Farm country in Pennsylvania

Can't say enough about the beautiful farm country in Pennsylvania.

This farm was just down the road from the totem picture in the previous post.  

Roadside attractions...

There is a fun show on PBS called something like Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations.  Two or three guys just cruise the highways and byways of American and do stories on some things they see.  Probably we've all done that, saw something interesting in passing along a road, and wondered "...what was that?..."

While in Pennsylvania, we were going down a country road that we were familiar with, although we had not been down this end of the road, and came across this sight...

 It's on the front lawn of a small business, that was closed at the time we found this.  Don't know anything about it, but how cool is this? My hat's off to the artist! 

Howdy!

I love these guys!  I remember the first time I rode through the town of Marionville, MO, and saw the "HOWDY tanks" as they're affectionately known.   They line up along the roadside, when you drive into town on the main highway.   I think they either held kerosene, or diesel fuel at one time.  They're almost as well known as the white squirrels (which also occur in Red Bud, Illinois.)

A few years back the tanks were to be removed.  There was such a hue and cry, that the tanks not only were left standing, but repainted!  Here's how they looked just a few weeks ago.

Doesn't that just make you feel good???!!

Love found, love lost...

Americans have a love affair with their cars...when they first buy them.  They wash them.  They polish them.  They brag about them to their friends.  But after a while, various things can happen.  The styles change.  Personal  needs change.  The bloom is gone from the flower, and the cars find themselves abandoned along the roadside.  While traveling the back roads for my job, I came across some of these cars sitting in tall grass, with sale signs on them. 

These are not necessarily abandoned, broken down heaps, with dents, and damage, but even though they have "For Sale" signs on them, and phone numbers, they are vacated in places where the weather and rodents can take their toll.  Every day they sit make their worth a little less so.  The love we once had for them is now lost.

Let me present two Pontiac Fieros.  They aren't made any more, but I guess, in their time, they were quite the sporty cars, and very much appreciated.  Makes you wonder what the story is behind them.  If they could talk, what would they say?  Who loved them and left them?

Eavesdropping on a sad conversation...

We were sitting in McDonald's, in Eureka Springs, AR, this morning, it wasn't crowded, and three young people (under age 20 most likely) were sitting a few tables away.  They weren't loud, but since the restaurant was so quiet, their conversation was readily audible to us.  These were good looking kids, dressed decently, not raggedy, not trying to portray a statement such as punk, or Goth, or gang-banger. Just kids.

One young boy, in particular, made some comments that just shook us to the core.  He mentioned to his friends that he had three felony arrests already, as if it were a common occurence, and "stuff happens."   I don't know if it was the same young man, or his friend, who said he dropped out of school at age 13!

As we left, we pondered where they got the money to buy anything at McDonald's.  Do they steal?  Pan-handle?  Sell drugs?  Get money from absentee parents?   

A sad thing to see and observe, but what can be done?  I sure don't have any answers for these kids except the obvious...go back to school, get a job, start to fly right.  But they're strangers to me.  Where are their authority figures?  Does anyone even care about them? 

Would you "trick or treat" at this house?

While on vacation in Pennsylvania, we went to see the Yuengling (pronounced "ying ling") Brewery in Pottsville.  It's right smack dab in a residential neighborhood, so as we were driving around the block looking for a parking place, I spotted this house.  Do the Adams live here?  Didn't see Morticia out sweeping the sidewalk, but who knows...

I love the way the really big, really old pine trees surround the house.   More on the brewery in a later post.

Color popping up where you least expect it!

I thought, before I go on with my "vacation blogs", of which there will be a few, I'd talk about the moving Morning Glories around my house.

This year we had a bit of a drought.  That is hardly enough water to keep the plants thriving.  We did have rain but it was spotty, and so I was left to water, which was probably not as timely as it could have been.  That being said, my Morning Glories were not as beautiful as they had been in years past.  This picture is from a couple years ago when they grew all over the front deck of the house.  Unfortunately I took this picture in the afternoon, and as everyone knows (or as I learned!) the blooms are only there in the morning and close up during the day.

I also learned, that once planted, these guys come back year after year.  And they travel!  I mean, their little seeds fly around, or are carried around.  This particular summer I found them in the back yard!  In what we "lovingly" refer to as our grass.  It's just a weed pile we keep cut short.  And with all the sunflower seeds that land there from the myriad bird feeders, it's more of a mulch pile.   Since we do cut that part of the "grass" we cut down the flowers, although I'm sure they'll be back.

We do have a "brick patio" or rather a raised area that had some significance to the previous owners, and I found a few little plants growing there, and blooming.  I did get a picture of a flower, amongst the leaves, and bricks. 

Lookming forward to seeing where they show up next year!