Saturday - Turkey Hill Experience - Part 1

We had chosen to do the bike ride along the river in Marietta, PA, as we wanted to visit the Turkey Hill Experience in nearby Columbia, PA.

I was most aware of Turkey Hill as convenience stores in some areas of Pennsylvania, but they were first a dairy and ice cream maker.

Inside the gift shop

Rug on the floor in the gift shop

Upstairs there was information about Turkey Hill, its history, and the family behind the company.

Centrifugal Separator

Interesting information about the town of Columbia -- that it was in the running to become the US capital, and missed by one vote! (I found an interesting article here: https://www.pennlive.com/editorials/2011/07/how_pennsylvania_lost_its_chan.html  As always, if something doesn't make sense, follow the money!)

We had gotten tickets online for a "Double Experience" - to do the "Turkey Hill Experience" as well as to attend the "Taste Lab".

Entering the Turkey Hill Experience (this is where the "charge" area began)

We had had to arrive 45 minutes before our Taste Lab time, so we had a little time before our "class" began...

... so we made our way to the Ice Cream Sampling area!

Unlimited samples could be obtained (each sample was a single scoop)...

... these were the flavors on offer the day we were there. I liked the Dutch Chocolate -- Carl tried the Double Dunker, and liked that the best, but later also tried Dutch Chocolate and Chocolate Mint Chip

I thought this was interesting on how the dairy had provided consumers with a way to get the cream poured out separately from their milk.

We only had a few minutes to visit the "Experience" before it was time to head to the classroom for our Taste Lab -- more on that in another post!

A Saturday bike ride

We've been wanting to get out on our bikes, but have been busy with projects around the rig (including cleaning, like cleaning out the trap under the bathroom sink - yuck!!!). On Saturday, we decided that we'd done enough things around the rig that we could take the day off and do some fun things... one of which was bike riding!

On the way to the bike path, we stopped to pick up some Amazon packages at a nearby locker -- handy to get our Amazon orders!

The Garmin took us on back roads to get to the bike path...

... including crossing a covered bridge (glad we weren't in Gracie!)...

... and a turn onto a road that looked like it was a private driveway, but I guess it wasn't... it sure didn't seem like a road that we should be using as a through street!

We eventually got to a parking area for the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail...

... we were joining it in the town of Marietta.

We picked the trail because we thought it would be along the river...

... and it was, but you couldn't see the river most of the time. It was more through woodland and fields with a river nearby.

I was trying the feature on my phone where I could say, "Take selfie." It worked, but took a while to react!

You can see a little bit of the river beyond Carl in this picture.

Along the bike trail in the trees.

We rode about 11 miles -- we had a little over an hour to ride, because we had booked a "Turkey Hill Experience" for the afternoon -- more about that in another post!

Home repair - refrigerator

While traveling, we had had a couple of "oops" in the refrigerator (items that had turned over and leaked), so we cleaned it on Monday. In the process, we found that the support for the bottom shelf was about to crack through.

A piece of glass lays on top of this plastic support...

... zooming in, I've marked with arrows places where it was cracked, almost all the way through, in the middle of the back of the shelf support.

Carl had used this product for gluing plastic in the past, but it was all dried up (we've come to the conclusion that these are single-use packages -- they never seem to be able to be used more than once!).

The shelf was also supposed to have a cross piece that the produce drawers slid on (shown where it should be positioned for the picture), but it had broken too.

The design is poor (it is all plastic on the back of that shelf support and also the cross piece), but it does not help that things are bouncing up and down on the shelf as we drive down the roads -- in other words, it may have held up okay in normal household use, just not so great in a motorhome.

While we were out on Tuesday, Carl got some superglue and on Tuesday evening, he glued the parts together. They needed to cure for 24 hours before we wanted to put any stress on the repairs, so we continued on the project on Wednesday afternoon.

This is the area where the shelf support will go...

There it is in place -- you can see that there is a place where shelves could attach in to a metal shelf holder in the middle back, but this shelf has no connection to that -- not sure why not. And, the back part of the shelf holder is all plastic -- the front has a metal strip, but the back is all plastic. We decided that it would be wise to try to provide some additional support in the back. The shelf under this one has a metal piece across the back, so it is holding up well, and we thought we could put "legs" from the plastic down to the support below.

We considered various materials (cutting up a cutting board that we had gotten for use in this kind of way, or a wooden dowel rod), but decided to go with a piece of sharkbite PVC pipe.

Cutting the PVC pipe

Deciding where the pipe "legs" should go (we put it in, and put the shelf support into the refrigerator to make sure that it would fit and do the job).

Carl decided to use hot glue for this as the legs will be mostly be held in place by the weight downward on the shelf.

Putting the leg into place

Shelf support in the refrigerator with its new legs -- it seems to be working well!

We put the glass shelf on top and then put the produce drawers back in -- they have not been sliding in and out very well for a long time due to the middle piece being broken -- now they slide like a dream! I hope the glue and plastic will hold!

We had another piece that we had removed from the refrigerator because it had totally broken in half -- it is a cover over the snack/cheese tray, and we haven't missed it that much, but, Carl decided to try fixing it as well.

He had glued it Tuesday night, but it is all plastic with no additional support -- he is pointing to where we figured it needed some additional strengthening (you may be able to see the crack just to the right of his finger).

Some hot glue...

... and another piece of PVC -- it seems stronger now. Whether it will end up breaking again or not is to be seen, but it is holding together for now!

It is great to get some items cleaned and fixed so they work better for our daily lives!

Sight and Sound Theater - Lancaster - "Moses"

When we made the decision to visit the Thousand Trails PA Dutch Country campground near Lancaster, we checked out what production was at the Sight and Sound Theater (it was "Moses"), and then decided to book tickets to go.

Wednesday was the day that we had tickets to attend...

Sight and Sound Theater - Lancaster

Lobby area

"Moses" production poster

Inside the theater -- we had seats in the orchestra section

The way the productions are done at Sight and Sound, the action goes on around 3 sides of the audience (on the front stage and then side stages on both sides of the auditorium). The action also uses the aisles -- we were just 4 seats from the central aisle and it was neat to see actors, horses, sheep, goats go running down the aisle very close to us!

About to start

No photos during the production.

At intermission

We really enjoyed the production -- such elaborate sets and special effects -- live animals -- and a good interpretation of the story of Moses. So thankful that we can enjoy things like this as we travel!

And, it happened to be on our 42nd anni monthversary! Three and a half years! Halfway to seven years!

Lancaster Central Market

On Sunday, we moved to Thousand Trails PA Dutch Country near Manheim, PA and are exploring the areas around the area.

On Monday, we drove up to Reading to do some errands. We went to uBreakiFix/Asurion to have them look at Carl's phone -- unfortunately they think it is a failed motherboard and Google no longer provides replacement motherboards to them to work on the phones, so our recourse is to work with Google on a solution (it is a Google Pixel 5A). Evidently the problem is rather common, so that causes us some concerns (particularly since mine is the same type of phone!). We also visited Ollie's Bargain Outlet (Carl likes their coffee options), a Chinese Buffet, Sam's Club (rotisserie chicken!), and a Walgreens to pick up a prescription.

On Tuesday, we drove into Lancaster. We went to PetSmart to return some cat food that we had purchased for Miss Kitty and which she no longer eats. She has eaten anything I gave her for 12 years, and suddenly has become finicky. I talked with the lady who was parked next to us at Water's Edge near Gros Morne in Newfoundland (who also had a cat) since I was trying all sorts of food and Miss Kitty was just not eating any of them very well. She said that her cat liked Friskies Indoor Cat Chicken Pate and gave me a can to try, and, amazingly, Miss Kitty liked that! A guy in a pet food store had also recommended frozen raw food, so we have her eating those two at this point. Anything else we've tried has pretty much been a bust. So, I had quite a number of cans and a huge bag of kibbles of the prescription food that she was on (which I had gotten so I wouldn't run out while we were in Canada - not knowing that she would decide it was no longer edible!) -- so we returned all of that to PetSmart. One of the pet food stores in Canada that we visited, when I confessed that she would only eat the Friskies said, "Oh, that's like feeding her McDonald's all the time! But... if that's all she'll eat..." When I told the cashier at PetSmart that she would only eat "McDonald's" she said, "Oh, Friskies?" Oh well, better that she eats something, I guess!

Unfortunately, the raw food that she likes seems to be only available in Canada. I got an extra box before we left Canada, but... I'm hoping I can find something she'll like in the US. The product from Canada has *only* chicken (meat, bones, liver, hearts). The frozen raw chicken food that I found in PetSmart has a lot of other ingredients too:

... maybe cats need some other ingredients too, but I have always heard that cats are true carnivores (unlike dogs, which also need vegetable and grain intake).

Anyway, we got some "McDonald's" aka Friskies at PetSmart to start spending down the gift card that we got returning the prescription food (since we didn't have the receipts from when we purchased it).

Then we headed downtown to Lancaster Central Market...

... it is in downtown Lancaster and is said to be America's longest running market, continuously operated since 1730. https://centralmarketlancaster.com/

There is quite a selection of different items - meat and breads...

... cheeses and vegetables...

...gifts and homemade goods.

We enjoyed walking around the market and got some homemade soft pretzels to eat and pickles to bring home.

One last stop at Costco and then we headed back to the campground.

Saturday - another state, another Harvest Host

On Saturday, we left NY and headed south...

NY State has parking areas identified as "Text Stops" -- no restroom facilities, just a place to park and walk around or text if you need.

In a little drizzle, we soon entered Pennsylvania,

and got to our Harvest Host stop for the night, Spyglass Ridge Winery.

Interesting display of glasses and wine for the wine flights.

There is also a brew pub on the property, so we went there for dinner...

... Carl got a meatball sub -- we discussed how this was an item that would not be good to order when on a job interview or on a first date... or maybe it should not be ordered on a date at all, only after you are married!

Gracie in her spot at the winery - they have power hookups available for $10 which is a blessing since it was still hot and humid!

Vineyards and the brew pub building

There are 4 30A power boxes around the "barn" -- there are two rigs on the other side, we were the only ones on our side of the bar.

We've been doing a lot of short stays through the summer -- visiting a lot of different places... we're heading to a longer stay at a Thousand Trails in Pennsylvania.