Osceola -> Philadelphia

It was raining this morning as we prepared to leave the hill. I perched my phone precariously on a table in the living to get this photo:

The drive down to Philadelphia was surprisingly smooth, especially since the news media were predicting traffic Armageddon because of 4th of July traffic. Since it was on the way, Laura and I stopped by Penn State Abington campus (formerly Ogontz). I spent the Fall '87 semester there and met Laura there in a differential equations class. We both transferred to Penn State main campus for Spring '88 semester and neither of us had returned to Abington since (31 years now). It's actually a beautiful campus:

They now have a Nittany Lion statue, just like main campus:

As we walked around and inside the buildings we were able to identify the classroom where we met and some of the common areas where we hung out with friends. We also were reminded of the hilly geography of the campus. A lot had changed, but there was a lot that was still recognizable:

We got to Jim's and chatted a while, then went for a walk down to the river (Delaware):

We went out to eat (pizza) and then dessert (Rita's):

Bearing up

We're slowly getting onto the new time zone. I slept from about 10pm to 6am last night, which is my usual non-Spain pattern. In Spain it was more like 11pm-7am (or 8am, haha). It was cloudy today and threatened rain, but non appeared. What did appear was a pair of bears:

This one and another, clearly unhealthy, frailer one came to the property several times. Betty puts out feed corn for them and the deer. I think she just likes to see the animals. I find it interesting to see how the two seem to travel everywhere together. The sickly one is missing 90% of its fur, is significantly thinner and is clearly not long for this world. The healthy one seems to tolerate its presence. Similarly, there are three healthy deer that visit--two males and a female. They have visited the property as a trio each of the days we've been here.

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Laura and I took a bit of a hike in the woods. We walked along the ridge behind the property and then down to Red House Hollow about 1 mile above Betty's driveway:

Then we walked the length of the road down to the paved road, Holden Creek Rd. This is a photo of Holden Creek:

This is the Freeland's house near the intersection of Red House Hollow and Holden Creek Rd:

The Freelands live locally and have visited this, their "cabin", on the weekends for many years. It's a lovely home and property.