BS: a trip to Pennsylvania - part 2

Subject: BS: a trip to Pennsylvania - part 2
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 May 12 - 08:09 AM

I can't find the thread where I asked for advice about this trip I'm on, so I've started a new one. Thanks in part to Mudcatters, we are having a great time. Four of us landed in Baltimore, then drove and ferried to Cape May, New Jersey, where we did some nice birding. Strong winds kept the songbirds down, but we did observe the heck out of a blue grosbeak and a catbird. Shorebirds were abundant and interesting.

Thanks to whoever recommended Bivalve. We had a nice ride there, and got to see the schooner A.J. Meerwald, a tall ship. The lady in the GPS (We call her Samantha.) didn't believe there was a town called Bivalve, but we got there somehow. We go to so many out-of-the-way places that Samantha has had a nervous breakdown. We shall see what happens with that.

Now we are in the town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. We are enjoying the scenery and geology. The DH identified a klippe over the Lehigh Tunnel, using the geologic map of PA. One bad thing is that many attactions are not really open. I wanted to visit a historic home today but they are only open Sat and Sun until Memorial Day. Good grief!

Oh, I forgot! We visited the Franklin Mine Museum in Franklin, New Jersey. It was great! They have all the usual science stuff, and then THEY LET YOU COLLECT FLUORESCENT ROCKS FROM THE TILL PILE! We got some beauties for our rock collection and bought a new UV light. It was just like being a little kid again for all four of us.

Haven't found any live trad music, but I did buy a nice CD of music of the Pennsylvania Germans, all on the harp. It makes for good listening as we wind through the Ridge and Valley.

Thanks to all who encouraged me in this trip and provided tips.

Today we will drive to Lancaster and ride on the scenic train.

Subject: RE: BS: a trip to Pennsylvania - part 2
From: maeve
Date: 11 May 12 - 09:04 AM

Part 1 is over yonder.

Subject: RE: BS: a trip to Pennsylvania - part 2
From: EBarnacle
Date: 11 May 12 - 10:14 AM

As long as you are in the neighborhood, go to Barryville, NY and take a look at the Roebling Canal bridge over the Delaware. Enjoy the trip.

Subject: RE: BS: a trip to Pennsylvania - part 2
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 May 12 - 10:40 PM

Thanks, maeve, for refreshing part 1.

Sorry, EBarnacle, but our schedule didn't permit a side trip into NY.

We visited the Dorflinger Glass Museum in Milburn. The glass is beautiful, and was esp. interesting because I have a small collection of cut glass. After the visit, we sat on a bench near the lake on the grounds. It too, was beautiful, and so serene.

At one point, driving down a narrow, two-lane road with no lines on it, I said I felt like I had gone back 50 years. We may have because the Garmin bit the dust, and then a digital camera died. Shades of the Twilight Zone? We tried to use a smartphone to direct us from Philadelphia to Baltimore, and it sent us via two-lane highways. After a while I said, "Surely there's an interstate between Philadelphia and Baltimore," but nobody would listen to me. After a long time, the app "came out of it" and realized that we could get on I-95.

I recommend a visit to the historic town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, where we stayed for a while. A restaurant called "Moya" had the most pleasant atmosphere of any on the trip - good food, and pleasant traditional music such as lute music or Andean panpipes.   

Three times in the course of the trip, I was able to get in the shade of a big tree and play music on my recorder. The music seems to please people, and it restoreth my soul, which can get frazzled by things like neurotic Garmins. The first time to play was on the bank the Egg Harbor River, a fast, clear stream leaving the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. (The water was dyed dark by the pines.) This was in a park with the ruins of a 18th C. iron old smelter and many large shade trees. New Jersey is not all the drug-ravaged, industrial wasteland it's cracked up to be.

The other times were at the Red Caboose Motel, where we stayed overnight in an actual caboose, and at Valley Forge. My husband says the recorder sounds very different out of doors - an interesting observation. Maybe somebody should make a CD of recorders played out of doors.

Next trip - the Texas Toot, a weeklong workshop of early music.

Subject: RE: BS: a trip to Pennsylvania - part 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 12 - 11:46 PM

Keep us posted on your travels, leenia! And where in Texas are you headed for that Toot?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: a trip to Pennsylvania - part 2
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 14 May 12 - 12:49 PM

Austin. Southwest Airlines goes there, and you can check two bags at no extra cost. I'm going to refresh the thread.

I'm glad you liked hearing about our trip.

Another high point - we visited Crystal Cave, a cave which has been a family-operated attraction since 1971. We went through with a group of refreshingly innocent teenagers. It was fun seeing their reactions. I've seen more impressive caves elsewhere, but it was still worth visiting.

At one place in the cave, we could look up and trace a fault in rocks overhead. For the DH and me, both geologists, it was a moving thing to look up at an actual fault in the earth, in place, in beautiful shape, and from below. It was rather like seeing a wild animal in its habitat, rather than on TV or in the zoo.

If we think of the earth as an assembled structure, then a fault would be something like a hinge. In the cave, we had the chance to see "the hardware of the earth."

Subject: RE: BS: a trip to Pennsylvania - part 2
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 May 12 - 04:20 PM

This is so much fun to armchair travel with you. Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: a trip to Pennsylvania - part 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 May 12 - 04:36 PM

If you have time when you're in Texas, rent a car and drive west on I-10 to Sonora. The Caverns of Sonora are a sight to behold. It's a private cave with incredible formations; the entry charge is reasonable and the guides actually seem to know something about caves. (I once worked in a private cave in the Mammoth Cave area, but with my NPS Interpretive Naturalist background I researched and learned and did a regular professional tour. By the time I left I knew so much about caves that now I visit them to compare whenever I have a chance.) The state park at Longhorn Cavern, just north and west of Austin is also interesting, in a dry, carved out sort of way.

I loved driving through the narrow roads and small towns on various trips through Pennsylvania. One of the prettiest drives was along the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg up toward Williamsport in Lycoming County. I couldn't tell you exactly what I saw except forest and river, but I remember such pleasure at the countryside along there.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: a trip to Pennsylvania - part 2
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 May 12 - 09:10 AM

Thanks for sharing, SRS. I couldn't make the trip to Sonora the week of the Toot. It's about 200 miles one way, and that's just too far. I'll keep the caves at Sonora in mind for the future, though.