Poconos 2026, Day 5, Reindeer and stuff

 My family and I are on a week-long trip to the Poconos which I am recording parts of here. Join me and follow along, if you'd like. 

The rain and wind yesterday brought down a lot of leaves.

Yesterdays storms ushered in a cold front, and we saw temperatures in the 30s when we awoke. But, while cold, the day was supposed to be clear. So in the morning, we were off to visit a local reindeer farm with discussions of hiking in the afternoon.

Spruce Ridge Reindeer was a very interesting experience. There are very few reindeer farms in the lower 48 US states because they are not adapted to the warmer climate. Raising them involves several extra procedures to keep them safe and healthy. For instance, they have no immunity to ticks and other bugs that live in the warmer climate. Also, they don't do well with humidity. The tundra, the natural habitat of reindeer, is too cold for many bugs and very dry. We had to walk through special disinfectant on the way in so we wouldn't carry in any hazards for the reindeer.

We learned some basic facts like both males and females grow antlers and they shed them every year. The blood supply to grow them is on the outside of the antlers under velvet, unlike the blood supply in the middle of horns. Reindeer and caribou are not the same, but similar - caribou are wild while reindeer have been domesticated for a 1000 years and are very docile (because of this, Spruce Ridge takes them around to visit schools, nursing homes and community events). 

This reindeer was about a year old.

After the informational talk, we got to go into the pen with some of the herd. As promised, they were calm, friendly animals that we got to pet and feed. 

We were given willow leaves to feed the reindeer. This 4 month old girl knew how to work the crowd to get them.

We got our picture taken with Curly, named because of his curly coat which is unusual for a reindeer. 

While we were with the reindeer it started to rain. Not hard, but enough to get wet. And just enough, that I decided it was time to go back to the car. I was not alone with this decision. There we had to rethink what we wanted to do next, because there's nothing more miserable than a cold rain. We decided that we would make this a reset day. 

We went back to our house for lunch, laundry, and vegging. However, by mid-afternoon, we decided we were bored. Thus, we ventured out to get another puzzle. Ward had already worked the two we brought and was ready for another.

That led us to the Country Junction The World's Largest Country Store in Lehighton which some say is a must see attraction in the area. The store was huge with an additional arcade, petting zoo, hay rides and who knows what else. We didn't explore everything they had to offer. It was definitely an experience, but not one that I need to do again.

Here are a few pictures from the store.

There was a Wizard of Oz theme throughout the store using old animatronic figures.

The store had a little bit of everything for sale including these 3' high Rolling Stone statues for only $3,700 each.

and this taxidermy deer for only $35,000.

However, the only thing we bought was this puzzle.

We will see what the weather brings, but tomorrow we hope to see some waterfalls.

Until next time...

Poconos 2026, Day 4, A mine, rain, and mountain fog

  My family and I are on a week-long trip to the Poconos which I am recording parts of here. Join me and follow along, if you'd like. 

It was very foggy when we set out this morning.

We woke to rain this morning with promises of a wet and foggy day ahead. We chose to visit a coal mining museum and tour an old mine because those were mostly indoor activities. Well, sort of. While in the mine it wasn't raining on us, but it was wet and muddy with puddles and dripping water. And chilly - it stays 50 degrees F all year long. But it wasn't too bad, and we survived.

We had done a different coal mine tour in Beckley, WV, so I wasn't sure that I wanted to do another. But I'm glad we did because the tour was one of the best of any kind that I've been on. 

After finishing with the mine, we had sandwiches in the car while deciding what was up next. It looked like the rain and fog of the morning was clearing, so we decided to go to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary for a hike. We were trying to fit that in before the promise of thunderstorms later in the afternoon. And we made it. The bad rain didn't hit us until we were on the way home. Driving was tense at times, but we made it home safe and sound with a pizza in tow. 😋

Below are a few pictures from our day.

We visited the #9 Anthracite mine in Lansford, PA, which was the world's longest operating deep anthracite mine in the world. It was active from 1855-1972.

While we were waiting for the tour, we looked around the museum which was housed in one of the mine's support buildings.

We entered the mine in a converted coal car.

Once inside, we did the rest of the tour on foot. Zach was an excellent tour guide.
BTW, let me just say again that mining was a horrible, dangerous job, especially before there were any safety regulations in place. 

After the mine, we drove to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton. We stopped at the visitor's center for trail maps before taking off.

There were a series of overlooks along the trail that started out pretty foggy.

As we were hiking to the top along a rocky trail, the fog started to lift.

By the time we got to the top, the sun was starting to peek out from the clouds.

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is a raptor conservation and research center. At the top, we met Mitchell who was doing counts of migrating hawks. He answered a lot of questions for us.

Then it was back down the rocky trail to the visitor's center before heading home.

Even though it was a wet day, it was a fun day that all of us enjoyed.

Until next time...

Poconos 2026, Day 3, An amble and a lake

 My family and I are on a week-long trip to the Poconos which I am recording parts of here. Follow along here, if you'd like. 

In these beautiful mountains, we are very much in coal country. It reminds me of parts of West Virginia.

This morning, we went back to Jim Thorpe to take a walking tour to complement the trolley tour we did yesterday. First up was to be a tour of a historic mansion, but they had canceled all of the morning tours to the public. We were disappointed but found a tucked away hillside park that we enjoyed probably as much as we would have the mansion tour. (How many times can I use the word "tour" in one paragraph?)

A picture of changing the name of the town from Mauch Chunk to Jim Thorpe we saw in one of the shops.

Next, we ambled a couple of miles through the town enjoying the Victorian architecture and interesting shops. As the town got more and more crowded with tourists, we decided that we had reached our people limit and went to the the nearby town of Lehighton for a late lunch.

We enjoyed the rest of the beautiful day around Beltzville Lake before heading back to our Vrbo.

I'll share some pictures of our day, but I had a hard time doing Jim Thorpe justice with them. The town is surrounded on all sides by steep mountains and has narrow streets where it is difficult to get back far enough to get good perspective of the buildings. But here it goes anyway.

This is the mansion we didn't get in. Asa Packer was a key developer of the coal mines and railroads in the area. He founded Lehigh University and provided free tuition for all students for 20 years.

We did get to walk around his son'ts mansion next door. This was a wedding present to his son. It is now a hotel.

The mansions sit high on a hill overlooking the town. Below them, we found a lovely park tucked into the hillside with trails, picnic areas and playgrounds.  We had the whole park to ourselves.

Asa Packer built these stone townhouses for his engineers and foreman of the railroad. Now they are shops and private residences.

One of the shops sold Mabacol shoes (shoes made from recycled materials) and had an interesting outdoor advertisement for them.

This building has been operating as a hotel since 1833.

And this building has been operating as some kind of a bank since 1829.

Even the private residences honored their Victorian details.

Look at the detail on that flower box!

After lunch, we went to the local Walmart to get a couple of things we needed back at our Vrbo. The Walmart sat on top of a hill where we had beautiful views.

We finished the afternoon at Beltzville State Park...

where we enjoyed the peacefulness of Beltzville Lake.

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, so we are considering our options for indoor activities. We'll see where we end up.

Until next time...

Poconos, 2026, Day 2, Jim Thorpe rides

My family and I are on a week-long trip to the Poconos which I am recording parts of here. Follow along, if you want. 

Today, we went into the town of Jim Thorpe for train and trolley rides. Yesterday, I said that we like to visit a garden of some kind when we travel. We also like to take scenic train trips if they are available. So that's what we did.

Jim Thorpe is a small tourist town in the Poconos that is especially popular during the fall leaf season. So the real trick is finding a place to park. Luckily, we got one of the last spaces. 

Here are some pictures from our day. (I'll try not to include the many blurry ones we took from moving cars.)

This is an open air train car, but we rode in a closed one because I have been cold one too many times in an open air car. 🥶

We rode through some beautiful scenery with interesting commentary.

The train trip was followed by sandwiches in the car and then a hike on a rail trail that goes through town while waiting for our trolley tour.

We took a detour off the trail to the Lehigh River.

The trolley tour gave a good overview of the area with many interesting facts.

We saw lots of interesting Victorian architecture.

We learned that Jim Thorpe was built as a coal and railroad town. When the coal industry had a downturn in the early 1900s, some enterprising person, sold rides down the mountain at 40-60 mph in a converted coal car. At one point, these wild rides were the second most visited tourist attraction in the US after Niagara Falls.

The town of Jim Thorpe* was called Mauch Chunk until the mid 1950s. Jim Thorpe's widow wanted a memorial for Jim after he died, but none of the places that he was associated with could come up for the money, so she asked for bids. With the promise of tourism and great things to come, the town of Mauch Chunk won. Of course, that decision was not without controversy and went through several court cases.

After we filled our heads with Jim Thorpe knowledge, we filled out bellies with ice cream.

Then it was back to our house for puzzles and leftovers.

Until next time...

*From Wikipedia

James Francis Thorpe (Meskwaki: Wa-Tho-Huk; May 22 or 28,^[4] 1887 – March 28, 1953) was an American athlete who won Olympic gold medals and played professional football, baseball, and basketball. A citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation, he was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, Thorpe won two Olympic gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics (one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon).

Poconos 2026, Day 1, Hershey Gardens

My family and I are on a week-long trip to the Poconos which I am recording parts of here. Follow along, if you want. 

I've been having problems with the internet, so we'll see how this goes.

Fall sculpture at Hershey Gardens

Tuesday was our driving day, and we broke our 4 hour trip up into two parts with a stop at Hershey Gardens in Hershey, PA. (For those not familiar, yes, it is the chocolate town of fame.)

When we are on a trip, there are a few things that we try to do. One of them is to visit a garden/arboretum of some kind. This time it was Hershey Gardens. Not only did we see Hershey Gardens we also saw their butterfly atrium. Here are a few pictures from our stop.

One of the hundreds of types of roses they had.

This was a "human" sundial where you held up your arm as the dial. It was pretty accurate.

Of course, if we're in the land of Hershey, there has to be a picture of a cacao tree.

Male Atlas moth. Notice how the top of its wings resemble a cobra--a defense mechanism. We learned that these moths are hatched with no mouths and don't eat. They only live 6 days or so surviving on stores from their caterpillar days. The female moth lays around 400 eggs before she dies. The male has no real function at this point.

Tiger longwing butterfly.

Owl butterfly. Notice how the lower wing looks like an owl's eye. Another defense adaptation.

We made it to our Vrbo at 4 pm, just in time for check-in. It turns out that it is a very nice house with plenty of room for everyone. Even though there are pictures and descriptions online, you're not quite sure what you will get until you see the place in person. 

It looks like that's all I'm going to be able to do for today.

Until next time...