road trips | Beth Emmott

This is the archive for the ‘road trips’ Category

Strasburg Railroad

August 3rd, 2009

Saturday was hot and we decided to get out of town. Jane and Drew came up and we drove to Strasburg PA in Lancaster to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and the Strasburg Railroad. Bob has been into model trains since he was little—this led to the model building and set construction he does with his photography. I featured his model trains on one of our holiday cards. A chance to see the BIG BOYS has been on the list for a long time.

Oiling the Strasburg train

We also stopped at the Strasburg Train Shop which is a very large model shop, had lunch at the little cafe nearby and drove by the Red Caboose Motel where one could stay overnight in a real caboose if one so desired—we didn’t but it’s something to see. Nearly 50 refurbished cabooses, all painted with their original colors and logos (we’re designers so logo’s are important) set up in the Pennsylvania Dutch country side is a hoot.

Spinning

May 16th, 2007

This past weekend we went to VA Beach to visit my Mom for Mother’s day.
We had a great time—seeing her, my brother Curt and his family. Curt and Mary got us to go to the Monster Trucks on the Beach show that was going on. I’d never heard of Monster Trucks—what fun—sort of like a circus and a rodeo combined.

That’s an entry for another time… what I want to talk about today is spinning.
I used to be a weaver. I was a founding member and past president of the South Jersey Guild of Spinners and Handweavers even though I lived “just over the bridge” in PA.
I was also a member of the Philadelphia Guild of Weavers. I stopped spinning and weaving when I started teaching at Philadelphia University—something had to go and I fed my fiber itch with knitting. My friend Jane is a wonderful knitter and she taught me in exchange for my creating her web site.

This winter I got the spinning bug again—perhaps because I expect my madder plants to mature enough to harvest the roots for dying (if Chris’s cats don’t ruin them). I got out my wheels, an Ashford and a Louet—cleaned them up, replaced the rotten leather bits and oiled them. I still have a trunk of fleece— some still very nice—I found my carders and set to work.

I have no romantic ideas of the “olden days” —I’m sure if I lived then I’d have hated to have had spinning as a chore. But it’s today and I like spinning—I even like the carding, piling up a number of rovings and then the act of spinning its self. Its very meditative, plus you get a skein of yarn in the end.

Back to our VA trip. My Mom moved to VA Beach at the end of last summer and we have made a number of trips, helping her settle in. The most direct route is down the Delmarva peninsula. We used to drive that route when Curt and Mary lived in the Outer Banks but haven’t for a number of years. I’ve always loved the Eastern Shore of VA. Its very beautiful in a quiet natural way. In the fall there are flocks and flocks of birds flying south and while one doesn’t see water as one drives route 13, it is never far away.

We discovered a small restaurant just a few miles off 13 in the historic town of Onancock, VA. It’s name is Mallards at the Wharf and its placed just right if we leave PA early in the am to hit for lunch. So…we stopped at Mallards last weekend. It’s located in an old General Store overlooking an inlet on the Bayside. Something new was added this year. Out side was a sign in the shape of a sheep that said “Handspun Yarn”. A spinner has rented space in the store for the summer.

Her name is Garland B. Harvie and her card identifies her as “Chief Spinner and Knitter” and says that all her wool comes from sheep raised on the Eastern Shore of VA. She spins very fast—I thought I did as I calm down from a busy day at work getting rid of aggressions—but she makes me look like a slow poke. Her yarns are thick and fluffy, many in natural sheep colors, whites, and tans and browns, but she also dyes fibers. She sells both the yarns and items knitted from them. She had a group of wonderful felted knit hats.
She stopped by our table and we talked—I told her of my renewed interest in spinning and the connection to my madder plants. Garland said she was part Cherokee and that the Cherokee believe in circles and that things in life come around. I found this idea wonderful.
So… if you are on Route 13 on the Eastern Shore of VA, take about a 3 mile side trip to Onancock and stop for lunch at Mallards and meet a very interesting spinner and you could even buy some yarn.

12.30.07 – Stopped at Mallards in Onancock and Garland no longer has a shop here. Here’s wishing her well!

Busy Weekend

July 10th, 2006

Saturday morning we were up early and drove to Maine leaving at 5:30. To break up the 8 hour drive we decided to have a picnic lunch along the way. The Connecticut information area on Rt 84 has nice tables set in trees but it was too early so we thought we’d find the same thing in Mass. We asked at the first information area and were told there were tables at the info place outside of Lowell. When we arrived the tables were set in the hot sun between two roadways with noise, confusion and dust. Not what we were looking for to break up the trip.

Bob at our picnic

I looked on the map and saw Great Brook Farm State Park just south of Chelmsford which was just off Rt 495. It said they had picnicking so we headed there. It was terrific – over 900 acres of forest with hiking and biking trails plus a working dairy farm which sells ice cream. We were more interested in the trails. For $2:00 you could get a parking ticket for any of the areas in the park. We found a large rock over looking a pond that was perfect.

Refreshed we drove on to a visit with my cousin Holly and her husband Stig in Maine. We ate Lobster Rolls at The Lobster Shack – solid lobster meat with just a dollop of mayo. Walked around Portland Head Light – spent the night with Holly and Stig.

Stig, Holly and Hollyhocks

Sunday we headed for Connecticut for my Uncle Eddie’s 80th birthday party – he always called me Betsy – I don’t know why. My brothers and I also used to play a game we made up called “Eddie the Fisherman and Ethel the Bride” I have no idea how to play it today – but it was a fun party. Then a supper at my brother Senter’s which concluded with a homemade killer peanut pie and a drive home to Phila by midnight.

We were very tired – had had fun and oh yeah – I left my bag in Maine with my cell phone charger – all my make up and my favorite jeans – Thank goodness for Fed Ex!

Secrets

June 12th, 2006

Field with yellow flowers

There is a field in Connecticut that I’ve know since I was a very little girl. My grandparents owned the land. There were other fields but to get to this field one had to cross the road and walk through a large field, through a break in the stone walls, through a woods, another stone wall and there it was – a secret field.

Others knew about it of course, a local farmer rented the fields to graze his cows on and the cows kept a path open through the woods – one had to walk carefully.

I couldn’t go there alone when I was little – couldn’t cross the road to begin with – then it was pretty far from the house, but sometimes in the fall my great uncle would visit. He would take my brothers and me on a hike. On the far side of the field was a great butternut tree and we would gather nuts.

Years later the field became my brother’s property and now he is thinking of retiring and selling. Yesterday, I visited “my” field. The cows are gone but deer still keep the path open. It was a beautiful Connecticut day – the type that makes one forget that it had just rained for three weeks or so straight. There was bright sunshine in the field with dark contrasts of the woods all around. What traffic there was on the country roads didn’t penetrate – just bird song and insect buzzing. Yellow flowers everywhere.

I was hesitant to walk back there for fear of deer tics but it was cool and I wore long sleeves and pants and would and have checked myself from stem to stern – often. My butternut tree was still there and I just stood in the middle and said goodbye.

Garden Hoax 2006

June 9th, 2006

Plants in the Haupt Conservatory of the New York Botanical Garden

This week I went on my garden trip with Jane and Jane, Mike, Pam, Marge, and Sally. This year we went to New York City! and it rained and rained and rained but we still had fun, Jane brought everyone yo-yos, talked a lot, ate good food – lots of chocolate – and saw gardens! Pam had made arrangements for a hotel with a great location, (she gave us each a purple geranium to brighten our rooms), made reservations at a terrific restaurant, Artisanal, and suggested lots to see. The lots to see kept being switched about to accommodate the weather but on Tues we took the bus up Fifth Ave. to 105th street to see the NY Conservatory.

It was pretty misty but the plants were happy. The gardeners working there were so helpful and friendly – stopping what they were doing to answer our constant stream of questions. In one of the more formal areas, surrounded by a hedge, a young mother was blowing bubbles for her child and they floated over the garden. With Central Park in the background it was out of a movie!

The next day we drove to The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. It poured—forget misty. So we made a beeline to The Haupt Conservatory, a wonderful Victorian glass building full of tropical plants; then the Mertz Library which had an amazing exhibit, Dutch Watercolors with paintings and other botanical drawings etc from the National Herbarium of the Netherlands at Leiden and their own collections. Many prints and drawings from the 16 and 1700’s. Don’t forget we were all art students once upon a time so we were excited—gardens and art! We grabbed lunch at their cafe and hit one of the best garden gift shops I’ve seen.

Then, due to the rain we all split up and headed our separate ways, some stayed on, Jane and I hit the Jersey Turnpike back to Philly.

The sun has been shining ever since!

Vermont

August 15th, 2005

Last week we went to Vermont. Nothing was happening in Philadelphia—clients are all “down the shore” so we figured we should grab a little vacation while we could. Spent Sat looking for places on the web and drove up Sunday.
Stayed at several b&b’s: the Old Homestead in Barnet, VT, where Gail Warnaar combines a B&B with The Double Reed Shop —“a complete, one-stop resource for double reed musicians”; Lake Salem Inn in Derby VT run by Joe and Mo Profera, who it turns out fled the good life in Philadelphia for the north woods; and The Summit Lodge in Killington—don’t go there unless you like very large dogs.

We saw Bread and Puppets, hiked a bit, had a picnic, shopped a bit, saw museums and visited book stores—VT has some very nice books stores—took pictures, sketched some, ate in nice restaurants—and one not so nice! and then home on Thurs—short and sweet but nice to get away.

The only thing gardeny we did was not to garden!—and the weeds had a terrific growth spell—It was hot and humid and they were very happy!!!