our “stuff” packed into the van, around 10:20 am. Our first stop was Newville, PA, right off of I-81, for an overnight visit with our good friends Dick and Rita Parady. They used to be our partners in crime in the Oriskany Strings oldtime band (see http://www.oriskanystrings.com/), and are now retired in a beautiful “independent living” retirement community in a rural part of central PA. Had a great visit—we always have lots to yack about and laugh about! And their little dog Zoe is particularly adorable. It’s fun to watch her antics… They took us out for dinner at a neat restaurant, Boiling Springs Tavern (http://www.boilingspringstavern.net/), in a historic stone building from the mid-1800s. This area is so picturesque—trout streams, rolling green pastures and dairy farms, and interesting old houses and buildings all around. (Unfortunately we haven’t yet fully gotten into our blogging mode and forgot to bring our iPads to take photos in Boiling Springs.)
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| Dick, Rita, Carol relaxing (could I be more relaxed? looks like I have no bones), Jack on camera. |
After dinner, we stayed up late talking and ate some wonderful crème brulee that Dick had made—he’s definitely a gourmet! He also fed us delicious steel-cut oats with strawberries and blueberries this morning… we could get used to this. We breakfasted on the patio and then said our fond farewells. It was a lovely visit to kick off our vacation!
When Jack was planning our route, he came across a town in PA named “Jim Thorpe” and was intrigued. It’s pretty much on our way so we decided to stop for a visit. Fascinating history. At one time, back in the 1800s, this was one of the wealthiest towns in America—in fact, they claim that the Industrial Revolution started here. In those days, the town was called Mauch Chunk (pronounced “Mock Chunk”, supposed to be derived from Indian words meaning “sleeping bear” after a nearby mountain that looked like, you guessed it). But things went downhill over the years and in the 1940s the place was in serious trouble economically. Then an odd thing happened: the famous Indian athlete Jim Thorpe died in 1953.
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| Amazing feats. |
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| Jim Thorpe's grave (click to enlarge) |
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| One of two statues at the memorial site. (click to enlarge) |
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| Carol and Jack beside anthracite coal rock. |
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| Preserved railway station. (click to enlarge) |
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| Typical architecture on Broadway. (click to enlarge) |
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| Where we had lunch. (click to enlarge) |
I have to say that my expectations weren’t very high, but this place is SO charming!! The mountain setting is beautiful (it’s in the Poconos), it has well-preserved 19th century architecture, a scenic train that runs through the Lehigh River gorge, lots of cute shops, inns and restaurants, and river rafting! And the Jim Thorpe gravesite and memorial is very well-done, a nice remembrance of perhaps the world’s greatest athlete. Amazing, superhuman feats of athleticism! We knew a little about Jim Thorpe the man before today, but now we know quite a bit—including the tragic side of his life. (Side note: his descendants are now suing the town of Jim Thorpe—they want to dig up Jim’s body and take it back to the reservation in Oklahoma where he was born.) We reluctantly left Jim Thorpe the town and got back on the road, as we wanted to be closer to Boston before stopping for the day.
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| New York State has severe penalties for talking on a cell phone and texting while driving. These signs are a friendly reminder to get off the road if you want to text. This is not an issue for us. (click to enlarge) |
Tomorrow we plan to drive into Boston and tour the U.S.S. Constitution—“Old Ironsides”—the oldest commissioned warship in the world that’s still afloat. This stalwart old ship was launched in 1797, fought against the Barbary pirates and Great Britain in the War of 1812 (which we’re now celebrating the bicentennial of), and it’s still an official commissioned ship of the U.S. Navy! Can’t wait to see it.
One funny thing—our ultimate destination on this leg of the trip is actually Newfoundland, in Canada. After we left Jim Thorpe and were driving on some back roads to get to the interstate we wanted, we started seeing road signs saying “Newfoundland, 10 miles.” We’re looking at each other and saying, “Wow, that was a lot faster than we thought!” There’s actually a little village in Pennsylvania named “Newfoundland”…
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| Surprise! We made it to Newfoundland already! |
And, oh yes, the title of this blog. We’ve actually driven through 7 states so far, but several of them were just little pieces of states so it’s not as impressive as it sounds.
State count: 7 [Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts]
Where we are now:
