Dave Reese

Thanks, I just printed out 14 pages on Albuquerque as we head out there this week. We will be visiting our son who has recently been stationed there with the Air Force and plan a few day trips besides Sante Fe and the Unser Museum trips that have been on the board for a while. Thanks for all the input I received earlier on this.

The Lehigh Valley has made it down to just under $2.50 as the best prices, but most are still between $2.50 and $2.60. But that is almost a 10 cent drop this week. So road trips should be good right now...

Thanks Becky, The package arrived in great condition. I am looking forward to a few free hours to watch these on one of the new basement toys: the 50" plasma HD TV. When I am not out on the road, I am playing in the basement.

Looks like a site that the National Trust should have on their 11 most endangered list...

Great story... Reminds me of the newspaper article we found when cleaning out my father-in-laws house. We now have it framed in our family room. It is about a Patricia Cherrington being arrested and imprisoned for assisting her boyfriend, John Dillinger. My father-in-law is James Cherrington. I have to learn more about the relationship to my wife by doing a bit more research, but it does add a spark of fun in the family room. And she is probably more of a relative than I am to Pee Wee Reese, although I do have his autographed photo on the same wall because my dad had me convinced that he was Uncle Pee Wee as a child. I know this is off topic, but I figured that was okay on a holiday.

Looks very entertaining...I have added it to my wish list of reading. Thanks for the "heads up".

Happy 39th Alex!!!

Colorado, Since I don't ski, February this past year was my least favorite time to visit. I had trouble working my camera in the Garden of the Gods when the actual temperature was 14 and it was windy. I did not even try to find out the wind chill equivalent. But we have had some of our favorite visits around April. The ski crowds are gone, and tourist season has not begun. We were once able to take the first cog railroad ride to Pikes Peak for the year, when there were areas where the snow was higher than the train windows. No need for a reservation for dinner at the Cliff House, you could take the first tour when you arrived at the Cave of the Winds, and my Garden of the Gods photos were not filled with other people. In Denver, I have enjoyed shirt sleeve weather on the 16th Street Mall in January, and have really enjoyed all the seasons. Breckenridge around Labor Day had arts festivals, and Denver had their festival on the Capitol grounds as well. Just avoid the Springs around USAFA Parents Weekend or Graduation Weekend as room rates do go up. But during Graduation week you get to see the Thunderbirds practice. What a great feeling sitting at an outside table at Sonic and having them fly over in perfect formation.

My Mom's parents took her to all 48 states by the time she finished college in '39, and by then she had even been to Alaska. I always marvelled that they had travel the roads of US before the Interstates and the PA Turnpike I grew up with, so I have lately developed a deeper desire to travel the old 2 lanes. As a child we did the East Coast as a family from Maine to Florida (but not all in the same trip being in PA) so I enjoyed car vacations, then about 10 year (and one wife) ago I traveled a section of Route 66 in Northern Arizona, and I was hooked. Now, when we have the time, we take the two lanes from point to point, and leave the Interstates to the 18 wheeler good buddies. This group has made the trips even more fun as I have new locations to visit earmarked before we hit the road.

Great news! I knew that I had corresponded with Alex a couple of times, so it was my longshot guess. It is always worth taking a shot at it. I would love to receive the National Parks Set as I already have Questar's Scenic Routes and Historic Trails sets in my DVD library. Not nearly as good as being there, but a fun start. Contact me directly with any instructions of what I need to do to claim my prize. Wow... What a great way to survive a gloomy day at home...

I was not around for a number of the years so I may be way off, but I will guess Alex Burr...

I have added a few photos from Hemmings and one of the downtown at Keene NH in the Reese's Pieces photo gallery...

Congratulations. Thanks to Brian Atkinson of this group, Peg and I drove from Jackson Hole WY to Logan UT on route 89 this past April. A beautiful stretch of scenic highway. My favorite view was looking north to Bear Lake. Try it, you'll like it!

Now, that is important and exciting news. Thanks for sharing that link. I will have to add that to my list of sites that Must Be Visited...

Last week I was heading up to my sister-in-laws birthday celebration in Keene NH. We traveled up the east side of the Hudson by taking two lanes from the intersection of I-78 and I-287. We headed up 206 to various versions of 9 through Hyde Park and Reinbeck along the eastern bank of the Hudson, then cut over state routes 9 and 7 to Bennington. We stopped at Hemmings Sunoco and Car Display around 4:30 pm on Friday. They have Full Serve Sunoco for less than any of the self serve stations in the area. The receptionist informed us that the Free Car Display closes at 3:00 pm but she would call upstairs. In less than five minutes Rick, on of the car maintenance team, was taking my wife Peg and me on a private four of the collection. He said he would take our photo sitting in any of the cars, but when I went to take my first photo, I discovered that my digital cameras memory cards were both still at home in the card reader. Ouch!! But we had a great time visiting the display and looking at the 20 some cars and the collection of automotive collectibles, and then went to the gift shop to purchase a few more toys for my collection. We had a great time visiting the wonderful downtowns of Brattleboro VT and Keene NH on Saturday before the birthday celebration. And on Sunday we went up route 5 to route 103 to visit the Vermont Country Store. It was fun taste testing some of the items in the food section, and after the purchase of a Moxie T-shirt (my favorite soft drink) and a copy of the Park & Shop game (based on Allentown's Park & Shop system), we headed back down VT 5 to Brattleboro. On the way we stopped at Curtis' Ribs in Putney. Curtis was working the grill next to the two blue school buses which serve as his base of operations. Peg and I each had chicken and roasted corn on the cob. While I opted for the baked potato, Peg thoroughly enjoyed her smashed yams. On our return to PA on Monday, I stopped back at Hemmings for a few photo ops with a newly purchased CompactFlash card in my camera. We also visited the Bennington Pottery outlet while heading back east on state route 7, and later picked up 9W down the western side of the Hudson. We enjoyed a cute little deli for lunch in Saugerties. Later we finished our jaunt over US 6 and 209 till we hit state 33 back to home. A fun weekend jaunt with very few limited access miles. It was so relaxing and entertaining. Now I need to check the new photo card to see if it worked. There may be a few more photos in my gallery soon.

Rita, I have spent many hours in the Tattered Cover and just love that store. I was even able to hear an author there one evening discussing Lewis and Clark after he had re-enacted their exploration voyage. His slide show was very informative. You must get back to see the rest of the history museum. It has some marvelous dioramas of the development of Denver. Also, the State Capitol tour is very interesting and worth the time if you get a chance. Plus, Coors Field is a relaxing venue for a Major League game when the Rockies are in town. If you are at the 16th Street Mall, it is an easy walk through LoDo to the stadium, and their are parking lots near by that are very reasonable. I still wish Philly could have found a downtown site for Citizen's Bank Park. I would go down to more Phillies games if it tied in better with visits to Reading Terminal Market... Thanks for sharing your exciting trip...

I remember loving going to Roadside America between Allentown and Harrisburg on US22. I-78 runs right by so I frequently pass the building, but I have not stopped for years. The last time I visited it seemed very dated and dusty, but it sure was an iconic place to visit back in the 50's. They do have a web site at http://www.roadsideamericainc.com/ . It is still an amazing piece of work, and worth a visit if you are ever in the area. I am sure that there are other miniature villages around the US to visit. I know that Model Railroader has done articles on a newer and much larger such display, such as the one in Hamburg Germany. Their website is at http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ . It is still a planned future site to visit.

Since I started this thread before many transferred over to the new forum, I just wanted to see if anyone else had a suggestion of things to do around Albuquerque. All suggestions will be appreciated...

Jay, Up here in the Lehigh Valley you can take 611 along the Delaware, or take 100 or 29 north of Pottstown. There are a lot of cool roads for motorcycles that run through the area from Emmaus and Macungie through to Kutztown and up to New Tripoli. You can come back down on 309 to 100 and go back to Macungie for a nice loop as well.

I remember a couple of local ones: First, in downtown Allentown there was a major department store at Ninth and Hamilton Streets. Hess Brothers, and later Hess's had a fantastic restaurant in the basement of the flagship store which featured live fashion shows with models walking between the tables, and kid's meals delivered in toy oven and served to the table from the oven. One of the specialty items was strawberry pie which was more than a meal itself. Kid's were able to get the clown sundae with an ice cream cone hat. I remember standing in line a number of times and even as a kid, 30 minutes was not too long to wait for the special meal. Another favorite in the Lehigh Valley was Shankweilers at the intersection of Old US 22 and PA 100. It was a stately old home with a country look and specialized in the PA Dutch feature of Chicken and Waffles. It now is a branch of a local bank. What a loss. My favorite hobby shop used to be next door, but Don Mohr's Hobbyland is long gone as well. I ate many a meal Howard Johnson's, especially on the PA Turnpike when all the quaint stone rest areas featured HoJo's and my favorite french fried clams. And my favorite as a child when going to any big city was the Automat where I could put my coins in a slot and open the glass door for my sandwich and desert. What a great way to eat when on a school bus trip. There were many more favorite local diners, but they were all similar. The most memorable was when the old Thomas' Diner on Tilghman Street (old 22) in Allentown became the Blue Moon Diner, and had a 57 Chevy mounted on the roof. They brought back the diner specialties of meat loaf, mac and cheese, BLT, real mashed potatoes and real milk shakes. I still miss that one a lot.