Well, we were supposed to go to Niagara Falls after Boston, but it just doesn't want to quit snowing there. We don't really feel like pulling a 9000 lb 34 ft trailer through snow and ice, so on Tuesday we headed south again retracing our route through New England and across the Tappan Zee Bridge. We went south through New Jersey and headed west into Pennsylvania. We made it west of Harrisburg in a little town called Bedford, PA. We had called ahead to a campground to see if they had space and they did, so we programmed the GPS to get us there. Well, we followed the directions down a road that came to a one lane covered bridge. What is it with PA and one lane bridges??? Well, we thought we met the height requirement, and so into the bridge we went. We made it ok and we were just about over the excitement when the road we were on turned to gravel, and then dirt. We checked the GPS and we were on the correct road. Well we went a little further and got a little more nervous and found a spot we could turn around in, and so we did. After studying the map some more, I found an alternate route and we found the campground.
It was beautiful, right between a small lake and the Juniata River. As soon as we were set up, the ducks came to visit us, and so we gave them some stale bread and made friends. Then we went for a walk down the other end of the dirt road that was supposed to connect with were we had been on the other side of the campground. Well we walked around and for a while, it looked as if that dirt road did go all the way to the road and the covered bridge, until we came to a creek and couldn't find the road. Well, it was very muddy, so Dad didn't want to cross the creek, but I really wanted to see if I could find the road on the other side, so I hopped over without event. I did indeed find the road we had been on, but there was no place where it crossed the creek and so clearly we had been right to turn around. So then I tried to rejoin everyone else on the other side of the creek, but I had walked a bit and wasn't in the same place and it was even muddier here. I tried to jump it, but my foot sank down about 12 inches into the mud when I jumped and the muddy bank schlupped up my shoe right off my foot. It did wrestle the shoe out of the mud, but it wasn't wearable and I still had to walk back to the campground. I was wet and muddy and starting to get cold, but we were all laughing pretty hard. I walked for a while with one shoe, but when the dirt road turned to gravel, I was having a rough time of it with no shoe on the gravel. My knight in shining armor made me a shoe out of tree bark and vines, but it only lasted about 10 steps. Then he valiantly took off his sweatshirt and tied it around my poor shoeless foot and we all walked back to camp.
PA waterways have not been kind to this poor family.
We got up early the next morning and got back on the turnpike towards Indiana. I was snoozing and missed the welcome signs to West Virginia and Ohio. It started raining pretty hard in Ohio and that wasn't much fun. We made it to Indianapolis about mid afternoon just in time for thunderstorms and tornado warnings. On the radio we heard that a tornado had touched down about 30 miles north of us. The radio said people should get in their basements, and if they were in a mobile home or trailer they should find a tornado shelter or go outside and find a low place or ditch and lay down. Well, I may only have one shoe, but I aint laying in no ditch, I'll take my chances with the munchkins on the yellow brick road.
All was well, and though a trailer in the campground lost an awning, we survived just fine. We woke up on Thursday morning to find it snowing though, oh well.
No comments:
Post a Comment