Saturday, October 11, 2014

August 13, 2014 (114th Day)

Our sleep was not that great. The bed was lumpy, the pillows too soft.  However, the shower was great!  We should have slept in the van and then go to the room to use the shower. 

The hotel did not offer much for continental breakfast.  All we took was bananas.  We checked out of the hotel at 9:15 am - rather late for us to start the trip, but we really needed to slow down a bit after zipping through three states in 2 days.

We wanted to tour Lancaster and Strasburg, Pennsylvania (PA).  Lancaster has gotten big since 15 years ago we last visited it.   It was a very small rural town when Edith first visited it with friends while a student at Gallaudet in late 1960's.

Nice peach/apple orchards all over the area.  Fields and fields of corn everywhere.  Lots of cows! 

We checked out Neff's Mill Covered Bridge in Penn Grant Road.


The Covered Bridge is in a sad state of disrepair and is very unsafe to use.
There were few Amish buggies on the road, but we did not see any Amish men at work on farmlands. 



We stopped at Paradise Lane Produce to pick up corn, acorn squash and peaches.

We wanted to see and take a tour inside Haines Shoe House (Roadside attraction), but it was closed today. 





We drove through Gettysburg, PA and Edith wanted to stop at one place to take pictures  Then we took Route 30 to drive by Gettysburg battlefields.





Spotted an elephant sculpture at corner of Route 30 and then flip flop tree so we made a turn to go visit Mister Ed's Elephant Museum and Gift Shop.  We took a stroll in the garden and in the forest and there were many interesting stuff out there.  We went inside the gift shop and the museum. We could not count how many elephant figurines were in the showcase. 






Resting on elephant's back
Mr. Peanut
It is the advertising logo and mascot for Planters

When Edith saw Dumbo she ran to it, hugged it and asked Erwin to take a picture of her and Dumbo.  You need to hear the story about her watching Dumbo movie with her family when she was a little girl. Story follows below.


ERWIN'S VERSION; (As told to him by Edith and later her mother) 

When the Disney movie "Dumbo" came out, Edith's family took her to see the early Matinee at the theatre. She was spellbound by that movie Dumbo, mainly because there were so many similarities that happened to Dumbo that she also experienced by attending a deaf boarding school. You see, when they took Dumbo away from his mother it was the same thing they did to Edith by sending her away from her family to school! So Edith really bonded with Dumbo and when the movie was over, she threw a tantrum when the family got up to leave, so they stayed and watched it again (long ago when you bought a movie ticket you can stay as long as you liked without repaying again). When movie ended the second time, Edith threw another tantrum when the family tried to leave again so they stayed and watched it a third time! Edith of course, was watching with rapt attention and in "heaven". Finally the movie ended the third time and poor bored mom and dad and 2 older brothers were ready to leave.  Edith threw a fourth tantrum and Daddy had enough, he picked her up and walked out of the theatre with her bawling and crying, begging to see it again, fighting all the way home!  Her mother said that she didn't mind watching the movie a second time because she could see that Edith really enjoyed the movie, she didn't enjoy watching it the third time and didn't want to watch it the fourth  time. She said that Edith begged to watch it again every weekend (it didn't happen).

We took I-81 from Route 30, then exited in Winchester VA to get on 50 West to Points, West Virginia (WV) to visit our daughter Jennifer (Jenny), her husband Andrew and their four kids.

We had not seen them in over 2 years and it was good to see the family again. Our grandchildren have grown so much. The oldest, Evelyn is 12; Gretchen 10; Sylvia 8 and Peter 6.  The kids could not wait to show us the chickens :-)

 Evelyn and Gretchen
 Sylvia and Peter


Jenny mentioned that the family was planning on going to Hampshire County Fair in Augusta, WV after supper and wondered if we would be interested in going with them.  Oh sure, we will go, we told her.  We all got into Jenny's SUV and went to the fair.  

The parking lot was FULL. Every way we turned and turned there was not a single spot we can park on.  Andrew dropped us off at the ticket station and went on to look for a parking spot.  All the kids got tickets for rides.  We waited inside the grounds for Andrew to come join us. The kids COULDN'T wait to get on rides.  


Waiting for Daddy









Jenny wanted us to go to Homemaker's Building to check out what prizes she and the kids got for things they made

Jenny's Rhubarb Bars
Sylvia's Double Chocolate/White Chocolate Pecan Cookies
Gretchen's Sunflower Cookies
Peter's Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies
Evelyn's Brownie Cookie Bars
Jenny's Biscuits
Wow, the whole family got BLUE ribbons! We were mighty proud of them!
L:Evelyn's Bert & Ernie Embroidery
R: Sylvia's Turtle Embroidery
 
Evelyn's Indian Scene
Evelyn's Stamp Collection Book
Gretchen's Piggy Embroidery
Jenny's Quilted Embroidery
Jenny's 12-star pincushion
We were so proud of the kids' skills and accomplishments.  After patting their backs for good job done we went back to the rides.  It was a joy watching their reactions during rides.  They all had a good time.




Sleep well and tight!



  

2 comments:

  1. Great pictures!! Can't wait to show the kids in the morning and see their reactions!! Love you!!!

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  2. Glad you enjoyed the pictures. Thanks for asking us to go along to the fair, we enjoyed watching them and seeing them having fun was a blast!

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