Visit to Elk County, Pennsylvania

Wow, how time has flown! I have been negligent in getting a post written in the last month. I will make amends and try to do better.

We arrived back from our trip to Lancaster and Elk County in Pa last Wednesday evening, October 31. Yes, we were in Pa during Sandy's super storm. Luckily we left Lancaster with my husband's brother and his two daughters and husbands for Elk County in Western Pa on Saturday well before the storm. And once arriving there, we were greeted with large meadows of elk, eating grass, wandering around, or laying down. What a wonderful sight! We then retired to a beautiful lodge our relatives had reserved where we could our spend time together.

What was intriguing about this Benezette area is that it was where my husband's and his brother's grandparents and uncles and aunts had farmed. We drove past these old farm houses still completely intact as my husband would announce, "That's Aunt Ada's house; and that's grandma and grandpa's house." And so it went as they revisited their memories from their youth. Back in the 1970's and 80's, I remember visiting 'Aunt Ada' in her trailer (now gone), when this area was still farmed. Some time about the mid-80's this poor farmland was turned into park; 12 counties in northcentral and northern western regions of Pa have become the 'Pennsylvania Wilds.' It is now a tourist area for fishing, hunting, hiking, and indeed, viewing elk; where many hotels, campgrounds and lodges have sprung up. Our trip here was to view the elk.

The next morning the weather was more gloomy and cold as we drove to the Information Centre and the viewing area to see more elk - and 'see we did.' It seemed dozens and dozens of elk streamed down the meadow as the small crowd clicked their cameras. Soon the mist started and we left, though we did have more views of lone bull elks along the road. The next day, the rain came down hard, and by mid-afternoon, it was decided that we would drive into St. Mary's where my husband Byron and is brother Paul were raised.  The rest of the time was spent watching the weather channel as Sandy hammered the East Coast.

Luckily we did not loose power at the lodge. We watched on TV how the storm decimated coastal areas and cause a lot of damage to others including Lancaster, the city we left a couple days earlier.
The rain still fell lightly as we drove back to Lancaster on Tuesday viewing some damage along the way, but feeling lucky we didn't get stranded.