Convention Trip to Canada & Pennsylvania

After leaving the New York City area we made our way across eastern Pennsylvania and central New York state up to the Findger Lakes region and then on to Buffalo and Niagra Falls. Not many campgrounds are open in the north after November 1st, but we found some adequate spots. However, when we reached Canada we stayed at an excellent campground that is open all year. Our convention in the Toronto area was truly worthwhile and a blessing.

Heading south from Toronto in mid November was a challenge. We found only one campground open on our route to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Here was our camp site on the Susquehanna River in the small village of Montgomery, about 10 miles south of Williamsport. It was a little chilly, but actually a beautiful fall location.
We arrived in Lancaster several days early and enjoyed the oppportunity to rest for a few days. On Monday we drove up to Hershey and toured "Chocolate World" and "The Hershey Story" museum. It was fun because we had visited Hershey 30 years ago with our kids.
On Tuesday night we had the privilege of reconnecting with Skip and Katie Mable and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at a Lancaster area restaurant. Skip and Katie ministered with us at Maranatha 20 years ago and it was wonderful to see them.
Our convention was good -- but Connie had an unusal experience and victory. One of the vendor's across the aisle was a Christian camp that had an unusual wildlife demonstration at the booth. They had an acquarium full of giant cockroaches! Connie has a great fear of these critters, but notice how she conquered her fear by allowing a cockroach to climb on her finger. Go girl!!
Early in the week at Lancaster we paid a visit to the Sight & Sound Theater and purchased tickets for the opening day performance, later that week, of the 2011 "The Miracle of Christmas." Here is Connie in front of the fantastic facility of this Biblically oriented theater.
Connie even had the opportunity to meet some of the "actors" for the upcoming performance.
On Friday night we dressed up and attended the outstanding performance. The spirit of Christmas was everywhere and the evening was delightful.
Over 2,000 people packed the theater that night for a wonderful presentation of the Christmas story complete with a very large cast, real animals (camels, horses, sheep, donkeys, etc.) and dynmic music.

New York City Adventure

Our second fall convention trip for 2011 took us to an unusal campground in Jersey City, New Jersey. We camped at the Liberty Harbor Marina RV Park -- directly across the Hudson River from downtown Manhattan. Here is our helpful campground host who helped us with instructions and advice about navigating the New York City area.

The campground was filled with RVs from all over -- especially Canadians! We were five blocks from the subway that took us right into downtown Manhattan.
Less than a mile to two to the east was the Statue of Liberty. On Friday evening, Oct. 28th, we were able to witness the fireworks that celebrated the 125th birthday of "Lady Liberty".
In order to set up for our convention on Wednesday we had to drive our truck over to Queens via the Holland Tunnel to lower Manhattan and then on to the Williamsburg Bridge into Queens. Then on Friday it was necessary again to drive the truck to retrieve our exhibit materials. This time we used the Lincoln Tunnel to enter mid-Manhattan and fight the traffic to the Queensboro Bridge to the convention site. It is an exciting adventure.
On Thursday we took the subway to the convention. That was truly an adventure! First, we walked five blocks to the PATH station (NJ Subway) and caught a train to 34th St. in Manhattan. Then we had to walk a block to find the correct NY Subway train to 21st & Queensbridge. We made it!

Many of the 590 teachers who attended the convention traveled the same way -- via the subway. It gave us a great appreciation for the dedicated service of these Christian school teachers. They were truly inspiring and an energetic group.

After the convention was concluded we stayed over to attend a Broadway production on Saturday afternoon. Once again we took the subway, although this time we had to take a taxi to the PATH Station due to a cold rain. When we surfaced from the subway at 50th and Broadway we saw this scene looking back towards Times Square.

Lo, and behold we ran into a church youth group from Madison, Wisconsin that were happily bouncing around the subway station and up to the street corner. We even helped them with some directions because we "oldsters" had the smartphone. Go figure!
We found a wonderful (healthy) sandwhich shop next door to the Gershwin Theater where our play was being performed. While eating lunch the rain turn to snow and kept on snowing.
We thoroughly enjoyed "Wicked" which is the delightful (and very family friendly) pre-quel to the story of the Wizzard of OZ. It was fun for sure.
But the snow kept on falling and by morning we had over 5 inches on the truck and trailer. This caused us to stay an extra day before leaving the New York area and heading west through the Pocono Mtns. and our trek toward Canada.

Reunion Prayer in Retrospect

Back in September we posted pictures of Connie's 50th Robbinsdale High School Reunion. In a follow up to that fun time, the class members have posted a number of comments and pictures on a class reunion website. One of the class members posted this picture of Connie leading in prayer at the reunion event. Connie was so blessed by the obvious respect evidenced by her class leaders as expressed by the photo.