2016 - August - Beautiful Pennsylvania! Letchworth State Park- Samson- Rohrbackers!

Sunday – Aug. 7^th – If we don’t visit a local church, we always watch our own church’s live streaming, but I’ll miss that today, as we’ll be on the road. Doubling back over into PA because the tickets we wanted for Samson’s Sight and Sound Production were all sold out on our way up…. So taking the scenic route again, just going wherever this motor home takes us.

We are taking the advise of my friend, Helena Shaver, who said if we can work it out we must see Letchworth State Park, so Earl checked it out and it’s not too far out of our way, so we’re planning to park the RV somewhere and at least drive through – we won’t have time to do any hiking or anything like that today, but we’ll at least see if we want to come back on another trip. Right now I’m listening to Earl outside as he puts the awnings in and gets our lawn chairs put under the coach and all the normal routine in getting ready to hit the road again….life is good.

Well are we ever happy we took our detour over to see The Grand Canyon of the East! Just fabulous! Wish we’d had an entire day to hike all over and take a picnic lunch! Incredible beauty! Isn’t God the most amazing designer!

Who would have ever thought in the middle of all the corn fields around and beautiful farming country, you'd find a secret place like this! Has to be one of the most under advertised places of beauty around!

MOVING ON......

We got into the KOA here near Lewisburg, PA this afternoon. For our RVing friends it’s $58 night and it’s the Williamsport South/Nittany Mountain, and it’s a KOA Holiday Park. We’re learning the difference. Most of the KOAs we’ve stayed in are KOA Journey – meaning close to an interstate or a quick stopover when you’re traveling, where a KOA Holiday is a destination type place for families to vacation! This place is truly amazing!  

They have a surprisingly well stocked store and gift shop, as well as snacks and ice cream offered in the shop.

 I have so wished we had our family here – especially our grandchildren, and particularly Ryan and Mark as they love to fish. There’s a huge stocked pond here with a catch and release type arrangement. We saw some pretty large fish in there! 

Then there’s 2 swimming pools, miniature golf, a bounce pillow (first time I’ve ever seen one and I’m sure the kids would love it!) Lots of hiking trails, go-kart rentals, golf cart rentals and the best kids playground I think I’ve ever seen! It has all the normal stuff PLUS a kid’s zipline, and lots of creative play structures that to me are unusual. So if you’re ever in this area, by all means, plan to stay awhile! 

 Earl taking to the owner here....what a great guy. We found out this has won all kinds of awards in the KOA corporation and it's not surprising!

Monday Aug 8^th we took as a catch up day…. We did several loads of laundry which always takes a while. I have a washer/dryer combo unit in the RV but am not crazy about it. You can only do 2-3 items at the time unless you want a wrinkled mess and the entire process takes almost 3 hours! So we’ve found we much prefer to just let the laundry basket pile up, rather than a load or two every single day, and then we can just do it all at once and be done! AND the laundry room at this KOA is really nice. Sometimes we decide to just go into town, but this is the best we've seen and we did laundry in record time, and enjoyed sitting by the pond while we were waiting. We have truly enjoyed beautiful weather and sitting out with the long range views.

After our laundry was done and put away, and the bed freshly made, we went into town to explore this area. Just your typical nice smaller town, not particularly memorable, EXCEPT for this truly amazing place we went to eat – The Country Cupboard and Gift Shop.

 I thought it might be something like a Cracker Barrel and Earl’s not a shopper, so while he was waiting to pay, I decided to take a look around! I ended up going back to get him as I knew he’d never find me! This place is unbelievable and this would be a place I would definitely frequent a lot if I lived here! Sheila and Nancy, you guys would LOVE shopping here !  Miss you!

We went to WalMart and stocked up on some supplies and groceries, as we want tomorrow to be a stay at home day to READ! I am so anxious to get into my new book. Each night we’ve been watching the Olympics so I HAVE to read in the daytime, ha.

Tuesday – 8/9 we enjoyed a late breakfast and then literally spent the entire day outside! Perfect weather! At one point I even went and put on a light jacket as the sun had gone behind the clouds and it even felt chilly. We’re loving this weather up here! Supposed to be rainy the next 2-3 days, so we’re happy we had today!

For dinner, we grilled awesome steaks and I’d gotten fresh corn on the cob from a roadside stand – honor system, really cool.  What a truly delightful day!

Wednesday – Aug 10 – LANCASTER the heart of Amish Country!

This is not something you see every day.

This picture makes me laugh....

We really enjoyed strolling through Ronks, a town full of neat home decor shops and wonderful Amish furniture. Aren't these wood carved songs just lovely?

We're out...standing in our field.  haha

Peaceful scenes of Amish farms.....

We had a delicious dinner at Deiner's Country Restaurant, recommended to us by Arlene Rohrbacker. These Amish people are crazy good cooks!  Yum! Our server was Mennonite and we asked her what the basic difference was between Amish and Mennonite, and she said, they have horses and buggies and we believe in vehicles.... that was kind of simple. I got the idea she didn't really want to talk about it.  I had a super interesting chain of conversation going on on my Facebook page. It really is an admirable and fascinating way of life. 

And now at last - Sight and Sound Productions!  We've been wanting to see another one ever since we saw Jonah in Branson last summer. These people are first class all the way!

And this is getting there an hour early!  They sell out EVERY show!

 This theater seats 2000 people. It's exactly like the one they have in Branson.

 We were not allowed to take any photos or videos during the production, bummer. I'd have LOVED to show you some of the phenomenal props and back drops and the ending was out of this world!  REALLY, I would love to know HOW they do this!!! WOW!

What a ministry, really! They presented such an amazing message of God's grace throughout Samson's life. He was self-centered and always wanting his own way, though recognizing throughout his life he had a calling. Beautifully portrayed and masterful ending with a gospel call. How gratifying to see people thronging forward to have people meet and pray with them!

This was one quick pre-show thing they were doing - warming up the crowd, I guess.

On the way home, we saw this horse and buggy - looked like they were going into Tractor Supply!

Thursday.....heading on out again. I dread leaving this idyllic spot we've had this week, so restful and serene, but rain is predicted here for the next couple of days, so we're going to head on over to Woodland, PA. where the whole purpose of that stay is visiting with our dear longtime friends, Joe and Arlene Rohrbacker! Can't wait to catch up on the last 25 years! Woodland Campground is where we are and it's ok as far as campgrounds go but we chose it because we needed 50 amp power and many of the campgrounds around here only have 30. It's only $38 a night for our RVing friends. 

On the road - isn't this a pretty area?

After we got in and got set up - Earl said he'd researched and was really going to treat me to a nice place for dinner. He read me the reviews online and they sounded fantastic. What he didn't tell me till we got there, was that it's in a gas station/grocery store. LOL Seriously!!!

It just cracked me up.....here we are with the grocery store behind Earl and outside my window, I see all the gas pumps!  HIGH CLASS tonight!  Gio's, known for their BBQ, and supposedly the best baked beans in the world. Earl got pulled pork, I got 1/2 rack of ribs and both of us got baked beans. Yuck - I have them know I make WAY better baked beans than that! This tasted more like chili than baked beans, and if I'd been expecting chili, maybe it would not have been so bad, but thinking I was going to get yummy baked beans similar to mine, was very disappointing. BUT.....I have to admit, the ribs were AWESOME! Very tasty and falling off the bone tender. Earl had so much pulled pork he couldn't begin to eat it all and if you know him, you know he's a big eater, so we'll have BBQ sandwiches one day soon.

Friday after lunch we headed on over to Joe and Arlene's, and picked up right where we left off! Amazing, other than a few comments here and there on FB, we have not seen these dear friends since we used to go to church together in PSL, FL! They moved to PA the year before we moved to Eustis. What fun! You should have been there! We were ALL talking 100 MPH and laughing and enjoying our time together. They have a BEAUTIFUL 100 acres that has been in Arlene's family for 3 generations! Gently rolling hills.....this is the view from their front porch! Isn't it just perfection - so serene!

This is from the back yard. Such a lovely farm.

They have a hunter's paradise here.  Couldn't help but think about all our hunter friends who would love this property. Joe and the boys hunt here every year and get deer, bear and small wildlife. They gave us some absolutely delicious venison stew to bring home with us!

This is the view from across the farm looking back toward the house. Nice, huh?

After Joe showed us all over the farm, we went into Curwensville for the most amazing steak dinner! WOW!!!( I forgot to take a picture!) 

Arlene had told me they have the best steak she's ever had, but we're really picky about our steaks, and so I was hopeful. She did NOT exaggerate! Oh my goodness, that steak filled the plate with barely enough room for a baked potato on there. I ate only a little of my salad and potato so I'd have room for the steak and OH MY GOODNESS, the BREAD!!!! YUM!!!  Man, I wish I didn't like bread like I do!!! It was hot and crispy on the outside and chewy, just like I love!!! FABULOUS meal!!! And they insisted on treating us! Wasn't that special? We certainly did not expect THAT! 

We did not get to see Chris and Matt while we were there, but on the way home from the restaurant, we rode by a winery where Beth was having a rehearsal for a wedding tomorrow. For my friends reading this who know this family, you'll remember what a fabulous voice Beth has! We have not seen her for years, so it was a delight to just say hi and get a quick hug. She sure grew up to be a beautiful young woman!

And not only that, we went back to the house for homemade peach cake - yum!!  Made from fresh Amish peaches. I had one tiny bite and asked if I could take my piece home along with half my steak that I couldn't finish.  So Arlene packed up cake for us, a quart of Joe's special homemade sauerkraut, and home canned peaches, AND a dozen of those amazing fresh eggs just taken out of the coop. Now that's fresh! Joe prayed the sweetest prayer over us before we left, and we felt so loved and blessed by this entire afternoon. God has so blessed us with godly friends. One of the greatest blessings of all.

You know you're in the country when you see the stop sign just nailed to the tree.  haha

Thanks for traveling along with us! Now we head to Ohio.....