On the Road Again!

Ken and I were up at 7:30 and did some clean-up in Waldo. We also called Samantha and sang "Happy 1st Day of School", since she starts 1st grade today.  She was excited and happy to talk to us.

 After breakfast, we brought in the slides and then started looking at maps and brochures to do some planning for our trip to Vermont after we leave Avalon, NJ around the 24th of September.  During that time we will also spend 2 days at LaChute, Quebec visiting Ernie and Noella.  Chuck and Melissa will be with us.

Around 10 the 4 of us took a walk around the CG and were amazed how many and the size of the sites throughout the park.  It really was a nice KOA!  After returning to Waldo, the 4 of us did some chatting about the time we will be together this fall and where we would like to go.  We are slowly getting some sort of itinerary, but it still needs to be perfected!!

By 11:30 we were both a the dump station (a favorite job of all campers) doing our thing and also hooking up the CRV for towing.  We were on our way to Ricketts Glen by noon for the under 50 mile drive.  It was a nice drive and we arrived at Pioneer CG by 1:00.

This is a private CG that Ken and I have stayed at 2X's before, once in Winnie and then in Willie.  The owners are such nice people and they run a 1st Class Operation!  So good to see them again. 

This is one of the signs from long ago! 

The office at Pioneer Campground and the owners home up above!

/We love our spacious sites and how it is so open

They gave us sites 29 and 30 which are perfect for folks who are traveling together because your rigs can be facing each other.  Ken and I had these same 2 sites with Doloris and Fred about 3 or 4 years ago.  It did take some time to get level, but we do appreciate having these adjoining sites.  By the time we were set-up it was 2:30, which seems to be our regular time for lunch.  We enjoyed eating together at the picnic table and after cleaning up decided to take a walk on the mile trail that goes behind the CG.  There are many beautiful ferns along the path and just a peaceful walk.  Ken decided to carve our initials on one of the trees - what a romantic!!!

These are beautiful, but no wonder people have allergy problems!\\

So pretty in blac and white!

So many ferns along the trail.

The campground owners do a great job of maintaining the path!

More ferns!

A nice place to sit and take in the beauty of nature!

Ken only had a very small pocket knife so it is hard to
make out the letters .

He worked hard on this project!

When we returned we sat outside and played a game of pinochle before making dinner.  After all, we had a really late lunch.  The women finally won a game of pinochle, the 1st time on this trip.  

Then it was 6:45 and time to grill.  Ken made salmon and chicken while I made us salads and some leftover corn.  After clean-up we headed to Chuck and Melissa's RV for a game of Skip-Bo (which the men won "big time") and then another round of Pinochle which the women won again.

We were back to Waldo by 9:45 and looking forward to hiking (we are taking poles, which makes it a hike and not a walk) the trail to all the waterfalls at Ricketts Glen.

Disappointing Day for Red Land at the Little League World Series!

Ken and I woke to 7 AM alarm, made a cooked breakfast, and packed drinks and our lunch to go to the Little League Finals today!  We loaded our "special chairs" and food and were on our way to the stadium in Gregory's CRV by 8:30.  

There was lots of traffic as we got close to the stadium, so we decided to go through South Williamsport and park behind the stadium.  The lines to get in were so short at the back entrance compared to the front - there were hundreds of people at that one.  We had found a great spot for seeing the game, but going up the steep hill was a challenge.  Because of all the young folks coming down the hills on pieces of cardboard, there were lots of "bald" spots on the hill and they were extremely slippery.  It was rather comical watching people try to sit on a blanket that kept sliding with them on it!  

It was another crowded day at the ballpark!

People, people, and more people - around 40,000 to be exact!

Mighty Casey with the Mudville Team!

The blimp "hung around" today for the games!

We watched the 1st game with Texas vs. Mexico and it was an exciting one with Texas being victorious and ending in 2nd place place for the National Championship and 3rd place in the Little League World Series.  That game had started at 10 and ended around 12:30.

Texas takes a "victory lap"!

Then they run back to greet their coaches!

Then they all did a slide!

We went back to the car to get our lunches and ate at a picnic table in a park adjacent to the parking lot.  By 1:45 we were back in the stadium to await the beginning of the 3:00 game with Red Land vs. Japan for the championship game of the Little League World Series.  By then it was sunny and very hot and our seats were totally in the sun.  

We passed the Red Land Team warming up outside the stadium and then followed the players and their coaches at they walked through the gate and onto the field.

Batting practice time!

Heading into the stadium for their final game!

Wow, the 1st inning was an exciting one.  Japan scored 2 runs and Red Land ended the inning with 10 runs.  Looked like a good outcome for their team.  Not to be!!!!!!!  Japan came back at the top of the 2nd inning and got 7 more runs to make the score 10 to 9.  The rest of the game was great for Japan, but not very good for Red Land who only scored 1 additional run and the game ended with Japan winning 18 to 11.  Still a great honor for Red Land to be the National Champions, but I am sure they were very disappointed to lose to Japan.

Introducing the Red Land and Japanese Teams!

The end of the game and a celebration for Japan!

Lots of hits and runs in the final game.  

By the time we left the stadium around 6:30, we were hot, tired, and hungry. We decided to stop for groceries on the way back to the CG since we are heading to Rickets Glen tomorrow and we aren't sure if we will be close to any stores.  So, it was 8:10 when we got back to the CG and the 4 of us were ready to eat and shower.  We decided to relax tonight and not play any games.  We will see each other in the morning and hope to leave this area around 10 AM tomorrow morning.

We have certainly enjoyed our time at the Little League World Series.  It really is a 1st class operation and event.

Exciting Day at the Little League World Series!

We had gone to sleep rather late last night (I turned off my light at 12:15) so we did not get up early today.  We actually only got out of bed around 8.  After showers and cooking breakfast, we started getting organized to head into South Williamsport for the International and the USA final games.  We were excited.

The four of us left the CG at 10:45 and drove to the stadium - lots of traffic.  We found a place to park and walked about 1/2 mile to the stadium where there was a long line waiting to gain admission.  You have to go through a metal detector and empty your bags and pockets and no aerosol cans are permitted.  With all the suntan lotion that was "confiscated" sitting on a table, no one should have entered the stadium without plenty of sunscreen.

Melissa and I thought we should wear shower caps in case of
rain and maybe extra toilet paper would be a good idea!

This is the line waiting to get into the games.  That brick building
is the Little League Museum!

No aerosol cans allowed in the stadium.  So, everyone was
putting on sunscreen that spectators had to leave behind when
entering the stadium.

We were told that people had gotten in line around midnight and "camped out" to get good seats today.  From 8 AM on there was a continuous line of folks waiting to get in.  It was crazy!  We were fortunate to get good seats up the steep hill looking directly towards home plate.  We had a great view of the in field, but were not able to see the outfielders.  It was a very hot day and we were in the sun the entire time!  We were at the games from 11:45 to 5:45 and enjoyed every minute.  Both the international (Mexico vs. Japan) and the USA games (Red Land from near Harrisburg and Texas) went "to the wire" with Japan and Red Land being victorious.  We left our seats 1/2 way through the international game to get a soda, bottle of water, 2 hot dogs, and a large bag of kettle corn.  That was our food and drinks for the entire day!  It was too hard to get up and down the hill and get through all the crowds.  We were part of a record setting day - 45,000 people attended the USA game, the most ever! Both games were "nail bitters", but fortunately the right teams won!  Both Japan and Red Land were undefeated coming into today's games and we were so happy they both got into the World Series Game tomorrow.  It should be an exciting one!

Our view of the field from our chairs on the steep hill!

What a great setting for the Little League stadium.

The Good Year Blimp was there for both games.

It was very hot and sunny and the "boys" didn't
want their faces or their necks to get sunburned!

Japan in the outfield!

One of the coaches for Texas who said he would shave his
dread locks if they would win the series!

Time for the National Anthem and the start of the USA
Championship game!

There are on about 3200 stadium bleachers and all the rest of
the spectators sit on the surrounding hills!

We could really see better than this photo shows!

This is the pitcher for Red Land!

Red Land wins in the bottom of the 6th inning!  So exciting! 

Let the celebration begin!

They are overjoyed!

We were back to the CG by 6:45 and decided to have a Happy Hour with margaritas (I had sangria) and some crackers and grapes.  We had a fun time talking about future trips and adventures we would like to do together including the remainder of our trip this September, October, and November.  We all feel that trips and adventures are enhanced when shared!

At 8:15 we decided we should have dinner and then get back together to play cards.  Ken sauteed onions, peppers and some meat to put on our salads while I worked on this blog and downloaded photos.  What a guy!

Over to Chuck and Melissa's motorhome to play cards from 9 to 10:30.  The women won Up the River!  Another memorable day!

A Trip to the Grand Canyon of PA!

Ken and I were up by 7:30, showered, and made a cooked breakfast.  Packed the bike bag and got ready for a drive to the Grand Canyon of PA for a bike ride on the Pine Creek Rail Trail.

We left the CG at 9:34 (obviously Ken picked the time) with the 4 bikes on our CRV and drove 1 3/4 hours to the parking lot at Rattlesnake Rock.  Ken and I had biked on this trail 2 other times the most recent in 2009.  We were excited to ride it again, as it is such a beautiful area.  We rode about 2 miles north to Blackwell and then turned around and headed south with our destination being Slate Run and the Manor Hotel for lunch.  Ken and I had stayed at that Hotel pre-camping days and thought the food was delicious.  Also we had eaten there in 2009 when we camped at Petticoat Junction CG in Winnie!

It was said that people canoeing by the large rock saw 30 rattlesnakes
sunning them and when they paddled by the smaller rock there
were rattlesnakes piled on top of each other and the pile was
the size of a bakeoven.

These are the large and small rattlesnake rocks!

On our way to Blackwell,

Great carving outside the store and ice cream shop
at Blackwell.  The restaurant and inn across the
street is no longer in business!

This was an unusual carving at the ice cream shop!

The ride from Blackwell to Slate Run was about 12 miles, so it was a very late lunch arriving there around 2.  The ride on the trail was as beautiful as I remembered, riding all along Pine Creek.  The whole trail is 63 miles and we did a total of 22 1/4 miles today. We had to stop on our way to lunch - Ken had a flat tire.  Ken and Chuck put air in the tube, but we had to stop again went it went flat for a 2nd time.  They tried air again, but the 3rd time they patched the tub.  From then on it was fine!

This really is a gorgeous trail!

You go over and through some interesting bridges....

....and through "tunnels" of trees!

Bike riding always seems more fun and easier when you are
with friends!

So calm, peaceful, and relaxing!

 We saw deer up close and personal at three different location along the trail.

This fawn did not appear to be frightened by us....

...nor did these 2!

After our delicious lunch on the large deck at Hotel Manor that overlooks Cedar Creek we rode to Cedar Run and stopped at the General Store for some delicious Perry Ice Cream.  Then we walked across the street to the Cedar Run Bed and Breakfast to watch the hummingbirds.  They are so interesting to watch, but very hard to capture on a photo - they move sooooo quickly.

What a great place to sit and enjoy lunch.  Ken and I shared
a pulled pork and a beef brisket sandwich.  They do their
own smoking at Hotel Manor and both sandwiches were
delicious.

So good to be with Chuck and Melissa again!

The happy foursome!

A view from the deck!

This was our view of Cedar Creek while we were eating!

This really is an old-fashioned General Store and the Perry
Ice Cream was delicious!

Ken took some great "shots" of the hummingbirds!

Not easy to get a photo of them actually flying!

Doesn't that look like glitter on his/her neck????

We were back to the CRV by 5:30, loaded the bikes and headed back to the CG. Did make a stop at Sheetz for gas and drinks, getting to the CG around 7:30.  I worked on my blog and did some clean-up in Waldo.  

Chuck and Melissa came to Waldo around 8:15 to play cards.   Men won Skip-Bo and Pinochle - what is that about????  We finished around 10:30.  This was another special day.