Lucknow, PA

I had to use a map to try to figure out where this picture was taken, but the most likely place is Lucknow, PA. There was a great train trestle just upriver from it; the trestle was shaped like a Roman aqueduct. I was driving from Erie to Reading, PA and this was the portion of the trip smack dab in the middle of the state crossing from the northern highways to the southern highways. I found a little boat launch and public park and watched the sunset over the Susquehanna River. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong about either of these place names.

There was an angler on some rocks way out, and the colors looked just like an LL Bean catalog to me. A few small rowboats started making their way back towards me as it grew darker. I'm one of those people who stops a lot on roadtrips.

Beach 6

There's a beach on the Presque Isle peninsula in Erie where bands play on Thursday nights during the summer months. It's called Beach 6. I like that. Not Misty Shores or Driftwood Bluffs. Just a number. Six. Next to 5 and 7. The Sam Hyman band played classic rock covers and we just unwound after work and watched the waves.

Liberty Park Concert

Good news: teenagers still love the Beatles. At this outdoor concert, tons of tweeners were wearing brand new psychadelic Beatles shirts. We arrived late, and so sat in the back. We watched a tattooed young father alone with his three (?) year old son. The boy traumatized his dad with non-stop play for the entire concert and this peaceful man just sat there and let the kid jump all over him. The boy even had a foam dart gun which he shot his father with a few dozen times. The gun made a ridiculous noise - kind of a squirrily whiny whistle, and everyone around them cracked up everytime the kid fired the gun, which only encouraged him, of course.

Saegertown Strawberry Festival

Josh and Corinne are always good sports, but in this case, my roommate Pisey was a better sport because she got the raw end of the deal. I had seen an ad in the newspaper about a strawberry festival and chicken dinner in historic Sagertown, PA, just down the road from Erie. I recruited Pisey to accompany me to this festival, hoping it would be like a kermess in El Paso, with rides, games, tons of people, and tons of good food. It was supposed to be at St. Bernadette's parish. We hit a few yard sales on the way out of town and then hit the open road - two lane blacktop through the rolling farmland of Amish Country - the French Creek Amish of Western NY and PA to be precise. So we get there, and the painted sign on the town common says that the festival is two weeks away. We go home and eat at Cracker Barrel. I'm ill for days. Fast forward to the actual day of the strawberry festival and this time my riding buddies are Josh and Corinne. When we get to Saegertown, it's equally quiet and empty,but the sign's still up. I see a church a street away from the main drag so we loop around and park behind it. A couple of people are going inside, so we follow. It turns out to be a regular old church dinner like any other with chicken, beans, and potatoes. No fresh strawberries, no games, no rides. The lemonade and coffee are rationed. The dessert is a bake-sale variety of cake and cookies. Strawberry mush floats in water in a punch bowl. There's an announcer selling tickets for a raffle over the public address system, and he is loud--which is good, because in the sea of white hair there may be some deafness. I ate my 1/2 chicken and we made our way out the door. I saw these lovely flowers on the driveway out. Maybe someone can tell me what they are in the comments. There's also blue hydrangeas all around but I haven't photographed them yet.

Nap Time at the Erie Zoo

The Erie Zoo is a slumberland of adorable animals - most of whom slept for my entire visit. The sea otters were wide awake, as was the younger giraffe and a baby orangutang. The most interesting thing, of course, was the people watching. I saw a gaggle of young Amish men in matching blue wooolens glued to a video about orangutans in the wild, while right behind them in a glass case was the real thing -- a family of three orangutans -- which they completely ignored in favor of the video. When the meerkats awoke they were pretty amusing too. Meerkats never disappoint.