Tag Archives: Harvest Hosts

2014/02/05 (W) Jacksonville (FL)

Prevost Service Center, Jacksonville, FL.

Prevost Service Center, Jacksonville, FL.

Prevost Car Inc has a major service and parts facility in Jacksonville, Florida and had the (one way) check valve I needed in stock.  Jacksonville is a major metropolitan area in the northeast corner of Florida, about two hours northeast of Williston.  We took FL-121 to Gainesville where we picked up FL-24 over to US-301 northbound at Waldo.  US-301 runs up to the west edge of Jacksonville, but the Prevost service center is in the southeast part of town, so the GPS routed us onto FL-16 at Starke and then onto FL-21 and up to I-295 eastbound.  We found the facility easily and ended up having a nice chat with Dann Wiltgen, the VP of Pre-owned Seated Coach Sales and New Key Accounts, who we bumped into at the coffee station.

At the parts counter Service Advisor Jennifer Beardslee got the check valve and also pulled the new auxiliary air filter assembly for me to see.  I decided to buy it, but had to order the mounting bracket from Canada as it was not in stock anywhere in the U. S.  This was the first time we had been to any Prevost facility so I took a few pictures of the exterior before we left.

Looking north from North Beach at Little Talbot Island SP (FL).

Looking north from North Beach at Little Talbot Island SP (FL).

Our business concluded at Prevost we got back on I-295 headed north.  Just after crossing back over the river/bay we headed east on FL-105 (Heckscher Dr.).  We crossed Little Marsh Island, Pine Island, and Fanning Island before Ft. George Island and Ft. George Island State Park.  Fl-105 joins up with FL-A1A which runs along the coast and includes a ferry to the south side of the inlet.  But we were headed north to Little Talbot Island State Park, which occupies the entire Little Talbot Island.

Us on the boardwalk at North Beach, Little Talbot Island SP (FL).

Us on the boardwalk at North Beach, Little Talbot Island SP (FL).

We stopped at the Little Talbot Island ranger station, trailhead, and beach area, parked, and walked out to the shore on a boardwalk across low dunes.  The weather was pleasant enough and we had a nice stroll down the beach and took a few photos.  We continued on to Big Talbot Island, most of which is Big Talbot Island SP.  We parked at the trailhead for the Big Pine Trail and hiked out to the marsh through a beautiful forest.  This area had been most for a while and was very green. I took a few photos, but it’s difficult to capture the nature of such a place which is both grand and intimate at the same time.  Lenses do not “see” the world the same way our eyes do.

The Big Pine Trail at Big Talbot Island SP (FL).

The Big Pine Trail at Big Talbot Island SP (FL).

 

 

From Big Talbot Island we crossed to Amelia Island, the southern tip of which was Amelia Island SP and the location of the George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier SP.  The GCBFPSP is the former bridge connecting the toe Islands.  When a new bridge was built the state left the old one, closed it to vehicle traffic, and made it a state park.  Thus was another example of why the Florida State Parks system is the only two-time winner of the award for best state park system in the U. S.

 

 

The marsh at the end of the Big Pine Trail, BTISP (FL).

The marsh at the end of the Big Pine Trail, BTISP (FL).

As we left Amelia Island SP for the Nassau area we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of a very high-end resort community.  FL-A1A eventually joined up with FL-200 headed west towards Yulee and across I-95 to Callahan where it becomes US-301/FL-200 headed SSE through the west edge of Jacksonville and then on to Gainesville and Ocala.  Along the way it passes through the little town of Lawtey.  About 5 miles north of Lawtey there is a billboard warning drivers of the “Lawtey Speedtrap.”  We thought it might be a gimmick ad for a restaurant, but it turned out be an actual warning.  As we entered Lawtey there were dings saying “Speed Strictly Enforced” and a Lawtey police car checking vehicle speeds.  We don’t speed when. We drive, so we were not at risk of being trapped, but I don’t understand why states permit little towns to do this sort of thing.  Law enforcement should not be a major source of revenue for any municipality; it distorts the whole purpose and process of law enforcement.

Fungal growth on a dead tree along the Big Pine Trail at BTISP (FL).

Fungal growth on a dead tree along the Big Pine Trail at BTISP (FL).

I had received the Feb 2014 issue of Bus Conversions Magazine a couple of days ago with my article on the Arcadia Bus Rally as the cover/centerfold story.  Many of my photos were used for the expanded digital edition and I had several e-mails going back and forth with Gary Hall, the owner/publisher, and Mike Sullivan, the editor, as is often the case.  Starting with the January 2014 issue they are producing three separate versions of the magazine.  The print version is currently 32 full-color glossy pages.  Gary would like to up the page count, but needs to build the subscriber/advertiser base to do that.  The digital edition now cones in two versions, SD and HD, both of which have expanded content over the print version, especially photographs.  The SD (Standard Definition) version is e-mailed to subscribers and can also be downloaded by online subscribers.  The HD (High Definition) version has the same content as the SD version, but the photographs are much higher resolution, and can only be downloaded.  The SD version for Feb 2014 was ~10 MB while the HD version was ~ 25 MB.  They can be viewed online or downloaded as PDF files.

The beach at Amelia Island SP by the George Crady Fishing Bridge SP (FL).  (4x4 vehicles permitted.)

The beach at Amelia Island SP by the George Crady Fishing Bridge SP (FL). (4×4 vehicles permitted.)

I also had some e-mail correspondence with Don and Kim Greene of Harvest Hosts. We received the February newsletter a couple of days ago and read that they were extending subscriptions for subscribers who mentioned the program on their websites or in their blogs.  We stayed at four “hosts” in 2013 and blogged about each one of them.  We also have Harvest Hosts listed on our website as one of our travel resources.  The posts were a bit dated but I sent an e-mail with the direct links and they were kind enough to extend our subscription by four months.  They also requested one of the photos from Acres of Land Winery and Restaurant to include on their Facebook and Flickr sites.

It seems that when our days are full they are full right up to the brim, and that’s OK. We’re tired at the end of such days, but it’s a good kind of tired.

 

2013_10_12 (S) Acres of “Land”

We had an issue last night that I didn’t mention in yesterday’s blog post.  With the generator running the microwave/convection oven would not operate correctly.  It would run for a few second and then start to pulse.  We are not sure what the problem is, but presume it is the microwave and not the generator/inverter, which seem to be working fine otherwise.  We won’t be able to diagnose this any further until we get to Tremont RV Park and can hook up to shore power.

We knew last night that the Fulton Farm Market was expecting a busy day today with lots of folks showing up to buy pumpkins and other seasonal items, so this morning around 8:30 AM we fired up the engine and repositioned the coach where there would not be any cars blocking our exit.  I also started up the generator to recharge the batteries, and all of the engines running spooked the cats a bit, so they went under the front passenger seat.

The Market was scheduled to open at 10 AM and we were originally thinking of sticking around until 11 AM.  By 9 AM it was obvious we had made the right decision to move, based on the activity of the employees, and decided to move our departure time up to 10 AM.  They pull wagons with tractors out to the pumpkin patch where folks can pick their own pumpkin, and they were blocking off parts of the parking lot with cones to create pickup and drop-off stations for the wagons that we originally thought we would be able to use as exit paths.

Around 9:15 Linda noticed that the OPEN sign on the store building (barn) was already turned on, so we wandered over to get some coffee.  The gal who runs the coffee shop showed up right behind us and put on some decaf to brew.  We had a nice chat while we waited, and 5 minutes later we were headed back to the coach with our coffee.  We chatted briefly with one of the cashiers on the way out.  We made the coach ready for travel and at 10 AM, with cars showing up, we started up and pulled out.  No fixed plan.

We turned out onto OH-202 headed south and eventually came to I-70 where we headed west back to I-75 and continued out southbound journey.  We had 184 miles to travel today and figured it would take 4 hours with a lunch stop.  There was a lot of construction in the Dayton area and again in Cincinnati, but we made it through without any difficulty.  Southern Ohio is hilly and northern Kentucky even more so, with a good climb up away from the Ohio River right after you cross at Cincinnati.

I-75 in Kentucky is a very good road with smooth surface.  It goes up and down and back and forth as it twists through the rolling terrain, and it was a fun drive with no stress.  We pulled in to a rest stop north of Lexington to have a bite of lunch and stretch our legs.  Another hour and we were at exit #87 just south of Richmond.  We headed west on KY-876 (Barnes Mill Rd) and 6 miles later pulled into the gravel parking lot on the south side of the road across from the Acres of Land Winery.  It was 2 PM.

L 70(1) Our parking spot across from Acres of Land Winery, a Harvest Hosts location.

Our parking spot across from Acres of Land Winery, a Harvest Hosts location.

We had looked at satellite images of the site last night, so we knew what to expect when we got there.  The driveway in from the road was steep, but we did not bottom out.  The gravel parking lot was a long two long parallel rows with a loop around at the end.  What we did not expect was the extent to which it was overgrown.  It was mostly tall grasses, but it was obvious that this lot had not seen any use in quite some time.  We also noticed a large concrete pad at the near end.  We found out later that they had a serious fire in 2009, and we suspect that the pad is where the winery was and the gravel lot was where customers parked.  All of that activity now takes place on the north side of the road.

We pulled all the way around and back near the entrance.  The site was not quite level enough, so I leveled the coach before shutting down the engine.  I checked the battery state of charge (SOC) before shutting the generator down.  I figured it would be 100% since the generator had run the refrigerator all the way down allowing the Magnum 4024 to just charge the batteries, but it was only at 94%.

R 48 Restaurant and Tasting Room, Acres of Land Winery, Richmond, KY.

Restaurant and Tasting Room, Acres of Land Winery, Richmond, KY.

We opened windows and turned on ceiling fans and headed over to the winery.  Acres of Land is owned and operated by Lowell and Katherine Land.  Lowell grew up in the white farm house not far from where we are parked, and is the 3rd generation of his family to farm this property.  Originally a tobacco farm, tobacco growing started moving overseas to take advantage of cheaper labor and the Land’s started looking for an alternative crop.  The property turned out to be suitable for growing grapes and they converted the farm into a vineyard and winery.

Our coach viewed from a front window of the tasting room.

Our coach viewed from a front window of the tasting room.

They charge $2.50 to taste three wines and $4.50 to taste six.  We decided to only taste three and to split the tasting.  The way they do the tastings is quite different from what we are used to in Michigan and other places.  We circled the three wines we wanted to try on order slip and then found a table where we could sit.  The wines are served in small wine glasses (brandy snifters?) placed in hanging holders that hold three or six glasses, depending which tasting you ordered.  There is a white laminated disk around the base of the holder on which they write the number of the wine from the order form so it is under the corresponding glass.  In our case, Katherine brought the wine sampler to our table and chatted with us for a little while.  What we liked about this approach is that you could actually go back and forth between wines if you wanted to.

In our case we had their Red Robin, Vignoles, and Late Harvest Vignoles, and sampled them in that order.  The Red Robin was sweet but very full and had a lovely mouth feel.  The Vignoles was equally nice, refreshing but not thin.  Both were well done in our opinion.  The Late Harvest Vignoles, however, was a more complex and unusual wine, and was my favorite of the three.  As much as I would have liked to take home several bottles of each, we decided to buy just one of the Late Harvest Vignoles for $18.

One of the 10-yr-old Bourbon barrels being used to age a special red wine.

One of the 10-yr-old Bourbon barrels being used to age a special red wine.

About the time we finished our tasting Lowell was assembling a group for a tour of the winery.  We have toured a fair number of wineries, so we did not see anything here that we hadn’t seen before, except for one thing; Acres of Land has a wine that they age in used bourbon barrels.  The particular barrels they use come from a Kentucky distillery that used them to age their 10-year-old bourbon.  We did not get a chance to taste this wine as it wasn’t on their tasting menu.  We might not have liked it anyway as neither Linda nor I care for bourbon or whiskey, but Katherine thought it was a uniquely divine product.

This was our 4th Harvest Hosts location, and we are big fans of the program, but the challenge for us is to make sure our “free camping” doesn’t turn out to consistently be the most expensive stops we make.  We don’t buy things we don’t like, and need is a pretty relative concept, but you can drop a lot of coin on wine very easily.  We like the idea, however, of trying wines and other local agricultural products as we travel, and it fits our lifestyle to buy things we can consume rather than “collect” things we then have to find a place for in the house.

Dinner was a nice salad (Swiss chard, kale, and spinach) with carrots, celery, cucumbers, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, and fresh strawberries with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  Dessert was another serving of the blackberry pie we bought at the Fulton Farm Market yesterday.  Being in the refrigerator for 24 hours had helped it set up so it wasn’t so juicy.

I left the generator off until 8 PM by which time it was down the house batteries were down to 67% SOC.  I checked that the Magnum 4024 AC Input was set to 50 Amps and reset the maximum charge rate from 80% to 90%.  Ideally the batteries should be brought back up to 100% SOC every time.  But the last few percent is done at a low current float charge rate which can take quite a while and is not a particularly efficient use of the generator.

Linda scanned for other-the-air TV channels and found one that was carrying game one of the ALCS between the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox.  We are in very pleasant country, but we are not wandering the in wilderness, at least not yet.

 

2013_10_11 (F) Fulton Farms

Our plan was to be almost completely packed yesterday with only a few things to load this morning.  It’s good to have a plan as long as you don’t take it too seriously.  Lao Tzu supposedly said that “A true traveler has no fixed plan, and it not intent on arriving.”  I love that sentiment, but I think most people interpret this as “the journey is more important than the destination.”  Or perhaps that “one should not have a plan”, but I don’t think it says that.  I think the emphasis is on not having a fixed plan.  At any given moment you need to have some idea of where you want to go next, or you would just sit in one place and never move.  And having decided to head there, you should have some idea of how you might get there.  But once the planning is done it’s time for the trip.  And it is a certainty that you will have opportunities along the way that you did not plan for and could not even have anticipated.  Whether you experience those will depend on whether you are flexible with regards to your plan.  You may not even make to your original (planned) destination, but if not, it will be the result of a thousand small decisions made along the way, not because you are lost.  As another quote goes “all who wander are not lost.”  I like that one too.

In other words, we woke up this morning with a plan to be on the road by noon but with lots still to do.  We were not in a panic about it, but got at it right away and it was a busy morning.  It helped that Linda had kept a running list yesterday of stuff we needed to load on the bus, and things we needed to do around the house, just before departure.  Although the morning was a bit more intense than I would have like, we pulled out about quarter past noon, so it all worked out OK.

We decided yesterday to divide up the trip to Townsend, Tennessee into three roughly equal segments of about 200 miles each and spent part of the afternoon researching places to stop for the night.  Given that we needed to be at the Tremont RV Resort in Townsend on Sunday, our route choices were basically determined; I-96 E to US-23 S into Ohio and onto I-75 S all the way to Knoxville, and then Tennessee highways from there into Townsend.  Our first leg would ideally put us somewhere just north of Dayton.   We are still learning to “boondock” (camp for the night without hookups and without paying for a site) so we looked for opportunities to do that.  A Walmart is often a possibility, but we always look for Coast-to-Coast resorts, where we can stay for $10/night, and Harvest Host locations where we can stay for free.

Exterior of Fulton Farms Market.

Exterior of Fulton Farms Market.

There is a Coast-to-Coast resort in Wapakoneta, OH, but it would have made our first leg about 150 miles.  We decided to head for the Fulton Farms Market instead.  They are located southeast of Troy, Ohio on Highway 202 about 6 miles from I-75 and 20 miles north of Dayton.  The market was still open when we arrived around 4:30 PM, having made a rest stop and a fuel stop along the way, and there were still plenty of customers there even though they close at 5 PM.

Linda talking to Joyce Fulton.

Linda talking to Joyce Fulton.

Fulton Farms Market is owned by Bill and Joyce Fulton and is a host location in the Harvest Hosts program that we belong to.  We went inside to let them know we had arrived and bought some apples and a blackberry pie (after reading the ingredients label very carefully).  We also got to meet Joyce and had a nice chat with her.  She was very gracious and glad we had stopped as they have not had very Harvest Hosts visitors in the time they have been a host location.

 

Interior of Fulton Farms Market.

Interior of Fulton Farms Market.

 

 

 

The Fulton Farm Market is a very nice place with a large, level, paved parking lot that easily accommodated our bus.  I recommend it to anyone passing through the Troy, OH area with or without an RV.  This is the third Harvest Hosts location where we have stopped.  The second one was the Forestedge Winery near Laporte, Minnesota which I wrote about previously.  Same thing; great place, great people, great products, and we were the first Harvest Hosts members who had ever stopped there.  HH is a great program, but I worry that host locations will drop out after a time if no one ever stops, and who could blame them?

We are headed for another Harvest Hosts location tomorrow in Kentucky, but that’s another story for another day.  Our main concern on this end will be repositioning the coach in the morning, without unhooking the car, so we are able to exit the premises after customers start showing up in their cars around 10 AM.  Our drive tomorrow is only about 180 miles and should only take about 4 hours, so we don’t want to leave here too early and Joyce made it clear that we welcome to stick around in the morning.

2013_07_27 (Sat) Where We Go From Here

We have had an intense but wonderful week in northwest Wyoming and the Green Creek Inn and RV Park has been just the right spot for us to base camp.  The RV park is away from the hustle and bustle of Cody, yet close enough to be convenient for shopping and entertainment, and is close enough to Yellowstone N. P. and Grand Teton N. P. to make them accessible as day trips.  And although it’s a small RV park with only nine sites, we had excellent full hookups, laundry facilities, a WiFi connection to the Internet, and free popcorn.  Our 50 Amp site allowed us to run all three house air-conditioners all day while we were away to keep our cats safe and comfortable.  We needed to do this because of daytime highs in the mid-80’s with bright sunshine and constant wind that prevented us from using our awnings to shade the passenger side of the coach.

Although $45 per night is more than we generally pay to stay in an RV park, it was a fair price given the location and facilities.  The WiFi/Internet bandwidth was limited, but we were glad to have what we had as there was no useable Verizon 4G/LTE signal here, and even 3G EVDO was marginal for making phone calls.  The WiFi connection was generally very strong thanks in part to or WiFi Ranger Mobile Titanium, which has been working very well for us since we bought it at the FMCA rally in Gillette, WY last month.  Interestingly, the only OTA television signal we could pick up was Wyoming PBS from the general direction of Cody.  (Smile)

This was a quieter day for us, but by no means an idle one, as we needed to prepare for our departure tomorrow morning.  We noticed this morning that it was overcast, the first time since we arrived here a week ago.  We did have clouds today, and a few drops of rain, but Jeff informed us that the haze we were seeing was from the various forest fires burning in the west.

Linda drove to Cody in the morning to do our shopping.  The main attraction was the local Farmers Market, located, conveniently enough, in the parking lot of the Whole Foods Trading Company.  She came back with quite a few bags of stuff!

While she was gone I drained the waste tanks, stowed the hose, and added our Pine Sol / water / Calgon solution to the tanks.  I also drained the little bit of fresh water that was still in the tank, flushed it with a bit more, and then refilled it.  I left the fresh water shore line connected so we could use if until we depart, conserving our onboard water for use on down the road.  I also worked on getting our blog postings up-to-date.

When Linda got back she did the laundry.  At our house in Michigan this is usually my chore, but for some reason she seems to take care of it on the road.  Although we are trying to learn not to over-plan, we are not full-timers, and we have a house and family to which we have to return from time-to-time.  We knew the route we wanted to take back to S. E. Michigan, but the timing and overnight waypoints were still undecided.  We want to see the Theodore Roosevelt N. P. in western North Dakota, but the campgrounds there do not have any hookups and do not appear to be big rig friendly.  Medora, ND is the closest town, but it is 410 miles driving distance from Wapiti.  That is more than we care to do in one day, especially given our planned stop at Interstate Power Systems in Billings, MT to visit with Cherie and Chris of Technomadia.  (http://www.technomadia.com).

Using the online Good Sam campground finder we located the Meadows RV Park in Miles City, MT, 280 miles away, and made a reservation for tomorrow night.  That should give us a 5.5 -6.0 hour drive, leaving plenty of time to stop and visit in Billings.

I continued to work on our blog while Linda paid our bills and continued to research overnight stops.  We decided we would try to stay two nights at an RV park in Medora if we could find an opening.  And we did!  We made a reservation at the Red Trail RV Park just off I-94.  It is walking distance to downtown Medora and convenient to the Theodore Roosevelt N. P., which we will now have a day-and-a-half to explore.

Linda took time out to make wheat berry risotto with mushroom /garlic/onion /asparagus.  She used some of the Argentinean Malbec wine we had on board, and served the rest with the meal.  This was a fragrant, earthy dish with great “chew” that somehow fit the wildness of this past week.  When she has the time to cook we eat very well indeed.

While the risotto was cooking we pulled the tray on the passenger side of the bus that houses the chassis battery disconnect switches and the Vanner equalizers (we have two as it turns out).  We located the circuit breakers, and pushed them in to (possibly) reset them.  (This refers back to the BAL light that came on while traveling from Sheridan to Wapiti on the 21st of this month.)

Beyond Medora we hope to stay at a winery in Buffalo, ND about 30 miles west of Fargo.  It was personally recommended to us by Harvest Host founders Don and Kim Greene.  If they can accommodate us on the 31st, it will be our first use of our Harvest Hosts membership.

Along the same lines, we hope to stay the next night at the Forest Edge Winery in Laporte, Minnesota.  Forest Edge is owned/operated by members of the FMCA Freethinkers Associate Chapter.  Being a kind of “virtual” chapter in FMCA’s International Area (INTO) our members are spread out all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico.  Rallies are difficult to organize and most of our interactions are by e-mail.  We even hold our annul business meeting electronically.  Thus any opportunity to meet in person is a treat.  The fact that Forest Edge is also a Harvest Host business makes it easier and that much more special.

From Laporte we plan to head to Hibbing, MN to visit the Greyhound Bus Museum.  Beyond that, we will make our way across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to St. Ignace.  From there we cross the Straits of Mackinaw (Mackinac) on the Mackinaw Bridge and head straight south on I-75 where we vector off on US-23 southbound to M-59, and home.  Depending on when we get there we will have been gone almost exactly two months.