Pennsylvania & Daly Wedding

Hi Blog Readers – from Pennsylvania. Today we are in Harrisburg, where we are parked on the rented lot of Boomer friends George and Diana Reulens. Here are our 2 rigs:

We arrived yesterday afternoon and certainly picked a good time to get here because Diana was cooking a delicious chicken dinner for some local friends

and we snuck in on it. Today George is helping us with some of our rig problems, especially our electrical cord difficulties resulting from that horrific storm which hit us when we were in Waynesboro, VA on June 29. The electrical storm must have sent a big surge through our electrical cord, and our surge protector did its job and got fried while protecting our inside appliances. Also, the ends of our electrical cord got damaged as well. So today George is replacing those. George & Diana’s daughters live near here, and also George has a really sweet job driving an education RV, so they are staying here until Nov. They recently purchased this new Mountain Aire RV after living on a boat in the Keys for 4 years. Boomers – good news: in Nov. they will be heading back to the West to start attending Boomer events again! Of course, the reason we were in PA was to attend Elaine’s nephew Chris’ wedding to Danielle Martin, which happened on Saturday evening at Liberty Mountain Ski Resort outside of Gettysburg. Prior to that, we drove to Lancaster, and enjoyed the 4th of July celebrations with Elaine’s niece, Denice Petersen, and her family, and also Chris & Danielle, plus Elaine’s sister, Georgeanne & her husband, Dennis. We had to park at the WalMart because there was no other large place to put our rig. Because this is Amish country, we were entertained by some of their horse and buggies trotting through the parking lot on their way to the special tie up area set aside for them:

One of the days we were there, we all went to a swim meet for Kayla, Denise’s youngest daughter. Here is a picture of Kayla and Denice at the meet:

And, as you might know, there is lots of sitting around at swim meets while waiting for the next event, so here we are with Georgeanne and Dennis, sitting under the trees:

On the 4th of July another of Elaine’s nephew’s arrived, David, with his wife, Carrie and their 4 children between ages 4 and 11. There was lots of chaos and visiting going on as well as good eats, but I didn’t get any good pictures. Thanks Denise & Steve, for all your hospitality!! July 5 we drove to Orrtanna, PA, which is a very small village about 10 miles outside of Gettysburg. Our cruise friends, Gerry and Karen Deighton, have a lovely home here called Two Creeks Lodge, because it is on a large island with 2 creeks running past it.

They have about 50 acres but most of them are wooded, so we parked in front of their garage, out by the road.

Luckily, this area is so remote that only about 3 cars go by each day. They have a shaded and cool deck running around 2 sides of the back, so we immediately had a delightful Happy Hour with them out there, catching up on their events since the last time we visited 3 years ago:

Gerry is a gourmet cook and he fixed several delicious meals for us, as well as a farewell breakfast the day we left. On Friday evening we went up to the local winery, Hauser, for a live band and some wine tasting of 4 of their new red wines which they had just released. The wines were good, but very expensive. The band was good but very loud. Here we are at the winery

and here we are on the deck at Two Creeks Lodge, enjoying one of Gerry’s meals:

Thanks Gerry and Karen for a wonderful visit!! Saturday we joined the entire Daly family, and many of Chris and Danielle’s friends, at their sumptuous wedding at Liberty Mountain Ski Resort. It was held in the Boulder Ridge lodge, which has lots of large windows. The light coming in kind of messed up a lot of my pictures. Chris is the last of Georgeanne and Dennis’ 6 kids to get married – he is 41. Here he is, escorting his Mom in with his Dad following:

And here is the newly married couple, Danielle & Chris:

Chris’ only sister, Denise, was Danielle’s matron of honor, and Chris’ youngest brother, David, was his best man:

We were seated at a table with Georgeanne and Dennis,

and Dennis’ twin sister Dotty (on the left), and her friend, Pat.

This wedding was a great chance to see some of Elaine’s relatives that we hadn’t seen for years. We have often visited Elaine’s nephew, Jerry Traugher, and his wife, Lori, in foreign places they have lived because he is a Colonel in the Air Force. Here they are, looking quite spiffy :

and here are their kids, Mitch & Maddie.

Wow, have they changed a lot since we last saw them! Mitch will be starting high school, and Maddie starting middle school in the fall. Elaine has 5 older sisters. Other than Georgeanne, the mother of the groom, the only other sister that came was Thomasine. Here she is with her husband, Frank, and their two adult children, Eddie and Kathy:

Denise & Steve Petersen & their 3 were our hosts in Lancaster over the 4th of July:

Sean Daly, brother of the groom, his wife Stephanie, and their 2 girls:

Tom Daly, oldest brother of the groom, his wife Lana, and their 3:

Randy Daly, brother of the groom, his wife Donna, and their 3 kids:

David Daly, the youngest brother, his wife Carrie, and their 4 munchkins:

Instead of having a big wedding cake, Chris and Danielle had a small one which they used for the cutting ceremony. Then they had a 3 tiered serving platter filled with mini-cupcakes of 3 different flavors, so people could just go up and get a cupcake instead of a piece of cake. Here is Maddie and the cupcake tier:

Once the cake was served, a DJ started playing dancing music and we have never been anywhere that beat out this crowd with regard to dancing. Immediately, about 75% of the people at the wedding, including most of the kids and their parents and grandparents, jumped up and were on the dance floor. And they were still going strong when we left about 3 hours later!!! It was so fantastic to see the strong bonds of the Daly family, in all generations. For example, many of the cousins were dancing together in a small circle; Denise and Steve and their 3 kids were all dancing in a group, and their kids range in age from 21 to 12. David & Carrie’s kids were right out there dancing with everyone including their grandparents. And of course, Dani & Chris’ friends in their age group (20’s & 30’s) were dancing up a storm. Overall, it was a very enjoyable evening and we hope Chris and Danielle enjoyed it as much as all their guests!!!

Now that the weather has cooled off some, we are enjoying it here more. We will probably stay until Thursday morning and then start heading north again, to Vermont. Some Boomer and RV friends, Larry & Joyce Space, have a cabin on a lake in Vermont where they usually summer, and although we have been with them RVing in many states, and all the way to Panama, we have never seen their place – so the weekend will find us there. After that, more wandering in New England with Maine being the furthest point on this RV odyssey. Elaine heard yesterday that lobster is $4/pound (could this be true??!!) so she is on a quest. There will be no menu planning once we get to Maine: lobster and salad every dinner……