Raystown Lake is the largest lake totally within Pennsylvania— an S-shaped, man-made reservoir in Huntingdon County that's just far enough away from home for the denizens of Lancaster County to make it an ideal vacation spot. Well, for the some of the denizens, anyway. Until this summer, I had never been there. In fact, I couldn't say I'd ever spent more a few hours at a lake. So when my friend Regina invited me along with friends to go camping and boating at Raystown Lake, I was happy to … [Read more...] about A Weekend at the Lake
A Wrong Turn to Sunflowers
A week ago, I made a wrong turn and discovered thousands of sunflowers— golden fields on gentle rolling hills. I pulled off on the side of the road to stare at the beauty. I was less than ten miles from home, but I had never seen sunflowers grown on a large scale before. Most sunflowers grown in the United States are raised in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, not Pennsylvania. Later I went back to the sunflower fields with my sister and nieces to take more pictures. We parked at … [Read more...] about A Wrong Turn to Sunflowers
Between a Railroad and a River
A few days ago, Pearls Before Swine ran a comic strip where Goat tells Pig and Rat he's going camping the next day. "What does that involve?" asks clueless Pig. Cynical Rat answers. "It's where you deprive yourself of all the nice things you have for no particular reason." Last weekend, I went camping with my family on private property near the borders of Juanita and Perry County. My sister had found the Juanita River Escape on social media last year. "You will have the 3 acres to … [Read more...] about Between a Railroad and a River
Co-Workers Go South
My company's branded fabric has a palm tree logo, but it's not often my co-workers and I get to see palm trees. One day last year Liz from the wholesale department slipped into my office and whispered, "Susan, I'm not telling everyone yet, but I've been seeing this guy from Florida." At 3 a.m. on a Thursday morning last month, nine of us started on a thousand-mile trip south so we could attend Liz and Tim's wedding. The wholesale van, normally used to haul bolts of fabric, had been … [Read more...] about Co-Workers Go South
Teaching ESL Classes in the Refugee Capital of America
"I like living here," Nur told me. "The people are so friendly!" Nur (all students' names are changed in this blogpost), was a middle-aged Afghan woman, with two of her sons, black-haired little boys, sitting next to her at the table. Several of her oldest children, Nur told us, were still back in Afghanistan, and Nur asked us to pray for them. Lancaster County has been called the "Refugee Capital of America" (see news articles here and here), and one of the many services available are … [Read more...] about Teaching ESL Classes in the Refugee Capital of America