Goodbye Sanbourne

The picnic is over and it’s just Linda & Bud and Edy & Fos left camping here with us on the grounds. Sunday we went for a ride to visit Curwensville Lake & Dam. The lake was developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers and is an impoundment of the west branch of the Susquehanna river. An earthen dam rises 131 feet and is 2850 feet long and the lake has a storage capacity of 124,200 acre feet at full pool extending 14 miles.

They have a swimming beach, several boat ramps, a marina, picnic pavilions as well as a picnic area. The recreation area is operated by Clearfield County now so there is no discount for Golden Age or America the Beautiful pass. The entrance fee is $2 for vehicle and $5 for a vehicle with boat, camping is $24 with a $3 reservation fee.
After leaving the lake we returned to camp for some supper and roasted corn I did in the fire. Then it was time to sit around the campfire. Nothin’ like sittin’ around the campfire with good friends tellin’ lies to one another. Before ya’ know it it’s time to turn in.
Monday found us all preparin’ to leave for our new destinations. Bud & Linda were returning back to their daughters in NY, Edy & Fos were retuning home and we were headed back to Seneca. We said our goodbyes and headed off in different directions.
We made it as far as Cooks Forest and decided to stop for the night at Whites Haven Campground & Cabins. It’s a Passport America park and was $14 for a water & electric site, total.

Our site for the night.

We decided we needed some us time. When we registered I asked about check out time, the girl said “Whenever you decide to leave is fine”. So we took advantage of the leisurely policy and did a lot of housekeeping in the rig.  Then we dumped the tanks, disposed of our garbage and drove off ‘Happy campers’.
Up the road we stopped at the Cooks Forest State park office to inquire about camping. Glad we stayed ay Whites cause the sites here are $25 base plus $5.50 for electric plus tax.  Camping with Passport is sure a bargain when ya’ get the same site or better in the same breathtaking forest with water, electric, modern restroom with showers and in this case a very liberal check out schedule for 1/2 the money. All it costs is $44 a year to join and try out some of their 1500 participating campgrounds & RV parks. I’m sorry if I sound like a commercial but we were sold after joining and staying our first three nights in a park in Nashville at $36 a night. We paid $18, meaning we saved $18 a night x 3 nights = $54, more than paid for the membership for the entire year. We have used our membership all across the country including Alaska and in Canada. Sure we’ve stayed in some parks that we might not have stayed at if we weren't getting such a great deal, but we’ve stayed in far more beautiful, full service parks to outweigh the those. OK off the soapbox.
We are now camped back at Cousin Bonnie’s for the next few days before we drop in to see Uncle Don in Titusville. We have to prepare for our trip to Wisconsin for Barb & Noel’s 50th Wedding Anniversary.
Well that’s all for now. Hope to see ya’ down the road as we’re';

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Sanbourne Grange Picnic 2010

We are at our second Sanbourne Grange Picnic with Bud & Linda’s families. They have been attending this for many, many years. So far the Family turnout has exceeded last year I believe. The picnic is the big event for the year, held the last Saturday of August each year & anyone is invited. They serve a dinner at 1PM Saturday And you can eat inside the Grange Hall or out a one of the pavillions. After dinner there’s bingo, games fer’ the youngin’s and music. They also serve hot dogs & hamburgers for those who would rather instead of dinner.

Here we are early Friday afternoon.

By Saturday the circle was growing larger.

Here’s the other side of the circle.

Linda snapped some pics of the ‘Kitchen Crew’

Some more of the ladies that did all the cookin’.

Ready to serve.

Folks was linin’ up ready to eat.

Thanks to all the ladies who do all the cookin’ for these doin’s every year. The dinner consisted of Roast turkey, stuffin’, Mashed potatoes, green beans, noodles, gravy, rolls, cranberry, cole slaw and pie.

This is a samplin’ from the pie table. 

Here’s some Happy customers.

Well we all had a delicious meal and after some went back to sit and visit while their meal settled, while others played bingo. The two Linda's played bingo and won quite a few times. My Linda won a t-shirt for our grandson, now he has a souvenir of the Sanbourne Grange Picnic. We also gave a few prizes to other folks, one in particular a little girl who was admiring a small trinket box with a butterfly on it and Linda gave it to her from her just won game. We also gave Bud & Linda’s niece a pool for her grand youngin’s. Being in a truck camper we don’t have room for much of anything and we really haven’t any want for anything.
After the Bingo we returned to the camp and got the fire going cause it was time to make “Mountain Pies’. We had pizza, and all kind o’ fruit pies too. We even had makin’s fer’ Smores but forgot all about them. Then we sat around the fire as folks started to drift on towards home as some had travelled from NY and had to return home.
Additional pictures of the picnic can be viewed here.
Well the picnic is over for another year so we’ll say  “Goodbye for now”. Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Holland, NY & Some more Sculpture Pics.

Well we’ve been a visitin’ with our niece & her family for the weekend in Holland, NY. Not much to tell didn’t go nowhere’s except ‘Wally World’ on Sunday. the weather was kinda’ rainy the whole weekend. Still glad we came cause we always enjoy seein’ them. Their youngest son Jeremy was home from college this weekend and we got to visit with him too.

Tomorrow we head back down to the ‘Big Red Barn’ in Titusville, PA for a spell before we head over to Clearfield area to the Sanbourne Grange Picnic next weekend.

Since I don’t have much to say I thought I’d post some more pics from our last stop at the Griffis Sculpture Park.

Linda, Bud Char & Me

Char & Linda

The ‘crazy’ woman I live with

Don’t look like ‘Garden Gnomes’

There’s my Linda inside a submarine sculpture

There lots of unique abstract sculptures scattered throughout the park. The park wasn’t the easiest to find and we got turned around a time or two but we found it. We only touched on a small sampling of the 400 acres of park.

Well I’m off for now. As always hope to see ya’ down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

On to New York!

Our friends called to invite us to their 50th wedding anniversary this September 11th. We hope to attend, only thing is it’s in Wisconsin and we’re in New York right now. So first order is to get new shoes fer’ the ‘DuraMax’. I shopped around in the area we were stayin’ in and there aint’ much in the way of tire deals. I just happened to call a Firestone dealer in Erie, ‘BIG CITY’, asked fer’ the same Bridgestone's we’ve been runnin’ since the truck was new. The fella said, “You want the most expensive tires huh”? Yeah but at a bargain price. Just so happen that those tires were on sale and Bridgestone has $100 discount on a full set as well. So I made an appointment and we went up there Sunday and got new shoes. So were set fer’ the trip in that area.

Sunday afternoon we drove on down to Franklin to Cousin Ben’s, for his daughter’s birthday. Both of their kids wanted to spend the night ‘Campin’ with us. Ian spent the night Sunday & Abby stayed Monday night. They enjoyed themselves and so did we.

The next day we left for NY to hook-up with Bud & Linda, our best friends from down home. We were to meet at Charlene’s house on Tuesday evening. Linda & I had stopped for supper along the roadside when Bud called, “Hey where are you guys”? “We’re just down the road a piece and as soon as we do our supper dishes we’ll be over”. We arrived about twenty minutes later and hugs went all around. It’s been two years since we’ve seen Charlene and it sure was nice she invited us for a stay. We got setup and commenced to visitin’. I’ll bet her neighbors were thinkin’ she was startin’ a campground.

Wednesday morning we got up early to go to breakfast at ‘Sandy’s’. Now Sandy’s is a place Bud & Linda took us to back two years ago and we try to go back just once when we’re in the area. Ya’ see she put’s on a mean meal whether breakfast or lunch and you always eat too much. Here’s a sample;

Sorry about the picture quality but I took this with my telephone. 

Breakfast like that 2 eggs, home fries, ham and two pieces of homemade cinnamon raisin toast about $3. Sandy makes all her own bread, Cinnamon rolss & doughnuts and “She does one heck of a job of it”. SO if your ever in Great Valley or Ellicottville, NY, ask someone how to get to Sandy’s. She’ only open till 2PM four days a week, but finer food is hard to find and the price is unbelievable.

After breakfast we headed fer’ the Erie County Fair to spend the day. Char did the drivin’, Linda provided the entertainment and we made it to the fair early enough to get half price admission. Seems to be a pretty big county fair and we perused the animals, exhibits and saw a couple o’ shows. Of coarse we had to have some ‘Fair Food’, that’s the main reason fer’ comin’. Just so happened this was on display and we got to speak with the owner a bit.

It seemed coincidence that we just saw the small versions of this last week at the Organ Grinders Rally. This Carousel or Fairground Organ was constructed in 1897 and played in England until 1975 when it was purchased by an English family only to be dismantled and put in storage. It was purchased in 2007 by American Roger Wiegand and rebuilt to the original size as you see it today. The ‘Diamond Jubilee’ has over 400 pipes and if you listen you can hear flutes, piccolos, bass, saxophones, violins, trombones, drums, glockenspiel, cymbals and bells. It is a fantastic piece of engineering. You can learn more at this link, Carousel Organ. After listening to the organ we decided we’d had enough fair for one day and headed home. You can listen to a sample of the organ’s music here.

At home we had dined on a lovely roast that Linda had put in the crock pot before we left in the mornin’. Then it was visitin’, laughin’ and just enjoyin’ each others company.

The three girls lookin’ at pictures on my laptop.

Thursday we were up to find Bud had went for his morning walk and the girls went down to ‘Sandy’s’ to meet him for coffee, we dined at home. Later Char took us for a ride to see where the ‘Rich People’ live around the ski resort, nice fer’ them, too big fer’ us. Then we went to Griffis Sculpture Park and goofed and laughed and some of us made fools of ourselves. Hey if you can’t make fun of yourself, who can you poke fun at? we returned to Char’s house so she could keep her hair appointment and the other Linda got a haircut from my Linda, while Bud & I worked on straightened out an electrical problem the had with their motorhome.

I’m gonna catch me one o’ them gals at the sculpture park.

That evening we went to Sprague’s for dinner in Portville, NY. Sprague’s Maple Farms has been producing maple syrup and it’s related products for almost thirty years and their restaurant features a maple signature in every dish. This dinner was to celebrate Char’s birthday that we missed in May. We were seated and were surprised that our waitress, Sara, was as sharp & quick witted as my Linda. We had a ball kiddin’ with her and later she got the entire staff as well as a table full of friends to come and sing ‘Happy Birthday’ for Char. The whole thing was a gas! But it got better as we drove home with Char & Linda bantering back & forth. We had to stop twice for unexpected bathroom stops to avoid wet seats from laughter. After arrivin’ home we sat and talked till Linda & Bud retired then we chatted some more before retirin’ ourselves. Char was workin’ the next mornin’ so we said our goodbyes before we went to bed.

Linda & Bud woke us the next mornin’ to ask if we wanted to go to Sandy’s. We declined, too much irresistible food, we ate at home. Later we said our goodbyes to them, hopefully we’ll see them again next weekend for the ‘Sanbourn Grange Picnic’.

Well That’s all for this episode. As always we hope to see ya’ down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Peter Piper & Organ Grinders?

The girls, Linda, Bonnie & Sandy went out the other day to get some hot peppers to stuff. Today was the day the ‘stuffin’ commenced. They cut off the tops, gutted ‘em and stuffed ‘em with sauerkraut. I haven’t had to chance to try ‘em, but I hear there Um Um good!
 

Here they are a stuffin’ away. 

The end product.

The stuffed peppers are now pickled and waitin’ to cure till we can try ‘em. The followin’ day we stuffed some with Italian sausage fer supper. Pretty darn good. I’d like to try some with regular bulk breakfast sausage as stuffin’.

The other afternoon we moseyed on down to Franklin to the park for the 2010 Organ Grinders Rally. When we arrived in  Franklin around noon and there were only three or four organ grinders attendance but more came within 30 minutes. The styles and types varied greatly although all were hand cranked and quite portable.

There were ‘Pipe type” organs.

‘REED type’ organs.

Those that were homemade and those that were handmade. Built from a kit and built from scratch, all quite interesting. The music kinda’ reminded me of a Carousel Calliope and brought back some childhood memories. All of the ‘Organ Grinders’ were very proud and more than willin’ to provide information on their particular organ. They’d show you all the inner workings and how each piece played it’s part in the creation of the music. It was quits entertaining.

Below you will find Wally Venable, who I’d like to call ‘Professor Wally’. Wally is a member of the COAA, Carousel Organ Association of America. Both Wally & his wife play organs at rallies. More info on Wally and his ‘Monkey Organ’ can be found at the Mechanical Music page on his website.

And finally “Here’s a monkey we all know, accompanied by Janice Kast, grindin’ out her own music”!

Well that’s all fer’ now. We’re fixin’ to head on up to NY to visit with our best friends from home and spend a few days together. I’ll let ya’ know what’s happenin’ there in few days. As always hope to see ya’ down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Family Reunion 2010

Yee Haw!! The family reunion of the descendants of the Bell family is now history. We had a great time as we hope all those that attended did. As always there was food and deserts galore and we all enjoyed. Everyone brought a dish of some kind to share. Bonnie worked hard as always to line up everything, prepare the yard & garage, purchase supplies and cook the all foods for the main dishes.

A million thanks Bonnie!

I made some new acquaintances as we had a few new faces this year in the throng of relatives. The crowd was a bit smaller than in previous years but there was still lots & lots o’ folks.

Here’s Bonnie & Diane inspectin’ some o’ the ‘Vittles’.

    Cousin Teresa & Laine, first year they’ve made it.

Fred’s hard at work cookin’ corn fer the crowd. 

Here’s Joyce(1st year), Aunt Mary & Aunt Rose

As always “The Three Musketeers”

I can’t post all the pics here so Ya’ll can go to this link, Family Reunion 2010 to view all the photos. The best I can do is list some of the newcomers this year.

Joyce & Alex Davis, Chrissy & Mike Lader with Riley & Cassy, Kevin & Christy Wice, Teresa & Laine with the 5 A’s, Cousin Patty’s son Bobby & daughter Sarah, Uncle Jim Wice, Cousin Jody’s ‘New Bo’ Hansel, Cousin Tammy. Sorry if I missed anyone but I don’t profess to be PERFEKT!!

Well that’s all fer this episode of the RV-Anytimers, see ya’ll next time. And as always hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Tourin’ the Oil Valley, eh!

Today our friends Wayne & Coleen that we just left in Ontario a few weeks ago, were coming to visit. They had been over in Lancaster, PA for a show. They arrived around 3 PM Saturday and were staying till Monday morning. Linda said, “Now we can show them where I grew up”.

Saturday afternoon we didn’t do much other than find out the Holiday Inn Express down the street was booked solid so they had to get a hotel in Franklin, 8 miles away. Who’d of thought there would be such a run on rooms in this little burg. After securin’ a room we all came back to Seneca and had a nice supper at the local Bob Evans restaurant. After we talked for a while then said our goodnights.

Sunday we started the Grand Tour of the ‘Valley that changed the World’. We started first at the McClintock well, the oldest continuous producing oil well in the world.

Drilled in August of 1861 it still produces oil today.

Our next stop was just a drive by cause there is really no place to stop and nothing left to see. Rouseville used to be the home of the refinery’s outside Oil City, Quaker State, Pennzoil & Wolfs Head too I believe. Today there are two storage tanks left and the rest is a clean-up site, probably a super-fund site.

We then drove on to Oil Creek State Park and the Petroleum Center train station for the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad. Petroleum Center was one of many boom towns that came and went during the heyday of the oil industry here during the 19th century. The station has a wealth of information on the ‘Oil Boom’. We picked up a book called ‘History of the Oil Creek Valley’, chocked full of pictures. It covers all the little burgs that popped up during the oil boom, of coarse most didn’t survive long. They have a diorama at the station of Petroleum Center during the heyday and most of the buildings were constructed so the town could be torn down & moved to a different location in 30 days.

After visiting Petroleum Center we headed to Drake Well in Titusville. This is a part of Oil Creek State Park I believe. Col. Edwin Drake, who was considered a lunatic for his theory of drilling for oil, was hailed a hero after drilling 69 feet into the earth along Oil Creek in Titusville on August 29, 1859 & hitting oil. The Well is still located in the spot where he changed history for all time. Today it pumps with the same wood fired boiler and steam driven machinery that he used then.

These early pioneers in the oil industry used a lot of ingenuity to accomplish there ends. They developed a method to pump many wells from one central power supply tied together by rod line.

 

Photo courtesy of Samuel T. Pees Oil History website.

This is a pushrod system that was featured on the blog on July 29th.

For direction changes in the pushrods.

Need to run the pushrods under the road.

How ‘bout over the road.

Wayne was really interested in all the machinery as was I. The ingenuity was amazing these folks used, but I guess this was after the industrial revolution and ingenuity was king.

We really had a great time with you Wayne & Coleen and await our next visit in November in Florida, or will it be earlier, only time will tell.

We found our own niche at Petroleum Center

After seein’ that again my funny bone is hurtin’ and I’m outa’ here. Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Blacksmithin’ at Drake Well Museum

Linda & I were off to the Drake Well Museum, at the extreme north end of Oil Creek State Park, today cause they we’re hostin’ the Oil Valley Blacksmithing Assn. We are always interested in lookin’ to see things the way they used to be done back when. When we arrived we were told if we were going into the park to see the blacksmiths there would be no admission fee, swe..eet. This pleased Mrs. Frugal greatly, me too.

Upon entrin’ we met up with one of the fellas engaged in the art of blacksmithin’ and he took us out to the area that they were workin’ in. He proceeded to give us some background and show off some of the items he has made.

After inspectin’ his wares we moved to the shed where they were forging some items. They meet here once a month on the last Saturday of each month. Each month one of the members takes charge of the forge, for the day, and creates some items. Today tom was in charge. Tom is a summer resident who lives outside of Tucson, AZ in the winter & spring. Tom was creatin’ a draw knife one of the other members had requested.

They each draw off the others knowledge & expertise, learnin’ new techniques and pickin’ up tips from each other.

This is a display of some of the items they have created

One of the gents, Carl, came over to me and said, “I know you from Cyclops”. Cyclops was a specialty steel mill that operated in Titusville, PA from 1879 to sometime in the late 90’s . I told him I never worked at Cyclops but Linda’s uncle Don worked there for years. Turns out Carl is good friends with Don. Well he & I talked and laughed and he showed me a catalogue of items he has created over the years. Carl also carves wood and sculpts stone along with his metal working hobby.

Here’s most of the guys that were on hand from the Oil Valley Blacksmiths Association that day. They invited Linda & I to sit down and have lunch with them but we declined and told them we wouldn’t impose.

Well that’s all for this post. Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.