Mayfield Dairy Tour

During our post-Rally gathering of Dreamers, Mike had told us about the Indoor RV Center where he had purchased his motorhome, and it turned out that there was one in Georgia, not too far from where we were staying at the Georgia RV Park.

We decided to take a drive out there on Thursday to check out a few motorhomes that they had, and since it’s an INDOOR showroom, it would be much more tolerable in the 90 degree heat . . . yeah, right!

First thing we found out was that their showroom is NOT indoors . . . ok, then!  They had a few motorhomes, including a 2006 Country Coach in the same floorplan as the one we’ve been looking at in Canada.  WE walked through them, but didn’t spend much time . . . the salesman wasn’t too enthused about showing them to us!

On the way to the RV Dealer, we had seen a billboard for Mayfield Dairy, so on the way back home we stopped in for a tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a milk bottling plant, not an ice cream plant, but they still had an ice cream shop and the $4.50 per person tour price included an ice cream cone at the end of the tour.

We browsed through the gift shop while we waited for our tour time.

 

The tour included the history of Mayfield Dairy and their famous (?) yellow milk jugs, and the many other products that they produce.  As usual, there was no photography allowed on the tour, but they have some handy displays in the store.

 

We saw where the tanker truckers bring the raw milk into the plant, where it’s processed – homogenized and pasteurized, and finally where it’s bottled, labeled and sent back out the door – all within 24 – 48 hours, and at a constant temperature of 34 degrees F.

The tour ended with an opportunity to “milk” Bessie.  Bryce didn’t want to try it, though!

 

It was a fun and informative tour . . . and the ice cream was delicious, too!

 

On Saturday, we moved across Georgia, though Atlanta,

to the Pine Mountain RV Resort in Pine Mountain, Georgia.

It’s a very nice RV Resort, with roomy sites – with picnic tables AND firepits!  I think we’ll be very comfortable here, and it it ever cools down, we might even have a campfire!

It’s really quiet right now, but we hear it’s going to fill up for Father’s Day weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a nice little Dog Park that Casey has already checked out,

and a beautiful pool that we’re going to get a lot of use out of – it’s supposed to be in the upper 90s all week!!

Yep, this will be a nice place to call home for a couple weeks while we check out the area!

4th Grade Field Trips

So, I think history is interesting . . . but the male members of my family, not so much.  However . . . we are in the oldest city in America, and that constitutes a fair amount of history.

Much of it has been converted into money-generating tourist traps, but a few sites are under the oversight of the National Park Service . . . and we have an annual National Park pass that expires at the end of April . . . so, along with a bunch of 4th graders on field trips, we visited the two forts that were instrumental in protecting St. Augustine from attacks.

Our first stop was at Fort Matanzas,

on the Matanzas River, south of the city. 

The National Park Service provides boat rides across the river to the fort.  Unfortunately, due to the threat of bad weather, the boat trips were cancelled.

 

So in place of that, there was a guided Ranger walk through the salt marsh,

 

to a spot on the beach that provides a good view of the fort.  This fort was more of a “guard shack” at the back door to St. Augustine.  From this location on the river, the soldiers could see the coast and hold off any attempts by pirates or enemies to sneak up on the city.  They did a good job, and no one ever got in this way.

It was a quick little tour, and a brief history of the fort, and then we made our way back along the river to the Visitor Center,

and then headed back into the city for our second fort tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Castillo de San Marcos was the northernmost outpost of Spain’s New World Empire.  Construction began in 1672, after many attacks from the British and their expanding colonization to the north.

The walls of the Castillo are constructed of coquina, which is porous and compresses under the impact of cannon fire, rather than breaking apart.  This makes the Castillo practically indestructible.

 

We entered the Castillo through the Sally Port, the entrance to the fortress, and into the central courtyard.

The rooms around the courtyard were storage areas.  The Spanish stockpiled gunpowder, ammunition, weapons, lumber, tools and food, which allowed St. Augustine to survive during a long siege.

 

Religion was an important part of Spanish life, and a priest would hold mass daily for the soldiers in the Chapel of the Castillo.

St. Augustine was a presidio, and nobody lived inside the Castillo.  The soldiers lived in town with their families, and came to the fort to stand guard in the Guard Towers on a rotating basis.

From this vantage point, the soldier on guard had a view of the entire city and the coastline.

The upper level of the fort – the gun deck and surrounding city wall –was the most important part of the Castillo.  By 1740, the gun deck had over 70 mounted cannons of varying size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each of the fort’s four corners is protected by a diamond-shaped bastion.  Cannons on the bastions were placed to create a deadly crossfire.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For almost 350 years the Castillo has stood guard over the city of St. Augustine and, although the fort has changed hands between countries many times – from Spain, to Britain, back to Spain, and finally the United States – every transfer was negotiated through treaty and agreement, and never battle.

So, after all that history in the company of at least 4 different 4th grade field trip groups, Bryce felt that he deserved a reward for his patience, so we walked over to check out Cousteau’s Waffles and Shakes – now that sounds like an interesting combination!    

We studied the menu,

and Tom and I decided to split a Whirlybird,

 

while Bryce savored his chocolate chip cookie doughlicious milkshake all by himself! 

The warm waffle with hot cinnamon apples, topped with ice cream, caramel and whipped cream was heavenly . . . and Bryce thoroughly enjoyed his shake – he said it was the best he’s ever had!

Yep, it was a good way to end the day!

Art Fest Ft. Myers

 

On Saturday, we went out to dinner with Tim & Denise at Sonny’s BBQ, but returned to the RV Resort in time for the evening show – Magic with Harry.

It was a good show – good magic, and very entertaining! 

 

While there, we learned that there was an Art Festival going on in Ft. Myers, so we made plans to go downtown after church on Sunday.

We tried a different church this weekend (one that I saw when taking Bryce to the ACT Test on Saturday morning), and ended up sitting next to an RVing couple from Toledo . . . what a small world!  Two of their daughters even went to the same high school as me!  We talked with them while we enjoyed coffee and cookies after mass, and then Tom, Bryce and I made our way downtown.

 

It was a beautiful morning, and we found a parking spot just a couple of blocks up from the marina.

We walked past the historic Edison Theatre,

and down to the waterfront.

There were a variety of interesting booths in the fair,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but nothing that we needed to buy . . . or even were really tempted by! 

Tom did like these puppets, though . . .  they were really realistic looking, and actually not too expensive!

This was a pretty nice Art Fair, but tiny compared to the Ann Arbor Art Fair – it only too us about an hour to walk through the whole thing. 

 

We saw lots of strollers as we walked around . . . but none of them had kids in them . . . they all were carrying dogs!!  I have never seen so many dogs in strollers!! LOL

There were even little dogs posing for a pictures with this mascot!

 

 

 

 

 

In the middle of the Art Fair, there was a chalk art competition between students from the local high schools, sponsored by Truly Nolen – a local exterminator.

With then as the sponsor, it was no surprise that the theme of the competition was “Bugs on Vacation”.

They were all really good!

Bryce especially liked the ones that went with the entire bug theme and included a VW bug . . .

Many popular vacation destinations were represented!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were also a few professionally-done chalk drawings . . . but it really was difficult to tell them apart!

We’d had our fill of the Art Fair, and had started making our way back to the beginning when I spotted these two guys sitting on a wall – probably waiting for their wives to finish shopping! 

 

They bore such an eerie resemblance to two of my brothers-in-law (10 years from now!), that I just had to take a picture of them!!

So funny!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way back to the car, we stopped for a quick slice of pizza for lunch.         

It was really good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at the RV Resort, we spent the afternoon relaxing at the pool . . . aaahhh!  What a great way to spend a beautiful afternoon!

After dinner, I packed up my laundry and we all went over for a dish of homemade ice cream.  I was busy getting my laundry started and missed out on the chocolate ice cream, which I heard was exceptionally good, but the vanilla was pretty good, too!