Another picture movie...

10/13/10









Pennsylvania is such a lovely, friendly state. Today was a perfect fall day. Walter and I are sitting at an incredible coffee/cheese shop called The Cheese Shoppe (featuring W.C. Clarke’s coffee). It’s a perfect little place. All the beans are roasted here and although I am only drinking decaf (maybe I should have cheated a little and had a cappuccino…) it’s still a pretty sensational caf a cuppy.

My computer bag holds tons of chords, chargers, and doodads that aren’t really computer things at all but the bag’s big pockets call out to me when my hands are full of loose things and so I stick the things in there. Needless to say, my computer bag weighs probably about 20 pounds. Walter carried my computer bag for me and did bicep curls all the way to the coffee shop for a workout.

Walter almost went to this college. We’re in a town called State College where Penn State is. Since we met at Plymouth State I’m glad he didn’t end up going here! It is a pretty cool little college town though. Ah, college…it feels so long ago in some ways and like yesterday in other ways.

We are trying to soak up every second of this wonderful sun today because tomorrow is most definitely going to pour and we have 27 miles to ride. Sojourner had a nice two and a half days off while Walter’s mom and stepfather were here. We had the most wonderful time with them and have been missing them ever since they left.

"So guys, what do you think these rocks are?"

"Well, I'm going to throw it on the ground and see if it breaks."

"hm."

"Didn't break."

(Stephen to Walter) "So, this is the girl you like, Buddy? Buddy? What on earth are you doing, Bud?"

"Oh, I like to imitate the objects I'm around. It's a new thing I do. I'm being a telephone pole."

“Just think! We’ll see you again in 3 weeks and we’ll be saying, ‘I can’t believe it was only 3 weeks ago that we saw you and you were in Pennsylvania!!’ and then you’ll only have another 2 weeks left!”, Walter’s mom said to us.

I’ve been telling myself that over and over. Especially since it’s getting colder. This morning was really cold. The grass blades were covered in frost and water was dripping from the top of the roof as the thin bits of ice melted. We camped out next to Soj under a gazebo that was positioned up on a hill with an incredible view of the colored Pennsylvania farmlands. Very beautiful, but very chilly...especially right before sunrise.

These guys played in the field below the gazebo...

When Walter’s parents were here Soj stayed at Peaceful Acres in Tyrone, PA. Once they left we checked out of the hotel room they had gotten for us and joined Soj at the farm.

Peaceful Acres is exactly what the title would make you assume. It is a lovely farm nestled between hills with sweet little kids running around and smiling parents and grandparents. Walter and I really loved being there.

We went to one of the boy's soccer games. While Stellan played soccer, Cyrus played on Walter.

We camped out in the barn with Soj and the three of us ran around and played with a massive bouncy ball in the indoor arena in the night while it stormed and poured rain outside. The rain was so loud on the tin roof causing Soj to run around in circles. He calmed down after a little while though and followed us around with the big ball.

Rich, who is the son in law of the parents who own Peaceful Acres, works in film and video and wanted to have a little shoot while we were there. I’m excited to see how the video comes out. He definitely had a pretty solid idea of how he wanted everything to look so I’m expecting it’s going to be a pretty cool looking video! We’ll post it here when it’s ready.

…

Now I am in bed inside the home we are staying at this evening. We just got back from dinner with Tom and Janet Benner at a great little Italian place called “Jims” in Bellefonte. The Benner Boarding Stables has donated a night for Soj and offered the downstairs part of their house to us for the evening. They also took the time to go over roads and take us out for some amazing food. We are now in a comfortable bed and Soj is in a soft stall.

We usually keep Soj out so he can walk around and graze, but tonight it’s supposed to rain pretty hard so we went ahead and put him inside. He is starting to get a nice little coat on him now though.

We were able to unload the truck a little when Walter’s parents were here. They took a bunch of stuff that we weren’t really using back with them. It’s made the back of the truck much more manageable.

Back in Holidaysburg we walked around a bit and came across a full dumpster that didn’t have any food or anything in it. It was just boxes and things. We dove straight in. We found a sturdy, heavy pot, parchment paper, new postcards, little pumpkin candles that go in the windows for Halloween, a really nice umbrella (that we’ll never use), and some old Christmas ornaments. It was so fun, but it filled the last little spaces of the truck up so we could barely shut the doors. So it was good to unload all of our newly found treasures.

That was my first dumpster diving experience, but Walter is a seasoned pro (not really, but he’s taken a dive before) and dove right in. This one was a pretty rare dumpster though. It was clean and there was some great stuff in there. It was like someone just didn’t want to have a garage sale or send stuff to a thrift store so they just dumped it all.

I dated the Christmas ornaments box so every year when we get to that box while we're trimming the tree we will think about the time we went dumpster diving on our horseback ride across America. They are our first ornaments.

Here's a little picture movie covering the last few days. The video is put to one of my sister's beautiful songs, "Cross That Bridge". Listen to her lyrics. She's incredible.