The Flowers Explore - Louisburg Apple Cider Mill - 2021/07/08

For our 2nd night in the RV we're driving through the rest of Kansas and into Louisburg. There we'll stop for the night at the Louisburg Cider Mill!

Continuing our trip, here's where we ended up next. Not too long of a travel day from the Atlas Ad Astra Harvest Host campground to the Louisburg Cider Mill Harvest Host camp ground. 

What is Harvest Host? For $99 a year, you get Unlimited Overnight Stays at lots of really cool places! Just like the Atlas Ad Astra facility and tonight's Cider Mill. There's just a couple catches. There's usually no hookups, it's for 1 night only, and you're encouraged to spend at least $20 at the place you're visiting as a gesture of goodwill to the place for letting you camp overnight on their spot. 

If this sounds good to you, sign up here and get 15% off (and we get a referral bonus too!). 

The car ride was a pleasant one. Nothing too crazy. Theresa kept the kids fed with fruits and veggies, like this yellow nectarine she's cutting up for them. 

We've arrived! I parked in a temporary spot while we ran inside to figure out where they'd like us to park for the night. 

Just to the west of the cider mill, there are 5 dirt road lanes. I picked the one where I wouldn't have to make any turns, and it looked the most flat, so leveling the RV should be super easy. 

Once everything was set up, the whole family walked back over to the cider mill to see what kind of goodies they have. 

A classic country store feel, with cowboy music playing on speakers just outside. 

Swinging screen doors. 

Inside there were tons of jellies and fruit butters, just like you'd expect at a cider mill country store like this one. 

We watched and waved to the worker who is making the apple cider donuts fresh. 

There's lots of special treats they do here with these donuts, including mixing their cider slush, ice cream, and a full donut together in a cup. Those look pretty good, but I'll stick with the classic today. 

Along with the apple cider, there's a few other kinds of drinks available. We'll see a couple of those make appearances in future posts. 

Candy sticks are pretty much a staple at any general store. They were 5 for $1 here and the kids each got 5 of their favorite flavors. Ian wanted to buy them for his sister. 

We also bought a dozen donuts plus apple cider slushies for everyone. Despite being 5pm, it's still in the 80s, so the frozen drinks are very welcome. 

One of the disappointments here is that there's not any actual orchards. The worker said that they get that question a lot. The apples are all trucked here to be made into cider. 

Our next stop is the mill where they press the apples into cider.

Oh interesting. Emmett O'Rear, who grew up in Detroit and had beloved memories of all the Michigan apple orchards and cider mills, moved to Kansas in 1975 and wanted to duplicate that experience here! We love the Michigan orchards, and have been going to them since at least 2009!

There's no cider being pressed right now. It's probably not quite the right season. 

But we're loving our frozen cider and our fresh cider mill donuts!

Because of all the taste tests I do, I'll often get friends sending me a heads up on new snacks that I should be on the lookout for. While we were at the apple cider mill, my friend Kelly sent me this. Oreo is making Apple Cider Donut Oreos this Fall! I sent her this picture back, saying that's exactly what we were eating right now! Hopefully this Fall I can pick up a bag, and we can hit up an Apple Cider Mill too.  

Outside the General Store, there were games set up. We had a few rounds of ring toss. 

Back in the RV it's time to cook dinner. We're sticking with our routine of making tasty meals and not eating out. During COVID we got pretty good at cooking for ourselves, and despite the small kitchen, we're figuring out how to make it all work. 

Steamed broccoli, rice, and pan grilled chicken tenders with 2 homemade sauces, teriyaki or sweet and sour. Yum!

And for dessert, our candy sticks. The kids are making sure they made the right choice by trying each others.

After dinner, as I like to do, we got to go out for a nice walk, just as the sun was setting. 

The mosquitos are out, which isn't as nice, but the lightning bugs are too, which does help.  

There's our RV, all alone in the field. We're the only Harvest Host guests here tonight. 

The general store closed at 6pm, but the person checking us in said we're aloud to wander around anywhere that's open. We'd went back up there to see if the games were still out, but they had been put away. Instead the kids had fun jumping off the ledges and into the grass. 

And look what else they found! 

A little frog! He was quick, but Ian snatched him up. 

And not to be outdone by her brother, Alli spotted one and grabbed it too. These frogs had really grippy feet, and could hold on to things really well. 

Our second night in the RV was quiet and uneventful. The spot was fairly close to the road, but with the white noise in our rooms and the fans drawing in cool air, we all slept soundly. 

For breakfast the next morning what should we have?

More fresh donuts for the road! 

Thanks for the fun stay! We had a fun time at the Louisburg Apple Cider Mill!

Alli - My favorite part of the apll ochrd was etig a donut. And i likt the drink to. (My favorite part of the apple orchard was eating a donut. And I liked the drink [cider slushie] too.)

Ian - My favorite part was buying candy for my sister and me. I liked the ring toss. The Apple donuts were good. The sodas were not good.