Time sure flies....and I got to see Niagara Falls!

Well, tomorrow, I will be on my way back home to Sedona. The trip here to visit Lulu and Richard (I go back and forth between calling him, "Richard," "Dick," and "King Richard.") They have both been gracious kind and generous hosts. I have relaxed and not worried about anything. I have had yummy meals out to their various favorite hangouts, King Richard has made his favorite dishes like, meatloaf and scalloped potatoes, cheesy cauliflower, custard pie from scratch, peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, pasta and crab, grilled cheese sandwiches to name a few. He treated me to a chicken Spiedie with mushrooms and a creamy sauce which I found out is a local favorite that was created in Binghamton and now famous. Super delicious! Lulu and I hung out in the craft studio and created to our hearts content. I made a couple of domino books, experimented with transparencies to create a 3-D window that gives the illusion of stained glass. I put a woman with flowers inside the window and there is a bird in a cage hanging inside. Turned out pretty neat even though neither one of us understood the tutorial we had printed to use. I think the tutorial left out some steps and left us hanging out there doing our own thing. I had a great time organizing Lulu's lace, ribbon, and trim boxes. My favorite thing to do! Organize and see all the stuff in those boxes! Now I know how to do mine when I get home. lololol

We had a great time at Niagara Falls on Friday and returned on Saturday. We found a window between the rain and snow storms so Richard "started the car" and we headed to Buffalo and the Canadian side of the falls. At the entry to Canada, we got a good laugh. The lady at the booth who checked our passports wanted to know if Richard had found his birth certificate at the Smithsonian - it was the old form white writing on black paper which they stopped doing in the late 1930's. Richard hasn't gotten a passport yet and they still accept a drivers license and birth certificate. He was good natured about it and let us giggle and laugh all the way to parking. Homer even had a passport that I had made him so he would be legal to go with us. Driving toward the parking for Horseshoe Falls and Rainbow Bridge I noticed a building with a Hershey's Chocolate bar door. I guess Hershey's is popular the other side of the border too! The gardens were beautiful even this time of year. Mums mostly but I was told that in the summer the roses are in full bloom and the gardens are alot nicer. We even saw black squirrels! Never heard of black squirrels before but there are. We followed a couple up and down the road trying to get a picture of them. We got a few but not real clear. My best one looks like the squirrel is a cat....but it is definitely a squirrel! I wish we could have gotten one to stay still long enough and close enough to us. Every time we would pull the camera out the squirrels would hop and scamper over the green grass evading us. Trust me... there are black squirrels.

I have tons of pictures but will only post a few. I have a video I made also, but had trouble posting it. I don't expect to ever go again, but if not, I can always watch the video and feel the power of the water and the roar . It's another of Jehovah's creation that is awe inspiring.
The Comfort Inn that we stayed at overnight was clean and comfortable even though they advertised "view of the Horseshoe Falls" the only view we had was a small area between two buildings. The day we were there was spectacular though and a memory I won't soon forget.







Lulu and Richard- Thanks for the memories!
You, too, Homer! We've got some stories to share!
Watch for some photos of a daredevil museum dedicated to the people who road homemade barrels over the falls and survived. I will try to post those sometime in the next few days.

Missing you

Upstate NY trip....
Look at the gold in that tree!
Silence
Polka music playing on the radio reminds me of your mom and dad dancing- your mom's head thrown back and she's laughing as dad swings her around the dance floor.
Richard sings, "on the road again"......
There is that tear and twinge of sorrow as I remember...........
I wish you were here on this trip with me.
I miss you.

Washday Monday in Lancaster Co. PA

We had another good day exploring Amish country in the morning and headed back to Upstate NY around noon. The rain started exactly at 1pm just as Dick had predicted. As we were driving around Bird-In-Hand, Paradise, and Intercourse, we saw clothes hanging outside on the clotheslines all around...almost in every yard. Reminded me of growing up and my sister, Linda and I, had to do the family wash on Saturdays or Sundays since we were in school during the week. Washing clothes was one of our jobs. We had an old wringer washing machine out in the old barn on a 4' x 8' concrete slab. We would go out there together since neither of us liked the old barn. It only had 3 walls and a partial wall in front made out of old tin and posts. There was a wide open space for the tractor to pull in to keep out of the weather. I remember at one time we parked an old red and white Ford Fairlane in there and when I was learning how to drive, I backed out and almost pulled the whole barn down. Funny now, but not then! Anyway, back to washing clothes. We would turn on the hose and fill the tub up with water and get it to swishing with soap, put our clothes in there for awhile to swish clean. Then we would have to go back out and drain the tub and refill it with clean water. Let it swish around and rinse the soap out. Drain the water. Then we would both help each other putting the clothes through the wringer and into the basket to go hand them on the clothesline out by the garden. One time, one of us got our hair caught in the wringer and another time one of us got our arm caught in there. Both times, it scared us to death and the hair pulling was awful! I seem to remember that was me, but I'm really not sure anymore. I know it was traumatic for both of us! So as we passed the following pictures of clothes hanging on the line, I was thinking of my sister, Linda. Not many people left that remember washing clothes that way! (ps....Linda said it was my hair and her arm. She screamed scared to death and I came to help. Thanks for the update, Linda.)

 Not only were the women working early in the morning at home, but we saw many driving their buggies to various locations to work in the shops. The men were hard at work, too and I was able to catch a picture of one young man working. Most of the people don't like to be photographed and will turn their head, but he was willing to look at us.

 We stopped at this fabulous quilt store that had lots and lots of handmade quilts as well as fabric. There was a sign out front $3.75 yard sale so we went in to see what they had. I thought maybe I'd find something different for my flannel quilts I am working on. The young lady in there was Amish and was very friendly and nice. Her name was Ruth! So we had something in common. I bought a few yards of flannel and some other little things I saw, but I could have hung out in that store for awhile. I love the feel of fabric and the many beautiful designs was overwhelming. There was a colorful quilt hanging out front that I liked that when inspected up close was actually 1" squares laid out and sewn to make the pattern. Another one was on a bed inside the store. Striking in black and white with bits of color here and there. Very well made and must have taken quite awhile to create.

We also saw a building in another area of town with 2 quilts painted on the outside walls of the building. You could even see the stitches in the painting. I'm not sure if my pictures below will do them justice but they were an interesting display of the culture.

We left Amish country and headed toward Upstate after having a buffet lunch of fresh vegetables and various meats, mashed potatoes, thick noodles, and shoofly pie. We didn't stop in Hershey, but we drove through it and I was able to capture a few pictures. The street lights look like Hershey kisses...some chocolate and some silver wrapped. The tourist attraction was closed but Dick pointed out a double roller coaster that looked wooden and it would appear that the two tracks were racing. I bet that was fun! I remember that Gina and Jonah had gone this past summer and posted some pics on Facebook.

As we left Hershey, we discovered this road that had a covered bridge you passed through as you went up the hill. The road was quiet so we stopped and took pictures. Lulu and I always knew one day we would end up on or under the bridge. LOLOLOL Dick took our picture and then I took theirs. We decided this may be the bridge we want if we have to end up under one for a long time.

There was more color in the trees as we drove home through the Pocono's and Catskill Mountains. I got a few red trees this time. It started raining pretty hard. It is suppose to rain in the afternoon tomorrow and all day Wednesday so we may postpone our trip to Niagra Falls until the weekend. More pics to come!

The past couple of days, Lois and I have been working on art projects and taking it easy. Saturday we went to four yard sales and we hit the BEST yard sale I have ever been to! There was tons of good almost new and some new arts and crafts supplies. Books, patterns, paints, pens, expensive kits, and containers....too much to even think about listing everything. Lois and Dick got a trunkload of stuff for $40 and I got a heavy bag full for $10. I'll have to mail my stuff back, but one book alone which was brand new still had it's tag on it for $19.99. I got some patterns for quilting that I will have Sarah help me with. One is cute- with frogs.

 Today, we got up early and headed southeast to Lancaster, Reading, Intercourse, Bird in Hand, Paradise- Amish country in PA. As we passed through the Pocono's I tried to capture some color in the leaves but we were on interstate and the color was almost gone. I got some great cloud pictures though! Funny story-
I was looking out the passenger side in the back seat on the west side of the car. I kept seeing these green clouds- a sea green- and some pink clouds-pastel pink, and just plain blue sky and white clouds. I kept taking pictures trying to capture the green and pink clouds but when I reviewed the pictures, I only saw normal blue sky and white clouds. It puzzled me, so I asked Lulu to look out the window and tell me if she saw the green clouds. She said, "no green clouds..." I continued to be puzzled. If I looked out the east window it was normal blue sky and white clouds. Finally, it dawned on me! It couldn't be the tinted windows because they were tinted all around. I was wearing my new polaroid sunglasses over my new clear glasses. It's the clip on sunglass, so nothing abnormal about that. But I discovered if i looked out my clear glasses, the clouds were normal. So it has to be the sunglasses! Anyway, I was thinking technocolor clouds but it was just me. It kept me busy quite awhile trying to figure that one out!

We arrived in Lancaster and tried to go to a restaurant called the "Good N Plenty" but it is closed on Sundays. It was suppose to have great Amish home cooking. As we drove around town we discovered none of the restaurants or stores that were Amish were open. So we are spending the night and will check out some places tomorrow. Dick remembered this place off the main drag called "The Red Caboose Restaurant and Motel." The restaurant and motel are all remodeled train cars.Quaint place. Dick said he remembers staying in one of the train cars years ago and it was not a pleasant night's sleep. The place was full though. Lots of families. We had a delicious meal- Lulu and Dick had meatloaf. The slices were so big it was like half a loaf pan for each plate! I had Amish chicken pot pie. I got a bowl of what I call, chicken and dumplings with the chewey dumplings I love to make from scratch. Lulu and I had real mashed potatoes and green beans. Dick had his meatloaf over bread with gravy, french fries, and green beans. We had PLENTY to eat! As we ate, I took pictures out the window of some of the horse and buggies that went buy. These buggies do not go slow either. They have those horses trotting pretty fast! We could also see the train tracks and a tourist train would go by every now an then. It is a working railroad so I'm sure bigger trains go by sometimes, also. In town as we drove to the local hotel we stayed in, we saw big farms with maze being the main crop right now. It was being harvested and there was some kind of machine that had cracked a pile of corn for the animals near the restaurant. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Amish family and farm

Beautiful orange mums

Notice buggy that is turning right is family buggy. The red buggy is a tour buggy.

This buggy is on a "buggy car lot" and the body needs work but the wheels are in excellent condition!

Lois and Dick waiting for their meatloaf meal. Every once in awhile the train car would shake and the train whistle would blow. Almost like we were eating while the train was riding down the tracks.

Taken on the side of the Red Caboose Restaurant and Motel. Notice railroad tracks and large farm in distance.

Red Caboose Motel. Each train car is a room similar to a motel room. They even have a "honeymoon" train car.

Upstate NY visit with Lulu and Dick-Day 1

Well, here I am in upstate NY thousands of miles away from my lil' Rascal. The day before I left we took a walk around Sunset Village and I had the opportunity to see Rascal's reaction to his first leaf blowing across the road. He was on the leash but he danced around trying to catch the leaves that were slightly being lifted from the ground by a gentle breeze as we passed by. He made me smile. I'm sure if he had been off the leash he would have been playing just like a little kid. He went home with Steve joyfully, and I left for the airport early Tuesday morning. (Oct. 18th) I arrived in Albany NY a little before 11pm. Lulu and Dick had gotten us rooms at the Super 8 for the evening so we could rest before the 2 hour drive home to Nineveh (also recognized as the village of Afton.) We drove past black shale on the hillsides of the freeway, rolling hills with only a little color left, and farmhouses that were old but still being useful. We stopped at Turning Stone on the reservation. This casino/resort is where Dick and Lulu go for their monthly get-away. Yummy bakery inside where I was treated with a peanut butter topped chocolate chip brownie...hmmmmmm. The drive was peaceful and the rolling hillsides and farmland was inviting. We passed through so many little villages and towns that I couldn't even keep up with them. Each one had a story or their claim to fame. Colgate College was the proud caretaker of a piece of the Berlin Wall brought to the U.S. We stopped at the little country store and Deli in Nineveh to get a sandwich for supper. They had slices of pizza for dog treats! Rascal, don't worry..I will bring you one home! They are created and baked right inside the little deli and the locals said they are very popular with the local dogs. I'll be adding some pictures.

                                         Driving past rolling hills and farmlands-some color in trees

Lobby of Turning Stone

Local 5&10 just like in the "good ole days."

Cornfields

We saw a "gaggle of geese!"

Local horse near Afton.

I didn't expect to see windmills on the hills amongst the trees. Plenty of wind to keep them circulating.

This was an interesting bridge!

Old Farm with 3 silos

Ruth sitting on Sea turtle in garden at Turning Stone.

Would you believe they play golf in this tented golf area in the winter?

Lulu and Dick like to plany monthly outings to Turning Stone for R&R.

Lulu and Dick outside Turning Stone.

View of Turning Stone from the parking garage.

Tree of Peace-Glass sculpture in lobby.