Our Extra Sightseeing

Besides Flight 93 Memorial we visited the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum.  The highlight was the historical Horseshoe Curve and subsequent reservoirs created by not engineers but self taught workmen in late 1800s. The tracks linked an area from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and created a new route of shipping/traveling and provided a million gallons of water for the city of Altoona.

We climbed 194 steps to watch the train enter the curve and it was traveling out of sight while the last car had not yet appeared where it started.

We also visited Lincoln Caves and Whisper Rocks.

We stayed over to Monday and spent Sunday afternoon on a pontoon boat with 8 others most of the day. We packed up Monday morning, broom cleaned the cottage and took off at 8 am, arriving in Troy at Kelly’s at 4 pm.  She had dinner for us and on Tuesday, before Pat and Kelly’s departure for their Alaskan cruise, we all went to dinner.  Bidkar was working.  Little CeCe was at the head of the table and Pops took the photo  

  

12th Bi-Annual Family Reunion

The reunion was great. There was breakfast, lunch and dinner two days, fishing, paddle boarding, boating,  sporting clay shooting, sightseeing, card tournaments, trivia, face painting and crafts, campfires, etc.  Pictures will speak better than prose. PS. My team of Sharon, Lori and I won FIRST prize in Trivia!

On The Road Again

I didn’t realize I had not posted our 4th of July photos!  So whatever happened over the next week must not have been important!

So … we left on the 12th as planned, traveling to Memphis.  The next day was a hard travel day due to a closed bridge in Louisville and a semi across the road in Indiana.  When we arrived in Batesville at The Sherman, we learned there are no first floor rooms, no bellman, no elevator!  Trudging our things up a flight of steep steps, down a winding hallway to the last room just about did us in!

In the morning, rested and showered, we walked to a recommended restaurant for a wonderful breakfast including goetta, usually only found in Cincinnati.  It is a German breakfast meat we both enjoy.  Ted decided to get an oil change because it had hit its mileage so we had to stay in the area enjoying the small town with virtually no traffic.

At 4 o’clock we met Cindy and Tim at the assisted living home where my sister Karen (Cindy’s mother) is being cared for.  Her Alzheimer’s has progressed and she is close to non verbal, mostly mumbling so a conversation is not possible.  But her face lit up in a degree of recognition when she saw us and that was enough for me. I had brought her birthday gift, including 4 packs of her beloved Peeps, along with a “fidget stuffed dog” used to keep patients’ hands busy and occupy the hours of just sitting.  I had given her a fidget square they said she uses a lot, especially when they need to calm or comfort her.  However, I had to open the card, show her the gift and all she wanted was a Peep!  We sat with her through her dinner and then stayed while an Amish choir sang for the residents.  Karen “dances” in her chair and mouths words from lyrics she remembers.  It is the only thing she enjoys.  She cannot understand a TV program so I suggested they put a music channel on of Big Band, Oldies, 50s music she would remember.  They are going to see what they can do with an Alexa they can control from an app.  

Afterwards we met Sherry and John (Karen’s other daughter and her husband), and also Cindy’s daughter Amy and her family.  Freudenfest was going on in neighboring Oldenburg (where the nuns who taught me have their motherhouse).  We had a terrific family style chicken dinner, some polka music and ice cream!  

It was a fun evening, enjoyed by us all. 

The next day we moved to Lawrenceburg which is where we always stayed in our RVs but this time it was a Red Roof Inn, quite nice, actually.  We had breakfast, again with goetta, saw the movie “Sound of Freedom” a must see, attended Mass where Ronnie and Sarah were married years ago and then went to the casino.  We didn’t stay long!  I got 3 different Player’s Card and none worked properly and Ted was losing so we left!  

Sunday dawned pleasantly and we headed to Pennsylvania.  We learned you needed to buy Falling Waters tickets well in advance and none were available so we moved on to Plan B.   We would stop in Bedford for the night and the next day visit the Flight 93 Memorial.  Our motel was a throwback to the 50’s complete with ruffled curtains.  Clean and comfortable but no coffee ready in the morning!

We took a road through the PA mountains to a height of close to 3000 ft to reach the memorial. It is a much larger complex than I expected and crowded.  No pictures were allowed inside so I only have a few descriptive ones.  We had access to the last recorded phone calls from passengers to home.  I could only listen to two before hanging up.  So much sorrow, desperation and fear.  They have programs describing the day and events afterwards. There were lots of scout troops there and I realized this was a history lesson for them, none were even born when this happened. 

A Common Field One Day, A Field of Honor Forever

The western Pennsylvania site where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after passengers confronted hijacking terrorists during the Sept. 11 attacks over two decades ago is marked by a gigantic boulder.

We were very moved reliving this tragic day in our history, one none of us will ever forget. 

We traveled on to Rays Lake Resort.  Since it was 1:50 and check in was 2:00 we had lunch in the Marina cafe.  Once we moved into our lodge room, we drove 15 miles to the nearest Walmart to pick up paper products and drinks.  We eventually met up with Keith and Steve (our October visitors) and my brother Dan and Sue.  We visited quite late and then headed back to our respective accommodations. 

Let the reunion festivities begin!  

Two More Weeks of Less Than Exciting Events

We did a few more things these past two weeks, some in preparation for leaving.  I worked one more shift at the Thrift Store and that will be it until October.  

I attended our Senior Pals meeting at church over one weekend.  I helped start this group back in 2003 but got involved with Newcomers and Forum, people more my age back then, but now we fit right in!  

Ted made a trip to Dallas to check on their paper supply and how it is running at Dow Jones.  All was good.  

We joined Senior Pals for lunch at Olive Garden and started meeting some new people.  It is very heavy on women, light on men, but we sat with a couple and enjoyed ourselves.  

Our friend Tommy who we have known for a long time from Texas Boomers, had a heart attack and needed a stent put in to clear a 99% blocked “widow maker” artery.  He was very lucky.  They are one other couple who had sold their motorhome last year when he was put on the liver transplant list.  I don’t know if I mentioned their friend we got to know while camping, was diagnosed with brain cancer and died in six weeks.  They too sold their motorhome just before he died. Our friend Tom with bladder cancer, is doing well after chemo, surgery and now radiation.  He and Eileen have been our best friends back to 1996 when we all lived in DeBary, FL.  They were frequent summer camping trip companions, but alas, they too sold their motorhome!  Ira and Lee who we vacationed with at Gulf Shores last year, lost their motorhome in the hurricane right after our trip, decided at age 80 not to replace it. 

We drove an hour to Deer Park to visit Tommy and went to lunch.  We left by 3:00 to avoid rush hour traffic but it still took 70 minutes to drive home.  

Marena invited us over to play Mexican Train one evening.  Her family has all returned back home so she was lonely. We are playing this Friday night too.

One fun thing we did July 3 was to attend the Red White and Blue Houston Symphony performance at the Mitchell Pavilion.  It is a free Performance of the Arts and there was a full house.  We were in the second row aisle seats, stage right.  The best part of that was the occasional roll of AC drifting down from the stage.  It was still 96 at 9:30 when we went home so that bit of occasional relief was most welcome.  The Sweet Adelines performed before the symphony started.

On the 4th I did some laundry, we watched the Astros win, grilled some burgers and then went to the fireworks.  They were being set off in 5 different parks and we chose Town Green and sat around the basin where the duck

boats are kept. A band was playing, families were eating food from vendors and there were bubbles galore from wands that must have been for sale somewhere. We had no trouble with traffic getting home. Ted cut up our watermelon and we settled in for the night.