September 1 – Labor Day – Pennsylvania

After two day’s of driving, we elected to lay low yesterday and rest. That said, we did make a short drive to a Wal-Mart in Allentown (about 15 miles from here).

Wal-Mart seems to be the shopper’s destination of choice. This one was a Wal-Mart Supercenter with a huge parking lot – which was full right out to the access roads. Every time we see this we ask ourselves what is Wal-Mart doing right? For travelers like us, the answer is easy: Wal-Mart’s are becoming pretty ubiquitous, hard to go anywhere and not have one close by. More important, when you are traveling in unknown areas, you don’t know the stores or merchants so unless you stumble on one by luck or word of mouth, you need a reliable source for the supplies needed to live day to day.

But it’s not just travelers. We were one of the very few out-of-state license plates in the parking lot; we did see one from California. Their prices are reasonable, the have adequate selections, and there’s not much that they don’t carry.

Enough on that subject.

Weather yesterday was beautiful. Warm (upper 70’s) with a light, cool breeze out of the North (a sign of fall on the way?), and not a cloud in the sky. Evenings are cool (upper 50’s) – great sleeping weather.

One neighbor, retired Navy, is from Punta Gorda, FL. He and his wife have family in this area, so they leave their trailer stored in this RV park for 6 months to return to FL. Then spend the other 6 months here. The park gives him a good monthly rate on both storage and occupancy. Certainly a cheaper way to go than driving up every year and cheaper than buying a house locally.

Over the last three years, we notice that everywhere we go there is usually a small contingent of transient workers. I call them transient because like the other term, migrant workers, they work where their skills are needed and then move on. The RV (trailer usually) goes with them as a home with their personal items. Beats moving into a house / apartment in a new neighborhood and setting up the utilities, etc.

We are probably going to revisit the cemetery that we were last in, when Margaret got rained on. It’s not far and now that we know the way (and it isn’t raining) it should be an easy outing.

Today’s photo is from our visit to the Redneck Festival in Weissport, PA. I wish we could have spent more time to give us a chance to taste his BBQ, but we needed to move on. Margaret observed that she had never seen more tattoos in one place at one time than at this festival. Also a lot of pierced ears, noses, and whatever.

(M) Wayne cooked out. We dined well -- a (WalMart steak), PA potatoes/onions/garlic, PA nectarines grilled for desert with a little whipped cream, oh, and yes, PA wine. Delicious. We ate out enjoying the weather and sights. Suki investigated the area, watched the people and dogs go by, and ate his share of the whipped cream.

There was a wreck on the highway which we can just see. One car was towed away, but there were two ambulances, paramedics, police and pedestrians in the center divider. Traffic was down to one lane, passing slowly.