Where Ducks Walk on the Backs of Fish

The last couple weeks seem to have been very busy thus the delay in posting a blog update. When last we wrote, we had left Mercer, PA, for Williamsfield, OH, for another week of R&R but still managed to do a little sightseeing around the area. Thurs. (8/14) we drove to Linesville, PA, just 10 min. away to see the famous Linesville Spillway where it’s said that “ducks walk on the backs of fish”. It’s part of the Pymatuning Lake Reservoir and is said to be the second most popular tourist attraction in PA after the Liberty Bell. The Spillway is home to thousands of huge carp that are attracted to this particular spot mainly by the bread thrown into the water by visitors. Hundreds of ducks and geese frequent the lake and at times they do appear to walk on the backs of the fish as they, too, try to get at the bread! The upper part of the lake flows into the lower part by means of a semi-circular spillway, which is where the majority of the fish seem to be gathered. They were packed so tight that at times they'd literally squeeze each other up and out of the water! It’s definitely quite a sight to see.

We decided to take a different route home and on the way came upon the Linesville State Fish Hatchery where they raise warm water fish. Established in 1939, they utilize the 2,500 acre sanctuary located behind the visitor’s center to get their brood stock for spawning. After walking around the center, we ventured out to the culture ponds where we found Don feeding the paddlefish fingerlings. It was fascinating talking with him, and he was very gracious in taking the time to answer our questions.

Our site at the Pymatuning Valley Resort backed up to the Pymatuning State Park campground, separated only by a fence and some trees, and the weather was beautiful. This is Amish country, and horse and buggies are not uncommon. In fact the day I stopped at McDonald’s, there was one parked in a regular parking space, and me with no camera! It struck me a little odd when the elderly Amish gentleman in front of me ordered a fish sandwich and coffee. I just never pictured the Amish frequenting fast food places.

Just down the road is the town of Andover, OH, where they still have an old time drive-in theater featuring the latest movies every Fri. and Sat. May – Oct. How many opportunities do you get to go to a real drive-in movie anymore! However the movies this weekend were Space Chimps and Hellboy II, and at $6/adult, those were not two movies we wanted to waste our money on even just to say we were there! But every Sat. and Sun. the theater is home to the Andover Flea Market. There were a couple hundred vendors the day we went, and even though we don’t need any more “stuff”, we spent a couple hours browsing and somehow managed to spend $37.

Friday evenings during the summer, Andover is home to People in the Park Concerts, and as in Mercer, each week a different community group is featured in the town square. After the great time we had at the Mercer concert, we were prepared for another pleasant small town evening. We picked up some fried chicken and slaw at the market, and arrived early to enjoy a picnic in the park before the concert began. The centerpiece of the town square is a circle of monuments honoring all branches of the military surrounding a flag pole, and it’s the first town where we have seen a number of yellow ribbons tied on trees and poles honoring the troops. A few feet away is the stage, and the concert was to begin at 7pm. Unlike the previous week, folks were not arriving early, and maybe that should have given us a hint of things to come. The group was called the Happy Volunteers, 5 senior citizens - one lady on keyboard, three guys on guitar, and one guy on a squeaky fiddle. Let’s just say this entertainment left a lot to be desired! About 50 people were in attendance, but I think many were family and friends. The group played Tennessee Waltz, Tiny Bubbles, and a couple other songs we recognized, but then they started playing some fast song that was totally unrecognizable and just awful. At that point we decided to leave before they passed the hat for donations! We proceeded to walk around the square, peering in many of the shops, making our way back to our car, and cringing at the sound coming from the stage because now they were singing along and out of key!

Sat. night our neighbors, Mac and Karen, invited us over to sit around the campfire, and we enjoyed a pleasant evening getting acquainted, sharing stories, and hearing about their salmon fishing trips in Alaska!

I had planned to get this blog posted on Sun., but we spent a good part of the day preparing to post some more items on eBay. We had stored our baseball memorabilia at Russ’ sister’s in NJ so when we were there in July, we took some of it back with plans to possibly sell in Cooperstown. But after further consideration, we decided to sell on eBay instead. First up are about 14 bobbleheads from the 1960s that we plan to list in increments of 4 or 5 per week. We got everything set up, and at 9pm Eastern, we started listing 5 of them with a starting bid of $9.99. Within a matter of minutes, we started getting questions, and within about an hour, someone asked if we’d be willing to do a Buy It Now on the Dodgers bank bobblehead for $150! Oh, gee, let me see…only if you twist our arms! We adjusted the listing so that option was available, he bought it, and we’ll mail it Thurs. from St. Louis. After answering a few more questions, we finally shut the computer down around midnight cause Mon. was going to be a long travel day as we headed for South Bend, IN, to get some warranty and service work done on the RV before heading to St. Louis.

After driving across the entire state of Ohio and half of Indiana, we arrived at Hill Truck Sales about 6:30pm and set up camp for the night in the parking lot behind their building with a 20 amp electrical outlet. Our appt. was for 7am Tues. morning and was to only take about ½ a day. We checked in promptly, loaded the dogs and cat (in her carrier) into the car, and off we went to tool around South Bend for a few hours.

As you may know, South Bend is home to the University of Notre Dame (http://www.nd.edu/), and we decided to drive around the campus since we were in town. As it turns out, Notre Dame is a “pedestrian campus” so not a lot of driving around allowed. The morning was quite cool, so we parked under a tree, left the windows open several inches for Jo, leashed the dogs, and took a stroll. The bookstore has a Starbucks inside, and since we hadn’t eaten any breakfast, I went inside to grab us something to eat and drink while Russ sat at an outside table with the dogs.

We had heard from several people that Notre Dame was a beautiful campus, and they did not exaggerate. The Golden Dome of the Main Building with the statue of Mary on top is visible from nearly all over campus and even roads leading to it.

We walked around the stadium and past the library with the large mural of the resurrected Jesus entitled “The Word of Life” but more commonly known by its nickname, “Touchdown Jesus”. The mural looms over the stadium and is so named because it appears to mirror the raised arms of a referee signaling a touchdown. We passed by a beautiful fountain created to honor the nearly 500 ND alumni who gave their lives during WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.











A short distance from the quad is the Cancer Awareness Tree that honors all those who have survived cancer and those who have died of cancer. Ribbons were located in a small basket nearby and folks are encouraged to commemorate both by tying a ribbon on the tree. I participated by tying ribbons for my mom, my uncle, and two aunts.

After checking back in with Hall’s and them telling us it’d be another couple hours, we visited a couple parks and drove around awhile longer. The service work took a little longer than promised, but they also helped get our running lights working again before we left. So instead of hitting the road shortly after lunch, it was nearly 5pm. We drove as far as Joliet, IL, spending the night at a really nice campground, and Wed. drove into St. Louis to the KOA campground (technically Eureka).

I don’t believe we mentioned before that our caravan buddy, Scott, had decided to meet back up with us in Eureka, the place where we all first met. He arrived on Thurs. and that evening he joined us at our rig along with our friend, John, for some Imo’s pizza and beer. Friday he accompanied us to the weekly American Legion Fish Fry in Russ’ old neighborhood and then to visit our friend, Bob, at the San-Bar Tavern.

You might remember from last year’s visit that the boys drank just a wee bit too much the first night we were in town so Russ dubbed this year’s get together on Sat. as the 2nd annual “Drink as much beer as you can as fast as you can without puking” party! Of course all swore they were going to drink in moderation this year. Unfortunately Rick couldn’t make it this year, but John, Steve, and Patty came over and Scott joined the party as well. We grilled some ribs, cooked some corn on the cob we had picked up fresh from the farm in Ohio (ok, it was fresh a week ago), garlic bread, and some homemade potato salad. John brought a yummy French cheesecake, and there were plenty of beers to go around. While Patty and I imbibed on Mojitos and peach margaritas, the guys stayed pretty true to their word and didn’t over drink this year. I’m sure part of the incentive was that Steve, John, and Russ were scheduled to play golf at 6 this morning! Good grief…I don’t think the sun’s even up yet at that time!

I’m sure the next few weeks will fly by with plans being made to visit friends and family, tailgate and attend the Missouri/Illinois football game, more golf, visit choruses, and who knows what else so stay tuned!

Small Town America

After more than 4 months on the road, following our planned itinerary, we figured it would be prudent to schedule some downtime to just relax and take it easy before arriving in St. Louis. Now some of you may laugh about needing downtime as I’m sure that’s what you think our life is each and every day. Keep in mind that we travel down the road at least once a week, and even short 100 mile treks end up taking the bulk of the day as we pack up from where we are staying and set up camp at the next location. Throw in a few days a week of sightseeing and day trips, and it’s really not that often when we just hang out with nothing on the schedule. Much like when we worked, we tend to hang out at home on weekends and let the less fortunate tourists flock to the various sights when crowds are high.

One thing about our travels is that it seems while on the road we always stumble across something unexpected, unique, and oftentimes inspiring. It’s generally just a minor discovery that brings back memories of a less hectic time. A time that was simpler. That’s not to say that it was less stressful, easier, or better, but a time when perhaps people had the opportunity to get to know each other a little bit better. A time when a sense of community bonded friends, neighbors, and a whole town. A time without TV, the internet, or video games. A time when the main source of entertainment was actually talking to, laughing with, and helping a neighbor in need. A time when there actually seemed to be more time.

Every so often one of these unexpected discoveries truly seems to be special. We found a special place in Mercer, PA, on Friday night. With no WiFi at our campground and our Verizon aircard working very slowly, we decided to drive the two miles into town to grab a bite to eat and see if we could find a stronger signal. Mercer is a small town in western PA with a number of state roads converging on its location. As we drove up the hill on one of those roads, the first thing we saw was the county courthouse and later found out that it was built in 1911 on the highest point in Mercer County. It was an imposing structure topped by a dome housing a large clock. Seeing a clock on such a structure is not that unusual, but seeing one that keeps accurate time and shouts out the top of the hour with its beautiful chimes is unusual.

The courthouse is the focal point of Mercer and its town square. It creates a park like atmosphere with towering trees to provide shade and park benches to provide rest. Out front is a statue honoring the Civil War dead and another honoring those who died in Vietnam. There are parking spaces perpendicular to the courthouse on two sides of the building and instead of parking meters are horse hitches with “2 hour parking” written on the poles. Someone comes around on a regular basis writing down the license plate numbers of those parked and the time, and if a car is there more than 2 hours, he writes up a ticket and puts it on the windshield. I actually witnessed him doing this when he stopped to write down our license plate number! The square itself has the usual businesses and shops that you would expect to see, a bank, a couple of restaurants, and some antique shops were all located in brick buildings probably built in the late 1800s or early 20th century. A church and old Victorian homes were all within walking distance. Like most smaller towns that have been hurt by bigger and supposedly “better things down the road”, the square also contained a number of vacant buildings. An old time Mercantile store with an original 1880s tin ceiling and marble soda fountain counter was on one of the corners. We ventured inside one day and though a small shop, it was crammed with all kinds of this ‘n that, even penny candy actually sold for a penny!





While there we discovered that every Fri. night for 8 weeks starting June 20 there’s a free Community Band Concert Series. This is the 31st year of the concerts, and each week features a different band and warm-up act. It’s held right on the grounds of the County Courthouse on the town square starting at 6pm. It was about 4:30 and some senior citizens were already arriving with their lawn chairs. The lady I spoke with said they always get there early to get a good spot, get a bite to eat from one of the nearby restaurants, and socialize while they wait. She said the one side street is closed off so people can even set their chairs up in the street, and every week a different group hosts an ice cream social fundraiser with all sorts of yummy desserts. Sounded just like one of those small town events we like to explore.

About 6:15 we threw our lawn chairs into the car and drove up the road figuring we’d stay for about an hour. The warm-up act was by “accordion virtuoso” Johnny Oakes. He had a rhythm box accompanying him and was actually quite good playing a wide variety of songs as the crowd gathered. After finding a good spot, we walked around, picked up a raffle ticket given free to anyone in attendance from out-of-state, and checked out the homemade desserts hosted by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church. Russ picked up one of the best looking pieces of apple pie I’ve ever seen and topped it with a scoop of ice cream while I got a piece of flaky cherry pie. We made our way back to our seats enjoying the music, the people, and the pleasant evening air (it had cooled down quite a bit). At 7pm the Youngstown Area Community Concert Band took the stage under the direction of Joseph Pelligrini. This is their 16th year performing at the Mercer Concert Series, and their program tonight was called “Pure Americana”, a selection of patriotic music, a John Williams medley, and a medley called Disney at the Movies. They also performed a selection called Flight of Valor that was written by James Swearingen in honor of those who lost their lives on United Flight 93 about 150 miles from here on 9/11. It was beautiful and quite moving. We ended up staying until the very end, about 8:30, and thoroughly enjoyed a very pleasant evening.

Since we’ve been on the road, we’ve seen many amazing things. We both agree that this Friday evening in Mercer, mingling with 200 new friends, was one of the best.

For such a small town (population about 2,500), there sure seems to be a lot going on. We found out that on Sat. there was a car show/pig roast, a local bar/restaurant was having their grand opening, and the campground was having a live band that evening! About mid-afternoon we drove over to the Pit Stop’s grand opening, but we may have been a little too early as there was hardly anyone there, so we drove down the road to the pig roast. There was quite an impressive array of old cars all shiny and lookin’ cherry! The Great Pretenders were singing and playing music from the 50s, and the pig was roasting on the pit. Alas again we were too early as the pig wouldn’t be ready for a couple more hours, and though they had some other food for sale, we decided to head back to the RV. But on our way we decided to stop for a beer at the Mustang Bar, basically a hole-in-the-wall dive that is directly across the street from the campground. When we arrived, a couple bikers were playing pool and a couple construction workers just off the job were enjoying a couple brewskys before heading home. We had heard this place could be quite rowdy on Fri. and Sat. nights but no problems while we were there. Seems like kind of an odd place to be across the street from such a nice resort. This campground is shareholder owned gated community with only a limited number of sites for non-members, and they seem to take pride in making it a nice place. We didn’t make it up to the clubhouse that night to see the band as I wasn’t feeling too well, but all-in-all it had been an enjoyable day.

Our next stop down the road is Williamsfield, OH, just a few miles west of the PA border for another week of R&R.

That's A Lotta Water!

Wow! Amazing! Pretty incredible! All things we said upon seeing the power, beauty, and majesty of the Niagara Falls. Definitely a sight to behold that leaves one nearly speechless.

After relaxing on Tues. and researching the many options on seeing the falls, we drove to Niagara Falls State Park on Wed., only 15 min. from the campground. As we approached the visitors’ center, we could see a portion of the Niagara River behind it. What a powerful force that rapidly flowing water is.

We had decided on the Maid of the Mist boat tour, and after taking the observation tower elevator 175 ft. down to the dock, we donned waterproof ponchos for an unforgettable 30 min. ride past the American Falls, the Bridal Veil Falls, and directly down to the basin of the Horseshoe Falls. The force of the falls and the wind generated are so strong that I could take no pictures as we got closer to the Horseshoe Falls. All I could do was enjoy the ride and the view. It almost felt as we can only imagine a low category hurricane must feel. Did you know that 3,160 tons of water flows over the falls every second?? The water plummets at 32 feet/second over the falls hitting the base with 280 tons of force at the American and Bridal Veil Falls and 2,509 tons of force at the Horseshoe Falls!!

After the boat docked, still in our blue ponchos, we walked up the stairs alongside the American Falls. Up near the top of the stairs, which is only a fraction up the side of the falls, is when our shoes and socks got drenched! The mist was so strong! I took this picture showing where we had been once we got back to the top of the observation tower.

That night we went back to witness the Lighting of the Falls. Massive spotlights are beamed from the Canadian side onto the falls in a rainbow of constantly changing colors. And as it turns out on Wed. night during the months of July and Aug. there is a fireworks display that is normally only done on Fri. and Sun. We watched from the top of the observation tower, and what a beautiful sight to behold.

Over the last few months whenever we would mention we were going to Niagara Falls, every single person told us that we must see them from the Canadian side. Well, shoot, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add a trip to Canada to our travels since we were so close, eh? So Thurs. morning with passports in hand (though you don’t really need a passport to enter Canada by car, but you do need two photo IDs), we headed off across the Rainbow Bridge to Niagara Falls, Ontario. Our wait in line wasn’t too bad, but when we arrived at the border agent’s window, we were kind of surprised at one of the questions he asked. After the initial why are you coming in, how long you going to stay, what do you have in the car, where are you staying (Russ told him we lived in our RV), etc., he asked if we were carrying any firearms in the car. Now that wasn’t the strange question, the strange one was “Do you have any firearms back in your RV?” We don’t, but found that odd since we didn’t have the RV with us and what difference would it make if we had any back at the campground? Oh, well, probably just checking to see our response and just doing his job.

As we approached the falls, Russ was beginning to think that from what we could see from the car, there wasn’t going to be any real difference from what we’d already seen. We paid our $20 USD to park (it was $10 on the U.S. side with in and out privileges) and walked across the street towards the falls. OHMIGOSH!! Everyone had been right….the view was incredible!! We were right at the top edge of the Horseshoe Falls and could see up the river that feeds into them. Besides finally getting some pictures of the Horseshoe Falls, I also took a pic of one of the Maid of the Mist boats down below. The Canadians definitely have this tourist thing figured out and with the view they have, definitely seem to get the bulk of the tourist trade as this side seemed way more crowded than the U.S. side.

After spending some time enjoying the sights and sounds of the falls, we drove along Niagara Parkway heading back to the states. On the way, we stopped at the Niagara Spanish Aero Car Ride, a cable car that travels across above the whirlpool gorge. We had stopped at Whirlpool State Park stateside on our way to the border in the morning, and the water was such a beautiful shade of blue-green. We had seen the car further down from where we were but didn’t realize it totally traversed the Canadian side. We also stopped at the Floral Clock (www.niagaraparks.com/garden/floralclock.php), a unique, huge timepiece consisting of intricate designs that are changed twice a year and created with up to 16,000 bedding plants.

The wait returning to the states was much longer (about 20 min.), but before crossing we stopped at the duty free shop and picked up 5 bottles of liquor. We hadn’t planned on getting that much, but they were having an unbelievable special on a 4 bottle pack of Crown Royal plus we picked up a bottle of gin. The average cost for each was about $16, a considerable savings. Looks like we’ll be stocked up on bourbon for awhile!

So now we can check Canada off our list and say we’ve been to every country in North America (since we had been to Mexico a couple times before we hit the road). Fri. morning we left for Mercer, PA, our longest drive in quite awhile. Nothing special about going to Mercer…just another stop on the road at a Coast-to-Coast campground (meaning we only pay $10/night).