Tag: travel

Across the Empire

Leave a comment

17 June 2008

We thought we would take advantage of the breakfast bar at the Hampton, so by the time we got on the road we had at least been nourished! I don’t remember now what time we got away, but it was not a terribly early start. We were riding across the state on Highway 20, which goes across the tops of most of the Finger Lakes. We drove through Seneca Falls, home of the women’s suffrage movement, across Cayuga Lake, and through Auburn. Our first stop was at Skaneateles, on Skaneateles Lake, which we have no idea how to pronounce, so we just called it Skittles. Many of the towns, counties, and lakes have Indian names, which I think is so cool – it really reminds us who was here first and is sort of like stepping back in history – but I have no idea how to pronounce them!  

We found a spot to park on the street, and I had just gotten us parked when a man knocked on Kim’s window. Turns out it was the driver of the bus who was a few spots behind us, telling us that the meter just ahead of him still had 92 minutes left on it. So we thanked him and backed up! We first walked out on the jetty, where several people were fishing. It was chilly today – highs were not expected to be out of the 60’s – and with the wind blowing across the water, we were glad we had our jackets on. We were amazed at how clear the lake water was! It didn’t seem fair to the fish that the fishermen could see them!

Since the bus that was parked behind us was full of senior citizens walking and rolling around town, we thought it best that we give them a head start, so we chatted with some of the fisherman (rock bass, biting well) and then walked around a bit. We had the names of a couple of Road Food places, so we first found a cute little bakery (Skaneateles Bakery) and we shared a Half-Moon cookie (a great big sugar cookie, iced half with vanilla and half with chocolate – yummy!). Then we checked out Doug’s Fish Fry, which was just across the street. Unfortunately, it was too early for lunch and we were not about to put fish lunches to go in our car for a few hours…but it looked and smelled great! There was a great mural of the town covering one wall, and a train ran on an elevated track through all three rooms of the restaurant. Loved the fish light fixture, too!

We did a little window shopping on the way back to the car, and then we were off again. Our next stop was the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park just past Cazenovia. We thought about detouring off to see Chittenango Falls, but we decided not to. Later, we decided that was a mistake, but more on that in a bit. We were just about to give up on finding the art park when all of a sudden, there was a sign for it. We pulled into a gravel driveway and somehow knew we were in the right place. We saw signs for a secret garden – who could resist that? – so off we hiked. After finding the cool little garden area, we drove up the hill to the parking area.

There was a little old lady pulling weeds, so we greeted her and then looked around a bit. There were lots of neat sculptures, and then we made our way back to see the gardener. She reminded us so much of our mom – very sweet and knowledgeable about gardens and art. She invited us to go in the gift shop/visitors’ center, and she was genuinely pleased that I correctly guessed that she was Dorothy, the artist who had sculpted many of the pieces we had already seen. We so enjoyed chatting with her! We poked around a little more, taking some great pix of the loud frogs in the pond and looking at more of the flowers and sculptures. I especially d the one of the camera!

As we left the art park, we considered turning around and going to see Chittenango Falls, which was only about 13 miles away. Dorothy had told us it was the end of the Appalachian Mountain range and that it had pretty limestone cliffs. We weren’t sure how far we would have to hike to see the falls, and it looked like it could rain at any minute, so we drove on. Once we had really gotten too far to turn back, we realized that Chittenango was the home of L. Frank Baum, who wrote The Wizard of Oz. We’re thinking we may have really missed something…

The next place we had planned to stop was Richfield Springs, which is home to the Petrified Creatures Museum. As we rolled into town, we realized we might should eat some lunch, since it was after two. We stopped at the Tally Ho restaurant, which was next to our target, the Village Snack Shop (closed – not summer yet…) Even though Tonya, our server, did not know what was good or if there was anything on the menu that they were known for, lunch was fine. Kim had a grilled cheese and I had a Hatfield sandwich (roast pork, horseradish, lettuce). Since they had over a dozen homemade pies, we each got a slice to go – Apple Cranberry Crumb for Kim and peach for me (even though Tonya had never had it). Tonya did know where the Petrified Creatures Museum was, although you guessed it, she’d never been there. We struck out in search of it and soon almost drove right past it. There were no cars in the lot (bad sign) and indeed, it was closed. And it had seemed so promisingly cheesy!

At this point, we turned south for Cooperstown. The drive was wonderfully scenic as the road hugged the shore of Lake Otsego. We came upon a sign for the Glimmerglass Opera, so we turned in even though the season hasn’t started yet (not being summer and all). Wow! It was HUGE!!! Made us sorry we couldn’t see a show. Soon we were arriving in Cooperstown, where we had just planned to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame. However, as we drove past the Farmers’ Museum on our way into town, we decided to check it out, so we turned around. What a good choice! Turns out we could get combo tickets for the farmers and baseball, and it was a fun, interactive, educational experience.

We entered through a huge stone barn, which was original to the site. Just inside was the world famous Cardiff Giant, which started as a small hoax and ended up being an international sensation. From there, we walked through the barn learning all about the history of ice cream – fascinating! Once outside, we were at a fair – people walking on stilts, a real carousel, and other entertainment. We rode the carousel, which was run by a man whose son lives in Roxboro, NC. Kim rode Willy the Wildcat, I chose Bucky the Beaver (the first animal carved for this carousel), and Peppy rode on  Sophie the Skunk – we hope he’s not in love!

Once out in the village, each building was manned by someone dressed in period costume who told all about what his or her job would have been, back in the day. The frame buildings had all been dismantled, moved, and reconstructed just like the originals. We went in the general store, the barnyard, blacksmith shop, doctor’s office, apothecary, law office, church, inn/tavern, family home, and school. We learned it was really a working village, as most of the things sold in the general store are made in the village. We were so glad we stopped! Even though we were warned to ride the shuttle bus to the Hall of Fame, we took our chances and drove. We ended up parking behind a family from Fuquay Varina, NC. Small world.


 

There were tons of people at the Hall of Fame! The final (ever) Hall of Fame ballgame was supposed to have been on Monday, but it was cancelled due to the horrible weather. We’re guessing lots of people were still in the area who had come for that game. We had a blast learning even more about baseball than we already knew, and we were awed by the actual Hall of Fame. It was such fun to see our favorite St. Louis Cardinal players and read about the famous and fabulous players from days gone by. Before we knew it, it was after six and we needed to get going.

 

We had ignored Jill (the Garmin voice) all day, so we paid for it now. We were no sooner out of Cooperstown than she had us on a gravel road that had been pretty washed out in the rain the day before, but soon we got to a real road. We were aiming for Cherry Valley, which is home to the ‘world-famous TePee’ and before long we rolled into town. We couldn’t find the teepee though, even after driving through town. Twice. How hard can it be to find a fifty foot teepee??? We gave up and took off for Albany, and you guessed it, there it was, right on the highway (not where we had been advised to look). We pulled in to find out that even though it was open six days a week, every week, it was closed on Tuesdays. Bummer.

Jill managed to get us past Albany and Schenectady and straight (well, maybe not straight) to our Hampton in Clifton Park. I got to work on the blog while Kim walked across the street for pizza, which we ate in our room. We had our pie for dessert – yum! I was still blogging and Kim did yeoman’s work and got our laundry done. We were exhausted and we had an early day ahead of us, but we were almost all the way across the Empire State!

Tuckered out, but with clean clothes!
Jan

Play Day!

Leave a comment
16 June 2008


After a semi-restful night’s sleep in the Wood Loft, we were up early as the sun came streaming in our double garage door windows. We were just happy it was sunshine and not rain that was streaming in! We dressed without showering (in the spring water shower that shared accommodations with the ‘efficient composting toilet’), gathered up our things, and started trudging down the very muddy path to our car. The party had lasted until about 4:30 AM; needless to say, no one else was stirring.

 

The remains of our steak dinner and all of the wine glasses were still sitting where theyhad been left the night (morning?) before. Mickey had told us he’d be at the office by 7:00, but breakfast wasn’t until 9:00. We didn’t feel like sticking around that long, so we planned to meet him in the office to settle up. What a shocker that neither he nor anyone else was there at about 7:50…We amused ourselves by getting online and posting yesterday’s message. About 8:15, Bill and Barbara appeared so we paid our bill (our most expensive lodging bill to date by FAR) and left without our “hearty breakfast” – we were afraid it might have been more homemade wine! At lunch time!

As we drove down the gravel road in search of the interstate, we laughed about the whole experience, and once we got on the highway, we noticed how normal the woods on either side of the road looked. We will never think those are just woods from now on! You’d be amazed at what is hiding in almost plain sight…




We were on our way to the town of LeRoy and the Jell-O Museum, and we vowed to stop at our first opportunity for breakfast (and a bathroom with a flushing toilet!). Sadly, that didn’t come for quite a while. We stopped in Fillmore and ate a delicious breakfast at Friends and Family Restaurant. Other than the fact that their iced tea tasted more like coffee than tea, the food was tasty! Kim had scrambled eggs and sausage; I had a Scramblemelt, which was eggs scrambled with onions, peppers, and mushrooms and topped with cheese and tomatoes. It was served with home fries (good) and whole wheat toast (which Kim ate). The locals there were very friendly and told us which way they would go to get to LeRoy. They seemed to know we were not from around there. And did I mention our total bill was $6?

It was an uneventful ride to LeRoy, which was a very picturesque little town. We could really tell which towns had been prosperous and which had not… LeRoy surely benefitted from the invention of Jell-O in 1897, and even though the manufacturing plant has been in Dover, Delaware for quite some time now, the town is still capitalizing on it. The Jell-O Museum was full of fun facts and great advertising, which has been the secret to Jell-O’s success. We had fun there, and our tour guide, Caroline, was so nice and helpful. Downstairs was a transportation museum, which featured everything from an ox cart to a 1908 Cadillac. It was a great display as well. We enjoyed our jaunt to LeRoy, but we were off in search of our next fun time.

Rochester is probably best known for George Eastman and the Rochester Institute of Technology, but since the Eastman House was closed on Monday, our destination was the Strong National Museum of Play. Boy, did we have fun! It’s home to a carousel made just down the road at the Herschell Carousel company in North Towanda, Dancing Wings, a butterfly house, and the National Toy Hall of Fame. Kids of all ages were having so much fun with the mostly interactive exhibits there. We ate lunch at the Skyliner Diner (there is one in the museum) and had fantastic burgers. It poured down rain while we were at play, so it didn’t bother us at all! We found out later (once we got to our hotel room) that there had been severe weather going on around us – a fierce hail storm and possibly a tornado. We were glad we missed those!

We had no problems leaving Rochester, but we were surprised to cross the Erie Canal. We turned off to see if we could get right near it, and we could by crossing a one-lane steel bottom bridge. Unfortunately, there was a good bit of traffic over that bridge, so we couldn’t get a great photo from the bridge. We also realized we had likely missed our chance to see Lake Ontario…


Our next stop was Ganondagan State Historic Site, which has a replica of a Seneca Longhouse. We were sadly surprised to see that the park was closed on Mondays, so we couldn’t go inside the longhouse. We were able to walk down to it, so we walked off a bite or two of our burgers. It was our second walk of the day, since we had had to hike our way out of Pollywogg Holler.

By this time, we were pretty worn out and it was almost five, so we just headed for our Hampton (I can’t tell you how excited we are to be staying in a Hampton!!!) and the beautiful Finger Lakes. After I crashed for an hour and Kim enjoyed a hot shower (our Pollywogg night had caught up with us) we took off walking through the streets of Geneva in search of food. We found it at Parker’s Grill and Taproom, where we had a light supper of Harvest Soup and a house salad followed by an ice cream cone on the lake. Yum. We watched the almost full moon rise over the lake and wondered if the fish were biting. We talked to a neat young man with dreads who biked out on the pier where we were having our ice cream. He had a guitar with him and was very friendly. Later on, as we were walking back to the hotel, we passed him again, only this time he was riding his bike while singing and playing the guitar. Now that’s talent! We’ve enjoyed watching our first TV since we left home, although we were sad to see how bad the flooding in the midwest is and we were very thankful that it was last year’s trip that took us to that part of the country.

All played out,
Jan

Holla! From Pollywogg Holler….

Leave a comment

15 June 2008

Dear readers,

Do you remember our earthen lodge experience from last year’s trip? You might have thought nothing could top it. You would be mistaken. Tonight we are writing to you from our treehouse in Pollywogg Holler, somewhere near Belmont, NY. By all means, please check it out at http://www.pollywoggholler.com/ otherwise you will not believe me. Keep in mind that we had looked at the website before we arrived, and the pictures look much better on the website than the accommodations look in person. Actually, it’s not the actual lodgings that are an issue, it’s more the fact that this eco-lodge is so eco friendly that it has no electricity or running water. So you know what that means…

Once again, I find myself holding my laptop in the dark, hoping my words run out before the battery does. But, at least this year I have a handy light that plugs into my USB port so I can see the keyboard! Thanks, Melanie H!! Joining us at the Holler tonight are about ten or twelve women here for a bachelorette party and a couple from Queens who are here because she’s a travel writer. They are sharing our experience, as they arrived here with not even a flashlight. We, on the other hand, being the seasoned primitive campers that we are, have a mini maglight, a battery operated lantern, and the aforementioned computer light. And a blanket!

Our ‘room’ is quite cozy, having one large bed, one twin sized bed, and one piece of foam on a wooden shelf. We also have a dresser and an oil lamp with a foil pie pan for a lampshade. I’m sitting in a normal chair and there’s also a chair made from a tree stump up here. The stairway up is made of tree branches and wood and it’s a spiral staircase. We’re thinking we will visit the “facilities” before retiring for the night, and if we have to go again, we’ll just leave. We have had nothing to drink except the homemade wine (red raspberry merlot) that we needed immediately upon arriving to Woodstock, Jr.

Yes, that’s right. No need for us to visit the newly opened Woodstock Museum, since it could be right here. When we arrived this afternoon, mercifully later than expected (surprise!) the Sunday afternoon pizza and music fest was just ending. We estimate that at least one hundred people were here, all drunker than they should be to drive on the roads that got them here, and we did feel like it was 1968 and the summer of love. We felt slightly out of place, the way you would if you showed up about four hours late to a party where you didn’t know ANYONE and they were all totally sloshed by the time you arrived. And you were stone cold sober. We had no piercings or tattoos and were older than many of the party people. We were greeted by a nice, normal young man on a customized golf cart kind of thing made out of wood. Sort of like a baggage tug at the airport… He’s the one who told us we had come to the right place and he gave us and our luggage a ride down the driveway into the Twilight Zone.

The band was just breaking down and people were wasted and trying to stagger back out to the road. A young boy came up wearing a mudpack on top of his head. Really, a brain-sized piece of mud was on his head with rivulets of muddy water streaming down his face. He was so happy! Another little boy showed us his stamps. He was stamped from the top of his head all over his body (three on his stomach) with “Funknut” in ink. He was happy, too! We were trying to figure a polite way to leave, but nothing came to us, so here we are. While the crowd was dispersing, Bill, the owner of the property, took us under his wing. Remember Harley from last year? Bill reminded us of him, only he didn’t stick his tongue in Kim’s ear!!! And he’s older. The normal man who had chauffeured us was his son, Quentin. His other son, Mickey, is our host. Mickey makes a mean strip steak on the grill out back and serves it with a fantastic tequila lime sauce that he concocted (and shared with us).

While things were winding down from the afternoon frivolities, Kim and I toured the property. That’s when we realized that plumbing was not happening here! We took LOTS of pictures (not as many as at Roadside America) especially of the tiki trail and sculpture garden. And the snake we saw lounging on a tarp by the path… Mickey told us we could get an internet connection by parking in the driveway next to the office (down the road – Kim said if we had seen it first, we could have just kept driving!!) so we did that and posted yesterday’s blog. Since dark was falling, we thought we’d better get back to our room while we could still see the path (it’s at least a half mile from the driveway to the ‘base’) so we stopped blogging before we had added all the photos. We should be able to catch up on the blog tomorrow night when we reach civilization at the Hampton Inn! We have not seen a TV since we left, and we’ve had cell service for about an hour a day. We’ve actually had more internet service than anything!

But enough (for now) about our evening’s experiences. The rest of our day was loads of fun! We spent last night at the Weeping Willow Bed and Breakfast in Tunkhannock, PA, and it was lovely! Our hosts, Patty and Randy, couldn’t have been nicer. Two couples, one from the Jersey Shore (Dennis and Eileen) and one from Mountaintop, PA, (Dave and Cindy) were at the B&B, too. We regaled them with stories of our travels at breakfast this morning, and they were kind enough to listen and laugh. We did not have a jam-packed day today, so we didn’t end up leaving there until after 11:00, even though we had gotten up at 7 again. By the time we got gas, fixed our teas for the road, and figured out our route, it was 11:30 before we were on our way.

Cindy had told us about a roadside giant in town, and Kim spied it as we zoomed past it. We turned around to snap a photo so Cindy would know we saw it. The people who live across the street from the giant (once a Big Boy, now a NAPA parts guy) were out working in their yard and stared at me as I walked from the car over to take a good picture. We are sure they’ve never even considered taking a photo of it themselves!

Once on our way, we hadn’t gone far when we had to stop for a wreck that had just happened. We were so thankful we had turned around for that picture, or we could have been in the accident. Ambulances arrived as we sat in line, so we turned around and followed the locals. At least, we hoped they were locals, since we were following them up a steep, narrow gravel road. When suddenly cars appeared on this road going the other direction, we knew we were on the right short cut. Soon we were on our way.

Our only planned stop today was at the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, which is south of Wellsboro. While in Wellsboro, we went to the local Weis grocery store and bought chicken salad, slaw, cheese, and cherries to have with our Amish bread and Rt. 11 Potato Chips, and then we went to see the Grand Canyon. It reminded me of Quechee Gorge in Vermont, only not as cool. But it was neat and there were lots of hawks soaring on the updrafts and they were very entertaining. We took a short (but steepish) hike out to another overlook and had our picnic then. Did I mention that it is now raining and thundering and we haven’t made our bedtime bathroom run? What were we thinking???? Rats!!!

Our route across northern Pennsylvania was on Route 6 through the Endless Mountains. It is a nice road with quaint towns and expensive gasoline. Lots of places were still decorated for Flag Day, and it was neat to see how some towns are thriving while others are just hanging on. Once we were done at the Canyon, we stopped down the road at Animaland. We ended up just having a photo op and checking out the gift shop. I took a pit stop there and thought I would share with you the lovely jungle-themed ladies room. You may not be able to see it in the photo, but the flusher handle is a jaguar (like a hood ornament off a Jaguar) and the mirror over the sink matched the toilet seat. We didn’t stay to see the animals there, as we thought we might be missing something here at the Holler if we got here too late. If only we had known…


From the canyon it was back to Route 6 until time to cross the border into New York. We got Ms. Garmin out for the first time, and boy, was she annoyed that we had not listened to her all day. We got here, though, and now we’re waiting for a break in the rain so we can go to bed in comfort. We’re thinking we’ll be checking out early, likely sans shower…



Until tomorrow, ribbet, ribbet, ribbet,
Jan

Pictures coming tonight, without fail! We survived the night, although it poured down rain most of the night…

175 miles traveled

This just in – check out this link to get a great overview of Pollywogg Holler. You must have audio to fully appreciate it! I’m pretty sure the man singing is Bill. Enjoy! http://youtube.com/watch?v=H4DOORDbms8

It’s a Grand Old Flag Day!

Leave a comment

14 June 2008

We got up at 7:00 this morning (Saturday) and had the car packed and loaded and were ready for breakfast a little after 8:00. We had thought about eating at Hershey Family Restaurant, but since they didn’t want us last night we opted for the Red Caboose instead. They have two real dining cars that serve as their restaurant, so we ate in one of them. We, and about 20 little boys who were about to wet their pants in anticipation of a Thomas the Tank Engine sighting. They were too excited to eat, but we weren’t. We managed to exert some degree of control, though, and we each ordered a “Little Engineer” – one pancake and a couple of slices of bacon. It hit the spot! Since we could get a wireless connection in the dining car, we took that opportunity to finish posting Friday’s blog and try to clean up the previous ones. Sometimes blogspot seems to have a mind of its own – must be related to Ms. Garmin…

While we were eating, we had plenty to watch out our dining car window. There was an Amish man plowing the fields with his horses and then a real train, being pushed by THOMAS (!!!), came chugging down the tracks. We soon had the dining room to ourselves. Once we finished, we decided to go up to the top of the View Tower (read abandoned silo now fitted with stairs) and look out over the Lancaster countryside. It was gorgeous! Very hazy (we learned at breakfast that rain was expected later in the day) but the terrain is rolling hills, green pastures, and fertile farmland. And we expended a few calories (maybe two bites of pancake) in the process. Finally, we were ready to depart from the wonderful Red Caboose Motel (check them out at http://www.redcaboosemotel.com/) and see what adventures awaited us today.


In case you are considering a trip to the Red Caboose – while it was sort of cool to say we’d slept in a caboose, it had nothing on the earthen lodge or the wigwams, and since it cost well more than both of those put together (higher rates on Thomas weekends…) we would have to say you’d really have to want to be there to pay those prices. We enjoyed our private (honeymoon) deck and it was great to be able to have internet access (a new router and a signal booster made it a wonderful connection!). If you were taking kids with you, it’s a great place for them – lots of wide open spaces for bike riding, a playground, the barnyard animals, Amish buggy rides, and it’s close to many attractions – The Choo Choo Barn, the Toy Train Museum (right next door), Dutch Wonderland, Amish Village, etc. And of course, there’s Thomas… we’re thinking he comes there right often. The food in the dining car was good and the people couldn’t have been nicer. So just file it on your list of places you might want to go if you had a good reason to.

Once on the road, we had in mind to take a couple of pictures – a giant Amish boy with some pigs, the Old Village Store in Bird-in-Hand, and the famous “Welcome to Intercourse” sign.

 

We are not sure about these Amish – besides Lititz (in Leacock County), Intercourse, Bird in Hand, and Paradise, there is also a town called Blue Ball, which we missed. Maybe it’s just me, but do you notice a theme here? We took our pictures and then we stopped at an Amish roadside stand and bought some homemade bread, and we found ourselves just a tiny bit behind schedule (we wouldn’t want to disappoint you!) but on the road by about 9:30. Ever since we set the Garmin to “shortest route” instead of “fastest route,” we have been traveling not necessarily on secondary roads or even tertiary roads, but the for real back roads. The ones that because only the locals use them, there’s no need for street signs, because they know where they are… Poor Jill, she spends her time recalculating for us. A lot. By the way, did you notice the Amish bicycle/scooter above? We saw lots of kids riding them, and most of the girls we saw were using them barefooted! On the highway!

We were on our way to Reading, PA, and its famous Pagoda landmark, located on top of Mount Penn. Although the Pagoda didn’t open until noon (we knew that) we enjoyed the ride up the mountain and thought the Pagoda was really cool. It was so hazy (pollution?) in Reading that we could barely see the city laid out below us. Jill wanted to make sure we got a real feel for Reading, so we drove through the PJ’s on our way out of town. Kim M, I know you wish you were with me. Kim C is getting used to my propensity for finding the really nice neighborhoods to get a tiny bit lost in…

From Reading, we went north to Shartlesville, PA, and the home of Roadside America, the World’s Greatest Indoor Miniature Village. Let me just say right here – THEY ARE NOT KIDDING!!!!! Kim and I LOVED this place! Picture one room about the size of the ground floor of your house. Now imagine that it has murals of the countryside painted on the walls. Now see if you can envision an entire miniature COUNTRY, through the centuries, complete with roads, cars, houses, factories, lakes, bridges, churches, downtowns, coal mines, caverns, mountains, Indian villages, parks, trains, trolleys, people, an airport, a circus, a waterfall – all in the same room and all created by ONE MAN!!! Laurence Gieringer began working on it as a child in 1905 with his brother, who stopped working with him when he became a priest. It’s been a tourist attraction in the area since the 30’s, and Mr. Gieringer died in 1963, but his family continues to allow his legacy and life’s work to entertain visitors.

 

Pictures do not begin to do this project justice, but even then I couldn’t pick just one or two, so I’ve posted more on the sidebar of this blog. If you have not been to Roadside America, please put it on your list of places to see before you die. And make sure you have plenty of time to take it all in! It was AWESOMELY STUPENDOUS! [NOTE: Sadly, Roadside America is no more, as of the early 2020s. Believe it or not, we even tried to buy it to move it to Paducah, but the owners (children & grandchildren of the creator) did not think we were serious buyers. Since there were no serious buyers (allegedly) they ended up auctioning it all off in tiny lots. I was so annoyed that I refused to buy any of it. Grrrr.]

Since we were now a little more than a tiny bit behind, we were forced to hop onto the interstate to get to Easton. The ‘slow’ lane was in such bad repair that everyone was driving in the fast lane, so everyone was going very fast. The posted speed limit was 65 for a short way and then 55; the observed speed was about 80. About the time the right lane got smoothed out enough to drive in, one lane was closed for repairs. Work zone speed was posted 45; observed speed, about 80. Has no one informed these people about gas prices? We were in Easton before we knew it, and since we could have been almost anywhere in the country (who could tell, on the interstate?) we almost didn’t know we were there.

We had a couple of destinations in mind here – the Pez Dispenser Museum and the Crayola Factory. We rolled into town about 2:30 and found our way through the seamier part of town into the very lovely and happening downtown area. The Pez Museum (http://www.eastonmuseumofpez.com/) is right next door to the Crayola Factory, but it closed at 4:00 and Crayola was open until 5:00, so we went there first. I had no idea there were so many different PEZ dispensers! The museum was very cool – great exhibits and displays.

The Crayola Factory (http://www.crayolafactory.com/) had an extremely bodacious box of crayons spilling out over the doorway to the factory – great photo op! Once in the factory, we watched a show about how crayons and markers are made (and really got to see that happen) and then we got free crayons and markers, and then we got to go make things! Saturday afternoons are a big birthday party day at Crayola. We were just a little out of place. And we thought all the children within a 100 mile radius were at the Red Caboose…

By now we were wishing we had ordered the Big Engineer for breakfast, so we found our way to Pearly Baker’s Ale House and enjoyed a delicious lunch of a small Chicken Cobb Salad and some ‘yam fries’, which is yankee for sweet potato chips. It was yummy and just hit the spot. We were able to summon enough energy to keep going, but first we took a picture of Centre Square, which was where one of only three readings of the Declaration of Independence took place on July 8, 1776. On our way out of town we saw Easton’s Free Bridge, which was built in 1895. It is the last of its type in the US – very Gothic. Again, we took a tour through the sketchier side of town. Just getting a flavor for all kinds of lives in America!

We aimed north towards the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, which took us right along the banks of the Delaware River. It was a very scenic drive! We wished that we had had time to walk around a bit and enjoy the park, but remember the rain that was forecast? We could tell it might be meeting us soon, so we continued on towards the famous Pocono Mountains. Kim was really upset that I had not booked us a honeymoon suite in the Poconos. NOT!! The drive was gorgeous, although again it was like we were in the land time forgot. I’ll bet some of the same cabins, resorts, and signs we saw have been there for fifty or sixty years!


Unfortunately, it was during this drive across the mountains on one of those very rural roads that the rains came. Since we were not in traffic (unless you call meeting maybe 10 cars traffic) it was not a big deal. Just limited our visibility somewhat and caused us to take the safer option of getting on the interstate for a few miles. Again, we had hardly been on the big road when we were greeted by lofts of firemen with flares and many emergency vehicles with lights flashing. There had been a horrible accident involving a car that had left the southbound lane, driven through the grass on the median, hit a guard rail, and then flipped down the hill to the northbound lane (that would be where we were). Thankfully it did not appear he had hit anyone head on. EMTs were extracting the accident victims as we crept past the site. So much for trying to be safe! We realized though that at least that guy got found in an expedient manner… We have been a bit shocked by how often we have not had cell phone service up here in the well populated north. How do these people live?

We made it to Scranton a little before 7 PM, and we took a lovely scenic route through town in search of the Glider Diner. Jill extracts her revenge at the most inopportune times. We found it, though, and had the house specialty of hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy. Diner food at its finest! We passed on pie but had just a tiny bit of ice cream. And then we were off in search of the Weeping Willow! Jill knew right where to go, with just a couple of extra turns just to prove who was in charge. We were again driving along a river, the Susquehanna we think, and got to witness a gorgeous sunset. It was a great day – we rolled in about 8:45 after covering about 250 miles today. It was a fine Flag Day!

 

Patriotically yours,
Jan

PS This entry is being posted from Pollywogg Holler, NY, which is a story in and of itself. Pictures and the story to come later, when we have returned to civilization. Pray for us!