HANGING OUT IN PA

10/15-10/18

    Friday we reluctantly said "so long" to Jack and Nancy and headed even further east into south central PA to see friend Bill Saganich. He and wife Yvonne bought this farm almost three years ago, but have yet to sell theirs in CT. Hence, Yvonne is in CT and he in PA-- a bummer. For us it was more hanging out in a wide valley surrounded by rolling hills, other farms and colorful trees. Love that front porch in the sun, putting my feet up with a glass of wine and a bowl of mixed nuts handy by.

A highlight was breakfast with Yvonne's mom Millicent and son Keith and wife Katie at the Wooden Nickle in Millersburg, and a home-cooked meal with the same lovely people around the table the previous evening.. Millicent is 88- for breakfast she had a western omelet, toast and a pancake, which inspired me to do the same without the toast. Yikes!

    Being in PA made me homesick for the small towns with a vibrant downtown in walkable distance, houses with porches that abut the sidewalk, ( funny how I never noticed that while growing up but I do now.....) family-owned restaurants instead of chains, tree-lined sidewalks. The whole small-town ambiance that formed my childhood and adolescence-- I miss it.

      One of Xian's highlights was chasing Bill's sheep around the fence and two farms over....lucky Bill has Gracie as his right-hand girl. Once pursued by Xian, the sheep kept wary eyes on his whereabouts at all times, and like the sheep they are, usually kept tight together and faced the enemy. ( We kept an eagle eye on him as well!) How could they possible know that Xian only loves the chase and not the kill?

Sheep are out!!

Sheep are comin' back in!

The intrepid Grace.

Intrepid (?) Clowns

Who watches whom????

   Speaking of the boy, you will be glad to now that he finally settled down to traveling around about the Yellowstone visit. Bill noticed that if we kept the windows open in the backseat, he would go from window to window before chilling out. Yup, there he was, eyes asquint, hair blown back, ears flattened, lips a flappin' with a broad smile on his face! The demons that drove him to keep trying to jump into the front seat calmed down and reared their ugly little heads only once in awhile.

     Monday the 18^th arrived—our target date to be home-- so we sadly and abruptly re-entered the world of maniac cars and trucks, and hurry, hurry, hurry. Our one last stop to prolong that agony was at an Amish produce stand where we indulged in funny gourds, apple turnovers and some of the last home-grown tomatoes we will see until next summer.

OH OHIO!

Coming from Covington, KY to Cincinnati OH

10/11

    It took us all day and into the night to arrive in Lancaster, OH, where treasured friends, Jack and Nancy Bowers awaited with dinner. Meanwhile, we had been noticing while we traveled east that the liberating openness of the land was shrinking down. The landscape became greener and greener, and the sky smaller and smaller as the trees encroached upon us. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, especially with the cloak of many colors the trees began to wear in Ohio, but we were missing the vast landscapes we'd grown used to.

    We had left our drab little campground in Arkansas that morning, went two hours in the wrong direction, finally arriving at our destination around 8:30 pm. Wine and dinner happened about 9-- we thought we were in Spain-- and since our camper was parked on a downward slope of their driveway we were happy to go to bed in a conventional house. Happy? We were ECSTATIC!! Such spaciousness and a shower with unending water. ( We didn't empty their well...) A huge kitchen with no open cupboard doors for me to bang my head on. Utter bliss!

    Probably more ecstatic even than we was Xian who slept throughout the night without asking to go out. We decided not to go back to the camper until we had to leave Lancaster. Sometimes we make brilliant decisions!

     We had a great, relaxing time with Nancy and "Jockie." Highlights include Jockie's Eggs Benedict and 

homemade mushroom soup; going to Columbus to see The Last Smoker in America....interesting and headed for Broadway. Bill moved some piles of dirt in the backyard, ( They have lovely gardens ) and in Lancaster, we took Nancy's little green bug to check out a glass-blowing lesson and then the Arts and Clay studio, where you can paint your own or create your own from start to finish. We ogled the over-the-top Halloween decorations on some houses, and just hung out with the Bowers whom we LOVE.  

Do you know what a skid steer is?

The Art and Clay ( and play!) Place

The license says it all!!

.

The parking meter cover who became a garden goddess.

Who could ask for a better driveway entrance?

OHIO LOVES HALLOWEEN!!

I really got a charge out of the Halloween decorations in Lancaster, Ohio.( Can you tell?)


                                                       Come into my parlor...............

Ooooooooooooooooooh, I LOVE you, baby!!

Trick or treat......

Is this over the top or what????

SMOKIN' DOWN THE ROAD

10/10

Today was one of those crazy days that makes you shake your head a lot. As in, where did I start and where am I going? It was a day of covering  A LOT of ground-- we sizzled through Arkansas, a wee bit of MO, some of Tennessee and into KY, where we are now. Arriving at the Exit 31 RV Park ( really creative name!) dubbed the “newest Good Sam's RV park in western KY", we were told there was LOTS of room. However, we found the sites to be few, and most of the ones that looked unoccupied had someone's car or tricycle ( Yup, that's right) in it. As we drove around the campground ( small) a second time, a guy flagged us down to tell us that our steps had dropped down, and we had hit ground with them as we were rounding a corner, for the second time......Yes indeedy, those steps were smashed, as in jammed, crooked, and immobile.( Expletive deleted.)

    Bill, who is amazing with tools, picked an obviously empty site (because, as we later found out, it had low water pressure) and got out the come-along and a variety of other tools. Phil, from next door came over to help, while I took Xian away. ( Xian is terrified of our slide-outs, and if he even hears the word, he heads for the woods. He's not into tools that go smash and bang, either.) Lots of banging and what-all going on for a long time, when Xian and I came back to sit on the pavement beside the truck to watch the repair. Pretty soon, I heard Xian growling at something under the truck, which turned out to be a small skunk. By that time I had had it, and Xian and I fled to the camper. Not too much later, the steps were smashed back into a semblance of themselves, retractable, and useful-- tomorrow we'll have to find new steps.......!!!!!! We had dinner kinda late tonight.....and in the morning the skunk was gone.

While flying through these southern states I had some quick impressions:

1. Lotta churches and a lotta car dealerships. ( Are they connected?)
2. Lotta white cars and trucks. ( Reflects the sun.)
3. Lotta cotton fields. (Yeah!)
4. Whole lotta flat ground alongside the highways....
5. Lotta places with funny names like Pickles Gap-- doesn't that tickle your funny bone? How about Bee Branch-- kinda neat, wonder if they have secret lives? Rabbit Ridge...oh, and Goober Town, how would you like to live there? And the best has been saved for last: TOAD SUCK PARK!!! Don't ask, because I don't know!

FURTHER EAST

10/8

A short day, by gosh. Flew past some really HUGE farming operations and some feed lots black with cattle. Not a pretty sight....nor smell. We stopped by a cotton field to pluck a few puffy balls to bring back home.

Then we found Great Plains State Park, TX and went in for lunch by the lake. Decided to stay-- really took advantage of the peace and quiet. Off the road early....how nice....sigh.

HEADING BACK

10/7

A fairly long uneventful day, passing through some pretty dismal and down-on-their -luck little towns. Main streets lined with abandoned stores with empty dingy windows, ramshackle houses and outbuildings. Very sad. ( See Deonne's blog about Encino, NM.) Also passing by a lot of cotton fields and big business farms. We took an hour out to visit the Blackwater Draw Museum, where the exhibits showed early Folsom man, flora and fauna  and geologic conditions 30,000 ago.
   We stole another hour toward the end of the day at Huarache De Oro, set up on a street corner in Texico, NM.  Bill spied the display and practically did a u-turn in the middle of the busy street. The terra cotta ware is called Talaveras; the slip ( liquid clay) is poured into molds and then bisque fired. After that first firing, the glaze is painted by hand, in very intricate designs. Elias showed us a piece of extremely hard stony clay, which they pulverize and then mix with water. We bought one of his small pigs and a couple of planters. Truly, it was difficult to choose-- we wanted to bring it all home with us!

About dusk we landed at the Silver Wind RV park in Silverton, Texas, a gem of a park that Bill found in the camping directory. We were the only folks there in an airfield-sized park with flat, spongy grass. No one was around, so we took a spot-- any spot!-- and set up in the soft warm air. Occasional shouts from the crowds at a football game over yonder would be heard-- kind of a homey sound. Later on as I took Xian for his nightly constitution, I heard coyotes yipping far off in the distance. I know that I may be in the minority on this one but I like that sound.

The following morning we met our hosts, Sharon and Gary, who have owned the place for 3 years. They also had four charming little cabins outfitted just beautifully, and both take great pride in their RV park, always planning some sort of upgrade, like paving the sites and the road.

PREPARING TO HEAD EAST

Tuesday we said goodbye to Doug and Jen who were headed back to the "res" to resume their daily lives. We hung out at the park for awhile, and then spent come time in Roswell at the library hooked up to their WiFi.  SUPER library; new modern building and lots of places to hook up the technology. I was particularly fascinated with the huge children's area with its many whimsical papier mache sculptures

Back at the ranch, we met Donne Kahler, a writer who was taking her shakedown trip in her brand-new Scamp. ( 13 feet long, and smaller than a Casita!) Deonne had some questions about hooking up her fridge, and later we invited her to come over for supper and wine. Now here's a gal whom we'd like to know better. Absolutely charming, great sense of humor, and writes a fun blog. http://www.gonescamping.com/ – the comments on the blog are almost as interesting as the blog itself!

On Wednesday we picked up the truck in Ruidoso ( Doug and Bill had taken it over on Sunday to have the fender replaced, and we had rented a car.)  This took a lot longer than we had thought, given what the body shop had told us that morning. In the meantime,we stopped in to Mescalero to see Doug and Jen once more as well as to visit Jen's brother's grave site way back up in Elk, where the tall pines keep watch quietly. By the time the truck was ready, it was about 5 or so, with a drive of more than and hour and a half back to the camper. 'Twas a long day for all of us.

Xian didn't much mind, he'd found a new friend who thought he was just the bomb!!!
   The following day we had to say goodbye once more to a new friend. Deonne was to move on the next day, and we had to put on many eastward miles. (BOO HOO!! ) Nonetheless,I really think that our paths will cross again.