Chump Car Races

Yesterday The chump car races were held at Sebring International Raceway. The hotel where Terri works was the host hotel so a lot of them were staying there. The people that put them on gave here 3 armbands so she and I went for a couple of hours. As near as I can tell Chump cars consist of just about anything. There were 3 or 4 VW Bugs, a couple of Lincoln Town cars and everything in between. 90 cars started the race and it was to be a 14 hour race so I have no idea how many finished. The temps were hot around 92 degree's and there was a heavy rain about 6 in the evening so they had all kinds of conditions to race in.
Watching a race like that on a 3 1/3 mile track is about like watching paint dry, you only see them when they come down the home stretch every lap. The most exciting part is watching the pit crews work on them when they are having trouble. Lawn Mower races are much more exciting to watch.

Sebring, FL

We are back in Sebring 3 weeks earlier than planned. Have been here two days and haven't seen the sun yet, so much for sunny Florida. Our 10 days in Lancaster were marked by having the earth quake make the motor home feel like the jacks were retracting and then on Sat being told we had to evacuate because of hurricane Irene. We drove from Lancaster to Sebring in 3 days We should have taken longer but we couldn't see stopping Mon afternoon with only 100 miles to go. We were only gone for 4 months this summer so that makes it the shortest time we have been away from Sebring since we sold the house in NE.

Columbia, SC

Here we are at the Barnyard RV Park near Columbia, SC with temp at 98 degree's when we arrived around 5 PM. We left Verona, Virginia this morning under clear skies & calm winds. Traveling So. on I-81 We continued to see large numbers of utility trucks with boom lifts going north. We also saw numerous semi's loaded with industrial generators and a few that were loaded with power line transformers. Yesterday we also saw the same thing, it makes one wonder if there are any utility trucks or workers left in the south. We talked to a friend that was in Lancaster at their sons place, they said there was 4.5 in. of rain and their motor home rocked quit a bit and they also had tree limbs down. I am certainly glad we were in PA and not the New England States where we had been, as I am sure all of those campgrounds also had to be evacuated too.

Evacuation

About noon today we had a knock on our door, it was one of the people from the campground and he said we had until 4PM to evacuate. With all the trees they were concerned about the forcasted high winds and rain accompanying Hurricane Irene. So by about 1 PM we were on our way west on Rt 30. We had some light rain but not to bad At Chambersburg, PA we turned south on I-81. Driving south on I-81 as we entered WestVirginia after passing through the pan handle of Maryland we had a few periods of very heavy rain. At about 6:30 we stopped at the Shenandoah Valley KOA near Verona, VA for the night. We arrived here in light rain but it seems to have quit now. We have decided our destination now will be Sebring, FL. We should arrive there in about 3 days. Hopefully there won't be any hurricanes come near there this fall.

George's Woodcrafts & Turkey Hill Exp.

This morning we headed west to George's Woodcraft's located near Maytown. They make fine wood furniture no plywood or particle board. During the factory tour we saw 5 craftsmen working on various pieces of furniture. They make this amazing dinning table that will open up to 20 ft and it only takes one person to effortlessly do it. From there it was on westward to near East Berlin location of the Outdoor World Gettysburg Farm Campground. We are trying to check out the campgrounds in our membership for future reference. Yesterday we checked out the Hershey Preserve. Both look like very desirable locations for future stays.
On our way back we stopped at the Turkey Hill experience in Columbia. Turkey Hill is a dairy that was started in the late 1800's. They processed their milk and did home deliveries. In later years they started making ice cream and bottling tea. Today there is a Turkey hill convenience store just about every where you look. It looks like they probably are the number 1 gas station convenience store in this area.

Cornwall Iron Furnace

Today we went to the Cornwall Iron Furnace located near Lebanon, PA This is the only surviving Charcoal Cold Blast furnace in the Western Hemisphere. It operated from 1742 thu 1883. In 1730 Peter Grubb discovered iron ore in the hills just to the south. It used wood for charcoal, iron ore & limestone. Water was used to power the billows located at the bottom of the 3 story furnace.
Iron ore, limestone & charcoal were dumped into the 19 inch mouth of the furnace from the charging floor at the top of the furnace. I believe they produce about 24 ton of pig iron a month with 12 employees mostly slaves. The temps in the casting room at the bottom would reach as high as 150 degree's
By 1978 Peter had died and his sons no longer wanted to run it so it was sold the Robert Coleman who had other furnaces. In the early 1800's it was converted to cheaper more efficient coal and the billows were changed so that the blasting air was supplied by two air pots powered by a steam driven one cylinder engine.
There were communities built around these as it took many people to supply the labor for the mine, the charcoal pots, furnaces etc.

roadside stands

This is the time when fruits and vegetables are ripe and ready for use. There are many roadside stands operated by both Amish and English. This is an example of one of the larger ones just about a mile from the campground. Every morning at 8 AM the have 3 or 4 of the large farm wagons loaded with sweet corn priced at $2.75 for a bakers dozen (13 ears). Buy 10:30 they are completely empty. They have peppers 4 for a dollar, tomatoes 4 or 5 for a dollar, cantaloupe, water melon, peaches, eggplant etc. As we were driving last eve about 4 miles from here we came across a dairy that has a store where they sell milk, orange juice, tea etc that is packaged in a plastic bag. They also have ice cream, home made cookies and msc other groceries. You can set outside and enjoy the smells of a dairy barn as you enjoy your ice cream. You can also watch them milk and the children both young and old can interact with the young dairy calves.