Is VA really for Lovers?

We have now entered Virginia and my thoughts turn to George Washington Thomas Jefferson and Pharrell Williams, famous folks from VA that wear interesting hats! Arrived at Misty Mountain campground late in the evening and since it was dark we couldn't really tell what it was like but in the morning we were pleasantly surprised at how charming the little campground was: fishing pond, panning for gold mine, basketball court, stage for music, corn in the hole game area, and even a fenced in dog park. 

Fishing pond but I don't have a pole...maybe I can catch a duck...foie gras for supper anyone?

Lots of big rigs here!  We rarely see tents at any of these campgrounds or state parks, one tent to every two dozen RV's.  Camping has gone the way of trailer living. 

 It was Halloween celebration at the campground the weekend we stayed, with prizes for the best display of Halloween scare. Many of the campers had more decorations than I've ever done even at my own home! This is just a smattering, many of the sites were all decked out.

Not sure who won but the kids were having a blast going for wagon rides behind the tractor and everyone had glow in the dark necklaces.  We were the sad sacks without display, and just like back at home, didn't have a trick-or-treater (What the heck? And now we don't even have a long driveway to walk down. Maybe WE were the scary neighbors that the kids were afraid of!)

Sunny and 65, we decided to check out downtown Charlottesville, walk around on the pedestrian mall and admire the beautiful university.  Bopped in and out of the stores admiring more art and craft and other random unique shops and then a serendipitous moment; Doug recognized an old friend of ours sitting in the center of the pedestrian area!  My old neighbor Tara was downtown wasting time until she met a friend for lunch. This is Tara as I remember her as my neighbor. We had the C&T Fair every summer complete with pet parade (we each had lots of pest, including brother and sister raccoons named Rocky and Tinkerbell) and built load of forts in the woods. 

We knew she lived near this area since she gave us recommendations for places to visit but we hadn't made arrangements to meet. After a quick chat we agreed to meet later in the week for pizza and beer. Yeah, more FFB! She brings her adorable Pomeranian dog most places so we had a chance to meet Wicket (so cute ya wanna squeeze him right up):

 Tara recommended a stop for Chinese dumplings (best ever) and then wandered town some more to window shop and like a moth to the light I was drawn to the elaborate window displays at the Caspari paper goods store! It made me feel at home as I thought my buddy Roger had decorated the place (anyone who knows him will get what I mean).

There was even a bird (not in this photo) but his name wasn't Percy...this isn't Percy but nice to look at:

The pedestrian mall was bustling with people and at one end was a huge covered stage area. Adjacent to the arena was a large chalkboard displayed like a memorial wall.  Cool idea but there wasn't any chalk to write with and it didn't seem like anyone was erasing anything to start fresh but rather people were writing on top of each other's comments.  It was just random words strewn all over. I really didn't even stop to read much of it since it was all a bunch of chaos.  

Now I'm jumping ahead of myself by showing you our glimpse into Asheville, NC but I want to show you what Asheville did for their chalk wall, which was also a disguise to hide an empty parking lot.

This wall had a purpose.  It is a fill in the blank to finish the sentence, "Before I die...". The answers were fascinating and diverse and thought provoking with a few witty comments here and there.  

There was a neat and tidy chalk box and a person named "Happy" that took care of the chalk.  

It explains that Happy is the "Wall Angel" who is the chalk keeper and friend.  "Meet HAPPY our wall keeper. He reminds us daily to always remember those who serve. Remember our vets, remember to give and receive.  One love. (thirdmessenger.com)  Then another poster tells about the purpose of the project (I wrote below what it says):

Before I Die is a Public Arts Project as part of a global movement in opening communities to the conversation that brings dying into daily living.  A wall for sharing intentions for things that matter most in your living--LIVING FULLY. 

And then it goes on to explain how this project is part of a global project to cause people to pause and reflect on their own sense of dying and what it can teach one about how to live. I stopped to read almost every posting.  And happened upon this:

And so this did cause us to stop, read, reflect and write. The difference of the wall with a purpose vs. just a random wall to write anything on...interesting! And how apropos that we happened upon this just as a young woman named Brittany Maynard was making the decision to die with dignity in the face of her terminal illness.  A jolt for thoughts of what we each think is important, and more importantly, not to impinge our ideas on anyone else.      

Every time we hit a new city we have to "re-find" everything. Even a simple task such as getting groceries can end up taking us a couple hours.  Today was one of those days. How hard can it be you say, just ask Siri.  Ahhhh, I did, and this is how it goes...we pull over to set GPS on car to Siri's recommended grocery store and start to drive; arrive at first grocery listed but it was really a sleazy liquor store/convenience store and probably money laundering site so we set GPS for next store, drive, drive, drive some more and second grocery was all boarded up, paper on the windows (guess they were really the money laundering grocery), set the GPS again and drive, drive, drive, and the third grocery was really just a gourmet wine, cheese, and cracker grocery (when I really need milk, eggs and Kleenex). Drive more and finally, on the fourth attempt, we found a small grocery (with the kind of isles the you braise butts as you bend for the bread). There was one check out lady and one bagger and I thought they'd suffer whiplash they snapped around so quickly to look at us and every customer that walked in, as if we were from Wisconsin or something. Maybe they used to own a bar in northern WI...someplace like Hurley, where a "newbie" would only walk in during a) hunting season, b) snowmobile season, or c) Packer game night. Just some random photos of goodness--yummy lunch stuff. 

And then we tooled around the UVA campus.  Beautiful, everything here is sprinkled with white columns.  

And many houses around town all have columns. Everything on the straight and narrow here, but of course, the University of VA was founded by Thomas Jefferson, thus the Jefersonian architecture.  But what we didn't know about Virginia was the amount of wineries!  What does VA wine and polo have in common? Find out in the next post!

  

     

Moving along in History

The town of Gettysburg, PA beat out Baraboo by three slots as "best small town in America" as ranked by Smithsonian magazine in 2013 (oh yeah, I bet our flower baskets are better than your flower baskets). Baraboo received the coveted #4 slot..."Yeah! We're number 4, we're number 4!" For curiosity sake and since it has been a long time since we've both been to Gettysburg (we both remember visiting with our family back in the 70's) I wanted to make a stop to check out the competition.

We started out at the Gettysburg National Park Visitor Center which is quite spectacular. The museum (22,000 sq ft) was  built in 2008 by Kinsley Construction (I used their photo below so thanks KC).  I imagine this was all in anticipation of the 150 year anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg this year. 

They start the visitors out Disneyesque style...furbling through a line to enter a movie theatre to watch a 20 minute movie.  It is a superb movie, narrated by Morgan Freeman (he could narrate an episode of South Park and make it seem like an epic tale of adventure and triumph) and I was all teary-eyed...yes, I know I cry at the Folger's coffee commercials but Morgan Freeman's voice and melancholy music will do that to you.  Then the crowd is herded to view the cyclorama, a 377 ft long and 42 ft high circular painting which I remember seeing when we came to Gettysburg back in the 70's. The painting has recently been restored (2003-08 for $13 million) to it's original colors and now includes narration and special effects such as strobe lights going off and the sounds of gunfire and cannons exploding (my mind raced to Pirates of the Caribbean ride and how this might translate...take a journey through the ravages of war, watch the men writhe in pain as a lead bullet tears open their chest and legs are sawed off without anesthetic...it's only a reality show away).  When the painting was originally displayed in 1883 the dimension of the painting was enhanced by staging life size objects corresponding  to the painting (which is also included for this display). For instance if there was a stone wall in the painting real stones would jut out of the painting to continue the illusion in perspective.  It is all a bit was a bit theme park-like but the painting is absolutely magnificent.    

The round part of the building houses the cyclorama...reminiscent of a building at Circus World but without the elephant smell. The poster below was an advertisement for the cyclorama when it went on display in 1883--look at the cool font.   

The cyclorama spits you out to the doors of the main museum which was a rambling display of artifacts and photos and letters and a bit of a reflection of the multi-tasking attention span of our time. If you read all of the text it all would take a little over a year.  In the beginning I started reading the outside wall of fascinating little known facts about key figures in the battle (like Grant received a ticket for riding his horse too fast in DC, the rabble-rouser, or in his case rebel-rouser) and realized after half an hour later I hadn't even enter the museum yet. There were little buttons to push to hear more about a certain battle or hear commentary 20 feet apart so I'd start to hear one tale and then it was over powered by the start of another pre-recorded story, set to high decibels to accommodate the golden demographic attending. It reminded me of being at an airport and all the gates are announcing the departures at once.   

The artifacts were vast and after a while some of it became overwhelming...the desk in the room during the signing of....I was just waiting for the display of the crumb found in the back of the drawer that was in tin of the bureau upstairs in the bedroom next door to the house that General Lee slept in while he was on his way to the signing of the....everything is history, part of a story of the past, so how much of it do we cherish behind glass, with a foam core explanation? 

Military uniforms...who wore it best????

So after the museum tromp we wanted to check out the downtown to see how it compares to Boo. And what do my cotton candy eyes spy but the Pink Cupcake. No brew but lots of FF and couldn't leave without snarfing down cupcakes--which I know, I know, is such a fad cuz they're really just expensive pieces of cake, but who could turn down a salted caramel dark chocolate cupcake???

And the comparison? Is Baraboo really three notches below? I dare your Mayor to out committee chair our Mayor! Well, first of all, it's hardly a comparison. Gettysburg has over a million tourists a year pass through the National Park, which has just a bit more historical significance than a bunch of tightrope walking, tiger taming, fire eating folks that had more tattoos than Elvis had pills (that's a really old reference children so just look it up--and I could have said "Carter had peanuts", you can look that one up too). Baraboo would only get that many people visiting if a Packer player was in town, to give away free brats, a beer, and supply of ammo for the upcoming hunting season. 

But I must say, the town is adorable, centered around a round-about and tree lined streets. Cute shops, lots of restaurants, fancy boutique hotels, street art, flowers...no banners, what, no banners? One mark off! It has all of the charm but quadruple the traffic and people and nobody had a dog in their shop, at least the ones I visited. Two marks off! I don't have any good photos but you get the idea: 

We did stumble upon a fantastic gallery that carried several of the same jewelry artists I carried through the years at Cornerstone, except this gallery had one of everything the artist made, maybe two!  I don't know how they carried that kind of inventory.  Everything was impeccably displayed and very tasteful but it was sterile, no cards about the artists and all under glass and no prices showing...what is it with hiding prices, like it's some special secret? (Oh, but if I let you see the price you will know that this item actually costs money, and if you think it costs money you may get discouraged and leave the store but if I keep it a secret you will fall in love and buy it because you have fallen in boundless love and will sell crack out of your Subaru CrossTrek to purchase this fine trinket.)  If I can't see how much it is I don't even want to ask, and I know there were affordable items in the case. Who started that annoying habit?  

 Funny thing, I kept running into the same friend along the way. He gives great advice:

"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."

Always the delightful tourist guide.

Drove past some of the battlefields and monuments as we headed out.  We saw an interesting tag line for one of the restaurants, "Dine on the Battlefield". Like you want to imagine the horrendous battle in your mind while you're eating??? So the underlying idea is..."Enjoy your steak tar tare as you imagine men getting shot as you dine", or "enjoy our homemade blood sausage and fingerling potatoes on the same ground that John Brown lost some blood and his fingers", good grief, do I need to make that into a television episode too?  Admired some of the battlefields on the way out of town, without eating. 

We made it late at night to Virginia, just outside Charlottesville in a cute little mountain town of Crozet (no "t" sound, now we're getting all french-like, oui, oui...well the state tag line is, Virginia is for Lovers).  

They Say You Want a Revolution

Leaving Max to fend off the hoard of Sunday Walmart shoppers in the King of Prussia, we are off to visit Valley Forge and fill our history coffers with the Revolutionary War.  
We decided to take a bike tour of the park since the weather has been quite beautiful and we were hoping the pedaling challenged folks would refrain from attending. However, this tour encapsulated again the downside of "group tours".  The tour was scheduled to start at 10:30 in front of the visitor center.  Easy enough...nope!  One couple had their bikes out back and had to go get them and bring them to the front. While another couple dashed up at the last minute to inquired with the guide if they could make the tour on single speed bikes.  "Yes", the guide assured them, "the hills are very rolling and this isn't a race and we will take our time".

So by the time we wait for all to assemble we are already starting the ride 20 minutes late.  Big deal, we have all day.  

Our tour guide, a jolly fellow on the "sturdy side" even joked before we started that if someone of his stature can make the tour, anyone can. We ride for maybe 5 minutes, then stop at our first "talking area" and wait for the last couple...and wait and wait and wait.  As each biker crests the trail we think it will be our straggler couple until finally our tour guide decides to ride back to find missing people 7 and 8.

To pass the time we make small talk with the other two couples and about 15 minutes later our guide returns out of breath with sweat dripping down his brow to tell us the single speed couple quit the trip after the first hill and never bothered to tell anyone.  Hill, there was a hill?  It was more like an up swept portion of the land.  Really, I mean there were children with training wheels whizzing by. How ironic is it that we are traversing the land where our forefathers lived in the most horrendous conditions, with little food and clothing, and hauled water from half a mile away (up hill, both ways in the rain) to fight this incredible world famous army for the purpose of not having to drink tea for the rest of their (and our) life and you can't even just walk your bike up this sinuous portion of the land? And here lies the problem with group tours...if you book a bike tour then expect to bike. Enough said.

So we start the first talk almost 40 minutes late but the frustrating start is placated by our brilliant guide who is very knowledgeable and makes history come to life with his stories. Our guide told us heart wrenching stories about the rugged conditions and hardships that were common place in Continental Army life.

The men and women (average ratio: 1 woman to 44 men that enlisted) that paved the way for America lived in these simple log cabins, 12 people to a cabin.  There was a ditch dug out along the tree line called "the vault" to relieve yourself--this area was at least 400 yards away and while George Washington himself issued an order it must be used instead of in or around the cabins, many didn't abide by the rule causing some unpleasantries in the bunk houses to say the least.

Many of those people signed on for duty with very little clothing or food and no money. The government promised funds but rarely delivered. Congress could hardly pay for, feed, or equip the army (and supply chains were all messed up and blah, blah, blah...excuses) and to top it off, many civilians didn't even appreciate the purpose of the Continental Army. Many Americans feared the militia was a threat to the liberty of the new Republic. And sometimes the soldiers would seize food and personal property if camped near private citizens. To top it off, this was a rag tag bunch of people gathered, hardly a match against the British Army which was one of the most highly trained and best equipped armies in the world.  
 
A rare treat, as our guide told us, was the appearance of a historical re-enactor who portrayed a field surgeon and expert in apothecary.  We only knew him by "Mr." which our guide informed us was how the people in this period would refer to someone in the "trades" since dentistry and medicine was considered a trade and you didn't always get a degreed physician back then (the first medical college in America to open was in 1768 in Philadelphia).

"Mr." had a curious display of surgery tools (basically saws and bullet probes) and herbs to "cure" aliments. One particularly shiver inducing tool was a drill used to relieve pressure on the brain when someone had a concussion.  It was basically a hole saw that cuts a one inch hole into the skull to "relieve the pressure" (cuz you were gonna bleed to death and die in a few hours and then pressure wasn't your main concern).

The tool above with the mustache handle and socket attached below was the drill used to "free the brain". And then yes, this will be the next reality TV show, "Survivor: Rev War Style", where the participants use various medical tools from the 16th C. to practice medicine on other participants and the winner gets a trip to Mayo Clinic.  

Infection, or puss production, was revered and promoted as a sign of healing.  If someone had a wound and it wasn't infected linen would be tossed in the wound to cause infection because they felt the production of puss would, as I mentioned, promote healing.  TMI, we all thought, but a good bit of knowledge for what these men had to deal with in the 1700s, so ride your damn bike up the hill next time you think somethings tough.

Now we all know what a exceptional guy George W was (and not the G. W. that didn't really win his own election) but poor George, back during the genesis of our country he didn't have much experience commanding a large army and he needed someone to bolster the army's ascension to victory. So with the aid of Ben Franklin's diplomatic prowess, Baron Von Steuben from Prussia (Germany was not a country at that time) was hired as Major General. Like a good CEO (Lauren, take note) he greatly improved the capability of the troops at Valley Forge by instilling discipline and instructing them in formation and tactics, thus transforming them into a professional army in 8-10 weeks. Go Baron, you da man! And here he is:

Probably as grumpy as he looks so no, "Is your refrigerator running..." on him and don't let your ball roll into his yard. I'm positive the neighbor kids would have TPed him...if they had TP.

For long hours on these grounds he drilled, marched, and swore to the armies in German, translated into French by one officer and then translated into English by another officer (and I'm thinking, isn't swearing a universal language?).

I recall seeing an interesting quote that made me wonder if the consciousness of the new "American" was taking shape. The quote said something to the effect that in Europe the Baron would bark out a command and the troops would execute it without question. But while training the Continental Army, Von Steuben would have to explain WHY he was doing a certain tactic before the troops would execute. I'm sure this had much to do with the disciplined and organized military in Europe Von Steuben was used to, but I also wonder if this was the beginning of a transformation of the independent "American" consciousness? The populace was a collection of independent thinkers with the desire to have the understanding of why they were doing things instead of blatantly following orders. As our guide kept telling us, those that signed up for the Continental Army (men and women) were "radicals" (and had their sites set on coffee for breakfast)!

Another stop along the way was a monument built in 1914, which was a simplified version of the Arch of Titus in Rome (a style of monument to honor Generals or Emperors).  It is called the National Memorial Arch (not very creative, should be more like, "Thank God for George and the Baron"). Not a great photo but you get the idea:

Inscribed on the inside arch was an eloquent quote by Henry Armitt Brown, a military historian and famous orator.  This sums up the sacrifice and determination (I have written it out below). 

"And here in this place of sacrifice, in this vale of humiliation, in this valley of the shadow of that death out of which the life of America rose, regenerate and free, let us believe with an abiding faith that to them, union will seem as dear and liberty as sweet and progress as glorious as they were to our fathers, and are to you and me, and that the institutions which have made us happy, preserved by the virtue of our children, shall bless the remotest generation of the time to come."--Henry Armitt Brown

Shortly after our third stop our tour guide's bike began to falter. His rear wheel was wobbling and just about falling off from loose spokes and even master mechanic Doug and one other attendee couldn't save it without tools so our guide called for a back up...his car.  I thought maybe we'd all get a free "tow behind" tour (great concept for a tour, kinda like water skiing...hey, wait a minute, a new show for Tommy Bartlett) but no such luck as we had to tour on our merry way. But as a consolation prize the tour guide walked us down the road a bit and explained all of the other stops we would review on our own.  He was very knowledgeable and told some other great stories.  They offered our money back but the tour guide was so excellent we all refused and continued on. 

The most beautiful stop on the tour was the George Washington Memorial Church built around the turn of the century.  This was the era of the gilded age and thus all of the "gild" was in place.  Lots of fabulous details. All the states were represented inside the church.  

George Washington is the bronze statue in the alcove above.

Love the beautiful doors, all different.

We biked back to the visitor center and examined more thoroughly the artifacts on display. And did the corny photo op...cuz we can.

We left Valley Forge around 2 and headed for Gettysburg. Travelled through Lancaster, Amish country, and just about the time I was thinking to myself, "I wonder if they would ride their buggies on this busy road", right around the corner cruises this little Amish man in his jet black buggy and the horse was faster than a whip. The cars and trucks were thick and fast and I can't imagine navigating that traffic with a horse and buggy, unless of course I was out of French Vanilla creamer and then I'd probably try anything. Lancaster was a bit too touristy for my taste so we didn't stop for the shoofly pie or Dutch this or that. As my mom and I discussed one time after being "swooned" by the "Amish brand" bakery and it was dry and crumbly, just cuz it's Amish doesn't mean it's good.  

Continued on through York and arrived at the Gettysburg Walmart only to be informed by the signage in the parking lot that RV's were only welcome to stay for 2 hours.  Now I can get by on a handful of hours of sleep but that would be a really short night so we carried on to an enormous parking lot (OMG, it's happening to me...I am now admiring the size of parking lots) near a cinema complex and serendipitously next to the Appalacian Brewing Company.  We stopped in at the extremely busy haunt to sample their brews which were some of the best on the trip so far, yes, FFB (remember...Fabulous Food and Brew). A lovely sample of the Broad Street Barley Wine and brie with yummy stuff:

Future soldiers, bits of history to take away, the Revolutionary War lasted 8 years...a looooong time: 1775-1783 (and probably much longer than that, as all wars do, cuz you will see that with the Civil War where we are headed next), and "sheiße" is shit in German and sohn von einem weibchen! means son of a bitch! (So how did the soldiers not figure that out???)

What's in the Promised Land?

We finally arrived at Promised Land State Park (a 3,000 acre state park surrounded by the Delaware State Forest) on Monday 10/13. The promised land was named as a sarcastic reference to the rugged terrain that was advertised or "promised to be" wonderful farming land and opportunity, but on the contrary they found it was dense and rocky and unsuitable for farming anything. Maybe for goats? Or humans that trudge up and down rocky hills for enjoyment?  

As we began to set up camp, and I noticed a few wasps outside the window of the camper, no big deal, I don't mind the bees as long as they stay outside but, within minutes the camper was full of wasps from a ground nest located at the base of a pine right next to us.  We waited for a bit to see if they would settle down but when the number of wasps swelled by the second we pretty much bolted to the Ranger Station to get a new site, which was an easy move next door. So we just vacuumed up the wasps, and breathed a sigh of relief until...we were invaded by Asian Beetle bugs. As I recall (from having a heavy infestation back in Baraboo one year) these beetles love the warmth of a white exterior and since Max is mostly white these little buggers latched on to our camper and into every crevice like a squirrel on a corn cob.  I would open the front door of the cab and sweep hundreds of them out of the door frame.  ICK! And 5 days later in Virginia we are still sucking them up in the vacuum! Why doesn't this ever happen with say butterflies? But I think Doug is enjoying the hunt as he calls out to them, "come try out for swim team" (in a cup of soapy water).  

Bugs aside, this was one of the most picturesque campsites, absolutely no noise since it was way out in the boonies, with immaculate amenities.  The bathhouse was brand new with several showers were we could take LONG HOT showers, and there was even a washer and dryer. This was our lovely view from the camper. And since it is now late in the fall and we were here during the week we just about had the park to ourselves. 

View from Max.

Closer view of the lake.

Found loads of cute little cabins along the shore of Lake Promised Land (lovely sand beaches) and figure there must be regulations about the size of lake homes since they were all about the same exact size, about 800-1000 Square feet, and all built around the 50's and 60's. As we wound the bend of our bike journey we came across an yard sale oddity.  An old church with junk littered all over outside, and a limo with classical music blaring from it.  Inside the church the pews with filled with junk,, no organization, not even folded or in the box or laying together.  In the center was a grand piano with a wine bottle on the side that looked like it was just opened.  Chickens and turkeys roamed the backyard and the owner was a mix of Liberace and Jed Clampet (couldn't get a picture of owner since he was flitting all over the place and was too creeped out inside to take photos).

 The sign said it was a yard sale...or a way to lure you into the bowels of the creepy church. Glad I made it out!

Oh yeah, girls I found the perfect thing for you each for Christmas, bet you can't wait!

Woke up to beautiful sunshine on Tuesday and headed to the little town of Hawley just up the road.  Stopped at a Napa Auto Parts store to get a bulb for Max and realized we weren't in WI anymore by the crappy customer service. 

Store lady (not looking at us): Can I help you (in a raspy voice so low and crackly I thought I saw little puffs of smoke pour out as she spoke)?
Doug: Do you have an LED equivalent to this bulb?
Store lady (never making eye contact but shaking her head back and forth): Nah, we 'aint got nuthin' like that here. (And she walked away in a hunched ogre limp and I thought a trap door was going to open up and she'd disappear into it...)

The WI scenario:
Store lady: Can I help you (in a sing song tone as tiny Green Bay Packer football earrings encrusted with Swarovski crystals sparkle in the light and her green and gold nails sprout in the air like artificial flowers on a grave, flipping her wispy feathered bangs aside)?
Doug: Do you have an LED equivalent to this bulb?
Store lady: Well, no I don't think so but let me check in the bulb aisle.  I'll also call Gary our store manager and see if he knows.  I think I heard Bob talk about getting those new fangled bulbs over at Fleet Farm. Fleet Farm is getting all of the new stuff, even the Toyland display for the holidays, have you ever shopped for toys there?  One year I got the Barbie Jeep for my daughter and it was on sale for $99. My mother always buys the kids way too many toys so I decided that this year it will be one toy from the Toyland for Madison and Dakota and that's it. But I might splurge on the compound bow with beer holder and attached jerky maker for my hubby. The Fleet Farm is down the road across from the Walmart. Just a minute let me draw you a map and show you how to get to there.  

Ahhhh, but we're not in WI anymore.

After the small town tour we hiked over on a little island we could view from our campsite.  It was long enough for a half hour walk over lots of rocks.  

Should we go for island living here?

We were limited to hikes in the State Park since the hunt was still on to find Eric Fein, who shot and killed a State Trooper and wounded another, the search especially hot and heavy right in our area. Apparently someone spotted a person with mud all over carrying a rifle in the Candesis area which was 5 miles directly south of our campground.  On the ways to Stroudsburg, one rainy day of our trip, we spied dozens of police SUV's, cars, and command units littered up and down the road--guess we'll have to be mindful of not speeding here.  

The trails in the State Park were plentiful though, and many gave us a run for our money in the ankle stability department.  Rock is abundant, in all shapes and sizes.

Just a minute while I roll this outta the way....

Rocks here on the side....

Rocks in the middle...

Then rocks and wood....

Finally lined with something nice...Rhododendrons!

Some bike trails were smooth...for about 10 feet, then really full of rocks.  (Doug loved it)

But the best hike was at the Pocono's Environmental Education Center where we found beautiful falls and challenging trails. 

I like to stay dry...

Doug likes to jump in! Kidding!

Love the sound of the waterfall. 

Forward, as the saying goes in Wisconsin.  We head out on Friday and along the way pass...OMG, the scariest book I ever read while I was babysitting:

So we zoom on by for another dry camp at Walmart near Valley Forge in a little town called King of Prussia!  Walmart in King of Prussia might be like eating cheese balls at the White House State dinner!