Road Trip!!!

Early Friday morning Zip and I headed up the east side of the Susquehanna River to the Millersburg area.  The day started out being cloudy, but the sun came out shortly before lunch time.  It was still COLD and WINDY!

I just love the drive up the river on route 147!  It's a small quiet two-lane highway, with these beautiful old sycamore trees on each side of the road for miles.  They were planted after the Great War (WW1) to commemorate the men who were lost in battle.

The views of the river at this time of the year are rather dreary, because the hills on the opposite banks are still brown.  Once everything turns green, it's lovely.  The Susquehanna is a large flat river.  Many places it seems like you could almost wade across.  Yesterday the water was high and rapidly flowing.

We stopped in Halifax to have breakfast at Denny's Lennie's.  Corny name!!!  And from the outside it looks like a dive!  But the food is great and the portions are very generous.  And each time we have stopped there the waitresses are super nice.  I had a french toast panini which was stuffed with thin sliced ham, cream cheese and pineapple.  Delish!!!  Zip had the standard eggs over easy, bacon and really good homefries.  Then there are the desserts!  The have a list of the most scrumptious stuff ever.  We got those to go!  If you are in Halifax, check it out.

Then on to Millersburg.  This is the gazebo on the town square.

Oh, I forgot to mention WHY we are taking this road trip!  We're going to visit blogging friends!
All of whom live slightly north east of Millersburg in the Lykens Valley.  This is an area of lovely rolling hills and well-maintained farms, many are owned by Amish people.  And numerous churches.  It is sooo peaceful!

Our first stop was at the Brickhouse antique and craft shop, owned by PATTI from the 'Porch Sitting' blog.  What a delightful shop she has!  It is in their restored summer kitchen.

She has the nicest primitive handcrafted items.

Look at the stack of cute little boxes (Patti makes these).  There is now a stack of boxes living in my house!

She has a whole wall full of the neatest samplers.

Zip had a great time talking about the restoration of the building.  It has a nice old fireplace that I unfortunately did not get a picture of. 

And here is the porch of porch sitting fame.  We will be going back on a warmer day to enjoy that activity!  Thank you sooo much, Patti, for sharing your wonderful shop with us! 

Next we visited with BARB from the 'Fun With Fiber' blog.  She has a spinning, weaving, knitting shop in the lower level of her home.  What a nice cheerful studio it is!  So well-lit and everything neatly arranged!

Look at the rack of hand-dyed yarn.  Most of it is also hand-spun which makes it extra impressive!  Aren't those colors tempting?  And to the left are her handwoven shawls.  Plus she has both hand-knit and hand-woven scarves.

And these are just two of the looms she has set up.  And look how nicely her books and yarn are organized!

Here is Barb!  She is such an interesting person!  I could have spent hours talking about weaving and life in general.  I wish we lived nearer to each other.

Barb then followed us to TARRAH's house.  She has the "Pottery Shed' blog.  She lives in this lovely log home that I am sorry to say I did not get a picture of the outside.  Her husband creates this fantastic pottery.  She was having an open house Friday and over the weekend.  There's still time to visit!!!

And I love that rug under the table.  The colors are soft and muted and just right for the room!

Tarrah, as I said earlier, makes the painted boxes and lots of other prim creations.  I particularly liked these jars inside the holder made of wire fencing.

And here is Tarrah (to the right) and some of her friends who were attending the open house.

Thank you Tarrah for sharing your beautiful home with us!

If you have made it through this far, be warned that the day is not yet over!  I didn't plan to write an epic novel here, it just seemed to happen!

On the way back we decided to shop at Aschomb Greenhouses in Mechanicsburg.  We got to Harrisburg shortly after 3 p.m.  We were eying the bridges, saying to each other that traffic didn't seem too bad.  So decided to cross on the bridge and take Route 15.  As soon as we crossed to the other side OH DRAT!!, traffic backed up for MILES!  A string of cars, both lanes, as far as we could see!

We had stopped at Sheetz earlier and gotten coffee.  Zip reached in the back seat and got the dessert.  That sweet waitress from Denny/Lenny had provided plastic ware with the cake.  We had a picnic!

Zip chose the raspberry cake and it was the best!

We sat in traffic, inching along for about 45 minutes.  Finally we hit the open road and made it to Ashcombe. 

It's still too early for a lot of flower and vegetable plants, so it wasn't that exciting.  They do have pretty displays!

I loved these orchids!

They didn't have the haricot vert beans that I was looking for, so we came home with only kitty grass.

Ok!  That was our day out.  Thank you again, Patti, Barb, and Tarrah for allowing us to visit and enjoy your company!!!

I am so grateful to all the wonderful friends I have met through blogging!