Moving Along, Heading South

We are in a pattern of foggy, drizzly, rainy weather, not so much it ruins anything, in fact it seems nice to both Jan and I, a good change from the smoke, fires, heat, and wind in the west this year.  I left you in Ive's Run, the nice COE park in Tioga, PA.  We were only there for a couple of days and had to move sites so that took some time out of our visit.  As I said previously it is a very nice park that we will probably go back to.

Much of the reason for visiting here in PA is to check out the fishing spots.  Next year we are certainly hoping and planning to finally make our trek to Maine that we have put off 2 years now, and we will be coming up through central PA if the fishing spots look good and to stay far, far away from NYC.  We had scoped out 2 different creeks to check out in the area, Kettle and Pine, seems where out west everything is a river, here in the east, at least in PA, everything is a creek, or as Jan says, crick:-)

Kettle Creek was first on the list, so after we made a picnic lunch we took off, it was pretty far away, but oh so worth it.  It was gorgeous, easy access, a perfect size and depth and an exceptional trout stream.  And did we take pictures, uh, that would be a no:-(  We continued many miles along the creek until it opened up into a small reservoir where we had lunch.  It was so pretty with the overcast skies, and the fog would waft in and out, but it was dry enough to have our lunch outside.  These pics are looking up and down from our picnic spot.

Then we moved over to Pine Creek and found what we would call a river, huge water, pretty, but not something we would fish, but it was a pleasant drive nonetheless.

Next we moved farther south to Bellefonte, PA, right outside of State College to a very nice KOA.  We had an awesome patio site with privacy as the campground is very kid friendly and caters to the fanatical PSU fans each weekend.  Never could quite understand the excitement.  So for the first couple nights we almost had the park to ourselves, but on Thursday they started coming and by Friday mid day, the park was full to overflowing, with fires and get-togethers all over the place, and there wasn't even a game.  But at our site it was quiet and nice.  Only down sides were the weather still wasn't cooperating, still rainy and foggy, and it turns out this must be the season for stink bugs.  But we were ready.  Thanks to our son-in-law Brian who turned us on to the Bug A Salt, a gun that shoots table salt at bugs, sounds ridiculous, but it is great fun and very effective at sending them on their journey.  You heard it here Bug A Salt 3.0.

Our very nice site

At the ready

In use!

We had several errands planned here, I needed to pick up some meds, I got my booster shot, and we both got our flu shots, we visited a fly shop and found there is at least 57 miles of top shelf blue ribbon trout streams within 40 minutes of State College!  So we bought a book with maps and went to the top rated lunch spot in Bellefonte for lunch, and were so bitterly disappointed we couldn't believe it, one of the worst meals we've ever had, so I am not even going to list its name.  This was also our 48th anniversary so we celebrated with Blanton's, shrimp cocktail, filet mignons, and the weather cooperated wonderfully.

Happy Anniversary!

Next day we went exploring and found Spring Creek, an absolutely awesome stream not far from the campground, wonderful size, full of blue ribbon trout, miles of easy access, a place we will come back to!  And even though we had been so disappointed in our previous lunch we tried another place in Bellefonte and liked it so much we even went back again.

It is called State Burger, and this time I will name it.  It is unique in that they give you a paper menu with choices that you mark, kind of like in some sushi restaurants.  Small menu, but very interesting with all kinds of sides, toppings, etc.  With excellent fries and onion rings!  Come on, you knew I had to get some food in here somewhere.

Delicious chicken with oh so good fries

An awesome burger with great onion rings

Then we went to see Penn's Creek, it looked great in many spots as well, lots of choices in this area.  

Jan went grocery shopping and we said good bye to Bellefonte and continued south yesterday, driving in fog and rain most of the day, the sun finally came out about 5 miles from the campground in Luray, VA.  It was straightforward drive but in order to get to Luray from I-81 you have to climb quite a high and windy road over a ridge to get into Luray.

The ridge doesn't look too bad from here

We are staying at Outlander's River Camp, a 100 acre nature preserve with campsites, walking, hiking, and bike trails, with direct access to the Shenandoah River.  Although we had a bit of trouble with our first site, way too many impinging tree branches, they very nicely moved us to an awesome site.  There was another break in the weather that allowed us to go outside for cocktail hour.  We plan on doing a lot of exploring while here, and spending some time on the Skyline Drive.