PA Vacation

Glen and I went to Pa for Labor Day weekend. We stayed in a Motel just north of Reading. The first thing we did after checking in was head for Cabela's, which was 15 min. from our room. We spent 4 hrs. there. My goal was to buy a bow and arrows etc. for target shooting. There was a great guy helping me. He found a bow that was just right for me, a nice wooden one. He took me into the back room where they had targets set up and let me shoot it a few times, to get a feel for it. I actually hit the targets! With some practice, I think I could be good.

The next morning we went to Hawk Mountain. http://www.hawkmountain.org/.
This was really cool! Back in the early 1900's people used to come here to shoot hawks by the hundreds. They thought they were pests and needed to be killed. A woman from NY, Rosalie Edge, Founded this as the World's first refuge for birds of prey. She stopped the shooting of the migrating hawks. You hike up a trail (not too hard, some rock climbing) and at the top you can just sit and watch for eagles, hawks and all kinds of birds of prey. We saw 4 Bald Eagles in flight!
We also saw a show about raptors. This man held on to a Red Tailed Hawk, then a Great Horned Owl. We got to see them from about 3 feet away. He told us all about them. He was very knowledgeable.
Then we went to a Train Station in Kempton, called Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern, Inc.http://www.kemptontrain.com/ . Where we rode on a train with a steam engine. Right after this ride my digital camera "Bit the dust"!Later that evening we ate dinner at a Cracker Barrel. then went back to Cabela's! LOL it is our favorite store.We decided that On Mon. before we went home we would try to find one of the coal mines that you can tour. So we went to the "Pioneer Tunnel" http://www.pioneertunnel.com/home.shtml in Ashland You got to ride in real mine carts, they take you down into the actual mine. It is about 50 degrees in the mine (chilly). Once you are in there you get out of the carts and get a guided tour. The guide turned off the light and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face! Pretty eerie! Then we rode another steam train and they told us about the towns around there and the coal mining operation. There is a town just north of there, Centralia http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/centralia.htm, that has a coal mine under the city that is on fire! The fire started in 1962, and still burns today! The only way to put out the fire is to dig up the mine and manually put it out. To do this the government has paid off all the residents, bought their houses and gave then relocating fees. Everyone is gone except 12 people, who won't leave

Glen and I drove up there and it is so weird, there are roads and curbs but no houses, just weeds! Everything has been leveled! It is as if aliens just sucked up the houses.
Everything was very interesting, I love history anyway, and this was like a fun PA history lesson.
I highly recommend that you click on the links to visit the websites, they are all very interesting. We had a great trip, great weather. The only thing that went wrong was my camera breaking. But I had been wanting to get a better camera anyway, so now I will.