Monday, October 21, 2019

I Was Thinking

I was thinking things were going along awfully smoothly.  As in, gee, how long has it been since I've been in emergency room. Yeah, well.  So I lost my instructional assistant and I got a text during conferences this evening that Handy Man was in ER.
His blood pressure was high at rehab, so they sent him over to the cardiologist who was gone for the day, so they sent him up to Immediate Care, who sent him back down the hill to ER.  By this time his blood pressure was really high- no kidding. The cardiologist wouldn't have minded him staying overnight, but when all other vitals were good and his kidney function was the best it's been and bp was coming down, albeit slowly, he came home.  We will have  to watch a bit more vigilantly.
We weren't quite sure what to do next, exercise wise,  as his insurance paid rehab was up today.  We decided to go ahead and pay to use their equipment there, like a gym. While they will no longer monitor his heart, they do check his bp twice while he is there, so that makes me feel better.
Bless his heart. It is so frustrating to do every last thing they want you to do and still there are just things you can't control.  I am hoping this is just a blip and we'll move on to continued better health.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Take the Long Way Home

We left early. Just the night before, another apple orchard popped up and we decided to swing by there first.
As we were toodling along, we came around a corner and what did we see? This picture doesn't do it justice. It looks like a lake, but it isn't. The fog is still settled in those valleys.  This was a trip of much oohs and ahhhs.


The orchard was pretty neat. The farm has remained in the same family since the end of the 1700's. They grow twenty varieties of heirloom apples and all are hand picked and hand packed.  This little, well off the road town is where Rudyard Kipling wrote The Jungle Book. My first childhood movie I saw with Kaye.  I filled a bag with about nine different varieties of heirlooms and made fried apples and apple pie for Playdate today.  Oh my, so yummy.
We left Vermont and proceeded to drive through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and finally rolled into Pennsylvania after dark searching for the cute cabin SuzQ booked for us.  Ahem.
After traveling through the country our GPS  finally landed us here.


This was in the yard beside it.


Okay, well. I cautiously got out and searched the front for where the key box was supposed to be, no luck. Tish remained in the car feverishly searching for  hotels.  There was no key box.
I suggested we wander down this little road a piece and see if could find any house with a number.  Our abode was 59.  Finally, there was a house number 61, so we backed up one and found something much more to our liking. A little doll house.

Let's just say we were exhausted and overjoyed.

We headed out at seven the next morning.  Oh my, Gettysburg, what a sober experience.  You just can't seem to embrace all that killing.  The National Park has a cyclorama depicting the the fighting that really brings it all home. These scenes were floor to ceiling. 









We'd arrived, all destinations checked, no way to get home but get back in that car for a very long drive.  We continued through Pennsylvania, then to Maryland.  As we were driving through I saw a sign for another covered bridge. We made another stop. This is one of only three covered bridges left in Maryland today.


 Maryland was long and mountainous.  Next was West Virginia.  We stopped for supper at the Iron Horse Tavern and  had another amazing meal.  We made one last stop in WV about 8:30, then continued the drive home.  I yelled quite excitedly when we crossed the Kentucky state line.  We arrived home at 1:06.  Thank God for safe travels.  Traffic was really amazing.  We had four slow downs for just a few minutes and that was all.  It seemed miraculous to me.  3000 miles, new experiences, amazing sweet memories and all three of us still in a good frame of mind, though very happy to be back.
 No blizzards, flu,  or food poisoning.
Color me grateful.



Sunday, October 13, 2019

Von Trapp's

I really wasn't sure what to expect at the Von Trapp Lodge, but the gardens were amazing.  Bees and butterflies of all sorts were buzzing all around.  Apparently, as I learned later, these flowers are used for the fresh arrangements in the Lodge.




Good thing there wasn't a sign reading, "Weeder needed."  I would have just planted myself right in that garden.

















Can you believe the size of these rose hips?  I've never seen the like.






Our dinner was yummy here as well.  We shared a slice of Black Forest Cake, of course.

We spent quite a bit of time wandering around looking at all these centerpieces, even in the bathroom.  Oh my.





Even though it was dark, it seemed easier going back down that mountain than the trip up.  A local potter made the little milk jug on the tables. One side was a little sketch of edelweiss.  We each got that for our souvenir of the Von Trapp's. I used to think I had pretty flowers, but nothing quite like the poppies, lisianthus and ranunculus you see here. Still, each time I fill that vase, I'll remember.
One more sleep, then off to Gettysburg.