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.