Today is low key day with roaming around Shipshewana, I’ll (quaint Amish village we stayed in last night).

• https://www.thebluegate.com

A nice hotel with class acts playing here throughout the year. None while we were there but next month they have Billy Joel, Bos Scaggs and others. The town is quaint much like several we visit in PA.

our first stop was the Red Barn https://www.facebook.com/Yoders-Red-Barn-Shoppes-2259426237657380 with dozens of great shops from candy, clothing, soaps, ( lotions and potions cool shop, you can create your own perfume here) a cafe (with soft pretzels the size of a small house) teas, coffees, meats cheeses and some outstanding handmade furniture to die for. After helping a few of the shops meet this weeks payroll we headed downtown to see what else we might find fun and interesting to do.

We found a bakery that had my head spinning. I am so glad this village isn’t within a 3 hour drive from Auburn. Pastries, cakes, cookies, donuts, pies (delicious pies, cookies cinnamon buns so far) and so much more, and what they have, they have tons of. Did I mention it’s almost like they want to see just how silly folks are. By this I mean the cinnamon buns are about 8 to 11” square and covered with crime cheese frosting, or maple glaze or regular old white frosting glaze and yes we got one and had to wait for a dozen or so folks ahead of us first.

here is 1/4 of one

this area would be so bad for my, wallet, gut, health, and those who I would drag here with me.

I got soft molasses cookies I’ll tell you later how those are. I got a slice of dark tart cherry pie, oh yeah, can you say awesome!

these areas also have foods and things that you just don’t find in our area, yes I’m sure they say the same thing when they travel to Maine. (speaking of which, we have been stopped or just asked no less than a dozen times what part of maine we are from and is that anywhere near “Bar Harbor”.) We have red hot dogs and a few other things, they have soft brittle (peanut, pretzels, and other varieties) they have fudge everywhere and yes some flavors we don’t have, but they also don’t have some we have, like sherbet, apple, maple and others.

A lot of handmade goods and at very reasonable prices. Very crafty folks.

Well after a few hours here we headed for our next stop Beliot, IL for the night.

We stopped for lunch at Gator Bites in some small town out in the middle of nowhere. The service was very good and the food not so much. While it was good it was just good not great, but hell, what do we expect, great food everywhere.

I tried to avoid driving anywhere near Chicago but wasn’t as successful as I’d hope. A long traffic jam from what appeared to be an accident. A whole 1 mile stretch of Highway was close and rerouted for what looked like the accident area where it looked like a worker had fallen from scaffolding on bridge work – onto the highway. A small price to pay for us but not for the worker🙁

After we got through this mess we headed full steam ahead to Beloit. We got in unpacked and were about to call it a night, when we both said “what’s for dinner”? I went down and asked the manager at the front desk what’s good in town that is NOT a franchise, we like to eat at local places when we travel. He said we were in luck as a new (7 months or so old) pub opened up next door and hey have heard great things from guests who have gone there. Yes great spot. A cross between gippers and gridiron. Great pub food, good service and fine prices

http://www.jerseysbarandgrillbeloit.com/home.aspx

We had a Swiss burger, cheese curds, a salad and homemade chips (homemade chips have been on the menus of the last 5 or 6 places since we left Binghamton NY).

Tomorrow we’re off to Mars Cheese Castle and Hollers apple orchards, but hats tomorrow- now it’s time to call it a night.

tonight’s sunset

I’m starting this early, well cause I can and because it’s starting out great. Finally found a stop that is open and worth the stop. Mighty fine donuts, whole cow is this place awesome. Case after case of fresh donuts (hell they are making them right now). For those who have been to Italian bakery in Lewiston- this place makes them look like a corner store.

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063673166091&refsrc=deprecated&_rdr

my best guess is 80 varieties of donuts and 30 to 50 styles pastries 🙂. I should point out, it is in what looks like the rough part of town. Hell, most of areas of Erie that we have been to so far looks rough around the edges.

Next was showering and then heading to the mariner museum and at some point in time heading more downtown to see about a fun place to eat. Oops the museum is closed on Sunday:(

https://www.eriemaritimemuseum.org

well no mariner museum so our first stop was a cool auto sculpture garden. Looks like they made things from car parts as well as a cement mixer barrel and more. The legs on most of these creations are drive shafts.

after this we took a nice walk in one of the 5 or so parks in the downtown area. After that we went to lunch at the local yacht club – https://www.sloppyducksaloon.com.
My wife had crab cakes which were awesome – my meal not so much. Simple chicken fingers and home made chips.

After lunch we went back to hotel to make med’s for the week. I then went to clean the car. Weird, on the way here from Amsterdam, we stopped after about an hour to get gas and notice something weird was buzzing around the front of the car, a bunch of bees. We quickly got in the car and drove off towards Erie. This was the long drive I mentioned earlier in this piece. Ok, so a few hours later we stop to get some meats, bread and chips, and noticed “the bees” were still buzzing around the front of the car? So we quickly hit the road and the bees are now buzzing around even while driving, so I decided to find a hardware store and pick up some bug spray and spray the front end of the car and see what that would do, not as much as I’d hope. So another can and another spray job and a self service car wash (because of the roof box) so I got out, (with the bees all around) sprayed it again and pressure washed the front end and hit the road.

When we got here no bees😄. In any case over the past few days the car got REAL dirty again so I went and washed it again and found a bunch of bees in the wheel well. My guess is one must have been a queen bee which was why they followed us for over 200 miles! But I washed them away (again) hope.

oh, tonight’s sunset

And now we rest for our long drive tomorrow- about 6 hours to our next stop – Shipswhenna, il

so today’s was a bit of a lazy day. We got to the Erie zoo and then we stopped at a flea market / bbq / entertainment event. Several of the bbq folks came and setup trailers that took up an area about 60’ x 30’. They had 2 trailer trucks that simply raised the whole side panels of the trailers and had 6, 8 or 10 burners going full out and barely able to keep up with folks. Entertainment was several local singers, karate demos and more. I’d say some 45 to 60 tents setup between 2 parks and 4 closed off streets.

we had lunch then went and checked out the area, including some shopping malls and grocery stores (weird but I like cool grocery stores) picked up some fresh squeezed orange juice, strawberry / apple juice and 20 cans of chili started for our daughter (and tonight she called and asked us to pick up 10 more).

Sunset from our room

Tomorrow should bring us a trip to the marine museum and a local donut shop that is suppose to be the only place to get donuts in pa.

view from room.

Let me start by saying damn route 86 from Binghamton to Erie is a long boring drive. While I was going to take back roads my wife asked if we could take the Highway more today, of course I said yes, that’s the kind of guy I am.

so aside from boring and long, hell what else can I say. . . ‘We made it?”

https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/erisi-sheraton-erie-bayfront-hotel/

Dinner here at one of the 3 or so restaurants on site.

http://dinner last night here at the hotel. https://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-information/restaurant/details/erisi-sheraton-erie-bayfront-hotel/5969070/

My wife had a salad and bowl of seafood chowder which she enjoy very much albeit real hot (temperature wise) and spicy too, I had tomato caprese flatbread, and fish and chips which was good as well. And for dessert we went with the old standby crepe brûlée which had a hint of orange flavor to it. We then headed out for a walk on the “river walk?” The question mark is because the walk is along the shore of Lake Erie.

so, where did I leave off? Ok so my wife doesn’t like it, blah, blah, that is until I surprised her with a stay here, and now it’s ok, the hotel, not the neighborhood were I grow up. Heck she thinks the parks right down the street from the hotel are awesome too and hell I would love to have parks this nice in auburn. Ok so the hotel is nice, the parks are nice, let’s get back to the restaurant issue. I grow up with and went to school with some of the Lanzi boys, who own lorenzo’s and 4 other restaurants now.

so left Amsterdam and are now heading to gloversville to a few coffee roasters and bakeries and a bit of walking the areas downtowns. Well surprise to us, google isn’t up to date and there is only 1 coffee roaster not 3 and only 0 bakeries and a downtown, well only marginally bigger then the one in auburn. The coffee roaster is part of a co-op which seem a bit more common outside of Maine. These co-ops are somewhat of a store with share spaces. Folks basically rent space and sell their wares. General a cross between a farmer’s market and a flea market. And you can be a member and get a discount off your purchases.

https://upstatecoffee.com

as for how good the coffee is – she won’t know until we get back. She got a cup but a different one then what she bought, but what she got was real good she said.

A link to where we stayed. Nice clean large room with a very comfortable bed and large couch and large tv

https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/bgmvs-courtyard-binghamton/

https://coppertoptavern.com

where we eat. Very good meal and great service. She had a burger? That’s what she was hungry for, she said it was cooked right and very tasty. I had chicken Milanese, which was some of the most tender chicken I’ve had in a long time- very good. After dinner we went for a walk at one of the many parks in the area. This is a big college town with plenty of stuff to do and see. It’s on the banks of the Susquehanna River with plenty of walks and things to do.

Ok getting ready for day 3. First stop M & D R. nuts house of nuts: https://mndrnuts.net

maybe a meat market after this for picnic food and then headed to Erie, Pa. Yes we will be stopping along he way and who knows what we’ll find or do. We have a lot more planned for the Erie area has we will be there a few days. Little italy and botanical garden, museums and more are planned. We will be staying at a nice hotel right on the water and hope to relax and enjoy the views.

We are in the final planning stages of a few weeks away. The trip will take us to Amsterdam NY, Binghamton NY, Erie PA, Shipshewana ID, Sturgeon Bay WI, Upper PI, Midland MI., Cleveland OH, Rochester NY, Saratoga NY and places in-between. No agenda but plenty of sights we hope to get in. Botanical Gardens, Museums, Bakeries, Candy Shops, Coffee Roasters, Loose Leaf Tea Shops, wineries and Cheese Shops, Apple Picking, Downtowns in the areas we will be staying. These walks will have us visiting “Little Italys” “Germany Towns” and any other interesting ethic towns we come across.

Riverwalks, paths, boardwalks and other quiet relaxing ways to see the inner beauty of the many areas we will be visiting.

I hope to up-date the blog each night, but I haven’t been real good about it in past trips, but this one is longer with more folks wanting to know how we are doing during the trip. Much of this concern is my wife’s (of 45 years) health during the trip. As long as we are being extra safe and careful not to be around to many crowds all while still trying to see new places and things, and having fun then this will be a great time. This is one of the reasons we choose to go during the middle of each month (mid September to Mid October) hoping most folks won’t be traveling and we can do this with greater ease and comfort. We did find ourselves having to book most of the hotels in advance, as Fall Foliage is still looking like a time of year some folks will be traveling, and rooms are hard to get in the Northeast this time of year.

So check back regularly (starting around the 15th) watch and enjoy the trip with us.

Wow not sure what to write about but I’ll have plenty of time to think. Let’s start with a recent trip to Quantico to drop off my wife and mother in-law at our daughter and her family for a short visit. It turned out shorter than planned as you now know there it a healthcare issue gripping the country. They were suppose to be there for 3 weeks but as the days went by, it became clear that they were going to be lucky to. Get a week or more out of the trip. Between more folks getting sick, states closing or closing things down, including highway rest areas along the route, which for my wife is a big deal. She is very sick and some of her med’s cause her to need to stop frequently to use restrooms. This seemed like it was going to be an issue the more time went by, so I decided to let her know I was heading down 2 weeks early. The trip down the first time was uneventful but the return trip down was interesting at best. With rest areas closed and many restaurants along the route also closed, making stops along the way home needed to be planned, and it wasn’t to big a deal in the end as many fast food places were opened just for folks like us,just to use their rest rooms. It was still interesting as we had to watch for signs along the route.