Thursday, 10 September 2009

Leaving NY state and into Pennsylvania

We left Letchworth having checked out a dam that was used to prevent damage down river after each (approximately) 7 year flood. It is only closed at these times and can then back up about 25m of water. Diggers were mad at work removing up to 15m of sediment deposited on the upstream side after the last flood. We had breakfast in a truck stop as a bit of a treat and then made our way southwestwards to Allegheny State Park that we were told was beautiful.
We decided to travel part way along one of the bigger roads to make some good time, it had 2 lanes in each direction which were amazingly far apart and very empty (see photos). Allegheny was full of deciduous trees that were turning red and orange and yellow and all the shades inbetween. We stopped at another State Park Campsite and got a plot next to a lovely bubbling stream; perfect for looking for more crayfish. Tris had bought himself a sling shot so we spent some time trying to hit a beer can. Celso was most annoyed not to have hit it before he went off fishing, yet Tris and I were getting quite good at it. Whilst Celso was fishing Tristan and I had a maths and a science lesson! Celso returned insisting that he caught a Crappie and a Wide Mouthed Bass but I reckon that it's just fisherman's tales as he had the camera but chose not to use it!
As I was watching more corn on the cob in its leaves cooking on our fire two racoons started having an arguement only about 6 foot from me; right at the door to the camper; but they ran off as Tris came to look. Their eyes shone brightly in the lights of our torches (and that is the only picture we managed to get... yet... I'm sure we will be visited by others during our journey).
In the morning Celso set his alarm for 5:30am and got up to go fishing; again he says he caught fish.. 6 this time.. yeah yeah, again no photo evidence!
We drove on through the park and stopped at a lake for a bit of fishing but only managed to catch crayfish. We passed a beaver lodge but didn't manage to see the inhabitants, then we made our way to route 66 and headed south.
We decided to stop in another State Park campsite as they are about 1/3 to 1/2 the price, this time it is Cook State Park in Pennsylvania (the 2nd state we have visited so far). This park has more conifers and has an amazing variety of fungi - see photos, we have been visited by another Raccoon and were hoping to get pictures but again failed.
Tris had another maths lesson (algebra!) and we managed to get some washing done - a bit of a relief! In the morning we looked at the map and saw that we were not far from Punxsutawney and so we just had to go and visit the seer of seers, the wise weatherman groundhog whose predictions are even noted in congress (apparently). Phil himself was just a bundle of snoozing grey fur so we are still not entirely sure what a groundhog looks like, but the town is very fond of him. Apparently he has been alive since the late 1800's, fed a secret elixir (that doesn't work on humans). We took photos of the info signs at Gobbler's knob which are great fun to read if you can.
We then whizzed along highway 80 for about 30 miles and then chose an exit with a camping sign and are holed up in a pleasant spot with a pool, but not much to look at. Tomorrow further westwards!

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