June 7, 2012. Artemas, Pa. Back Roads.

The back roads in Pennsylvania are lovely.  They wander alongside creeks and through valleys, before climbing over the small mountains.  A sign is posted if there is a dead end so you can travel on any road and get somewhere.  You drive through woods and past farms but everywhere you come upon houses.  People are living along every road, even though you are far from towns and cities.  You wonder where these folks work.

Today we drove to Everett and then Bedford with Don and Doreen, our friends visiting from Toronto.  After lunch in the tavern at The Bedford Springs Resort, we drove south along the side of the Cumberland Valley.  It was a beautiful drive, through dense forests and past tiny well tended homes and gardens.  Finally, we drove over the mountain on a dirt road, through more state forests.   Everything at this time of the year is green, but every green has a different hue, so it is interesting and lovely.  Driving on back roads in Pennsylvania may take a bit longer but is always worthwhile.

Table

June 6, 2012. Artemas, PA. Bethesda Gateway.

My visit to the sales meeting of The Bethesda Gateway office was lovely for me, and for Kate and Mary Frances.  The agents wore ridiculous hats.  A table was set with a linen table cloth,  three silver tea pots and fancy cookies.  The whole scene was heart warming.   I was able to see and talk to my old friends.  I loved every part of the event.

The most important part of the group is that the agents are doing very well.  They continue to be enthusiastic about their task of helping buyers and sellers.   Individually and collectively they are an impressive group.   I bequeathed  to the office the Merrill Lynch bull, given to me by Rebeca Williams (Rainone) in 1987 when I was a new manager, to provide the office  aggression and strength.   Now the bull is in Regina's office, so any agent who feels fearful or timid can rub that brass bull to restore their energy.   It has worked for many years and it will work in the future.  Somethings never change.

June 5, 2012. Bethesda, Maryland. Nostalgia.

We lived in Bethesda and Kensington for forty years and I worked in Bethesda for thirty three, so coming back to Bethesda is full of nostalgia.    Kate and Mary Frances and I had a pedicure together at my old nail salon and we visited my old office to see Regina and Carol and Betty.   At dinner we ate at The Pines of Rome with two  friends.  All these places were within walking distance of our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn.

Obviously, everything was familiar and pleasant and fun.  but progress had been made in my absence.  The office looked spiffy with new carpets and paint and buildings are going up in already crowded Bethesda.  It is a busy, bustling place with the streets crowded with cars at 2:20 in the afternoon.  Today I will visit the sales meeting and talk to more people,  the good folks I have worked with for years.

I am enjoying Bethesda and friends but I am a person that looks and plans for the future so the nostalgic visit to Bethesda is pleasant but not sad.  The purpose of the visit was to deliver Kate and Mary Frances to their friends in Bethesda, where they will stay a week.  Ken and I will have lunch with friends, then retreat back to the farm and to another world but it has been fun being in Bethesda.

June 4, 2012. Bethesda, Maryland. Methuselah.

He was perfect.  His white hair hung half way down his back and his white beard and mustache  were full and bushy and long too.  He appeared right out of the Bible so we called him Methuselah, but only behind his back.

The tire for the gator went flat again so we stopped in Hagerstown to have the tire repaired  on the way to Bethesda.  Our plan was to pick the tire up on our way back to the farm tomorrow.   This long haired man came to check the tire.  I think he was the owner.  It required a phone call to find a tire, but he felt it best for us to replace the tire as there was a split in the side.   I was wondering why the man in Everett did not see the crack, but I am glad he missed it, because now we got to meet Methuselah.

One of the joys of traveling is the unusual people you meet in out of the way places.   Methuselah was polite and competent and pleasant and helpful but he looked like he was out of a long ago era.  He was a wonderful sight.  Perhaps tomorrow we will get him to pose for a picture.

June 2, 2012. Artemas, PA. Killdeer.

The Killdeer is a beautiful bird.  We see a lot of them because a pair has built a nest right in the middle of our driveway.  When we first arrived on Sunday and stopped right by the Hill House in order to unload the bags, those two birds were screaming at us and running away in every directions.  We knew a nest was close by.  The nest is difficult to spot because there really is no proper nest;  just an indentation in the ground with a few pebbles around the eggs constituting a nest.  Ken and the girls found the nest so lay a shovel just in front to keep anyone from driving over the nest and crushing the three eggs.

Every day we check the birds and the eggs.  We have had three serious storms this week and a bird is always sitting on the nest, even in the driving rain and strong winds.  A few times we thought the winds would drive the bird away.  There are always two birds close by: one to sit on the nest and one to be off eating.  They both scream at us if we approach but by now they do not move when we drive by, even if the girls are in the gator.

In one of our bird boxes we have three little bluebirds being fed and in the other five eggs being sat on by a bird that Mary Frances is a Tree Swallow.  Blue birds are everywhere.  These birds are a treat watching their antics, especially the Killdeer.

June 1, 2012. Artemas, Pa. The Bedford Springs Resort.

We four went to Everett,  Ken to have the tire on the Gator repaired and the girls and I to go grocery shopping.  The plan was efficient.   Ken dropped us at the store to shop while he had the tire fixed.   In the grocery store, Kate and Mary Frances started on one side with an empty basket while I began on the opposite, with the plan to meet in the middle.  We had a list which Kate kept but they were allowed to pick up anything that looked interesting to eat.

The problem was that I went to the bathroom right in the middle so they just kept coming through the whole store, gathering as they went.  Finally we found each other and checked out, to find we had three jars of peanut butter and four bunches of bananas.  Now we do not need to shop again this month.

All four were in casual clothes but we still ate lunch in the crystal room of the very fancy Bedford Springs Resort.  It was wonderful as we were the only ones in the restaurant.  After lunch we wandered the very impressive hotel, all wearing our farm clothes.  It was the girls first visit to the newly renovated hotel and they were impressed.  It was a lovely day.