"pursue your happiness" - A visit to Wellsboro, Pennsylvania - October-November 2022

But 1st a stop for lunch in Blairstown, western New Jersey. Much, much better than expected.

And Nomi's turn to drive after I quaffed a pint of the Nutty Professor.

Surprisingly they offered perfect, beautifully served espresso.

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Bear Meadows Lodge, Pearl Street, Wellsboro, PA.

Along Pearl Street en route to downtown Wellsboro.

A fine chocolate stout. There was excellent food here too . Near us was a table of nine polite & well-behaved young men. Some of them were using their phones until one fellow suggested building a "telephone tower" & just talking amongst themselves. We also enjoyed meeting & talking with our server, Amy, from San Jose!

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Downtown Wellsboro.

Good espresso & breakfast food.

This filled me up til the late afternoon.

But obviously folks want lots of syrup choices to add to their coffee.

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A local family, who had previous experience in the food industry, opened ARISE this past year.

One learns a lot about a locale by perusing the classified ads.

Coal!! Who's still having coal delivered?!

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In pursuit of a maple syrup place that we finally found...

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...and Sticky Bucket Farms shop was not open. We got to drive though some beautiful Fall landscapes.

They had an unusal mailbox though.

And so did their neighbor.

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Pine Creek; a tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River.

Enroute to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.

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Pennsylvannia's Grand Canyon in Leonard Harrison State Park

The 1st of some exquisitely crafted woodwork features in our 800', one mile descent.

We missed the apex of the leaf color change. but could see through a lot of partially denuded trees to other scenery.

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We wanted to take some of this water back to Northern California.

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We would be going back up & needing to use these sweet built-in seats.

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But at the bottom it started to rain & those seats all got wet. Here I'm shielding the lens from raindrops.

So, lots of leaning as we caught our breath climbing back up.

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We did the red-marked hike.

This whole park system was a Federal CCC project. It has provided recreation & jobs for locals & brought in tourists, like us, to spend money here.

Yet so many folks here want less government & government spending & had up Oz signs or a toilet with a sign on it saying "Biden's Platform." Go figure...

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I didn't say affogato but requested a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a double espresso on top. I was waiting patiently & then noticed she was checking her phone.

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Returning to The Wellsboro House for another dinner.

The c. 1862 building was renovated & reopened in 2008.

Wellsboro was once a transportation hub. Until recently there was a 2-hour Tioga Central Railroad Scenic Tours. The c. 1914 train station is now holds the brewery for the Wellsboro House, across the street.

We reported to Amy about our hike down the Grand Canyon.

Such good pumpkin cheescake. Both dinners here were excellent.

$20 given to us by the Bear Meadow Lodge to spend in Wellsboro. What a great deal!

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View from the deck outside of our log cabin.

Our lodge cabin of interlocking logs like "LINCOLN LOGS...America's National Toy."

Departure. The KIA performed well.

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Gas lights.

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Gotcha! We guessed the truck was pulled over for not having lights on in this heavy fog.

We didn't stop.

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A good place to change drivers prior to the challenging entry to & navigation of the streets of N.Y.C. The Oct. 31st drive out of Brooklyn was across lower Manhattan & through the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey. It was harrowing especially when I almost killed an unhelmeted bicyclist who appeared out of nowhere on my left as I was attempting a left turn. We decided it would be better to return via the southern route, crossing the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge into southern Brooklyn. It was still a grueling drive.

And, made it to Brooklyn!

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We drove through neighborhoods neither of us had been in before.

Back on St. Marks Ave. after 5 hours. Phew!