Aerie Report, October 11, 2009

Terry came home yesterday from her travels to Indianapolis and Pittsburgh for the SAGA and EGA conventions. She came home with a much emptier Jeep. Boxes of magazines and other stuff belonging to SAGA went with her and stayed in Indianapolis or was sold to convention participants.

She had a great time at both conventions and passed the presidential gavel to the next in line. She says the feeling of relief was palpable. Currently, she has no official position in any capacity in the Smocking Arts Guild of America, not so in the Embroiderers' Guild of America. She's been asked to become the president of one of the local chapters (Treasured Stitchery) in December and is another chapter's (Corning) representative to the mid-east region for which she will become secretary next April. And to think, one of her cabinet asked her in Indianapolis if, now that she is no longer national president, she would be bored!

On a side note, she reports the Jeep Compass was exceptionally comfortable and got around 28 mpg when it was carrying a load of magazines and scissors. Once those were gone, it improved to 30+ mpg.

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It was just 39 degrees at the Aerie this morning when we got up. Terry says she saw frost in the valley when she went to church. There's not much of a breeze blowing and the sky is mostly clear. The weather quacks say we are in for a very cold night and the temperatures may even drop into the 20s by Monday morning.

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We took a ride this afternoon out west of Wellsboro for lunch and then to PA's Grand Canyon at Leonard Harris SP for a little leaf peeping.

My Lord! The park was packed! I guess we should have expected it. After all, it's a three day weekend, the weather is great--if chilly, and the leave color is closing in on the absolute peak.

We managed to find a parking space for the Tundra and walked in to the observation area. There were tables selling maple products (fried dough, ice cream, syrup, etc.) and hot dogs and hamburgers (a Girl Scout fund raiser) set up on either side of the entry.

The Pine Creek Gorge (The Grand Canyon of PA) looking north
from the observation area at Leonard Harris SP

I was a little disappointed with the colors. Many trees down in the gorge had already lost their leaves in the winds and heavy rains last week and the pines and hemlocks are so abundant that there was an awful lot of green still present on the hills.

The view west from the observation area.

Perhaps I was disappointed because on the way over, we had seen some hills with much more color. Heck, those hills I can view from the Aerie's deck seem to have more color.

The view to the west from the Aerie's deck.

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We got back to the Aerie around 3:30 PM and I tuned in the Giants vs Oakland football game--if you can call a 44-7 shellacking a game. Eli played less than one half and left having helped the G-men put 28 points on the board and to a 5-0 record. It's good to see he was able to play with the bad foot. But then again, it was Oakland.

I was also able to pick up the end of the Dallas vs KC game. It was 13-13 when I tuned in but then it was 20-13 Dallas with just 2:12 left. Then 20-20 with just seconds on the clock. In OT it went back and forth until some guy named Miles Austin made a catch on the sidelines and sprinted 60 yards for a Dallas TD. (Heck of a name for a WR playing for Dallas, BTW...Miles Austin.) Austin had 10 catches for 250 yards. Not a bad afternoon. But I was hoping the Chiefs could have pulled this one out.