First day on the road

I had a long and pleasant breakfast with my cousins Malcolm and Ilene and didn't get on the road until about 11:00. My first stop was Boscovs Department Store, about three miles from my cousins' house. Boscovs wasn't actually on my itinerary. It's not usually considered a tourist attraction. I stopped there for sentimental reasons. When I would come to Harrisburg to visit my mother at her assisted living residence, our routine was to go to lunch and then to Boscovs. My mother had Alzheimers, and a few minutes after we ordered lunch she would often ask me if she had ordered yet and, if so, what was it that she had ordered; nevertheless, she could still find her way to Boscovs in her car without ever getting lost. She rarely bought anything for herself, but she always insisted on buying something for me - even if it was only socks and underwear. Just wandering around the store brought back memories. My mother is buried in Harrisburg, but I never visit the cemetery; I much prefer to remember her at Boscovs where I can still envision us walking up and down the aisles together.

From there I headed north towards Penn State College - a beautiful drive up through the mountains. My first stop was Lewistown. Like many small towns - and large towns as well - it looks very economically depressed. The main street had many empty stores. There was a sign in front of one store which said, "No Loitering." Loitering didn't seem like much of a problem; I certainly didn't see anyone loitering; in fact, most of the stores had closed at 3:00 and I was just about the only person on the street.
I did find one restaurant open and went in for a cup of coffee and a piece of apple pie. I saw a piece of something that looked like apple pie in the dessert display case and asked the waitress if it was indeed apple pie. She said that her best guess was that it was apple pie with cranberries. In any case it was quite tasty, and we had a good laugh together when it turned out to be carrot cake with walnuts.

I also stopped briefly in State College creamery long enough to buy a scoop of ice cream named after the football coach. The "Paterno Special" (peach ice cream) was quite good!

I spent the night at a campsite in Greenwood State Park. My popup tent popped up just as it was supposed to, my little camp stove performed as it was supposed to, and I had a very interesting conversation with a gentleman in the men's room who had grown up in the area and was happy to give me a summary of the area's history over the last 50 years - so all in all a good first day on the road.

Favorite roadsign for the day: "Buckle up - next million miles."