Off to somewhere: a hybrid road trip

[CalOldBlue]

Planning done, plane tickets bought, car reserved, bags packed, SLR sensor cleaned, online checkin completed, ....

Linda, Kris (Linda's son) and I catch a red-eye tonight. I'd tell you where we're going, but that would make the "Where In..." posts WAY too easy, so I'll be posting where we've been, as things progress.

First two days we will be staying with friends: I'm unsure as to their internet situation, so I may not be able to post again until Friday.

This trip will entail some road work this week, then after Labor Day we'll be squatting at a different friend's place and taking day trips from that location.

Sean (my son) will be joining us at that point (he's taking the same red-eye we are, just one week later).

Hope to keep you amused over the next 18 days.

We're leaving Harley in charge:

Photo: Don Casey

[Mark Sedenquist]

Have a nice trip and thanks for getting out there so we can add to the inventory of new images for the puzzle game!

Mark

[CalOldBlue]

Here's what things looked like shortly after we landed....



After collecting our bags and rental car, the first stop, only a few minutes away, was an outlet of Linda's favorite grocery story:



Where did we fly into last week?

[Mark Sedenquist]

What is this a hybridized version of the Where in North America is this?

mark

[CalOldBlue]

Posting both here and "where", will fill in the trip details here after someone gets it on the "where" thread or too much time elapses or you tell me I've gotten way too "creative".....

[Mark Sedenquist]

This is the web, which defies linear thinking -- so this seems reasonable to me.

...Not any more helpful though,,,

Mark

[CalOldBlue]

Off on vacation!

Roland (our housesitter) came by to take over the home front, and drove the three of us and assorted luggage to Concord BART. A train change at MacArthur went off without a hitch, as did the connection to the AirBART bus to Oakland airport. Nobody in the checkin line, and we were sitting down at a table in the Terminal 1 Chili's having dinner only two hours after leaving home. An auspicious start.

Didn't get a lot of sleep on the flight, thanks on part to a couple of chatterboxes in the seats ahead of us who didn't seem to understand that some people actually want to SLEEP on late night flights. Ah well, never that good at sleeping on a plane anyway.

The first shot is from one of the buses that transports you from the gates to baggage claim at Dulles. It's of the terminal tower; but neither my condition nor the environment helped the technical aspects of this shot.

These buses are like nothing I've ever seen. They're the only way to get from the gates to the terminal building, and aside from driving you there, they squat.

You board at concourse height at the front of the bus.
They shut the doors.
The bus then squats down to runway height, backs away from the gate, and drives off to the terminal (it was during the drive I took that shot).
At the terminal, it parks, rises up to concourse height again, and you debark.

The second shot is Wegmans... Linda's favorite market. Also known for their on-premise bakery and ready-to-eat food.

Linda had filled my head with tales of Wegman's apple fritters... alas, this Wegman's appeared to be too upscale for such pedestrian fare, so I had to settle for a caramel sticky bun for breakfast.

Next... off to (but that would be telling)

[CalOldBlue]

We headed out from Wegman's, after a few hours we reached the home of Linda's friend Dode and her husband Don. The town they live in is a small but old town, with a small liberal arts college: less than an hour away is a larger town with a major university... but more on that later.

After some of us (me) took a nap, we all went to dinner. I ordered what they told me was regional fare: an open-face cheeseburger covered with cole slaw, french fries and onion rings. Dode's green salad also came covered with french fries. (Clue 1)


Photo: Don Casey

We could hear freight trains passing by as they ran along the riverside tracks (most roads, streams and railroad tracks run parallel to each other here); I thought it ironic to see all the diesel smoke coming from the engines, considering the local product being carried by these trains (Clue 2).

After two days puttering around with D&D, we headed out again. First stop was that larger town, where we had lunch with a former neighbor of Linda and Kris; Laura. On the way, we stopped on a ridge-top to enjoy the view; the town and university are to the right of the picture (Clue 3):


Photo: Don Casey

Here's Linda, Kris and Laura in front of a main gate of the University (Clue 4):


Photo: Don Casey

Here's where we ate, right across from the gate and a local hangout (Clue 5):

Photo: Don Casey

After somebody identifies this location over on the "Where in..." board, I'll fill in the details.

EDITORIAL NOTE: I'm traveling without my photo editing software, so these shots won't have tone, sharpness, contrast, etc. correction done until I get home. Come back in late September for improved version.

[CalOldBlue]

Dode and Don live in Huntingdon PA, on the Juniata River in the Allegheny mountains; home to Juniata College.

Here's two shots of downtown Huntingdon:


Photo: Don Casey


Photo: Don Casey

Just up the way (30 miles or so) is State College, home to Penn State University (currently ranked just above Cal in the football polls).

Side note: we're quite fond of college towns; the combination of the energy of the students with the usual combination of interesting places to eat and cultural options is great.

Moving on:

The irony I saw in the diesel smoke from the trains comes from the fact that they were hauling coal; the former source of motive power for the railroads.

My burger was named "The Pittsburger" (west of town); they tell me it's a PA thing putting fries on top of things, including open-face burgers, salads, you name it. We saw this again in State College.

[CalOldBlue]

Our journey took us into farmland:


Photo: Don Casey

A slower paced kind of place, and this area is slower than most.

A common theme in farming areas is a central market town, with a central market:

Outside:

Photo: Don Casey

Inside:

Photo: Don Casey

Another nice thing about farming areas is the fresh and interesting food options. We stumbled into a small cafe in one town that focused on chocolate. While this is not typical of the area, the food was great. We had hot (or in my case cold) chocolate, Linda had a mole' based chile that was spectacular, Kris had a peanut butter/banana/chocolate panini sandwich, and I opted to have dessert for breakfast, chocolate crepes with fresh strawberries and mascarpone cheese. Did I mention we're foodies?



Photo: Don Casey

The woman who owns the cafe (and holds the title Chief Chocolate Officer) helped Linda find a genuine fabric store; a place where the locals rather than tourists go to buy their fabric. One thing the locals are noted for is a particular form of fabric work, and Linda was thrilled to buy where the locals buy.


Photo: Don Casey

We also visited a former religious colony in the area; a sect formed in the 1730s that died out. This building was the women's domitory and worship hall:


Photo: Don Casey

I'll tell you where we were, once someone else figures it out.