South Amherst

After a very nice stay in Dayton getting to know Keenan’s girlfriend, Sarah, we headed north to South Amherst. South Amherst? Why? We wanted to visit with another Myakkan, Kim Mulder, and we stayed at his place of business. Kim owns Star Design-Build Contractors and last month he installed a RV pad complete with water, sewer, and 50amp electrical service.

Full hook ups! We got settled into the new spot – so nice as I had to peel off the seal on the water and the sewer was virgin plastic. Check out the site:

Kim stopped by for a drink after his work day ended. Katrina found a local place for pickleball and she was off and running. After she left and Kim and I finished our drinks we decided to visit the new local brewery named ESP Brewing Company. Unfortunately it wasn’t open on Monday so Kim took me to the downtown area of Amherst. He showed me his childhood house as we drove to Ziggy’s Pub & Restaurant. We sat in the bar area and had a beer and a very tasty appetizer made with Italian sausage stuffed in a banana pepper topped with cheese. Nice place! Kim dropped me off as he was picking up his girlfriend, Gia DiLorenzo, from the airport as she was visiting for the next several weeks. Katrina returned and we had a nice quiet evening in the Busse Bus.

The following day we got some work done around the coach before heading out to meet Anne and Ant Cannon (Anne was a BeautiControl gal) at the Pint and Pie to share a pizza:

From there we all went to the Blossom Music Center to see the Doobie Brothers. The center is an open air venue which reminded me of the old Popular Creek theater outside of Chicago. The Doobies were good and there were still four of the original performers still touring. At some point one of them stated that they started in the ’70’s and now they are in them! Too funny! Here are some pictures:

China Grove, Takin’ It to the Streets, Listen to the Music, What a Fool Believes, Jesus is Just Alright with Me, and my favorite: Black Water and others really made the night enjoyable. It was great spending time with the Cannons listening to the music!

After a late start the next morning Katrina went to catch a pickleball clinic

while I caught up on the blog. I walked across the street to the famous Jamie’s Flea Market:

What a unique place! The only thing that I wanted to buy was an AP High School US History book. I found one vendor who had a book, unfortunately it was from 1910. I think that there is about 100 years missing. Oh well, at least I got to eat lunch there.

Later, Kim and Gia picked us up and we went to Tim & Diane Busch’s lake house getaway. They have had this property in their family for generations. Such a nice piece of property on a point jetting out into Lake Erie.

Since it’s on a point you can catch both sunrises and sunsets over the water during this time of the year. On clear days one can see down to Sandusky and Cedar Point Amusement Park. Occasionally they can see the lights across Lake Erie from Canada.

Tim cooked up some chicken while Diane made a cheesy potatoes dish. We had a wonderful time talking until it was time to leave.

The following day Katrina took a pickleball lesson from a talented pro at the local club. Later we headed back to The Blossom to see Jack Johnson perform with Kim and Gia.

I’m not sure that they knew many of the songs, but stated that they enjoyed the concert none-the-less.

The next day Kim and Gia picked us up to take a gander at a local greenhouse called Green Circle Growers.

Kim’s company built the majority of the non-greenhouse buildings on the site. It was very interesting to learn how they burn wood chips to create heat for the green houses. Six huge boilers accommodating hundreds of truck loads of the chips. It can also use natural gas so whichever is cheaper they use.

Green Circle Growers have 150 acres in green houses and specialize in orchids. It takes 1.5 years to take the culture (cloning method known as micropropagation) until packaging and shipping.

We saw all different colors:

The blue ones are created by injecting the blue dye into the stem of a white orchid and then sealing that hole with wax. An interesting note here is, that if you keep the plant and await new blooms, they will be white. They are also expanding into other indoor plants:

The owners live right next door and they have a little farm with animals:

Very informative stop!

We stopped at Kim’s Elyria Country Club for a late lunch. The club was started in 1905 and offered beautiful vistas as we ate outside. We all shared the sauerkraut ball appetizer which was wonderful!

That evening Kim had secured tickets to see the Cleveland Indians, oops, sorry the Cleveland Guardians. We had great seats (second row off of third base) to watch the “GuarIndians” beat the Detroit Tigers.

The tickets included ”The Club” where we could go and sit at a table and eat and drink. It was nice to see Javier Baez

play again even if it wasn’t for the Cubbies. It was ”Christmas in July” and their mascot was dancing with the Grinch:

After the victory,

Progressive Field shot off fireworks:

The next day we met up with Anne and Ant Cannon again to go to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (the same park that hosts the Blossom Music Center), specifically Howe Meadow for a farmers market. We were able to get some nice produce. Afterwards we stopped at Indigo Lake

to take Bear on a short hike. Then just up the street we stopped at Szalay’s Farm & Market. What a fun place! We munched on a couple ears of corn.

We headed off to lunch at a new barbeque place called Smoke On The Water on the Portage Lakes. Good food, beers and bloody Mary’s

sitting on their dock watching the boaters come and go.

Bear enjoyed his pork sandwich!

After leaving Anne and Ant we went back to the coach to get cleaned up before heading over to Kim’s house for homemade pizza in his pizza oven. Kim had gathered an eclectic group including Gia, Kim’s sister Michelle and her husband Marty Mariotti, Mike and Beth Poorman from Myakka who were visiting nearby, and Katrina and I. We each got to make our own creation and then we tried everyone else’s.

Cooking in the oven:

Finished labor of love:

So good and so much fun! What a beautiful setting!

We decided to extend a day at Kim’s campground for three reasons: 1) We were exhausted and needed to rest, 2) To get our laundry done, and 3) Katrina wanted to take another pickleball lesson from the local pro.

A huge shout out to Kim and Gia for letting us stay, taking is out to different venues, feeding us, and just for showing us a great time! Appreciate it! See ya back at the Myakka River Motorcoach Resort!