Shopping With FabGrandma

My son Seth and his wife Sarah are expecting a new baby in September. As the Fabgrandma, I am so very excited about this addition to our family. They went a couple of weeks ago and had an ultrasound done, and found out that they are having a boy. So, while I was out shopping today, I decided to look at some baby things.


I found these cute little onesies for the amazingly low price of $2.88 each, so of course I bought a many as I could, hahaha. I think the little guy will look adorable no matter what he wears, but these things are too cute!
I especially liked this red one and the little shorts that match it. It reminds me of an outfit I had for my son when he was a baby.
This is a close-up pic of the little applique on the shorts. It says "Puppy Love". I know it won't just be puppy love for me when the new Mr. Owen P. gets here.

Happy Campers At Last!

My husband, Jim, and I live full time in a travel trailer and work in campgrounds for a living. We have been doing this for more than six years and really enjoy the work we do.

We subscribe to a magazine called Workamper News (WN). It is a listing of jobs in campgrounds, resorts, marinas, national parks, and other places for people who live in RV’s. We had seen an ad in WN for several years for a campground on a river in Virginia. Their ad offered wages for every hour we worked, a free full hookup site to live on while we worked there, and a completion bonus. To qualify for a completion bonus, you make a commitment to stay a certain length of time on the job, and once you complete your commitment, they pay a bonus equal to 50 cents for each hour that you worked while you were there.

We applied for the job, and went for an in person interview, and were hired for the job in March of last year. We loved working there. In the years that we have done this type of work, that job was the best job we have ever had. We loved the campground, we loved the people we worked with, we loved the people we worked FOR, we loved the people who came there to camp. It was a fun, beautiful place to be. We made an agreement to stay until November 13, 2007, which we did.

While we worked there, I kept a spreadsheet of the hours we worked each pay period, because our bonus was to be calculated based on how many hours we worked. My husand and I used that spreadsheet as a morale booster. Whenever we were tired, or had had a bad day, we would look at the spreadsheet to see how our bonus was adding up. We left on November 15 headed back to Georgia for the winter. We fully expected our bonus to be paid with our last paycheck. It was not.

In December, I called to question when we would receive our bonus. The general manager said he would check on it and call me back. He called me on January 12 to tell me that our bonus would be paid “on the next pay period”. So, we expected to receive it by the end of January.

January 31 came and went with no check received or direct deposit made to our account. I called several times, leaving word each time for the general manager to call me back. No one ever returned the phone calls I made. I was concerned that maybe they had mailed the check and it was lost in the mail. But, we HAD received our W-2 forms from them, so I knew they had the correct address.

I continued to call every so often, always leaving a message for someone to call me, and making sure whoever took the message knew that I was calling because we had not received our bonus check. In March, we were on our way from Georgia to Pennsylvania for our next job, and stopped in Williamsburg so we could visit our daughter and some friends for a few days. We arranged to have dinner with a couple we had made friends with whom we had worked with at the previous job.

Of course, the subject of the bonus came up at dinner. My friend, Lynn, said “You should compare your last paycheck stub with your W-2 form amount.” She did not say why I should, but because she put that little bug in my ear, the first thing I did when we got home was look at the two documents. Yes, the amounts on them WERE different, and the amount of the difference was exactly the amount of the bonus we never received. So, now we not only had not received the bonus, but the employer said we did by showing it on our W-2 form! This fact opened up a whole new problem for me, as I was not going to pay income taxes on money I had never been paid. I was more determined than before to collect that bonus!

The next day, we had breakfast with two other couples we had met while we worked there. I purposely did not want to talk about work with them. I wanted to have a fun, enjoyable breakfast with friends. One of the girls brought up the subject, though, and asked we had ever received our bonus. I said, “No, we have not, but I am not going to give up on this. We worked for that money, and I intend to get it.”

After we got to our new job, I got a Cingular Wireless Aircard so I could have internet access at my travel trailer. I searched the internet for information on employment law in Virginia. At the Virginia Department of Labor website, I found that if you were promised a bonus before you began the work, the employer is legally obligated to pay it. There was a form there for you to fill out and send in, with whatever documentation you had, showing what was owed you, and the state would help you collect the money. I downloaded a copy of the form and saved it on my computer.

However, first, I had to send a demand for payment letter by certified mail. I wrote the letter, and sent it along with a copy of the ad from WN showing a bonus was offered, a copy of our work contract showing a bonus was offered if we stayed until November 13, a copy of our last paycheck stubs, a copy of our W-2 forms, and a copy of my spreadsheet. I advised them in the letter that they had until March 30 to make payment or we would take further action. I received the signature card back from the post office showing that they had indeed received the letter.

After they received the letter, I got a phone call from the general manager. He asked me “So you are saying that your W-2 reflects that we paid the bonus but you never received it?” I said, “Yes, that is correct.” He told me he would forward the letter to the downtown office. I never heard another word from them. On April 5^th, I filled out the forms from the Virginia Department of Labor and mailed them in, along with copies of all my documentation, which now included a copy of the letter and a copy of the green card that I got back from the post office. My husband and I were very hopeful that we would have our money soon.

I got the froms back from the Virginia Department of Labor on April 12^th, with a form attached that said “Your claim for unpaid wages has been received and reviewed. It is being returned for the reason noted below:

"You had a written employment agreement in place with your employer. Although we are unable to assist you, you may have recourse through the courts”. What? I thought the website said they would help us! What a bunch of crap!

Jim and I discussed this some more. I searched the internet some more, looking this time on the IRS website. I was sure there was SOMETHING we could do that would not involve us actually going to Virginia to file a claim in small claims court. After a lot of research, I found some information on the IRS site about what to do if you have received a fradulent W-2 form. So, the next time we had a day off, Jim and went to the IRS Service Center in Frederick, Maryland, which was the closest one to us.

When we arrived at the service center, I showed the clerk all the documentation we had and explained to her that we felt we had received fraudulent W-2 forms from our former employer. She looked over the contents of my folder, listened to my story, and finally agreed with me.

She went into another room and called the place we worked last year. We don’t know exactly what she said to them, but when she returned, she told us we would hear from her if she had any news for us. That was one week ago, today.

Yesterday, I had a message on my cellphone to call George, the manager of the IRS Service Center. The message said “We have some new information that sheds new light on your issue.” When I called him back, he told me that he had our bonus checks in his hand and we could come pick them up!

So, after only 5 and half months, 14 unreturned phone calls, a certified letter, 2 forms with copies of everything sent to the Virginia Department of Labor, and two sixty mile round trips to Frederick to the IRS Service Center, we received our long overdue bonus checks today.

When we arrived at the IRS office, all of the employees there came out to the lobby. They were all smiling, and all of them shook our hands. They said it is not very often in the course of their jobs that they can actually make people happy. They usually have to deal with people who were fleeced out of money by their employer and the person had no documention to back up what they were saying.

The clerk who had handled this for us told me that it was my legwork that helped them help us. She said that if I had not had so much documentation she probably would not have been able to collect the money for us. She said that after talking to us last week they knew that we were honest and were right that our former employer owed us the money. It was so fun to talk to those people. Then we went shopping!

Some Photos of Granite Hill Campground

Now that spring is here, this place is getting really beautiful. The photo to the right is the spring house near the trout pond. They stock the trout pond for a trout tournament each year. We saw the fish truck here last week.





This is looking across the trout pond to the center of the campground. The leaves are not out yet on the trees, but it is still very pretty.







Here are some tulips blooming near the office. There are flowers everywhere.








These tuplips are beside the driveway coming into the park.

This is part of the barn. It pre-dates the Civil War and was used as a field hospital during the war. It is a very interesting design, called a "bank barn", introduced by German immigrants.

Gumbo Day

It has been so cold here in Pennsylvania, with lows in the 30's and highs in the 50's, and the wind blowing at around 30 mph, so I decided to make it a Gumbo Day. Gumbo Day for me means I get up around 8 a.m., and start chopping the veggies. The chopping is the hardest and most time consuming part of making gumbo. Here is a photo of most of the ingredients laid out on the counter, ready for me to get started. The things missing are the shrimp, smoked sausage, ham, and rice. Oh, you will see a cookbook in the photo with the veggies. Don’t worry, it is used only as a guideline, to remind me what to do and when. If you know anyone who makes gumbo, you will know that each cook puts in her pot whatever she has on hand that day. Some people put chicken in their gumbo, but I personally think that ruins the whole thing. If you are someone who just has to have a recipe, the book is “The Frugal Gourmet” by Jeff Smith. Mine was printed in 1990, but it may still be on the market.

Any good Gumbo starts out with the Cajun “holy trinity” of chopped celery, onions and bell pepper. Those three vegetables are the beginning of most any dish Cajun or Creole. Today I added a poblano pepper, a couple jalapenos, and about half a bulb of garlic. I love garlic, the more, the better. After chopping everything up, sauté in a large pot like a Dutch oven or stockpot in some olive oil for about 20 minutes or so. This is when your kitchen will really start to smell GOOD!

Meanwhile, in another pan, on low heat, brown some flour in some more olive oil until the flour turns a nice brown color. This is the roux. If it gets too dark, or burns, you will have to start over. Making the roux is a slow process, but it will be well worthwhile to do it right. When the roux is that beautiful brown, add the “meat” from a 16 oz can of tomatoes that has been drained. I usually give them a little squeeze to get out a little more of the juice. Stir well after you add the tomatoes, as the mixture will make a thick paste, sort of like lumpy gravy. When it looks like that, this is the time to add some basil, thyme, parsley, black pepper, (and red pepper if you dare), a bay leave, and a little bit of salt. Stir well and remove from heat, and set aside for a bit.

While the veggies are cooking down, heat up two cups of water in the microwave. Add three or four cubes of Shrimp Bouillon, and stir like crazy to dissolve all of the bouillon grains. Pour this mixture into the Dutch oven with the veggies. Add a total of three quarts of water to the pot. Stir well, then get about two cups of the liquid out of the pot, and add it to the gravy mixture in the other pan. Stir to combine the liquid into the gravy, then add the whole pan of gravy to the Dutch oven. Add a dash of tobasco sauce and a large dash of Worchestershire sauce to the pot.

Usually I add a pound of sliced okra, but I did not have any today. I did have a bunch of fresh mustard greens, so I chopped them up and added them in, along with about a cup of chopped ham and a cup of diced smoked sausage. Put the lid on and cook for several hours.

About twenty minutes before serving time, add a pound of peeled, deveined shrimp, and two cups of diced smoked sausage. Cover and simmer on low for fifteen minutes, then turn off the heat. Serve over rice with tabasco sauce and red pepper for those who just have to have the extra hot. Yummy!

And this, folks, is what it is all about: My sweet husband enjoying a big bowl of Gumbo and Rice, with a big grin on his face. Don't you just love it?

I'm Working With Teens, Ya'll!

In my working career, the only time I have had the pleasure of working with teenagers is when I was one, it seems like a hundred years ago. Until now, that is. The job I have this summer at the campground is offically called Night Shift Supervisor. All that means is that I am the only adult working until closing time.

I have been on this job for a little over a month now. Until Friday night, all was going well. The young people who have been on the job with me have all been very mature and concientious about their work, and very pleasant to be around. But, as we all know, there is always that one person in every bunch who will try our patience, no matter what age they are. So, let me introduce my PITA for this season.

Let's call her, oh, Kelly, just for the sake of giving her a name. She is seventeen years old. She was hired to run the register at the candy counter, which we have in an attempt to keep the flood of sugar hungry kids away from the front desk during check-in time on Friday nights. This was her first week on the job here.

She is a friendly girl, but she probably told me sixty times how "cute" my accent is. I am a fifty four year old grandma from Georgia, working in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Yes, I do have a very accute southern accent, with a long drawl, which I can not help because I spent fifty years living in the south. But I do not like to be singled out for the way I sound. I find it rather embarassing when people point it out. And it could have possibly been the way she said what she said that offended me. And, it might possibly be because of the fact that this is the first time in my life that I have been north of the Mason-Dixon line, and in a place where the Union Army won a major battle in the Civil War. I kind of stand out here ANYWAY. It's not that I am trying to hide the fact that I am from the south, but I am not so sure I want it pointed out to everyone.

The first time Kelly made a comment about my accent, I very graciously thanked her, and told her I liked HER accent, too. The second time, I told her, "Oh, honey, I don't have an accent--YOU do." Which usually works with other people. Usually, other people get it when I say that, but this girl kept up with the remarks about my accent all night long. Every time I had a customer at the front desk and had to speak to them in the course of the transaction, she would say something about the way I sound when I talk. It was very distracting, because I had to go through all the baloney about the southern thing with every person who came in that night. After a while, I just ignored her, but it did not stop her from doing it.

I am trying to think of a nice and proper response to give this young lady next week when she comes to work and starts this up again. I personally think it is rude to point out peoples differences, even if it is such an obvious one such as my dripping sugar accent, maybe especially if it is. I have tried to NOT sound the way I sound, but why should I have to? And, if I were Kelly, and my Night Shift Supervisor had asked me very kindly several times to knock it off, I would have.

Michael Visits Gettysburg

My ten year old grandson, Michael, has lived in England for the last seven years. His Dad, my son, has been in the Air Force for thirteen years. They recently were transferred to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, which is the reason I am now living in Pennsylvania. My husband and I looked for a job close to Andrews so that we could spend a little time with Michael.

Michael, his Dad and his step-mother, Sarah, came to visit us this week. We took him to Gettysburg to see the battlefields. The photo above shows him firing a cannon. The one below of him and his Dad was taken at Little Round Top, where he was reliving the battle, hiding behind the rocks while he reloaded his musket.We took him to play mini golf, and fishing in the lake here at the campground where we work. It was cold, but he never ran out of energy. He wore out four adults in the two days he was here. I was sad to see him leave, and can't wait for him to come back. Wow, I finally get to be the FabGrandma!

Gettysburg Ghost Tour

Wednesday night the other members of the Granite Hill Campground staff and I went on a Ghost Tour. It started out at the parking lot across the street from the National Soldiers Museum at 777 Baltimore Street in Gettysburg. Gettysburg is called the most haunted city in the United States, because so many people lost their lives here during the Battle of Gettysburg. The tour we took focused on two places, The Gettysburg Orphanage and the Jenny Wade House. The photo above is of Bob, our tour guide.

Back in the days of the civil war, if your father died, you became an orphan. The story goes that Amos Humiston, a Union soldier from upstate New York, died of his wounds on York Street, clutching a photograph of his three children. Because he had no identification on his body, and his unit had already moved on before he died, no one knew his name. A reporter for a Philadelphia newpaper latched onto this story and turned it into a public interest story. He published the account, which was passed on to many newspapers, until it reached Humiston’s wife. She came forward to claim the photograph. The reporter then started a campaign to open an orphanage in Gettysburg to care for the children left behind by the many soldiers killed in the war. Shown above is a photo of Amos Humiston's three children.

Philinda Humiston was named the first Matron of the orphanage, and moved with her children to Gettysburg. She was kind and took good care of the children who lived there. When she remarried, she left Gettysburg.

The new Matron, Rosa Carmichael, was an evil woman.There is evidence that Rosa shackled children with chains to the walls of the cellar. She would also chain them to a rail fence in the hot sun, leaving them all day long to suffer sunburns, with no food or water. Children were locked in outhouses and sheds on the property in the winter, forced to stay out all night in the freezing cold. The two pictures above and below show chains used to shackle the children in the dark, damp cellar of the orphanage.

Many people have claimed to have seen the ghosts of children in the cellar and yards of the orphanage house. Others have felt something tug at their hair or at their clothing while they were walking through the cellar. There are many photographs showing orbs, ectoplasma, or ghostly outlines of children that were taken at this location. Although I did not see any ghosts while there, I did feel the sadness of the place. The chains and shackles are still there.

A short walk down the street brought us to the Jenny Wade House. Jenny was a twenty year old woman, who was the only civilian casualty of the Battle of Gettysburg. She was staying with her sister, helping out because her sister had just had a baby. Jenny was in the kitchen of her sister’s house, making biscuits, when a stray bullet went the wall of the house and struck her in the back. She was found dead in the kitchen.

Because of the battle raging around them, the family laid Jenny’s body out on a slab in the cellar of the house for two days. There are many stories of Jenny’s ghost haunting this house. There was also a story told about her father, who was getting forgetful, and did not believe his daughter was dead. He would often walk into the cellar looking for her, thinking Jenny was just hiding from him. Years later, people say he still comes into the cellar looking for her.

There are also spirits of children from the orphanage across the street, who come to play in the house, because the occupants of the house during the time they were alive, were kind to them and often allowed them to come in and play there. Photographs on the walls in the Jenny Wade house show the ghostly images of children in the background and in mirrors in the house.

These last two photos were taken at the Jenny Wade House. The first one is of a depiction of Jenny's body laid out in the cellar. The second one is part of a painting showing Jenny's sister and other family members at her wake, while they waited for the battle to cease so they could bury her body.

I don't know if these ghosts exist or not. I know I didn't see any on this tour. If you are ever in Gettysburg, take the tour and decide for yourself.

A Short Tour Of The Battlefields Of Gettysburg

Yesterday I went on a bus tour of the battlefields around Gettysburg in preparation for my job at the campground where I am working. Since we sell tour tickets in the campground office, we need to know what the tour entails in order to tell our guests.

Like most Americans, I had heard about the Battle of Gettysburg since I was in grade school, but until yesterday, I really had no idea how bloody it was. What started out as a halfday fun trip for me ended with sobering thoughts of the thousands of young men who lost their lives there fighting for their beliefs. I found it hard to hold back tears at times.

The tour takes you on a drive through the areas closest to town where the battles occured during the three day battle. There are many buildings still standing that were in existence at the time of the civil war. Each of these buildings has a six by nine inch bronze plaque designating it as a Civil War Building. I was surprized at how many there are. This is a bank barn and farm house to the west of town.

The tour guide told us about the statues of men on horseback, monuments to the generals of the battle. If the horse has all four feet on the ground, that means the rider made it safely through the battle. If the horse has one foot raised, then that rider was wounded in battle. And, if the horse has both front feet off the ground, that means the rider was killed. What an interesting way to depict the outcome for an individual. The genral depicted in this monument was a lucky man.

The Lutheran Seminary was established in 1827. It sits at a high point with a long view to the mountains west of town. During the first day of battle, the Union generals used the cupola of the middle building as their observation tower.

This is the view from the top of Little Round Top. The hill was the object of the battle on the second, and bloodiest day, of the Battle of Gettysburg. This view is looking west towards the Applachian Mountains. The fields below were scattered with the bodies of more than 5400 men at the end of the day. The creek running through near the line of trees was known as Plum Run. After the battle, it was renamed Bloody Run, because so much blood was shed it caused the creek to run red.

The view from Little Round Top towards Devils Den to the east. The National Park Service is cutting down some of the trees, and replanting others, in order to restore the area to the way it actually looked at the time of the battle. In this area, in the middle of the area in view, the trees are being cut because this was a wheat field at that time.

The Gettysburg Train Station, where Abraham Lincoln arrived in November, 1863 to give his famous speech. The building has been restored to look exactly the way it did then. Mr. Lincoln got off the train and walked down the street to a house in town where he spent the night before the ceremony dedicating a national cemetery. That dedication speech is the now famous Gettysburg Address.

Note: most of these photos were taken out the window of the bus, so they may be blurred. KE

The Rose Garden Natural Foods Co.

On Wednesday, we had to do laundry again. The laundromats here at the campground are not open yet, so we had to go into town again. The laundromat we went to is in a little strip mall in town. After we got our clothes in to wash, we started looking around at the other establishments in the strip. The Rose Garden Natural Foods Co. is a neat little store. They sell organic fruits and vegetables, as well as a very good selection of vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements.


Jim went in and bought some vitamins. I went in and asked if I could take some pictures, so the employee I spoke with went to the back and got Kitty, one of the owners of the store. She was a delightful woman. She told me she used to live in Woodstock, Georgia but moved from there years ago. She and her husband had come up to Pennslvania to visit some friends, and on the way home they decided to swing by to see Gettysburg. They loved it so much they decided to move here. They opened the Rose Garden Natural Foods Co. at the suggestion of their grandchildren 10 years ago. They have been at this location for about seven and half years.

The vegetables they sell here are organically grown so they have no pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers used in their production. The selection available the day I was there looked very good. When I asked Kitty if they ever get swiss chard, she told me that she had just told her husband the night before she was going to order some. She took my telephone number and offered to call me when the order comes in! Now that is what I call GOOD SERVICE!

Ever since my husband's bout with cancer, we have tried to eat more nutritious food and those with fewer chemical additives. He takes a lot of vitamins, and we both use a lot of herbal supplements for various things. We are really happy that we stumbled upon this store. We will be going there a lot while we are here.

I also make my own homemade soaps. They have a very good selection of oils including coconut, almond, and grapeseed. I use all of


those in making my soaps, and they are very hard to find.

The Rose Garden Natural Foods Co. is located at 30 West Street in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They are open Monday thru Friday from 9:00 a.m.until 4:00 p.m. and on Saturday from9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. If you go in, ask for Kitty and tell her you read her at FabGrandma.

The Sound of Frogs

Yes, that is what I said. The field next to our campsite are alive with the sound of frogs. I thought at first it was crickets, but being a girl from Georgia, I knew that it is too cold for crickets. When I asked the locals, they said that they are called "Snow Frogs". I have never heard of snow frogs, but you never know, that might be what they are. When I wake up in the middle of the night, that is what I hear. They are very loud, so sometimes it keeps me from going back to sleep. I guess it could be worse, it could be jet planes like we experienced last year at Holiday Trav-L-Park in Virginia Beach. I will take frogs over jets any day (or night).

Chirping Frogs

|

Weikert's Egg Farm

While I was out yesterday, I also went by Weikert's Egg Farm. It is at 2559 Fairfield Road in Gettysburg, about 3 miles from Granite Hill Campground, where we are working. I have been seeing their sign every time we go somewhere since we got here and have been wanting to go see what they have for sale. So, while I was on the loose alone, I went in there.

They sell eggs and BEEF, which is surprising because I would have thought eggs and CHICKEN. The eggs they sell come from free walking chickens. That means the chickens are not in cages, they can walk around in the chicken barn, eat as much a they want, and lay their eggs in a nest. I didn't get any eggs while I was there because I didn't need any but I will be going there next time I need them.

They advertise their beef as "Naturally Fed Beef". To quote from their flyer, "Unlike most commercially produced beef, our cattle are fed an all natural diet of corn, hay, and wheat without any special feed additives to speed up the animals' growth. This means there are no hormones, implants, or any other artificial substances used to enhance growth.

In addition, the crops grown on the Weikert Farm to feed the cattle are also grown without the aid of chemicals such as pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers." end of quote.

I was glad to see this advertisement because Jim's endoctrinologist, Dr. Singh, told us he should not eat beef because the beef on the market has too many hormones added to it for someone who has a thyroid problem. Ever since he told us that we have cut our beef consumption drastically. I MIGHT buy a pound of ground beef once a month, and only use about a half pound in a pot of chili. So, I bought one rib steak from them yesterday and we split it. It really did seem to taste better than what we are used to getting at the supermarket.

Weikert's eggs were priced from two dozen small eggs for $1.50 and up, depending on the size. They have both white and brown eggs. Their beef prices were comparable to what I would have to pay at the grocery stores in town. T-bone steaks were $8.89 per pound, Rib steaks were $7.99 per pound, and Chuck roast was $3.49 per pound. They also have beef by the quarter at $1.05 per pound live weight. For more information, click here for their website.

Four Seasons Bakery and Cafe in Gettysburg

Today was laundry day, so I went out by myself. Usually when I am out by myself, I go to the places I really shouldn’t go. The place that grabbed my attention last week when we were driving around town was the Four Seasons Bakery and Cafe. When I saw it I made a mental note to myself of its location. (I know those of you who know me well know that any note to myself is mental!) So, that is the first place I headed before going to the laundromat.

The Four Seasons Bakery and Café is located at 100 Chambersburg Street in Gettysburg. The menu includes soups, sandwiches, pastries, coffee and tea. There is a wide variety of cookies, pastries, pies, and cakes for sale as well as bread and foccacia of the day. It was hard for me to choose, but I finally settled on a cheese danish. I was not disappointed! The pastry was crisp and light, with a generous amount of a cream cheese filling. The price for the danish was $1.85. The service was quick and the staff friendly and they smiled a lot. I did not have time to stay for lunch, but based on the yummy treat I had today I know I will be back. I think I can get Jim to go in there too, because they have his favorite, Reuben Sandwiches. Oh, and I was going to take a picture of the danish, but I forgot to do it before I ate it!

Here are some examples of the menu offerings:

Scratch Reuben $8.50
Grilled Marinated Portobello Mushroom Sandwich $7.95
Cream of Leek and Potato Soup Bowl $4.75
Caramelized Local Pear Salad $5.25
Croissant $1.85

Scones $1.50
Cannoli $1.50
They had cannolis today, and I love them, but I just walked away! But don’t you know if they had had some cream puffs, I would still be there.

Four Seasons Bakery and Café is open Tuesday through Saturday 6:00 a.m. til 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 8:00 a.m. til 5:00 p.m. If you are ever in Gettysburg, this would be a good place to stop for lunch.

My Two Daughters

I have two daughters. For most of their lives I have been of the opinion that the two of them were as different as night and day. The older one, Rebecca, has dark, extremely curly hair. She is an artist. She was the kid no one liked in school because she could flip through a book and know everything in it. She never had to study but always made the all A Honor Roll. She went to college on a full four-year academic scholarship. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Sculpture. She is 33 years old and has never married.

Emily, the younger one, has brown wavy hair. She is a surgery scheduler for a pediatric ear, nose, and throat doctor. She made good grades, but she had to study hard and work for every A she got. She moved in with her boyfriend, who is now her husband of 15 years, the summer between her junior and senior years of high school. She worked her way through college, and paid for it with the Georgia Hope Scholarship and student loans. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.

When you look at the facts, you would certainly think that the two of them are different. But, this past year, I have discovered that they really are more alike then they think. The things in life that are important to them are the same. They each want a family who loves them, to be respected by their co-workers and friends, and to be happy in their work. They both love me, even though they may show it different ways.

Another way in which they are alike is that they both have a love for books and reading. Both of them gave me books last month. Both of them were on subjects that I really needed to read.

“Making A Living Without A Job” by Barbara Winter was from Rebecca. It is a wonderful inspiration, with testimonials and illustrative stories of women and men who have pondered their talents, devised a plan, and gone into self-employment to change their lives for the better. It is about earning a living doing something you enjoy doing.

Emily’s gift was “Choosing Forgiveness” by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Subtitled “Your Journey to Freedom”, it is a very good read and was very helpful to me in my life at the point I received it. The author writes about how when you hold on to your anger and hurts that others have piled on you, then you give that other person power over you to keep you imprisoned by those emotions. Only by letting go of the issues, forgiving others, and asking for forgiveness of the people you have wronged, can you let yourself out of that prison and truly be free. It opened my eyes and my heart so much.

Rebecca is job hunting at the moment. She was an art teacher at a private school but left there last spring to pursue promoting her own artwork. Emily is also job hunting. She has decided to change careers, and has taken the exam to become a middle school science teacher. So even in their sameness in being teachers, they are so very different in the subjects they teach. I wish them both good luck in their chosen paths, and hope we can get together very soon. I miss them both very much.

The Past Week

We had a week off before we had to start working, so we drove all around looking at all the scenery and trying out new places to eat. We found a neat little restaurant called The Book and Table Restaurant in Fairfield, about 6 miles west of the campground. They serve a good tasting, very filling breakfast. For $3.95 you can get two eggs, toast, and home fries, and juice. Coffee or tea is extra. The waitress there are nice and friendly and keep your coffee cup filled. There are a lot of locals there every time we go.

In the town of Gettysburg, we went to a place called The Pike. It is a pub. They sell Yuengling Beer, which is from America’s oldest brewery. They have a pretty good lunch menu We had crab quesadillas, homemade beef soup, and a hot roast beef sandwich. They were all very good. They have bands on Friday and Saturday nights, and karaoke on a weeknight. Jim said the ale was good.

Also in Gettysburg is Dunlap’s Restaurant & Bakery. They have an excellent breakfast served until 11:00 a.m. Order the number three, it includes two eggs, toast, home fries, and coffee or tea for the shockingly low price of $2.50. Jim and I can eat and leave a tip for less than $10.

Just for thrills I went to the KFC in town the other day. I told the little guy behind the counter “I want two legs and a biscuit”. He told me “If you order the number four, it would be cheaper”. I told him “I don’t want a number four, I want two legs and a biscuit”. He said “OK”. So I waited for my order, and when he gave it to me I went out to the truck to sit out there and eat my lunch. I opened the box and there were two legs and a corn muffin. The muffin was cold, I mean really cold, like it had been taken out of a refrigerator. So, I went back inside and showed him the contents of the box and asked him if that was a biscuit. I was thinking maybe since I was north of the Mason Dixon line for the first time in my life that what he had given me may well have been called a biscuit here in Pennsylvania. The guy looked at it and said, “No, that is a corn muffin”. I said, “Well, I ordered a biscuit.” He said, “Oh, you mean you really wanted a biscuit?” And I am thinking, YEAH, I thought that is what I said to begin with. I finally got my biscuit, but I do not think I will be going back to KFC any time soon.

On Sunday we drove down to Washington, DC to visit my son and his family. He is stationed at Andrews Air Force Base. I was dreading the drive down because I have heard the horror stories about the traffic on the beltway around DC. But, it was not as bad as driving on I-285 around Atlanta on the weekend.

When we arrived at the gate to the base they were not going to let us enter. Then Seth drove up and showed them his ID and told them we were his parents and they let us in. We had to stop at a check-point and give them our driver’s licenses, the truck registration, and proof of insurance. They inspected the truck too. Seth said it is because that is where Air Force One is hangared.

Seth has a four bedroom, two and half bathroom house on base. It is huge! The living room is big enough for a sectional sofa, a regular sofa, a love seat, a big screen TV and a wall unit type of bookcase, and it doesn’t look crowded. I was really surprised at how nice the base housing was.

We drove around the base a little bit. Seth showed us the hangar where they keep Air Force One. He said there are actually several planes of varying sizes that are called Air Force one, and it depends on where they are going and who is going which one they use. How interesting. I always thought there was only one plane.

Seth took us to the BX, which looked sort of like a small mall with a food court. We got some lunch from Captain D’s. After lunch, we went over to the park by the lake and the guys went fishing while Sarah and I sat and talked. Seth caught a huge fish. Jim said it was a pickerel. I have never seen one of those. I just know it was very big, because they were on the other side of the lake and it looked like a monster from where I was sitting. Michael caught mostly limbs and branches. We saw some sort of animal swimming in the lake. I don’t know what it was. We think it may have been a muskrat.

We finally had to head back home to Gettysburg. It was a nice day trip, only 108 miles from our house to theirs. We were hoping they could come up here this weekend, but the temperature went down and it started snowing this morning. By dark, there was 8 inches of snow and still snowing. Hmmmm, did someone tell me it snows in Pennsylvania in March?

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

We have arrived in Pennsylvania for our job here at Granite Hill Campground. The trip up was very nice. We stopped in Concord, North Carolina the first night at Fleetwood Speedway RV Resort at the Nascar track. It is a good place to stop for the night, but I have no idea why they call it a resort. It just looks like a campground to me.

The next day we headed out to Williamsburg, Virginia. We stopped there for 3 nights at Anvil Campground. If you click on the link, you will see that they don't have any pictures of their campground on their website. I think there is a reason for that. The place is one step away from being classified as a dump (in my opinion). It is right next to a railroad track, and trains roar by throughout the night. It sounded like those trains were going right through our bedroom. We wondered what those folks thought who were camping in tents right next to the tracks.

We met our friends Charlie and Lynn for dinner on Friday night at Outback Steakhouse. We had fun with them, they are really nice people. They said they were going to come up to Gettysburg sometime this summer. I sure do hope so. Then, on Saturday, we met Linda and Ron and Liz and Russ for breakfast at IHOP. Again, we were glad to see all of them. It was over way too soon. Linda and Ron are leaving Virginia soon for a new job in Florida. Maybe we'll see them this winter.

After breakfast we drove down to Norfolk to visit Rebecca and see her new apartment. We went to lunch with her and Joe at a Mexican place. Then we drove out to Virginia Beach for ice cream. It seems like all we did in Virginia was eat, eat, eat. We hung out with Rebecca for the rest of the day. We got back home to the train yard about 9:30 pm, just in time for the Amtrack train.

Sunday morning when we checked the map for directions to Prince William Travel Trailer Village in Dumfries, Virginia, we realized that it was only about 40 miles south of Washington, D.C., so we called Seth and told him where we were going to be. They decided to drive down and visit with us. We have not seen them in more than 3 years. They arrived about an hour after we got to the campground. It was sooo good to see them. Michael jumped out of the car as soon as they drove up and gave Jim a big hug. I got one next, and Michael told me he missed me a lot. I met Seth's new wife, Sarah for the first time. She is so nice! We really enjoyed seeing them. We went out to Cracker Barrel for a late lunch, then went back to the trailer to visit for a while.

On Monday, we only had about 106 miles to go, so we slept late and still got here about 2 pm. The countryside in Maryland and Pennsylvania is beautiful. There are lots of farms with silos and red barns. Even with everything still being brown from winter it is still pretty here. The lakes and ponds are all frozen over, which surprised me. I knew it would be cold, but I guess I just didn't think about it being THAT cold.

Last night it was 10 degrees! It is supposed to snow 2-4 inches tomorrow. We went out today and filled our propane tanks. Oh, and I had sticker shock at the grocery store in town—celery was $2.89! carrots were $1.99! and 5 lbs red potatoes $3.99! Yikes!

We also had to drive over to Hanover, about 14 miles away, to go to the mall. We got lost on the way, and wound up going into an industrial area, where we saw the Snyder's of Hanover pretzel plant. It smelled like pretzels in the air around there.

Here in Gettysburg, we have already found a farm market and an egg farm to buy fresh food. There was a nice butcher shop in Hanover near the pretzel place. (I had to go in there to ask directions after we got lost, so of course I looked around to see what they had. The meat prices in there looked pretty good.)

There is a shetland pony farm about 3 miles from here, I want to take Michael and Sarah there, and Spencer too if he gets up here this summer. And of course, there is the National Battlefield Park, and I saw a Civil War Hospital on the way to Hanover. I'm sure there are lots more things to do that I haven't discovered yet. So, that's it for today.

Yay ME! I sold a photo!

I am so happy! I sold another photo that I took. I am "FabGrandma, the Famous Photographer", hahaha! Now if I could just sell one more often than every 8 months or so...

I will let you all see the fab photo that I sold, here it is:

Now, does anyone out there know where this is? I will tell you if you get it right.

And for those of you who want to know, I get $30 for it. I am so not going to get rich but I love knowing that someone actually bought one of my photos.