Road Trip to Nashville AND more Loopers!!

Our buddy's from Liquid Assets

We left Michigan around 8am and arrived outside of Nashville around 6pm. We stopped to spend a couple days with our lovely Looper friends, Tim and Carol! And what a fun couple of days we all had! We enjoyed a boat ride, awesome food (and dirty martinis) served at home AND out, and lots of laughs! It is never a dull moment with these guys. Crocket had a great visit with his buddy Benji, they enjoyed chasing the ball and going for a nice long walk as well as a boat ride too!

When Ben and I left on our Great Loop trip, I never dreamed that we would end our trip with such amazing friends for life! We spent a good deal of time on the water with Tim and Carol and feel blessed to be able continue that friendship on land as well! 

Benji and Crocket having fun!

Boat Ride on Old Hickory Lake...gorgeous!

The adorable Tim and Carol

Check us out...WE'RE ON A BOAT! in winter coats!

Dinner out! 

Road Trip, heading to see some Loopers!

While we have been enjoying our new home and entertaining all our guests, Ben has been sharing his wishes of getting some sun on his pale skin. So we decided to head to florida for the month of February, maybe longer, maybe shorter. We let our moods decide when and where we end up. For now, we are taking a road trip to Anna Maria, with a couple stops along the way!

As you can see, Crocket was ready for a road trip south!

Our first stop was a visit to see our Looper friends Bob and Liz! We loved our short visit. We got to see their new house, where they both work and the great area just outside of Grand Haven, MI. While here, we were spoiled with FOOD and lots of laughs. We met their new puppy, Maggie. Crocket was not a fan of the puppy, he was trying to avoid her but she was quick! He finally figured out if he relaxed on the couch she couldn't get to him...yet!
Meeting Bob and Liz on our Great Loop trip was a blessing as we gained life long friends! What a great start to our trip south, kinda funny we actually traveled north to see them!

Ben and Maggie 

Ben and Bob getting the band ready

Puppy love

What a good looking crew! This was the morning we left for our trip south, it just started to snow.

Boo Hoo! Time to put away the sleds

Our new-to-us tractor comes in handy

While we hate to say it, it might actually be the end of snowmobile season. Not that we had much of one here in Door County, it is still always a bit sad to see the sleds being stored for the summer. Thankfully it was a pretty day to be moving sleds outside. The sun was shining and the winds were minimal (which since we have moved to Door Co, it has been crazy windy). Ben moved two of the three sleds from our garage to the barn for their summer sleep.

Nighty-night Rev!

Tappin and a sappin!

Our first tree we tapped! 

We are making maple syrup over here! Ben tapped 5 trees a couple days ago and we had our first batch of maple syrup two days later.
For every 40 gallons of sap collected it will yield 1 gallon of syrup. Our first try we collected 7 gallons of sap, boiled that all down to about 3 cups of maple syrup and from our own property! How fun!!

Two of the five trees we tapped, all southern exposed maples 

Our boiling process: we start in the big silver tray and move the sap to the smaller red pot as that boils down.

My sexy maple sugarer!