One more day and it's "so long, Ohio!" It's been great...

The last four days have been a whirlwind of tours and I am pooped! Tomorrow is a free day and in the evening we will have our farewell banquet at the Bent Tree Country Club in Sunbury, OH. After that, Kris and I will be heading south towards sunny and warm Nacogdoches, TX with several stops planned along the way.

Getting back to the initiation I mentioned earlier, there were actually six couples that had the honor of being first timers. We played a version of the Newlywed Game and I'm sad to say, Kris and I didn't do very well. It was all in fun and the important thing is we are no longer considered first timers! Yahoo! Oh and first timers got to dig into the pie first!

Last Monday we had a fabulous bus tour of the Amish heartland. There aren't enough words to express how beautiful that country is! Our first stop was to see a hyperbaric chamber used to aid in the rehabilitation of horses used by the Amish. It's also used for humans on occasion! We all got a chance to go inside and see what it's like. Next, we visited Keim Lumber, a very large lumber and hardware store that employs a lot of the Amish. It was an incredible place and I found lots of fun goodies while Kris took a tour of the facility with some of the group. Next, lunch at Der Dutchman. We had a complete Amish meal consisting of salad, Swiss steak, ham, stuffing, corn, mashed potatoes and pie. The food just kept coming and coming and it would've been rude NOT to eat it! Listen, you all know me: if someone else cooks, I'm there... it was fantastic! I'm totally amazed I haven't gained any weight on this trip!

Next, a visit to Warther's Museum where the Warther family continues to make and sell kitchen cutlery. The museum houses a one-of-a-kind collection of ebony, ivory and walnut train carvings created by Ernest “Mooney” Warther. His grandson was our tour guide and I have to say it was pretty interesting seeing the carvings and the arrowhead and button collections of his grandmother and hearing the stories behind them.

The next morning, Tuesday, we departed for our next and final stop in Delaware, Ohio. We were on tornado watch that day which made us a little nervous. We made a stop in Millersburg to pick up some pet food for Gabbi and soon after we were pulling into the Longaberger Homestead in Frazeysburg to meet up with the rest of our group. Some of the ladies had gotten there early and made their own baskets with the help of experienced staff. Kris and I took a self-guided tour of the basket making factory and then visited their factory store where I bought my first Longaberger basket, but only because it was marked down and had an additional 30% discount on top of that! They are wayyyyy to expensive!

We hadn't eaten yet, so next we visited the Homestead Restaurant but we couldn't decide what to have and ended up eating only dessert, a waffle bowl filled with warm apple slices, cinnamon ice cream, hot caramel sauce, fresh whipped cream with a dusting of cinnamon and sugar! And no, we didn't split one, we each had our own and they were delicious!

It was starting to get late so we headed back to the RV where Gabbi was patiently, as always, waiting for us. I took her for a quick walk before we fired up the engine to leave. We were driving out of the driveway just as the wind went crazy and the sky opened up and it started to dump rain so hard we couldn't see 20 feet in front of us. It was too late, we were already on the road headed to our campground in Delaware. Fortunately, the hard rain didn't last too long and even though it was windier than all get out, we made it to our destination without incident, unlike a couple of other members in our group. I heard one was hit by debris and cracked their windshield and another's vent cover blew off the roof causing a ton of water to leak into their bedroom! Boy do we feel lucky!

Wednesday morning we were off on another bus tour. This time we visited Pilot Dog, a non-profit in Columbus where they train golden retrievers, doberman pinschers,  german shepherds, labrador retrievers, poodles, boxers and vizslas as seeing-eye dogs. We got to see a couple of labs being trained which was really neat. Next stop was the Nestle Test Labs where they test the safety of each and every Nestle product and there are a ton of products in the Nestle family. I will be shopping for Nestle products from now on knowing how thoroughly they are scrutinized.

After a scrumptuous lunch at the Confluence Park Restaurant which sits on the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers in Columbus, we finished our tour at Sutphen Engines where they manufacture all types of firetrucks from the ground up. We saw several in the process of being built and they are built to last, in the same fashion as our Foretravel RVs. You can tell the company takes a lot of pride in them.

Today, Thursday, was our last day of touring. It was a long day but I enjoyed absolutely everything we saw today. We started at the American Whistle Company, the only manufacturer of metal whistles in the U.S. and the only company worldwide that die strikes logos into the top of the whistle. We saw how a whistle is made from start to finish and each of us were given our very own whistle to take home! They've even been featured on the Discovery Channel TV show, How It's Made. Next we saw a mattress being made from start to finish at the Original Mattress Company. It was fascinating and I was drooling over their sewing and quilting equipment.

Lunch was at a Mongolian Grill which both Kris and I love! Can you imagine 50 people lining up at a Mongolian Grill? We were in and out in about an hour and it was the first experience for many in our group. We were told not to eat dessert as our next stop was a tour of Graeter's Ice Cream where we each got to choose two scoops of any flavor we wanted! Their specialty is black raspberry. Needless to say, this is the second day in a row I have skipped dinner. Our last stop was a visit to Fortin's Ironworks. They fabricate ornamental iron gates, fences, rail , outdoor furniture and home furnishings. They presented each of us with a large metal, laser cut, Texas State symbol probably since our RVs are manufactured in Texas. They didn't know we were from all over the U.S. until after we got there.

Would you believe tonight the group got together for rootbeer floats? Kris went but I stayed behind to do some laundry and kept Gabbi company since she's been cooped up for a couple of days with the exception of being let out once during the day by the campground staff. I am absolutely exhausted and looking forward to sleeping in until at least 8 a.m. tomorrow which isn't saying much since it's almost midnight now!

I took a lot of pictures but I will have to add them later as I'm heading to bed . . . night all.