Pennsylvania

So we arrived on Sunday expecting lively temperatures and got 92 - hottest summer on record! Seems the climate is a'changin! Monday was a day of setting up, shopping and figuring out our plans while in this area. We found a fantastic Amish butcher just a few miles from the campground. What a treat! Real butchers! Hot dogs in casings, Delmonico steaks 1 ½ inches thick, any cut of meat we wanted and then some that we didn't, farmer fresh jumbo eggs for $1.79 a dozen. We even found scrapple and decided this was the time to finally try it. So scrapple is not on our list of but it again stuff. The taste was OK but the texture was total mush! Yuk! It was like making French toast using ooey-gooey white bread and letting it soak in the egg/milk mixture for too long. So the question is why would I want to pay for a meat product when I could just soak white bread and fry it. Ernie did the hot dogs on the grill and got them blackened and popped open just like I like them. Oh the memories - this is what we grew up with and you just can't get them in the South, without having to pay an arm and a leg for them.

Tuesday found us in Gettysburg. We had planned on going to the Visitor Center and getting the lay of the land and determining how we were going to tackle this phenomenal Civil War battlefield. We decided to hire a private guide for the afternoon. John drove our vehicle and spent the next 2 ½ hours making the battle of Gettysburg come alive. He was magnificent! His stories and understanding of the three day battle he was amazing! When we returned to the Visitor Center to drop him off, we both felt that going through the museum and seeing the diorama would have been anti-climatic and repetitive.

We decided to tour the Harley Davidson factory in York the next day. Even though we are not bike people ourselves, we found the tour to be sooooooo interesting. The degree of robotics (using optical fiber tape on the floors to provide computer directed paths for the robots) and the just in sequence build lines was incredible. The workers have 15 seconds in most stations to add their components before the bike moves on to the next station. As for the ergonomic component of factory work, the sleds carrying the bikes are all height adjustable to accommodate the worker. They also change places on the lines every hour to eliminate repetitive muscle use. The tour was almost an hour and a half and was worth every minute.

We've discovered that if you like plant tours, this part of Pennsylvania is plant tour heaven. Since Thursday was supposed to be a rainy and overcast day, we went on plant tours of Snyder's of Hanover and Utz (potato chips and other snack foods). While these kind of activities may not be for everyone, we really enjoy plant tours. Snyder's had a tour guide and Ernie and I had a private tour since no one else reserved at that time. They have an enclosed walkway over their operations and you can see everything but the mixing, shaping and baking of the pretzels and other snacks since these operations are in an enclosed system. Just wish we could have been on the floor to enjoy the smells and sounds. The Utz operation was similar but it was self-guided. We were able to watch the potatoes being taken off the trucks and conveyered (is there such a word?) through washers and peelers (actually machines that abrade the peels) into slicers, fryers, dryers, salters and then onto packing. It was soooo cool. Of course, each impact had an outlet store so we just had to stock up.

There is another potato chip company, Martin's, that provides tours on the floor. We're going to try that next week.

Good news, temperatures have dropped overnight and we got up to 60 degrees this morning. We might have a campfire tonight. Since this campground is an actual working farm, it's fun wandering around. They have an abundance of animals, horses, donkeys, geese, goats, llamas, cows, turkeys, etc. that we can visit. A nice miniature golf course, big swimming pool, an ample rec room and tons of trees.

Tomorrow we will go to the 22nd Annual McLain Celtic Festival and Highland Games. Looking forward to that. Our friend Annie (from the Dominican Republic and Barnegat New Jersey) is going to drive down next week and spend a few days visiting. Haven't seen her since last Fall in the DR. We're really excited about her visit.

We were originally planning on going on to visit more DR friends who live in Batavia NY, but found out that she died from a cardiac event. We are so going to miss her. Don't know if it was that, a long summer, or what but find that I'm ready to get home and settle in for a while. Can't wait to see the family and spend a little time catching up. Maybe the gypsy is wearing off a bit or maybe need to do shorter trips out and more frequent visits back to Texas. Not sure, just have to figure that out. Maybe pondering over a bit f wine will provide sone clarity ----- or not.

Y'all take care!

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August in Maggie Valley

So my last posting was from Mingus Mill in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We did go back into Cherokee one day to visit the Oconoluftee Indian Village bad see the outdoor drama 'Unto These Hills' which was about the resettlement of a large number of the Cherokee tribe in North Carolina to reservation lands in Oklahoma (referred to as the trail of tears) and the history of how a large number of the Cherokee were able to stay in North Carolina and establish the Qualla Nation. After being in this area and seeing what happened to the Cherokee, I don't think I will ever honor Andrew Jackson!

We really didn't do much sightseeing after that because we spent the next two weeks square dancing - morning, noon and night! We started dancing Sunday evening and continued with morning and afternoon workshops and evening dances through Thursday - for two weeks. We were exhausted but what fun. Met some really great folks and some old friends from Austin who were there for the dances.

Drove to the nearby Cataloochie Valley one afternoon to see the elk. There are two very large beards of elk in this part of NC. While we didn't see many elk, we did see the wild turkey and a black bear that decided he need some apples. So of course, he climbed the tree to get yo the fruit. We watched him for at least half an hour and then he had his fill. He climbed down and was staking his area when a mama elk started to cone closer to the tree. The bear stood his ground for a little bit and then decided that she was much bigger than him and he took off line a shot.

We left that area and started the drive back to the campground when we came up on this bull! He was beautiful and didn't mind us at all.

A

Stopped a scenic overlook on the way back to the campground. You know, I've seen the Rockies and the Alps and they are breathtaking; but to me, the Smoky Mountains are peace, calm and home!

 

We're now in Dover Pennsylvania getting ready to spend the next two weeks visiting Gettysburg, York and Hershey. We were just told this morning that this is the hottest summer on record in this area. We were at 91 yesterday. Go figure! Relaxing today after two days of driving and going to start touring tomorrow.

 

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Mingus Mill

Visited the Mingus Mill the other day. It seems that the Mingus family moved to the Oconaluftee Valley in the 1790s and built an earlier mill powered by an overshot waterwheel. As the community grew, the old mill wore out and Dr. Mingus contracted with Sion T. Early to build the present structure. Early was a millwright from Virginia and agreed to do the job in three months for $600. His initials, STE, are cut in the front gable just under the eaves. The mill remained in the Mingus family until acquired by the Great Smoky National Park in the 1930s.

During the summer season, the Park Service actually runs the mill and sells whole wheat flour and corn meal. We got a bag of each and will try their bread recipe and make some corn bread and/or hoe cakes.

 

Not much in the way of insulation!

Love how they're supporting the building.

This was the walkway to the mill.

Stopped into the Franklin Gem and Mineral Museum before the dance on Friday night. It is in the old Macon County Jail, built in 1850 and in use until 1972. They still have several cells upstairs. Tiny little museum with big museum content. So glad we stopped in.

Thinking of going to Cherokee tomorrow to visit the Cherokee Indian Museum and go to the outdoor drama, Unto These Hills. Haven't seen this in years and have been told that the script has been updated to be more accurate to the plight of the Cherokee. Looking forward to that and still enjoying the pleasant weather.

 

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Mingus Mill

Visited the Mingus Mill the other day. It seems that the Mingus family moved to the Oconaluftee Valley in the 1790s and built an earlier mill powered by an overshot waterwheel. As the community grew, the old mill wore out and Dr. Mingus contracted with Sion T. Early to build the present structure. Early was a millwright from Virginia and agreed to do the job in three months for $600. His initials, STE, are cut in the front gable just under the eaves. The mill remained in the Mingus family until acquired by the Great Smoky National Park in the 1930s.

During the summer season, the Park Service actually runs the mill and sells whole wheat flour and corn meal. We got a bag of each and will try their bread recipe and make some corn bread and/or hoe cakes.

 

Not much in the way of insulation!

Love how they're supporting the building.

This was the walkway to the mill.

Stopped into the Franklin Gem and Mineral Museum before the dance on Friday night. It is in the old Macon County Jail, built in 1850 and in use until 1972. They still have several cells upstairs. Tiny little museum with big museum content. So glad we stopped in.

Thinking of going to Cherokee tomorrow to visit the Cherokee Indian Museum and go to the outdoor drama, Unto These Hills. Haven't seen this in years and have been told that the script has been updated to be more accurate to the plight of the Cherokee. Looking forward to that and still enjoying the pleasant weather.

 

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A Week Later......

Didn't post for the next few days cause we were slugs - hung around the camper and campground. Of course we danced Tuesday night at the campground. Since we were going to be in Asheville on Thursday to dance, we scheduled a comedy tour of Asheville in the afternoon. What fun! You could bring beer and/or wine on the bus just no hard stuff. There were two ladies that worked in tandem, one on the bus and one that come on at select areas. We laughed so hard.

Q

The next day we rode the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad out of Brysin City North Carolina. We were to be on the maiden trip of their historic #1702 steam engine. This engine was built in 1942 and is one of he world's largest engine class and one of two remaining in the US. As you can probably tell, we got there and were advised that the steam engine wasn't working and we would be pulled by the Diesel engine. It was a disappoint,net for us and a major oops for the railroad. They had tons of reporters there for the official launch and folks were parked all along the route to the Nantahala Gorge to get photos of the steam engine. We had a great day regardless of the engine switch.

This is the car we rode in:

 

This is the only remaining civil was home left in the valley. A real fixer upper!

This guy was the story teller on the train and quite a colorful fellow.

As we've been traveling around and through Waynesville, we kept passing a sign for the Folkmoot Center. Folkmoot is literally defined as "a meeting of the people" and they present fun, educational programs based on cultural exchanges that are designed to build global relationships, foster cultural understanding and develop community prosperity. Each year, the non-profit organization Folkmoot USA hosts eight to ten international folk dance and music groups from countries around the globe. We went to the Parade of Nations on Saturday morning. It was amazing. If you ever have a chance to attend a Folkmoot experience, please go. The costumes and the music were so beautiful and colorful.

The participants were from the Cherokee Nation, the U.S., the Dominican Republic, France, Finland, Japan, Mexico represented by dancers from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, Peru, Poland, and Uganda. What a treat!

 

Check out the instrument this musician from the France delegation was playing. I was intrigued by it.

 

 

 

 

Saturday evening found us square dancing again. It was time for another slugfest day so Sunday was just that. Oh, it was also the final day of the Tour de France bike race. Ever since Lance Armstrong won his first Tour, we've been hooked on the race. Yes I know all the stuff surrounding him and doping but we still love the race. So along with all our other activities, we watched the race every day for the last two and a half weeks.

Our weather has been funny in the we are in a rain forest and being summer, we usually have rain every late afternoon. It works out pretty well for us because it allows us to sightsee during the day and get home just before the rain. Can't complain!

So that's all for now. Y'all have a great evening.

 

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