Oct 13-14 PA to Cape Cod

Sunday, October 13

It's 62 degrees this morning with a nice blue sky.   We enjoy Mom's homemade sourdough bread with Anita & Kevin's peach jam. After breakfast we go to church with Mom. Interesting service with lots of singing, though the pastor is out of town. We meet Mom's friends Linda and Mid there.

After lunch, we finish packing and head to Gwynne's.  Beth rides with Mom and Greg follows in the Trek.  Gwynne's place looks great.  The pool is closed and outdoor furniture stored, but some of the summer flowers are still blooming.  We visit and chat and enjoy Sante Fe Chili for dinner - with ice cream, of course.  We plan on leaving by 6 AM  tomorrow, so call it an early night.

Monday, October 14
58 degrees as we pack up and hit the road.  We follow Gwynne to the PA Turnpike and then she drops  back to follow us and our leisurely pace.  Our gas mileage drops horribly when we go over 63mph, so  we get passed a lot - haha!

Traffic is moving pretty well as we enter the NJ Turnpike and go north, across the George Washington Bridge with minimum slow downs.

 We make a few pit/gas stops and then pause at a scenic overlook in Connecticut.  The view is of Mystic.  And then we cross the bridge over the canal that separates Cape Cod from the mainland.

We arrive at Shore Way Acres Inn in Falmouth around 1:00 but the rooms are not ready yet, so we walk into town to find some lunch.

Divine Pizza sounds good.  Mom and Beth share some hand-tossed pizza while Greg and Gwynne have sandwiches and soup.

When we return, the rooms are just being released, so we unpack.  We are both on the first floor of "the Pool House" which has a nice indoor pool as well as a nice dining room and meeting areas.  The hotel is the oldest Family-owned Inn on Cape Cod.  It began with one building and gradually added other surrounding homes as they became available.  Old, but in pretty good shape and the staff is very friendly.

We meet Gayle Felix, our Road Scholar Group Leader who is from North Reading, MA - coincidentally the same town we will head to after this program to visit Greg's brother!  There are 16 folks signed up with this 4-day program which is titled: Cape Cod and Woods Hole Oceanography and Natural History.

The group meets and walks to La Cucina Sui Mare for a welcome dinner.  Great salmon with artichokes and asparagus and salad.

 Mom has Chicken Parm instead.   We walk back to the Inn and meet for an orientation lecture: Cape Cod: Then and Now by Jim Coogan.  He is a local resident who taught high school for 30 years.  Very interesting and entertaining.

He talks about the geography of Cape Cod, which is technically a peninsula but can be sailed totally around since a canal was built in 1914.  The cape is shaped like a flexed arm muscle with Provincetown at the curled fingertips,

 Chatham at the outer elbow and Falmouth, where we are,  in the armpit!  The cape is a product of an Ice Age glacier and has over 300 ponds and lakes.   Wind and water continue to shape the land, eroding some beaches and building others.  Lighthouses often had to be moved as land eroded.

Native people have been here for at least 8,000 years and by the 1500's Europeans were visiting, mainly for fishing. Plymouth Colony will be celebrating its 400th anniversary in 2020. Cape Cod is tied to the ocean, with fishing, whaling, shipping, research and recreation prominent at different times.   Both lighthouses (13 at one time) and shipwrecks (over 3,000) litter the area.

Early on salt hay was a popular crop, today cranberries are still grown in some areas.  The railroad began to bring tourists in the late 1800's and the National Seashore was created in 1960, preserving 38-40,000 acres.  230,000 people live on Cape Cod but the population swells in Summer.

Great introduction!  The other people in the program are from Florida, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri and New York.  All have done at least one other Road Scholar Program.  One other couple is driving a PleasureWay RV - very similar to our Roadtrek.

Oct 11-12 Friday; Maryland to New Holland, Intercourse & Festival

Friday, October 11

 s this morning.  Greg spots several deer while walking to the restrooms.  Beth spots this lovely guy looking over my shoulder in the restroom. (Don't look, Kathy!)

 A neighbor says it is a wolf spider.  Thankfully it doesn't move - but I do!

We drive around the park a bit more this morning and then begin to head north, toward Greg's Mom's place in New Holland, PA.   More farms, horses, pumpkins and other crops along the way.

We opt to stop at LA Fitness in Lancaster and share a Subway for a quick lunch.  We arrive at Garden Spot Village about 2:00.

Mom is on the 4th floor, and greets us at the door.  We visit and  Greg does a few things from her "Honey-Do" list before we head downstairs for dinner.  They have a great selection every day, with soups, salad bar, wraps, sandwiches and entrees. Mom and Greg have chicken cordon bleu and Beth has a tasty pork chop.

Mom gives us her bed (thanks!) and moves to the single in the den.  While setting up her c-pap, clock and lamp, there are some sparks and we totally lose power!  We call maintenance and two men show up within minutes.  Seems the antique floor lamp Mom was plugging in has antique wiring also, and it is the culprit. They re-set the breaker and we finish setting things up,  sans lamp which they carry off for re-wiring. The charring around the outlet is a little disconcerting, but they assure us it isn't a danger and will be replaced within a few days.

We chat and watch some sports highlights as we enjoy Mom's favorite treat - ice cream.  Good to be here!


Saturday, October 12

Beautiful sunrise here on the 4th floor and later, the golden light catches some nice Fall color.

Garden Spot Village is having a Fall Festival today, so  we start off with an All-You-Can-Eat Pancake breakfast, with both regular and pumpkin pancakes.  Yum!

Then we wonder through a festival, which features lots of foods, information and many, many crafts from quilts, to needlework, to paintings, jewelry and more.  We run into quite of few of Mom's friends.

 There is also a silent auction and we pick up a few used books. I like this sign by a woodworker.

We head downstairs to the train room, where a group of grown men have fun setting up and running trains.  As people move here, they bring their train equipment with them, so there is quite a collection!

 Fun time!

Afterwards, we drive to Lily's at Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse, PA.   This is a shopping area filled with cute shops, local treats, and more Pennsylvania Dutch flavored stores.

Mom had gotten a darling home-made doll for Ruby at Lily's, so we are shopping for one for Rose's upcoming 1st birthday.  They don't have any red heads, but Lily is happy to make one and mail to us.  So cute!  Thanks Great Grandma!

We also go to a local dry goods store to pick up a few items, including corn-butterers, an apple peeler/corer/slicer like Anita had, post cards, and a bottle/jar opener for Mom.  All the folks that work here are in PA Dutch garb and are extremely friendly and helpful.

We pick up some delicious soup from the festival for dinner and finish packing for the upcoming trip. We will leave for Gwynne's tomorrow after Church.

Tuesday, Oct 8 -10 New Fridge; Maryland, Dallastown, Susquehannah

Tuesday, October 8

We do laundry and catch-up this morning and then head to Camping World to get the new refrigerator installed in the Trek.  We go across the street for lunch while waiting, and it only takes about two hours and we are good to go!

We plug in to shore power back at Anita's and wait for things to cool.  We will leave tomorrow to visit old college friends and best man at our wedding in  nearby Maryland.

Kevin went and picked up a new toy for the grandkids today,  so they arrive late in the afternoon to check it out!  This one is drivable!

 A good thing there is lots of space for driving.  Knox does incredibly well - even knows how to put it in reverse and is pretty good at steering!  Rhone is a happy passenger!

Nick and Kevin end up with extra duties when the dogs, Cody and Wesson, get into something smelly and need a quick bath.

We all enjoy a pizza dinner.

 After the kids and grandkids leave, we head back to Kevin's rock shop for a bit where Kevin is finishing up polishing some bookends for a friend.  We cut a couple of geodes open but they are less than spectacular.  Here are a couple of the crystals we found this week, but they don't photograph well...

Wednesday, October 9

Acchhh!  When we check the fridge this morning, it is not cold at all!  So we head back to Camping World - not exactly happy campers!

They agree to get it fixed pronto.  Anita has lent us her car, so we go ahead and head to Scott & Cathy's in Abingdon, Maryland - about an hour and a half drive through some pretty country.  We opt to avoid the freeways.

While their home is in a pretty densely populated area, there are some beautiful farms between Hanover and Abingdon.

We enjoy visiting and Scott & Cathy share some stories and photos from their recent trip to Australia and New Zealand.  After a great lunch - with pumpkin ice cream, no less - their two granddaughters arrive for a visit while Mom and Dad head to a doctor appointment.  Beautiful girls who look a lot like their grandma!

Later, we head back to Camping World where they claim the fridge is working like a charm.  Hmmmm.  A mystery, since everything else worked when we were plugged in at Anita's.  We are skeptical, to say the least, but head out again and try the fridge first on propane, and then on shore power again at Anita's.  It seems fine, so we plan to depart tomorrow.

 Thursday, October 10

Warm farewells with Kevin and Anita this morning.  We've been here much longer than expected but they have been great hosts and it has been fun to spend some extended time together.

We drive the hilly, winding roads over to Dallastown, the town where I grew up and where Greg and I got married.   We stop to visit my Dad's grave, along with my grandparents.  It is just behind the elementary school I went to (which is still a school!) and I recall looking at it from the playground during recess.  I was only 9 when he died.

From there we drive about a mile out of town to the farm where we lived until his death.  The farm itself is still intact, but it is surrounded by development now.

From here we wind south and east to follow the Susquehannah River.

We travel through farmland, noting several road-side stands selling pumpkins, squash and gourds.
Some Amish farms - note the wooden wheels on the wagon.

Tobacco drying in some barns.

Here is a local Mennonite School where the kids are at recess.

We stop first at Susquehannock Park, a small park overlooking the river  at Hawk Point.  There are many small islands here that are Ice Age creations.

 Lots of walnut and chestnut trees here, as we have seen all over this area.

We continue south, back into Maryland and Susquehannah State Park.  We visit the historic area first.

This is the Carter-Archer House, home of Confederate General James J. Archer, which overlooks Rock Run Landing.  

 Below his home is the old Rock Run Grist mill built in 1900.  There is also a Toll House built about 1817.  It served as shelter for the toll keeper and as a store during operation of the Tidewater Canal.  The canal had 29 locks, with boats pulled by mules.  A flood in 1889 put the canal out of service.

The remains of a railroad that ran along the river can also be seen.  We wonder how many years these tracks will remain visible.....long time!

We see cyclists and fishermen enjoying the area.

 We spot this artist capturing a small falls.

 Nice wooded area, and we pass this structure which turns out to be a flint furnace.  Flint was quarried a few miles north.  It was heated here, creating pebbles which were ground into a powder and used to porcelainize pots and pans and make china.

 
 We find a nice campsite, #33, for the evening.  The campground is about 1/3 full, but the lady in charge says it usually fills up on weekends.

The cupboard is mostly bare, so we have soup and peanut butter crackers for dinner.  We won't be using the Trek while in Cape Cod, so don't have many supplies.

Cloudy night hiding an almost-full moon.