Roaming Rangeley 2023 Part 4

Haying season in Holmes County Ohio

Roaming Rangeley Summer 2023

Vermont

Thursday August 17 through Monday August 20, 2023

E: Rangeley was an angel during many family visits in Vermont. He was patient in the car on the cooler, rainy days (65-70 degree) while we picked up Gary’s 92-year-old mom, Earline, at her assisted living building in Essex Junction, VT. Rangeley was a good sport when he was tied to a lawn tractor, in Gary’s sister (Linell’s) garage with the garage doors wide open because there were 14 people inside on Friday August 18th, my 64th B-Day, ages 18 months to 92!  Rangeley’s favorite times were hanging out with Isabella, Gary’s 18-month-old great niece, and when Gary took him down to swim in the Brown’s River on Linell and her husband Armando’s property in Westford, VT where we stayed. All sounds great but Vermont has been under rain clouds for days and the backyard grass, normally dry and a great place for him to run, was inches deep in mud. We’d throw a tennis ball and Rangeley would slide a minimum of 12 inches! We tried replacing his “divots” but… Gary would take him back down to the river or use the outdoor spigot to wash him off, then dry him as much as possible before bringing him into the house. Linell and Armando were super gracious and patient with our wet, smelly pup!! Thank you both!!

Gary and I met in Vermont over 40 years ago. He had graduated from the University of Vermont (UVM) and I still had a year left. He, his brother and two sisters grew up in Waitsfield, VT. I was raised in Burlington, VT. It’s great to know we can visit with Gary’s mom, his two sisters, their children and our great nieces who still live in VT when we visit several times a year. It’s very special.

We bought our favorite items, and/or, I was given them for my Birthday! Vermont maple syrup, maple sugar, maple cream, Cabot cheddar cheese, homemade jam, and more!! Gary’s sisters and their husbands are great cooks, they both have gardens – veggies and years of mature flowers – and are wonderful hosts. I am always spoiled there! I even drove away with a plastic container of spearmint roots to see if I can grow some in a container in Phoenix, from Linell’s garden.

We love the Green Mountains, the streams and rivers, Lake Champlain and enjoy seeing the areas where we both lived for over 35 years. We are lucky to have such a beautiful state and open arms family to return “home” to. 

See our 2021 blog, under Rangeley, then Vermont for lots of great photos.

Vermont 2021

Our next adventure is visiting Rangeley’s “home”, where he comes from, Millersburg, Ohio. We return often (this is our fifth time) to visit our friends who handed our then 8-week-old pup to us 3 years ago. Our Amish friends are expecting us. We will spend three nights visiting LoriAnne and Dennis (in their late 20’s), their daughter Charity, middle son Jared and their latest baby, whom we have not met yet, Kendrick. Stay tuned!!

Monday August 21,2023

Millersburg, Ohio

Our first day in Holmes County, Amish Country in Millersburg, Ohio did not disappoint! We arrived at LoriAnne and Dennis’ “new” home about 4pm. Charity (age 4) greeted us on the large front porch followed by LoriAnne with Jared (age 17 mos.) on one hip and Kendrick (5 mos.) on the other. Dennis works as a finish carpenter and after a quick tour of the property with multiple out buildings, large barns and a silo, Dennis, driven home by his co-worker, pulled into the driveway.

The previous owners were also Amish so no need to alter anything to take the home “off the grid”. We were pleasantly surprised how perfect the property is for them. The two years looking for just the right spot paid off. The 5 bedroom, 2 bath, open floorplan downstairs, two story house will hopefully be the late 20 year old’s forever home. The concrete floor of the completely open basement is perfect for large gatherings as it houses 2 additional entrances at ground level with a coal stove and fridge left by the previous owners for canning and entertaining. They also can heat with propane as well. LoriAnne’s favorite space in the house? A large canning closet! A below ground level room roughly 20ft x 8ft, lined with wooden shelves of her recently canned peaches, green beans, blueberry pie filling, jams and more! There were four full jars (2 peaches and 2 blueberry compote/pie filling) on a separate shelf, awaiting my arrival! The basement will now be an additional location for community church services as well. LoriAnne is very proud she now has a space large enough to occasionally host in addition to other Amish community members. LoriAnne and Dennis’s community group do not go to a church building, they share hosting a service in each of the member’s homes.

We were invited to LoriAnne’s parents place for dinner. We have connected with William and Mary (who are our age) on previous trips, but this was the first time we had dinner at their house. We ate outside on the patio of their Dawdy house. A smaller retirement home traditionally built on their property when the eldest son is ready to take over the family farm.  Mary’s fresh peach pies were a special treat! One was made with handmade pastry crust complete with real whipped cream on top, and the other was a peach custard with a brown sugar crumbled topping. Rangeley, tied to the car on a long line very close to the patio, was content. He watched the horses in the pasture, hens in the yard, heard the other dogs in the barn and contained himself quite remarkably as Charity and Jared giggled and ran after a couple of foam airplanes thrown by their Dawdy (grandpa) after we ate.

Tuesday August 22, 2023

E: Unfortunately, Gary, LoriAnne and I spent the morning taking baby Kendrick (5mos) to be seen by his pediatrician and get a test for Whooping Cough. Results will take a couple of days but the doctor felt it was just a croup cough that would go away on its own. Both LoriAnne’s older children have had the Whooping Cough in the past. Kendrick is a tough kiddo and still smiles a lot! (luckily the test came back negative the next day).

Dennis was at work all day. We offered to take LoriAnne to do some errands while we waited for the Drs. appt. Her neighbor took Jared (15 mos.) and Charity (4) for the morning and fed them lunch. She has two boys that were excited to have playmates for a few hours. Gary, LoriAnne, napping Kendrick in his car seat, and I went to a roadside stand to get fresh corn and a watermelon for dinner and took LoriAnne for lunch at her requested location…Taco Bell. An unnecessary expense for her normally. They do not eat out very often. She really appreciated us treating her.

Between our family in Vermont who love to cook and bake, and this wonderfully hospitable Amish family, we are always well taken care of with home grown food and meals from scratch on our summer visits!!

LoriAnne made Frogmore Stew a popular dish among the Amish. It originated (according to online) in Frogmore, South Carolina in the 1960’s. LoriAnne does it a little bit differently than most Amish…all on the grill vs. in a pot on the stove. She wrapped fresh jalapenos from her garden in bacon after stuffing with cream cheese and shredded cheese. She also cut her fresh picked banana peppers in half, stuffed them with the cheese mixture, including garlic from her garden, and wrapped them in bacon. We had grilled shrimp wrapped in bacon (I am sensing a theme here) and chicken and sausage links. She served spearmint ice tea from her garden and canned pickles. She grilled zucchini from her garden and we finished the evening off with Dennis’s mom’s homemade pecan and apple pies. No losing weight in an Amish home!! We sat around the table with the three children and enjoyed conversation and a wonderfully relaxing meal. OK, we couldn’t get up! : )

After dinner Dennis started a bonfire in the backyard. Rangeley ran around with one of the miniature poodles they have on the property. Charity decided to wear my long sleeves shirt as pants and crawl under my folding chair, pretending she was in a sleeping bag inside a tent. Jared carried a small plastic Adirondack chair placing it beside each of us, sitting down for an instant then picking up the child sized chair, moving to the next adult, sitting in his chair, getting up again, and so on. Jared loves the outdoors and is mesmerized by the stars. The only time I heard him fuss was when it was time to go inside. There is no ambient light on an Amish farm since there are no lights on in or outside the house until they go inside. Kendrick fell fast asleep in mom’s arms and we did not leave their backyard until after 10 PM. A headlamp or flashlight guided us back to the house. It was very nice to be tech free.

Wednesday August 23, 2023

E: Today is LoriAnne’s 27th Birthday. They don’t normally formally celebrate but I offered to do all her laundry today. I asked her to gather sheets and all her handmade trousers and dresses and I would wash them at the laundry mat on delicate and hang them up. Since they are hand sewn in some places (mostly sewn on a sewing machine run by a 12 volt battery) they should not go into the dryer. Gary drove the 15 minutes to their house, from the hotel we always stay at, to get the laundry. He also had picked up 4 bags of wood chips for Dennis since the car makes transportation a whole lot easier than the buggy clip clopping 10 miles round trip to and from the Tractor Supply store right by our hotel. When the Laundry was done Gary drove the now clean, hanging trousers and dresses, car seat covers, dried and folded sheets, mattress pads and baby blankets along with a new large laundry basket we bought her, back to one happy LoriAnne! Rangeley loves being with Gary, riding in the car and running around at the farm so he went with Gary on both trips. Charity loves throwing the tennis ball for Rangeley and is getting quite good/strong at using the flinger!

When we arrived for dinner at Dennis and LoriAnne’s we noticed 2 of the 6, 7-week-old chocolate/honey colored miniature poodle pups, loose outside the barn. Of course, it began to pour just as we are collecting the little rascals, so I waited in the animal barn, and Gary waited in the tractor barn across the driveway where he parked the car, for 5+ minutes until nature’s cats and dogs calmed down a bit. They have two litters for sale right now. The miniature poodles and a littler of Newfoundland “pups”…at 8-9 weeks they are almost the size of bear cubs!

LoriAnne, Charity, Rangeley and Gary drove to get some fresh milk from her cousin’s cow and some ice from Dennis’s sister’s freezer for homemade ice cream in a churn for dessert. A well-deserved mini break from the rest of the family for the Birthday girl! Back at the house, Dennis was “in charge” of Jared and I gave Kendrick a bottle of mom’s milk. I then carried him on my hip while clearing the table from dinner and did the dishes while Kendrick bounced in a little reclined child’s seat at my feet.

When our car pulled into the driveway, out popped Gary, Charity and LoriAnne, followed by Dennis’ parents Jonas and Betty. The parents live just down the road and were walking up to join us for dessert when Gary picked them up.

The guys, including Jared, started the generator out back, added a vanilla ice cream mix and ice to the antique ice cream churn. All of us women and Charity chatted in the living room as we passed Kendrick around to hold.

We finished off the apple and pecan pies from last night, with the freshly made ice cream, followed by coffee and a group evening chat in the living room. The only lights were one battery powered lantern in the living room, one over the sink in the kitchen and the light in the bathroom is a kerosene lamp hanging from a hook on the wall. The batteries are rechargeable hand tool batteries that are charged via a solar panel. The lights hang on the gas light fixtures hung from the ceiling. The battery lights create less heat in the summer. They use the gas lights in winter.

We talked about our next visit, possibly in December, with our own kids and said our goodbyes, for now. We drove Jonas and Betty to their house on our way back to our hotel.

We have noticed in the Millersburg area properties and houses are kept in immaculate condition. The grounds are mowed and manicured, lots of flowers hanging from porches and in front yard gardens. It is common to see laundry hanging out with all pants hung together, all dresses together and all sheets together on the backyard clotheslines. The county seat’s old section of town is also very clean and buildings well maintained. LoriAnne and Dennis’s house is 20 years old and looks like it was built a couple years ago. Dennis’s barns are very orderly and clean. Shelving for everything and each lawn mower, buggy or bike in its proper place. Whether it be their appearance, buggies or property, all the Amish we are seeing in this area take great pride in themselves and their possessions. I can see myself buying hanging flower baskets for the fall and going through closets and cabinets, weeding out/donating, when I get home! The below quote seemed apropos:

When you choose to collect experiences rather than things, you will never run out of storage space. – Unknown

If you wish to see many more fabulous and fun photos and our journals of our previous visits to Amish Country, Holmes County Ohio, go to our blog, click on Roaming Rangeley. 2021 will be the first post. Scroll down to Millersburg, Ohio. Also lots more under Roaming Rangeley 2022, click on Ohio, then scroll down towards the bottom until you see Millersburg, Ohio post – Can you tell we love visiting there?!!

Tomorrow we head to Lexington, Kentucky to visit Shane, a new friend we met on our Camino in Spain earlier this summer!

Thursday August 24, 2023

Lexington, KY

E: We made it to the Blue Grass State. Even the airport is called Blue Grass Airport in Lexington. Known for horse racing, breeding and horse farms and home to Keeneland race track. We are missing a chance to go to a horse race, this time (next race is in October). But we will visit again. The famous Churchill Downs is in Louisville, KY.

We met with Shane, an architect, our age, whom we connected with the first night on our 2023 Camino this past May. We saw him again and again throughout our 37 day walking journey and spent some time with him in Santiago at the end as well. We exchanged contact information and he said if we were ever in Lexington, we should stop by…so we did!

Rangeley loved the brewery Shane picked out for us to enjoy dinner on a picnic table outside the West Sixth Brewing Co. in Lexington. Rangeley was welcomed by a waitress …her ball cap read: “Can I Pet Your Dog?”!! Rangeley was all in : )

We lucked out and heard a sizable blue grass band playing inside. The restaurant was donating 6% of all sales that night to a non- profit supporting local musicians so some came to the restaurant and were playing to encourage people to stick around. Our locally brewed beers and burgers went to a good cause, besides our tummies!

Shane’s home is a lovely, recently very tastefully renovated, 1930’s, 3 bedroom, 2 bath home. It was wonderful to visit with him after completing our Caminos together in late June. We chatted about his and our travels as he too is a wanderer at heart. We hope to connect with him again.

Friday August 25, 2023

E: Gary took me to the airport in Lexington and headed off with Rangeley to enjoy 4 days of driving back to Phoenix by themselves. I will fly back to Phoenix. I have three flights in September to get ready for! I will be visiting an elderly neighbor who moved to South Carolina; I have a job in Dallas; and I will be flying to Long Island to meet up with my 3 siblings for our annual gathering at my oldest sister’s home in Amagansett, almost all the way to the tip of Long Island, to enjoy walks on the beaches and chats over coffee and wonderful dinners with my brother and two sisters.

We hope you are enjoying our stories we tell. We are passionate about travel, visiting family and wandering. Thank you for “joining” us! …Until our next G and E Adventure to…?

 “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste it, to experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” – Eleanor Roosevelt 

G: Rangeley and I are in Texas as I post this. We have driven 7,334 miles through 29 states so far. We should be home in 2 days, having 800 miles to go to get to Phoenix. Rangeley continues to be an amazing traveler.

Thanks for reading along.