Little Pieces of History (06-01-21)

 Along the way to MA, we spent two nights in the small town of Elizabethton TN.  It was obvious this was a historic area, and I assumed it would be Civil War era, but I was wrong.  This town played a role in the Revolutionary War.

In the 1700’s this area of Tennessee was Cherokee country. In fact, anything on the western side of the Appalachian Mountain peaks was Cherokee, and anything east of it was English territory.

 England signed an agreement that they would “stay out” of the Cherokee side- and made it illegal for colonists to settle here. Except, some of them really wanted to move here, so they did. They called the area Watauga, named for the river that meanders through the area.

This group of settlers leased the land from the Cherokee, and eventually bought it from them, in what was known as the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals. With the purchase of 20 million acres, it was the largest  private real estate transaction in the history of the U.S. (Unfortunately, the governments of North Carolina and Virginia refused to acknowledge the purchase so it was nullified). So, anyway,  everything was going along swimmingly, until the revolutionary war started. 

At that point, the Cherokee aligned themselves with the British, and the colonists were essentially surrounded. England gave the settlers 20 days to move out, or they would be attacked by the Cherokee. Claiming hardship, the settlers asked for and were granted, a 20 day extension. They had no intention of leaving, having pledged allegiance to the Second Continental Congress- they just wanted more time to prepare themselves and set up a defense.

Mathew Talbot, the local miller, volunteered his homestead for the town defense, fences were put up, and Fort Watauga was created.

On July 21, 1776, going about their daily business, many of the women were outside the fort, milking cows, when the Cherokee attacked. Everyone made it in before the fort gate was locked- except Bonnie Kate. She ran around looking for a way in, and threw her cap over the fence so they would know where she was. Climbing as best she could, she was yanked over the top of the fence by John Sevier ( they married 4 years later).  After 2 weeks of bloodshed the colonists persevered, and the Cherokee left in defeat.

In 1780, the Overmountain Men (people who had settled on the western side of the Appalachian mountains) including those from Watauga, were involved in another, well known battle. The battle of Kings Mountain.

They were in hot pursuit of British Major Patrick Ferguson, who was trying to beat down the Patriots. Becoming aware of being chased, Ferguson retreated until he found a place where he could take a stand-Kings Mountain.

Riding through the pouring rain to confront the British force, the patriots wrapped their guns and ammunition in blankets and coats to keep them dry. Once they arrived, the 900 colonists surrounded the British and attacked. In less than an hour, Ferguson was killed, and his second in command  raised the flag of surrender. Historians consider this battle one of the major turning points in the war for independence.

Our final interesting stop along our route brought us from the revolutionary war to the civil war, and from Elizabethton TN to Middletown VA. Looking for a place to stay, I decided to forgo the parking lot at the local Elks lodge, and booked our first stay at a Harvest Host property.

Usually Harvest Host is a brewery, winery or a museum. The expectation is that if you stay there, you will purchase wine, beer, food, or whatever else the host site offers.  This was a farm. A beautiful, historic farm.

The owner was very friendly and we chatted with him for quite a while as we parked behind his barn. He told us of the woes of getting the property recognized by the historical society (the original section of the house was built in 1790), and the history of the property.

The Battle of Cedar Creek took place in October of 1864, one of the more decisive civil war battles in the Shenandoah Valley. The short version is that the Confederates, led by General Jubal Early were well on their way to victory when the general decided to halt the attack in order to reorganize.

That pause gave enough time for General Sheridan to arrive with more Union troops and the North ultimately won the battle- the Confederacy never regained a foothold in the Shenandoah Valley.

Continuing our conversation, I asked Bob “what his deal is”. As I mentioned, most HH sites expect you to buy something in exchange for parking.  Well, Bob doesn’t sell anything. However, he does have a 501C. During Covid he was looking for ways to help those in need, and he focused on providing food and essentials to those less fortunate. It grew from he and his friends filling up their trucks with food for the food bank, to something more substantial and organized.

He thought Harvest Hosting would be an easy way for him to increase his ability to help. We were very happy to make a donation to his cause (https://thorndalefarmva.com/friends-of-thorndale-farm).

The Rest of the way to MA(07-26-18)

To be honest, this part of our trip is a bit of a blur…..I had to pull up my pictures and my credit card receipts to even remember where we were and what we did.  Mostly its because once we got to MA, we were socializing nonstop.

But first, we had to get there:


After our mini vacation we went back to work in VA, spending more than two days buried in archive records at the Library of Virginia in Richmond. We didn’t find anything interesting, but we will probably come back after we go to Nova Scotia, if we have any better leads.

Paul traces his family back to early Jamestown VA, and although we’ve been there before, we decided to take another look with that knowledge fresh in our heads. I wasn’t particularly thrilled when he decided he wanted to take the archeological tour,  but I agreed to go.

  Our guide introduced himself and let us know that years ago, the archeological tour was a mere 20 minutes long but that there was so much new and exciting information, that it now lasts more than an hour and a half.  I think I groaned out loud. He did assure us that there were no hard feelings if we wandered off before the end.









He started by explaining that by 1992, no archeological digging had been done here in many years, and none was planned.  They had long ago given up the hope of ever finding the original fort. In 1993 the park needed a new administrator, and hired Dr. William Kelso, an archeological historian.


For the next two hours he walked us around the site, while hilariously telling the story of Dr. Kelso’s impact on the park.









Dr. Kelso had some ideas on where the original fort could be and thru his persistence, convinced the VA historical society to let him dig where he thought it might be.  He was given ONE chance to find it,-with no budget, no staff, and no equipment. The first place he thought the fort was, he found nothing.







After months of pestering, they let him dig in a different area.  Still nothing. Over the course of a few years, he was allowed to dig in small areas, looking for the fort. He found a little more evidence each time as to where it could be- and finally- he found conclusive evidence- and the fort was found.  Jamestown is now one of the most prolific archeological sites in the world.

The two hours passed by incredibly fast, I was never bored, and I learned a lot.

On a serious side, he talked about the Starving Time. While trying to settle the area, the pioneers became surrounded by hostile native Americans and had to hastily build a fort.  They could not venture out to search for food, and of the more than 400 people there at the time, fewer than 70 survived.  Eventually they decided they had to leave, and go back to England.  They packed up the ships and left but before they even got out of the harbor, they ran into a fleet of supply ships, and made their way back to Jamestown.

After leaving Virginia, we stopped for one night in Maryland, making our way north pretty quickly.













 
Cunningham Falls State Park can’t handle big rigs, but was perfect for the truck camper. Quite a few times we have stayed in places that would have been a challenge, or impossible, with the trailer.











We enjoy waterfalls, so before we left, we hiked the 1.4 mile hike to the waterfall and back. It wasn’t much to write home about, but it got us out and moving for a bit.














For the most part, we have stayed off the interstates, which means it takes longer to reach our destination, but we see more interesting things along the way.
















Sometimes we’ll find an awesome pullout where we can stop and have lunch.

I will say that although the driver prefers the smaller roads, the navigator has a more challenging time, having to pay attention to potential low bridges and such.

Pennsylvania was also a “one night stop” along the way.  We did really enjoy the fireflies that night- there were tons of them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                

And soon enough we were in Massachusetts.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Erie, PA (06-20-11)

    Coming across NY towards MI, we had a couple of days to spend, so we found a place we had never been before and booked a nearby campground for a couple of nights. This place is right on the water, but access to the “beach” requires rappelling down a steep grade.  We were up for the (slight) challenge and wandered on the very tiny beach for about 2 minutes.  If the weather had been swimming weather, it would have been an ok place to go into the water, but we were just checking it out.

The next day we got the bikes out, packed a lunch, and  headed to Presque Isle State Park, PA for the day.  Its a huge peninsula with miles of bike paths, about 12 beaches and 4 boat launches.  If we had been staying longer, we would have loved to have put the dinghy in the water.  As it was, we still had a great day.  the weather was perfect, not too hot, and not too sunny.  We biked about 12 miles, stopping along the way to check out the views of the lake and read the history of the area.

       During the war of 1812, Admiral Perry and his men were stationed in Lake Erie, near the area where some of the war ships were being built for the American side.   Lake Erie is very shallow, and there is a sand bar near the harbor with only 4’ of water, which prevented the British from bringing their ships all the way across the lake, but since two of Perry’s ships were in the harbor and needed 9 feet of water, he was also stuck and vulnerable to attack.  Luckily, the ship builder had foreseen that problem and had built 2 “camels” to lift Perry’s ships over the sandbar.  Camels are huge wooden boxes that are attached to either side of a ship, and then filled with water to sink them.  They are then pumped out and are so tightly attached to the ship that they lift it out of the water, so it can be moved over the sandbar.  They had to empty the newly stocked ships of all their supplies, gear and guns, and then it took 3 days to get the process finished, but in the end, the ships were free to pursue the British.  Admiral Perry is probably best known for coining the phrase “Don’t Give Up the Ship”.
     We are now in Michigan, visiting with friends, getting stuff out of storage, and trying to figure out when we can get our new trailer.  It’s not looking good for next week, but we may be able to go to the dealer to at least take a look at it before we head to Traverse City for July 4th. 

Keystone State Park comes to life

    I guess it was the combination of good weather and a Saturday that caused the park to come alive.  We went from seeing about 10 people a day to seeing hundreds, mostly people fishing, but lots of people camping with their kids.  The rain finally stopped, so that was a plus as well.  We walked two trails in the last few days, and they are still extremely sloppy and mushy.  At one point we had to turn around because the water was too deep to get through. I am glad I wore my high profile boots that are (mostly) waterproof. The trails are ok in general but still have some winter damage- trees that our down, or partially down, which is actually more dangerous.  Paul was afraid one of them would fall, so he pushed on it to make it fall all the way down, so it wouldn't land on anyone.
   Friday we found out that the truck title did indeed make it to our box in Livingston TX,  which means the end is in sight!  However, Fedex had already been and gone, so they can't ship it to us until Monday, for arrival here on Tuesday.  At least we know that it will get here though, so we can relax a little bit.


Keystone Lake

     We've rented a few movies over the last couple of days- Inception was one of them. I guess I understood most of it, but it wasn't my favorite movie of all time.  I did really enjoy The Tourist though.  We don't usually rent too many movies, but with all the bad weather we've had, we are running out of indoor things to do.  Paul has no "projects" for this trailer, since we'll only have it for a month or so.
     Hopefully the next pictures I post will be of our new truck!

We don't fish, therefore we just wait....and wait.

      We're sitting here at Keystone State Park in Derry PA.  Its a fairly small state park with a very pretty lake that is stocked with fish.  There are a lot of people fishing, even though the weather has been anything but cooperative. I think we've had about 4 daylight hours that it hasn't been raining, since we got here.  We went for a nice walk yesterday but I forgot to bring my camera.  If we get a break in the action tomorrow, we'll try to go for another walk.  Everyone I talk to has complaints about the weather, wherever they happen to be.  After a really lousy winter, the spring has not been much of an improvement.
  We're waiting here because we goofed.  We've been so busy for the last month or so working out all the details of buying a new truck and trailer, and moving our residence to Texas, that we forgot one detail.  I guess that's not too bad, considering all the things we've had to deal with.  We are here in Derry to buy a new F450 from the local dealer.  Unfortunately, we have not yet received our new Texas title for our truck, so we can't trade it in yet.  We have been in contact with the state of Texas, and they have assured us that it should be arriving any day now.  Arriving at our mailbox in Livingston TX, that is.  Then we'll have to overnight it to the dealer here in PA.  We don't have anywhere we have to be until next Thursday, so if we have to sit here for that long, we will. We're not anxious to move this trailer too often. We both feel like we're walking on eggshells, hoping nothing breaks before we trade it in.
    Memorial Day weekend is one of those "musical chair" weekends.  It's one of the few times that we really need to make a reservation, if we want to be sure of someplace to stay, especially here in the east, where RV parks are fewer and further between.   I had already begun researching where we might want to stay but hadn't found anything.  We need it to be within 300 miles of Boston, because we have reservations there starting on Memorial Day itself.  My dilemma was actually resolved without much effort on my part.  There is  a couple that we are friends with, although we've never met them, who happen to be in the NY/PA area as well, and we've been keeping an eye one each other's location, to see if we can catch up and finally meet face to face.  As it happens, they have booked a campground in NY, about 240 miles from Boston, for Memorial Day weekend, so I quickly called and made reservations at the same park.  We will finally get to meet them!

Gettysburg, PA



Paul, me and Steve in Gettysburg



Gettysburg was what I call a "Twofer".  Two for the price of one, so to speak.  We got to do sightseeing here but we also got to visit a friend, so we won on both counts.  We met up with Steve, a good friend of mine from high school, and spent the day  at a museum, and viewing the Gettysburg battlefield.

  Viewing the battlefield doesn't really describe what we did very well. The battlefield here was absolutely enormous and we drove around all afternoon checking out different areas.  The Battle at Gettysburg lasted 3 days-July 1-3, 1863, and was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.  A total of about 165,00 men fought here and about 40,000 men were killed or injured. General Lee was in charge of the Confederate army and at one point in the fighting, it seemed as though they would be the victors.  Unfortunately for them, on the 3rd day of fighting, they advanced across an open field, making several tactical errors along the way, and their troops were decimated  by the Union Army.  Soon after, it was clear that the Union Army would win the day but at a huge cost on both sides.



This wall was as far as the confederates got before essentially
giving up the fight and withdrawing. 

        Left behind afterwards were over 20,000 injured men, that were cared for by a town of only 2500 residents. Most public buildings and many private ones were used as hospitals and the townspeople, including children,  did what they could for the injured soldiers in the weeks following the battle.

      The amount of information here is overwhelming and the stories are endless.  There are over 1300 monuments in this area, all representing something important to someone. One blog entry can't really adequately convey what I have learned about the war, the battle and the people, and I was only here for 2 days!

    Today we took a tour of the Shriver home.  The Shrivers lived here during the civil war.  Mr. Shriver was away serving in the Union army and his wife and two young daughters were left alone in the family home.   As the town started buzzing with the information that the confederate army was closing in, Mrs Shriver decided to take her daughters to her parent's farm outside of town, where she thought they would be safer. Unfortunately it turned out that some of the fiercest fighting took place at the farm, and the farmhouse was quickly made into a makeshift hospital, exposing her and her children to the horrors of the war first hand.  Meanwhile their house in town was taken over by Confederate sharpshooters and although no damage was deliberately done to the house, holes were punched through the bricks, (to shoot out of) there are many bullets still in the walls, and bloodstains are still on the floors.

   Of course I have known about the "Gettysburg Address" since I was a child, but only vaguely, as a speech given by President Lincoln during the Civil War.  After the battle at Gettysburg, the North wanted a proper burial for their lost soldiers so the bodies were all moved to a  new cemetery.  President Lincoln was invited to attend the dedication and say a few words, and on November 14,  came to Gettysburg and gave his famous "Address".  The war didn't end until April of 1865, and President Lincoln was assasinated just 2 weeks later.

...♫...on the trail again....♫.

Boy did it feel good to start hiking again.  We did a 3.5 mile hike today, which isn't much, but its a start. The sun was shining and the temperature was in the high 50s- perfect.  My foot handled it ok, but I am tired.  It's been so long since I've been active, and I have lots of "restaurant" pounds to take off.  It was even warm enough to have a fire when we got back to the trailer.  We are at a campground on the PA, NJ, NY border.  Its nothing to write home about, but there are not many campgrounds open this late in the season this far north.

The hike we did was in High Point State Park NJ, which contains, of course, the highest point in New Jersey. There is a Veteran's Memorial at the top of the hill, but strangely enough (since it's Veteran's Day) it wasn't open. Tomorrow we leave here, but we have no idea where we are headed.  Maybe Gettysburg?
       I have spent the last couple of days playing with my "new" phone.  Its been about 10 years since I've really had a brand new phone.  Somehow someone always wants the latest and greatest (Iphone etc) and I get the castoffs.  Usually I don't really care, and thats true this time as well.  My son had a nice smart phone, a vast improvement over my old flip phone. I got to have his phone because of a dilemma he had.  As he said, its similar to when I married Paul, who, at the time, had been working for Ford for 20 years.  Unfortunately when we got married, my car was a  Buick.  He was patient, and waited a few months, but then said it was a little difficult to have a Buick in his driveway, and all the neighbors were teasing him unmercifully.  Since my new car was a brand new Taurus, I didn't complain too much.
       Well, Stephen started his new job with Verizon Wireless, and has been leaving his AT&T phone at home gathering dust. He has no need of a personal phone and in fact it's annoying having two phone numbers, so he gave me his phone and made the move to Verizon.  Of course he is trying to recruit us, but we'll be under contract for quite a while yet.

Strasburg, PA

10-7-09 Strasburg PA Strasburg is in Lancaster county, home of the 2nd largest Amish population in the US. Since its Columbus Day weekend, its mobbed here. We got our feet wet by doing some shopping in downtown Intercourse, PA. There are tons of little shops, with handmade items. Lucky for us we have no where to put anything. We drove around the countryside a little bit, and found a bakery, Bird in Hand Bakery, in Bird in Hand, PA. The food was delicious. One of the favorite pies around here is Shoofly Pie, so we bought one to try it. Its molasses based- very good. Different from anything we have had before. We sat outside on a glider that has a table between 2 benches, and the table glides with the benches. After that stop, we went to a Mennonite Visitors Center to learn more about the Amish and Mennonites. Once upon a time they were of very similar religious beliefs, but they split a long time ago- one of their differences is that Mennonites use modern conveniences, like electricity and cars, and the Amish don’t. Mennonites interact with outsiders (the “English”) and the Amish don’t, at least not very much. A lot of my preconceived ideas of the Amish were changed this weekend. I always thought they didn’t use things like cars because it is “against their religion”, but that isn’t really it. They don’t use modern conveniences if they think it will take away from the quality of the time they spend with their family and community and God, but they use car batteries to run sewing machines because it makes practical sense to do it. We learned a lot about them, and there is obviously so much more we don’t know. . We made it an early day but when we got back there was a “Live Jam session” scheduled in the campground store. Turns out there is a room, like a large living room, off to the side where about 8-12 men were jamming with their guitars, fiddles, bass, etc. What a great time we had! So much fun to hear them play! I am going to try to post a short video. Most places are closed on Sunday around here, so it was off to Hershey for us!!! I admit that I went to Hershey with only one thing in mind. Chocolate. I came away with a much better understanding about who Milton Hershey was (and also, a lot of chocolate!). We did the usual "factory tour" which in this case was more like an amusement park ride at your local travelling carnival- not the same quality as a Disney ride, for sure. It doesn't go through the factory, just a cartoonish version of the factory, but it was short, so thats ok. The real deal here was the trolley tour, and I am so glad we decided to do it.... our tour guide was fabulous, obviously passionate about Milton Hershey and what he has done. The short version is that Milton Hershey started his company at the turn of the 20th century, right around the time Henry Ford started his. The similarities are striking. Both men went bankrupt several times, both were innovators, both ended up making their fortune by creating a way to mass produce their product. Milton and his wife could not have children and decided to help orphans instead. They started the Milton Hershey School to educate those children who had no one looking out for them. Today the school has 1800 students, Kindergarten through high school. Its a boarding school for kids whose parents are either deceased, not available, or who are otherwise incapable of caring for their kids financially and otherwise. All of the children who are successful at the high school level, are awarded an $80,000 grant to attend college.The school is run by a Trust, and the Trust owns over 80% of the Hershey Co. stock, ensuring its longevity. In fact, before his death, Milton Hershey turned over his entire fortune to the trust. Part of the reason our tour guide is so passionate is that he was an administrator at the school for over 30 years before he retired. He gives the tours in his leisure time because he enjoys it so much. Today we went to explore a restored Amish farmhouse. We were going to take a bus tour around the countryside, but decided it wasn’t worth the price and the 2 hours it would take. The farmhouse was interesting, and again, we learned a lot. Our tour guide loves this area and it shows. He is a taxi driver for the Amish, since they can’t drive cars but they can ride in them. Because the Amish population is growing so fast, doubling every 10 years or so, there aren’t enough farms available for them to farm, so some of them have taken jobs as carpenters, plumbers etc. and need rides to get to work, since its too far to travel by horse. We ate dinner tonight at the “Plain and Fancy” restaurant, which is typical Amish food, served family style, to a table of 10 people. So, obviously we sat with people we don’t know, and had great conversations with all of them. One guy is doing something similar to us. He is single and quit his job to go tenting around the country. Turns out the last 3 places where he stopped were places we were at too. Tomorrow we drive. We aren’t sure where we will stop but we are headed towards Muncie (Yay!).

Scranton, PA

There is no shortage of excursions in Scranton that interest Paul and I. There is Steamtown, a trolley museum, a corn maze, and a coal mine tour among other things. Scranton has one of the largest deposits of Anthracite coal in the world. Because of that there was an incredible infrastructure put in place for the railroad, in the early half of the 20th century, and the town boomed. Sometime in the middle of the 1900s, people began to use natural gas and oil to heat their homes, instead of coal, which reduced the demand for coal, causing the shutdown of the mines, a mass exodus of the population ( which has still not recovered) and a decreased need for the railroad. Since we had most of the afternoon available the day we arrived, we went to Steamtown, which is a railroad hub that has been turned into a national Historic Landmark/Park. I have seen trains before of course, but never in such a high concentration, with miles of tracks that are still active. We were also able to go inside rail cars, Pullman cars, a caboose, etc. That was a different experience for me. Afterwards we stopped at Manning Farms to get an ice cream. The Mannings are in control of the entire ice cream process-they grow the feed for the cows, milk the cows, sell the milk, and make ice cream. Delicious… The campground we are staying in is Lackawanna State Park. We saw several deer our first night here, plus some groundhogs. We went for a walk around the lake and came to a field with 4 deer grazing in it. There was a bird blind nearby so we slowly walked over to it, sat down and watched the deer graze for a while. They did notice us but just kept an eye on us while they ate. While we were walking there were several hundred migrating birds in the trees above us, making quite a racket. As we got closer, they went silent and we heard a noise that sounded like a car driving on gravel, but actually was the sound of hundreds of birds wings flapping, as they all took flight at the same time. It happened twice more. Very eerie!

Thursday we were both looking forward to the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour and we were not disappointed. We learned so much about coal mines and the lives of the coal miners and their families. The lives they lived were so incredibly hard, its difficult to imagine. 12 hours a day in the mine, in a tunnel 2 feet high, not allowed to come out for anything. Each worker rented their tools on a daily basis, and in order to get paid, had to cart 18 tons of coal a day. If he only got 16 tons, he received no pay for the day, but still had to pay for the tools. Our tour guide is from a family of mine workers. He told us that at the beginning of each shift, each mine worker puts a peg into the “in” slot with their name, so the foreman knows they are in the mine. When they leave for the day, they move the peg to the “out” slot, so he’ll know they are gone. If they forget to do it, they are immediately fired. In general if someone is still “in” at the end of the day, its because he died in the mine. The foreman takes his body, brings it up, puts it on a wagon, and drives to the man’s house. He puts the body on the porch, and leaves. He doesn’t bother to knock, or speak to the family. 3 days later, someone from management comes to the house- all houses are rented from the mine owner- and if there is no one to take the worker’s place in the mine, the family is evicted immediately. Boys as young as 5 can take their fathers spot- taking on other, smaller tasks in the mine. They leave school and begin full time work. Tony, our guide, said that his mother opened her door one day and found the body of her father, with no explanation. The tour actually goes down into the mine. We got on a type of cable car, and rode down 250 feet to what is now the bottom of the mine. Our guide showed us through some tunnels and explained all about the different jobs, and the work the mine workers did. Fascinating information. One interesting note…in hindsight it makes sense, but …most of the movies I have seen show coal mines with the wooden beams that always seemed like they were supporting the ceiling and wall…I guess it never dawned on me that it doesn’t make sense. As our guide said….we are 250 ft below the surface. There is no way that wood beams could hold up that weight. He said instead, the beams were an early warning system. If the beams started to “snap, crackle or pop” then the miners knew the ground had shifted and they better get out fast. There was also a movie with news footage from several mining accidents over the years. This mine was closed in 1966 due to lack of demand for Anthracite coal, and the costs associated with keeping water out of the mine. That tour was one of the most interesting and informative things we have done this trip. After the tour we ate lunch in the car and then went to Miller Farms to see the corn maze. I have never been in a corn maze and its one of the things I wanted to do. It was fun, we must have walked about 2 miles trying to get out!

Last night we booked a month stay in San Diego for Christmas, and decided that we are going to Lancaster PA tomorrow for 4 nights, before we head to Muncie. Neither of us was all that interested in going back to Ohio, so even though it will be a short trip to Lancaster, hopefully it will be enough.

Watkins Glen, NY

Our last night at Allegheny National Forest was interesting... we had been watching a thunderstorm go by, lightning and all, and when it was over, decided to call it a night. Just as I was falling asleep, I saw headlights come our way. I watched it (it was a golf cart) go past us, then turn around and come back a few minutes later. it drove in behind us, and up to our door. By now I was a little tense and I woke Paul up. He scrambled out to see what was up (naturally it was torrentially down pouring). It turns out it was the ranger guy in charge of this area of the park. He told us there was a severe storm headed our way with strong winds and hail, and that there would be a severe thunderstorm warning all night. This is getting to be an every day occurrence!! We took in the awning which was about all we could do, since we had already packed up to leave in the morning. The storm came but it wasn't that bad. The trip to Watkins Glen was uneventful. Rainy, of course, but uneventful. This is a small, cute town, on Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes Region of NY. Our first day we walked around town, just to get a feel for the town. The following day we hiked in Watkins Glen State Park, through a gorge, with 19 waterfalls. THAT was a great time. The gorge is huge and awesome. When I can post pictures (slow Internet does not allow it!) I will, but they won't do it justice! The sign tells you in advance there are 800 steps to eventually reach the top, which is 1.5 miles away. The last bit is very steep indeed. There is a shuttle you can take, either up, or if you want, from the top down. We walked one trail up, and a different one down. The falls are great, and well worth the trip up there. On the way down we passed by a cemetery that had old gravestones as well as new ones. One of the pictures I took looking inside a crypt or whatever its called, came out really cool. I look forward to posting it. We spent yesterday afternoon relaxing and researching places to stay in ME near Acadia National Park. This morning we drove to several nearby waterfalls, but nothing was as fun and awesome as the gorge. This afternoon we put the dinghy in the water and started to explore Seneca Lake, which is 40 miles long and, at 600 ft deep, the deepest of the Finger Lakes. We anchored for a bit, close to shore and had to put out almost 100 ft of line on the anchor! Unfortunately we could see the storm approaching across the lake, and decided to be prudent and head back. The dinghy doesn't handle big waves too well... Tomorrow will be a boring day, since our plan is to drive as far as we can, headed to Boston. We have no reservations. Maybe it will be our first "Walmart" night? we'll see. I would love to come back to this area and explore it more when we have more time.

Sheffield PA

Well, the weather kinda hindered our plans a bit....we did hike, but we never got the dinghy in the water. With no access to outside info, we judged from the skies that the weather wasn't going to be great. it hasn't been bad yet, but apparently we are in the "red zone" for likely thunderstorms today, so just as well. its not like the lake is a touristy lake with lots of places to "duck in" if the weather turns bad. there is only one Marina that we can see, and its a long way off from where we are....The Forest is huge, and there don't seem to be many people here. There are tons of trails for hiking-we just picked a couple- so the hiking was great. My favorite part was when we got DEEP into the forest and Paul started calling out to the bears (we are in Black Bear territory)....I helped by calling "here kitty kitty" . Paul laughed, but really, isnt the idea to just make some noise? We are now in Sheffield PA, just outside the Forest, doing a ton of laundry. we leave in the AM for Lake Seneca, one of the Finger lakes in NY. We hope to stay there 3 days before heading to Boston. I'll probably write more tomorrow, once we are back into civilization. Its a little spooky being cut off from cell phone and internet, and TV.. Its like when you have a power outage and you say thats ok you'll just watch TV, listen to the stereo, etc etc..... I just keep thinking of things I will do that involve getting online!

Allegheny National Forest

Tues. August 18, 2009- Here we sit, in Allegheny National Forest, PA- no Wi-Fi, no cell phone signal, no TV- Nada….it feels great! Well, it feels great now….earlier today, not so great. We left Geneva, OH, late this morning. When we had the boat, we were used to traveling first thing in the morning (6-7 am), so I am not used to getting such a late start when we head out. Maybe we don’t have the rhythm yet…I also think my mind is in vacation mode, and I really don’t feel like getting up so early. Whatever. That will probably change with time. I don’t like leaving late- you feel like you lose the whole day- can’t do anything worthwhile in the AM, and then by the time you get to your destination, the day is pretty much gone. So, we left a little before noon, drove for an hour so, with the radio on. That awful noise you hear when they do the “test of the emergency broadcast system”? Well, we heard that on the radio. As I was listening, I was thinking, “don’t they usually say they are going to do a test?” Yeah, well, it wasn’t a test, of course. The broadcast was for a severe thunderstorm warning, including one severe storm, packing 60 MPH winds, traveling from blah blah PA, to blah blah PA - couldn’t quite make out all the town names, but we knew it was near, because we were in that county and could see the nastiness up ahead. Of course, the lap top wasn’t even on, so I got it going and pulled up weather.com to check out the radar. Long story short, we avoided the real nasty stuff but had TORRENTIAL downpours on and off all afternoon. Not a pleasant afternoon. We survived, the Everest survived, no issues. Actually the best lesson we learned today was to do a better job of planning what roads to take to get to our destination. The roads we plotted brought us up the side of a Mountainous hill, on a road labeled “narrow road next 5 miles”, rather than around it. During a torrential downpour, it was stress I could have done without! During all that fun stuff, it never dawned on me that we were now in the National Forest, until we stopped and I realized I already had no phone signal, etc. That’s no big deal, except I never called Jess to tell her we wouldn’t be reachable for potentially 3 days. After setting up, we went for a walk and actually found a pay phone. I called her to tell her, so now its all good. We are sitting here listening to Judy Collins, writing and reading. Tomorrow we hope to do a 6 mile hike and then get the dinghy in the water….