Indiana, Remington - Saturday, June 14, 2014 - Tour of the Area

The weather was just too nice to not get out on the motorcycle today.

 

 

Before we left the campgrounds we walked around and took a few pictures.  It’s a nice campground, more family oriented than most we have stayed at.  Since they charge extra for the water activities, it could get a little expensive if you have a big family.  The majority of these activities are not something that we would take advantage of, but we may get the grandkids out for a day if the weather stays nice.  Since this campground is right next to I-65, if road noise bothers you this probably isn’t the place for you.  We are at the back of the campground where the sites are bigger and inside the coach we don’t notice the noise.  It might be hard to tent camp though.

 

Our first stop was Carpenter Creek Cellars.  This winery is just off of state road 16 and has been in business for a couple of years.  They have planted their own grapes but itwill be about 4 years before those grapes can be used in their wine production. 

 

 

The tasting room is a former draft horse barn.  I was too busy enjoying the free wine tasting to take any pictures inside.  Most of their wines are sweet or semi-sweet which we prefer over dry wines.

They had live music today.  I don’t remember the name of the group but it was three guitar players and “Bongo Larry”.  Their music was supposed to be mainly Beatles songs, but I think the bongos threw me off, I didn’t recognize some of them.  “Bongo Larry” is the guy in the blue shirt.

 

They drew a large crowd.  I think many of these people were attending the same class reunion.

 

We opted for a couple of rocking chairs in the shade on the patio instead of sitting out in the sun.

From the winery we headed north a short way to Fair Oaks Farms.  I wanted to see how much they had changed since grandson Tyler and I visited there several years ago.

We didn’t pay the admission required to go into any of the exhibits or to go on the tour of the dairy facilities.  We just walked around and looked at the well-manicured grounds and the outside activities for kids.

We stopped in the café/gift shop and did some cheese tasting.  After several samples Greg said we had to stop, they were all starting to taste the same.  We selected a sweet Swiss and an aged gouda to bring home.

They have a new restaurant opening July 1, 2014.  We won't be here then so we'll have to check it out the next time we are up here.

 

Our final destination was Earl’s Dining in Brooks, IN.  This place received rave reviews for son A.J. and a couple of his friends.  So we decided to celebrate our anniversary with Earl.  I think this must be a likeness of Earl since it was on the awning, the menus and this carving on the wall.

We pulled into Brooks at 4:30.  Earl’s wasn’t supposed to open until 5:30.  Brooks is a very quiet small town at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon.

 

About the only sound was the “Oldies” radio station that was playing from speakers attached to all of the light poles.

We found a nice bench across the street from Earl’s and watched for some activity.

About 5:00 a couple of cars pulled up and the occupants got in the front door.  Earl’s is the building with the black awnings.  Earl’s, the hardware store and bank seem to be the main businesses in Brook.  When we saw these people go in we followed.  Every table inside had a “reserved” sign on it.  We were able to use one of the tables that had a later reservation time.

I think Earl’s used to be the IGA store, the décor was rustic and just great.

 

 

Their special tonight was prime rib.  On Friday night they have all you can eat catfish and perch.  We chose the prime rib for our entrée, it was a good choice.  Even with choosing the smaller portion we both brought half of it home.

One of the choices for appetizers was Scotch Eggs.  Greg had never heard of them but thought they sounded good so he gave them a try.  They are hard boiled eggs covered with sausage and then deep fried.  They were served with a spicy dark mustard.  He declared them delicious.

Looks like things pick up in town once Earl’s opens the door.  The food was definitely good, we’ll look forward to eating here again when we are in northern Indiana.

 

 

In addition to our leftovers from Earl’s we brought home wine and cheese.

We’ll be joining daughter-in-law Kim’s family tomorrow for Father’s Day and June birthday celebrations.  I’ll have a new bracelet to wear thanks to granddaughter Braelynn – it goes with just about anything.

I forgot to mention in last night’s post that the grandkids had some toasted marshmallows in s’mores, but grandson Jackson decided that he liked them “raw” right out of the bag better.