Rough Patches, Creamy Ice Cream 06/04/01

Subject: Mindwalker - rough patches, creamy ice cream
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 22:09:14 EDT

Saturday morning (6/2) in Strasburg reminded me of going down with Elsa to DisneyWorld when I was a kid of 87. Like she did on that trip, Elsa was up and out early on Saturday, this time enjoying breakfast at Jennie's, the diner she and John called home during their 1989 honeymoon in Strasburg. Well, it was a little different from our earlier trek - this time, John was sound asleep in the next bed. Elsa brought back a feast for the two sleepy heads back at the motel - delicious bacon, genuine Pennsylvania Dutch sticky buns that she picked up at a roadside stand, orange juice; for John, she picked up a pint of skim milk for his usual big bowl of Total, and for me a steaming cup of decaffeinated hazelnut coffee. It was quite a spread.

All too soon, the young folks were on their way to get John's display set up at the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. I was sad that my energy level has gone "pffft" and I did not have the get up and go to tag along. Elsa was back in about 45 minutes and got us packed up (we stayed in two different motels - long story) and decamped in no time at all. We drove west because she wanted to check out the one (1) Lancaster-area Borders for things to do in the area.

My word, the road construction was just awful. It was not restful, neither the drive nor where the Borders was located, so Elsa headed back to Strasburg to get us checked into our motel so I could nap.

As nasty as past of the drive was, I would not have missed it for all the tea in China. On the way out to Borders, as we drove down busy Route 30, past one of the big local high schools, Elsa suddenly swung into the left turn lane.

I had no idea what was afoot, but with Elsa I have learned to just wait and enjoy.

She had spotted some well dressed people - not a lot, maybe a dozen - sort of drifting from the high school to a lovely stretch of lawn in front of the school. Maybe it is due to her love of the students back in Bryn Athyn, but that was enough to make her realize that a graduation ceremony was just over. We pulled into the parking lot across from the school and watched with slightly misty eyes as graduates in black cap and gown, carrying yellow roses, streamed out of the building onto the lawn and gathered together for a class picture, friends and loved ones looking on with big smiles and their own cameras at the ready. It was a lovely sight and made
us think about our own Academy, where the same scene was being played at the same time out back home. We returned to our travels with full hearts and big smiles.

By the way, later, when we were heading out from Borders to go home, a woman was walking across the parking lot toward the next door Olive Garden - with a long-stemmed yellow rose in her hand. Elsa, being Elsa, shouted over congratulations on her child's graduation - the woman gave a huge grin and said how proud she was of her son.

Going to and from the Borders, we went past the Lancaster Host Farms Resort, the sight of several Republican "do's" that I went to with - or on behalf of - Gay Pendleton. Most of the people attending stayed at the "big and bigger" Host Farms Resort. I stayed at the Garden Spot Motel across Rt. 30, which was not as clogged with traffic back then as it is now. It was cozier and more comfortable that the hulking big place across the road.

My, what a host of memories of Gay welled up at the sight of those two lodgings - one so immense, the other so small. Also, memories of Pete. It was just before a weekend trip out to Lancaster that he lopped of the tip of a finger with the saw. He called Morgan and Nancy Jones and told them that if they got a phone call from me
(which they did) saying I could not go because Pete was injured and hospitalized, they were to tell me that it was nothing major and that he thought I would be of more use to the community and country if I went instead of staying home. He was wise to call them instead of just tell me. Pete knew his wife very well. I went.

I wish I could share all the unspoken messages that Pete's actions sang out to me, but they are the type of messages that somehow fragment and seem lessened in speech. I hold them in my heart.

Back to two disappointed women trekking back to our motel from Borders. I do not know how she did it - other than being blessed with Pete's peripheral vision - but Elsa unexpectedly exited off the congested, under-constructed Route 30 and headed toward the Visitor's Information Center and pulled off the big road.

As we pulled into the Visitor's Center driveway (I do not know how, even with her keen sight, she spotted the building in the first place or knew where to go, since all the signs were down due to even more road construction), she asked if I would like an ice cream cone. At first, I declined, since we had not had lunch yet. Then, it hit me - dessert first, lunch afterward. So she walked over to a vending truck that was serving up Turkey Hill ice cream and came back with a lovely butter pecan ice cream cone with a sugar cone (my favorite).

Yum!

By the time she finished up checking things out in the Information Center, having left me sitting pretty in the shade of a big leafy tree, I was just finishing the last bit. Bliss.

I do not know what I was expecting for lunch, but it did not come close to what Elsa had up her sleeve. As we neared our new motel, she pointed out billows of smoke coming from the edge of a small parking lot. The local Boys Scout troop was putting on a chicken barbeque (she'd seen it advertised when she went out for breakfast). She swung into our motel, got me tucked for a short nap, then high-tailed it back to the barbeque, where she picked up two chicken dinners. There was enough food there to take care of lunch AND dinner AND breakfast (if we had a refrigerator). Whoever were in charge of the grills knew what they was doing, because every part of the chicken half was cooked to perfection. More yum!

I took a nap, then got up in time for Elsa to pick up John and head back to the room before heading out again for the evening's banquet. She and John made a good looking couple as they headed out the door, although it made me miss Pete, especially after an afternoon with such special moments and memories.

It was a quiet evening without them. What a lovely surprise when they returned around 9:15 p.m. with a waffle cone bowl heaped with vanilla ice cream from the Strasburg Country Store for my late night snack. I do not recall ever seeing a waffle cone bowl - a big wafer of waffle shaped into a bowl instead of a cone. Double yum! It was a delicious end to a day filled with a mixed bag of fun and tension.

It was a pretty happy Gramster who headed off to bed. It was not a great
Saturday - in fact there were parts that were pretty bad - but it had moments
of special grace.

Back here at Squirrel Haven, am getting ready to make my way up the wooden hill. We are all going to bed early tonight to make up for lost sleep over the weekend. I will share more about that tomorrow.

For now, sweet dreams - Ma L'