Bellefonte KOA (April 25): We were not planning to spend so much time in State College this year, but Chuck’s dentist has dictated otherwise. We needed to come back on the 27th to visit the dentist. However, Chuck was contacted by his board game buddies to come to a potluck and game night at the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church on Wednesday. Since Wednesday is also our faculty social lunch in the department, we decided to come back Tuesday to be sure not to miss any events.
The view from the wide windshield of the RV is excellent. I was struck how the emerging spring foliage is a pastel version of the fall foliage, with soft reds, orange, yellow and of course green, as well as the occasional tree in bloom (mostly white, but also some redbuds in hot pink.)
It was great to see everyone in the Dept. I miss those lunches! I also hoped to go to a talk, but Rumple refused to stay quietly in my office. Since Chuck was hanging out in Schlow Library, I decided to hang out in the office until supper time.
The potluck at the UU was a big deal. They were on the verge of hiring a new minister, and had a huge turnout in her support. They had also asked some of the social groups that have members outside the UU (e.g. the board game club) to invite their attendees. So, it was a very big dinner and a chance to catch up with some of our UU friends.
After supper, the game group started some games. However, I needed to revise an article. By the time I was done, the games were well underway. However, my old folk-dance group was also participating in the event, so I danced until Chuck was done.
The next day we both went to our respective hair-cutting establishments, and Chuck went off to the dentist before we met our friend Don for dinner.
After a few phone calls, we decided to stay until Monday morning so we could have dinner with various friends. Otherwise, we mainly hung around the KOA, which is quite nice. They serve coffee in the morning, and I became friendly with one of the staff members, who is a birder and a very nice person.
On Friday night we had dinner with Susie, and on Saturday we met her downtown for the Climate Day events. However, a sudden intense storm brought these to a sudden end, and we ended up at our usual haunts – the library, the campus and the downtown Panera, while waiting for our dinner date with the Mortensens.
Our friend Mindy is letting us stash some of our things in her basement. We spent some time adding to the pile and rummaging through papers that we had left there. We also discovered that we had a huge heap of mail at the house despite having picked up mail only 3 weeks ago. Mindy was at a conference until Sunday, but met us for dinner when she got back.
And then it was time to head back north and east to celebrate some family events.