Two Lane Adventures: Day Ninety-Nine to One-Hundred-One - A Summer of Bluegrass, Camping and Friends - Sunday 8/04/2024

On Sunday August 4th, it was hazy, sunny and 66°. It was my 217th walk of 2024. Sheila was sitting out enjoying coffee when I started out at 7 am. A beautiful morning for my last walk in NY. It was the perfect morning to talk with God. I believe in myself and my abilities.

We enjoyed a final morning with our friends and got all packed up, dumped and refilled with fresh water. Charlie and I did not hook up the car, because we are stopping for gas and propane in Kanona.

At the base of the hill, we pass through Naples. Naples is nestled in Ontario County’s southwest corner and surrounded by three neighboring counties to the east, south, and west (Yates, Steuben, and Livingston, respectively). The community of Naples has a personality formed by several long standing constants: great scenery, a keen appreciation of the arts and an obsession with grapes.

I also love the Christmas tree farms that dot the landscape. Hanggi's Tree Farm has "The Barn" located right on NY-21 and offers easy access to your perfect Christmas Tree. Each of the seven species of Christmas tree at Hanggi's Tree Farm has been carefully selected to thrive in our New York weather! I love the Christmas tree shaped oversized yardstick to measure the trees.

Artists have an inherent affinity for Naples’s natural beauty. Sculptors, painters, furniture makers, actors, musicians, and others find inspiration around every corner and Naples loves them right back, encouraging creativity and the artistic lifestyle.

At Artizanns, over 200 Finger Lakes Artisans present everything from pottery, hand-blown glass, wood works, sculptures, metal, paintings, photography, jewelry, fabric art, all natural candles, soaps and sundries, local musicians and literary artists’ works.

I love a field of Sunflowers, but nothing was really in bloom yet, in the big fields we saw. We did enjoy the sunflowers on the telephone poles along main street!

But, as far as real sunflowers go, I will have to enjoy the small groups of blooms at Joseph's Wayside. Joseph’s Wayside Market is one of the largest open-air farm markets in the Finger Lakes Region. The nostalgic environment at Joseph’s Wayside is one of many reasons why they are known as a destination market. There’s something for everyone: fresh seasonal plants grown in their very own greenhouses, specialty gourmet groceries & baked goods, rustic patio furniture, and so much more!

Goodbye NY, Hello PA.

As we were driving along Route 15, we captured Amish coming home from church and maybe headed to a picnic. Amish people believe that humans were created to live in community with God and with one another. This emphasis on community naturally leads to lots of time spent in fellowship! Sunday gatherings are the perfect example of this emphasis. Although the Amish community meets every other Sunday for a church service, every Sunday is a day of rest and fellowship. On these rest days, Amish families will join together to spend most of the day together. Amish youth often gather into the evening hours to sing and play volleyball. Our Amish friends will not be watching football like many non-Amish families do on a Sunday afternoon, but they will be enjoying their time together nonetheless!

We finished our drive to Mechanicsburg PA along a very familiar route of 15. Driving down 15, takes us along the Susquehanna River. I was able to see my favorite feature located in the middle of the Susquehanna River, the little Lady Liberty, a replica of the statue of Liberty. I have talked about her many times before in other blogs. If you have missed it, follow this link.

Our overnight stop was at a Harvest Host location at the Appalachian Brewing Company in Mechanicsburg. This brewpub opened in the Summer of 2014. It features plenty of parking and a 26,000 square foot building. This huge building features a bright and modern brewpub and grill, with more than 20 Appalachian Brewing Company craft beers on tap, and a full menu of innovative brewpub cuisine!

Their 15-barrel brewing system is second in size only to their main Harrisburg brewery, and regularly turns out two to three seasonal specialty beers each month! We enjoyed our beers and meals in their spacious main dining room with regular and high top tables. They offer another ‘family dining’ section featuring comfortable booths. Who would not love to have a meeting here! They have a semi-private second floor mezzanine seating section overlooking the main dining area, and a private Brewery Dining section, which is separated from the main dining room. Additionally, they have a Conference Room which is perfect for any private gatherings.

We started out with a Bavarian oversized pretzel served with brewhaus mustard and warm cheddar dip. Neither of us were a fan of the mustard, but the cheese sauce was delicious.

Charlie had an Appalachian Argyle IPA with 6.1% ABV. He used that to wash down his Original Harrisburger. A juicy Black Angus beef burger with American cheese, pickle, lettuce, and tomato.

I went for the Appalachian Silver Stock Lime, an American Light Lager with 4.3% ABV. I munched on slow roasted sweet and spicy pork in their Mango Pork Tacos. Garnished with cilantro lime slaw, pickled red onion, mango salsa, and fresh cilantro. Delicious, but too much to eat in one sitting!

Out front of the Brewery is a remanent of a public art display. This year marks the 20th anniversary of one of the strangest, funniest, most lighthearted fundraising events in Southcentral Pennsylvania history – a whimsical public art display called the Cow Parade. In 2004, 137 fiberglass cows moo-ved onto the streets of Harrisburg, Hershey, Camp Hill, Carlisle, and Gettysburg. I could not discover how this cow moo-ved to this location. The first Cow Parade occurred in Zurich, Switzerland in 1998, and arrived in America in 1999 with a show in Chicago. Since then dozens of parades have taken place around the world, and over 7,000 cows have been created.

The cows came in three poses; standing, grazing, and laying down. They arrived as blank canvases; plain white from nose to tail. Each of them was transformed by a different local artist, who decorated the plain white bovines with paint, glass, metal, mosaics, marbles and, in one case, thousands of pennies.

Some artists even took apart their cows and rebuilt them into unlikely poses (for cows, at least). Many of the titles were puns. We saw names like “Mootivational Cow”, “Breaking Moos Cow”, “Udder-pedic”, “Pi-cow-so”, and “Christmoos Cow”. All of which, to use three more names, was “Cow-culated” to provide people with “Moo-ving” “Cow-mic relief”.

Here are a few Udderly Fun Facts about Cows on Parade. Over 250 million people around the world have seen one of these famous cows. Over $40 million have been raised through worldwide charitable organizations through the auction of the cows, which take place at the conclusion of each event. The Pennybull Cow from CowParade Austin sold for $150,000, the highest selling cow. The largest CowParade is CowParade New York in 2000, featuring over 450 cows. The smallest event was 25 cows.

It was sunny and 73° at 7:00am on Monday August 5th for my 218th walk of 2024. My only walk in PA this leg. Since we overnighted at Appalachian Brewing Company in Mechanicsburg, a Harvest Host location, which is located in a commercial / retail area.

My 4-mile walk started on the only sidewalk right in front of the Tesla dealership. From there I slipped into a bowling alley parking lot that connected with a Target, Wegmans and several smaller strip malls with businesses in them.

We quickly said see you later to PA, once we got on the road and hello to MD.

Along Route 15 you pass by Mount St Mary's University. It is a private Roman Catholic university in Emmitsburg, Maryland. It has the largest Catholic seminary in the United States. It was founded in 1808 with the campus encompassing over 1,500 acres.

C&O Canal is the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. Nicknamed “The Grand Old Ditch,” the C&O Canal and its beautiful scenic byway is both a vacation destination and a journey all its own. A marvel of 19th-century engineering that captured the imagination of the nation, today it’s a welcoming hub of outdoor activity with nearly 200 miles of hiking, biking, bird watching, history, and even good old fashioned mule-drawn barge rides! At the heart of this remarkable byway is the C&O Canal National Historical Park with its 74 unique lift locks.

The C&O Canal aqueducts are “water bridges” that carried canal boats over the creeks and rivers that flow into the Potomac River. Built in 1832, the Catoctin Aqueduct is the fourth of eleven such “works of art” on the canal. The Catoctin Creek Aqueduct was known as the "Crooked Aqueduct" because canal boats had to make a sharp turn to cross it.

From its original creation, the Catoctin Creek Aqueduct's structural integrity was questionable. The elliptical arch in the center was not as structurally sound as the semicircle arches on either side. The aqueduct began sagging in the early 1900s. It leaked and was prone to flooding. In 1973, two years after Congress established the C&O Canal National Historical Park, it collapsed, leaving only a small piece standing. Bricks were secured and once funding was received the aqueduct was meticulously rebuilt.

Crossing the Potomac River. During the American Civil War, the Potomac traced the border between the Union and the Confederacy and lent its name to the most important Union army, the Army of the Potomac. Today, the Potomac River traces the border between Maryland and Virginia along Route 15.

Hello VA! Virginia is for lovers. That slogan has been around since 1968. The slogan "Virginia is for Lovers" originated from the advertising agency Martin & Woltz Inc. The creative team, led by George Woltz and David N. Martin, originally came up with more specific slogans, such as "Virginia is for History Lovers" and "Virginia is for Beach Lovers". However, they eventually decided that this approach was too limiting and dropped the modifiers, settling on "Virginia is for Lovers". The slogan first appeared in a 1969 issue of Modern Bride.

Our home for the night, Blue Mountain Barrel House & Smokin' Barrel Restaurant, a Harvest Host location. It was Virginia's First Rural Brewery. It sits in the shadow of Appalachia’s Blue Ridge Mountains in Arrington, Virginia. They are a farm brewery, growing their own hops, and proudly craft real American beer inspired by thousands of years of tradition but not limited by convention.

Charlie enjoyed a Hopwork Orange IPA with 7% ABV and I had a Rockfish Wheat Wheat Beer, at only 5.4% ABV. The beers were good, but the best part was it was happy hour, so they were half price! Charlie enjoyed a burger and fries and I had a Rachel (a Ruben with turkey and coleslaw.)

I love the LOVE signs that are all over VA!

It was a perfect sunset and quiet night on the mountain! Ahhhhhhh, life is good!

On Tuesday August 6th, it started out overcast, foggy and 72° at 8:00am for my 219th walk of 2024. My only walk in VA this leg. We overnighted at Blue Mountain Barrel House in Arrington VA off Route 29. The brewery is located on a dead-end road, which helps with the amount of traffic! I did wind my way down to Route 29, reviewing our exit strategy! My route took me by the RV many times. The brewery grows all their own hops and flowers. The rows of flowers were beautiful and covered with a heavy dew!

As we got back on Route 29 there was a historical marker for the now defunct town of Cabellsville. The village was platted before Nelson County was formed from Amherst County in 1807. The new community was developed around the first Amherst County courthouse constructed in 1761. In 2013, the Cabellsville Archaeological Project was born. This project was created to search for artifacts from the old town. The project was conducted by Hurt & Proffitt of Lynchburg through grants from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources' Threatened Sites Fund. To supplement the funding, Hurt & Proffitt, the VDHR, ASV and numerous friends have donated thousands of hours of labor to the project.

We crossed the James River on the Monacan Bridge. The James River runs through the heart of Virginia. Its water and shores have been witness to hundreds of years of history. The James River has played a central and defining role in the development of Virginia. The bridge is names for the Monacan tribe. Who ruled much of what is now Central Virginia. The native people were intimately connected to the river as the source of food, travel and defense from enemies. With fish, game, migratory birds and fertile ground, the river was life to them.

Along Route 29, we saw a sign for the Tank Museum of Danville VA. We learned that in late 1999, the Gasser family began planning to move their collection from Mattituck, NY to a large 330,000-square-foot vacant manufacturing plant in the city of Danville, VA. After a massive job of moving almost 3,000 tons of equipment down to Danville and setting up the museum, the American Armored Foundation Tank Museum opened its doors in May of 2003.

Over the next 20 years the Gassers, later joined by their children, worked and built the museum into it becoming “the largest international tank and cavalry collection in the world.” In the large main building packed with 120 tanks and artillery pieces, and military vehicles. In another area there are 1,500 tank and cavalry uniforms, and 1,300 pieces of military headgear dating back to 1509. In their “Hall of Generals” there are hundreds of General’s uniforms from all over the world and throughout history. In another building there is a 6,000-square-foot indoor battlefield set up in a small scale village where radio controlled tank battles are held. Sadly, the museum was hit hard by the pandemic and struggled to recover with no help offered by our government agencies. They held on to their dream for as long as they could, but in the summer of 2023, they had to announce their closing. Thankfully, these priceless artifacts have disappeared as they leave the Danville area for other museums or collectors. It would have been a neat museum to visit!

We passed the Riverside Reservoir which has a beautiful waterfalls. They say it's a great fishing spot and there is a walking trail that includes access to some of the downtown buildings.