- Friday: Beth was a great hostess. She told me about a great place to camp (Black Moshannon State Park) and drove out to meet me there, which worked out
perfectly, without the help of cell phones: she pulled in to the campground right behind me! I got to show off my camper and she helped me figure
out how to run the propane furnace, then we took a short but pretty walk along the water at the park.
Since it was Halloween, we took both cars into town so she could head for a costume party (dressed as "Ms. Scarlett in the Kitchen with a Knife) after dinner.
We went to one of her favorite places (Otto's). I had a
wonderful chicken sandwich with fresh green beans, and a lovely dark beer made on-site. Beth headed home to dress, and
I dropped in to visit Lynn (the sister of Dave, my California friend) and her husband Chris. They had done their house up big-time for Halloween so I got to enjoy
the holiday after all. I enjoyed touring their house with its large collection of interesting collections,
including Barbie dolls and trolls, puzzles and original art, Christmas ornaments and books. We had some hot tea, listened to some of Chris' music,
and said goodnight in time for me to get settled in and warm on the mountain.
- After a good night's sleep, I drove to Beth's house on Saturday morning. We went to breakfast at the Waffle Hut (I think that was the name; definitely not
the Waffle House). There was a long (but fast moving) line, so I decided to go ahead and open a box that Dave had sent to Beth's address (with CDs of Mac updates
that I needed). The whole line reacted (but I actually yelped) with surprise when it sprung open from the force of one
of those "snakes in a can" that he had arranged. That finished waking us up, for sure. Breakfast was yummy, especially the bacon, which I have not been
cooking in the camper. We decided to spend that day on campus and in town, which was great. It was good to see the space that Beth occupies everyday. She's
found a good spot, I think, even though she's looking to get back "down south" in the near future.
After walking for hours, we decided that we had earned another State College speciality: Meyer's Ice Cream! They had my favorite: cherry, of course.
On the way we stopped at the statue of the women
who originated Memorial Day and got the "required visitor's photo" that you see on this page. Beth's gotten really good at setting this up, hasn't she?
Then we went back to Beth's place, visited a bit with her roommate and ate some supper before I headed back for another sound sleep on the mountain.
- Sunday I spent the morning working on my camper organization (an on-going task) while Beth was at church. For lunch, we went to another of
her "show off" places, a great little pizza place whose name I've forgotten... but even if it hadn't been the first pizza I'd had in months, I would've agreed that it was GREAT.
The weather was great, so we decided to hike up Mt. Nittany. At the bottom, I studied the trail map and suggested that we take the
longer and gentler path to the top, which was new to Beth so we got to explore it together. As we neared the top, there was an intersection of trails, and suddenly we
were in a crowd of people - most of whom Beth knew! What fun, to serendipitously meet people who are important in her life... and it gave us people we could ask
to take photos for us :-)
- Monday was a workday for Beth, so I just took off for New Jersey that morning.
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