A Bookstore Find

 While digging around in a crowded, disorganized bookshop in the eastern part of the state, I came across what I think is a great volume. Though many people would consider it unimportant and not worthy of purchasing, it fit right into my own qualifications for a good buy.

    The book was an old instruction manual on how to run and maintain a steam engine. Printed in 1926, it was the 20^th edition of a 1916 printing. The book is called “Enginemen’s Manual”, written and published by W.P. James.

    The book is a bit over 350 pages with black hardback covers. The corners are rounded perhaps to avoid damage from heavy use. The book is in fairly good condition for a book a little under100 years old. The binding is a bit worn and there are a few wrinkles in some of the pages but for a book this old it is in surprisingly good condition. The edges of the pages are red and none are missing.

    Inside there are pictures of different locomotives and a fold out diagram of a steam engine along with the various parts listed. It describes how to start an engine, how to properly maintain the heat and pressure along with all the things which need to be properly lubricated. It isn’t easy to keep a steam engine running properly!

    From the headlight and how it needs lubricated, (yes, lubricated) to how to set the various valves located on the drive train, it covers it all. After each chapter there are questions and answers to the different exams the firemen and engineers would be tested on. With lots of pictures, diagrams and charts, it is a fun book to page through.

What I consider the best part of the whole package is, inside the manual was a pass for the Reading Lines RR for the year 1935, belonging to Ardnor Barndt, an Engineman of “The New York Division”. (passed away in 1945 at age 58) He no doubt was the man who owned and studied the book. A bit of the book’s provenance, this makes it even more valuable to me. Not bad for $15!

A Last Harrah?

Small snow flurries came and went during the day before, but nothing remained on the ground. The next morning provided a snow-covered landscape. The daffodils were bent over by the weight of the snow and a bunny had left tracks across the unbroken covering of the yard. It wasn't only the snow had fallen during the night, the temperatures had dropped also. Ice needed scrapped from the windshield before the car could be used.

    I always worry about the flowers which have already bloomed but really I shouldn’t. They always manage to survive these brief bits of winter; it is part of their make-up. The snow will only remain for a day or two and soon the temperatures will be rising again. More flowers will be popping up to join the early risers.

    After Church, I took a drive down near the railroad tracks, looking for interesting shots. In the back of my head, I was hoping a train might show up but nothing appeared. There were no trains to be seen this morning.

    I walked along the stream looking for the herons but they were elsewhere, possibly they had seen me and left. Near the swamp, a pair of geese paddled around in the water but there weren’t any other signs of wildlife. It was cold and quiet.

    Today, I’ll enjoy the looks of winter this brief snowfall has brought. I know it will soon be gone and the colors of spring will be surrounding us once again. 

    It isn’t only me waiting, so are the birds. They are happy to visit the feeder in the backyard, but I’m sure they’re looking forward to the return of Spring also.

Some Shots from the Road

     I took a trip last week to visit my daughter and her family in the eastern part of Pennsylvania. Then I went down to West Virginia to visit with Ann Marie where she was “house-sitting” Here are some of the sights I passed along the way.

    It was a very early start to the journey, the planet Venus had just crossed the horizon and it acted as a beacon, showing me the way to go until the sun finally hid it from view.

    The sky hadn’t brightened yet when I stopped at this bakery located near Delmont. The trip east was almost entirely on rt.22. The views are superior to those along the turnpike, there are plenty of places to leave the road and best of all, no tolls! The donuts here are delicious, a perfect breakfast for the drive.

    A few miles south of Cresson is the town of Cassandra. I stopped here to find a geocache and to watch a few trains go by. The sun was just over the horizon and smoke from a coal stove added a tang to the cold morning air. The chill quickly sent me back to the car and on my way again

    Shortly before you reach McVeytown, this old log cabin sits alongside the road. There are no plaques or signs on it but there is a rather large pull-off in front of it. A nice wreath decorates the door closest to the road, someone looks after it!

    Shortly before reaching Harrisburg, I caught a train crossing the Susquehanna River. on the Rockville RR Bridge.  The bridge is located about 5 miles north of the state capital.

    The bridge is the largest stone arched railroad bridge ever built, over 3,800 feet long with 48 arches on it. It is the third bridge built at this site. The first was built in 1849 and was constructed out of wood. It was enlarged and replaced by a iron bridge in 1877. The present bridge was constructed between 1900 and 1902. Some of the piers of the old bridge are still standing beside it.

    This shot was found while researching the bridge's history. No lives were lost but an engineer lost his job because of this accident. August 28^th, 1977 one train rear ended another. You can bet this wasn’t the only accident to happen on the bridge!

You never know where or when you’ll find a bargain(?)

(Midtown Scholar Bookstore)

    From Harrisburg, I returned to rt.22 and continued my journey to my daughter’s house. I spent some time visiting with her family and got to spend some quality time with my grandson. We share an interest in trains so we spent time on the floor running his trains around the tracks. (It didn’t hurt... until I got up!)

    Back on the road a couple days later, I took highways through Maryland and then into West Virginia. 

    It was in West Virginia that the trip left the highways and returned to the roads I love, smaller, two lane roads going through towns and farmsteads. Following small streams and the curves of the hillsides, these roads continuously deliver exciting scenery. 

    Seneca Rocks would be a great place to live. To wake up and see this outcropping every morning would be a wonderful was to start the day. It looks good from both the top and from the bottom!

    The place where Ann Marie was “house-sitting” was a beautiful spot. High atop a mountain, accessible only by steep, curving gravel roads, the location made the long drive up the mountain-side worthwhile!

    One of the chores Ann Marie had to do, along with feeding the cats and dogs, was to feed “the girls” and collect their daily offerings. You haven't lived if you've never eaten fresh eggs, straight from the coop!

    While visiting, I had the pleasure of feeding the horse and pony. The animals always enjoy seeing me... especially when I was bringing food!

    Railroad tracks are scattered all around West Virginia. Local trains carried coal and other products and passed frequently along the tracks which run along the border of W.Va. and Kentucky. There were lots of bridges and tunnels to be seen!

    The Dingess Tunnel originally was a railroad tunnel. Built is the early 1890’s, it is nearly a mile long, and only wide enough for one car. You have to watch for approaching headlights, you wouldn’t want to back out of it!

    Situated near the end of the Dingess Tunnel was the site of many killings. The town was known as one of the most lawless towns in the state. The killings were mainly racial, the locals would “pick off” people coming out of the tunnel. Most victims were immigrants who had come to work in the mines and on the railroads. 

    The two of us searched and found a few geocaches while we roamed around on the mountains. This one was a DNF. (Did Not Find) It was last found in 2017, five years ago. After a long search with a few wrong turns we finally found the location. It was hidden under the overhang but a careful search revealed nothing. Still, the search alone was good enough for us!

    This once was the General Store in the town of Crum. It is the William and Mary Queen Store, built in 1935. Though abandoned for decades there is still hope that this building might get rebuilt to provide housing. (?)

    Even though the mine has been shut down the conveyors and equipment are still there, waiting.

Daffodils, Crocuses and even Quince bushes were starting to bloom. Spring was well on it’s way in West Virginia. Pittsburgh will soon be following!

    The return trip started out dark and rainy. The rain followed me all the way to the Pennsylvania border. It was there that I returned to winter and snowfall!

    The sun wasn’t up yet when I stopped for a breakfast sandwich to get me started on my way. (Sausage, egg and cheese on a DELICIOUS biscuit) Good food is so important to a journey; don’t pass up the chance to try the local grub! About 4 hours later I was almost home, getting closer to my own bed. It was a great trip filled with lots of good memories and experiences. Still…it was good to be home again!

Coming Down the Mountain

 

     Rain pelted the windshield and the headlights reflected off patches of fog gathered in small dips making the seeing difficult. This caused the speed of the car to drop even further than its normal creep. On one side was a steep fall with nothing but trees to stop the plunge, the other had a deep ditch used to drain water from the road. If you want to call it a road!  At the top of the mountain, it is gravel and dirt with large puddles, often spanning the road. It twists and turns following the topography of the mountain. There was no bulldozing a straight path, when a dip or a curve is encountered, that’s what the road does, dip and curve.

     When you are going down, the drop off is on your left, right outside the driver’s window. Like so many West Virginian mountains, you can’t see the bottom. Especially when it’s raining with fog laying around each bend. There are a few spots where you can’t see the road at all, even in the daylight. As you come up the rise, nothing can be seen beyond the hood of your car. You say a prayer and hope that no-one is coming in the opposite direction.

     Whenever an encounter occurs, one of the vehicles has to back up to one of the few “wide” spots and let the other pass before the trip continues. Luckily, there isn’t a lot of traffic on these roads. A mile or two down the mountain the road is paved but it is only the width of a car or truck. The paving makes the edges seem even closer.

     I had left Big Laurel around 6 in the morning, trying to get an early start on my drive back to the Pittsburgh area. The rain and fog was setting the stage for a dismal day of driving. Rain continued all the way from southern West Virginia to the border of Pennsylvania; from there it changed to snow.

     Big Laurel is a learning center, a place that does summer camps, community outreach and promotes social change through education. It sits on 400 acres perched on a mountain top.  Big Laurel is located about 10 miles up the “hill” from Kermit, West Virginia. Ann Marie had been house-sitting and I had dropped down to visit her.

     The night is dark up there. There are houses on top of the ridge but they are widely spaced and even though some have lights on them, the light doesn’t travel very far through the trees. I was searching for an open spot that would give us a good view of the stars but we can’t always get what we want.  Rain followed me down and then tapered off for two days and then returned for the ride back. Clouds remained during the nights.

      During the day we drove around the area, searching out a couple geocaches and looking for things to photograph. There was never any disappointment on that account! On my second day, we borrowed the Jane Deer to explore the roads scattered across the top of the mountain. 

     During the evening there were cats and dogs and chickens to keep us company. The cats and dogs are like therapy animals. Always near-by, ready to be petted or to lick your hand.

     The houses we visited and stayed in were beautiful, filled with pictures and books and of course, dogs and cats. I can only imagine how tough it would be to live up here permanently. There is no store right up the block and the drive up or down would be treacherous in icy conditions. The neighbors always help in emergencies but to get an ambulance or a fire truck up there… I don’t want to think about it.

     Daffodils were blooming along with the crocuses. Greenery was starting to show up alongside the roads and some forsythia was starting to show their yellow leaves. It is always a good sign to see that fresh color of green that the spring brings. We still have a month or so to wait in Pennsylvania but in West Virginia, the beauty of spring is already breaking out.

      While driving back, thoughts of the fun we experienced kept running through my head.  I also kept marveling at the mountain tops, hidden by the low hanging clouds. The peaks were all shaded in different colors, the colors determined by how near they were. 

Taken on the way down, north of Seneca Rocks

     This state is such a scenic place, high hills and mountains, dramatic outcroppings of rock and deep, deep gorges. Everywhere I looked there was beauty. There were so many potential pictures I passed on my way home, but the rain kept me in the car. The “pictures” are saved in my mind, along with all the other great memories of this fantastic state. 

     Wild and Wonderful, that says a mouthful and yet it just barely touches the surface! 

Going Old School

     We as a society have a tendency to jump into any new type of advancement that shows up. We are always being tempted with new ways to communicate, to share our opinions and our art.

    The old methods often lose their appeal and some just die off and disappear. A lot of these “older” systems are still around and are being used but their permeability is always suspect.

    Phones are a wonderful example. Going back in time, the people of a town used to rely on a telegraph operator, someone knowledgeable in deciphering Morse Code. Before that, the quickest means of communication was by a rider on a horse. Then along came the phone lines.

    Both the mail service and the telegraph services are still being used. Delivery by riders on horses has pretty much disappeared and Morse Code is used mostly by amateur radio operators. You have to admit, it is pretty rare when anyone gets a telegram.

    Phones once held a special place in our homes; some houses even had a special niche where it could be placed. The number of land lines has slowly diminished, now days; nearly everyone has a smart phone. We can be called at anytime, available whenever anyone wants us. This is the way of today’s world!

    The computer industry has changed our lives, just as the printing press did many centuries ago. Portable phones got smaller and also smarter! The desire to talk with someone, anyone, at 11PM as you troll down the aisles of your local grocery, was enough to ensure that everyone gets one.

    Phones enable us to search for information, to find out where we are and where to go and how to get there. They take pictures that rival, if not surpass the quality of most cameras. You can read a book on them if you so desire or listen to a concert or even watch a movie.

    Our world is filled with things such as this. Devices which enable us to be better at the things we do. We have smart refrigerators that tell us when to order items that will be needed. There are door bells that show us who is on our front porch, even when we aren’t home. Furnaces can control the heating and cooling cycles of the house along with countless machines which help us save money, save fuel and save us from frustration.

    I’m not saying that is bad!

    I am just saying that we shouldn’t forget the “old ways”. Don’t forget how to use your brain to figure out problems. Skip asking Alexis how to do things and let Google sit for awhile. Read some books, memorize some facts, write some notes to yourself or even better, write a letter to someone. Put a stamp on it and allow the mailman to deliver it. Visit the local library and use their reference section and always, always, keep books in your house!

    Play around with old technologies. Go outside and look at the stars. Open a star atlas and compare the map to what you’re seeing above you!

    Maps are another thing, open a paper map and plan a road trip. Go through some towns with interesting names rather than taking the quickest or least congested route. Stop at a restaurant in one of the little towns, don’t rely on a “good review”, instead rely on luck.

    I have recently been taking pictures with an old 35mm camera, using Black and White film. The only convenience it has is a light meter. It is up to the shooter to decide what aperture and what shutter speed to use. The pictures won’t be seen for a couple weeks so care is needed in composing the shots. There is no instant check on whether or not the picture came out correctly. Practice and experience is the true teacher!

    Our modern world is wonderful, but don’t forget the past. Don’t forget how to use your hands and your mind. Pick up an old hobby and try your luck at it, you might enjoy the experience. Let your computer and phone sit for awhile!

One final note, I used a fountain pen to write this originally…

 in cursive no less!

The TWOs

     This is it, the morning of the 22^nd. A Tuesday morning, a bit early, just a little over TWO hours into the day. It isn’t the time which is important so much as it is, the numbers.

    I have a weird obsession of seeing certain numbers come together.  Watching the odometer turn over to 100,000 miles, or on π Day, May 14^th, 2015, watching the clock turn to 9:26:53am.  (π= 3.141592653 or May 14^th, 2015@9:26:53)

I even baked a pie for the occasion

    Yes, this isn’t the first time I’ve done this. Right now I am waiting for the clock to hit, 2:22:22AM, on TWOsday, February 22^nd, 2022. That’s a whole bunch of twos in there! How could anyone NOT get excited about that? I imagine there are alarm clocks going off all over the eastern part of the country right now! Today is a great day to celebrate the number TWO!

    The number TWO is a very important number, it governs most of our lives. We have TWO eyes to see, TWO ears to listen, TWO arms to hold and hug and TWO legs to move us around. The majority of us end up with another, the forces of love drawing us together into a pair, TWO people.

    Later in the day, Frank and I are heading towards Altoona to do some geocaches and maybe, see a train or TWO. Geocaching.com has a souvenir they are awarding any cacher who finds TWO caches today. We are planning on adding that souvenir to our banks.

    The time has come…gotta take a picture!

2:22:22am on 2/22/2022

    A few hours later, I arrived at Frank’s house, a little before 5. We wanted to be in the Altoona area by seven, just in case there might be a sunrise.  Frank got us there right at our scheduled time. There wasn’t much of a sunrise though, it was more of a brightening of the sky.

Sunrise?

    We didn’t complain; it wasn’t raining! (Yet) Our first cache was near a railroad crossing.  Sadly, no trains passed by while we were there. Our second find was hidden close to where a sanitarium used to be located. The high altitude and fresh air was thought to be helpful for the patients.  It was later turned into a prison and is now owned by a hydroponic company.

    Hmmm, this could be a future exploration site!

Frank at the Sanitarium Cache

    TWO caches later we came to one hidden near a line of coke ovens. The trip down to them was very treacherous because even though the temperatures were in the 40’s, the dirt road that led to them was covered with a thick coating of ice! Walking was treacherous, thank heavens for hiking staffs! Snow along the edges provided some traction but with each step, you would sink in an inch, making simple walking a step, lift, step type of procedure. It got a bit tiring. The cache was only a ¼ mile away from where the truck was parked but it took much longer to get there. Follow the road or climb/fall down cliffs…

    I believe it was Archimedes that said that the shortest distance between TWO points is a straight line, he obviously never went geocaching!

Me at the coke oven, #2000!

    This was my TWO thousandth find!  I had found my 1000^th cache about 5 miles away from this one. (Altoona has some good caches.) The find was worth the slippery hike down to it, the difficulties are part of what make it fun!

    To read about my 1000^th cache, click here: ​​Books, Adventure and Life: Grail of the Alleghenies Legend, My 1000th Cache! (booksadventuresandlife.blogspot.com)

    The coke ovens are part of a community that once was here called Bennington. There is a near-by cemetery with the foundation of the church beside it and a few other remnants hidden in the woods.  The town was built when the RR tunnels in Gallitzen were dug. Originally a shanty town to house the Irish and other immigrant laborers who hand-dug the tunnels, it could only be reached by train. Coal miners also occupied the houses of the village. It was abandoned in the late 40's.

    After this find, Frank and I then headed down towards the Horseshoe Curve and found four more caches. We passed on climbing up to the curve because the rain was starting and frankly, we didn’t want to get wet, or fall! (Such wimps!)

The last cache

    The last cache of the day was hidden in some rocks about 20-30 feet above the trail. We had to get around a large, icy culvert to get to the cache. The path had lots of ice on it and care was needed to mak sure we didn’t slip. Once we were at “ground zero” we made a quick find and then returned to the truck where it was nice and dry.  The ride home was uneventful and went quickly.

Almost home

    Fog was rising off the streams as I neared my home.  Like all our trips, we had a good time, I believe that this is caused by the TWO people involved! There was only one train we saw in AlTWOna, but we found all the caches we had searched for! There were no unfortunate slips or falls, we stayed fairly dry and, I made my 2000th find! On top of all that, we both received a souvenir! Not bad for a day of Twos!

    One final shot, taken just a few minutes ago…

22:22:22 on 2/22/2022

On the Road Again

     During the night, my dreams were all about geocaches. Traveling along unknown roads on a big motorcycle. Stopping at a bed and breakfast that was a tailor shop during the day, the dreams had nothing that brought them together except that I was on a trip, to find geocaches. It was almost as if I had this subject on my mind…

    When morning finally arrived, I loaded my car with the usual gear, a camera bag and my GPS. YES, I was going on a search to find geocaches. Frank and I had planned a trip, driving towards the east on rt. 22 going out to Blairsville and then dropping to the south before eventually returned home. We had 22 caches on our list.

    The planet Venus was shining in the east as I got into the car. I located Mars below and to the right with binoculars, but had no luck seeing it by eye, the sky was too bright.  This was a rather late start for one of our trips, we are often on the road an hour or so before sunrise. The sun came over the horizon on the drive to Frank’s house. It would have made a great picture except I was on a narrow road with cars behind me and nowhere to pull over.

    Being the second week of February, the days tend to be rather grey here in the Pittsburgh area. Bucking the average, this morning’s sky was blue and the sun was bright. Things looked promising.

    Our first find was alongside a pull off, hidden near a sign saying “No Hunting”. That was just the opposite of what we had planned. Hunting was exactly what we were going to do today! We got into a rhythm; we’d drive a short distance and then pull over to snag another find. Sometimes we had to circle back on the opposite side of the divided highway to locate one, then turn around again to continue our search. 

The further away from Pittsburgh we went, the nicer the scenery was!

    Coming into the town of New Alexandria, we had a couple caches which involved a bridge which no longer exists. We drove down a rutted and ice covered road, passing some “Road Closed” signs sitting on the berm. It was obvious that the area here had been recently flooded. Thick pieces of ice lay cracked in the swampy area beside the road. Broken ice had been pushed to the sides by plows. The salt had only partially cleared the road.

    Driving under a large concrete arched structure, we came to where the bridge once crossed the Loyalhanna Creek. The cache was easy to find but we stayed for awhile to take pictures. Later research showed that the bridge that once crossed here used to be rt.22 before the road was modernized and widened. 

In the 1830’s the bridge was a covered toll bridge.

Builders working on the RR bridge. The covered bridge can be seen behind it.

    The concrete structure was part of a railroad bridge that the Pennsylvania Railroad crossed. The line is now gone but parts of it remain. There are some foundations in the near-by woods from a station that was located here. (Those will be for another trip!)

    We continued on our journey, eventually coming into Blairsville. Going south on 217, we did a short detour to visit the area around Torrance State Hospital. Ann Marie and I had found a nice, abandoned building here and I wanted to show it to Frank. When we arrived, it was gone, the land leveled with no signs that there had ever been a building here.

    Driving through the town of Derry we found another old building to explore, the Ralph Smith and Sons Building. Crossing a bridge, we saw the building below us. Turning around we navigated the back streets to get to it. It appears to be an old RR building; the structure is similar to many of the buildings often situated near railroads. The doors were locked with NO TRESPASSING signs posted on them. We spent awhile taking pictures, of course, staying outside! It was obvious that no one had been here recently, except kids. Most of the windows were broken and graffiti was sprayed on the insides.

  

    The time spent there was worthwhile. We got some nice pictures and some much-needed stretching. It felt good to walk around for a bit! Back on the road again, after a couple more caches, we turned right on rt.30 and headed back in the direction we had come from. 

The intrepid explorers @ their final cache!

    We did one last cache in the parking lot of a Speedway Service Station. It was our 22^nd cache of the day, a record for both of us! To celebrate we stopped inside and got a couple Slim Jims for the ride home.

    We had a great drive; we got lots of pictures and found every one of the caches we planned! This rarely happens. There was one hidden against a telephone pole but luckily, the snow had melted enough that we were able to locate it. If the snow was still there, it would’ve been a DNF. (Did Not Find) The weather was great, our hands were a bit cold at first but as we were heading home, the windows were opened to allow the fresh air into the car.

    Another great adventure, you never know what you might find, so keep on looking!

It’s what keeps us caching!