Dingmen's Falls-Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

      About 15 miles from Outdoor World Timothy Lake RV Resort is Dingman's Falls in the Delaware National Recreation Area, part of Delaware National Park. One nice Fall day we decided to check out the falls. We had to wait till the Government shut down was over to visit the falls. It was a perfect Fall day.  We were in for a great site for our eyes.

Note the different size in the leafs

Silver Thread Falls

The main waterfalls

Part of the many many stairs to the top. After getting about half way up, I remember I just got out of the hospital and was suppose to take it easy. So I took my time back down. But I was feeling quite good.

This photo was taken from the stairway.

A quit pool

I wonder who lifes in here

Falling leaves and the great boardwalk That is along about 85% of the walk to the falls.

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Our New Verizon Smart Phones

      Sometime this week we hope to have a class on our new "smart phones".  There are so many features on these phones we can do other then make a call.  We have to go to school to learn some of them. Friends Dianna and Jerry from our Carriage club also purchased new smart phones and mentioned how useful the class was for  them. No longer is it a phone. It is a mini computer, it is so smart. This is my second smart phone, but this one went to college. When Linda turned in her flip phone the girls helping us just laughed. I think the old flip phone was older then one of the girls.
   There is a new word in our vocabulary, "texting". Wow, now you don't have to talk to your family and friends, just "text" them. We are a little old fashion on some things and it may take a while to get use to texting. I know there are some cases when you would rather not to talk to someone and texting may be an option.
    Well after two cancellations for a "class" on our new cell phones we finally had our day of learning. We did learn a lot about the phone itself. There is still a lot to learn. We can make a call, take a photo, download the photo's to our computer, or is that a upload, check our plan usage, etc., etc., etc.. our heads are spinning.  But little by little we are getting use to our new phones.
     Linda already blinged her phone, making it her own. Now be patient with us if we don't get back to you in a timely fashion if you text us.


Thanks for following along.

Classic 5th wheel hauler, Mack Truck

Saw this neat 5th wheel hauler in Milford PA. Has a Mack Truck emblem and the iconic Bulldog cap. But it is like a big pickup.

Grey Towers National Historic Site - Gifford Pinchot

While here in the Pocono’s we visited Grey Towers National Historic site.  It was the summer home of the Pinchot family. For two decades the family enjoyed many summers at Grey Towers entertaining family and friends. One of the sons of James and Cornelia was Gifford. Grifford was named head of the newly formed United States Forest Service, by his friend Teddy Roosevelt.

       Gifford was governor of Pennsylvania for two terms.  Gifford attributed much of his success to his wife Cornelia. During the 1920’s and 30’s she ran unsuccessfully for Congress three times.  This was very early for a woman in US politics. One interesting story about Gifford told by his son was about a family dog. The dog was a Labrador Retriever. He could not be broke of some of his bad habits, like tearing up furniture. Gifford had a friend that was a warden in a prison in western Pennsylvania. So one day he sent or took the dog to the prison. So his son told the story about the dog and would say his father “sent the dog to life in prison”.  

   Grey Towers is located in Milford Pennsylvania, along the Delaware River.  It is Located just a short distance from Port Jarvis New York and just across the river from New Jersey.  In 1963 Gifford Bryce Pinchot, the son of Gifford and Cornelia, donated Grey Towers and donated 102 acres to the USDA Forest Service.  On September 24, 1963 President John F. Kennedy dedicated the site to the American public. President Kennedy arrived on the lawn of Grey Towers by helicopter for the ceremony.

    The cost of a guided tour of the mansion is $8.00, $7.00 for seniors.  With a golden age passport it is $3.50. But only admits the holder of the pass with a discount.  We were told the golden age passport works a little different at forest service sites like this one, admitting only the pass holder. But both Linda and I have a golden age passport, so we both received the half price discount.

This room off the library was used by Gifford Pinchot when he was governor. This was his office when spending time away from Harrisburg.   

 

 Part of the Library

 One of the sitting rooms. Note the designs above the doors. They are painted, it is called trope l oeil that creates an optical illusion, or French "to fool the eye".

 More tromp l oeil painting

 

 This is one of the large legs on the table above. Note the faux finish marble on the walls and also the baseboard. Also note the massive table leg. It is one of four on the table above.  

 That is all painted around the mirror

 In the main emtry to the home. Note the owl has a squirrel  in his talons.

The story of the finger bowl.

This is a dinning table. Can seat about 30 around the table. The food is floated in wooden bowls.  The bowl of fruit being sent to Bob

 A beautiful arched ceiling with a very old wisteria vine planted by Cornelia in the 20's.

A stump carving on the way into GreyTowers

 The view from the Mansion.

You never know what treasures a small town may hold.
Thanks for following along.

 

  

Bethlehem Pennsylvania, our home town

     Here are a few pictures of our home town, Bethlehem Pennsylvania. The first three were taken from the "lookout" at Lehigh University. The pictures show South Bethlehem in the foreground and toward the top of the pictures is North Bethlehem. The city was founded by Moravians. Bethlehem covers large areas in the counties of Northampton and Lehigh. According to the 2010 census Bethlehem is the 7th largest city in the state with 74,982 residents. Its is part of the third largest metropolitan area in the state. Two other cities, Allentown and Easton make up the other part of the metro area with many other  little towns. This area is know as the Lehigh Valley.

Steep hills are not only in San Francisco. Note all the wires. That is the remains of Bethlehem Steel in the background. There are many roads to the left and right of this one that are just as steep. In the passed before every family had  a car,  these hills were home to many steel workers. A short walk to work.

Many of these remaining skeletons of a passed super industry were to become part of a museum supported by the Smithsonian Institute. Bethlehem Steel started in 1857 and lasted until 2003. It ceased operations in 1995. During World Wars 1 and 2 it supplied steel for 1,100 warships.

The heyday of the steel industry is long gone, but our town built by the steel industry is still a very vibrant town.

Security in blogging

    I received an email from a  friend that asked me why I don't usually use the last names of people in our blogs. I do this as a security measure. Not everybody I blog about wants the world to know where they are. Anything posted online is open to everybody, and they are not always good people. I also try to talk about things that happened in the passed, not today or where we or someone is going to be traveling to.
    Let me give you a good example and a lesson to me. We were in Alaska sitting in the lounge of a boat when a stranger approached and ask if we were Bob and Linda. What a shock. Who was this guy and how did he know our names. Turns out he was following our blog. Dummy me blog about what we were going to do that day. The boat had only about 15 other people on at the time. Of course our picture was on our blog so he had no problem identifying us. Turns our he was a fellow RVer,  but was staying at a different RV park then we were. But I learned a lesson, don't be to specific on things you are doing today or tomorrow.

       Note Again several albums and photo's have disappeared from our blog. Don't know why or how to find them and restore them to my blog.

     Thanks for following along.

Dish network Outdoor Channel featured 3 places we visited.

        Really neat to see on TV some place you had visited. This has happened before, but not three shows in a row that have places we visited. Especially one this year and one last year.
   I was watching the Outdoor channel on a Dish TV the other day and they featured several places we visited. What a shock to see the town of  Regent and  the scrap metal art that we featured in our blog in September. We really enjoyed visiting the town and the sculptures. The story was featured on a program called "Flush". It was about flushing pheasants out of cover using some great hunting dogs. Here are a few of the sculptures. You can see more pictures under our label North Dakota. July 2013.

The game they were hunting, was the pheasant,  as North Dakota is one of the best states to hunt pheasants.

A family revisited.

      The very next program featured The Savannah National Wildlife Refuge we visited in early autumn last year while visiting Savannah. The refuge is part of the very important Atlantic flyway.

It was in our blog titled Savannah part 2  September 2012. Here are the photos from that blog.

 

 The very next story on the same channel was about hunting some of the exotic game in Junction Texas. An area we spent about 4 months at in 2007. We drove the area looking through their high fences. We did spot some exotic game several times. There is a very large game ranch there of 100,000 plus acres.  I believe it is called San Benito range. Can't remember for sure. I'll try to find some photo's.  

Stink Bugs

        Stink bugs are a stinky topic. Just when we thought we wouldn't see any stink bugs this year here in the Pocono's, bang there they are .So far we saw just  a few, but that's a few to many. Last years plague when we were in Hershey Pa was unbelievable. It was probably six months till we rid ourselves of theses stinky critters.  Don't know were they hide. We emptyed compartments and looked for them with no luck. We found them in our slide out seals, but like I said it took about six months till we rid ourselves of them. Now here in the Pocono's we found a few trying to hitch a ride. How do they know we are heading for a warmer climate.
     We only captured one of these stinky bugs inside and about 6 outside walking on our rig. I believe these are scouts. When you kill them the stink attracts the colony. We heard there now is a spray to kill them. Hope there is a spray to keep them away. We hope the few we saw and eliminated are all we get.

The story of the electric mattress pad

         About six years ago we purchased an electric mattress pad. Works like and electric blanket except this is put on the mattress under the sheet and you sleep on it. When we purchased this pad we were in an area that was chilly. The model we purchase has duel controls. It worked great to warm the sheets. We would turn it on an hour or so before we would go to bed. It warned the sheets but wasn't hot. It felt good to crawl into a warn bed. Well we put this pad away about six years ago. Here in the Pocono's it is getting cooler then we like. But because of all the medical things going on with us we are still  here. So we got out the electric pad.  Hoped it worked after all this time. Plugged it in and presto, it worked. I put it on high and about a half hour later crawl into a warn bed.  It works great and because we donated all our flannel sheets was a god sent. . Didn't think we needed the flannel sheets again. Remember we live in an RV and don't keep unnecessary items. But fortunately we kept the electric mattress pad.
     Unfortunately we didn't keep any heavy jackets. We did donate a couple of heavy jackets and a brand new parka. Also didn't think we would every need them again. Hopefully our sweatshirts and light weigh jackets will keep us warn and we will  be able to head south before it get much  colder. Had a few nights in the low 40's and high 30's. It is warning up during the day to the 60's and 70's  and is making for a beautiful Fall day.  But we know after Fall comes winter, and for us this is not were we want to be much longer.

Mor/ryde super service.

    I sent the below email to the president of the Carriage Club to be read or posted at the Grand National Rally this pass September held in Goshen IN. Many of you where not at that rally, so I though I post it hear.

     Earlier this month we were on emergency medical trip on our way back to PA from the state of WA. At a rest stop in SD I did my routine check of the truck, RV and car when I noticed a problem with a rear tire on the 5er. The edge of the tire was worn very badly. The tire was ruined. Darn, we just had the IS and disc brakes installed. We only had maybe 1500 miles since the installation. Must be out of alignment. I didn't want to put on the spare and ruin that tire also. The tire was still safe to drive on, but we would stop more often to keep checking on it. Of course this happened on Friday evening. I called Mor/ryde and left a message for Gary Wheeler telling him we would be at their shop on Monday. We changed our route to Elkhart. On Monday morning we got a call from Gary saying they were very busy and couldn't work us in this week. I told him we were on our way and would be there by 2 in the afternoon and can they at least take a look at the problem.

   We arrived at Mor/ryde about 1:45. Gary comes out and takes a look at the tire. He believes its a broken belt in the tire. Gary goes and get Ben(I believe that's his name) the plant manager. He agrees with Gary that's it a tire problem. Here we go the "big shuffle". BUT, Ben says since your here we will check the alignment. Back into one of our sites and spend the night and we'll see you in the morning. We will work you in between jobs tomorrow. So 8 o'clock there is a knock on our door. "We are ready for you". We get back into a bay and they go to work on checking the alignment. Everything is right on with the alignment. They said they would put on the spare. I ask since you are taking the tire off can I take it to a Goodyear dealer and get a replacement. So they put in in our truck and off we go. Goodyear gives us 50% off on a new tire. Back to Mor/ryde and they put it on and pull us our of the service bay.  I go in to pay the bill, and they say sign here to show the work was completed. The charge is 0 dollar's. Wow! We tied up a service bay for about 6 hours and a service teck for about 3 hours. How is that for customer service?  They even offer to buy us lunch. By far the very best customer service we received in years. This is going above and beyond. A VERY BIG TUMBS UP TO GARY WHEELER AND MOR/RYDE

Nothing to post about.

    Even with all the pasted weeks excitement I find little to post about. We have this blog to post about our travel adventures. The thing is we have been sitting still in one spot now for two months. I admire some of the other blogs I follow and how they find something to blog about every day.
    Our sons are very concerned about us. Thank you for your concerns. . They have concerns because of our life style.  They  would feel a lot better if we were stationary near them. But and this is  a big but, we are not ready for the rocking chair. There are to many places for us to explore. If we get an ok from our doctors we will continue our gypsy lifestyle. We are not ready to hang up the keys. We look at the passed  couple of months as just a bump in the road.  I do believe our lifestyle helps keep us young. We feel young in both mind and body. We can't do some of the things we used to do, but we want to keep moving.  Linda pushes and I pull and we get things done. As a matter of fact when I was in the hospital one of the nurses ask me if I was Robert, because she said she was looking for someone 70 years old and didn't think it was me. Well after my head swelling settled down I told her it was "I". The next day the head nurse on my floor said there was a note in their computer that said "Bob doesn't look his age" and probably doesn't act it. After that they had to take me back to emergency to combat my severe case of "head swelling".  Then a physical therapist came in to see if I could walk. I had to walk down the hall to prove I could walk. I asked "how was that", he didn't reply. I know there are a lot of folks my age that are in better shape then I am.  But we are not ready to stop traveling. We don't know how many more tomorrows we have left, and we are hoping that last sunset is a long way off.  Wow was that a rant.
      This week we have very little scheduled.  I, Bob have a appointment with the neurologist and Linda has an appointment for a mammogram.  I do have to get blood work done on Monday, then depending on the results may need to get it tested later in the week. We do have other doctor appointments later in the month and into next month. Till then not to much to update. I am feeling ok with no pain.
      Wow and I said I have nothing to blog about.

Bob hospitalized, and back home

Hi everybody, just a short update. On Monday night Bob experienced very severe chest pains. The pain was so severe he couldn't sit or lay down. He was taken by ambulance to Pocono Medical Center. Our friends Pat and Dave H. drove Linda to the hospital. Dave and Pat stayed with Linda till  our three sons showed  up.  What the pain turned out to be was a blood clot in his Lung. Boy o' boy these passed couple of months have made up for all the great health we enjoyed in the passed. Bob spent 2 nights and 3 days in the hospital.  We have all kind of meds for him and a doctor's appointment set up with our Primary Care Physician for Friday. A lot to be still worked out. We'll keep you posted.

     In the mean time Linda has had some additional testing done and has a ulcer in her esophagus cause by acid reflex. She is on medication for that and will need another test in about two months.

      We are not sure when we can start to head south for warner weather. One nice thing, the leaves are coming into their full color. We'll keep you posted