It Made For a Good Story

— Posted inTravel — 4 min read

Yesterday morning we left the RV at 8:45 to go to the airport to begin our three months overseas. Rio Grand Valley to Dallas/Fort Worth, an easy 1 hour and 20 minute flight arriving on time. DFW to Frankfurt, Germany, an almost 10 hour overnight flight arriving early. Easy passage thru customs, our two checked bags arrived no problem. Go to the train station in the airport and get our tickets for Strasbourg, France. It was rather straight forward, change trains twice and arrive in Strasbourg a little while after noon.

As the trip progressed I commented to my wife that today was “The perfect Train Travel storm in Germany.” The last weekend in August, so the end of the summer travel season. The last weekend the 8 Euro monthly pass for travel on regional and local trains could be used. Perfect weather to spend the day somewhere other than at home.

Another train ticket that tells what can happen when perfect storms occur. Going back to the original ticket, at one of the stops on the second leg there was a lengthy hold. This train was jammed packed, or what at the time we though was jam packed (later we learned what a jam packed train really was), and our luggage wasn’t in the car we were in. Too long a story to tell how that happened. Anyway in going to the car our luggage was in, I got confused as to which stop was next and we ended up getting off not in Offenburg, but at the stop before in Baden Baden.

I realized too late we were at the wrong stop, so we went to the ticket office to see when we could get to Strasbourg. That is the second ticket. Meaning we had to wait almost 2 hours at Baden Baden for the first of the two trains that would get us to Strasbourg two hours later than we originally planned. Yet we didn’t know the perfect storm was growing in intensity. The train from Baden Baden to Appenweier was a half hour behind schedule, meaning we and a whole bunch of other people missed the local train from Appenweier to Strasbourg we were scheduled on.

There was another train in an hour to Strasbourg, so we set about waiting for it. Appenweier has no facilities at all, so we along with everyone else just waited in the sun on the platform. About 15 minutes before the train was to arrive, droves and droves of people began arriving. We recognized one person who had been with us when we got on the train in Frankfurt. Did the people who we left behind on the train we departed too soon in Baden Baden miss the connection in Offenburg? It sure looked like it.

Somehow both us managed to get on the car that had people packed in like sardines. The door shut a number of times on my wifes backpack before enough space opened up she could get completely in the car. I’ll just say when I realized she was in trouble I yanked some nearby suitcases and created enough space for her. In the end we got to Strasbourg about 4 o’clock. We hadn’t planned on doing anything other than walking around outside and trying to stay awake as long as we could today anyways so being late did not matter. We just didn’t plan on using that method to stay awake.

Oh. one last thing. We were planning on taking the tram from the Strasbourg station to our hotel, or close to our hotel at least. We couldn’t figure out how to use the tram ticket machine until a young lady who was visiting Strasbourg from Paris came to our rescue, then we couldn’t find the tram station, but after wandering around looking at enough signs we discovered it four levels down below the train station.

After an easy trip on the tram, we looked up, saw the tower of the cathedral, walked down several streets towards it, came to the city park our hotel was supposedly located very near, looked down the street and there was our hotel, and upon entering it we were greeted by one of the most wonderful receptionist/desk clerks we have ever come across in our years of travelling. She and the room we settled in were the perfect end to a very interesting 25 hours of travel.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

— Posted inTravel — 1 min read

All our bags are packed, we’re ready to go
They’re standing here outside our door
We’re wide awake and ready to fly
The dawn has come this beautiful morn
Our rides awaitin’ and it ain’t no unicorn
Soon our plane will be floating in the sky
Then she smiled at me and told me she was goin’ with me
Then we held each other close, all ready to go

Cause we’re leaving on a jet plane
In three months we’ll be back again
Now babe, it’s time to go

Labeling Our Bottles of Homemade Wine

— Posted inFood — 2 min read

I design the labels for our wine, print them on our color laser printer using waterproof paper and attach them to the filled bottles.

This type of glue stick works great if the entire back of the label is covered with glue.

A form I built to hold the bottles when applying the labels. It will securely hold 375 ml, 705 ml and 1.5 L bottles.

A 750 ml bottle in the form. The rubber band can be adjusted depending upon the size of the bottle. And no, it is not to hold the bottle in place. It is easy to place and remove with its purpose being to align the top of the label for each bottle in the exact same place each time.

The whole process is actually very easy. The labels are placed back side up on the sheet of paper so that the glue does not get on the countertop. It is important to make sure the edges of the label are well covered with glue. The labels are applied to the bottle using the rubber band as the top guide and the edge of the form as the side guide. After removing the rubber band the bottle is lifted out of the form and the label firmly pressed into place. This process works very well for me and I have labeled many hundreds of bottles and have never had a label come loose, yet when reusing the bottles the labels can very easily be removed.

Winemaking Equipment

— Posted inFood — 1 min read

Two pieces of equipment that make like easier for the home winemaker, a bottle tree and floor corker. We bottle 200 plus bottles a year and the floor corker is worth its proverbial weight in gold. On the days we bottle it takes about three hours from the time I start getting things out until everything is cleaned and air drying or put away. It seems like a lot time, but several years later when the wine is poured into a glass and tasted, followed by the “WOW, that is really, really good,” we know it was well worth the time spent making our own wines just the way we like them.

Bagging Our Own Wine

— Posted inFood — 1 min read

Just finished bagging a batch of Island Mist Coconut Yuzu that my wife loves. We ended up with three 3 liter bags, two five liter bag and two 1.5 liter bottles from the kit. We always leave the bags on the floor for a couple of days to check for any leakers. We also number the bag and the valve so they always go together as we reuse them over and over.

We also measure out the wine that goes into each bag. Three 1.5 liter bottles and a 750 ml bottle marked at the half liter level work perfectly to fill the five liter bags. While these wines can be consumed as soon as they are bottled or bagged it is never a good idea to have her run out of her wines so I try to always have a year or two supply on hand. She will likely be drinking these in late 2023 or early 2024 depending on our travel schedule.