitely not dry, made only with the Catawba grape and has a great, light, crisp end.

Winter White Table Wine

Leelanau Cellars

Oneda, Michigan

The bottle was beautiful and the description was everything we like in a wine. There are no additional fruits added, just all grapes. It has a sweet beginning and an ending that is clear and crisp. This would be one of the wines we would purchase again, and when we get to Northern Michigan again, we will stop by their winery.

Raven's Glenn Winery - Sangria

Raven's Glenn - West Lafayette, Ohio

This was purchased because the bottle looked interesting, and it is so sweet, with a cranberry, plum taste. A very different fruity taste with elderberry extract, a 12% volume that kicked our butts, and is NOT on our list to purchase again.

Chalet Debonne Vineyards - White Catawba

Lake Erie Wine - Madison, Ohio

Clear, crisp and a fresh ending...definitely on our list to purchase again when we are in that area!

Oliver Winery & Vineyards – White Sangria

Bloomington, Indiana

Celebratory wine from our travels, sweet and spunky taste that we would definitely purchase again!

Tabor Hill Winery – Riesling

Lake Michigan Shore – Buchanan, Michigan

Rieslings are a different type of wine for us, there are times when many of them are sweet enough but many times they are not, this time it was somewhere in the middle. Fresh and clear tasting with a dryness at the end but not lingering. We would recommend it but we would probably not purchase it again since we do like the sweeter Rieslings.

Our Final Blog

It’s that time of the year when we complete the one year and move onto the new one with high hopes and anticipation knowing that this may be the year when we are finally able to do the things we love and not settle for less than we deserve.

We are still in Yuma, but we changed resorts on Christmas Eve and will be here through the New Year. It’s that game we play with our memberships, only two weeks at a time, then having to be out for seven. It saves us tons of cash, so we have learned to play the game well between two different memberships.

Jerry wants to thank you all for the birthday wishes, he now knows what it feels like to be in his 60’s as I do, and we will both be collecting retirement in 2019, finally having a safety net, that will be awesome.

We have had Amazon Prime for many years but have not taken advantage of all it offers. We use it mainly for the two-day free shipping, but also occasionally get free books and music, but besides those options we don’t use it. We decided that would change this year since our renewal was due last week. We researched all it has to offer and decided if we were going to renew it, we would use it more. Once we figured out how to pipe it through our TV which wasn’t as hard as we thought it would be, it has been a week of movie binging. Mostly comedies and action films, we don’t do gory and for love stories, well once we start to cry at this time of the year there would be no stopping the geysers. It’s been hard enough with some of the comedies having meaning or life lessons that make us tear up, we don’t want to take the chance of opening that Pandora’s box.

We are absolutely bored and finding work has been really challenging, not only for now but also for the summer. We think we have it all figured out and then the rug gets pulled out, right from underneath our feet. So typical for this time of the year, but we will stand tall and push through to the other, much better side. We are just so grateful that we have one another to pull each other out of sinking into that deep dark hole of despair that we usually fall into at this time of the year. The good news is there are only a few days left, then 2018 holidays will be over, and we will ring in the fabulous New Year. Our plan is to celebrate from our east coast TV station feed, since making it to midnight on the west coast where we are is doubtful for us. As usual it will be Jerry, myself and a bottle of champagne, already chilling…just the way we like it.

2018 was a decent year, no drama and not too much crap being thrown at us. It didn’t always go according to our plans, but we made the best out of what was given to us. We met some wonderful people, kept in touch with many old friends and had some incredible adventures. Our journeys took us to new and exciting places and we even revisited some of our favorite places. As for 2019, we have hope, lots of hope that our dreams will materialize, and we will relax and enjoy the ride.

We wish you all a spectacular New Year…we hope you all have great experiences throughout the year, that all your prayers are answered, your wishes granted, and your hopes and dreams become your everyday reality. Happy New Year!

Still in Relaxation Mode

Heading out with Maggie, MayB and now Dolly is nice once again. We have been in Yuma for a few weeks and with 99% of the honey do’s complete, we are bored and need to find some work, so since we have been unsuccessful in finding anything else, we decided to work a few shows with Lt Blender. It may not pay much, but at least we will keep ourselves busy and have some income coming in.

They all traveled well and even though I-8 is a picturesque drive, many parts are extremely rough, weather was great with just a tad of wind…couldn’t ask for a better driving day. The only issue with Dolly were the straps, so we have replaced them. The ones that came with it had a few shred marks on them, but they are also a different type and were a pain in the butt, so we got the standard ones that will work out much better.

We have several offers for summer work, and at this time we are not sure which direction to go, but we will figure it out. We are leaning towards the Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota area, but we are still very open to all options.

We so wanted to do Spring Training in Surprise, Arizona for 6 weeks in February and March but life has a way of telling us NO. We knew we would not make a lot of money because even though we will be working full time, our rent is not included, and that area is pricey, if we could even get in somewhere. But it has been on our radar for many years and wanted to give it a try this year, but it just does not seem to be coming together. We have been hired but finding a place for those weeks are just not happening.

We are all decorated for Christmas and are now just patiently waiting for it all to be over with and begin a new year. There was a time this was our favorite time of the year, now it’s just a time we pray we get through without too much pain...

This time of the year is rough on us and we usually sink into our pity party, but we decided that this year we will pull up our big kid panties and stop the madness. Sure, there are things that make us sad, but there are also many things in our lives that we are so grateful for and need to hold on to those, instead of sinking into that dark hole of despair just because we do not have certain things. We are choosing to dwell on all the great things in our lives and STOP exhausting ourselves with the things we do not have.

We are so grateful for one another, not everyone gets that chance to marry their best friend and live happily ever after as we are…We are so grateful for our health, sure the years have added aches and pains but no major illnesses or broken things as many others have to deal with…We are so grateful for the ability to live this lifestyle with a beast like Maggie, that keeps on moving through all the miles we travel and for never leaving us stranded on the roadside. She is our home, our safe haven, and the best traveling companion anybody could ever have, she gets the job done.

Now those are just the major things we are grateful for, then there are thousands of little things every moment that we smile and are thankful for too. Life is grand, and we are grateful that we have been blessed with smiles, laughter, love, allowing us to live this life that is full. Thank you…Thank you…Thank you!

How Do We Learn To Relax?

We are truly trying but it is so very hard to just relax…

We still have a list of things to do and in all honesty, it all could be done in one day, but we need to stretch it out, so we do not get extremely bored. We love the hustle and bustle of living our lives to the fullest but there comes a time where we need to just reflect on it all and enjoy the moment. Something which has always been a difficult thing for us to do, but we are learning. We are learning to live in the moment and not fret about the future because as we have learned so many times that the future will take care of itself, if we allow it to do so.

Our goals have been to work on our honey do’s and to enjoy the moment we are in and not try to force anything. WE CAN DO THIS!

On our honey do list we had to get to the bottom of Maggie’s leaks. The front overhead has been bad and causing mold, but while in storage that area got SOAKED, so we proceeded to pull all the old caulking off and redo with repair tape and roofing sealant for leaks. In a few weeks once we are sure this is stopping the leak, we will once again fix the inside of the upper cab since at this time it is damp and soft.

Another item was our shower, last year we found cracks in our shower pan, so we patched with Flex Seal and it worked great, but we decided to do the entire pan this year and it should be perfect now. Replacing the pan might have been the way to go, but we had looked everywhere for our dimensions and there were none around, so we chose the lesser evil.

 We are also in clean out mode, all that stuff that we thought we needed or might need someday is going to the trash, well on the side of the trash and before we even walk away, it is gone!

Now here is a question, how on earth did we live without this gadget for all these years? It is perfect for the trash, especially while cooking, it stays open so we can dump without fidgeting for the opening, and fills up without falling out the sides and when its full we just remove and tie it up...amazing gadget!

FINALLY, our chairs arrived, and they are perfect, just the right size and so comfortable. The last few choices of ours did not feel so good, hard cushions or just uncomfortable, but we almost didn’t get these to arrive on time. It had been scheduled for Friday from the beginning, so we waited patiently…NOT…but we did wait and around 3pm while we were tracking the packages, the notice changed from Friday to possibly Monday delivery. That was NOT going to work since we are leaving here on Monday. I called FEDEX and we finally got them to deliver them on Saturday and they are all we expected them to be…thank goodness.

Patience is NOT either one of our best qualities and the more we try to RELAX, the worse it gets. We don’t think we ever would or could retire completely, we enjoy getting out amongst people and keeping active. But at the same time, we are not those people that participate in the resort activities. We like working, a reason to be there and to make some money. We are in hot pursuit of some sort of work once again that will keep us traveling and enjoying the lifestyle we love, we might also settle in again if the place is right, but for now we are just chilling!

We Welcome Dolly to Our Family…

What the heck is wrong with us?

No kids…no pets…so instead we name our things.

Maggie (our motorhome)
MayB (our tow vehicle and since she is our second one and our first was named May, we added the B, next will be MayC)
Dude (our GPS)
Dudette (our new 2^nd GPS)
And now let us introduce Dolly...

It is brand new, only used once by a couple who one wanted to adventure out into this wonderful lifestyle but the other needed her nest so they are selling it all. It has all the bells and whistles and in perfect shape and we only paid $1,300, definitely worth waiting for and just allowing time to take care of itself.

We Made It!

Once we finally got MayB hooked up to Maggie it was smooth sailing, and it was nice once again to be traveling together. The conversations, the laughter to where we both thought we were going to bust something.

Over 300 miles the first day to just outside of Midland, but not yet to Odessa, the drive west on I-20 is mostly oil rigs and the smell is in the air. The worse part in these areas are the roads, we are not talking about little holes, there are holes the size of the Grand Canyon EVERYWHERE!

Our next few days of travel were under 200 miles each day and we were just playing it by how we felt to where we would stop. Our stops ended up being in Van Horn, Texas, then Deming, New Mexico, then Benson, Arizona which left us a short 40 miles on Friday morning to Tucson to make our 10am appointment at Camping World. We were early but were immediately taken in and were given the utmost attention and just five hours later and a few thousand dollars lighter we were on our way. A new refrigerator, just like the old one but this one works and all we can hope is that it lasts as long as the other one did…12 years!

Spent a few days in Tucson trying to catch our breaths and hoped to find a tow dolly, but that was not in our cards. We are looking for one with brakes, since the one we rented from U-Haul did not have them, we could feel the difference and we did not like the feeling of Maggie having to do ALL the stopping. New ones, if we could find them are around $2,000, and we are hoping to find a used one for around the $1,200 to $1,500 range if possible. We thought we got lucky several times, but it wasn’t meant to be. We are now in Casa Grande for a few weeks and hope to find one before we begin travel again.

This is hard, we have been non-stop for so many months with our work and then with the travel to get here and now…NOTHING! It is so hard to just do nothing, we have honey do’s, but it still feels like, nothing. Then all the aches and pains in our bodies are catching up to us and we are sore…EVERYWHERE!

We will learn how to just slow down for now since it never lasts, and we will have to find more work, but for now our job is to learn to slow down.

We were going to do some Lt Blender’s again this year to fill in the gaps, but they changed the pay structure and since we were hardly making any money with the old one and now with this new structure, we would not be making anything at all and our camping is no longer covered. So, we are looking for something else. We did get accepted to work with Aramark at the Spring Training in Surprise, Arizona, but that is not until February and March, we will need to fill in the gap of December and January with something exciting.

On our list to begin our research is the Quartzsite RV Show in January, if anyone hears about any of the vendors needing help, let us know. For now we are enjoying our time in the desert…

Rincon Country West RV Resort

4555 S Mission Road

Tucson, AZ 85746

800-782-7275

12/8-12/10/2017, 11/23-11/26/2018

  

2018 UPDATE - We used our Passport America again and paid $89.08 for 3 nights.

We paid $64.39 for two nights using our Passport America 50% off membership. Even though they advertise the price is $53 per night for a back in, water, electric, sewer site on gravel with a patio and picnic table, this is one of those resorts that add all sorts of taxes on top of the price.

Even though there are many park models in this 1,000+ site resort, there are also many RV’s too, so we didn’t feel out of place. They do have the 10 year rule but checked out Maggie and allowed her in without any issues.

There are several areas for laundry, restrooms, showers and loads of activities with rooms for everything including workshops and craft rooms.

We were welcomed and would stay again if we are ever in the area again.

Benson I-10 RV Park

840 N Ocotillo

Benson, AZ 85602

800-599-0081

11/22/2018

We paid $25, using our 50% off Passport America for a 30amp electric, water and sewer pull through site on gravel. The site needed a bit of leveling but not too much.

It was Thanksgiving, the office was open, we were invited to dinner several times, but we were just too exhausted to join in on anything, we just wanted to hang out with one another which is what we did, but we did appreciate all the kindness.

The park was rough around the edges, in need of some TLC but for an overnight spot, it worked for us.

Home To Maggie

At this humongous event at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, we work 4 days, first day is about 12 hours of setting up our store, the next 3 days are 5am to midnight days, except the final day we are done about 3am instead of midnight, as long as things go according to plan, this year they did. We have three teams there plus several of the bosses from Cedar Hill join us for this one, they are also the ones who relieve us throughout the days for little meal breaks that they provide for us. It’s grueling but we enjoy it.

This year we took an extra day to hang out in Indy afterwards, are bodies needed more rest and we were avoiding an even colder snap with snow. Our stay at Baymont in Plainfield was great, comfy bed, spacious room, great shower head. We were on the third floor which is the executive level, weird but pretty cool at the same time, until we realized meant people hang out there. One of the nights we got back to our room we had to ask folks to be quiet, it’s posted quiet at 10pm and it was past midnight so they immediately kept quiet. At least we think they did, it’s possible we just passed out and no longer heard them.

When we began our trek back to Cedar Hill we drove about 260 miles the first day to the Hollywood Casino & Hotel in Maryland Heights, Missouri for a little playtime and lots of rest and relaxation. We had a very comfortable king size bed in the Sunset Tower with a terrible view, a nice walk in shower with strong water pressure. A large TV screen, fridge, coffee maker, blow dryer, and an iron with a board. Customer service was outstanding with everyone going out of their way to assure we had everything we needed. Loved the uncarpeted floors, they seem to be cleaner without the rugs.

Our next day was just about 300 miles to Quapaw, Oklahoma, where on our path was frigid temps and snow everywhere, not one of our best travel days. Seeing all that white crap, knowing the temps are way below freezing and any water on the roads were frozen. We made it safely to our destination at the Downstream Casino & Resort for one night but we were emotionally drained. The room was spacious with a marvelous walk in shower and a comfortable king size bed. The view was rooftops filled with snow, not that great. It was clean and customer service was excellent.

Our next day drive was a little over 300 miles to Winstar Casino & Resort in Thackerville, Oklahoma, where we stayed one night. We were here several years ago in our motorhome and they had a nice RV Park, so we thought we would see what the hotel was like. The casino is HUGE, too huge for our us, and the room was just okay, the only standout thing was the mints on the bedside table.

Our last night in a hotel was spent in a Best Western Plus in Forest Hill, Texas. We were close but needed that extra time so we could get our stuff situated, plus we have been non stop so we needed a rest and my brand new IPad died so we took it to Verizon and they told me it needed to be replaced and we needed to take it to an Apple Store, so we set the appointment for 10 the next morning.

Our day to pick up Maggie did not go according to any of our plans…

Our plan…drive 30 miles pick up Maggie and MayB…pick up tow dolly then drive to RV Park by noon and get all unpacked and situated…NOT.

How our day actually went…Our 10am appointment didn’t get us out until noon and without a solution. They agreed it needed to be replaced but could not verify the serial number because it would not power up…duh…so it would take a week or so to get it back to us but needed an address to send it, which we are in full travel mode and had no idea where we would be. To make matters worse, they then claimed they didn’t even have a replacement at that store. We chose to take it to another Apple Store somewhere down the road.

Drove 30 miles to drop off the truck and trailer and things went extremely well picking up Maggie and MayB, once reconnecting they both started up without any issues.  But then from there things got so much worse…Picking up our rented tow dolly was a fiasco, they had the incorrect address on our contract so we stood in line for almost an hour just to be told they did not have a tow dolly and sent us to yet another place that didn’t have one either, then we finally got a call from the place that had our contract wondering where we were, BUT when we got there, they were not an authorized dealer so they could not and would not instruct us at all. This was our first time with a tow dolly and we wanted instructions, so…we needed to go back to the original place we stopped at for wiring and instructions. 

By the time we got to the RV Park, the sun was setting, we were exhausted and drained so we opted to stay two nights. Usually that wouldn’t be an issue because we are in relax mode for about a month but unfortunately our fridge really is dead so last week we made the only available appointment left in Tucson for Friday so we are pressed which meant our Monday travel would be over 300 miles, but the rest day was worth it. It was nice to be able to drive together again with the rental tow dolly which made the over 300 miles to Odessa not so bad. Looking forward to getting to Tucson to get our fridge fixed and pick up our own tow dolly…life is good!

Midessa Oil Patch RV Park

4220 S CR 1290

Odessa, TX 79765

432-563-2368

11/19/2018

We paid $31.50 for a water, sewer, 30amp electric, pull through site on level gravel with a picnic table.

They have some sort of water issue that they advise you not to use their water for anything else but showers, so when you check in, they give you a case of water.

The drive to the park from I-20 is frightful, there are potholes the size of the Grand Canyon, seriously, they are humungous. And, then when we arrived at the entrance, there was construction that the front desk explained just started that day that made it almost impossible for us to enter or exit. We made it but almost lost the tow.

Wonderful, fun, customer service, they had such a great sense of humor, even the owner was fantastic. We will definitely search this place out if we ever pass through this way again.

Vacation Week and My Birthday!

This adventure is coming to an end…we have a week off before we work the big Grand Nationals in Indianapolis and we plan to do all sorts of exploring before we start that grueling event!

Our first day on vacation we did have to run some errands but our drive was light, just a little over 200 miles. We know where we’re headed but we do not want to stress too much about getting to that area, so we are leisurely taking our time.

Our first stop was in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at the Quality Inn, they were remodeling so parking our trailer could have been an issue if we had not checked in early afternoon. Room is spacious with all the essentials, comfortable king size bed, desk with chair, chair but no ottoman, great step-in shower with great water pressure, and clean.

We stopped at Cracker Barrel next door for lunch and had some comfort food…

Jerry started my day with my coffee and a birthday cupcake, he is the sweetest man on earth...

Our next travel day was interesting that ended at Horseshoe Casino & Hotel. It began with some sort of bomb threat near the hotel in Murfreesboro. The entrance/exit onto the interstate we needed to go on was closed and traffic was horrific. We found a way out, a slower way but we continued moving. Apparently, they have had several bomb threats in this area, wish we knew this before we made the reservation. Then when we arrived at Horseshoe, they had roads closed to repair the damage on the roads and railroad tracks due to the flooding this past February. It’s always so hard when driving a trailer or motorhome, it can get scary when you have to turnaround, or worse yet, to have to back it up for blocks.

The hotel is under major construction due to the flooding, but we were not too inconvenienced. Spacious room with the most luxurious mattress, we both slept wonderfully, and they had a rain shower head.

Another interesting travel day with hard rain for about 100 miles into Indy, always makes it an adventure, especially when construction is in the mix too. We had just under 300 miles and a shopping stop, since we are back in Faygo and our choice wine area.

We stayed 2 nights at Blue Chip Casino & Spa for some rest, relaxation and massages. Life is grand!

This was the neatest invention we had ever seen, no more signs that fling off the door handles, this is a lighted accessory that you set from the inside of the room and a light on the outside indicates "Do Not Disturb" or "Need Service". Wish all hotels had this, since those signs are always flying off to the ground all the time and housekeeping is knocking, just to see if we need anything.

Then just under an hour drive to Benton Harbor, Michigan for 3 nights at Hilton Garden Inn. It was not where we originally planned to stay but the other place had terrible parking, especially since they had some sort of convention going on and we had no place to park the trailer as we had planned, so we canceled that one and got this one for a great price. Great check in, wonderful staff and the room was spacious and had all the essentials, fridge, microwave, desk, comfortable king size bed and a walk in shower with a pulsating shower head. The one thing they didn't have was NBC Sports for our weekend NASCAR fix, so we had to set up on our computer through our DirecTV and plug into the TV to watch it...technology, isn't it wonderful.

While there we did some sight seeing, we first drove to the Big Red Lighthouse in Holland, and it was not so big, and it was wet, windy and just frigid.

We got back into the truck and headed back to South Haven, where again there was a lighthouse and once again we were disappointed. It was small and to walk out to the end would just be even wetter, windier and colder so we just took pictures from the beach.

Then we went to St. Joseph, quant little town with three wineries that we stopped at and did some tastings and bought a few bottles for when we get back into Maggie and we can reminisce about our time here in Michigan.

Michigan is always a soft spot for me, it seems everywhere we go it just reminds me of many memories to sort through, but we always love spending time there, finding our own new memories for the areas we visit.