Squatch and Lisa's excellent adventure

June 6, 2015

Pennsylvania Mushrooms

      Today is D Day! That's Daddy day. We packed up at Uncle Charlie and Auntie Janice's for our trip to Montague New Jersey to spend a week with Papa Dawg and Joan his lady. As usual when we are on vacation we don't operate on a schedule. I was writing my blog until 2 am so I was out of bed at 8 am and sucking up the Joe. Uncle Charlie and Auntie Janice were off to get their hair cut and the lovely Lisa, who also went to bed at 2 am, was still sleeping. I turned on the TV and watched the news while I was reading another Clive Cussler novel. It was after 11 when Uncle Charlie and Auntie Janice came home all freshly coiffed and looking to make breakfast. While they were putting breakfast together the lovely Lisa made an appearance. All dressed and luggage in tow.

 It was a beautiful morning in Bridgewater New Jersey and we ate our breakfast on the front porch.

After we cleaned up the breakfast dishes we loaded the luggage into the car and just after noon we started the 1 1/2 hour drive up to George Child Park in Pennsylvania. When we got to the Pennsylvania state line there was a 2 lane bridge and a $1 toll to get into the state. That's pretty good because it costs $16 to get into New York city by car. There was no toll booth just a girl standing in the middle of the bridge collecting the money from the cars going in both directions. You don't have to pay to get out of New York the place is so full they're happy to see you take your car out.
      We asked for directions to the park and drove off in that general direction.

Uncle Charlie

Uncle Charlie spent a lot of summers in this place when he was a teenager. That was a long time ago and Uncle Charlie has a touch of the sometimers.

It was a pretty nice park with a well maintained trail and 8 different waterfalls.

We spent a couple of hours hanging out in the park and taking pictures. The weather was perfect. It was about 80 degrees and there was a light breeze blowing through the trees.

There were signs all over the place saying no rock climbing, no pets and no swimming.

These appeared to be more like suggestions rather than rules because everywhere we looked people were climbing on rocks, playing with there pets and swimming!

I didn't have my speedo with me so I stayed out of the water. It took a couple of hours to make our way around the loop that let you see all 8 waterfalls.
      When we left the park we drove the 8 miles to Milford Pennsylvania where we cruised the streets for no apparent reason. Not a lot going on in small town Pennsylvania. Milford seems to be made up entirely of restaurants, antique shops and places that sell fireworks. Now this is weird. It's legal to sell fireworks in Pennsylvania but not to a resident of Pennsylvania. You must produce an out of state drivers licence in order to buy them. It's illegal to set them off in Pennsylvania! While in New York and New Jersey it's legal to set them off but illegal to sell them.
      From Milford we made our way to Joan's house in Montague New Jersey. There was a toll booth on the New Jersey state line but you only have to pay to get out ! We arrived at Joan's about 5 and after hugs and hellos we made our way into the house to catch up before we make our way to Matamoris Pennsylvania for our 6:30 dinner reservation. It's only about 15 minutes away but to get there we have to drive from New Jersey through New York and across the bridge to Matamoris on the other side of the Delaware river. We were in 3 states in 15 minutes. When we pulled up to the Two Rivers Inn the place was packed. That`s always a good sign. It didn`t help that because there was 6 of us we had to take 2 cars. Parking was a bitch!  We ended up around the corner from the restaurant while the lovely Lisa did her parking prayer and it worked. She was parked right beside the front doors. Here`s the prayer in case you ever need a parking space.
Mother Mary full of grace
Help me find a parking space.
 I have my own prayer but all it ever gets me is strange looks from everyone else in the car.
Sister Grace love your face
love you in your nightie
When the moonlight flits across your tits
Jesus Christ almighty
I don`t know why I do it, it has never worked!
      After a short wait we were seated at our table and ordered our drinks. Coffee for me. Uncle Charlie and Papa Dawg had finished off a bottle of wine at the house and Uncle Charlie had to drive back to Bridgewater tonight so he wasn`t drinking anything else. This place has a very nice menu and we took our time deciding what we were having.

The lovely Lisa, Joan and Auntie Janice shared a couple of appies. Peaches wrapped in Prosciutto and tomato and mozzarella in a balsamic reduction.

Auntie Janice, the lovely Lisa and Joan

Uncle Charlie had a Cesar salad as a starter, I had a crock of Chilli and Papa Dawg had wine. I had a blue Cheese Burger and the lovely Lisa had Risotto. Papa Dawg had ribs that were excellent. I got to try them because he`s old and doesn`t eat much. Most of his meal was packed up to go. I`ll have ribs and eggs for breakfast. Yum! Near the end of the meal Auntie Janice got a call from her son Squidly who has been working for 6 weeks in Italy for the European Space Agency. His flight was cancelled and he is supposed to be in California by Monday to start his summer job at  NASA. Squidly is one smart cookie. He was having no luck at all dealing with the airlines so Auntie Janice got on the phone and an hour later Squidly had a flight that would get him back to California only a day late. Uncle Charlie and Auntie Janice headed back down to Bridgewater while the lovely Lisa and Joan talked and Papa Dawg and I played a little guitar.

Papa Dawg and the lovely Lisa went through the family pictures that I have on my computer trying to identify who the people in the pictures are. The pictures have been hidden for years and were only discovered last year when we visited.

      About midnight Joan and the lovely Lisa went to bed. Papa Dawg and I stayed up me trying to write my blog and Papa Dawg drinking wine and preventing me from doing that by asking me deep philosophical questions that have no answers. At 2:30 I told him to go to bed and in only 15 short minutes he toddled off to bed. Now it`s 3:45 and I still need to add pictures to today`s post.

That`s all I`ve got
Till next time
peace out Y'all