Yes, it was a quiet morning here on the mountain as we waited for the tow truck to find its way here. The truck refused to start yesterday, so we were pretty happy to be able to contact our trusty Auto Club for that free tow (via the good news/bad news cell phone) to come and get it down to the garage in town. Fortunately, since Josiah & Abigail are here we have another set of wheels, so after Gary got the truck settled in at the garage, we were still able to head out for a couple of geocaches up in dem dar hills. Our first of the day was also our 100th cache, so it was fun to be able to do it on Wright’s Mountain here in Bradford (our cabin is off of Wright’s Mountain Road). It was a good hike, the guys did all the work finding the cache and Abigail & I enjoyed the views. Here’s a shot of us on the summit – with the treasure box!

We did a couple more – one easy one at an old church and another one back up the other side of the mountain. The hike to that second one wasn’t too bad, but actually getting to the cache was one of the most difficult one’s we’ve done. Well, I should say one of the most difficult ones that Gary and Josiah have done. Abigail & I were once again cheerleading from the top of the cavern.

Last night was interesting too! A bad thunderstorm came whipping through and we were without power for about 6 hours. We took care of the what’s for dinner when I can’t cook by heading into town for pizza (alway a good solution), and then returned in the pitch black for a quiet evening. With several candles lit it seemed like we could play some cards, so we gave it a good shot. Here’s Gary, figuring out his bid…..

We had just finished the game when the lights came back on so of course, we just went to bed! Go figure.

Tonight it’s homemade mac and cheese in our favorite cast iron pot….I’m pulling it out of the oven now! Gotta go!

We left Jamison just a smidge after 4:30 AM in an effort to beat out some of the traffic (especially at the Tappen Zee Bridge). We arrived safely at the cabin in just under 10 hours! It’s generally a 7 hour trip, so you might think we did indeed hit some of that NYC traffic. But no. What slowed us down was stopping at virtually every rest stop and hunting down geo caches! Yep, we did 6 geo caches and 2 letterboxes. All without ever leaving the interstate. So we did a fair bit of stretching and walking – it made the trip longer in minutes, but shorter in boring time on the road. Of course that also included finding a Dunkin Donuts to get us through the pre-dawn darkness, a quick stop at Home Depot in NH to scope out supplies for a couple of Gary-projects up here at the cabin, a stop at the produce stand for some corn for dinner and last but not least, a $1.59 double scoop ice cream (Moosetracks & Candy Swirl) before we headed up the mountain (hey, that donut was HOURS ago!).

Pretty amazing that I have enough phone signal here at the cabin to actually get on line! It’s kinda good news/bad news. The good news is I can call Elna to bring forgotten items up with her (and I can get on the internet), bad news – some of the wonderful isolation of the cabin has been lost. Oh well, I guess I could always leave the cell phone and computer home if I really felt that badly about it, right? And I don’t, so I guess I think it’s mostly good news.

Vacation has started! Time for a nap!

We’re bouncing down Rte. 30 heading into King of Prussia in late rush hour traffic. In the rain. I’m better off sitting here at the computer than sitting in the front gasping every time a car enters on the right, or pull in front of us from the left or….well, let’s just say Gary is a Very Good driver, and I am not always the best rider. So, I’m bouncing along working on the computer and only occasionally glancing up to see how the trip is going. We don’t have far to go (only about 20 miles or so) so that’s a good thing! And I’m not really complaining about the cool temps and the rain. After all the heat we had in the last few weeks it’s been delightful to put on long pants, socks and a cozy sweatshirt! But the rain will make it a little messy when we begin to get Lizzie settled in at her resting place later this morning.

And now for a little catch-up! We left Ohio on Thursday as planned and headed to Western Maryland (did you know there are pretty impressive (well, for the East Coast) mountains in Maryland?) and spent a lovely weekend with some very dear SOWER friends – Jim & Lillie and Bill & Dolly. We checked out the local farmers market, hiked in a nearby state park, ate warm sticky buns, laughed ourselves silly, stood on the hightest point in PA (Mt. Davis), checked out beautiful Deep Creek Lake, were amazed at a man-made white water rafting/kayaking facility, ate warm homemade donuts, enjoyed drives in the beautiful countryside , shared hugs and tears and prayers. An Excellent Weekend!
From there we headed to Lancaster – got Lizzie inspected, had lunch with a friend, did some shopping (and then some napping) and then had the evening with Josiah and Abigail. It was good to catch up with them – and we’re looking forward to more bonding time when they join us for the weekend at The Cabin.
So that about brings us to today. And the bumpy ride to Ft. Washington. I thought I’d better take this time to catch you up with our wanderings – the next couple of days promise to be pretty busy, and then we’ll be in VT – where internet is harder to come by. So, if you don’t hear from us until after Labor Day, don’t worry – We’ll Be Back!!!! (And maybe even with some pictures!)

Our exit is coming up…….

Did you have a good week? Despite the brutal heat (we had several days that had heat indexes of over 100!) we seemed to get a lot done. Another SOWER couple joined us this week here at King’s Domain and the guys were up on scaffolding painting cabins (that appeared to be hanging off a cliff!). The only good part about that was they were under trees and not in the sun.
Here’s the cabin they painted – see what I mean!

We ladies worked either in the kitchen or getting cottages ready for weekend guests. And aside from that HEAT, it was a fun week. We had a little mid-week Sower Party with some Sower friends from Cincinnati, the ladies had a “day out” (read – shopping), and Gary & I went into Cincinnati on Friday and enjoyed a city tour given by the same friends that had come for dinner earlier in the week. Daughter Lara had always said what a great city Cincinnati is – and we must agree. We both were surprised about how hilly it was – I mean after all, we’re in OHIO! As you can see by these shots – there are high places to be found!

(mind you, the second one is actually a picture of Covington, KY taken from Cincinnati!)

Sunday we headed toward Dayton to visit with friends from Doylestown who have moved to Xenia. He runs the International Division of Athletes in Action. We worshipped together at Fairhaven Church – a great service – and then had a leisurely lunch at Cracker Barrel. We had a wonderful visit – and it was good to see these dear friends.

This is our last week at Kings Domain, and then we head east. (Someday I WILL write “and then we head WEST”). But the good news is that we’ll visit with friends over next weekend, see Josiah & Abigail on Monday (and get Lizzie inspected in Lancaster), drop Liz off at WEC International in Ft. Washington and then head to Vermont for the next week and a half. And to ice the cake, we’ll be working at WEC in September – so we’ll get to connect with friends AND do all those “home base” things that need to be attended to (like driver’s license renewal, dentist and doctor visits, haircuts, etc……..). If I’ve mentioned all of this before – I’m sorry. But I’m pretty stoked about the next several weeks!

Gary & I did take in an interesting POI on Saturday. Fort Ancient is just up the road – and it’s a huge “earthworks” built by native Americans several thousand years ago. There was a museum and then several trails. It was too hot to spend too much time on the trails – but we did manage to do the one that “happened” to have a geocache on it! It’s hidden behind this fallen log……

Our geocaching adventures have slowed down a bit – mostly due to the extreme heat we’ve been experienceing. Somehow after working in the heat all day, we just haven’t felt up to leaving the A/C to go hiking. We did try to do one today – but it appeared to be down in the underbrush by this bridge – and we were in our Sunday go to meeting clothes. It was a pretty bridge, though, so we enjoyed the stop!

Off to bed – at least the nights have cooled off so we can turn off the A/C and enjoy the cool night air.
Stay cool – and drink plenty of fluids!

What was I thinking!!!!! Shame on me! That last post was really whiney. Instead of moping about how we had to say good-bye to dear ones (for just a couple of months) I should have been rejoicing that we had been blessed with three weekends IN A ROW of wonderful visiting with them. In three different locations no less! In our “previous life” we would have been happy for a busy long weekend (either in Ohio or PA). It was hard to say good-bye since our previous “good-byes” held the promise of a “hello” in just a couple of days. By doing a project in Ohio we were able to see sooooo much more of each other. And next month while we’re working a project in Ft. Washington, PA we’ll only be an hour or so from Josiah & Abigail. And should we ever get Lizzie out to the west coast, we have a project picked out near where Lara is living (and if she’s not living there by the time that happens, we’ll just find one close to where she is!).

So many blessings. Next time I get whiney – slap me!