Days 20, 21 and 22: Reunion and then some.... and onto Gettysburg

Saturday, October 9th: Lin's 45th Ridge High School Reunion

The reunion day had arrived which was the reason that we modified our travel plans and swung back around east to New Jersey. The day's weather was a picture perfect Indian Summer day - clear, sunny and warm.

Don was busy in the morning changing the failing tire on the passenger side rear of the trailer. The tire was losing air and wearing strangely. Cousin Rob, owning a bus company and noticing the wear when we first arrived, expressed concern. Putting on the spare seemed like a good idea until we get to the Sunny Brook factory in Indiana in a week or two to find the underlying cause for the tire wear. Hopefully this is not an axle problem, but just a faulty tire.

Around noon we drove to Califon, NJ, to my best friend from high schools home, as we are going to the reunion together. Millie and I have been friends since our sophomore year in high school, meeting soon after she moved to Basking Ridge. I believe Mil and I have seen each other at least once a year ever since, visiting each others' homes or going on joint vacations. That's a lot of good friend time together!

Lee, Millie, Lin & Don - Longtime Friends

What a delightful surprise that Eliza, Mil & Lee's daughter, with her two children, Austin & Savannah, were up visiting from Baltimore. We had not seen Eliza since her wedding, so this was an extra bonus! Since the day was so beautiful, we all took a hike along the river on a trail not too far from their home.

Returning home, it was close to time to get ready for the reunion. Out of our jeans, which has been the "dress of choice" for the past three weeks, it felt mighty funny to get all gussied-up.

The reunion dinner was at Willie's Tavern in Bedminster, a restaurant owned by one of our classmates, Jack. The setting was perfect for a gathering of old friends. A line from a song by Ian Tyson, of Ian and Sylvia fame, "These friends of mine we shared some good times together," kept running through my head. It was a fabulous evening of hugging and sharing old stories. Don was a dream reunion date, as he kept taking pictures, bringing me glasses of wine, and amusing himself either hanging with Lee or striking up conversations with folks. He claimed he had a really good time, too. So I had a few minutes chatting with Judi, Candy (now Candice), Pat, Sallie, Pam, Joan, Margo, Randy (now Doug), Lanny (now Alan), John, Jim, Debbie, Jack, etc. Their names are so reminiscent of the 1947ish era, aren't they?

End of the evening - last chat with Jack & Candy

One classmate, Randy, now living in California, Randy, told me his daughters were coming to Basking Ridge tomorrow to see for themselves if the stories they have heard of dad growing up in "Pleasantville"are true or not. Randy nailed it. Yes, growing up in the 60's in the small country town of Basking Ridge was ideal - no drugs, no drinking (at least my group of friends), new high school, dedicated teachers, low crime (if any), and just good, clean fun. Our class was exceptional and I think it showed reunion night, as everyone was in high spirits and thrilled to be together 45 years later.

The evening was over too soon, but I soon fell asleep with with memories of being a teenager again dancing in my head. So glad we changed our travel plans and went to NJ!

Sunday, October 10th: Farewells and Ready to Continue Our Travels

Sunday morning, after a pancake breakfast at the local firehouse, we spent a few quiet minutes with Millie and Lee in their backyard garden. As we drove back to Rob and Sue's for one more night before hitting the road, I called my sister, Ginger in South Carolina, to see if any important forwarded mail had arrived for us. I knew she and Lou were leaving Monday to come to NY for their daughter's 40th birthday in Yonkers. During the conversation, I asked Ginger how far they would get the next day and if Gettysburg might be a destination stop. Her husband, Lou, said "Sure, we can reach Gettysburg." So plans were formulated to meet Monday night.

When we got to Rob & Sue's mid-afternoon, they both had just returned from playtime - Sue riding her horse and Rob out with his son, Jonathan, on ATVs. Glad to see they made good use of a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Jon wanted to see the trailer, so this was a nice time for a little conversation and for me to get to know him better. What a handsome and well mannered young man. He really takes after the "Johnsons" (my side of the family) and looks like he could be Donny's long-lost brother - tall, thin, and same coloring, esp. the hair. Hope we can get Donny and Jon together in the future.

For dinner we took Rob and Sue to a local restaurant and had some quality time just being with them. The reunion afforded us some unexpected and rewarding times with family and extended family/friends. We couldn't have thought during the planning stage that this jaunt to NJ would have turned out to be so perfect.

Monday, October 11th: Gettysburg, PA

Don writes:  Ah, travel day again.  Monday dawned sunny and bright.  Actually, I don't know exactly how it dawned since we didn't wake up until 7:30, but I assumed that it was about the same.  We had breakfast with Sue and Rylee and the dogs before I went out to get everything hooked up.  (Rob was out of the house to work at 5, so we'd said our farewells to him the night before.)  I took a couple minutes to look up the name of a SunnyBrook dealer that would be on the way to Gettysburg so we could stop and get the tire issue checked out.

We got on the road about 10:30 after hugs and goodbyes.  The trip took us through a lot of pretty Pennsylvania countryside as we headed toward the dealer in Harrisburg.  We got to Kennedy's RV Sales around 3 PM and Scott arranged for his mechanic, Bobby, to look at our tires and get them balanced.  Bobby couldn't find anything wrong with the axles, so he got right to balancing the tires.  Naturally, the first one (the spare) gave him fits.  After 45 minutes of back and forth with the tire weights, he finally got it within 1/10 of an ounce and called it balanced.  The rest of the wheels didn't take that long all together.  The whole procedure set us back about 2 hours, but the folks were friendly and Lin had a chance to look at what might be our next travel trailer. 

Now we felt a bit pressed to get to Gettysburg ahead of Ginger and Lou.  Lin called the campground to tell them we were on our way and they said they'd leave the light on for us even though the office would be closed at 6 (less than an hour).  The cat was yowling, Lin was cracking the whip, and I kept my head down and drove.  Not really.  It took us less than an hour to reach Gettysburg Campground and the office was still open.  Nice looking place with wooded, nicely graveled sites next to a small river.  Got checked in and Connie at the desk recommended O'Rourke's for a casual, tasty dinner.

Meanwhile, Linda and Ginger were talking on the phone.  They had just arrived in the area and were looking for a motel.  Lin said that we'd get set up and would call them back. 

So we pulled into our campsite and got everything leveled, hooked up and straightened up.  Took us a little under an hour before we were calling Gin and Lou to tell them where we'd meet for dinner.  Turned out that they were about two blocks from there.

Took us about 15 minutes to reach O'Rourke's and Gin and Lou were there waiting for us.  We chose to sit outside since the weather was so warm and clear.  Our waitress was terrific and the food was some of the best we'd had on the trip.  Lin and I each had a meatloaf sandwich with mashed potatoes and Guinness gravy on sourdough bread.  Yummm!!  Not fancy, but comfort food supreme!  Got caught up on all the family happenings and arranged to have breakfast at our campground in the morning.  All in all, a delightful end to a nice travel day.

Dinner at O'Rourkes

Walking back to Gin & Lou's motel, spied this Union soldier holding his horse