Adamstown, PA SMART Muster

October 15th Friday Cool and Sunny

We left Wellsboro yesterday as it was beginning to rain and it continued to rain all of the way here and continued during the night last evening. This morning we awoke to sunshine, however, we have lots of wind.

Our SMART group met in the clubhouse for a welcome supper of homemade bean soup and a variety of homemade breads and for dessert we enjoyed a birthday cake to celebrate all of the birthdays in October.

We enjoyed chatting with everyone last evening and catching up with all of what had happened since our last meeting at Centre Hall in September.

We were up early this morning and got breakfast ready for our group. We are fortunate to have a club house to meet in, as it is a bit chilly outside to use the pavilion. After we cleaned up from breakfast, Lou and I got ready and drove into Reading to Vanity Fair Outlet, both of us enjoy shopping there and neither of us have been there in years. Lou was anxious to get some new jeans, he has been wearing four pair that I had gotten from Penneys and he was in need of fresh ones. Once I got him going he got right into it and I think he ended up with six pair of jeans and four pair of shorts along with new shirts, under clothes, belts, wallet and a couple of odds and ends. We really had a good time and took a little extra time and had Chinese for lunch and arrived back to the RV in time to walk Estee and meet the rest of our group and out for dinner.

We all drove to Ephrata for dinner, we ate at Bright's and found it to be a wonderful place to eat with great homemade food. Lou and I enjoyed a shrimp dinner with pepper slaw and for dessert we split blueberry crumb pie. We ended up having 24 people in attendance. After we returned back at the RV, I started preparing the sausage gravy for breakfast. I have two crock pots full of gravy sitting on the kitchen counter keeping warm for an early breakfast.

We had a friend drop by this evening, Fred Winner. He is a wood carver and he wanted to show us his latest project. He is carving a Puffin and you can see from the picture, he has done a wonderfully good job. Lou had a private showing of a black capped chickadee that he did some time ago, and Lou surprised me with it for a special gift. Fred had entered in a talent show and had won with it, so this is very special treasure for me. Not only that Fred is such a loving, gentle man, Lou and I have so much respect for him. I will have to take a picture of the bird and show all of you what a special gift this is.

Well tomorrow will be a busy day also and we will have to be up very early.

Changeable Weather

October 12th Beautiful early and then..............

Lou and I have been using the great weather as a time to get some of our odd jobs done for the winter months, not knowing that winter was approaching so quickly.... See above pictures.

Lou spent the day at his house cutting the grass and doing a few things that had long been neglected.

I took advantage of the good weather and got our grass cut and the weed eater run, and then feeling bad to think I hadn't even purchased any mums to plant for fall, went for a walk around our yard and found many items that would look good in our plant boxes for fall, surprising the beauty that is just awaiting some attention.

After the great feeling of knowing the house was all fall cleaned, I worked on the outside. Got all of the windows outside washed and scrubbed both decks and the sidewalks. Worked on the windows in and outside of the garage and ran the sweeper in the garage and mopped the floor, so things were really looking up. I got the leaf blower out and blew all of the leaves away from the back area. Estee and I were watching some black clouds approaching so I quickly grabbed the clothes from the clothes line, as big drops started to fall, followed by the hail stones that were about the size of a pea and they just kept coming, then the rain fell, I believe Lou told me that we received over an inch in the hour.

I had fixed a baked ham dinner with fresh winter squash and homemade apple dumplings for dessert. We both enjoyed our dinner after all of the hard work and cooler temperatures.

The next day, while Lou went to a friends house to help him with some paper work, I went to work in the kitchen. This weekend Lou and I along with our friends June and Steve are in charge of the SMART Muster in Adamstown, PA. I made two crock pots of homemade bean and ham soup along with 12 dozen home made baking powder biscuits to have with the sausage gravy I made for our breakfast. I also stirred up a batch of peanut butter cookies for Lou. He loves his cookies after each meal, so try to keep fresh ones at all times. Good thing I enjoy cooking and baking, and I have missed having the time to do it in the summer.

We had our great-granddaughters come after school to pick out their pumpkins to carve. This seems to be a tradition that was started when their parents were little, and it has just carried on. Lou and I had purchased a special winter squash in North Carolina last year and it was so good that we saved the seeds and we planted this year and they grew to be numerous, so Lou harvested them this week also, so now we just have to clean up the vines and await spring to start over again.

Now we are off to Adamstown in the morning.

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.