Back with Family in Pennsylvania...

 

We're in Pennsylvania - in West Grove, which is in the SE part of Pennsylvania, near the Delaware state line.  We found our family!!!  Cousin Eric and Pam live in West Grove, and Aunt Bev drove up from Millsboro, Delaware to meet us in Pennsylvania. We are parked on Cousin Julie & Todd's driveway but they live in Colorado now and so are not in residence at their Pennsylvania home... but Aunt Bev is!!  We're enjoying our visit here.  The kitties have a nice wooded space behind the house and there are vacant lots across the street with tall grass and lots of jumpy bugs for them to chase.



Wednesday (Oct 8th) we left Bennington, VT and drove into New York state.  Such pretty scenery!!  Ok, this is Tawny in the trailer... not sure how that picture downloaded but anyway...

We stopped near Gardiner, NY about 1:30 pm and found a lovely spot near the Wallkill River - in Jellystone Park!  Yogi and Boo Boo Bear were there!  I thought of my brother who loves both of them.

We took the kitties outside and it reminded us of Oregon and camping on the Rogue River.  So pretty with lots of Canadian geese. 

 

Unfortunately, Sammy decided he would go up a tree after a chipmunk.... and then he couldn't get down.  So of course John got the ladder out and went up and got Sam out of the tree!!!  Good John!

 

 

After that, we put the kitties in the trailer and drove over to New Paltz, NY to tour the Huguenot Village - a town founded in the 1700's by French immigrants who came to the STates to escape religious persecution.

The doorways were "John-size".





Stone buildings with walls 3 feet thick

 

 

It was so cool!!!  The building hosts were gals in period costumes who stayed "in character" and had the visitors (us) assume roles in the story of the various buildings.  So fun.  We were refugees from New France (Louisiana) in one building, and friends of the maid, visiting while the masters of the house were out, in another. 

 

Thursday we headed into Pennsylvania and had 2 great kitty stops in Matamoras and Parkesburg, before getting to West Grove about 6 pm.  We got stuck behind a pumpkin truck!!

 

 

 

We got set up in Julie's driveway and then met Eric and Pam at a Mexican restaurant called Taqueria Moreleon.  John finally got his margueritas!!!  We had a lovely meal, and there was a mariachi band who entertained Aunt Bev! 

 

Aunt Bev and Mariachi Guy

Eric and Pam

 

Friday (Oct 10th) we settled in to Julie & Todd's property.  The cats were happy watching from the safety of the living room after the trauma of the landscape company working on the lawn!!  We had the kitties across the street checking out the septic field for the neighbourhood while the workers looked after the yard.

 





 Aunt Bev took us to Hagley Museum, a DuPont property and the original site of the black powder mill that E.I. DuPont started in the 1700's.  We toured the machine shop, the original DuPont residence, the powder mill and the millworker's community where the worker's families lived and went to school.  The visitor centre housed the exhibit that explained all of the DuPont technological inventions, including nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, neoprene and spandex.  Who knew???!!!!!  I was floored!!!!  I thought they were a paint company.  They were absolutely amazing in that they went from basically a gunpowder company to completely reinventing themselves and becoming a driving force in the technology age.

Aunt Bev and John at Hagley museum

E.I. Hagley residence on the grounds of the original mill