Urban Art....and a Little Bit of History

Today was a great day!  We stared off in North East Township, PA with a colorful sunrise that dispelled the myth that the sun had abandoned its position in the cosmos to be replaced with clouds and rain.  It was heartening to see the great golden globe again given the last several weeks of British weather.

We headed down the road and grabbed a tasty and affordable breakfast at Johnny B’s in the heart of North East.  A note on North East, PA because I was confused. North East, PA is counterintuitively in the very upper northwest tip of the state.  It’s called North East presumably because that’s the direction you must travel from Erie, PA to get to the township.

We trekked along till just oer the ten mile point where we grabbed a much needed lunch in Harbor Creek, PA at the Fiddle Inn - Home of the Everything (and forty other flavors of chicken wings).

We met some fine people along the way, saw more rural scenery full of wildflowers, picturesque vineyards, and a creeks with lovely small waterfalls that are characteristic of the slate bedrock in the area.  

All of that was great, but the day really started to pop when we entered the eastern section of Erie, PA.

When I walk through the cities I look for two things.  Convenience stores that sell flavored seltzer and urban art.  Sadly, seltzer was in short supply for reasons that I don’t completely understand, but urban art seemed to be the theme of the day.

The first piece appeared near our breakfast location.  It was painted on the wall of the North East Arts Council building

North East Arts Council Building - North East Township, PA

The black and white drawings are actually inked on some sort of canvas or cloth and affixed to the building.  The amount of detail and work that went into this mural is absolutely astounding. The black and white renderings stretch the length of the building and the photo above only shows a small sampling.

That was followed by some additional mural work in Erie, PA proper.

Mural work on the wall of Ultimate Warrior Martial Arts in Erie, PA

Next up were three pieces of work adorning the Eclectink Tattoo Parlor in Erie.

Arrrrgggghhhh! - Eclectink Tattoo Parlor - Erie, PA

They specialize in tattoos….

….but apparently will give you a piercing if you ask nicely

Rounding out the day, we passed some more traditional sculpture work in Perry Square Park.

Oliver Hazard Perry - Hero of the Battle of Lake Erie

Perry took command of a nine ship squadron and met the British squadron controlling Lake Erie on 10 September 1813.  In sharp action, Perry’s squadron captured the entire British force allowing the Americans to retake Detroit. The Lake remained in American control for the remainder of the war.  Following the battle, Perry sent his now famous dispatch to General Harrison who was preparing to fight the Battle of the Thames.

Dear General:

We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.

Yours with great respect and esteem,
O.H. Perry

Harrison would later go on to become President of the United States, the last former British subject to hold the office.

Seeing the commemoration of events that I’ve only previously known through reading was a great way to wrap up today’s travels.

New York - The Best Parts

Today, after thirty-three days and approximately four hundred eleven miles of walking, we exited the Empire State and began our journey across Pennsylvania.

Since entering the state at Lebanon, NY we have seen rivers and lakes (Great and small), rolling fields that will be soon be filled with corn, soybeans, great waves of green alfalfa and timothy grass, vineyards, and mile after mile of wildflowers.

Wildflowers and a fire hydrant

The Shores of Lake Erie

Rolling fields of alfalfa and timothy

We’ve crossed bridges, trekked through tunnels, encountered art in the most unexpected of places, and gotten a taste of a time in America where things were a bit slower and connections were a little more personal.

Crossing the Hudson River into Albany

Masonry Skew Bridge - Silver Creek, NY

Art Barn and a Message from the Universe

The Chuck Wagon Diner - Where You’re Only a Stranger if You Choose to Be

We’ve seen deer, geese, chipmunks, squirrels, beaver, groundhogs, robins, yellow finches, martens, a blue bird, hawks, vultures, and even participated in a standoff with a wild tom turkey.

A Standoff with Tom

We’ve seen rain, wind, sun, and fog.

Foggy Sunrise at Chittning Pond

In all this beauty and wonder, the best parts of New York have been the people.  We’ve been welcomed as friends and fellow travellers by hundreds of citizens of the Empire State.  They’ve given us friendship, help, and encouragement all along our journey. We could not have done this without you.

A small handful of the people who have helped us along the way

Thank you for being you!  Thank you for welcoming us into your lives and sharing a bit of time with a couple of weary travellers!  Thank you for becoming our friends at the drop of a hat!

We love you, and we love New York!

The Exit of NY state, 17 May

Today was a milestone day -- we walked into Pennsylvania, departing New York state.  We entered NY by crossing Mt.Lebanon on 14 April , and walked slightly more than 410 miles getting across the state, leaving it near the town of North East PA today, 17 May.   I'm experiencing mixed emotions.  Anticipation and excitement about entering state number 4 in our adventure, and a certain mount of concern that this part of the journey will not live up to the  high standards of relationships we've experienced in the earlier part of the trip.  And a little regret that we're leaving behind wonderful people with whom we've engaged and who have incessently enriched our lives in myriads of ways.  Our challenge now is to maintain the friendships that have been initiated.  Not an easy task, in view of the course we've set for ourselves for the near future.     C'est le vie !      Tomorrow we press on toward Erie, PA:  new experiences new people --  it will be difficult to match those which we already experienced.  But we're open to that happening.    Jay

This adventure is VERY, VERY enjoyable -- but...

VERY, VERY enjoyable, but...not necessarily all fun!       Rory (Jay) experienced a minor "cratering" yesterday (15 May).  After 9 walking days straight {130+miles),  I developed back discomfort that necessitated "truncating" the days planned effort.  Not a big deal, but not fun !   As a consequence,  we stayed in the Theater Motel in Westfield, NY; owned and operated by Tye and Afsheen S.    They, and their daughter, are GREAT people.        The countryside is beautiful and so varying as we progress across the counties and as spring unfolds.  The real CONSTANT is our seemingly daily encounters with marvelous people -- receptive, friendly, warm, interested in us and our adventure, helpful, GENEROUS !  Tye and Afsheen are the latest core examples of that !      We're beginning to grasp that we're having great privilege in being constantly exposed to the roots of the greatness of this country -- THE PEOPLE !!      So, the back discomfort that led to our unplannd stay here is lost in the experience of meeting and making new friends  !!       Jay. 🙂   

If Things Go As Planned (Ha!), Our Last Full Day in New York

We’re within striking distance of the New York-Pennsylvania border, and if things go as planned today was our last full day in New York.  It was a spectacular one, and a real high note to wrap up a very long transit.

We started the day in Portland, NY and hiked down US-20 through some of the most spectacular scenery that we’ve seen to date.  Our first stop was as the 21 Brix Winery where dad horsed around on the famous pink elephant. You’d never guess he was a septuagenarian.  I suppose he has never really grown up, and that’s a great way to live from my perspective.

Dad examining the pink elephant - What’s he looking for back there anyway?

In addition to the Instagram famous pink elephant, the golden buffalo is a lesser known but still fun addition to the winery grounds.

The 21 Brix Golden Buffalo - Guarding the Vineyard

We continued on to the beautiful grape growing region of western New York that produces both wine and juice varieties. Spring has arrived in full force full of wildflowers and new leaves.

Wildflowers in the vineyard - A nice sunny blue sky as well!

We took some time and poked around a grape harvester, and I think we finally figured out how it works.  It’s a single row harvester that hydraulically shakes the vines causing the ripened grapes to fall into a curtain assembly and be raised to the hopper or right side discharge with a conveyor-elevator combination.  It’s a brilliant piece of engineering that has reached our shores from the country of France.

Dad contemplating a grape harvester

Finally, we ended the day at The Theater Motel in Westfield, NY.  

The Theater Motel

This place is  brilliant piece of Americana that makes one nostalgic for a time before the Interstates came and made transportation much more efficient but far less personal.

Fortunately for (all) of us there are still a few hearty souls keeping the notion that life should be just a little bit slower and people should know the folks who are keeping the lights on for them while they travel the roads.

Dad making friends with the owners of The Theater Motel

Tye and his family embraced us as friends, and have once again shown the generosity and spirit that truly make this country a great place to live.  If you ever find yourself in Westfield and need a place to stay, pay them a visit. I guarantee you won’t regret it.

Today, It Was All About the Scenery

The last couple of days have been rich with meeting new people, establishing new friendships, and learning a little something about the human landscape in southwestern New York.  Today it was all about the scenery.

Random fire hydrant in a field of wildflowers

Spring has really started to take hold, and the sun shined on us of the majority of our trek today.  The warmth of that golden orb was a much needed change from the dreary wetness that’s been characteristic of the rest of the week.

Not everything has embrace spring, but those that have are spectacular

The area to the southeast of Lake Erie is a grape growing region of New York.  Not too many vineyards are producing wine varieties. The area around us are producing the Concord and other varieties that wind up in the grape juice bottle on your grocery store shelves.

The cool spring has slowed the grape growing cycle, and the vines are just beginning to show buds.  The lack of foliage has given an opportunity for wildflowers to spring up among the rows of vines. Apparently, there is always opportunity in adversity.

Wildflowers making the most of a late budding vineyard

There was one human related event.  After stumbling upon the Walleye Association a cople of days ago, I thought I could no longer be surprised by the fraternal organizations related to animals.  After all, there are moose, elk, eagles, and walleyes to name just a few. Today, we were welcomed to Fredonia, by a club celebrating mammals.

Welcome to Fredonia, NY

It made me laugh, and I just had to snap a quick photo.

Leaving Evangola and Finding Angels

We decided last night to make this a short day, but after we’d sauntered up six miles from our stay at Evangola State Park to Irving, NY, we weren’t quite ready to stop

Leaving Evangola

The next logical place to stop was about thirteen miles up the road, but we were feeling strong and the day was still young.

We stopped at the Seneca Hawk for some brunch and then popped on up to Silver Creek, NY to visit the skew arch masonry bridge that a good friend recommended we visit.  The bridge, built in 1869, is still in active use as a railroad bridge. It is a marvel of engineering and craftsmanship that has stood the test of time.

Masonry Skew Arch Bridge - Silver Creek, NY

After the visit we decided to take the route up the lakeshore on NY Route 5.  It was a long hard slog. Just as things were getting tough and angel named Angel appeared outside her house and offered us water and a lift into town.  The water was just what we needed, but we explained that our pilgrimage required us to walk every step. Undeterred, Angel insisted she’d feel better giving us the ride.  We finally convinced her to let us go about our foolishness. She was warm and generous and kind. We’ve made it this far through the help of people like her, and we are truly grateful.

Angel, The Angel

Once again, making new friends and meeting the generous and kind people we’ve been blessed to meet along the way has been the most fulfilling part of the trip.  We are truly grateful.

Making Friends and Interesting Places

I’m posting this a day late because of limited connectivity last night.  All events occurred on 13 May 2019 - N2N-TCP Day 43.

I can’t really begin to describe how well today went.  We started off for a short hike from Angola to our planned overnight spot in a yurt at Evangola State Park.  Somehow, I got turned around and managed to make a five mile saunter into an eight mile hike.

In spite of getting turned around, the Universe seems to know just what we need.  What started as a navigation error ended up being a grand time to meet new friends and interesting people and the
Grandview Bay Golf Course, The Lucy Goose Bar and Grill, and the Lakeside Market.  In the evening I visited the magical shores of Lake Erie, a place where the curtain between the physical and spiritual worlds thin and real magic happens.  Today that magic was wielded by the fantastic people we met along the way. Thank you Rick, Tracy, Lucy, Shirley, Cayleen, and Sue for making the day one to remember fondly.

We even finally ended up at Evangola State Park for a night in the yurt.  Words can’t convey how the warmth and encouragement we received bolstered our resolve and fortified our ongoing faith in humanity.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Shirley, Past President of the Monday Women’s Golf League at Grandview Bay Golf Course Welcomes Dad to opening day at the course.

Rick, owner of Grandview Bay Golf Course welcomes us like old friends.

The Lucy Goose at Grandview Bay Golf Course on Opening Day!

Tracy and Lucy, the inventors and chefs behind the “Cross Country” breakfast sandwich and two happy customers

Dad and Cayleen, angel of the Lakeside Market

Sue...Keeper of Yurts

The mystical shores of Lake Erie

Finally, our Yurt and home for the evening

Western NY hospitality

[This is posted about 36 hours late: we were in a "connectivity hole) at the state park when I generated it; and after 22 miles yesterday my "tuckered" was pretty expose and I procrastinated. ]           We've reached the northeast corner of Lake Erie and are overnighting in NY's Evangola  State Park, in a yurt.  Coming from the town of Angola, we walked in a rain again,  and experienced a cold west wind coming off the lake.  Spring just isn't getting to western NY.   The locals are really tired of it.  This has been a good day, despite the rain, wind, and cold -- we've met and engaged with several really delightful people.  Google Maps is really good, but occasionally not quite accurate.  We experienced an occasion of that today.  A diner/grill they identified turned out to be a (the?) local  golf course/club eating place (at the head of the course), open for lunch and dinner.  We arrived about 9:15, just as a ladies golf club group meeting (first of the year) was completing.  Despite their initial surprise at these two rather unusual men showing up with their backpacks, they responded openly and warmly to us with great cordiality and interest in us and our adventure.  We experienced similar response at the local market/grocery shortly later just down the street.   There's much more to both these stories, too much to recite here.  There'll have to be more of it in our Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day!  First a big shout out to my Mom who was there at the beginning and has followed my antics with a watchful, and sometimes skeptical eye for the last forty some odd years.

I would not be the person I am today without your loving and guiding influence.  Heck, I probably wouldn’t have even survived some of the previous messes that I’ve landed myself in.  All mistakes are solely my responsibility, and if I’d followed your advice and insights more often things probably would have progressed a bit more smoothly.

Thank you for all that you’ve done for me over the years, and thank you for all you’re doing right now to make the Newport to Newport Transcontinental Pilgrimage a reality.

I love you!