Our Last Week in WashPA

Our last week in WashPA was very busy, finishing our last medical tests, spending time with friends, eating at our favorite local places one last time and Nanc running the Great Race.  It seems like we are on the go constantly when we are here and have talked about staying a little longer, so maybe the future will hold some changes for us.

Anytime we are here at the end of September Nanc tries to run the Great Race.  It is one of the largest 10K runs in the country with well over 9,000 racers.  They also have a 5K that draws close to 15,000, so it is a big deal.  As you can see for some people it is all about having fun.

Nanc as she sprints to the finish line.  Her goal was to finish the 6.2 miles in under an hour and was happy with her 58:18 time and pace of 9:23 a mile.  This was a bit slower than last year but still good enough for fifth place out of the 23 women in her age group, (people who are eligible for Medicare).  

She had a support group at the finish: Rick, Tom, Georgie and me.  She does not even look winded.

GREAT JOB NANC!!!!!!!!

Of course while she was running, Tom, Georgie and I went to Pamela's for her world famous pancakes.  They are the best and always on my to do list when we are in the Burgh.  They are so great that Obama invited her to the White House to make them the first day he was president.

After the race we were invited to John's for some of his wonderful wood fired pizza.  I don't know who enjoys this the most, John doing the cooking or the friends who get to eat his wonderful creations.

He had several people over for the pizza and to watch the Steelers game.  On this Sunday the pizza was way, way better than the Steelers.  In one of those small world happenings, one of the couples who was there visiting from Indiana had been neighbors of Denny and Sue Orr who we know from their work with Escapees.

John even cooked wings with onions, a creation from Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza that he has mastered.  Like I said, the man loves to cook and we reap the benefits.

One of his pizzas.  The wood fire heats the oven to over 700 degrees and the pizza cooks in about three minutes.  We are already looking forward to more pizza next summer.

On another day Rosemary invited us to her new place for lunch.  She is also an incredible cook and she prepared for us a delicious Seafood Linguine.  She has had a really tough year losing both her husband, Pete and her nineteen year old grandson, Luke to cancer.  She is an amazingly resilient woman and it was great seeing her and getting caught up with all that has been happening with her, her many family members and friends. 

On Tuesday evening we went to Al'an Rubens with our old euchre club and got to listen to some music, always one of our favorite things to do.  These two had a great variety of tunes.

After dinner we went to Tim and Di's to play euchre.  Here are Sherri, Georgie, Di, Tom and Mike.......

......along with Tim, Bentley, Nanc and Mary Lou.  I'm happy to report that the person not pictured was the big winner for the evening coming in first and collecting a whopping $9.00 in winnings.  The old euchre club is another of those things we really miss when we are on the road.

Wednesday we attended our last lunch bunch gathering at Open, a new to us place and loved the food.  Here are Jim, Nanc, Reggie, Bill, Jackie, Becky, John, Linda, Ron, Dave, Gail, Pat, Joy and Charlie.  They must have known we were old teachers because they put us in the corner where we could be as loud as we pleased, and we were.  It is always great seeing this bunch.

One last visit to Al'an Rubens to hear Josh on sax and Dan on guitar who are former students.  We love their music and hearing them is high on our Wednesday evening to do list when we are in WashPA.

Nanc, Jim, Georgie and Tom at the Back Porch to celebrate Tom's birthday.  This has become a tradition for us near the end of every stay here.

We had a great two months stay and loved seeing so many friends and family.  While it is a very busy time squeezing so many things in to two months, we always have fun when we are back in WashPA.

As I write we are at Spartan Chassis in Michigan for annual service and to repair a couple of problems they discovered during their inspection.  Having a twelve year old motorhome means things are going to wear out and need fixed, but it is still a lot less expensive than buying a new one.  Good news is we should be getting better gas mileage as our wallets will be lighter.