Sunday, July 3rd

Not much activity in the park today. One guy showed up to paint the house and one guy was blasting away with a 22 at the firing range. I talked to the painter about the house. It was built about 1880 by the farmer who owned the property where the fairgrounds is today.
The campground hostess walked down to say hello. When I called last week to see if there was room in the campground over the 4th, she answered the phone. After she had spoken, I said, "You're not from PA are you". She answered, "No sir, I'm from Mississippi". No surprise there. I enjoy hearing the southern accent; it reminds me of home. As we travel the Country, we're always running into the different regional accents. Sometimes I need to listen real carefully to understand what's being said but have no problem understanding Mississippi. A year of so ago, we were in Canada. I was talking to a Canadian camping neighbor and said I was still brushing up on my Canadian. Eh? He said the "Eh?" was actually a very localized expression. It almost surely meant the speaker was from Ontario and probably not far from Toronto. Interesting.

The American Nomad


I asked the campground lady what brought her to PA. Her husband is a Cherokee Indian and they have a house in Oklahoma. By trade, he's a truck driver and she's a secretary. Not much work where they live in OK so they work on pipeline construction projects all across the country. Right now there is a natural gas line being built nearby. The park is being used as a staging/supply/living area. She works part time for the pipeline company and part time as the campground hostess. In return for hosting, they get a free campsite.
Later in the day, a couple from Georgia stopped by to chat. He saw my Florida Gator license plate when we drove in. He's also working the pipeline. He said in GA, it's not easy to find a job that pays much above minimum wage so they go where the good jobs are. This job should last until next summer. Neither he nor his wife, have ever lived in a cold & snowy place and are sort of excited but also apprehensive about it.
Last year we were in South Dakota and ran into the same thing. There is an oil boom in the Dakotas. People from all over the country head there for work.
One benefit of high oil & natural gas prices is the large number of good paying jobs created.

Today was cleaning & maintenance day. I even gave the camper a bath to get off most of the bugs & road grime. The washing turned out to be a double edged sword. The camper's clean, but the water is so hard, it left water spots everywhere as it dried. When we get home, the polish will remove the spots. When we're traveling, once a week everything gets cleaned & all mechanical and automotive systems inspected.


Another wonderful day, including the weather.