Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to Mars - Friday, 4 August 2017

For some reason we were up earlier than the alarm this morning. Got everything organized, packed for the car, and off to breakfast. 

Today's sessions were presented by Sydney Dixon, Amy Arner, and Sue Long. Sydney covered the Delaware River resources, Amy Western PA, and Sue Chester County. All were very well done.

I picked up my certificate and headed out the door at 12:45. Missed the group picture, but we had tickets to the Pirates game.

Arrived in PIT by 6:15 and got to PNC Park before the rain. Had a 2 hour weather delay so that the teams could sit and wait for the rain to come. When it did, it was heavy and accompanied by lightning. It was a long game, but one that the Pirates came from behind to create and exciting finish. 

Then there was the Chicago Concert. It started about 1 a.m. and ran for about an hour and 10 minutes. 

We finally got home about 2:45 and by the time we unpacked, it was 3:30. 

BED!


P.S. It was a great week, but am really glad to be home for a while to catch up on some of my "stuff."

Philadelphia - Thursday, 3 August 2017

Breakfast as usual in the hotel. The CinnaBons make the breakfasts palatable here. Otherwise, nothing to get excited over. Even the hard-boiled eggs seem to have little taste. 

It was Land Day at RIFPA. I realize that I need much more experience in reading very old deeds and platting land. The two presentations by Jerry Smith were SO very good. I gained quite a bit of confidence in my skills and that was a good thing. He started out very elementary and then allowed us to practice what he had demonstrated. 

Aaron McWilliams, an archivist at the PA Archives in Harrisburg also did a great presentation on the process of finding land records in the Archives. I find going to the Archives intimidating, but he was so good that in the future I won't hesitate. 

Worked a bit through lunch searching the Discover Catalog for collateral lines. I am at a loss for George sightings and think that I am going to try to tell the story of Sarah who traveled to Canada. The Ashbridge Book has a fairly good account, but really lacks the documentation to the extent that I am comfortable. 

The afternoon presentation by Aaron McWilliams was researching the American Revolution in PA. The resources that he cited could prove useful in the future for client work and for the Ashbridge clan. 

Frank Southcott did a very hurried presentation on summing up everything we learned this past week. 

Amy Arner arrived and we chatted before she checked out the technology for her Friday presentation. 

Back to the hotel before dinner. 

Earle had quite a productive day at the Chester County Archives and brought back copies of deeds and executions that will need to be logged and transcribed. 

Dinner reservations were made at Little Nonna's for 7:15. We had a wonderful dinner of a Caesar salad, spaghetti and meatballs for me and pasta carbonara for Earle. 

Then Amy Arner, Earle, and I walked around the block til we found a Capogiro Artisan Gelato  It was the perfect ending to our dinner. 

Back to the hotel to pack and listen to the Pirates crush the Reds 6-0!

Philadelphia - Wednesday, 2 August 2017

Had a nice breakfast with MaryLu. She is a Mac user and we talked about programs and software and genealogy, She also sits next to me in class and it’s been fun getting to know her. 

Today was religion day at Researching Family in Pennsylvania. First it was the German Church records with james Beidler. He did a good job of covering the basics. Then the Moravians, a religious group about which I knew very little. I am very interested in taking the course at Moravia College in German script. It sounds intensive, but worth it. 

The last presentation of the morning was by David Koch, archivist at the Presbyterian Historical Society. He did a good job of covering the material, but read from his notes. I am not sure if was uncomfortable speaking or if he didn’t have command of the material.  He actually finished early and we got out for lunch early. But that meant we needed to be back early and that impacted my lunch with Anne.

Anne is a church historian in Philadelphia and worked on the Charle Brown project with me. We had arranged to meet for lunch to discuss anything new on the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament records and to talk about collaborating on an article. We walked down Locust Street to Hummusology,  a little restaurant with seats that overlook their garden of fresh vegetables. I had a roasted vegetable hummus and it was delicious. 

Just as we were about to leave the clouds opened and we did a very fast walk to the HSP where my umbrella was safely stored! We vowed to keep in touch and share some records with each other. 

The afternoon sessions began with one Quaker records. I was quite interested in this, and really wanted more of a history of Quakers in PA since that’s where my brick wall George is. The final lecture was on African Americans in PA. Again, a lot of good material, but verbatim reading of a script with very poor resolution of slides. 

At 5 went down to the reading room for a couple of hours to request a few manuscripts and letters. While I was waiting for them to be delivered, I browsed through some Quaker Meeting records. Gathered a few dates for some of George’s children and grandchildren, but nothing about him. 

Back to the hotel to meet Earle and head out for dinner. It was about a 15 minute walk to Monk’s Cafe, a Belgium Beer and Mussels place. Just delicious and it hit the spot.

Back to the hotel to charge all the electronics, fill out evaluation forms, and blog. Earle headed down the street for gelato.

Another loss for the Bucs. Why can’t they beat the Reds? 

Philadelphia - Tuesday, 1 August 2017

I was tired last night so didn’t make it to midnight to post “Rabbit Rabbit.”  I was reminded by a former student, when I awoke and checked Facebook. Thanks, Mike.

Didn’t have to get up so early this morning which was nice. A real luxury when traveling. 

Breakfast and the short walk to HSP. Such a treat this morning to hear Judy Russell do 2 sessions on Pennsylvania law. She takes what could be a boring and complicated subject and makes it come alive. Love to hear her speak. 

After Judy we had a presentation on 18th Century Taxes by Kimberly Bucklaw, archivist at the Chester County Archives. She did a wonderful job showing how to create a timeline with data gleaned from tax records. Her handouts were beautifully done and easy to understand. 

Then lunch with a couple of classmates before doing some research in the online catalog. 

After lunch we heard Kimberly work through a case study using city directories and census records. 

Had a couple of hours then to go through some of the card catalog records for manuscripts and letters. Have a list of items to retrieve tomorrow. 

Met Earle back at the room and then we headed to the old city for a walk with Benjamin Franklin. It really looked like rain and we felt a couple of drops before the walk began. But we made it through as we took a 2 mile walk around Franklin’s sites. 

Ben in front of Carpenter's Hall  - the real birth place of the United States

2nd National Bank

Pennsylvania State House - aka Independence Hall

Ben's Grave

Betsy Ross House

We ended at the Monaco hotel and decided to grab a bite to eat and something very cold to drink. The humidity had really been oppressive. So a couple of beers and hamburgers hit the spot. 

A really great evening and Uber back to the hotel, listened to the last inning of the horrible Pirates game, and bed.

Philadelphia - Monday, 31 July 2017

The day started with breakfast at the HIE and then a short walk to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP),  

A little meet and greet and then welcome by Frank Southcott and Sydney Dixon from the Philadelphia APG.

Morning presentations were on the Politics of War in Early Pennsylvania by Patrick Spero, 2 presentation s by Sydney Dixon on records, repositories, and websites to use when researching PA records. 

Then a break for lunch. Headed a couple of blocks down the street to Lil Nano’s. Cute little Italian place with huge portions. Had a sandwich that came with a side salad. Ate half and brought the other half back to the HSP and stashed into the fridge for tomorrow’s lunch. 

The afternoon sessions concentrated on the records, arrangement, and tour of the HSP. It is a repository that is teeming with information. The arrangement, however is quite confusing, with so many places to look to access the information. There have to be at least 4 different cataloging systems in play. 

There was a nice reception at the end of the day with some wine and nice hors d’oeuvres. Earle met me there and we had some nice conversation with some of the other attendees and their spouses. 

Back to the hotel to drop off the bags and then to dinner at Moriarity’s.

It was an Irish Pub type restaurant with an eclectic menu. Earle had a Shepherd’s pie and a Guiness. I had the largest portion of chicken wings ever and a Smithwick’s. When I asked the waitress how many wings came in an order, she said 8. Ok, that’s doable. When they arrived, there were 10 WHOLE wings. Needless to say about 2/3 came back to the room with us. 

Internet funky, so trying to load pictures. 

To bed.

Mars to Philadelphia - Sunday, 30 July 2017

Back on the road again. This time it's to Philly for a week long course at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. You can never learn enough.

We decided to do a bit of sightseeing before checking into our hotel and had booked tickets at the new Museum of the American Revolution at 3:00. So we left the house about 8:45 and headed on our way, figuring we built in enough time for a rest stop and then to get a small bite to eat before. Just outside Philly the TomTom announces that there was a 37 minute delay. Oy! We opted for the faster route that took us winding through Fairmont Park. It did shave off about 20 minutes from the delay. But, oh, what traffic. Not sure I would ever drive in this city. 

Parked the car and grabbed a sandwich at Costi, nearly across from the museum. 

What a surprise to find Marguerite Brooks Lenfest’s name on the building. She and her husband are incredible philanthropists and have given to so many organizations. Marguerite, Wilson ’55, has been a leader in giving to my alma mater. The museum was dedicated to them.

The museum, according to its web site, was supposed to be open until 7. However, when we got there the brochure said 6. More about that later.  Our first plan was to see the introductory movie. The museum is very well done and emphasizes not only the underlying reasons for the revolution, but the idea of equality for all men and women. 

There are movies interspersed with the exhibits and murals. One of the highlights was a film on Washington’s Tent. It explained how Washington used it as his headquarters and then at the end, the actual tent was revealed. Although the visitors were asked not to take photos because of the fragility of the ten, there were some who just couldn’t resist getting that phone out. One of the other objects on display was Washington’s portmanteau. It looked to be in good shape for being so old. 

Washington's portmanteau

The role of women was a theme in the museum and how they held down the homefront, mounted a protest against buying British goods, and communicating their beliefs in the written word. 

Mercy Otis Warren, a political writer during the American Revolution 

OK, I really learned something about which I had wondered about since my youth. Think of the words of Yankee Doodle Dandy. "stuck a feather in his cap and called him macaroni" No, it's not pasta, but reference to a well appointed male - macarony.

Macarony!

I registered my displeasure at the inaccuracy of the website and how we didn’t get through the entire museum. The desk agents did apologize and gave us VIP passes that were good for a year. At least Earle gets to go back tomorrow since the admission covers 2 days. 

Just a short drive to the hotel and check in. The Holiday Inn Express is not that impressive, but it will do for the week for as long as we are in it. The WiFi is the speed of dial-up however, so should be a real challenge if we have work to do at night. Did get in to catch the last inning of the Bucs 7-1 win over the Padres. Wow, what a day Cutch had. 

Decided to do a trial run to the HSP before finding a place to eat. It’s just about a 5 minute walk, so don’t have to allow a whole lot of time in the morning. 

We opted to eat at Jose Pistola's, on Rich Venezia’s recommendation. Margarita and tacos for me and a quesadilla and beer for Earle.  Good recommendation!

Back to the hotel and organized for tomorrow, bit of blog writing and bed.  

Louisville - Thursday, 13 July 2017

A really good night sleep, finally! Got up, finished putting stuff in the suitcase and packing up some of the electronics. 

Then before breakfast finished downloading Barbara's pictures from the trip. I do have my work cut out for me in merging and culling. 

Left about 10:30. It has been so much fun spending nearly 4 weeks with such good friends. 

Had to detour around Cincinnati because they were working on the bridge across the Ohio River. All was well with the weather until we hit Xenia and then the skies opened. The Tom Tom picked up on a lot of heavy traffic around Reynoldsburg so we got off and reentered the highway to avoid the mess. It was amazing to see how much rain had fallen with many yards and businesses flooded. 

It rained off and on until we hit Washington, PA. Finally home about 6:00. 

Good to be home, unpacked and ready to do laundry tomorrow. 


Until later......

Louisville - Wednesday, 12 July 2017

It was a bit laid back this morning until we saw how Charles fared after his surgery. But he was fine and not in any pain, so off we took about 11:45.

Our plan was to head to Lexington to tour the Mary Todd Lincoln childhood home. Since we had had a very light breakfast, we were going to stop at someplace to grab a bite to eat first. Then it was to be on to the Joseph Beth Bookstore before heading to The Beaumont Inn where we had 7:00 reservations. 

Barbara and Charles really liked Alfalfa so we stopped there. It was a really neat place with good organic and local foods. The menu had sandwiches and burgers, but I decided that an omelet would be less filling.

With the bill paid, and restrooms visited we walked back to the parking garage and headed to the Todd House. But, the best laid plans were not to be and even though the house was said to be open until 4:00, the last tour was at 3 and we had just missed it. 

Replan - None of us had been to Ashland, home of Henry Clay, so off we went. It really was a fortuitous decision. We had a wonderful tour with so much information by Jon Mansfield, a former history teacher. We decided that his students would have been very fortunate. Other than being the The Great Compromiser, I really knew very little about Clay and how political he really was. 

The tour lasted a bit over an hour so we passed on Joseph Beth and headed to Harrodsburg.

The four of us had been to The Beaumont Inn probably 43 years ago and remember it as a wonderful place to eat. At that time the chicken and country ham were "all you can eat" and the sweet lady in the dining room had to keep bringing more to the two young gentlemen. She finally remarked, "haven't you boys had enough yet?"  It was just as elegant as we remembered. 

We started with some of the best fried green tomatoes followed by The Classic Beaumont Inn Dinner - fried chicken, country ham, corn pudding and seasoned green beans. 

One of the best things of going on Wednesday was that all the wine was half off. We chose a really good one. 

Full, (some of us brought some home) we headed back to Louisville. We had a full day and headed off to bed a bit earlier than usual. 

Louisville - Tuesday, 11 July 2017

Real short post today. Charles had to have some minor surgery so he was out of the house by 5:15. Of course we all knew he was leaving because the car alarm went off. Slept a bit longer so I think we are on the road to overcoming the dreaded jet lag. 

Had breakfast after Charles got back home about 10. We spent some down time just chatting before we left to go to visit my cousin, Joan and her daughter, Karen. Picked up lunch at Mussels and Burgers. Had a really good visit. Family is so important and this was a great chance to sit and talk. There are few descendants of Gottfried and Wilhelmina Stoehr. Karen found a bunch old photos and I brought them to scan for our family book. 

Back to the Alexander's and worked on the blog and pictures before Mark stopped by. So good to see him and the man he has become. Where did the years go? 

Pizza and the All Star game rounded out the day. 

Louisville - Monday, 10 July 2017

Had a good night's sleep, but still seems like I am on Paris time with waking early.

Breakfast and everything and everyone cleaned up to leave on our adventures for the day.

First stop was the Woodford Reserve Distillery. We were able to get on the 12:00 tour. It was very interesting with so much information imparted about the distillery and process of making bourbon and rye. One of the biggest factors is the Kentucky water that is iron free and just the right composition of lime to influence the taste of the bourbon. 

We visited all the areas of distilling from fermentation to storing to bottling. 

Tracks for rolling the barrels

Of course, then we had to do a little tasting. Woodford Reserve, Double Oaked, and Rye with a Bourbon Ball thrown in for good measure.

It was then to Wallace Station for lunch. We enjoyed some al Fresco "dining."

From there it was to Weissenberger Mills after a bit of a detour because of a bridge closing. Barbara stocked up on grits and and bread mixes. 

And then it was on to Rebecca Ruth Candy in Frankfort. After a brief tour and another bourbon ball, we headed on back to Simpsonville.

Shopped at the Outlet Shoppes of the Bluegrass. Went to the evil Vera Bradley store and picked up a bag for half price. Then to Ditto's in the Highlands for dinner. Chicken wings and a salad for me. 

Back to Barbara and Charles' to watch the end of the home run derby before bed.