Friends, Family, Traveling

Wow, I'm WAY behind with the blog so this is a catch up post of what we have been up to since the end of July. We left DC heading north to Winsted, CT to visit George and Nan, It was a wild 390 mile drive leaving DC and traveling through Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. I'm glad we were in the Tuscon and not in Opus.

George and Nan have a beautiful place on a lake in Northwestern Connecticut. They showed us around their neck of the woods. We had lunch at the Hopkins Inn overlooking another lake. 

Wow, a black bear crossing the road. Bear sightings are very common. George told us he was at the local brewery one evening and everyone was getting up and pointing his way as there was a bear right behind him.

Capt George took us on a tour of the lake.

Beer and, later, pizza, Life is Good. As we always say, meeting up with friends is the greatest thing about traveling. We will be seeing them next month here in Stuart. 

We left Winsted and drove 536 miles to Pymatuning Lake in Northwest Pennsylvania where we stayed with Mike and Sherri at their cabin for a few days. It was a fun time fishing and the guys winning at euchre. 

Mike's reputation as the captain of catfish is still intact.

I even caught a few after a slow start. Going to "the lake"is always something we look forward to when we are in Pennsylvania. From there it was only 125 miles to WashPA.

Always at the top of our to do list in WashPA is getting to enjoy John's wood fired pizza. It was great seeing everyone and the pizza was fantastic. We also got together with many of these people at the teacher's lunch bunch luncheon every Wednesday at different restaurants in the area. 

Mike and Sherri's 50th anniversary was in September so to make it a surprise their kids had a party in early August. They were really surprised.

Three generations of Sharps, mom and dad, kids and grand kids.

The old card club at the party. We did get together for euchre but I failed to get any pictures. It was a fun evening celebrating 50 years of sainthood for Mike.

We did a day trip to Marietta, OH with Nanc's sister Judy to see our new great, great nephew, Archie and his beautiful mom, Morgan. Archie is one happy baby. We also got together with Judy's sons Scott and Rick and their families along with our sister-in-law, Suzann but I failed to get any pictures.

In WashPA we stayed at an Airbnb apartment above the President's Pub. Wednesday evenings were open mike night and the first time we went we were entertained by a former Washington student, Greg Smith. We liked the location and stayed in shape as it was 24 steps to our apartment.

We did a day trip to Pittsburgh. We went to the Strip District for breakfast at Pamela's so I could get their wonderful pancakes and visited Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. There is an entire wing that is all beautiful orchards.  

We loved checking out the bonsai trees. Some are very old and are kept small with a lot of pruning and care.

They had a special exhibit using Monet paintings and recreating a few of  his works with flowers.

He used a studio boat like this to get close to his subjects and painted it into some of his works.

Luncheon Under the Canopy.....

....so we could join the feast.

Here I am reenacting the Bridge over a Pond of Water Lillies painting. The Monet exhibit was well worth the visit to the Phipps. 

The University of Pittsburgh's, 42 story, 525 foot Cathedral of Learning, is the tallest educational building in the Western Hemisphere. I spent many hours there back in the day.  

Another day, another trip to Pittsburgh. This time for the Pitt vs.Tennessee football game. Unfortunately, the Pitt band was the highlight as we lost in overtime. H2P!!!

Another day, another trip to the Burgh. This was for the Blues and Heritage Festival. I wanted to go to hear and get this picture autographed by Christone "Kingfish" Ingram. I took the picture when we saw him at Fred's Lounge in Clarksdale, MS in 2013. He was 13 at the time. I posted it in Facebook in the spring and he personally responded.

The evening started with New Breed Brass Band, a New Orleans group that plays a mix of funk, rock, jazz and hip-hop. Their music took us back to our visits to the Big Easy.

 The Commonheart, a local Pittsburgh band was next. They were great with their blues and rock music. 

I did get Kingfish's attention when he was setting up for his gig. He has come a long way from that 2013 performance we saw. In May 2020 he won five Blues Music Awards including album of the year, Kingfish. This past April he won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Album, 662. 

He puts on a fantastic show. He has been compared to past guitarists B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and Prince. He has appeared with Buddy Guy and toured around the world.  

He is known for getting with the audience during his shows. Here he is with Nanc. Here is a link to a short video of that walk with the people.

After the show I did get him to sign my picture. He said he remembered that Facebook post. 

We had a great visit to WashPA seeing so many friends and getting together with family. A lot of what we did was what we have done on every visit, so there is not really anything new to write about. We went out to eat soooo much that when people asked what we have been doing we responded, "EATING".

We had a couple stops on our way home that I will be blogging about. We are now getting settled again in Stuart and looking forward to a long warm winter.

Kicking Back with Friends

After two and a half months of being on the move we wanted to slow down and kick back a bit. But we have this thing about staying in all the 49 states we can drive to, so we needed to spend a night in nearby Rhode Island. It was only 85 miles from Salisbury, MA to Woonsocket, RI (you can drive that far in Texas and still be in the same county) where we spent the night at Walmart and added the smallest state to our map. Next we needed to add neighboring Connecticut and found a small (22 sites) COE park at West Thompson Lake that was only about 20 mile away as the crow flies, but a 45 mile trip in the motorhome because of a low clearance underpass. This was a nice quiet place with great trails and in four days we only left the park once for a beer and milk run. We will have to return to this area some time in the fall and do a little exploring. We noticed on the Escapees forum that 07 mates Dave & Kathy Bennett, whom we last saw in Yuma, would be visiting mates Ron & Linda Fleeger, who are spending the summer with family in Northwest PA. We decided to drive 550 miles and make it a mini reunion. We did an overnighter at Walmart in Bloomsburg, PA along with ten other rigs. There were more rigs here than at West Thompson Lake. We got a campsite next to the Bennetts at RV Village Camp Resort in Mercer and enjoyed the time with good conversation, food and adult beverages. We Western Pennsylvanians introduced Dave & Kathy to the great wings at the original Quaker Steak and Lube in nearby Sharon. After a couple of days they moved on to Niagara Falls so they could add New York to their map. We visited Ron & Linda and got to check out the new floor they are installing in their rig. They replaced the carpet with a wood floor and it really looks great. Since we are so near WashPA we put out the word that we were in the area and got a call from John & Patrice Yanni about meeting for dinner at the North Country Brewery in Slippery Rock. It was great seeing them and we had a fun evening catching up and hearing about John's daughter's wedding coming up this weekend.

Class of 07 mates Dave, Kathy, Nanc, Jim, Linda and Ron all look satisfied after their meal at Quaker Steak and Lube. We think the original is better than the newer chain versions of this restaurant.
Check out this unique urinal at the North Country Brewery. The beer and the food were great. Slippery Rock, which advertises itself as "the town known around the world" has come a long way from the days when it was a dry town.

If you are passing near this area the Avenue of 444 Flags in Hermitage is a must see. The idea started during the Iranian hostage crisis in the late seventies when after 100 days 100 flags were raised as a show of support. A flag was added each day until the hostages were released after 444 days in captivity. It is quite an impressive sight.

We are leaving here on Friday to attend the Yanni wedding in Cleveland. Then next week we are going to visit our friends Mike and Sherri Sharp at their cottage near Pymatuning Lake for a few days of fishing before our fall visit to WashPA. One disappointing change in our plans is we did not get selected for tickets for the NCAA basketball finals in Houston we were planning to attend next April. Oh well, something else to look forward to in the future.

On the Road Again

We ended our five week stay with an old tradition of watching both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 with Tom & Georgie. It was a great but long day and we could not hang to the end only making about 1000 miles. So after a wonderful five weeks in WashPA visiting family and friends we are on the road again. We left early Memorial Day morning with the plan of staying in a Walmart. As we got near our expected destination we decided it was way to hot and humid and if we dry camped we would have to run the generator all night so we could have AC. We ended up paying and staying at the Lickdale Campground in Jonestown, PA. It was a nice place but we did not drink the kool aid.

We wanted to collect some new states for our map and "our rule" is we have to spend a night, so the next day we stayed at the Cedar Ridge Campground in Montague, NJ. It was a short drive which gave us a good part of the day to explore the area including the Delaware River Gap National Recreation Area. This is one of those places that made us wish we had kayaks. There are many places to launch a boat and a float trip would be a great way to get up close with the land and water along a stretch of river with very few houses. We did a short hike in the park to see two waterfalls. We also went to Grey Towers in Milford. It is the family home of Gifford Pinchot, a former Pennsylvania governor and head of the US Forest Service. We got to tour the grounds but were too late to tour the house. Once again this is an excuse to return.

On day three we traveled in six states, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, which is something we have never done in the motorhome. The drive was only 235 miles so it was not really a big deal but driving that distance out West rarely gets you into two states so we thought it was pretty cool. We stayed one night at Hidden Acres Camping in Dummerston, VT and were able to add another state. We plan on getting MA, CT and RI on the return trip. At Hidden Acres we spent the evening with our RV neighbors, Jim & Gina Portesi, who have only been fulltiming a short while in their new to them Dutch Star. We had a great evening sharing stories of our adventures.

On day four we drove to Pine Knoll Campground in Albany, NH, another new state, where we are staying for three days to explore the White Mountains. We will be cover that in our next blog.

The Delaware River at the Gap. It looks very inviting. We crossed several big rivers (Monongahela, Youghiogheny, Susquehanna, Delaware, Hudson & Connecticut) the last four days. They are all bigger than most of the western waterways we have seen.
A small forest lined stream in the Gap.

Silverthread Falls is the second highest in Pennsylvania. The rock looks like it was carved by people not mother nature.

Dingmans Falls is a beautiful cascade of water.

A interesting toad who was not interested in us.

Pinchot's Grey Towers is administered by the Forest Service rather than the Park Service.

Some of the garden at Grey Towers