Home Is Where We Park It:  Ives Run COE, Tioga, Pennsylvania 

July 15, 2019

Temperature 59 Degrees

Amanda

Marti

Flight 93 Memorial

Travel Day

My goodness I didn’t realize it’s been so long since I last did a blog.  Time to get caught up.

Last Friday while we were still at Shawnee State Park our daughter Amanda came to visit us.  She came with the equivalent of a steamer trunk and enough odds and ends to fill up half of the couch.  This was just for two days!

Of course the long journey was exhausting so she managed to clean off the couch and take a nap.

We always love her visits and this time was no different.  She is one of the reasons we also haven’t replaced the couch with two theater chairs.  One never knows when she is going to pop in for a visit.

While she was here she decided that Marti was long over due for a grooming.  She took him outside, put him on the picnic table and went to work.

Speaking about our Marti he has gone to his retirement home.  When Amanda left she took him home with her.  He was getting worse and worse about traveling.  Any time I started the engine or moved a slide he would freak out and begin shaking and barking and carrying on.  It had been getting progressively worse over the last several months.  So we made the difficult decision to end his traveling days.  We know Amanda will shower him with love.  The only question is Will he adjust?  Amanda says he has been sitting by the front window and just howls.  We know he is looking for us and it breaks our hearts but we believe we made the right decision.

While Amanda was with us, Saturday we went to the Flight 93 National Memorial.  The Memorial Site starts with a turn-off from a busy highway onto an approach road that passes reforestation projects to reclaim land that was once a strip mine.  The healing of the scarred mining landscape is meant to prepare visitors for the emotional healing of the Memorial Site itself.

As you enter the Memorial site the first thing you come to is The Tower of Voices.  The Tower is 95 feet high and when completed it will have 40 wind chimes representing the 40 who were on-board flight 93.  The tower is set apart from the actual visitor’s center and is meant to serve as a welcoming beacon to all who enter the memorial site.

It is illuminated at night.

Currently only 8 chimes have been installed and as of now they hang silently.  The 8 were hung for the dedication of the tower so that family and friends could see what they would look like.  The chimes each have an internal striker that is activated by a sail panel that hangs below the chime.  When the wind moves the sail panel the striker comes in contact with the chime.  Until further testing and the remainder of the chimes are installed the current 8 will remain silent.

Looking down the hill from the Tower.

Leaving here we next made our way toward the Visitor’s Center.  But before you actually arrive there you find yourself on a black granite walkway that lays out the final flight path of Flight 93.  This is looking back at the direction from which Flight 93 came.

 

Along the walkway are time lines of when the other planes struck their targets.

 

The walk way terminates in an overlook from which you can see off in the distance the Wall of Names and a Sandstone Boulder that marks the approximate location where Flight 93 impacted the ground.

 

Moving down to Memorial Plaza you discover that the depiction of the flight path continues and is represented by a black granite walkway that aligns with the flight path walkway at the Visitor’s Center above.  Along the walkway, 40 marble panels are aligned in a row each with a name of one of the 40 passengers on Flight 93.

This is a closer look at the sandstone boulder which sits behind a locked Ceremonial Gate which is made of eight hemlock beams and steel framing.  The gate is opened each year on September 11th to allow family and friends of the 40 passengers to walk through the final resting place of their loved ones.

The crash site is located at the edge of a hemlock grove.  To reflect the location of the crash site near a hemlock grove, all the exposed concrete on the various walls near the visitor’s center are textured with castings of hemlock barn beams.

To the left of the Sandstone Boulder is the actual debris field and the final resting place of all 40 of the passengers on Flight 93.  A four foot high sloped black wall separates the walkway from the field which surrounds the crash site.

The wall contains a space for visitors to leave their tributes.

Back at the Visitor’s Center are many displays and exhibits.

A reminder of the type of day it was

For many it was

All of this changed as America comes under attack.

There was a number of displays regarding Flight 93.  The type of plane and the seating.

There was an exhibit that allowed you to listen to actual calls made from those onboard to loved ones.  Listening to the conversations was heartbreaking and extremely difficult to do.

Flight 93 is hijacked.

A time line of events

The passengers decide to fight back.

The resulting crater was 15 wide and 30 feet deep.

There was a display dedicated to the passengers and crew of Flight 93.

The investigation to determine those responsible.

Identification of the remains until everyone is identified.

Almost immediately residents of the surrounding area constructed a memorial of their own,.

 

The care takers of this memorial banded together in a group called the Ambassadors.  Day after day there was always someone at the fence even during the worse days of winter weather.

 

On September 24, 2002 the bill was signed by then President George W Bush to create a permanent memorial to Flight 93.

In closing let me say, if you’ve never been to the Memorial put it on your bucket list of must see places.  We’re grateful that we had the opportunity to visit this memorial site.

That was Saturday.  Sunday was travel day.  We left Shawnee State park for Ives Run COE in Tioga.  It felt so strange to be just the two of us traveling.  It’s going to take some adjustment before we’re used to not having Marti with us that’s for sure.

It was a beautiful day, traffic was light and within 4 hours we were there.  Oh but the mountains we had to climb.  More and more I’m impressed with the performance of Ford’s V10.  It may not be the first or the fastest over the mountains but it gets the job done.  We are here to visit with family and friends and so will be here for the next two weeks.

That brings us up to date on The Road of Retirement.  We had a wonderful visit with our daughter Amanda.  We crossed another site off our bucket list.  We moved again and have another wonderful new home.  Thank you again Lord for the wonders of this world you created and for granting us safe passage once again.

Thanks for joining us on our journey, catch you again tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road!

 

 

 

 

Home Is Where We Park It:  Shawnee State Park, Schellsburg, Pennsylvania 

July 11, 2019

Temperature 72 Degrees

Maintenance Week

What a difference a day makes.  Actually, a couple of weeks.  Up until now the AC has been on almost day and night.  Now, the temperature has already dropped into the 60’s and the rain is coming non-stop.   Thankfully, it’s supposed to clear up by tomorrow.

Watching the news is heartbreaking when you see what is going on in New Orleans.  We both sit watching the TV and recognize place after place that we had visited that is now flooded.  And the worse they say is yet to come.  Our prayers are with everyone down there.

We had but one objective while here, well, maybe two.  The first was to spend some time with our daughter Amanda.  The second was to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial.  Hopefully, we’ll accomplish both tomorrow.

Amanda will be coming up tomorrow to spend a couple of days with us.  It is just over an hour to her place in Hagerstown.  She plans on taking Marti back home with her.  This is sort of a trial separation.  The last time we left him with her the poor guy literally sat at the front door and just howled for hours.  Eventually, we had to bring him home.  Time will tell if this time will be different.

Last year we were sort of in this area but did not have the time to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial.    We were both disappointed that we were unable to change our plans.  Hence, here we are again and this time it is a go.

From here we are going up to Ives Run a COE campground in Tioga, PA.  We plan on spending a couple of weeks with family and friends.  After that we turn westward and begin making our way out west to Arizona for the winter.

This week is going to be basically a maintenance week.  I’ve got pages and pages on my punch list to tend to.  Everything is on the list from checking all cabinets for water leaks to walking the roof to check for any loose sealant to lubing the steps to cleaning and treating the tires with 303.  At the end of August I’m going to have both windshields pulled in order to repair the rusted mounting channel and eliminate the leaks in each upper corner.  Maintenance is never ending, no different really than a sticks and brick house.

I’m also continuing to reorganize all the pictures I’ve taken and I’m working on a master list of all my blogs.  I believe I have enough to keep me busy for the next couple of weeks.  I’ve missed so many blogs already that I really need to get myself in gear and get to work on catching up.

So it goes on The Road of Retirement.  We’re both in good spirits and enjoying every minute of every day that the good Lord blesses us with.  Hope you’re doing the same no matter the challenges you might be facing at this point in your life.

Thanks again for being part of our journey.  We always enjoy having you along.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road!

Home Is Where We Park It:  Shawnee State Park, Schellsburg, Pennsylvania 

July 9, 2019

Temperature 88 Degrees

Travel Day

President Warren Harding Museum

Once again we were reaching for the covers last night.  What a change from previous weeks in which the AC ran all night.  We like it but we don’t believe it is going to stay this way.

We were up early this morning and ready to roll by 8:30 am.  We were heading into Pennsylvania today, a state we didn’t believe we would see again until probably December.  However, the first rule of full time RV life is always remain flexible.

Remember I said yesterday we were running up hill and down?  Silly me, yesterday was nothing like today.  I never really knew what the Ford V10 could do.  Today I found out.  It’s no speed burner but it gets you there.  A couple of really, really long mountains that seemed to go up and up and up for miles.  I was in second gear, tach at around 4500 rpm, yet we made it to the top.  Sometimes only doing 50 mph when we got there.  But, we made it.  Thankfully, the temperature gauge on both the engine and the transmission never went up above where they normally sit.  And to top it all off we’re still getting 6 mpg.  No laughing all you who have diesel pushers.

Where are we?  Before we get to that let me go back a day to Marion, Ohio.  In the same building as the Popcorn Museum there was an exhibit in another part of the hall about Warren Harding the 29th President of the United States.  A secret service agent stood watch at the entrance to the room.

This is a general view of the room.  All of this and much more will be moved to the museum at his home in Marion when it is completed in 2020.

Warren Gamaliel Harding was born on November 2, 1865, on a farm in the small Ohio community of  Blooming Grove). He was the oldest of eight children of George Harding (1843-1928), a farmer who later became a doctor and part owner of a local newspaper.

At the age of 19 along with two partners he purchased the bankrupt Marion Daily Star.  After buying out his partners he steadily improved the paper and in time it became extremely profitable.   He owned the paper for over forty years.

 He served in the Ohio state Senate and as Lieutenant Governor, and unsuccessfully ran for Governor. He delivered the nominating address for President Taft at the 1912 Republican Convention. In 1914 he was elected to the Senate, which he found “a very pleasant place.”  At the 1920 Republican National Convention he won the nomination for president on the 10th ballot.  Coolidge was chosen as his running mate.  In the summer of 1920 he launched his Presidential campaign from the front porch of his home.  He was the fourth president – all from Ohio – to do so. 

He gave more than 100 formal speeches from his front porch and more than 600,000 people traveled to Marion, Ohio to hear him speak.  Due to the high volume of visitors, Harding’s front lawn had to be replaced with gravel.

 

In the general election, the Harding-Coolidge ticket defeated the Democrats in the largest landslide up to that time, capturing some 60 percent of the popular vote and an electoral margin of 404-127.

When he entered office he faced the task of of leading the nation through the transition from WW I to peacetime.  In a post-war recession, America faced rising unemployment, a high national deficit and the fear of Communism.  During his years in office he was able to realize many of his goals.

In the summer of 1923, Warren Harding embarked on a cross-country tour of the United States to promote his policies. During the trip, the 57-year-old president became sick, and on August 2 he died of what was likely a heart attack (no autopsy was conducted) at a San Francisco hotel.

The funeral train left California on August 2, 1923.  It slowly traveled east stopping only for fuel and provisions.  An estimated 3 million people lined the tracks to honor the President.  In Chicago the crowds were so large police had to clear the tracks in front of the train.

On August 8, 1923 his funeral was held in the Capitol Rotunda.  His body was then moved back to his hometown of Marion, Ohio.  On August 10, 1923 his body was moved from his father’s home to the Marion cemetery.

A permanent resting place for the president and his wife in Marion was undertaken.

The total cost of the tomb, the landscaping, and grounds was $738,108.  The money was privately amassed in a national fundraising event, including pennies contributed by more than 200,000 children.

Here it is today.

OK, moving from there to where we are today.  We are at Shawnee State Park.  Shawnee State Park is a 3,983-acre Pennsylvania state park.  Shawnee Lake, a 451-acre warm water reservoir, is at the center of the park as its main attraction.  The 290 campsites at Shawnee State Park have picnic tables and fire rings, and accommodate tents or trailers. In addition to some full-service campsites that have sewer, water, and electric, 98 sites have electric hookups.  The park was authorized by the Pennsylvania legislature during 1947. During 1951, construction of the dam began, and during the same year, the park opened to the public.

 

Here is our new home until this Sunday.  It is a pull through site with FHU.  Unfortunately, this site is far from level and took some work to get there.  Take a look at high we are in the front – have to be careful not to get a nose bleed!  Gertrude is out in the back with a clear shot of the Southern sky so we are good all the way around.  Our daughter Amanda is going to be joining us here at the end of the week for a couple of days.  She will also be taking Marti home with her.

We are now at the end of our day on The Road of Retirement.  We had a decent travel day, no traffic, no slow downs, and we were here within 4 hours.  My kind of day.  Time now to get some shut eye.

Thanks for joining us today, we always enjoy your company.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road!

 

 

 

 

Home Is Where We Park It:  Spring Valley Campground, Cambridge, Ohio

July 8, 2019

Temperature 86 Degrees

Travel Day

Halfway through last night both of us were reaching for the covers.  The temperature had dropped into the low 60’s which is a bit cool for us.  Neither of us is complaining just saying it is a bit different than what we’ve become accustomed to.

Travel day today.  Not much to do to get ready.  Really, all we had to do is bring in the slides, bring up the jacks and disconnected the electric from the mother ship.  Just like that we were done and ready to roll.

Out stay in Marion had been a good one.  Visiting the Popcorn Museum meant we could cross another one off our bucket list.  It never continues to amaze me as to what we find and where we find it.  I’ve always said, interesting things are always just waiting around the next corner.

Right on schedule, that being 10 am we were on the road again.  We needed to do some backtracking to get to where we were headed for the night.  Once again, traffic was light, the roads for the most part were in good shape.  We’re now climbing mountain after mountain heading east but Graybeard as always is handling all of them without even breaking a sweat.

A few hours after we started we saw the sign for our evening home, Spring Valley Campground.  It sits right off the interstate.  A right at the exit, then another right, a mile down a county road and there you are.  It’s one of the few with a decent rating that is this easy to get to.  Others are far afield and their ratings are 5 or under.

We’re home and settled in for the evening.  It’s obvious that the campground is in need of some TLC.  Don’t get me wrong, it is neat, there is no trash lying around but it is obvious that putting fresh gravel down on the sites, repairing the moon size potholes in the inner roads, and sprucing up the place is not a high priority.  Our site is a pull-through, reasonably level, and long enough that we can leave little Graybeard attached.

Barbara’s comment was we’ve been in parks like this before, for a night it is perfectly fine.  I do agree.  I will say it is not a place I would pick to spend a week or more.  My favorite place to call home more and more are the various state parks.  We haven’t found a one that we would not return to.  So be it in the morning we will be gone.   We’re halfway to PA and will be there tomorrow.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  Time now to get back to our game of Mexican Train.  Why, we’ve even dug out the radio and have it on tonight.  Shades of many, many months ago!  We’ve gone basic for sure!  But only for one more night.

Thanks for joining us as we travel along.  We always appreciate your company.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road!