New York City

October 9th - Saturday Beautiful Day - Pretty Drive

Lou and I were up at 4:30 AM to be at Benedict's Bus Service at 5:30 so we could board the bus to travel to New York City. This was Lou's first trip to NYC in years and he throughly enjoyed it. Up until this year, I traveled to the City at least twice a year, for many reasons, one trip two years ago was just to have lunch in Central Park and get a hair cut.

This year we went for the express purpose of visiting The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. If you folks can believe it, this is one Air Museum that Lou had never visited.

Lou and I were dropped off near the Gershwin Theatre close to Eighth Avenue and we walked the distance to the Museum which was located at Pier 86, 12th Avenue and 46th Street. Lou and I both enjoying walking and it was the perfect day for walking in the City, as it is always windy and sometimes can be very cold; however, yesterday was a perfect day in all aspects.

The Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum spans four city blocks, the new Intrepid is an attraction with spectacular interactive exhibits and the latest in virtual, multi-sensory and video-display technology. It is located at the new park-like Pier 86 that is lined with lush trees and comfortable benches.

From the moment you walk through the entrance you are captivated by a 10 foot by 30 foot video wall, views through opened hatches and a inspirational introductory film.

We were able to see areas of the shop that the normal person would never see, such as the massive anchor chains to the newly opened berthing area where the crew slept to a 1960 recreated mess deck.

There were many hands on activities in the new interactive halls. The guests could land a plane in the flight simulator, climb into a life boat, pick up objects with astronaut gloves.

Lou and I were fortunate enough to be among a special tour group and had a marvelous tour guide (Mark) that just bubbled with stories and history of the Intrepid. Among our group was a gentleman that was stationed on the ship while he was in the Navy and he also shared his stories. It was a day neither of us will ever forget.

Lou and I rode up on the huge elevator that brought the fighter planes from the lower deck to the flight deck, listened to the planes take off and return to the ship and the precautions that were taken to make sure the plane and the pilot and his crew were safely returned to the ship.

The most impressive part of the day for me was to sit in the Mulitmedia room and watch The Day of Darkness and Day of Light. We were able to be transformed into the actual part of the ship on November 25th 1944, when the Intrepid was struck by two kamikaze suicide planes. It was as if we were actually taking part in the attack, right down to the sound and smoke from the massive fires that broke out when the ship was hit. At that point the ship was out of commission for three months and once again returned to the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines where it remained until the end of the war.

After we left the Intrepid, we walked on to the British Airways Concorde, if you remember this plane flew 1,350 MPH. The fastest Atlantic crossing by any Concorde occurred on February 7, 1996 and it took only two fours and 52 minutes. We were able to explore this wonderful plane.

After touring the Concorde we walked up to the USS Growler Submarine. The Growler is the only strategic missile submarine open to the public in the United States. A guided cruise missile, the 32 foot long Regulus. The Regulus missile served as an important nuclear deterrent during the Cold War 1950s and 1960s.

The sub was 317 foot long and could carry up to 15 torpedoes which were intended for self-defense. We toured the Missile guidance center, a truly unique room, 35 years ago this space was classified top secret.

The Control room/attack center houses the Growler's periscopes. This is where the captain commanded the Growler and the crew members steered her through the water.

The Growler was commissioned on August 30th 1958 and decommissioned on May 25th 1964.

All in all the hours that we spent at the Museum were very enjoyable and the time passed so quickly. We had to be back to board the bus for home at 7:00, so we quickly walked back to the area close to the bus area and found a place to eat. We had a delicious dinner and stopped at the Hershey Store at Times Square for dessert and a snack for the ride back home.

It was a wonderful day and one that Lou and I throughly enjoyed. It was a day of bitter sweet memories also, as my late husband has been gone for three years today, and I am so thankful first to the Lord for guiding my steps and for placing Lou in my path and for the support from my family for accepting Lou as my husband. I can not imagine what these last two years would have been without Lou in my life. Praise God for all of his blessings each and every day.

We arrived home safely around 12:30 am, tired and happy.

This will be a busy week coming up, as Lou and I are sponsoring a weekend of SMART camping in Adamstown, PA, along with our friends Steve and June Bahr and we will be leaving early Thursday morning. So much to get done prior to departing.

Autumn jobs and joys

October 8th Friday

My after all of the rain, it certainly makes us think that we are glad it was rain and not snow. I told Lou that the Lord knew I needed to get my fall housecleaning done and he sent the rain. I spent the entire week, cleaning drawers, closets and washing curtains, and finally cleaning the carpets. I can thankfully say now that our home has been fully fall housecleaned and I am rejoicing in the feeling I have knowing that everything is back in its place and clean.

Lou was able to get some scheduled work done on both of the cars and finished up the work on the RV during the rainy weather, and he went through his magazines and books along with getting caught up on some paper work, so both of us feel like we had about two weeks of getting our lives back on track.

During the good days, the State was able to work on our road and they have completed the job of repaving Catlin Hollow, filling in along the new pavement and painting stripes in the center and sides of the road. It will be like a super highway for folks that travel this road, and we do have a lot of traffic.

Lou picked up his new glasses last week and you will note a picture of him with the new frames. It took a multitude of professionals to convince him that he needed to convert to the 20th century. He got rid of the pea green tint and now has photo-gray lenses and the lenses are plastic. He looks like a new man and I can see his beautiful blue eyes, so I will enjoy the new glasses more than he will.

We got our grass cut on Friday, although it was too wet to cut the area by the barn, we still haven't had a killing frost, so haven't picked the pumpkins, we usually save that job for the grandkids to pick the ones that they want first and Lou and I use what is left over. Krista always likes to have some that she will can for pie filling.

Friday night we went to the viewing of Lou's cousin, Grace Kemp. She was married to David Kemp and she passed away last week so we had an opportunity to visit with that part of his family Friday evening, then we went out for dinner at Lamb's Creek. It was nearly 8:30 when we arrived and the place was full; however, we have a little pull and a table was found for us and we had a very enjoyable meal.

Tomorrow will be a different day, as we are off to New York City.

Fast Passing Week

September 26th - Sunday - Overcast and cooler

Does anyone else feel like fall is coming quickly this year. This past week has been a beautiful week here in northeast Pennsylvania.

Last Saturday as you remember we went to Morris for dinner and an evening of square dancing with some of our friends. It was a beautiful drive going down 287 to Morris, the trees indeed are changing quickly. We had a nice dinner in the clubhouse and then a very cool evening of square dancing. Once the sun went down, it certainly got cool.

On Monday, we spent the majority of the day with the RV at Spitzer's in Williamsport, but it does seem that the repairs have taken care of the problems we were having with the steps and the brakes. Still had the cracked manifold to have repairs, so Lou was off to Mitchell's in Mansfield where he and Moe have worked on replacing the manifold and of course, that brought additional problems. They found that a gasket was cracked and a new one couldn't be located, so that job was put off again until Saturday. Thank goodness, we have ordered a new RV and we can not wait for the delivery of that in ten weeks. This has been a dream for my husband and thanks to some facts that have just surfaced, this dream is coming true for him.

Wednesday was another busy day, I was off to Wellsboro to get a perm and then home to bake goodies for Square dancing. Joanne Niles and I were in charge of the evening snacks and we used a fall theme and made snacks with pumpkin, nuts and heavier desserts. We all met at Country Terrace and entertained the residents for an hours before our regular dance. It was a wonderful evening for Lou and I as we were able to visit with some old friends that are now residents at Country Terrace. We came away thanking God that both of us had our health and were the healthy, active couple that we are.

Thursday was our day to help Krista and Steve dismantle shelves that were build in the basement of my homestead and reassemble them in the barn at our house. When my daddy built them, he had made them very secure, as Lou and Steve really had to work on them to take them down. My brother brought the hay wagon up for us to load them on along with some more of the ceramic molds. Lou, Krista and I rebuilt them in our barn, a job that Lou and I finished yesterday, so that job is all done. We still have more ceramic molds to load up and bring down, hopefully, that will be finished this week.

Friday morning, Lou and I had appointments in Mansfield and once they were out of the way, we started on some of the yard work we need to get done here at home prior to cold weather. The only problem was, it got dark too quickly, and we are far from being done. We had spent the majority of Friday afternoon trying to find a cemetery lot that was not on the map Lou had, as the grave has to be opened on Sunday for a burial on Monday. Finally, after deep research the site was found and the family notified that it had been located and marked ready of opening.

Saturday I packed Lou's lunch and he was off to spend the day at the garage with the RV to replace the cracked gasket. I went into town to get groceries and to pick up a new cell phone and to spend a little time with my granddaughter that was home from college for a few hours. Then back to yard work. Lou and I both have problems with our hands, Dr. Nespola tells us that our hands have done too much hard work in the past and need tender care now. I tried to cut off all of the iris we have in our yard and was running into shooting pain with each cut, so I remembered an electric knife that Krista had gotten me to cut the root systems with, so thought maybe it would work to cut the iris off and bingo, it works like a dream, I was able to get all of the flowers cut off in the front yard yesterday with minimal discomfort.

Lou finally called me about 5:00 last evening to tell me he was back at his house with the RV and needed a ride back to Mansfield to pick up the Buick and bring it back home. Thankfully, it is complete and ready for our campout in October. We sat down together and enjoyed a dinner of stuffed pork chops with Brussel sprouts and a tossed salad and for dessert I fixed one of Lou's favorites German chocolate cake. We actually took the evening off and enjoyed a movie.

The upcoming weeks brings some inside projects as long as we have some much needed rain on the way. Need to have our Malibu serviced and some book work needs to be done.

Getting Ready for Ceramics

September 16th - Thursday Light rain all day Low 37 degrees - high 62 degrees

Today was the day that Lou needed to take the Buick to the garage, and he spent the entire day there, in fact did not return home until after 7:30 this evening.

Krista had a job interview this morning and then to our house and she and I tackled the ceramic shop, cleaning and getting it ready to pour greenware. We have put the extra square dancing on hold until we get all of the molds unpacked and sorted.

Yesterday, Lou finished up the floor in the "shop", that is what he is going to call his new hobby dwelling. We have the woodworking tools all moved in and now need to do the last minutes touches to it. He helped Krista and I work in the big barn, where we sorted through lumber and made room for more molds and cleared a spot to put up additional shelves to house the new molds. Lou and Krista designed a new pouring area in the barn, so they can pour the large items down there and not have to transport the large molds. Lou just has to secure one area of this new design and they will be ready to pour.

Today Krista and spent six hours working in the ceramic shop. It was cool out there, so we built a fire in the wood stove and put the screen on the stove and both of us enjoyed watching the fire when we passed by. By the time I moped the floor and ran the vacuum, it was looking pretty good. Krista is going to pour tomorrow and one of her girl friends is coming to do some painting, will be a nice day for the two of them.

Lou and I are going to the RV show in Hershey tomorrow. Will meet Preston and Susie on the way down and they will also attend.

Saturday night, Lou and I are going with friends to a square dance in Morris.