Kutztown,PA

When we were leaving the Ephrata area we were driving slowly by a commercial campground. I saw a guy standing in front of a house by the campground and felt certain I knew him so I stopped. It was Bob Walton. I had a sister ten years younger than me. Lyn died of cancer perhaps 15 years ago. Bobby was Lyn's husband!! He is the maintenance supervisor for the campground. Talk about a small world.

We spent the night at the French Creek State Park near Elverson, PA. Each state runs their campground differently. At a PA state park, every site is reservable so if you're like us, and you travel without reservations, you take your chances. In addition, dogs are only allowed in a handful of the sites. At 4:00 when we got to the park, there was only one "dog" site left. There were lots on "no dog" sites. Going forward, we'll avoid PA state parks. $28.50/night. The going rate at the commercial campgrounds near Ephrata was $41 to $47/night.

The drive from Ephrata to Kutztown was very pretty. Windy roads, rolling hills, woods , farms and the occasional small town. We passed by Daniel Boone's original homestead and a log cabin occupied by his grandfather. This is a beautiful part of PA.

Last night, Thursday, and tonight we're "camped" on the site of the "Antique & Collectors Extravaganza" in Kutztown, PA. The overnight parking is free and if you want to plug into electricity that costs $5/night; we went with the electric. We're not collectors of anything in particular but we both enjoy looking at all the very interesting things. Stuff that was simply thrown away when we were kids; milk bottles, Pez dispensers, containers of different types, on & on. I like looking at the specialized tools and household gadgets and trying to figure out just what they're for. The ingenuity of the creators of those highly specialized items really is amazing.
The vendors are an interesting group. Most seem to travel from show to show in an assortment of older vans and RV's. Of the six RV's camped with us, we're the only one who is not a part of the show. There is a woman who has to be well into her 70's who appears to live in a very old van. There is an electric cord dangling from the back boor so I guess she opted for the $5 charge. I overheard a conversation between vendors discussing the relative merits of the different venues. We enjoy just observing all the different ways people seem to have discovered to enjoy life. Reminds us of the very old women who was the campground host at a campground on Moosehead Lake, Maine. It was her & her dog living in a VW van. She had recently through-hiked the AT and was set up to canoe the Allagash Waterway with a group. This campground had hand-pumped water and pit toilets. That's it. No electric, no showers, etc. I tip my hat too her.

Some vendors settled in for the evening.

A womens home?

There is an Amish food stand here selling all sorts of wonderful things. Tonight for dinner we had chicken pot pie and "mud" pudding for desert. Wow.

In the morning, we move on. Our destination is the Allegheny National Forest. The ten day weather forecast if for highs in the upper 70's and lows in the 50's. Just what we're looking for.

I've been working with Ted Houghten on his public campground database. A few days ago we broke the 15,000 mark. Finding new ones has become very difficult. I'm not sure we'll get to 16k.

Our public library in Fort Pierce, through an affiliation with the Alachua County Library in Gainesville, FL, offers library books in an ePub format. Carol opened an account and now has free access to hundreds of books. It works much like a regular library. You check out a book and in seven days from checkout, the book magically disappears from your eBook reader. If the book you want has already been checked out, you get on the waiting list. When it's your turn for the book, you get an e-mail from the library. Amazing what doors technology opens. A year ago, we were both very skeptical about e-books, iWhatevers, etc. Now Carol has an iPad and I have a Verizon iPhone. What used to be of no consequence has become indispensable. Much like the GPS unit and cell phones and internet access.