Congratulations Phillies!

Today hubby went to the parade celebrating the Phillies victory over the Tampa Bay Jays for the World Series Championship. He said his walk from work to the Broad Street was like a walk in a "sea of red". He described a huge police presence at the parade: police in cars, on bicycle, on motorcycle and police on horseback. Maybe that's why, reportedly, the crowd was well-behaved.

I remember back in 1980 when the Phillies beat Kansas City. Yes, it's true. I don't watch a heck of a lot of baseball, but when it comes down to these seven-game series for the championships, I can't stay away from it. It is great fun and great for knitting by!

Some Serious Pumpkin Carving

This year the girls really got into carving pumpkins.   T was quick to announce "I'm making mine scary, boo!"  However, A was not so sure about the whole thing.  She told Gram that she was afraid of witches and Mommy knew it.  So, Mommy never told her stories about witches or showed her pictures of witches.

Five Spares, Zero Flats

Would you sit in a car four hours out and four hours back in a day to ride your back thirty-two miles?  On Sunday my two brothers, sister, nephew and I rode our bikes from Meyersdale, PA to Cumberland, MD along the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP).  This 32-mile ride completed our ride which we started back in May.  Mom and Dad went along to shuttle our vehicles for us, that was a great help.

It was a beautiful day for a ride, clear and a bit windy, but not too cold.  Most of the ride was downhill.  We rode through three tunnels.  One was about a half mile long - that felt long.  You could not see the light at the end of that tunnel.  That one was well-lit, the others were not lit; we used head lamps.  The one tunnel felt like a wind tunnel.  A steam engine travels between Frostburg and Cumberland for weekend riders.  The bike trail follows along it.  At one tunnel, a sign advises "Do not enter tunnel with oncoming train"  duh!

As we got closer to Cumberland, there was a beautiful vista looking over the countryside.  Cumberland looks like a really neat town.  We had a late lunch there at The Crabby Big - a BBQ place along the C&O canal.

Just to log the drive/log.  We left my place at 7:15 AM, started riding at about 11:45 AM from Meyersdale, got to Frostburg at about 2 PM and rode on, arriving in Cumberland at about 4:00 PM.  We left Cumberland at 5:20 PM and were back at my place at about 9:00 PM.

The Most Wonderful Wallaby

As far as charity knitting is concerned, this sweater for afghans for Afghans (AFA) was the most rewarding project I've knit.  I took on the sweater as a challenge to myself, there was a need for the sweaters and the US deadline was October 14.  I finished the sweater on October 13, e-mailed AFA and they said just ship it out to CA and they will get it in time to go to Afghanistan.  Phew!  I had fun with the whole random stripe thing using the dice (see previous post) and I used up a bunch of yarn in my stash. Most rewarding of all is that it gives me a great feeling to know that the sweater will help keep a child warm this winter. 

T was cooperative enough to try it on for me while she was playing in the leaves.  I really like the way the colors worked out, even though I ran out of options at the yoke and had to finish up the top-most knitting with purple.   It was a pain to knit in all the ends.  I really do need to learn the technique of weaving them in as you knit.

The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania

We spent Columbus Day weekend with friends at a cottage in the Wellsboro area.  The weather could not have been nicer.  The cottage was located near Ansonia, just yards from Pine Creek Trail, a rails-to-trails bike path which paralells Pine Creek in the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.  The photo to the left is the view from the front of our cottage. 

Friday night after dinner at the cottage we had enough daylight for a quick bike ride towards Wellsboro. A rode in the bike seat on the back of Hubby's bike and T on the tag-a-long behind my bike. 

Saturday morning we all had breakfast and then headed to Colton Point - lovely vistas (right) and a one-mile loop hike. Later Saturday we all biked to Turkey Falls.  C is an avid cyclist;  he rode on for several hours.  The rest of us headed back to the cottage.  After a quiet dinner we played some games and called it an early night. 

Sunday we cleaned up and packed up for the drive home.  We had a lovely and very relaxing weekend, one of those let's do this again next year weekends!