Lock Haven to Williamsport the easy way!

May 29th Woke to clean cool weather and plenty of time before my $8.00 bus leaves for Williamsport. I ventured down town with my backpack in tow. I stopped by a museum that showed historical item from far and wide. A group of junior high kids were in charge of showing off the goodies. I think it was kind of a school project or just a way to get out of school. A 12 year old dressed like she was going to a prom, was showing me around the front room. The 6 inches heels that she wore had her walking like she was hitting the party punch a bit too much. She tried to open a china closet and almost pulled the whole affair on top of us when she swayed to the right and the closet went to the left. Then when she got it open she showed me a volcanic rock from the Big Island of Hawaii that Uncle Bob had smuggled back stuffed in his underware. What that had to do with Lock Haven I haven't a clue but it sure was fun watching this swaying back and forth around fragile china and silver. Three of the items that did catch my attention was the document signed my Honest Abe Lincoln and 2 signed by Ben Franklin. The museum had a $10.00 front door lock guarding $1,000 dollar letters.


Then I went up stairs and a girl was showing off the doll collection in one of the bedrooms. Just to add a bit of excitement she explained that the dolls keep moving during the night when no one is a round. I had been standing near a closet listening to the whole spook story and stepped out at just the right moment. The girls were all about waist high in size and I must have looked like Frankenstein. All you could hear was patten leather shoes running down the stairs.

Then I walked to the Piper airplane factory. The factory is now in Florida but they have a musuem you can tour for $6.00. The planes cost $2,000 in 1930 when you could buy a car for $100. After looking over all the ins and outs of the aircraft, the guide gave me a guide book from the 1920's. #14 Don't trust your instruments # 21 Don't wear your spurs while flying. #1 Don't take off unless you're sure you can.


I walked back to town to buy my bus ticket. The ticket office was in a store called Puff Daddy-which sold every kind of tobbaco item known to man. I had to wait in line and I felt like I was slowly traveling through a furnace pipe. You couldn't find a piece of clean air or a customer that wasn't covered with a brown haze. The ticket only cost $8.00 but it took 8 years off my life! Most of the customers, the ones I could see, looked like skeletons covered with skin. The cars that pulled up to get smokes looked like they had been in a stock car derby and lost! When it was my turn in line I couildn't get my money out fast enough. "The bus will be here in 30 minutes do you want to wait inside hon?" asked the clerk. I felt like telling her if I had to wait inside this building for 30 more minutes they would have to carry me out.

I did have time to stop by Rock River & Camp Trail and get a new pair of kickers (shoes) My other ones would be a bit heavy for the kayak and besides I did look like Frankenstein with them on. Rick the owner does a lot of kayaking on the Susq. River and we had lots to talk about.


Then the bus showed up and the driver stopped in for smokes at Puff Daddy's. He had a cough like he had swallowed a towel. As we talked on the way to Williamsport, he explained he was thinking about giving up the coffin nails.


The city of Williamport is very old and very nice. Huge houses from the lumber/coal era are all along the main street called "millionare row." These houses are monsters with most covered in brick. The yards are very well kept. I walked down 4th street to the Thomas Tabor musuem. What a treasure of a place. The building held everything that had to do with the area's history. Lumber was one of the main industries,but it also showed the American Indian history of the region. There were also over a thousand minature trains in the basement. I had a nice conversation with the hostess of the musuem. She and her husband had travelled all over the world for the Navy. They picked Williamsport as their last base because of the beauty along the river. She has recently lost her husband to a heart condtion brought on by germ warfare during the cold war. More touring manana and then I head back to Jersey Shore on Monday. My new friend said the trail that I will follow to Clouderport is listed as one of the top 10 in the world. It follows the Pine Creek up the Grand Canyon of PA.