The Final Month

By the beginning of August and after our friends left, we felt like we'd done most of what northeast PA had to offer - from a tourist's standpoint anyway. We had traveled to most of the State Parks in the area and seen most of the major attractions. So it became a challenge to find stuff to do. We kept busy, though some of it wasn't very interesting. You know, grocery shopping, and so on.

One day in early August we took a drive to the north. We really hadn't gone that direction much. The drive was very pretty and we ended up crossing into New York state. This was yet another small town with not much to offer. We would have had lunch there if we could have found a restaurant that wasn't fast food. No such luck, however. The drive was worth the time and it was beautiful terrain.

The following week, we went to the Wayne County Fair. (I can't remember the last time I had been to a county fair. Butler County?) The weather was its usual overcast, rain-threatening self. But you go when you can in light of working over the weekend days.


We walked up and down the fair grounds, seeing all the ribbon winners in a variety of categories. We had overpriced, mediocre food.


We listened to an entertainer for a bit. She wasn't too bad, either.


We stayed away from the livestock, but otherwise saw most all of it in a couple of hours. We did enjoy it - something very different for us to do.

We discovered a great 18-hole mini-golf course only a few miles from the campground. We played earlier in the season (I won), but when we were waiting to pick up Heidi after a grooming, we went back for a second round. (This time Julian kicked my butt!) It's beautiful, with mountain views from most of the holes.


Our next photo-op trip was to Dingman's Falls, to the south in the Poconos. This area is within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We were lucky enough to get there just about the time that a tour was heading out, narrated by a Nat'l Park Ranger. Our first stop was at Silver Thread Falls. This is a natural falls in spite of the very straight edges on the rocks.


After a little more walking and information about the area, we arrived at Dingman's Falls.


We were told that this was a great time to view the falls. The rains all summer had the water high and the falls to be very full. He said that it is often a mere trickle compared to what we were seeing. So the rains were good for something!

Proof that we were there:


One of our friends here at the park is a 10-year old named Adam. He lives with his grandparents and spent most weekdays here. Julian would play pool with him from time to time and went fishing with him several times. Here's one of Adam's prize catches.


The last state park that we visited was Archbald Pothole, also probably the closest to us. We drove past it several times over the summer, usually when it was rainy. We always said we'd do it on a sunny day for better enjoyment. What we didn't realize was how small it was. There is a 3-sided marker with lots of details about the pothole, how it was discovered, how it was formed. And then there's the pothole itself.


That's it. I think a person into geology would find it more interesting than we did. After perhaps a total of 15 minutes there, we just kind of chuckled and then went to lunch at one of our favorite places in town.

After nearly four months here we finally got out onto the lake. With all the rain, it just never fit in. But last week, we took one of the rowboats out and tried fishing Lake Henry. I had two "for sure" bites and a couple others that could have been moss or grasses (the lake is fairly shallow). I know they were bites because I actually saw the fish, I just couldn't hook them.

This picture is taken from the rowboat, looking back towards Clayton Park. As you can see, we had a terrific weather day.


As any of you know from reading this blog, Julian and I have been playing quite a lot of Wii Sports games. Yeah, just about every night before dinner we have some kind of competition. After both of us achieved one frame short of a perfect game at bowling, we've taken up golf. I finally got a hole-in-one this past week. It's a par 3 hole, but hey - a hole-in-one is a hole-in-one!


So as I write this, we have completed our work commitment and have started preparing for the departure for home. Tomorrow we will take the jacks up and hit the road for the first time in nearly four months. We've done a lot of the prep work today and will be heading to our next destination by 11 or so in the morning. We're ready and very excited to be moving into something new and different. I'll write about it - I promise.