Baking at the MACC

Hi all!
We are camping near Columbus OH at the "Musicians Against Childhood Cancer" bluegrass festival (www.bluegrassclassic.com).  The heat has been and continues to be incredible for the Midwest area.  More about that later.

Since I last updated the blog, we spent last Saturday (7/16) at my cousin Karen's house on lake Freeman near Monticello IN.  It was really nice to visit and catch up with the cousins as Nancy, Roxanne and Aunt Peg were there.  They have a new tri-hull pontoon boat that we toured the lake on.  The last time I was out on that lake was about 1968 or so.  Quite a bit more development since then.
At the end of the day we packed Connie back up and headed back to Indy.

Sunday, July 17 we travelled to the bluegrass festival site.  Our good friends from FL Dorothy and John met us there.  We are very near the spot we camped at last year and had electricity (very limited - not enough to run AC).  We visited with them and explored the grounds and called it a night after having some grilled beef tenderloin and greek salad.

Monday, July 18 - Connie's Birthday!!!
The four of us took a road trip to Amish country NE of Columbus.  We started out at Charm OH eating lunch at "Grannie's Cupboard".  Great meal prepared simple county style.  Afterwards we went up the hill across the street to Kiem Lumber - kind of a home super-store with really nice hardwoods, fixtures and tools.
Leaving Charm we stopped at a farm advertising baked goods (Miller's Bakery).  The house was off the road up a one lane hill and like many in the area, had no electricity.  Connie picked a large dutch apple pie for desert - best we've had in many years.
We then went to the town of Berlin where they have a concentration of shops for tourists.  I parked myself on a shady porch and let the others go shopping.  Connie hit two quilt stores finding region themed fabric.  Dorothy and John hit a natural food market.
We then went to Lehman's hardware in Kidron OH.  It is a very large store that caters to a non-electric world.  They have many tools and things for sale that you might remember your grandparents having.  Last year I was able to find chimneys and wicks for some table lamps I have from the 1890s.
After a long visit we headed back to Columbus with severe weather following us the whole way.  We made it to the campground about 10 minutes before it hit with torrential rain and 60+ mph winds.  My awning would have not survived.  Lesson learned - put the darned thing down to storm configuration before leaving the campground.
Tuesday we hung around the campground area - got groceries, had some prescriptions refilled and had laundry done.   When we sat down to jam, it was just too hot so we called it a day.  Connie talked me into buying some A shirts (we call them wife beaters) and staying a little cooler.  I also bought an Ohio State shirt thus completing my OH camouflage outfit.
Festival - On Wednesday the festival started.  This one has the best "A list" line up of any we have ever been to.  Great music and shady seating area but still so hot we had to actively hydrate every day.  Heat indexes have ranged from 105 to 110F at peak of the day with little breeze to help.  We had a storm interrupt the show on Wed around 6 PM and it dropped the temperature about 15F for the rest of the evening.  I got thoroughly soaked running to the camper to lower the awning and turn on the generator and AC.
Thursday we got no rain and they opened one of the air conditioned buildings at the park for heat relief.
Friday (today) I lugged gas to fill the RV tank to keep the generator running.  It took about 15 gallons to fill it.  The first two cans were 348.9/gal and the price went up to 375.9 for the third (just my luck to have only one can).  Connie is going to spend the day in the AC today and come to the shows after supper.  I don't blame her but I am going to watch all of the shows staying as cool as I can.

That's the news for now - thanks for reading.
Ron and Connie