Stroudsburg Day

I have a friend, Mike Powers.         

Mike lives in Fairbanks, AK.
Mike has friends, Sean and Mary Jo Joyce.
The Joyces live in Stroudsburg, PA.
Therefore, we met up with them in Stroudsburg, PA.
The Joyce's are our new friends.
Because that's the way Mike Powers is.

Our new friend Sean Joyce.

The Joyces were wonderfully warm and gracious people who gave us a few ideas on how to enjoy our time in the area.

Small town fall festival

Kathleen a at the largest Chistmas
Store in the country!

Delaware Wather Gap.          



Having a glass of Gene Kolb's wine back at the campsite at sunset.
                    

Campground & Guess who we found?

                             CAMPGROUND AND GUESS WHO WE FOUND?

We are staying at Mount Pocono Campground.  This place is bizarrely decorated for Halloween.  Bizarrely because things are so elaborately done.  These figures are all over the campground.   Hmmm.... Maybe we are just assuming that the place is decorated for Haloween.

After having that thought, Cathy and I went for a drive and found ourselves at the Newark Airport and who should we find?

        

                               

KATHLEEN!

She will be joining us for the three day Columbus weekend.

Ken and Cathy

              

Philadelphia, PA

                                                       PHILADELPHIA

Our objective for today was a two hour drive to Philadelphia.  We braved the drive and 80 degree temperature and made our way into the City of Brotherly Love.  I always thought you were warned about tunnels so you would turn on your car lights but it is also a good idea to take off your sunglasses - lesson learned.

Our first stop was to the Independence Visitor Center where we got tickets for a 1:20 p.m. tour of Constitution Hall, giving us ample time to see the Liberty Bell and share a quick Philly Cheese Steak sandwich.

After the tour we said a prayer at Benjamin Franklin's grave and found a plaque above his grave humorous.  We moved on to Betsy Ross' house where we met a woman in the cellar portion of the house, who had been a slave before being set free on her 21st birthday.  She may have been a reenactor but we weren't sure so the conversation was awkward.

Before leaving town, we strolled down Elfreth's Alley, the longest continually inhabited street in the country.

One leaves Philadelphia as one leaves Boston - with a greater understanding and respect for our nation's history and the brave men and women who lived it.

          

Yes, we have become that couple
Who takes a selfie in front
of the Liberty Bell

   

Betsy Ross' house

Elfreth's Alley

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We're camping!

                                          WE'RE CAMPING!
Greetings from Mount Pocono campground, conveniently located in Mount Pocono, PA.  We had a

Camper and the clam.  

beautiful day to set up our campsite.  The camper popped up beautifully, the clam went up like a dream (but it did take almost 4 minutes).  The campground is wonderful.  In some ways for a private campground it is much more primitive than we expected, very wooded, gravel roads and it's very hilly (ahh, the mountain in Pocono Mountains.....now I get it).   Yet, who knew that campgrounds provided Wi-Fi?  I don't mean we can go down to the camp store to get on-line, I mean sitting at our campsite and getting on-line!

Cathy watching TV in the clam

Here are a couple of photos from the campsite.

Best wishes,
Ken and Cathy

A Tale Of Two Cities

                                                          A TALE OF TWO CITIES

The contrast of our two stops today could not have been more vastly different.  We started the day in

Gettysburg with "Fore score and seven years ago.....".  There were 51,000 casualties at Gettysburg all suffered during a three day battle.  The hardest hearted person could not help but be moved by the story of what happened during those three days.

It seems like ancient history to to many of us but I had my own epiphany when I realized that this all occurred just 50 years before my own father was born in 1915.




                  HERSHEY
  Our second stop of the day was in Hershey, PA.

A view from the window of the keys that Ken locked in the car. 

We took a mock tour of the chocolate factory, think "Disney's Small World in little gondolas"  but everyone is making chocolate.  We also took a 90 minute trolley tour of the city of Hershey and learned of the tremendous philanthropy of Milton S. Hershey that continues even today.

The Famous Hershey kiss street lights.

Cathy at the sample table.

We are spending the night in Hazelton as we were running too late to set up the camper in the Poconos campground.
       Ken and Cathy

The Clam

                                                      The Clam

Cathy and I love our little camper.  It is very comfortable in which to sleep.  However, it is small and not very comfortable to hang out in.  We've purchased a new tent to serve as our living room, (think screen tent but with sides).  It's called a "Clam".  The beauty of the "Clam" is that it is already assembled and just pops up into a 12 x 12 room.  The person who wrote a review about it said he put it up himself in just 60 seconds.  Here is a picture of it already up.  You'll note that the poles are on the outside.  The tags are are the outside.  They aren't suppose to be.  Cathy and I along with my brother, Bill and my cousins, Bruce and Maureen worked on it for about 90 minutes correcting the manufacturers mistakes.  So, it took five people, 90 minutes to put it up the first time but I'm sure it will go up in 60 seconds next time.  I mean, really, what could go wrong?  

We write this post for beautiful Maumee, Ohio just 10-15 miles west of Toledo, Ohio.  We hope to be in Gettysburg tonight.
                                 
When you come to our blog, it should look like this.                

         

I've included a red arrow here to indicate the various entires that we've made in this blog.

Best wishes,
Ken and Cathy

Poconos 2017

                                                POCONOS HERE WE COME!
Cathy and I have "dusted off" our pop-up camper and we have been thinking about traveling around

Florida for a little while this winter.  To be prudent, we decided to take it for a shake down voyage. We were thinking maybe a night in Peninsula State Park or maybe Potawatomi, just South of Sturgeon Bay or if we were adventuresome, maybe haul it all the way over to Point Beach over near Manitowoc.  So after considering these options, kicking around the positives and negatives of each park and trying to make the most logical of decision we've decided to go to Mount Pocono in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania!

Thank you Erin and Bill for agreeing to stay at our house while we are gone.  We'll breath easier knowing you are there.

Now, many of you have expressed an interest in following us in this little adventure so we have resurrected this blog.  Ok, to be honest we wouldn't say "many" of you but maybe a few of you expressed interest in following us.  Ok, maybe not a few, but somebody,...... Well, there COULD be somebody who might want to know where we are, maybe like in case of an emergency.  Anyway we intend to update this blog as we go.