Today was the tipping point: 183 places seen so far this year (one every day), and 182 more days to go! Halfway to my goal! As for today. . . When the weather is hot, hot, hot, (triple digits here in DC!), I explore where it is cool cool cool. That’s why today found me at…
Today I found the most charming little church driving back home from West Virginia. So cute, it begged me to stop and take photos of it from several angles. When I was young I remember hearing an old hymn about “The Church in the Dell” or “The Church in the Wildwood” on some recording my…
Shhhhh. . . Don’t tell anyone: Although encouraged to “unplug” during the silent retreat here at the Claymont Society, I nonetheless snuck out my phone (in a secret undercover operation) during this morning’s walking mediation to grab photos for this blog– of meadows and sky, of a lazy creek too fat to slip through a…
Not your average barn! Today I took my first proper overnight trip in over a year, my first since starting this blog. So why did I travel two hours to see a barn?! Well, it’s a retreat center, renovated and air conditioned, with simple dorm rooms, a camp-style kitchen serving vegan meals (whose main charm…
In the middle of Pennsylvania farmland, surrounded by barns and meadows, with milk so fresh you can smell its producers as you stand in the parking lot–that’s where I found Grantville Super Market today. I actually saw several new places today, traversing back roads as I headed back to DC. looking for something that would…
“Can I help you?” the salesman asked somewhat skeptically when I walked inside Hermy’s motorcycle shop on a rainy today. For a split second, I considered pretending I was interested in the merchandise, as I sometimes do when I wander into stores for my One New Place. I knew it would be pointless, however. So…
In keeping with this week’s History theme, remember K-Mart? I didn’t know these stores still existed. You can count on Pennsylvania to be retro! This K-Mart was on my way out of Allentown tonight, so I took advantage of seeing a New Place and doing an errand at the same time. As I’m not…
Sometimes you find yourself in places you didn’t know existed, even though you thought you already knew the place that existed. What I mean is: I’ve had a passing acquaintance with St. Michael’s Church (and cemetery) over my lifetime, having been there for funerals and family reunions. But what I didn’t know about, what…
Located in a 250-year-old Pennsylvania field stone house, the Hamburg Area Historical Society is like the old lady in town who knows everybody–and I mean e-ver-y-body who has ever lived or sneezed in this town. With every issue of the Hamburg Area High School yearbook dating back to the beginning of the school, and every…
No, it’s not just on the Monopoly Board, people! The Reading RR was a real RR that ran right behind my house growing up—connected with the Erie Canal system to transport coal and steel to the down-river ports. Today, I visited the old Port Clinton station, with its vintage steam engines and wooden station house…