Day 29

French Creek State Park and Hopewell Furnace

Jun 4, 2013, 11:48 AM

We packed lunches, picked up Kim and Alex and headed out to Hopewell Furnace. Kim had remembered that they had reduced hours in the winter, so before we got to her house she tried to call, didn't get an answer so she checked on the web to make sure today would be a good day to visit. On the website it said June to October it was open seven days a week, so we figured we were good. Steve and I needed to stop at a Wawa to get drinks before getting to the park and we completely forgot. So Kim tried to call again and see if there might be vending machines at the visitor center or anywhere we'd be able to get drinks, otherwise we were going to have to go find some somewhere. Well someone answered this time and guess what, because of budget cutbacks (bullshit) the visitor center isn't open on Monday's and Tuesday's. Really? Well thank you very much, hey what you want to bet the people that are normally there are volunteer docents anyway. I would not be surprised. Boy, travel can be a real eye opener!!! Well don't you worry, even though the visitor center was closed and there would be no one to man the different buildings and give the typical spiel, you were still able to walk around and there are recorded messages and It would be just fine. Possibly better then we would have had otherwise. When we got there there were three cars in the parking lot but there was no one around. We had the run of the place. We found a picnic table in the shade so we ate lunch the whole time commenting on how much fun we were going to have with no one else around. After we ate we walked down to the Iron Master's Mansion. There was a garden we explored. Kim found a map of the garden plantings hanging on the gate and we walked around looking at all of the plants that really weren't being taken care of very well at all. Kim and I found what looked like a wall from a crumbled down building and another part of a wall that could have been more of the building or just another wall, we get to make up our own story and there was no one to tell us we were wrong. Then we saw the brick ovens and went into the spring house. We walked over to the cast house and furnace stack where there was a water wheel. I decided this place was haunted. The eerie sounds that were coming from this building gave me the creeps. The whole visit was so much fun and we explored almost every bit of Hopewell. We spent a few minutes with some plow horses and we stood on a bridge over a little creek and watched the fish. Alex and Kim found part of a robin's egg shell. I guess babies were up in the trees somewhere. 

Jun 4, 2013, 2:45  PM

Well we have had enough fun at Hopewell for the day. It is time to get some refreshment. At first I was thinking DQ, but then I remembered I haven't had a decent water ice in so long. Kim said there is a chain of water ice places called Rita's that are pretty good and don't you know there was one just 4.5 miles away. Gotta love the GPS! Hell I'd walk that far for a good water ice. 

Jun 4, 2013, 3:22 PM

Rita's was a huge success. They had new and different flavors. I tried Alex's Lemonade, it was good. I tried Swedish Fish flavor, that was just like eating Swedish Fish except nothing got caught in your teeth. I settled on cherry, yum!! Steve got a root beer, Kim got mango and Alex got a Heath Bar milk shake. Now we are on our way back to Kim and Robert's house. We have some mischief in store for Catherine and Akio, but I will get into that more later.

Jun 4, 2013, 4:59 PM

Oh we were BAD! When we went to Zern's we found signs for radioactive area and a white paper contamination kind of coveralls and we found a face mask, pink even. So we put up caution tape and a couple signs and the suit and we put a CSI type chalk outline in the drive. What fun we had!!!!!! I can't wait to hear what Catherine and Akio think when they get home. 

While we were sitting at Kim's Steve said his stomach was starting to growl. So we are all off to Miller's Smorgasbord. Oh I bet you are all jealous!! Miller's was so good! Kim almost started a riot at the meat carving station. Steve went up to the guy that was carving the roast beef and asked for a slice. He didn't realize that Kim was lurking. The carver sliced the roast beef, stabbed it with his fork and was leaning over to place it on Steve's plate when Kim came out of nowhere and slid her plate right over Steve's so that the meat was put on her plate instead of his. Then she smiled sweetly, as only Kim can when she is being particularly evil, at Steve and she walked away. Steve said the look on the carving guys face was utter shock that someone would be so bold. The poor man, Steve didn't give the guy any kind of an explanation he just waited for the next slice of roast beef then walked away. That poor man is probably still shaking his head over that one and can you imagine the story he had to tell when he got home. By this time Steve is coming back to the table and telling me "you will never believe what that crazy sister of yours did now, . . .", and he proceeds to tell me what she did. Of course this gets me laughing and I look up to see her standing in line at another buffet table and she has the biggest shit eating grin and she waves at me because of course she knows that he just told me what she did. Well that started even more giggling from me. We had the kids at the next table staring and Steve told me I was scaring the straights again, but there is nothing new there. The best part of the meal was the waffles and ice cream I had for dessert. Kim had walked by the guy that was filling the waffle tray up and he was just pulling new waffles off the waffle iron, so Kim asked him if she could have one of the fresh waffles and of course he gave her one. She came back to the table with this really good waffle. Now this place serves waffles and chicken and that doesn't even sound appealing to me, but when Steve came back to the table with a piece of apple pie with vanilla ice cream on top the wheels started turning. Kim said the waffle was a regular waffle, not something chicken flavored, I wasn't sure about it till she tried it, so I figured waffles and ice cream it was. I got a hot waffle then I took it to the guy serving the ice cream and he put a scoop on top for me and even topped that off with whipped cream. Oh good Lord I was in heaven. It was sooooooooo good!!!!! 

After we ate Kim and Robert wanted to see the campground we were in. Robert was sure that they had stayed there a few years ago and it was just a field then, Kim was certain they hadn't. The Country Acres Campground is now really pretty, the sites are nice size, and they have either been dug in or built up so they are level, it all looks new and there are pretty little flower beds all over. We were very happy with the stay. 

So we are all sitting around waiting to see if Catherine and Akio call, Kim and I are giggling about how funny it will be when they turn into the drive way and see the body outlines, then Kim's phone rings. It's Catherine. She grabs the phone laughing and has to serious up before she can answer. She is good at playing it straight. We are all listening, "oh so you're home then. . . Oh no. . . Is he ok. . ." We can't tell what's going on from Kim's side of the conversation. When Kim hung up she let us in on the fact that they were home but Geo had fallen in the airport and hurt his arm, they were going to have to go to the ER. I just hope our joke is still funny after a trip to the hospital. 

Oh my gosh, another day done.