30 Jun: Today we woke up at our normal 8:30 to discover that Jim and Joni were up and eager for breakfast at the Mt. Airy Inn (cllick here.) The Inn did a marvelous job on our egg white veggie omelets. They are our new favorite Mt. Airy breakfast place. Jim then preferred to go for an all-day ride instead of having help with projects on the farm. And ride we did, all the way to Washington County (where my Sweeney/ McSweeney ancestors still await more serious research) and up to the Pen-Mar Park that both Cynthia and I remember from our AT hike in 2016. Ron even remembered a store near the B & B we enjoyed overnight one night on our hike. The garishly painted rock in the photos is High Rock, a local landmark (click here.) The AT drops precipitously down a very rocky route from this vantage. This was Joni's first ride of the season, so she was getting her skills refreshed by following Jim on his favorite twisty roads in their neighborhood. Following Jim and Joni makes for a very pleasant and scenic ride. We saw pretty view after pretty view of Maryland landscapes. Only one road turned to dirt part way, but this was one wonderfully maintained dirt road. Our thanks to those road grader operators. Dinner was again at the Mt. Airy Inn and they fed us well in the evening too.
 |
| Smooch and SmoochSmooch at High Rock (near Pen-Mar Park) |
 |
| Jim & Joni, thanks for leading us on a lovely motorcycle ride. |
 |
| View from the edge of the rock |
29 Jun: Despite the bike being first in line, work did not begin until Ron was physically present to sign the contracts. Bob said that this was the only time the owner has not been present with the bike on Saturday first-come first-served; since other riders were present and waiting, they were served first. The hotel clerk was adamant that Ron was not to walk and arranged with another employee to give him a ride to the shop. The bike didn’t get rolled in for service until after 1:30 PM. The good news was the tire was fine. The nail hadn’t penetrated. Ron returned to the hotel to pick up Cynthia at five PM, and we no sooner started than raindrops fell and we returned to the hotel to wait out another 10-minute shower before going to Jim and Joni's. From their place in Mt. Airy, Jim drove us to the Ruby Tuesday in Westminster where we were able to eat salads to our hearts content. Jim and Joni retire even earlier in the evening than we do !!
28 Jun: Yup, today we roll out of Philadelphia. Packing, cleaning and recycling was finally complete and we managed to be on the road by Noon-thirty. It is hot! Ron created a plan, and we almost stuck to it, except for one wrong turn. We again took the back roads through Conshohocken and turned onto I-476 N. We missed the turn onto I-76 west and had to turn around, Ron's only miscue of the day. US 202 W & S to R on PA 826 W for a bit (W Street Road), then onto Creek Road, a lovely side road through Brandywine's provincial, pastoral estates (horsey farms). Ron was surprised how near the end of that road was to I-95 south. We found a Ruby Tuesday restaurant south of Wilmington on DE Highway 1 (in Bear, Delaware.) After eating, we took DE 1 south, until we accidentally turned west a little sooner than planned at Smyrna on Delaware 6 (instead of later on DE 8). We crossed into Maryland, wandering through fertile agricultural farms and some corn fields boasting stalks well over six feet high. Finally, we reached US 301 south. The highlight was crossing the Delaware Bay Bridge; the view of the bay was breathtaking, but the dark, ominous clouds and vivid lightning display ahead really captured our attention. Just after crossing the bay, the rain started, and Ron took the first exit and pulled into the BMW Annapolis auto dealer to wait out the storm. The rain stopped in half an hour, and after another half hour, we arrived dry at our Marriott hotel off Maryland Highway 32. Ron dropped off the bike at Bob’s BMW (click here) in preparation for tomorrow’s 48,000-mile service, and to replace a tire because ours has a nail poking out of the tread. The walk back was a comfortable 1.7 miles on wide roads.
27 Jun: Aaaaghh, Ron is finally realizing that we need to be riding the motorcycle tomorrow. The tire is still holding air pressure, so that is less worrisome. That nail convinced Ron to route us through Delaware to Bob's instead of through Baltimore. The biggest concern with Baltimore is the harbor tunnel. A flat tire on a motorcycle there would be very risky. Unbeknownst to Ron, the Delaware Bay Bridge also has no break down lane.
 |
| Cynthia has beautified the entrance with a few flowers. |
26 Jun: Another day, another Smooch. We leave Friday, and it is coming down to the wire about packing and recycling. Still, we slept beautifully last night and woke up rested and happy. Ron took photos again this morning in more consistent light (fewer shadows obscuring text.) The walk to Fresh Market provided a sanity relief. This morning and afternoon, the confirming of source citations came to a successful end, although there are still several sources left to find and several cryptic references to decrypt. Cynthia has declared herself "finished" typing families into Family Tree Maker. Ron is now running OCR on the photos while blogging before our evening walk. Oops, OCR finished, time to start the backup and walk.
25 Jun: Today even Ron is beginning to feel the need to pack. We leave Friday, and there is still so much computer work to do. And today Ron's MacBook was terribly slow at first, so Ron shut it down, rebooted, and watched with dismay as the striped screen showed up again and again. Fooey, so Ron went home to do a few things while the computer restarted and restarted until it was warm enough to work again. Thank God it is working fine again. Kim showed up early to work and John showed up just in time to join us at McMenamin's to drink lunch. After lunch, Ron went to the house to photograph the 77 documents that he would like to ship back to Texas. Next step is to see if the results are readable; fair, but shadows obscure too many things. Cynthia opted to not walk this evening; her feet hurt and she has a headache from all the typing and concentrating.
24 Jun: Good grief, we started June just a couple of days ago. Smooch? This evening we enjoyed a delightful dinner at La Loconda in Newtown at Sally's suggestion. We were joined by Herb & Zofia and by John. The conversation was very amusing as Herb was quickly affected by the alcohol and quite bemused by his struggle to find and pronounce words. Amusing to us all, especially since Herb's condition was not at all intoxicated, just slightly affected and very bemused. Ron is so very proud that he selected a wonderfully traffic-free route for a Monday rush hour. Here it is: Stenton Ave W to L on Hillcrest Ave S to R on Germantown Ave W to L on Church St to Harts Lane to R on Barron Hill Road to L on E Hector St to R on Walnut wiggle L & R & L to W on Fayette St crossing Schuylkill to R on Matsonford Rd to L on King of Prussia Road to R on Radnor-Chester Rd to R on Sinkler Dr to L on Iven St. into Church Road into Brooke Rd to R on Derby-Paoli Rd to L on St. David's Rd to L onto PA 252 S to R on Goshen Rd 2.5 miles to L on Marlborough Rd to L on Providence to corner of West Chester Pike. When we arrived at the restaurant, Ron noticed a very shiny slot 5/16" long lying in one of the grooves of the rear tire. He examined more closely to discover a shiny nail filed down and polished by the roadway. This is not a good discovery, but the tire was still inflated, so we rode home the way we came.
23 Jun: Sunday: LTSP Lutheran. (Google finds us with that.) Good grief, we started June just a couple of days ago. After worship, we wallyworlded, then we packed. Almost. In the evening, we rode to Scoogi's for dinner and so that Ron could air the tires up to 42 lbs as recommended.
 |
| Loren and Jon a few years ago |
22 Jun: Happy Birthday to our granddaughter Lauren. Ron and Cynthia are again at the Archives working. Ron got on the stick and made plans to take our motorcycle in for service at Bob's BMW in Jessup, Maryland early next Saturday. (Saturdays there are first come, first served.) It looks like we will pack to leave Friday, stay at a hotel overnight, and visit Jim & Joni Saturday and Sunday. Goodie, goodie.
21 Jun: Despite the fact that we have been awaking early, Cynthia is well rested and sleeping well. Thank God. Life is Good. Another day indistinguishable from every other except that John had a visitor from Australia, so we got to listen to Austrailiaisms. She was quite a delight and joined us at McMenamins, where she was surprised by the size of her hoagie.
20 Jun: We are again awake early enough to spend lots of the day at the Archives. Today Ron has Linda and her husband as company. Damp sidewalks & roads dissuaded us from taking Cynthia to LabCorps early, but towards noon everything dried our and we rode the motorcycle 20 blocks to get her tests. Wouldn't you know that it rained a few drops on us as we started. We were disappointed at Fresh Market that the salad bar is still kaput. It is now repaired, but the staff had not stocked the veggies yet and estimated an hour until the bar would be open. So we walked across the street to the hotel and ate salads there. Ron continues to work through the next pile of source citations.
TRUE STORY:
Cynthia was dismayed walking into a cloud of fruitflies hovering over the bananas in the kitchen. She complained A LOT, "How do they get in the house?"
Ron's empathetic reponses, "Fruitflies have a very short lifespan, like hours." and later, "Fruitflies come with the bananas from Mexico."
Cynthia then inquired, "If their lifespan is so short, how did they survive the trip from Mexico to the kitchen?"
Ron, "They reproduce!"
Cynthia, "You mean they have sex on the bananas?"
Ron delivered the punch line, "God said to be fruitful and multiply."
There is NEVER A DULL MOMENT!
19 Jun: What happened to the 18th? We forgot to blog. Today we woke up waaaay too early, 6 AM, and were at the Archives too early, got lots done, and now it is time to go for our evening walk. The forecast torrential rains never materialized. No Kim, no John, so we walked to Fresh Market and enjoyed salads again, but with special service. The refrigerated salad bar was busted, and the repair person (a woman!) had formerly been a manager, so she brought down the fixings from the refrigerator for us to select our meals. What Service !!
18 Jun: Over lunch at the Chestnut Hill Inn we enjoyed a marvelous conversation with Ron and Nancy. Cynthia and Nancy discovered that they are artistic soulmates. Ron and Ron find each other amusing, so it is a good match. Ron (me) caught up on neglected e-mails today and was surprised to learn that two new packages had been requested last December. Apparently that notification disappeared into the ether.
17 Jun: Back at it at the Archives and Microsoft Word has just choked again and opened about 50 copies of previously saved backups, most of which are weeks or months old. I really need to figure out how to clean out all those old backups before they choke me again. MIT friend Joel also walked to Fresh Market to join us for lunch. Much good humor & good conversation. The solution to the Wor backups is to occasionally close Word.
16 Jun: Tidings of Peace, York, PA. Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers in our world. It was wonderful to see our Trail friends again, Pappa Bear and the Preacher Boys. Mary Lois was very surprised to see me. Cynthia had apparently passed by her without notice and was already talking with Clayton further inside the church. Our surprise was to see Kevin and Naomi instead of Trevor and Austin. Clayton delivered a marvelous sermon about being blessed with cancer; we should thank God for everything, even if it isn't what we might choose for ourselves.
15 Jun: LTSP needs another word to encourage Google to find our location. 9:30 AM into Archives on a Saturday. Thank you, Michael, for opening the door for us. Now I get to spend one more day on James Lea, after checking e-mails and figuring out the route to York for this evening. I did already plant the compost and was rewarded to see that compost from a month ago is already becoming soil. Our 6:00 PM ride to York, PA was crazy when we accidentally turned East instead of West. That mislabeled entrance onto I-76 south at Conshohocken has bitten us before; it takes suckers south for 7 miles before there is an exit. Once we retraced our steps and were oriented westbound the Philadelphia cityscape soon disappeared. Approaching Lancaster, PA, the setting sunlight cast marvelous shades of rich green, gold and yellow like a tapestry on fields and hillsides. My heart smiled to see the iconic Amish farms. So, too, to see and hear an Amish buggy clopping along, plus an Amish wagon filled with a group of young cap-clad girls, giggling loud enough to be heard. A restroom stop provided amusement as two very young Amish boys and their dad, all three wearing identically perfect straw hats, opened their eyes wide in astonishment to see Cynthia in helmet. The youngest boy was so frightened that he backed back into the restroom to hide behind his dad. We were in Amish country. Continuing afterwards, strong smells filled the air as we rode close to a cattle yard. Cynthia was unimaginably delighted to be in a clean hotel room with a king sized bed.
14 Jun: This morning we awoke early and were at the Archives before my pill alarm rang at 9 AM (ain't retirement wonderful?) I've asked my sistah if she will be my emergency contact for my passport application and started truncating a package for Sandra, but now I wanna work on James Lea until noon. Time flies - seems like only yesterday that we were creating a new blog post for June, and it is already half gone. Cynthia's birthday month approaches posthaste. John P. showed up today and joined us for lunch at Fresh Market. He really enjoyed the salad and soup, so he might join us there again in the coming weeks (two) that we are all still here. And YAY for the beautiful weather enticing us to walk the Wishahickon trail in the woods.
13 Jun: We hit the Archives running late after sleeping until 8:30. Sally B and Kim-Eric joined us for lunch at McMenamins. The hummus is delicious, although Ron always prefers a 22-oz Hefeweizen or two. Afterward, he walked to the house twice, once for oatmeal and once for pineapple and mango. Our evening walk was prevented by a horrendous rainstorm with flash flood warnings. Two weeks to go until our ride to hike the summer in Killington, Vermont, so we need to start thinking about cooking beans and lentils and using up other supplies. Ron needs to get his recycling and composting acts together soon - - - but first, genealogy calls.
12 Jun: Cynthia is disappointed with her attempt to discover the four James Lea signatures. The NC Archives sent her a 1771 petition and proposal to partition Orange County, NC and establish a new county named Warrick upon which is written: "Rejected." Lots of signatures, but only one James Lea (probably her ancestor.) She had asked for the petition to create Caswell. Eureka !! Larry showed up and asked to go to lunch; Ron is now eating pretzels to absorb alcohol. This evening 7ish we had dinner plans at Jansen’s with Ron’s MIT alum, Eric, but were very disappointed that Eric was under the weather after a week-long round of doctors visits, so he opted for a nap instead of dinner. We wish him well. Dinner at Jansen was fabulous, as always. (We wonder what those very tasty, little green veggies were.)
11 Jun: Lunch at McMenamins with Kim and John. Ron forgot to blog whilst inebriated, but this is soon after sobering. Ron is tooooo funny!!!!
10 Jun: Already !! We have a dinner date tonight and rain is forecast, so I am leaving ASAP to attempt to get there before the rain starts. Wish me luck. We were out of luck to ride the motorcycle to Scoogi's because of the rain she fell. Pastor Dave and Susan gave us a ride to avoid the rain and enjoy a lovely dinner with delightful company. Susan is beautiful and a fine, fun conversationalist.
 |
| Bagpipes in an enclosed space are LOUD !! |
8 Jun: LTSP in the AM. John & Jim working today, so the outlook for drinking lunch is great. Cynthia voice a preference to walk to salads, so Ron might enjoy TWO lunches today. Nope, Cynthia chose to join us at McMenamin's, but I did get to drink two (2) 22-oz hefeweizens. Now I've been over to the house to eat a bit more salad and leftover potato to help with the sobriety and am ready to resume working on James Lea - - after another DNA search for Pat.
7 Jun: Somehow we jumped from Tuesday (yesterday) to Friday (today). And that's a good thing. Everyone loves Fridays. The twos of us completed recent projects, and now Ron is back hardly working on James Lea (Cynthia's book). Cynthia, OTOH, finished creating a database with a trillion kazillion names from the Forefather Profiles. We enjoyed lunch at McMenamin's with John T. (Oops, Ron forgot to blog whilst inebriated.) It is almost seven PM and time to leave the Archives for our evening walk on the recently discovered Wissahickon trail. It was cool in the shade of the "forest."
6 Jun: LTSP. And here we are, Tuesday. Ron has finished his receipts, and no one else has shown up, so it looks like Cynthia and I will be walking to Fresh Market for lunch again. Ron wrote card #4 today, so only a card to Trevor left before mailing Shank cards off. (Note: the editor in the wings reminding Ron it is Thursday) We started towards salads, and the skies opened up and the rain poured. Ron opted to pause under the dense trees needing clipping and clipped. Cynthia's raincoat covers her to the knees, so she was OK. Evening walk around campus was deliciously fragrent, and the walk in the woods was again delightful.
5 Jun: LTSP. Today again. Apparently, Kim-Eric isn't showing up today, so in half an hour we will brave the forecast heat to walk to Fresh Market. Ron has finished finding sources for the Clements package and is taking a break before deciding what to do next. The heat walking to and from Fresh Market wasn't so bad. Ron has been losing weight (now below 172), so he needs to eat more. Isn't that a lovely predicament? I think we will take our evening stroll in the woods again today. See you tomorrow.
4 Jun: LTSP. Today again, a second cool day. Apparently, it is not a Doll meeting day, so we will walk to Fresh Market at 1 PM to feed us. Hurrah, John has shown up and is willing to walk to McMenamins. Ron's alcoholism is resuscitated. Two beers a week constitutes alcoholism, right? Smooch, Smooch, I love you. And a fine time was had by all the survivors. Despite the background noise and Ron's alcoholic fog, a good communication was enjoyed. In the evening we enjoyed a nice walk in the woods nearby - quite the surprise to find such a place so close to LTSP.
 |
| Da Beauties as photographed by Brita A. |
 |
| Ron between Jean and Susan (before thunder & sprinkle) |
 |
| Ron and Cynthia and Dean |
 |
| Dedication following the ribbon cutting |
