On the road again.

We made our way back to GA where we are spending a week until it is time to go to FL and our annual Sept. WDW vacation. It's been hot here, it will be hotter in FL. I hope the hurricanes pass us by and we enjoy our time in the Orlando area.

Bragg Farm

Our last tour of the day was Bragg Farm Sugarhouse. We could not leave Vermont without visiting a sugarhouse and seeing how real maple syrup was made. Again, the sugaring process was not currently happening as sugaring is done in late winter/early spring, but we watched a video of the process, learned about the family history, and toured the sugar house with very friendly and informative gentleman.

Next was a syrup tasting, it was sweet. We learned about the 4 different grades of syrup and their different flavors and colors. We chose the one we liked best and bought some as well as maple candy lolipops. Outside there were a few animals to pet, so we visited with them and then it began to rain lightly, so it was time to head home. We had a full day and we enjoyed it all.

Cold Hollow Cider Mill

After leaving Ben and Jerry's we made our way down the street to a working Cider Mill. Unfortunately the mill was not running as it was not yet the season. However, we saw a film about the process, sampled cider, and got complimentary frozen cider pops. We got to watch someone make cider donuts and we also got to sample honey, spreads, jams, and other freshly made items. We were getting pretty full now with bellies full of ice cream, cider, and other various treats. We still had another stop on this day and it was a sweet one.

Ben & Jerry's

YUMMY! That's how we all felt about Ben & Jerry's. The factory tour was interesting and entertaining. The free tasting at the end was delicious.

From the web site:

"Nestled in the heart of the Green Mountains the ice cream factory sits on a rolling pasture overlooking the Worcester Range heading North from the town of Waterbury. The guided factory tours are fun & educational for all ages. Guests are offered the opportunity to learn about the production process & how the Company’s 3 part-mission statement is incorporated into day-to-day business decisions.

The tour begins in the Cow Over the Moon theater with a company history moo-vie. Find out how two childhood friends, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, turned a $5.00 correspondence course on ice cream making into a very successful business that shares its success with its employees, & the community & has fun doing it! "

We had some fun while we were there, first, of course, we ate ice cream.
The kids posed for the obligatory pics while we enjoyed our sugar rush.
Then, the kids did some spin art, and mom tie-dyed a t-shirt.
Before leaving, we took time to visit the Flavor Graveyard. Here lies retired flavors or ones that just didn't do well in stores. There were some funny ones and some that just sounded gross.
A good time was had by all, we recommend this to anyone visiting the area.

Vermont Teddy Bear

While in the area, we had several places we wanted to visit, one being Vermont Teddy Bear. We enjoyed our tour and had a very enthusiastic guide. We saw some of the biggest Teddy Bears we have ever seen.

While we didn't buy any, we admired the quality and care put in to making the stuffed animals. We also admired their lifetime guarantee. This is a must do if you ever visit the area.

Apple Island RV Resort.

Once the rally was over we had to leave the fairgrounds property, so some of the other vendors recommended a nice camp ground near-by and they were offering 2 nights of free camping. That sounded good to us, so we moved to our new location and ended up spending 4 nights there.

Apple Island RV Resort was right on Lake Champlain and was convenient to the places we wanted to visit. They had a nice, long site for us and the campground had some really nice ammenities that we enjoyed like a hot tub, pool, and a library.

If we ever find ourselves in the area again, we would happily stay there.

Some pics from the rally.

This is what passes for entertainment with a group of tired vendors.

We had the pleasure of enjoying a rainbow one evening.

Essex Junction, VT

After our week in VA we needed to go to Vermont for another RV rally. This would be our last one for a while and we really weren't looking forward to driving all the way to Vermont. It turned to be a lovely place. Vermont is beautiful with mountains, rolling hills, lots of green everywhere, friendly people, and best of all, ice cream. I know you can get ice cream anywhere, but we were looking forward to visiting Ben & Jerry's.

Touring would have to wait though, we had a nice time at the rally, the kids made new friends and enjoyed visiting with some they already knew. They had a youth activities program, so they had loads of stuff to do and were busy most of the time.

We enjoyed our evenings with the other vendors, and, as always, we enjoyed talking with RVers and sharing our enthusiasm for traveling. We stayed at a fairgrounds and were quite comfortable.

We look forward to doing more show in the winter, but for now we have swithced gears and it is back to golf.

Busch Gardens, Williamsburg

During the week we spent time at Busch Gardens. We went for one full day and returned later in the week for 1/2 a day. We had a really nice time. The kids found new thrill rides to enjoy, we all enjoyed the shows, and the evening entertainment was enjoyable. We always enjoy Busch parks and we were glad to enjoy Busch Gardens again.

Tangier Island Cruise

For the second day of our vacation we had booked a short cruise aboard the Chesapeake Breeze.

The cruise left from Historic Reedville, Va., the center of the largest fishing industry in the United States.

We enjoyed a relaxing one and a half hour narrated cruise (although Tim got a little sea sick), the ship then docked at Tangier Island where we were met by a friendly guide. She gave us some history of the island and took us to Hilda Crockett's Chesapeake House and enjoyed lunch. It was all you care to eat crab cakes, clam

fritters, and Virginia baked ham. The vegetables included green beans, potato salad, coleslaw, apple sauce, pickled beets, and delicious hot corn pudding. All that is served with fresh, baked daily homemade rolls and butter pound cake. We left full and happy.

After lunch we took a golf cart tour of the island which took about 10 mins. and a guide told more about the history of the island.

Finally there was some shopping in the gift shops and our return cruise to Reedville. It was a lovely day, although one that need only be done once. We all enjoyed our day.

Gloucester, VA

We were happy to arrive at Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. The park was lovely with nice big sites. We checked in and inquired as to where Mom's cabin would be so we could park close-by. We moved twice before we found one not too far from the cabin and clear of big trees for clear satellite service.

The first few days were spent cleaning, doing laundry, and all the stuff that comes right after a show and several days with no hook-ups. We were anticipating Mom and Mike's arrival in Fri.

They arrived on Friday evening and we got their stuff unloaded and then went out for a bite to eat. We were glad they were here as we had not seen them in 10 months.

Our first full day together was spent relaxing at the camp ground, visiting, swimming, and just catching up.

Working on the road.

We are still traveling and going to RV rallies selling our products. We are learning a lot about doing shows like this and making new friends. We are enjoying it, and it keeps us traveling.

Right now we are taking a couple of weeks off to relax and enjoy some down-time. Mom will be joining is here in VA on Friday for a week-long visit. We are all looking forward to our time together.

We hope everyone is enjoying their summer and staying cool. We are having fun and looking forward to more shows and a very busy fall.

So, until next time...take care.

Update.

We've been hanging out in GA for several weeks now. It's been very hot and very humid, but that's to be expected in GA in the summer.

We went to our first RV show as exhibitors in the beginning of June. We learned a lot and are eager to do many more. We will be heading out some time next week to OH for our next show. We are excited to share our products and to be heading on the road again. We are getting hitch-itch and are ready to be somewhere else.

We hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far and staying cool (or dry depending on where you live).

Las Vegas

Finally getting around to adding the Las Vegas portion of our trip. We stayed at a campground 5 miles from the strip. We enjoyed the area, although, not the heat. It was in the mid 90's every day we were there.

We made several trips to the strip, one with the kids, the rest by ourselves. We saw most of the major hotels like the Bellagio, Caeser's, MGM, Luxor, Circus Circus, the Rio, Treasure Island, the Venetian, New York New York, and more. We enjoyed all the mini-shows and attractions and just seeing the strip all lit up at night.

We had several must-see's, one of which was the Luxor. DD is a Criss Angel fan and she really wanted to go there and see his hotel. She got to see some of his stuff displayed around the hotel and she got a replica of a necklace he often wears.

Our favorite, overall, was Circus-Circus. We all had a great time there. The kids really enjoyed the Midway and circus performers and the adults the tables we had pretty good luck there.

We went to downtown Las Vegas and the Fremont St. experience. The kids enjoyed this area much more than the strip. It was sort of enclosed with an LED screen on the ceiling where they show videos and such periodically. They also had street performers which we enjoyed watching.

We also made time to see some other things in the area. We made time to visit the Ethel M factory near-by and enjoyed sampling some delicious chocolate. We also did some shopping at an outlet mall with a Disney outlet store.

We really enjoyed our trip and I'm sure we'll visit again some time.

Happy Birthday Tim.

In the middle of all of our traveling we celebrated our son's 15th birthday. Where do the years go?
He is so tall now and he is changing all the time. He didn't want much of a fuss, so it was a small celebration at home with just the immediate family. His gift from Mom and Dad was the trip to LegoLand. He received gifts from Nana once we returned to GA and Grandma has contributed to a new laptop. So, overall, it was a nice time to be a 15 year old young man.

Hoover Dam

The second stop we made on our way to Las Vegas was at the Hoover Dam. It is on the border of Arizona and Nevada and is located 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas. It is currently the world's 35th-largest hydroelectric generating station and is named after Herbert Hoover, who played an instrumental role in its construction, first as the Secretary of Commerce and then later as the President of the USA.

The dam is 726.4 ft. tall, 1244 ft. long, 660 ft.thick, and 4.36 million yds. of concrete were used.

Lake Meade is the reservoir created behind the dam and is named after Elwood Meade who oversaw the construction of the dam.

We enjoyed seeing this massive structure and were really glad we stopped.

London Bridge

Once we departed CA we were making our way to Las Vegas. On the way we knew we wanted to make two stops, the first being Lake Havasu City in AZ to see the London Bridge.

The London Bridge, located in Lake Havasu City, was originally constructed in London in 1831. By 1962, the bridge was not structurally sound enough to support the increased load created by the level of modern traffic crossing it, and it was sold by the city of London to Robert McCulloch who was trying to build up the area of Lake Havasu City and wanted a focal point, a tourist attraction, for his city. He reportedly paid $2,460,000 for the bridge and another $7,000,000 to transport it from London to the USA.

It was a nice place to stop for the evening and there is a small English-style village at the base of the bridge where we spent some time walking around.

San Diego Zoo.

While in the area of course we had to visit the world famous San Diego Zoo. We really enjoyed this zoo. They had some really rare animals and the kids enjoyed sitting atop a double-decker bus for a tour of the whole zoo. It was quite a bit of walking up and down hills, but we didn't mind it too much. We were very fortunate to find many active animals this particular day. Grizzly bears were very playful, gorillas were funny, four tigers interacting with each other was a special treat as large cats often sleep much of the day. The kids especially enjoyed the activity of the meerkats.

There were several animals we have not seen in zoos before like Koalas, echidnas, rare birds, and some really cool reptiles. I think our favorite are, though, was the insect house. The kids really enjoyed getting and up close look at some of the rarest and deadliest insects in the world.

This trip rounded out our visit to San Diego nicely as it was our last day in CA. We enjoyed the area very much and hope to return again for another visit.

Hodads.

While in Ocean Beach we ate at tiny hamburger joint that was recommended by another RVer we know. It was blaring music, it had funny personalized license plates all over the walls, and a great mix of interesting people dining there. Best of all, the burgers were amazing. They were huge and loaded with every topping you can imagine. Their fries were pretty good, but the onion rings were phenomenal. We ate here twice while in town and if we are ever in the area, I know we will eat here again.

Ocean Beach/Sunset Cliffs.

While in the area we made time to visit Ocean Beach and stop at the Sunset Cliff overlook. It was a pacific coast, scenic overlook. We climbed on the rocks a bit and looked at tide pools, ocean caves, and the surf hitting the rocky coast. We stopped here twice ands unfortunately, both times it was overcast so we did not get a good view of the sunset, but stopping here was definitely worth it.