Fall Festival, Schenectady, New York

Mosaics with glass

A week ago this morning, we pulled over to see what was going on--and arrived early for the fall festival, another highlight of traveling duo.  We met a woman who made glass mosaics, listened to bluegrass music, tasted home-made breads, goat cheeses and pastries, and talked for a while to the people of Birds of Prey who rescue and rehabilitate owls and other injured birds.

After being rehabilitated, this owl was about to fly free

Nobody,  I mean nobody, would travel Mike's style, but me--and I love it.  Neither of us says no to either of us, and we are both filling up our bucket of photographs (for me) and flea markets and junk shops (for Mike) and best of all, meeting people.  In these weeks, we've been as far north as Maine and have visited fifteen states.  For miles after a stop, we talk about the encounters with birds, dogs, horses, and humans.

This Saturday morning was equally wonderful.  We'd tried Lancaster County last night, but it was jam packed with traffic and had become very commercialized since my last trip there.  What we found today was even better--Jim's Farmer's Market in Chambersburg, an Amish and Mennonite market serving great food and selling Amish crafts.  Little kids were riding a cart drawn by a miniature horse and helping their mothers make cotton candy and potato chips to sell.

This is our last night on the road.  We're traveling South on I81 and staying tonight in Wattsfull Motel, a motel I've stayed in many times, high on a hill, the wind beating against our door so hard it feels like the building is shaking. The Shenandoah Valley is beautiful, miles and miles of farmland and interesting barns, cows in fields and fields of corn.

It's hard to say good-bye to this trip.  Except for one unexpected detour down the stairs two weeks ago, it's been exactly the trip we set out to have.