Beginning the journey west through Pennsylvania

There are few moments in my life that make make me super sentimental. I don't mind admitting that heading down the driveway on Friday morning was a huge moment for me that made me pause at the end of the drive and tell the kids, "This is a monumental moment for us. We're doing something really big here." We said a prayer for travel and left for our journey.

The general itinerary for our trip will take us as far north as Billings, Montana; as far west as Idaho Falls, Idaho; and as far south as New Orleans, Louisiana. We didn't include the west coast as far as the ocean because we just didn't have enough time in six weeks to go that far without having to keep moving relentlessly every day. That wasn't the objective of the trip.

Leaving West Chester in a simply westerly direction, we meandered through Marley's favorite countryside near our home, Amish Country. Since some of you aren't from Pennsylvania or haven't experienced the Amish firsthand, I would like to take the opportunity to give a few snippets I've learned through direct contact with their society over the past 16 years.

The Amish are wonderful people. They are joyous, kind to a fault, private and family orientated. However, they are also often cruel to animals (they are constantly being shut down for running puppy-mills), they are insulated (they must shun their children who move away from the faith and cannot make close friendships outside of their faith once they are baptized), and grow up in a kind of ignorance that leaves them very few choices in life other than the one they were born into. Because of their long history of not accepting converts to their faith (a bit fascist) they have many genetic issues and their child mortality rates are problematic. But all that being said, they make beautiful quilts, delicious foods, and are never idle. Marley loves farm animals so she's in heaven in Amish country so I figured that she would appreciate leaving southeastern Pennsylvania along Route 340 (The King's Highway) to Route 30 Old Lincoln Highway that extends from Philadelphia to San Francisco, California.

We stopped at That Fish Place in Centerville which is a huge pet store and a destination in itself! The store has the largest fresh and salt water fish for sale in central Pennsylvania. There is a sting ray petting tank and a garden of salt water creatures like anemones, live coral, and urchins. They have all kinds of friendly animals to pet as they were all hand raised. It's such a lovely place and best of all, it's free! We spent time just looking at everything and Cole said it was better than a museum because since there are prices, you can see the name of everything and how valuable it is based on how much you'd have to pay for it!

Traveling along Old Lincoln Highway, we eventually went through the charming little towns of New Oxford and Gettysburg. The towns are picturesque and best of all, filled with German-style barns which are my favorite. I have included a picture of one that I didn't see until Cumberland County, but it is typical of the kinds of barns all around central Pennsylvania. I love them because they have such interesting windows and a covered porch-like feature for the animals to be outside even if it's raining. They are just lovely and they are literally everywhere.

I wanted to pop into a rinky-dink place where I brought the kids when they were toddlers. It's called Land of Little Horses and it is so friendly and engaging that it's worth the small admission fee. Miniature horses put on a show complete with costumes and tricks. Some are allowed to walk around the park all fat and sassy from being hand fed from the children who buy copious amounts of food to feed them. Marley was simply thrilled to watch the show. It was so campy and ridiculous that I couldn't help but have a great time. What's most bizarre about the Land of Little Horses is that it sits directly next to the Gettysburg Battlefield. It's a weird contrast. At the end of the the Land of Little Horses' drive is a monument to the first soldier killed at Gettysburg on July 1, 1864 at 7:30 am (just in case you were feeling good petting all the sweet little animals).

Traveling from Gettysburg to Carlisle, Pennsylvania through Biglerville, we rode up and down the wave-like roads through the enormous apple orchards and up into the hill country. It was a perfect day of little towns and puffy clouds. Biglerville is the home of a large apple museum that we decided to pass up. We were tired and hustled to the Hotel Carlisle (for an extra ounce of fun, check out the Hotel Carlisle on Expedia and look for reviews about the hotel. Mine is there. I just love that rickety place!) Most people are creeped out by the hotel. The kids and I just loved loved loved the pool! Cole takes great underwater pictures!

The next morning Cole requested stopping by an interesting place we saw on the side of the road. It is called the Army Heritage Museum. What's also easy to guess is that it's free. (Anyone want to sign up after seeing the sterile / blood free but impressive exhibits???). Cole had so much fun. Marley was a good sport about it too.

It was outdoors and there were hands-on experiences such as touring a completed WWI trench, a barracks from WWII with props, hands-on boot camp obstacles, temporary housing during the Revolution and the Civil War, helicopters and the barracks of the Vietnam War including a lookout house that towers over palm trees. It was all super interesting...and super disturbing if you have a good imagination about war.

We left for the Laurel Highlands and I told the kids about the landforms all around us. If you imagine Pennsylvania as being like a rectangular carpet, imagine that someone slides the two ends toward each other; the center will form ridges. The mountains of the Laurel Highlands are very pretty. The greenery and the farms were idyllic. Now, I don't want to bore anyone with talk about restaurants but I wanted to give a round of applause to Eat-n-Park. This is a Western Pennsylvania "local-chain" and they always give such great service, decently healthy food, and make cookies that smile back at you. All chains should use them as a template. :-) The kids are shown here with their smile face cookies. I bought a cookie sticker for my car. It's zero calories and fat-free that way!

We followed the Connemaugh River to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Now, there is a lot to say about Johnstown and my interest in the town, but I will put it in the simplest form I can:

On May 31, 1889 a dam broke north of Johnstown. The dam was used to create a lake for the Pittsburgh elite (Carnegie and Mellon to name a few) who had summer homes near Johnstown. They did not want to pay for maintenance on the dam and when there was a big storm that late spring, it finally gave way. The wall of water that raced down the valley was 40 feet high and was full of debris, animals, and corpses.

To add insult to the incident, the wall of water crashed into a BARBED WIRE FACTORY (!!!!) and continued to pick up whole houses, carriages, trains, trees, and people who were now imprisoned in the wire. When it finally hit Johnstown, (the city sits like a spoon with mountain ridges all around) the wall of water smashed into a large mountain and back washed with another tidal wave slapping down on the city.

The debris was caught in front of a stone train bridge and then a coal stove ignited the fuel from the factories and the whole enormous pile of debris ignited, creating a funeral pyre. People were trapped in the wire and the fire burned for 2 days. It was a huge American tragedy of its day with 2,209 people dead within an hour of the disaster (2,995 people died on 9/11).

The Flood Museum was created in the Andrew Carnegie Library that I noted was built in 1891 (I wonder what BP will build?). The museum is small but really well done. A movie about the whole day of the flood is shown in the upper library in a comfy little theater. There is a diorama with lights and sound effects that is entertainingly informative. I loved the stereoscopes to view the aftermath, the wall of debris and the Oklahoma house that was preserved from the recovery homes built for the survivors. Cole is shown above looking at the wall of debris. It is an example of what you'd see coming toward you at 40 miles an hour...only 40 feet high.

We then walked on the World's Steepest Incline Plane a few blocks away. The kids were genuinely freaked out! Yay! The incline saved lives in 1936 when the people of Johnstown had to escape another flood. I think the picture of the incline speaks for itself. It's a whole lot of freaky. At the top of the incline we got a ice cream cone and sat looking at the view on a tall platform. A very rotund show-offy 11 year oldish boy was standing on a telescope stool and leaning deep over the bars to spit down the mountain. I almost fainted watching him! His 20-something siblings were in "charge" of him.

He was destined to live I guess because, by all the laws of physics, his fat little head should have weighted him over the edge like a ship's anchor. He was so obnoxious that I wasn't sure if perhaps this was the plan of his older siblings all along! I was only grateful that he wasn't on the descending trip to make my mommy-nerves more edgy.

Johnstown was such a great little town as I remembered it. Larry and I had been here about 10 years ago. Since then however, it has really been hit hard economically. The center of town, once pristine and colorful, is now empty and overgrown. The weeds, the loiterers, the drug rehabilitation center across from the park, and the deserted streets are just depressing now. There are no weekend restaurants, no interesting little shops, and certainly no places worth visiting apart from the Flood Museum and the Incline Plane. Johnstown is going through yet another unfortunate change.

Tomorrow we head for Ohio and for the first time I will see one of the Great Lakes. It's a big deal to me. I will have driven the farthest directly west I have ever been by car. It will be several days until I can post again. Enjoy!