Monday, October 27, 2008
Jim Thorpe Fall Foliage Festival
My husband's father and step-mother used to live in Jim Thorpe and we would visit them quite often. We always drove through this area and never stopped to look around. We were finally able to do that recently and enjoyed it so much that we plan on going back when they have their Christmas Festival.
This first picture is the foliage on the way to Jim Thorpe aka Mauch Chunk.
In the center of this picture, you can see the town nestled in the mountainous area. Welcome to The Switzerland of America:
This picture shows part of the town in the background which is in the previous picture. The road we are on is long and steep and circles into the main part of town, following the curvature of the river, where the festival was being held.
This is coming into the main part of town. And the excitement builds.
As we were driving around looking for a place to park, we passed this house that caught my eye. It is purple and lavender; I have no idea the significance behind the colors. It is much prettier in person.
The clock tower is on the courthouse. The building to its left is The Inn.
These are scattered throughout the town.
Our first order of business after finding a place to park our very-large-truck-that-it's-hard-to-find-parking, was to find a place that sold coffee. This was our first stop. It's an old home converted into this shop. Very quaint and quiet.
Here is where we settled to have our much-needed coffee. Peaceful. I could have stayed there all day. But then I wouldn't get to see the rest of the festival.
This is St. Mark's Episcopal Church, built in 1867 and dedicated in 1869. The church is laid out in the form of a cross. We arrived too late for the last tour so hopefully we will be able to do that in the future.
This is the train station. They offer rides every hour on the hour in October. The train consists of 1920's old-style coaches. The ride lasts an hour and takes in 16 miles of scenic country. We missed out on the train ride too, but we can go back anytime for that.
This is called Packer Row. It consists of many shops. It's named after the Packer family. There is a mansion that we didn't even get near but could see from a distance, where Asa Packer lived. Asa built the Lehigh Valley Railroad and also founded Lehigh University in nearby Bethlehem. He was a congressman, a judge, was in the state legislature, and a nominee for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States in 1868. He also ran for Governor in 1869. Quite the resume.
We had a fairly full day and enjoyed every minute of it. Instead of going home the usual way, we decided to take the scenic route. We traveled through towns with names like Nesquehoning, Normal Square, Coaldale, Tamaqua, just to name a few. When we got to Lehighton, we stopped at a diner and had pork and sauerkraut. A great way to cap off a wonderful day.
posted by Cheyenne at 7:05 PM comment(s) made:
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Sunday, October 26, 2008
Up To Speed Bullet-Wise
- A post on our trip to see the fall foliage with photos is forthcoming.
- Also, stay tuned for my post(s) with photos on our basement mess that would have made any lab fiend happier than you-know-what. The restoration team will be back Monday and that will be their last day here.
- As a result of our basement fiasco, we now have that entire basement to do with as we wish. We chose to use it for storage. My husband will paint the walls and the floor and with the other plans we have discussed, it should keep us fairly busy over the winter months.
- We have three more kittens, but we lost two older cats in the street in front of our house because people drive like it's a racetrack. One of the new kittens is an orange striped tiger that was 4 weeks old when its mother brought it onto our deck for food, water and shelter. We call it Critter. My husband says it looks like a pumpkin with four legs and a stubby tail. The other two kittens were born Friday in the dog house on the deck. They are Mini-Me's second litter. She is the image of her mother, thus her name.
- That is the extent of the past four weeks and the basement has been the main reason for my not posting as much as I would have liked to. It has kept us on our toes, to say the least. The worst is behind us, and the best is yet to come. I hope.
posted by Cheyenne at 12:24 AM comment(s) made:
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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Michael Johns @ AMS
Michael will be singing the National Anthem Sunday, October 26th, before the Pep Boys Auto 500 race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
You may remember him as a contestant on American Idol earlier this year. I was very sad to see him leave the show after being lowest in votes. I'm still not over it.
He is from Perth, Australia and I could listen to him talk (and sing) all day. And he is so very easy on the eyes, too. Now that the American Idol 2008 tour is over, he can concentrate on his career. I definitely will purchase his first CD when it hits the stores.
posted by Cheyenne at 12:05 AM comment(s) made:
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Sunday, October 19, 2008
Congratulations Dale Jr!
...for finishing second in the Tums QuikPak 500 at Martinsville VA today.
The race was won by teammate Jimmie Johnson; teammates Jeff Gordon and Casey Mears finished fourth and sixth respectively.
A great day for Hendrick Motorsports!
posted by Cheyenne at 7:21 PM comment(s) made:
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Proverbs 15:16
Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.
posted by Cheyenne at 1:17 AM comment(s) made:
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Friday, October 17, 2008
Coming Soon: The Tale of Our Basement
Things are still ongoing down there and the pictures Ive taken so far are still in my camera. I have more pictures to take, but once the clean-up people are finished I will be writing about our misfortune. It will be in segments as there is just too much that happened to make it all in one post. Waaaaay too much that happened. My brain is still processing everything and I have yet to put one word on paper, but when I do start it will just flow out. Yeah, sort of like the basement...
posted by Cheyenne at 3:26 PM comment(s) made:
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008
2008 Mountain Speedway Champion
On October 5th, my daughter's significant other won his 7th race of the season and also won the championship for his division at Mountain Speedway in the Pocono foothills.
They don't allow the drivers that win championships to continue in that same division the following year, so he is already working on the car he will be using in 2009 in the next level.
Jeff is a very dedicated and determined young man, so I know he will do great next year. And my daughter is behind him 100% and that means a lot.
(I apologize for the small photo. It was taken from the website of the speedway and that's the best they could offer.)
posted by Cheyenne at 1:05 AM comment(s) made:
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Sunday, October 12, 2008
Scott Speed ~ ARCA Champion 2008 ~ Not
That's how it was supposed to end. Scott Speed was supposed to wrap up the 2008 ARCA Championship Sunday. But Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had other ideas. You see, Ricky was second in the points going into Sunday's race. He wanted the championship. So what did he do? He wrecked Scott. Ricky must be under Carl Edwards' wing, as they both are employed by Roush-Fenway Racing. Neither plays fair when it comes to racing for a championship. Just ask Carl.
I absolutely love that Scott Speed retaliated against Stenhouse, though. That was a thing of beauty for these tired eyes to behold. You go Scott. You give what you get. And he did. But it also took him out of the running for the championship and he finished third in the points. But that's OK. It was worth it. To me anyway.
Who won the ARCA Championship? Justin Allgeier, that's who. He was third in points at the start of the race and with both drivers in front of him taking each other out, Justin was at the right place at the right time. He also won the race.
Scott may have lost the championship, but he did what I wish a lot of other drivers would do when they are purposefully wrecked. He retaliated. I love retaliation.
posted by Cheyenne at 5:07 PM comment(s) made:
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2 Corinthians 2:14
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
posted by Cheyenne at 12:46 AM comment(s) made:
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Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Still Mired In Deep Sh*t
Day one of the cleanup is over and we are now going into day two. It isn't easy. There is a crew of three to get it done. They wear white suits with baggies on their shoes. Their heads and faces are covered most times. They look like a bio-hazard crew.
Everything that was in our basement was touched in a way by those mildew/mold spores that grew like wildfire. Very little was salvaged. Sheetrock, T-1-11, studding, two rooms partitioned off, rugs, ceiling tiles, insulation behind the Sheetrock, T-1-11, and above the ceiling tiles...all going to the dump. We will be left with a bare-bones basement, the same as it was when we moved here.
And now I know what it feels like to go back into a home that was hit by Katrina. We have/had the same thing here in our own basement, without the hurricane. What a mess. I will have pictures and more when we are straightened out and on the other side of the hill going down. For now, it is all uphill and quite an overwhelming battle.
posted by Cheyenne at 12:05 AM comment(s) made:
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Saturday, October 04, 2008
Ride With Dale Jr
This is the paint scheme for Dale Jr's car Sunday Oct. 5th in the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega. There are supposedly 73,000 fans' names all over the car. I say supposedly because initially there were to be 70,000. They must have found room for 3,000 more.
Both my and my husband's name is on the car. Mine is on the roof (in red) at the bottom of the first 8, and my husband's name is (in white) right behind the left front wheel well (driver's side).
It is a great honor to be riding with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and all those other JR Nation fans.
posted by Cheyenne at 7:18 PM comment(s) made:
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Thursday, October 02, 2008
Sorry I haven't been around much this week. I tried reading as many other blogs as I could and I haven't been leaving many comments.
There are a lot of issues going on right now with this house. I mentioned recently that we went to Lowe's and bought shower doors for the tub and shower. Everything was prepped but when my husband took the box apart and saw the framework, he said no way did he want to get involved in it since it was exactly the same as what we just had. And that turned into a mess after less than 10 years. This is the type of framework that does not sit flush with the wall or the top of the tub. We are now in the process of having to take them back and start all over again to find just exactly what we want. Kohler is the way we are going as far as the manufacturer but there are certain things I want and don't want. We have it narrowed down to one model and now the problem is trying to find it. We will probably have to order it at Lowe's. Meanwhile, we are having to tolerate a vinyl curtain hanging inside the tub.
The other issue going on is that our electric pump for the well has decided it doesn't want to work properly right now. Therefore, our basement is flooded and everything we had on the basement floor is ruined. That doesn't make me too upset since most of the things down there I could have lived without even when they were still dry and untouched by water. For the most part, I will now get my years-long wish and everything will be going out for junk. Finally. But that is not the way I wanted it to happen. Which is why it has taken us so long to make up our minds to get rid of it in the past. Now, we don't have a choice...as the choice was made for us.
So if I am not posting here for a bit or leaving comments at other blogs, please forgive me. Once we get these two huge issues resolved, maybe I can get back to doing what I like to do: write. Please be patient.
posted by Cheyenne at 3:36 PM comment(s) made:
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