Smethport, Cherry Springs Dark-Sky Park, Little Pine, York Gun Show course
(posted from home)
(this post covers 26-28 October)


*********************************************

Saturday, 28 October-

Today I attended the Tri-County Gun Show in York. Two weeks ago I had been looking for information on permits and had found a company which would provide the necessary paperwork and handgun-safety training for me to apply for a Florida Non-Resident permit, one which is more widely recognized than the PA permit I’ve applied for. And their schedule of upcoming events showed they would be in my area this weekend.
The class was very interesting. First we filled out the paperwork for the application to the State of Florida and a fingerprint card. We had passport-size photos and fingerprints taken of each of us, then our paperwork notarized, followed by a basic handgun-safety course. The latter included gun handling safety exercises using a very realistic replica pistol (due to limitations at the gun-show venue) as well as practical shooting experience (again emphasizing safety) using a laser-equipped pistol and an electronic target. We had to hit the target three times and pass the written test before we could be given certificates of completion to accompany the application. Our fingerprints guy and one of the instructors (there were two) are Philadelphia-area police officers. That instructor is also a notary and he made it very clear that the paperwork we had filled out and signed in his presence was a legal affidavit and we were liable for any lies or omissions of fact. Our instructor was the company owner and an NRA-certified instructor. Two Baltimore-area guys stopped by to chat with him while we were on break and told him they were very glad they had taken the course and they had used their permits in other states. One was a firefighter, the other a Baltimore city police officer. We joked with them that they must be shills for the course but of course that was long after we had already paid our money and started our course.
After the course I circulated through the gun show. I saw a few items of interest but only bought a few snap-caps (dummy bullets) and a traveler’s guide to state gun laws.

**********************************************

Friday, 27 October-

I headed home this morning but selected a more circuitous route. I was in no rush; I just wanted to be home sometime today. Route 44 first took me to Jersey Shore. I stopped at a sporting goods shop there, mostly out of curiosity but also hoping to find some accessories for my pistol. This one was absolutely jammed with rifles and shotguns. The regular gun racks behind the counter were filled and below the racks began a long line of guns, all standing upright on their stocks and the line extending ten feet past the counter, then past the storeroom door and another ten feet into the back room. And, like the other shops I visited on this trip, they were doing a steady business on this weekday morning. They did have the manufacturers’ normal accessories for my gun. But I had been hoping to find some holster options and perhaps a grip extension for it but no luck there.
Continuing south out of Jersey Shore I passed the North-Central Region Office of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. I stopped in and asked if there were some directory of public shooting ranges. The clerk was very helpful in finding and printing off the info for me and she ‘went the extra mile’ by asking a couple of the guys in the office. They identified some local club ranges but I don’t want to pay for a club membership to occasionally use a range.
I turned off at Route 880 which took me past Ravensburg State Park and across the mountain into Sugar Valley. I very much liked that area which has a fairly large Amish population judging by the buggy-wheel ruts on the roads and having seen only a dozen people out today in this valley and all of them were Amish. I then took a forest road across Sugar Valley Mountain into Brush Valley and Route 45, coming out near the Bald Eagle District Forest Office. I stopped at the office to ask about two things I had seen in my drive through the forest—deer management area signs and seedling tubes. I learned that the Deer Management Program identifies areas where there are too many deer and issues special hunting permits for hunters to take a doe in that area outside of the normal hunting season. I had seen the seedling tubes in clusters as I drove through the forest and wondered why they are clustered and what, exactly, is going on. I got lucky on that question. A Timber-Management specialist from the Harrisburg home office happened to be in the office today. We spoke for the better part of a half-hour and I learned about the history of the forest in that area as well as about the seedling tubes. The forest is now predominantly an oak forest and has been re-generating for about 100 years since the clear-cutting of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. After the clear-cutting, a series of intense fires crossed the area, largely because of all the slash left behind and because the forest lands were just considered unusable land so fire-prevention and fire-fighting was not considered important. In areas where the fires were very intense, some species (pines for example) were wiped out entirely. At the time oaks and chestnuts competed for survival but then the chestnut blight killed all of the latter. More recently, the gyspy-moth infestations of the late Seventies and Eighties killed many trees. The oaks have proven most resilient and while DCNR would like to have a more diverse forest, they plant a lot of red oak. Deer will preferentially browse for red oak seedlings and very few of them make it on their own. So DCNR plants them in light plastic tubes, generally anchored by a red-oak or white-oak stake. The tubes both protect the seedling from deer and also provide a mini-greenhouse for the young plants. When the seedlings grow above deer-browsing height, the tubes are slit and discarded. The tubes are clustered both because they are placed in open-canopy spaces in the forest and to make the tubes easier to maintain. The stakes are oak in order to last longer, but even so will rot after a few years and it’s not uncommon for the tubes to be needed for seven or more years. Also, bears seem to like to knock down the tubes. It’s unclear why bears would have any interest at all in the tubes but there are theories about it. The mini-greenhouse environment inside the tubes attracts wasps, bees, and other insects and the bears may be interested in their larvae. Also, snow and wind will knock down the tubes.
I also learned there’s a demonstration forest just down the road from the District Office and they printed off a guide brochure for me. After thanking the very helpful folks there, I drove to the demo forest. I saw two pickups in the parking lot and figured they were bow-hunters or perhaps squirrel hunters. I put on my blaze-orange cap and started down the path, then realized my jacket was a color very much like a deer’s so I went back to the van and put on a blaze-orange vest. I followed the path, stopping every few minutes to read the demo-forest visitor’s signs and the brochure. They describe what was done in each plot, from clear-cutting to 9 and 20-tree-per-acre release treatments, to ‘diameter-limit’ cutting. I had only made it third of the way through the stations when I heard a very loud bang from about 40-50 yards away, off to my two-o’clock. I took it for a muzzle-loader shot. And that drove me to a decision. Here I was in a heavily-leaved forest, walking around on a dead-leaf-strewn path and very close by is a guy with a muzzle-loader. Though my blaze-orange hat and vest and his hunter training to be sure of his target should in theory mean I was OK, I decided not to chance it and I went back to the van.
I then drove down Route 235, enjoying this very nice country drive through the Susquehanna River hills to Liverpool. By 1600 I was back home.
My trip since Monday added up to 850 miles, a good bit of it through light rain. I was somewhat disappointed in how suburban the area was around Lake Pymatuming and Presque Isle seemed more like a city park than I like. I did enjoy seeing the fall colors throughout the trip, particularly my hike in the snow among the colors on the North Country Trail segment—that alone was worth the trip. I paid for two night’s camping (at Pymatuming and Little Pine State Parks at $14 per night with electrical hookup) and two were free (the Wal-mart at Corry and a dispersed-camping site in the Allegheny National Forest).
That evening we watched “Inside Man”. This was the second time viewing the feature for me but I didn’t mind. It’s a fast-moving, convoluted plot and I picked up on things I had missed the first time through. Labashi enjoyed it too.

***********************************************

Thursday, 26 October-

This morning I woke a bit late after a very heavy sleep. With the heat off in Mocha Joe the temperature dropped to 32 degrees but I was very comfortable under Labashi’s zero-degree sleeping bag. After a light breakfast I drove to the nearby Jakes Rocks picnic area and overlook for a look about. With the sun now peeking through the trees I had a great view on my brisk walk to the overlooks and I jogged a bit to warm up. The view to the west was terrific. I could see the snow line on the hills above the lake; it’s about three hundred feet from the top and makes a very distinct line across the mountain. For some reason this area still has its leaves while just a few miles west there’s less color and a few miles east the most of the leaves are down already. I wonder if the lake has an effect. Given that the water is slower to cool, perhaps that has made a difference on these lakeside hills.
I decided I’d start winding my way toward home today though I’ve actually done very little of Route 6. I’ll just have to come back for that!
My route took me to the little town of Smethport where I noticed the Visitor’s Center had a small paper sign in the door—free wi-fi hotspot. Cool! I circled the block to get a parking spot close to the center but thought I’d check inside to see how this one works. I was greeted warmly by a half-dozen seniors sitting around talking. The Visitor’s Center is also the Senior Center, I soon learned. I asked about the wi-fi and the very nice senior center director said she didn’t know a lot about it but had been told to put up the sign just two days ago. I was welcome to come in and try it. Because it’s often a problem to find a power plug I prefer to access from Mocha Joe and said I’d give it a try and let them know how I make out. When I fired up the laptop it found four wireless transmitters, three of them unintelligible strings of numbers and one called “Donald”, all of them too weak to be usable. I took the laptop inside and I was ushered to the back of the building and into the computer/copier room and given a chair right beside the wireless router. That ought to be close enough! I plugged in and did indeed get a strong signal—but it was encrypted and required a password. The center director said the only way she knows to make it work is to give out her password. I suggested I’d get to the password screen and then let her type it in rather than give it to a stranger. She tried a few times and then just handed me the cheat-sheet. And that’s how I got on to the Smethport public wi-fi hotspot named (something like) “3B29560247135684” with password (something like) “2746984572139628”. I explained to the nice lady that normally the network id is something like “Visitor Center Public Hotspot” and no password is required, all a very simple thing to set up and easy to use. She was relieved to hear that and will contact the local folks to insist that it be re-done. Apparently the tech support guys around here don’t support a lot of public hotspots.
As I went about doing my blog update and retrieving my email, I kept hearing people talking about driving in the next room. Finally I overheard someone explaining that they were hosting a “55 Alive” driving course there. A few minutes later an older gentleman walked into the computer room I was using and up to a machine I hadn’t noticed before. He apologized for interrupting but said he had to test his blood pressure. He ran a magnetic card through the machine and a voice welcomed him and then prompted him through the blood pressure procedure. He told me the box is connected to a hospital but I’m not sure I understand exactly how this works. Apparently he’s on blood-pressure medication (since the machine reminded him to be sure to take his medication on time and in the correct amount) but I assume if he fails to have his pressure read, his health-care provider is alerted and a follow-up process initiated. I wonder what happens when he travels.
After I finished and logged off I had a very pleasant conversation with the center director. She has her hands full just running the senior center and it’s a bit much to also have to handle the visitor’s center function. I was interested to learn that just yesterday she had attended a tourism training class run locally by someone from Penn State. Apparently PSU runs these classes around the state to assist small towns in developing their tourism business. After she learned what I’m doing (just traveling around) she told me of her fond memories of camping at the lake (at Kinzua dam) for weeks at a time when she was a young girl. Apparently in those days you could camp along the lakeshore wherever you liked and could have your boat right there and spend your days swimming and water-skiing and just livin’ large.
I stopped in Coudersport at a sporting goods shop called something like ‘Potter County Outfitters’. I was impressed by the variety of goods in this little store and spent quite a while trying to figure out what all the trapping gear does. They of course had traps but they also had these pointy little shovels I’ve not seen before. They were only about three inches across the top of the spade but had about a 30-inch wooden handle and a metal hand-grip at the top. I assume they are used to dig a trap-set hole without disturbing the area any more than absolutely necessary. The shop also had a great variety of scents and scent-covering liquids and some specialized metal chain connectors but I don’t know what those would be used for. I would have asked but the clerk was busy with two other guys in the shop.
On the way out of Coudersport I noticed a police car following me and since I was in a 35-mile-per-hour zone I pulled over (“to use the cell phone”) when I got a chance in order to let him by to go after someone else. But he pulled off behind me. He just wanted to let me know my right-side stop light was out and was very friendly about it. He sure was a young whippersnapper, though. It’s odd how doctors and police officers are always supposed to be older than we are.
After Coudersport it was an uneventful drive down 44 to Little Pine State Park. I did stop at Cherry Springs State Park along the way so I could check out the astronomy field I’ve read about on the web. While the park’s campground is a poor one because it’s on a hill and there isn’t one flat spot I’d be able to park Mocha Joe, the astronomy field is another matter. The astronomy field has new roads, new electrical panels and about a dozen small concrete pads for telescopes. There are three small telescope enclosures, one a traditional metal dome, one a very unique fiberglass clamshell arrangement called an ‘Astro Haven’ and a more-traditional-looking shed with a sliding roof. The latter one has a four-by-four structure attached to the back. You walk in the regular-size side door, reach up to the roof line and unhook two metal hooks, then roll the roof right off the top of the building onto the four-by-four structure. The rollers are garage-door rollers and tracks. Inside are four electric outlets for all your star-gazing needs. You can stay overnight on the astronomy field for $4 or in the campground for $10 (if you are a PA resident). I really, really need to go up there to with my brother. We have a shared-ownership 8” Meade Dobsonian-style scope and he built a very slick little tracking platform for it. We’ve not had it out for a few years and it’s time to either use it or sell it. We had been thinking of a trip up to Cherry Springs for the Black Forest Star Party in September 2005 but the weather forecast called for overcast skies so we called it off. Given that Cherry Springs lies in one of the darkest areas east of the Rockies, the view on a clear night should be fantastic whether you have a scope or not.
Today, I left Cherry Springs and continued down Route 44 to Little Pine State Park, passing some very intriguing trailheads along the way; I need to come back here and explore. I had been to Little Pine just a few weeks ago but my purpose today was to spend some time on the shooting range. I found another fellow there but he was shooting at the longest-range targets and I at the shortest-range target and it was nice to chat with him a bit about problems he was having with his reloaded shells. I only shot 25 rounds before cleaning and oiling the pistol and putting it safely away but that gave me a good start. I now need to do some reading on the owner’s group for this particular model to (hopefully) improve my shooting and safety skills with it.
I then drove over to the campground and registered for the night, then went fishing. I returned to the dam outlet I had fished a few weeks ago because I had seem some nice trout there. Today the waterflow volume was quite different than last time and the water coming out of the outlet was now circulating counter-clockwise where last time it was a clockwise pattern. I didn’t catch any fish but once again got a good look at a nice-size trout following the lure in. This one took a lunge at the spinner and missed. Later, I had two hard hits on the lures- but I missed them.
That night I watched the extras on the ‘Nine Souls’ DVD. After watching the interviews with the director, I again watched the feature and now it made sense.

Lake Pymatuming, Presque Isle, Allegheny National Forest (posted from Smethport Senior Center/Vistor Center, Smethport, PA)
(this post covers 23-25 October)

Wednesday, 25 October-
This morning I woke up shortly after 0700 and after a breakfast of Panera’s Three-Cheese Bread and butter, I called Labashi to provide my latest plans. Yesterday was our 36th anniversary but wait—don’t panic--- we celebrated that over the weekend so we only mentioned it briefly.
I then continued east on Route 6 in on-again-off-again rain but I was listening to an excellent American Radio documentary special about Japanese animation and comic books and their impact on our culture. I’ll have to look into that. I had noticed that our local video store has built up quite a collection of anime’ and I thought that merely the taste of our local video store. When you go in to rent a movie during weekday hours, there’s almost always an anime’ playing on the overhead screens and there are now three entire eight-foot-wide racks of it. The American kids who are so fond of anime say (according to the documentary) it’s much more creative than US comic books and animation.
As I neared Warren I stopped at the PA Visitor’s Center and enjoyed my conversation with the nice lady working there. She provided the normal touring info and also mentioned a newly-opened Allegheny artists co-op in Youngsville which also happens to have espresso. I could not find the co-op but saw the espresso shop, which she told me was called “Mugs and Mugshots”. Now this is an interesting place. The word ‘mugs’ refers to coffee and the word ‘mugshots’ refers to one-hour photo processing. Then again, ‘mugs’ are faces to be photographed and ‘mugshots’ are espresso shots for your coffee. Doesn’t make sense yet? Then you need to walk in the door of ‘Mugs and Mugshots’. Ahead of you are two counters, each only about six feet long. On the left side is the espresso-and-flavored-coffees counter, on the right is one-hour photo processing. I LOVE small towns! Well, mostly I love them. In this case the espresso machine broke a few days ago and was taken out for repair. No mocha for me today. How about some photo processing? And, oh, by the way, as you are leaving you can walk through a door in the wall to your left which leads into the pharmacy. No kidding.
Anyway, back outside I found the arts co-op on the other side of the pharmacy. I entered and nobody was there so I just started browsing. After ten minutes or so I heard someone come in to at the counter at the back of the store and make a phone call. As I browsed up along the wall, I heard her suddenly say, “I’ll call you back, someone’s in here!”. Fortunately she held on long enough to say a customer was in the store— thank goodness. And thus I met the marketing director of the co-op (whose name completely escapes me). We had an interesting chat about the development of the co-op and about the main artists contributing work there. When she explained that the co-op was formerly a pharmacy, a little light went on. Aha—the owner of the co-op building is the owner of the pharmacy, the one-hour-photo counter AND the espresso counter. They are all in one contiguous building but there are three different storefronts. Cool. As I say, I LOVE small towns.
After Youngsville I drove on to downtown Warren, hoping to connect to the internet at the local McDonalds. My buddy at the visitor’s center had told me that’s the only place anywhere around to connect. I checked it out and learned something—it’s not free but it’s actually a decent deal. McDonalds has partnered with providers all over the country and here it’s Waypoint. There are over two hundred sites in Pennsylvania, all of them McDonalds. You have several payment options but basically you are paying $2.95 for two hours of surfing. That seems fair. Of course I know there are a lot of coffee shops which give you free wi-fi so looked up Warren on the Pennsylvania list and there is indeed one listed—Liberty Café. But I drove down there and the street is jammed and the whole area is very busy so I kept going. But it’s nice to know about the McDonalds option. I’ll have to print off the list and keep it with my laptop stuff.
After Warren I drove to Kinzua Dam and stopped at the visitor’s center. The center itself was closed but has a spectacular view of the reservoir and I wished I had brought my camera for the sun was peeking through and the view was great. I then drove on to the Allegheny National Forest ranger station some 8 miles east. Along the way I started seeing snow along the road here and there. As I was climbing in altitude, it wasn’t long until there was a couple of inches of snow cover everywhere but on the road surface. At the ranger starion I bought a map of the ANF and an interesting little book called “Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper”, the autobiography of E.N. Woodcock. In browsing through it this book reminded me of Dan Beard, one of the early writers about life in the outdoors and skills of the outdoorsman. I’m looking forward to this read.
After leaving the ranger station I drove to the nearby North Country Trail crossing of Route 59. I parked Mocha Joe at the trail head and took off down the snow-covered trail. Though it rained and snowed a bit just as I parked Mocha Joe, the clouds now miraculously parted and I had sunny skies for my walk in the snow. I soon happened upon a doe upwind of me and browsing along the trail. I watched her browse for ten minutes or so, then tried to sneak closer. She soon threw the flag and she was gone. And here was where I realized why this walk seemed so magical. Most of the trees still had their leaves and the leaves were in full autumn blaze. The intense reds and yellows had a backdrop of pure white snow as I’d look in some directions or the snow and deep-green hemlocks in others. Again, I need my camera!
I walked for a little under two hours and given the sometimes-slippery footing and the wet snow, I was ready for the van. The sun went in on the latter part of the trip but I had already had a great afternoon.
I then drove back across the bridge and turned down the Longhouse Road and up to Jakes Rocks. I then followed Forest Road 259, looking for campsites. I had learned at the ranger station that dispersed camping is permitted in the Allegheny National Forest but this area was snow-covered so I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to drive back the forest roads much less find somewhere to camp off the main road. But as I continued driving back FR259 I found several places which would work—I’d just have to decide whether I wanted to opt for electric heat at the Red Bridge campground (the only one open now).
I saw that FR259 would connect with FR120 and allow me to get back to the hard road. I took that and was soon at Red Bridge. But there was also a fishermen’s access there. As I stood looking, I saw—actually heard--- a fish jump so that did it—the rod has to come out! I only lasted about a half-hour at it and never got a bite but did enjoy it nonetheless.
I then checked out the campground and it didn’t seem all that special to me. The water system was out of operation in most of the campground though there was supposedly water to the showers. But twenty bucks? When I could drive just a few miles into the forest and camp for free? I’ll just have to do with the propane.
On the way back to the forest road I saw a handsome buck. He had just crossed the road and stopped in the clearing. He happened to be at a curve in the road so I got a good look at him as his eyes followed me. At first glance I thought he was a spike but then saw a branch on the right side—very cool!
Once I got to my camping spot for the night, I made a quick supper of chili and then spent the rest of the evening catching up on my blog. Around 2100 two pickups and a jeep came roaring by and the jeep turned off and bounced down a nearby mudhole-infested “road” then came bouncing back and chased after his buddies. I can’t imagine why that’s fun but then I’m probably not drinking what they’re drinking.

*************************************

Tuesday, 24 October-
I woke up late this morning, after eight. I wasn’t hungry so I was on the road by 0830. I had decided to head west on US 6 into Ohio, then take Ohio 7 north to Lake Erie. That took me to the lakeside town of Conneaut, where I caught Route 20 and then 5 to Erie, all in a light rain. Along the way I saw a sign “Elk Creek Access” and wondered what it was access to, so took the turn-off. This turned out to be fishermen’s access to Elk Creek—and it was busy. I’d say there were 30 vehicles in the parking lot, and the fisherman were practically falling over each other in the stream. It was raining pretty hard then but the fish must not have cared— and the fishermen didn’t either. I had lunch there and did see an interesting sight—Amish fishermen. Actually, they were probably Mennonites. They had the flat straw hats, beards-but-no-mustache, black bib-style pants--- and fishing waders and vests! One was carrying a big net— I’ve only seen those for salt water fish—so I’d guess the steelies are pretty good size there.
In Erie, I stopped first at the new Tom Ridge Environmental Center. I was disappointed there, however. The building is brand-new and everything is very clean but it just didn’t seem to have much of a story to tell. I did see one very interesting map. It shows all the shipwrecks around Presque Isle since 1800. And there are hundreds of them, most before 1800 but still quite a few up to 1920. The 1840’s seemed particularly bad. Otherwise, though, not much there of interest to me.
After the Ridge Center, I drove onto Presque Isle. Unfortunately, it was quite windy so I didn’t get to see many birds, though Lake Erie was impressively angered. I did take two short walks on the peninsula, the Pinwheel Trail and Trail A, each a walk of only a half-hour, the latter interrupted by a rain shower. Afterwards I drove into Erie and stopped at the Starbucks, then stopped at a Barnes and Noble bookstore looking for some spare-time reading material. I then drove east via Route 6 to Corry. I passed a Wal-mart and thought I might pick up some batteries and perhaps tomorrow night’s supper. When I came out it was raining hard and I decided that since I only had about an hour and a half of daylight and I don’t know what campgrounds are open further down the road, I’ll just stay the night at Wal-mart. The greeter said I was very welcome to stay and wished me a good night. That evening I watched a very strange Japanese film called ‘Nine Souls’. It’s the story of nine criminals who break out of prison together, car-jack a small RV and go on a road-trip in it, wreaking havoc (mostly on themselves).

*************************************

Monday, 23 October-
This week I want to get out into the woods while the weather is still pretty nice, i.e., temps above 50. It wasn’t until this morning that I decided I’d like to see Lake Pymatuming, then Presque Isle, then head more or less across the northern tier counties on US Route 6, perhaps to the end, perhaps only till I run out of time. I want to be back home by the weekend. While the avowed purpose of the trip is to see the fall colors, I’m also hoping to do some walking, see some migrating birds, do a little fall fishing, and maybe even get in some practice with the pistol if I can find a suitable public range along the way. Labashi said she had a good time on our little weekend trip but she had work to do—she has 500 daffodil bulbs due in soon and must prepare for them.
Today was a travel day. After loading up Mocha Joe I got underway around 1000 and drove up above Harrisburg to connect with US 322. Though the skies were cloudy I almost immediately saw fantastic fall colors along 322. As I neared Newport and Millerstown, the sun broke through here and there and lit up the mountainsides. It seemed as though heavenly violins should have been accompanying the shafts of light streaming down on my left even as I saw dark rain-heavy clouds ahead of me. This interplay continued until the Seven Mountains crossing, then colder temperatures, a dark cloud layer settled in and an occasional drizzle started.
At State College I looked for the mobile home park where we had our first home—an 8x35 trailer. The area where our trailer stood is now a strip mall. That’s probably not a bad thing—we couldn’t afford much (and lot rent was $42 a month there at the time) so it wasn’t exactly a country club. But it was clean and well-run and perfect for us. I hope the owners made a mint when they sold it.
Between State College and Philipsburg I stopped at a rest area for a pit stop and was surprised to find it start snowing lightly as I walked back to the van. I called Labashi from the van to keep my promise to let her know my plans as soon as I knew them and we laughed about my plans going awry already.
At Clearfield I stopped at “Guns R Us” (no kidding) to look around and found the specialized Tetra gun grease I’ve been unable to find back home. Yay!
My drive up 322 went slowly, averaging only about 40 miles per hour. I wasn’t in a hurry so it didn’t bother me but it did make for a long day. I finally reached Pymatuming State Park a little after 1700. It didn’t surprise me to find the park office closed but I was able to get a park map. But I was surprised to find the Jamestown campground closed. Since there are three campgrounds around the lake, I looked for a sign to direct me to one of the other campgrounds but to no avail. Since I had to pass the office on the way back I stopped there again to look more carefully for any info about campgrounds. All the brochure says is the campgrounds are open until late October. I called the office number hoping for a recorded message about which campground(s) are open but the message there only spoke of hours for the upcoming 2006 summer season!
I drove the ten miles to the Tuttle campground and found it also blocked off --- but thankfully they had a sign on the road block— go to Linesville (five miles back to the turn, then another five to the campground). But Linesville was indeed open. And I was the only camper. But it was a nice little campground. I had a view of the lake and a nice bathroom/shower facility. There were whitecaps on the lake and the rain was coming down sideways because the wind was blowing so hard, but I was glad to see it anyway. As I had neared the area I heard a weather forecast calling for one to three inches of snow so I elected to pay the extra $2 for electricity so I could run my electric heater and have heat overnight (I don’t run the propane heater overnight—that’s too dangerous).
That evening I watched one of the DVDs I had brought along—“Inside Man”, starring Denzel Washington and directed by Spike Lee. This is another one I thought Labashi wouldn’t like and again I’m proven wrong. It’s not a bad heist movie—there are enough new twists to keep it interesting.

Rainy days, Christian Sanderson Museum, (posted from home)
(this post covers 18-22 October)


*******************************************
Sunday, 22 October-

We awoke to a 45-degree morning at French Creek State Park after a very peaceful and quiet night. Despite all the people in the campground there’s little noise--- the way it’s supposed to be! After a quick breakfast of corn bread we had brought along from home we drove to the antique shops at Adamstown, PA. There we enjoyed a few hours of being entertained by the great variety and overall high quality of antiques. Fortunately for us, we aren’t collectors but we do enjoy looking at antiques and learning about them, particularly for their place in history. Labashi likes to look for decorating ideas and today had great luck. She especially liked an upscale country-French shop and is once again inspired by the beautiful objects.
By 1400 we were once again headed home and took the long way—a very pretty drive through Lancaster County back roads. Once we crossed the Susquehanna I once again turned onto the back roads and we wound along the river looking at the fall colors. Along the way home we stopped at the video store and picked up a few videos for this week and stopped for an ice cream at Iggy Bop’s in Manchester before winding our way home. Nice day!
That evening we watched ‘The Break Up’ with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anniston. It had a few funny moments but I’m not a fan of Jon Faverau-VinceVaughn improv. Too many cigars, too much ego.

*******************************************
Saturday, 21 October-

Today started out as a nice sunny day so we wanted to get away for the weekend. We weren’t too sure where we wanted to go but we did want to do some driving out in the country. I suggested we see what’s happening at Brandywine River Museum. Labashi countered by suggesting we go to the Chadds Ford area but not to the Museum since we had been there not long ago. She wanted to see if any of the small museums we normally pass by in that area would be interesting. I did a few searches on the web to find the other museums and we settled on the Christian Sanderson museum, mostly because it sounded reasonably interesting…. and the other nearby ones were closed for the season! We started late so didn’t get to the Sanderson Museum until 1430 and it looked from the outside like we’d only need an hour or so for our visit. But it turned out to be a gem, in fact a very spectacular gem. Chris Sanderson was born in 1882 and served as a schoolmaster for more than 25 years. Afterwards he developed a career as a lecturer and as a square-dance band-master in an era where square-dancing was very popular. But he was also a life-long collector. When he died in 1966, his house was jammed with all kinds of artifacts and papers—from mastodon teeth to autographs to parts from crashed aircraft to original Wyeth paintings and drawings. Chris knew N.C. Wyeth and we saw a fantastic, hilarious letter written in faux Pennsylvania-Dutch from N.C. to Chris. Chris played Rip Van Winkle in local theatrical productions at Longwood Gardens and N.C.’s letter addresses him as Rip van Winkle II and congratulates him on taking over for Rip Van Winkle. Andrew Wyeth used Chris, who he called ‘Sandy’, as a model in several paintings. And Jamie Wyeth also drew Chris. The Wyeth letters, drawings, and paintings are alone well worth the trip. But Chris had so many interests. The autograph collection is also in itself fantastic as are all the historical artifacts, many of them with hand-written notes explaining them. We stayed until the museum closed but could have used another hour. This is the kind of unknown gem we love to find. And it probably won’t last a lot longer. Since Chris died so long ago now, there aren’t many visitors any more who knew him. The museum association is having a hard time finding enough visitors to have the museum open just from 1 to 4:30 pm on Saturdays and Sundays and only part of the year. We’re very glad we found this one and we’ll be going back again to see the rest of it.
When we left the museum at 1630 we drove south on Route 1 looking for a restaurant. We found an upscale restaurant not far away called ‘The Gables’. We arrived too early for dinner but simply read for an hour in Mocha Joe until they opened. We then had a wonderful meal of exotic tastes. Labashi had a roasted-beet and asparagus salad accompanied by a tea-cup of a beet soup for an appetizer, followed by an Ahi tuna main course. I had an excellent mushroom soup then a frittata of chorizo and cheese topped by guacamole and onion-straws.
After dinner we drove back to the turnpike and then on to French Creek State Park for the night. Along the way we had to stop behind another car at some type of fire activity. I don’t know what it was but there were several fire trucks along the road and the side road was blocked off by traffic cones; apparently there had just been a fire down that road. The car in front of us wanted to turn that way so a fireman came over to talk to the driver and signaled us to wait. The conversation lasted a few minutes and I was getting impatient that I couldn’t go around when clearly there was plenty of room. The impasse finally broke and I drove only about a half-mile and there sat a pickup stopped in the roadway. What the heck was going on? The pickup then backed up toward me and angled off the road. And there in his backup lights lay the answer—a very large buck he had just hit was lying in the grass, its large rack propping up its head, blood on the hind-quarters. That pickup could so easily have been us. We didn’t stop since we saw someone coming out from the nearest house--- he apparently had heard the screech of brakes and the squeal of tires.
At French Creek, we were very surprised how crowded the campground was—we had to take the very last campsite and it wasn’t late at all. We finished settling in to our campsite by 2030 and went to bed at 2130 to read.

*******************************************
Friday, 20 October-

This morning was again rainy and I spent a lot of time on the web. The clouds finally cleared around noon but a front came through and it became very windy, even blowing the car-cover off the Miata. When the wind settled down around 1400 I went out and installed splash-guards on Labashi’s van in the driveway. I had bought the splash-guards as part of an accessories package last year and just got around to putting them on in preparation for the coming winter. The installation was easy but I did have to take off the rear wheels to be able to get a screwdriver on the mounting screws. They should help keep some of the salt-splash off the van’s body panels this year.
That evening we watched “Akeelah and the Bee”. We liked this little film which was obviously a labor-of-love for the director. And Keke Palmer is an amazing 11-year-old. Watch the additional features on the DVD to see her both as a regular hyper-kinetic, outgoing little girl and then as the reserved character Akeelah. Wow!

*******************************************
Thursday, 19 October-

Today was a rainy day and we spent most of it at our computers. I spent a lot of my time on Google and YouTube video websites looking at travel footage and at live webcams across Canada and across the state of Montana. Here’s a link to some Canadian weather cams: http://www.stormpost.com/cams.pl . And take a minute to look at this spectacular one: (click on the picture to expand it) http://www.banffgondola.com/live_cam.asp#. THAT will give you an idea of why I can spend hours and hours looking at webcams.
That evening we watched “Survivor: Cook Islands”.

*******************************************
Wednesday, 18 October-

I spent a few hours blogging and emailing this morning. Email gave us some good news on the fridge: our home insurance is going to cover the loss. With the cost of the new fridge our out-of-pocket expenses came to just under $1100. Our insurance has a $500 deductible so we will only be getting a little over half of it back but that will certainly help. I’ve been trying to think how we’ll deal with this type of potential problem on our next trip but haven’t settled on anything yet. But I’m going to have to do something.
In the afternoon I drove the Miata over to Pinchot park for a jog. The day was warm and very humid but the sky was darkening so I put the top up after parking at the Quaker Race parking area. My jogging loop took me through the woods to the Route 177 bridge then I circled back via park roads through the cabins to the main boat launch before taking the lakeside trail back to the car, a total of about 45 minutes. That evening we watched a PBS documentary about Jamestown and then the Project Runway finale. We were rooting for Michael but have to agree that his final collection was flawed.

‘Cache’, ‘The Proposition’, new pistol (posted from home)
(this post covers 15-17 October)

************************************************
Tuesday, 17 October-

This morning I called up Kel-tec and asked for any recommendations about first firing my new pistol. I’ve been reading quite a bit on the Kel-tec Owner’s Group websites (KTOG.org and KTRange.com) but wanted to see what Kel-tec had to say. It’s pretty simple— they recommended disassembling and putting a light coat of oil throughout using the sample MMC oil bottle that came with it before firing it (probably because they don’t know how long it has been on a shelf somewhere). I didn’t have any problems with the disassembly or re-assembly and was glad to get a look at the internals for familiarization.
Later in the morning on this rainy day Labashi and I drove to Smokey Bones for lunch. I had first gone to a Smokey Bones in Montgomery, AL while on business travel and loved their baby back ribs. Down there the ribs come out looking like they are covered in tar—but they are fantastic. We were excited when a Smokey Bones opened up in York but on our first visit the ribs were only ‘okay’. Today was our second visit and that hasn’t changed—the ribs and salad were both only ‘okay’ and service wasn’t very good. I think we’ll stick with the Texas Roadhouse across town for ribs from now on.
After lunch we hit the Gander Mountain and a local gun shop as I looked for a specific brand of gun grease recommended by several guys on KTRange but without success. We also stopped at Wal-mart where Labashi found a perfect-fit tray for our new Coleman Extreme cooler. A small, very-shallow tray came with the cooler but our recent traveling experiences tell us we need a bigger one and this one will do it. I was also looking for something for organizing supplies for the pistol and found a nice little six-pack soft cooler for $4 which does the job very nicely.
Our other job for the day was to gather prices for the groceries we lost when the fridge failed so I can submit a claim on our home insurance policy. That evening I gathered all the receipts and price info and sent an email in to the insurance company.
That evening we happened to catch a Frontline special on the air disaster at Tenerife in 1977 and follow-on discussion about the differences in airline safety since—a very well-done documentary.


************************************************
Monday, 16 October-

This morning I rode up to the periodontist to have him check out progress on the bone graft and dental implant. He whacked the implant several times with a metal tool and that didn’t cause any pain so that’s a good sign. I go back in two weeks for another look. If there’s a problem where the graft didn’t ‘take’ the periodontist says “it will tell us”, meaning I will develop pain at the site sometime in the next two weeks. There’s no additional charge if the graft has to be re-done but I wouldn’t be looking forward to starting the process all over again.
Upon my return home we spent a few hours wiring and assembling Labashi’s second light fixture in the bathroom, this a hanging fixture with really nice shades and bulbs which match the ceiling fixture we installed a few days ago. Again Labashi has done a great job of designing a new custom light from inexpensive parts and a bit of paint.
That afternoon I drove the Miata down to Gander Mountain and bought the P3AT pistol and supplies. On the way home I stopped at our local Giant and on the way out of the parking lot I managed to bottom out the Miata on a speed-bump. This is a higher-than-normal and oddly-placed speed bump that you cross at an angle when exiting from the north. I didn’t think much of it at the time but as I put on the car-cover I noticed I have a new problem—a small plastic body-panel under the right tail-light is now cracked. I remember it seemed a bit indented when I waxed the car the other day so I’m not sure the speed-bump incident had anything to do with it. In any case, I now have something else to fix.
That evening we watched “The Proposition”, an Australian western. It’s a two-thumbs-up movie which is being compared to Sergio Leone’s ‘spaghetti westerns’ of the Sixties (“A Fistful of Dollars”, “For a Few Dollars More”, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”, etc). We liked it and its violence wasn’t so graphic as might be expected. Look for the scene of four camels pulling a stagecoach…

************************************************
Sunday, 15 October-

Today was a blog-and-jog day. I blogged for a few hours then rode the Concours over to Pinchot Park for a little jog. I’ve not been jogging for quite a while but thought I’d see how it goes on the east-parking-lot-to-dam-and-back jog. The weather had turned somewhat cooler this weekend and today was airy and a little too cool for short sleeves but I soon warmed up. The jog went well and I timed it at 52:24, certainly not quick but ok. Afterwards I went for a little ride on the bike. I first zipped up to the Starbucks at Camp Hill and read the Sunday paper. On the way back toward home I decided to take the back way to York to the Gander Mountain store, a nice ride down the newly-redone blacktop on Lewisberry road. At Gander Mountain I checked out the inventory of hunting bows and tried one for size but it’s just too expensive. I wouldn’t mind having one to play with but I’m also not going to spend $300 on one. Back in the Seventies I hunted for a few years with a longbow (back in the days when Fred Bear bows were popular) and I’ve long thought I’d like to try a compound bow. I also checked out the gun inventory and was surprised to see they carry the Kel-tec P3AT pistol I’ve been interested in and it’s a bit cheaper than I expected. I’ve been looking for them on the web for the last few days and basically it comes down to paying about the same for one whether you buy one locally and pay tax or go the mail order route and pay shipping and transfer-fee charges by your local firearms dealer. Hmmmm.
That evening we watched a French movie, Cache’ with Daniel Auteuil (one of my favorite French character-actors) and Juliette Binoche (remember her in ‘Chocolat’, ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’?). This one is an interesting one but can be quite frustrating. If you are looking for a nicely-wrapped-up story with a beginning, middle, and end, this isn’t one of them! I’d call this an experimental film where the director specifically does not want you to know what’s going on--- though you don’t know that till the end. It’s said to be a film which you will think about for days afterwards. I don’t know about that but despite the frustration you feel when the credits first roll, I’m glad this movie was made. And of course Daniel and Juliette are worth watching anytime.

(posted from home)
(this post covers 12-14 October)
**************************************************
Saturday, October 14-
This morning Labashi and I worked on her bathroom-lights rehab project. We removed the old ceiling fixture and wired-in and hung a new one. We also removed two hanging (swag) fixtures and associated wiring and planned out the replacement parts we are going to need to assemble new lights from parts, some old, some new. Labashi spent the afternoon shopping for the just-right parts for the new lights. I spent the afternoon cruising in the Miata, top-down on this sunny but cool and windy day. I’ll be storing it away for the winter in a few weeks so thought I’d better enjoy it while I can.
In the evening we watched the classic Rod-Steiger-Sidney-Poitier 1967 movie “In the Heat of the Night” on TCM. Then the 1951 movie ‘A Place in the Sun’ came on as part of the TCM’s “The Essentials Series” and we watched that one too.

**************************************************
Friday, October 13-
I spent much of the morning on the web and in the afternoon I rode the Concours to the shooting range I had visited yesterday to check on a pistol course they have coming up (according to their online schedule). Unfortunately I ran into a customer-service-challenged salesman. Where the two guys I talked to yesterday were well-informed and helpful, this guy had an attitude right off the bat. When I mentioned the four-session course he didn’t know what I was talking about (though the course starts Monday) but did eventually find it on the schedule in the Training book (while his body language said “why are you bothering me with these stupid questions?”). When I asked about contents of the course, he said “whatever it says there in the book”. When I asked about price for the course, he emphasized the fact that a $50 deposit is necessary and is non-refundable no matter what. And then said they would cancel the course if they didn’t get enough people. When I asked about buying a certain pistol he said he couldn’t get the options I wanted. I asked about buying it mail-order and having it sent here as the Federal Firearm License-holder for registration and transfer to me. He first said they wouldn’t transfer a gun they didn’t sell. When I pointed out their web site says they have the service and he had just told me they couldn’t get the gun as I wanted it, he then said, oh, yeah— but there’s a $40 charge for the transfer paperwork. I left. I’m not going back.
The Concours, on the other hand, was a joy to ride today. The deceleration wobble is gone and the bike feels very smooth.
That evening we watched the movie “Prairie Home Companion”. We occasionally listen to the Prairie Home Companion while on the road and enjoyed this Robert Altman-directed film portraying a fictional last night of the radio show.


**************************************************
Thursday, October 12-
This morning I updated my blog and later drove the Miata to a local indoor shooting range and gun shop to check it out. I was interested in checking out this new range as a possible place to go this winter to work on my shooting skills. I enjoyed talking with two of the sales guys and they were very helpful in answering my questions. The range is brand-new, well-equipped, easy to get to, and though it’s in the country, not far from the Starbucks off I-83 at Shrewsbury. That sounds like a good combination, doesn’t it? Shoot a box of shells then go have a coffee and read the papers. Then another time have a couple of espresso shots at Starbucks and go see how that works out at the range.
That evening we didn’t have a movie but watched ‘Survivor-Cook Islands’ on TV. Nothing new there but you never know when an interesting twist will come up.

Visit with my brothers, a few days at Little Pine (posted from home)
(this post covers the period 4-11 October)

*******************************************
Wednesday, October 11-

Shortly after waking up (in Mocha Joe at Little Pine State Park) this morning I noticed a movement out the back windows. Four deer were grazing there and watching them made for a very pleasant way to wake up. I was surprised how quickly they browsed through the area. I don’t know what they were feeding on but they seemed to be scanning for something and only occasionally reaching down to feed. Two of them were only about a meter high. That seems awfully small for this late in the year. One of the larger ones seemed to hang back from the others but I soon saw why—it was limping quite badly. After breakfast I drove over to the park office and spoke with the ranger. The limping deer has been around for at least a year and seems to be getting by. They don’t know how it came to be injured.
With rain threatening today, I decided to cruise the state forest roads and get a look around. I used my Tiadaghton State Forest map to identify some overlooks on the forest roads and drove to them through a shower of leaves. The windy morning was causing the road to all but disappear under me in a carpet of bright yellows and reds. Shortly after topping out I saw six turkeys crossing the road ahead. Again the turkeys merely kept walking, even though I came within ten yards of them. As they went over the side I stopped the van and jumped out to get a look but they had already descended out of sight.
I stopped at a turnaround for a look at the map and at a set of maps of the Mid-State Trail. After a half-hour or so I stepped out of the van for a look around and was just thinking I’d probably not see anybody all day given that I was on a dead-end road when a pickup appeared. I spoke for a few minutes with the hunter who said he was just out scouting today since it was too windy to hunt.
I then drove to an overlook on Ramsey Road and it was a good one. It looked down on Pine Creek and the little town of Waterville. But off in the distance I could see heavy rain clouds. I then drove down Dam Run Road to Waterville and back to the park. I stopped at the shooting range and the archery range to check them out. The shooting range would be fun since it had six different distances and good benches. The archery range was very basic—just a grassy field with three stacked bales of hay— but better than no range.
I then followed Little Pine Creek looking for a place to fish but it’s very low and didn’t seem to have any pools. Then it started to sprinkle so I never did get any fishing in this morning. Around noon I headed for home and made it by 1530. At home, I immediately got out my mower and mowed the lawn under threatening skies. I had left on Monday knowing I really shouldn’t go without mowing the lawn but it had been a beautiful day and the lawn would just have to wait.
That night we watched ‘Lucky Number Slevin’. This was a second viewing for me but that’s ok, the story moves quickly and is told in a confusing manner. Also, when renting it I had selected it because I thought Labashi wouldn’t be interested in a violent movie and it turned out not to be all that graphically violent.


******************************************
Tuesday, October 10-

This morning I hiked south on the Mid-State Trail. This section is very different than yesterday’s. It was mostly side-hilling on a very steep bank above Little Pine Creek. I walked south for about four kilometers, most of it on rocky trail no wider than my hiking boots and covered in leaves. I didn’t really have any problems with it but picked my way carefully so I could avoid having to self-arrest on that steep bank if I were to slip. I turned around where the trail crossed a forest road and started climbing steeply—enough wear and tear on the feet for today! I flushed a grouse in that area and on the way back I saw five turkeys. The turkeys crossed the trail from left to right in front of me and about 20 yards ahead, climbing that steep bank with no apparent effort. They never appeared to want to fly—they just kept walking fast and maintaining distance between us.
Back at the campground a little boy of about six on his teeny-tiny little bicycle stopped as he passed by. He said “Hey, mister, did you hear the noise last night? That was a BEAR!” He went on to explain that a bear had been in the dumpsters last night. I thought it was probably a raccoon rattling garbage cans. But I did get a kick out of the wide-eyed look on the little boy. It reminded me of being his age and having a great fear of groundhogs (yeah, the FEROCIOUS ones). I have no idea how that came about. I was never attacked or threatened by a groundhog. In fact I had never seen one. But somehow the word ‘groundhog’ represented all the things-that-go-bump-in-the-night or, perhaps more correctly, the things-that-chase-you-down-and-eat-you night-monsters of childhood. To this day I have a strong visual of my view as I stood in front of my bedroom window one summer evening. I stared into our rural back yard as darkness slowly closed down the view. The fireplace at the far end of the yard was swallowed up and the darkening woods grew ever more ominous-- and I knew a death-swamp lay beyond that. There was SOMEthing out there… and it’s name was…….. GROUNDHOG!!!!!!
Fortunately for me, when Mom later learned of my fear of groundhogs, she pointed one out to me and I said something like “What? THAT little thing is a GROUNDHOG?” and that was the end of my being terrorized by groundhogs.
Anyway, back to the present: I got back to the van about 1330 and made lunch, then drove over to the park office to register for another night. On the way I stopped at the dumpsters to drop off my trash. There on the side of the dumpster was proof my little buddy was right --- muddy bear-paw prints! When I pointed them out to another camper who happened by, he said there are three of them in the area. If that’s the case, the park is not doing them any favors by allowing them to get into the garbage; they should install bear-proof dumpsters like we saw in the Rockies. I also drove to the store at Waterville to get some ice and supplies. When I returned I dug out my fishing gear. I had done a lot of fishing five years ago but none since. I’ve bought licenses the last two years but didn’t use last year’s at all and today was the first time fishing this year. Better late than never!
I fished for about two hours without catching any, then walked back to Mocha Joe to make supper. I had seen three trout following my lures and was very happy for the chance to see them even if I didn’t fool them onto the hook. Two were in the 10-12-inch range, the other about 14 inches.
After supper I headed back for some more fishing but didn’t have any luck or see any fish in the riffles downstream from the dam. As darkness approached it occurred to me that the bear had been seen last night not far from here so I stopped a little earlier than I had planned and headed back to the van. I lit a Kwik Kampfire and sat watching the flames until 2000, then fired up the laptop and watched ‘Lucky Number Slevin’ with Bruce Willis and Josh Hartnett. If you like action movies with plot twists and non-sequential story-telling, this one’s pretty good.

*************************************
Monday, October 9-
Today Labashi and I woke at my brother’s house at 0745 and Labashi suddenly remembered that I had a dental appointment at 0900 at my periodontist’s office an hour and fifteen minutes away. I’ve got to quit allowing them to schedule me on Mondays. They called on Friday to remind me but over the weekend I forgot all about it. In any case, I put the pedal to the metal in good ole Mocha Joe and we made it with five minutes to spare, time enough to get out the mouthwash and toothpaste just before my appointment.
My appointment was to uncover the bone graft that had been done earlier in the summer and add a temporary fitting piece so my regular dentist can put on a crown in a few weeks. The appointment only took about a half hour and I found Labashi happily reading away in Mocha Joe afterwards.
At home we unloaded Labashi’s travel gear and I gathered up some food supplies to head back out. I want to get out into the woods for a few days and Labashi’s busy with her fall gardening projects.
I drove north up US15 to Lewisburg, then White Deer, then turned off onto Route 44. I just picked out this route after leaving the house. I’m not sure yet where I’m going but the scenic-road dots of Route 44 called to me as I scanned the map. After Jersey Shore I followed 44 up into the Pine Creek Valley and on to Little Pine State Park. The draw is the Mid-State Trail—I’d like to sample a little of it.
At Little Pine I found a campsite and grabbed my daypack and started hiking north on the Mid-State Trail by 1630. The trail switches back up the mountain quite steeply but that was good. I’ve not been on the trail for awhile and could use a workout. I was a little surprised I was able to keep going most of the time and only stopped occasionally for a sip of water. By 1745 I knew I’d better be careful about oncoming darkness. I made it to the Spike Buck trail about then and had a discussion with myself about whether it was smart to take the unknown Spike Buck Trail or better to retreat down the now-known Mid-State Trail segment I had just come up. The former was a bit over-grown and not as well marked. On the other hand, it descended down a water drainage that was very evident. Even if the trail disappeared I could follow the drainage down to the hard road. So that’s how the ‘unknown quantity’ beat the ‘known quantity’—shaky logic. But it turned out fine. The trail didn’t give me any surprises and by 1845 I was back at the campground—a whole 15 minutes before dark.
I spent the evening blogging and then watched a movie I brought along because of these dark-early evenings—‘Jarhead’. It was OK.

*************************************
Sunday, October 8-
The Three Amigos got bored around lunch time today and went to the shooting range in the nearby Michaux State Forest. I’ve not been on a range in 30 years but managed to out-shoot both of my younger brothers. (But, hey, do me a favor and don’t ask them about it, OK? They may tend to stretch the truth a little and I wouldn’t want to embarrass them now that you know the real story). Actually, I think I came in third but it was a STRONG third.
Seriously though, I was surprised how well we all did. We had everything in the scoring rings at 90 yards (which surprised all of us—we didn’t have strong enough binoculars and couldn’t tell where they were hitting!).
After the shoot-em-up we returned home for an excellent roast beef dinner and some birthday cake for our 85+ year-old Mom.

*****************************************
Saturday, October 7-
Today we drove to my brother’s home about an hour away. My other brother drove down from New York for a weekend visit. Labashi and us three boys spent most of the afternoon catching up on each other’s news, looking at Labashi’s pictures from our trip and laughing quite a lot. That evening we went out to dinner for crab cakes then came back to the house and tortured my 19-year-old nephew with tales of what it was like ‘in the old days’ when we were his age. I’m not sure HE had fun but WE sure did.

*****************************************
Friday, October 6-
Today was a rainy day and we spent most of it on the road chasing down ‘stuff’. Labashi is in the process of designing new lights for the bathroom and after much research and shopping around located the right parts. We just could not find any ready-made fixtures we (actually she) likes so she’s ordering parts and we’ll assemble them. She had done this for our ceiling light in the kitchen and it turned out very well. Before departing on our trip she had ordered some globes and that was the prime reason for our trip today. Along the way we also dropped off a roll of film for one-hour processing and we bought a new cooler. The old 48-quart cooler is just a tad too small and isn’t insulated as well as we’d like. The new one is a 70-quart marine cooler and has much better insulation and the features we like (drain plug, good seal on the lid, food tray, and compartment divider). No movies tonight—we just worked at our respective computers all evening.

******************************************
Thursday, October 5-
Our new refrigerator was delivered this morning. We were surprised to see the delivery guys carry the old unit out and bring the new one in by simply running a 3-inch strap under the fridge. The two guys then each took three or four winds of the strap around their wrists and muscled it from there. We very much liked the idea of no dolly to beat up our stairs or walls but the heave-ho technique does depend on them to keep very good control over the balance of the fridge. But they did it like pros. When we complimented them, one of the guys said they do it this way six days a week so get a lot of practice at it. I can’t imagine.
That afternoon I received my call that the Concours was ready so Labashi drove me in to pick it up. I need to test more extensively but preliminary results are that I don’t have the deceleration wobble with this set of Avons; they seem very smooth right through the trouble range of RPMs. At home, I finished a job I had started earlier in the day- washing and waxing the Miata. I needed to do the waxing to fix a problem. When I had the clutch work done, I had parked the car under a pine tree at the garage and it had dripped sap in four places on the hood and trunk. I had used a little bug-and-tar (and sap) remover to take off the sap but the rubbing had left marks in the finish. I thought I’d try another application of Nu-finish before deciding whether I’d have to commit suicide over it. It came out well so that makes the decision easy.
That evening we watched the Extra Features diskette on ‘Lost, Season Two’. Nothing exciting there but it did remind us that they did some pretty interesting things this season.
It’s also interesting to hear the producers and directors talk to us about what they considered important or difficult to do this season.

***************************************
Wednesday, October 4-
This morning I did some email and blogging then we dropped off the Concours for its new tires and inspection tomorrow. In the afternoon I took the KLR out for a ride on this very nice day. I had put my float-charger on the KLR’s battery yesterday and had noticed its charge-state light had gone from yellow to green within ten minutes or so of hookup. So the charging system is at least working well enough to fully charge the battery when I don’t have the jacket liner on and cranked to max. I’ll have to rig up a way to monitor the charging system and do some reading about normal system voltage ranges to decide what kind of problem I have, though at this point I suspect a weak battery. The bike’s electrical system should support use of the liner. On today’s KLR ride, I went back to the cycle shop to ensure the mechanic does the best job possible tomorrow with the wheel-balance on the Concours.
That evening we watched three more ‘Lost, Season Two’ episodes to finish off the season. Now we wait another year for Season Three. I’m glad we do it this way, though, rather than try to catch it on television week after week.

Miata shifter, Fridge problems (posted from home)
(this post covers 2-3 October)
-------------------------
Tuesday, 3 October-
Bad news on the fridge. It has been running since 1530 yesterday but is not even cool to the touch inside this morning. We called the appliance shop and were given an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. But an hour later the tech called and said he had finished up another job earlier than expected and would be right out. His testing showed the compressor was running but not pumping coolant, either because of a bad compressor or a refrigerant leak. The former is a $500 fix, the latter a $300-400 fix. That doesn’t make a lot of sense on an eight-year old fridge so we’re abandoning ship. Anybody need a brand-new temp-control for a bottom freezer Amana fridge? It seems very odd that we’d have a double failure but I can’t blame the tech. I saw him jump the temp-control switch and the fridge started right up, including the compressor.
After power was restored back on the night of September 23rd, the fridge was running when we went to bed. It was not running when we got up but the upper compartment was cool and the freezer had ice so we assumed it was just in that part of its cycle. I can only guess now that the compressor pump had failed during the night, perhaps from the strain of bringing the fridge up to temp after its long sleep, and somehow that caused the temp control failure.
Labashi is not happy about this. She had spent weeks contacting the manufacturer and researching how to paint (and then painting) the fridge for her updated kitchen color scheme. She had found the right self-leveling paint that would stick to the textured surface of the fridge and a copper-color paint for the handles. She had added pigment to the paint and run a series of color-match tests to get it just right. It took two days just to put the paint on. And a few months later, when the copper color started wearing off the handle prematurely, she fixed that and figured out how to seal it with a clear over-coat to prevent any further problems. In the end, the fridge looked great and she was very happy with it. Now it’s dead.
We spent the afternoon shopping for a new fridge. At first the shopping didn’t go well at all. There’s very limited selection in bottom-freezer fridges. Worse, the one color she will even consider—bisque—is being phased out. (The new ‘in’ color will be bronze, we learned. Shh, don’t tell anybody).
We couldn’t just replace our Amana unit because it’s no longer made. The old unit was an in-between size of 20.5 cu ft and that’s no longer made. The 19 cu ft units look way too small and the 22.5 cu ft units are too tall. At one point it looked like I was going to have to start sawzall-ing cabinets and countertop. What a mess that would have been.
We then happened upon a two-vertical-door fridge of 22 cu ft. But we didn’t want an ice-water dispenser. The sales guy found us a GE unit with no dispenser and we almost bought it on the spot but we wanted to first check whether Sears had that design. We had been there earlier but had only looked at the bottom-freezer models.
And then a miracle happened. We were at Sears looking at the two-vertical-doors models and comparing to the bottom-freezer model. Labashi was frowning as she tried to decide whether to take the larger unit whose drawer-layout she didn’t like or live with the lots-smaller-than-we-had unit whose drawer-layout she loved. And there it was. In teeny-tiny print on the door sticker of the too-small bottom-freezer model was a note: this model available in 22 cu ft with dimensions x-by-y-by-z (and in color bisque). And x-by-y-by-z fit. And the unit was on sale, saving us $200 over others we were considering. And they could deliver in two days where the others would require ten days.
We celebrated by stopping by the brand-new Chili’s restaurant in York and picking up some fajitas for supper. This is one of Labashi’s favorite meals and one we like to do occasionally while traveling in the van.
That evening we watched two more episodes of ‘Lost, Season Two’.

---------------------------
Monday, 2 October-
Today I spent most of the morning catching up on my blog entries and the afternoon working on the Miata. The car problem was a bit frustrating in that it revealed that my local garage had not re-assembled the transmission shifter properly after replacing the clutch earlier this summer. I had noticed the problem yesterday afternoon when I began missing shifts, particularly the first-to-second shift. It was particularly galling given that I’ve not put 100 miles on the Miata since the service work was done. I first thought I’d just take it back to the shop. But once I read through several manuals I thought the problem was most likely loose screws on the plate that holds the shifter into the transmission and I wanted to see. I’m lucky the previous owner had bought not only a service manual for this car but also several very detailed performance-improvement project manuals. One of the projects involved replacing the shifter boots and that one provided good photos and directions for accessing and removing the shifter.
Once into the shifter mount I found three loose cap-screws just as I had expected. But as I tightened them down I found the shifter getting tougher and tougher to work. This shifter is an after-market performance product called a ‘short-throw shifter’ and I’ve never liked the feel of it. Now I know why. It was not engineered correctly. Where the stock shifter ball sits on Teflon bushings, the short-shifter kit places the ball on the end of a metal tube and depends entirely on liberal greasing of the metal-to-metal contact area for smooth operation. And the fit issue shows another engineering problem. Apparently it depended on the thickness of the gaskets to allow the shifter to move at all and now that the gaskets were crushed down, it was too tight. And my local garage guys simply left the screws a little loose to allow it to work. They didn’t anticipate that the screws would work their way out so quickly.
Given that running the cap-screws down would bind up the shifter, I decided to revert to the stock shifter. That’s another area where I’m lucky. The previous owner kept everything--- not only all the receipts but also all the stock parts that were taken off as performance and appearance upgrades were done.
I did run into some problems with re-installing the stock shifter but soon realized I was attempting to follow the drawings and directions for installing the short-shifter. Once I removed the non-stock adapter bushing and spacer, it went together easily and bolted down snugly. A short drive showed I had made a good decision—the shifting is much improved.
That afternoon the fridge-man showed up with the replacement temp-control for our dead refrigerator. The installation only took a few minutes and the fridge started up. It needs 24 hours to settle into its normal cycle. Cost of repair was $130.
That evening we watched a few more ‘Lost-Season Two’ episodes.
--------------------------

KLR trip to Canaan Valley, “Lost, Season Two” (posted from home)

(This post covers 25 September through 1 October)

Sunday, 1 October-
After my KLR adventure I was afraid I’d wake up with a cold today but all was well. I had taken a good hot bath and two rounds of 4000-mg vitamin C doses and that seemed to work. I took the Miata into town in the morning to do a little shopping and hit the local Starbucks. I spent most of the afternoon surfing the web and particularly enjoyed watching point-of-view videos of motorcycling in Taiwan done by a guy calling himself ‘Mordeth13’ (on youtube.com). This guy mounted a video camera in his helmet (just below his line of vision) and it works very well.
That evening we did a ‘Lost’ marathon, watching seven episodes. It’s still addictive, though not quite as well-paced as Season One.

Saturday, 30 September-
This morning I awoke to a light-but-steady rain and thought I’d sleep in and hope the rain went away. But I turned on the weather channel and learned the light rain would give way in late morning to heavier rain and thunderstorms. Then we’d have thunderstorms through the afternoon and evening and thunderstorms all day Sunday. That’s not what the weather prediction had been for this area when I checked yesterday! I decided I’d go East, perhaps across route 33 into the Shenandoah Valley which was not supposed to have rain.
Upon leaving the motel, I headed south to catch route 33 and almost immediately had freezing hands. I stopped at a country store in the next little cross-roads town (Harmon) but the only gloves they had were cloth work gloves. I then took 33 across the first mountain to Seneca Rocks, where I found bright-yellow heavy rubber work gloves (‘The Boss’ is stenciled on them in big letters). I bought them plus another set of hunter’s cloth gloves to serve as a liner (and I do like WV prices for some things: $4.99 for the rubber gloves, $1.40 for the hunting gloves).
With my cold-hands problem solved, I was good to go. And as I rode north along the South Branch of the Potomac the rain slowed to a drizzle. I had turned north at Seneca Rocks when I saw the mountaintop which route 33 east crosses lost in fog. I had been over that road on the Concours last year and the extremely twisty road was lots of fun that time but I didn’t think I’d like to see it this time in rain and fog.
All went well following the river up the valley through Moorefield and Romney. I took US50 across toward Winchester. But when I stopped for gas along the way I had a little surprise coming….the KLR would not turn over when I pushed the starter button. But, lucky me, I had stopped at a gas station on a hill. I was able to just drift down the hill and bump-start the bike. As I rode along wondering what the problem could be I realized that it could be my electric jacket liner’s 77-watt draw contributing to the problem. I turned off the jacket liner, figuring that perhaps the battery would charge. I was fortunate to find that air temperatures were rising as I approached Winchester and I could get along without the liner’s heat.
After Winchester I zoomed up I-81 and into Pennsylvania. I stopped briefly at my brother’s house in Chambersburg, thinking I’d use his voltmeter to check the KLR’s charging system but he wasn’t home. I just kept riding. In another hour I was home.
That evening we watched three more episodes of ‘Lost, Season Two’.


Friday, 29 September-
This morning I dropped Cherry Larry (my ‘beater’ van) off for a long-overdue body repair (a rocker panel) so it will pass its upcoming inspection. It’s still a very useful van for winter given it’s a four-wheel drive model. We can use it in when the roads are icy or have been heavily salted. We also use it for hauling building materials and Labashi’s gardening supplies year round. When I bought it, I thought the $10,000 I paid for it was high given the 50,000 miles on it but it now has 150,000 miles and still runs well.
Later that morning I packed up the KLR motorcycle’s bags and headed for West Virginia for a few days. I like to get down to the Canaan Valley south of Davis, WV in the Fall because of the brilliant colors down there. The Canaan Valley is the highest-floored valley east of the Mississippi and Fall colors tend to come by the first week of October. I was also hoping to ride to the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area just east of the Canaan Valley and perhaps camp at Red Creek. (Here’s a link explaining what’s special about the area: http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/RedCreekTrail_0000.asp)
But my trip turned out to be a little more arduous than I had envisioned. The main problem was that today was a windy and significantly cooler day (below 50 by the time I reached the Canaan Valley). This was the first time I had traveled any distance on the KLR in cooler weather and it soon became apparent that I had made three mistakes. Because the KLR has only a mini-fairing around the headlight and instruments, I didn’t have nearly so much protection from the wind as I have behind the Concours’ full fairing. My first mistake, then, was that I didn’t take along my heated gloves. On the KLR my hands are exposed to the oncoming air rush and body heat is sucked right out of them. My second mistake was not wearing my waterproof high-cut motorcycle boots. I wore low-cut hiking boots because I was planning on doing some hiking at Dolly Sods. That exposed my ankles to the air flow. And the third mistake was that I didn’t take along my waterproof inner liner to my mesh motorcycle jacket. I did take my electrically-heated jacket liner but soon learned that the airflow through the mesh sucked the heat out of me as fast as it could be produced. The inner liner would have stopped that air flow.
I did put on my rain jacket to help stem the loss of heat from my core and that helped but by the time I hit the Forties temps on top of Mount Storm, I was shivering and my hands felt numb.
At Davis I stopped at Blackwater Falls State Park’s lodge to see if they had a room but when I learned the rooms were $86 and $92 for a night I pressed on (after warming up a bit to get my hands working). I rode on down into the Canaan Valley planning to camp at a free dispersed-camping site we had found way out in the boonies on a previous trip in our van. But once there I had several problems. I hadn’t stopped for supper and had nothing along to cook. I was cold to the core. I had no firewood. And it was starting to rain. That made the decision easy— I’d zoom back to a (hopefully) cheapie motel I had passed on the way. That was an interesting ride. I was on one of those extremely twisty West Virginia back roads where they only put down one lane of blacktop (so you have to pull over if you meet anyone coming the other way). That makes for a road with a lot of gravel on it so you have to be extra careful, particularly in blind curves where you might be meeting an oncoming car in the turn. You also have to be careful of the dropoff at the edge of the road— they’re not much fun on two wheels. The good news was that it was now dark so I could see the occasional oncoming pickup by the flare of its lights before I actually saw the lights. The bad news was the rain was blurring my vision a bit through the visor and deer were on the move. Three deer crossed the road very close in front of me and I saw another five or so right along the road (the Canaan Valley is known for this).
Despite all my travails I made it to the motel in about a half-hour and was very happy to get a decent room for $55. By the time I unpacked and settled in the rain had stopped. I walked to a nearby upscale restaurant and had the memorable experience of being seated, then ignored for a good twenty minutes while my waitress obviously struggled to serve the dozen-or-so other people in the restaurant. It turns out (I later learned from the motel manager) there’s a service-help crisis in the Canaan Valley here in the shoulder season and I was being served by one of the cooks! But I was just happy to be warm and know I’d eventually be served and I had a nice, warm room waiting for me.

Thursday, 28 September-
This morning I took my Concours down to the motorcycle shop for a routine inspection and rear brake pad replacement. But it turned out my cursory checks of the rear tire had been too brief. Though the tire’s outer edges have plenty of tread, I had less than 2/32 over the wear bar in the center of the tread. The tech also found a problem with the front brake lever failing to activate the brake light. His quickie test showed no current flowing to the switch so that would mean I’d have to reschedule for a wiring trace. Back home I spent an hour or so researching current tire options for the bike and decided to stick with the Avon Azaro ST brand I’m currently running rather than switch to the Michelin Pilot GTs that some Concours owners are now trying (according to the Concours Owner’s Group website). I’ve been mostly happy with the Azaros but they tend to have a problem with inducing a deceleration wobble between 50 and 40 mph. I was able to tune out most of it by adjusting the suspension but would still occasionally feel it. According to the COG website the Pilot GTs don’t have that problem (because of a stiffer sidewall) but there are mixed reviews on their performance in rain. I think I’ll just stick with a known quantity for now. Since I need new tires about once a year, I can give the Pilots a chance next time if the consensus turns in their favor.
I thought I’d try to locate the wiring problem and soon found that the brake light would come on momentarily if the lever was only pulled part-way in. That tells me the problem is in the switch after all. I contacted the shop and had them order a new switch to install next week when the new tires come in. I also managed to get a 15% discount on the tires by shopping around then asking if they wanted to price-match and they readily agreed.

Wednesday, 27 September-
The fridge-guy called this morning to let us know we can’t get the repair done until next Monday. Bummer. Though we lived out of our cooler for the better part of two months on our trip, it’s a bit of a pain to use in the house and to keep supplied with ice. But we are relieved to know we don’t need a new fridge. It will cost us about $150 for the repair but that sure beats $1000 for a new one. And since this is the one Labashi painted to match the kitchen upgrade work she did last year that would have been even more of a hassle to do again.
I drove the Miata into town to enjoy the pretty day while chasing down some more baking soda and some activated charcoal to address the remaining odor issue with the fridge. We had thoroughly washed down the fridge interior with baking soda and water and then left pans of baking soda inside to start the odor-cleansing process. Today we changed the baking soda and put out pans of activated charcoal in the fridge and now we’ve opened the doors and put a fan in front to circulate the air over the pans.
I also spent a few minutes replacing the headlamp bulb on the Concours in preparation for inspection tomorrow. The low-beam filament had gone out just a few days before we left for our trip out West.
That evening we watched several more episodes of ‘Lost’. Our reaction so far is it’s not as good as Season One—it’s a little too strained. On the one hand we like the surprise plot twists but sometimes it feels like we’re watching a soap opera.

Tuesday, 26 September-
I took the KLR out of the storage barn and took a longish ride to get the battery charged up after sitting for so long. I’ve not ridden it much this summer but will remedy that soon by taking a multi-day trip. In the afternoon the refrigerator repair guy came by to check out our still-down fridge. He pulled the temp-control and used a jumper to bypass it and the fridge started right up. Unfortunately, it’s a bottom-freezer model and has an uncommon temp-control so we will have to wait to have one shipped in and then reschedule for the install.
That evening we started “Lost, Season Two.”

Monday, 25 September-
This morning we took care of some after-trip-cleanup chores with Mocha Joe. In the afternoon I met a friend from my former workplace for a motorcycle ride. He had been given a motorcycle which had been sitting for several years and he now has it in operating condition. We took a little shakedown trip, hopefully helping him prep for his upcoming motorcycle safety course. I also had a chance to ride the bike and it’s in remarkably good running shape for sitting so long. The previous owner had put some Sta-bil gasoline stabilizer in the tank and I believe that made a big difference when it came time to get the bike running again.
That evening Labashi and I watched “An Unfinished Life”, a Robert Redford-Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Lopez movie directed by Lasse Hallstrom. We enjoyed the scenery of the West (actually of the Canadian West) and the story was okay, though the plot was a little too predictable.