Face-to-face with this big boy, I found myself borrowing a line from Chipley: “I’m not afraid!”

Here’s another cool place. This one is practically at my back door. It’s Fenders Diner in Cornelia, Georgia. If you are up this way, it is worth a stop. The food is great and the atmosphere absolutely fun.

Tin ceilings and lots of antique tin signs. I saw many that brought back lots of memories.

No words needed for this photo and there I am in the mirror.

I love pathways like this one. You always wonder what is waiting for you around the next turn. This one was just off Bear Gap Road in Rabun County.

And just in case you wanted to know what Bear Gap Road looks like . . . . Here it is. It is a back road that leads to the Glen Ella Springs Inn.

Basically, we just had lots of fun over vacation in PA. The first day that we were back from Lake Erie, Joy took us to Wendell August Forge. The company is America’s oldest and largest forge, producing hand-wrought ornamental metalware and elegant giftware in aluminum and other metals since 1923. The furnace in this photo dates back to the 1930′s when the founder Wendell McMinn August. who was in the coal industry asked, Ottone “Tony” Pisoni, a blacksmith in his coal mine, to hand-forge door latches for his home.

“Admiring the low cost and high quality of Pisoni’s work, August was inspired to start a decorative ironware business. Pisoni was joined by three more blacksmiths who handcrafted the first product line, including one-of- a-kind fireplace andirons, candlesticks, lighting standards, doorknockers, latches, railings, and grilles for windows and doors.”

Two designers currently work on all the designs created at the forge. This is one of their offices.

A really cool clock from the past.

The last morning we were in western PA, we woke to freshly fallen snow, and as I drank a cup of coffee and gazed out the windows at the sight before me, I couldn’t help but wish that I could stay. The week had been relaxing, fun, and energizing. I even said (out loud), “I could stay another day or two. After all, I don’t need to be back in the office for another three days.” Reluctantly, I got up and finished packing my suitcase. We drove to the airport in near silence. Everyone was rethinking all we had seen—the meals we had shared and the photos that we had taken with our hearts.

Later, at the Pittsburg airport, I watched a parade of snow plows race down a nearby runway and listened to the person next to me talk about the “major snow storm” that was bearing down on the part of the state where I had vacationed. “Maybe, it is best that I’m leaving,” I mused.

Then yesterday, I received an email from the friends that had journeyed with me around Lake Erie saying they had not been able to venture out of their home since I left due to the amount of snow that had fallen. “It is a good thing you came when you did and left, ” they said. “Otherwise, we would have been stuck.

“Stuck,”  I wondered . . . “Stuck in Vermilion or Fairport, or maybe some place overlooking the Allegheny River?” . . . .  No, I really don’t think we would have been stuck at all.