Three Friends, Two States

There's been a lot of driving and a lot of visiting in the past couple of days. We met up with three blogging friends...what a delight that was...and we covered a lot of ground. What I have to show you is a whole lot of barn pictures, but there's some other stuff mixed in too. So, let's just get to it, shall we?

We left Niagara Falls Monday morning and headed for Letchworth State Park. Along the way we saw plenty of barns. I've taken so many shots of barns in the past couple of days that it isn't even funny. I'm only showing you a few of them.

From Niagara Falls, it was just a little over an hour to Letchworth State Park.

It's easy to see why this is called the Grand Canyon of the East, although it is a much smaller scale.

We haven't seen a lot of fall color on our drive, but we're seeing some...and more as we go along.

There were some amazing views off into the distance from the state park. You can see that the trees are still pretty green.

We entered the park at the north end, and drove nearly to the south end before coming on the first of three falls. We could take the steps down to the falls or else take the "easy" trail out. Which do you suppose we chose?

Well, don't think we're taking the hard way without first checking out the easy way. As it turns out, it was a pretty good view through the trees there.

Also along the way, we noticed the picnic area with these stone picnic tables.

From there, we headed to the visitor's center where I picked up a refrigerator magnet. Yes, it's impossible to visit anything without going on the hunt for the refrigerator magnet and shot glass. To find one or the other is good. To find both is divine. In this case...only the magnet.

I'd been texting with Sarah, who blogs at Sarah Did It!, keeping her apprised of our progress. We were trying to time a quick meet and greet, and We Did It! We headed into Castile and parked in front of the fire department and then waited for Sarah to meet us.

Sarah is a volunteer EMT here, and so she had keys and took us on a tour. Pretty darned cool stuff parked in here.

Mike was like a kid in a candy store. He liked this much better than visiting quilt shops. Go figure.

Sarah was a delight, and of course, no visit would be complete without the requisite group shot.

Wonderful. Thanks for making time for us, Sarah. We loved meeting you.

From there, we had about another hour's drive to see Pat, who blogs at Amity Quilter. We saw a few more barns along the way. I usually miss the structures with barn quilts on them, but I did catch this little shed.

Pat and I were friends when she was still living in Oregon, but I'd never met her husband. Dennis turned out to be a very nice man...not at all surprising. We spent the night at their place. They have the most beautiful and peaceful spot in Scio. We had a very nice dinner out with them Monday evening, and then this morning, Pat fed us a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and a French breakfast bread. I'm forgetting its correct name, but it was so yummy. It was made with blueberries from their garden...a lot like bread pudding. Pat has promised to send me the recipe, and I'll hold her to that.

Pat and Dennis fell in love with their new home for its location, and historic home. They also had a  shagbark hickory tree. Pat said she was sold on the tree. I didn't have my camera with me as we toured their property, but here's an image of one I found on the internet.

The tree was incredible but, for me, their barn was love at first sight.

And that was a great place to spend the night. Thank you again, Pat and Dennis, for your wonderful hospitality.

After breakfast this morning, we headed for Schoharie, New York, to meet Sharon, who blogs at Vrooman's Quilts. Of course, we saw more barns along the way.

Also, we passed over the state border into Pennsylvania for about one minute before crossing back into New York for the remainder of the journey. The map made it look as if we would be driving right on top of the border, and so we weren't sure what we would see. We passed this sign...

And we weren't sure if it meant we'd crossed the border, or if the border was off to the side of the road. We glanced at the navigation unit and lookie there!

Do you see it there in the bottom right corner? Sayre, PA. Yahoo!!! Another state for the side of the RV. Of course, we'll be back in Pennsylvania in a week or so, but now we can put it on the side of the RV right away. You can't even imagine how thrilled we are about this. By "we," I mean me.

Also, along the way, we were amused by the many, many "Text Stops." This one, for example...

presumably placed there for people who need to text as much as they need to pee.

And you didn't think we were finished looking at barns, did you? Oh no, no, no.

And at the end of a long day, we ended up at Sharon's home for the evening. We had the pleasure of meeting both Sharon and her mother, Arlene. Arlene was such a kick in the pants...she had us laughing all evening.

Sharon made us a delicious dinner of pot roast...Mike's favorite. After dinner, we toured the quilt room where Sharon's and Arlene's quilts are stored. There must be at least a thousand quilts in this room. Arlene explained this t-shirt quilt she'd made. The quilt back contains fabrics representing events from way back to the 1920's. We loved listening to her stories.

And we had the pleasure of seeing Sharon's bear quilt up close and personal. It's amazing how much more beautiful a quilt is when you see it in person and can really see the colors and patterns in the fabrics. The bear paw border on this one is exquisite.

And there you go...my friend Sharon and me. What a delight to meet Sharon for the first time. Also, we had the pleasure of meeting Sharon's cats, Mo and Bella...beautiful cats, and very friendly.

I'd told Sharon to forget we were dieting, and she obliged us by giving us a dessert of carrot cupcakes. And we happily took the three that were left over. She didn't even have to twist our arms...not even once. Diet, Schmiet. Those will be gone in no time, and we'll forget we ever ate them, right?

Thank you, Sharon. We loved seeing your interesting little village and home, and meeting your feline family members was the icing on the carrot cupcake.

So it's Tuesday evening as I'm writing this. Tomorrow we head for Vermont and New Hampshire...on our way to our northernmost destination of Acadia National Park in Maine. I have a completely silly yen to see the King Arthur Baking Store in Norwich, Vermont, and that is our next destination. We'll spend the night somewhere after we've crossed over the border into New Hampshire. It looks like we'll spend another night in a Walmart parking lot, but we may decide to spring for a real RV park. Our tanks will help us decide in the morning.