Kettle Creek State Park Pennsylvania

We are about as far in "the middle of nowhere" as you can get in Pennsylvania. The major town near us is Renovo. We will need to hang here for 3 nights so that we can legally enter New York. The state park is in a 300,000 acre state forest. Its real hilly. We talked to a forest ranger and he gave us some ideas for exploring. Some of these pics are a result of his suggestions. More tomorrow.

Shawnee SP last day

Tomorrow we were supposed to move into NY, but we would have been less than 14 days out of the Carolinas, so governor Cuomo wouldn't let us in. We are moving alittle closer to the border but we will still be in PA. There is a 9 basket disc golf course here. We did that this morning. We then found a Walmart. Jenny thought it was creepy. It was a really old store. Nothing was where it was supposed to be. All walmart's can be described with an adjective, creepy describes that one. This afternoon I rode the trails. They are snowmobile trails. That must mean it snows here. Yesterday we found a one lane covered bridge. That was exciting. Pic below. We will try and post something tomorrow.

Shawnee SP day 2

This morning we visited the Flight 93 Memorial. To be completely honest it dredged up some memories that I didn't really care to relive. The visitor center walked you through a timeline of all 4 of the hijacked flights. The hijackers were in control of flight 93 for 35 minutes. During that time the passengers were able to make phone calls and they learned of the attacks on the World trade center. A vote was taken and the passengers took back control. The airplane impacted the ground inverted at nearly 600 miles/hour. The voice recorder and flight data recorder (which are in the tail) were found 20 feet underground. After the FBI investigation was completed, the coroner told them to fill in the crater. It is now a sacred spot, the final resting place of the 40 heros who took back control of the plane. As you enter the Monument there is a 90 foot tower that will eventually have 40 wind chimes hanging in it. They are still working on that. We left the visitors center and did a mile hike around the  Monument. The actual impact site is marked by a large boulder. The debris field covers 40 acres. The names of all the passengers are inscribed on marble slabs and the slabs are lined up on the final  flight path. There is a lot of symbolism in the way the Monuments designers arranged things. As are most National Monuments we have visited, this one was extremely well done. We are here another day I think. I'll have to ask Jenny.

Shawnee SP Pennsylvania

We drove through Virginia, drove through West Virginia, hit a sliver of Maryland and ended up here, in Pennsylvania. This SP has a 400 acre lake and something like 2000 acres of land. I think we are near Altoona but I know we are near the 911 flight 93 crash site Memorial. We will probably visit that tomorrow. A few days ago we received an alarming photo taken by our next door neighbor in Habersham. That is the sidewalk in front of our house.

Happy 4th, Shenandoah NP day 3

Today is our last day here. We got up early and got a head start on the mob. The hike was a 5 mile loop, a good portion was along side a cascading creek. It was excellent. Tomorrow we head further north into Pennsylvania. One observation about our stay here. Probably 1/3rd of the people staying in the campground are from India or Pakistan. We have never seen that anywhere before. There is probably a flight from Mumbai to Washington Dulles that brings them in. We are not to far from Washington. Anyway, we feel good about our visit to this park. We have seen quite a bit of the Skyline drive and hiked a few miles in the backcountry. Below are some pics taken on today's outing.

Shenandoah NP day 2

Today's adventure was a 6 mile out and back to the 2nd highest waterfall in the park (87 feet). We decided to go early so that we could nab a parking spot at the trailhead. When we got there there were maybe 10 cars. When we got back 4 hours later there were probably 100. There is a 10 person limit in most of the buildings so, consequently there are long lines everywhere of people waiting to get in. The crowds remind us of Acadia in Maine. That's not a compliment. This is the 4th of July during a pandemic. Anyway, our hike was excellent. I took the pic of the flower and Jenny under that tree because that is a Mountain Laurel. That looks nothing like the Texas Mountain Laurel all of my Texas relatives are used to nor does the flower have that distinctive grape smell. More tomorrow.

Shenandoah National park

Just a quick post. We drove 55 miles to get to the "Big Meadows" campground. A bunch of it was on the Skyline drive (35 mph) it took a while. We are near 3000 feet elevation and it is way cooler than it was at the river. That's good because the campground has no electric. It has no water either. We can run the generator and our water tank is full so I should stop with the negatives because it is really pretty. We are exploring a little around the campground this first day. There is a lodge with a restaurant and lounge. This being 4th of July weekend, things are going to get crowded. The campground has no cell so we will have to go to the lodge to make any calls. Probably do some hiking tomorrow.