Taking Crystal to Penn View

Our trip to PA to take Crystal to Penn View started out with a bang--

or rather a honk!

Jonathan had replaced the switches for the cruise control and the wires got crimped in such a way that when he tried out the cruise control, the horn honked!

We got a kick out of that!

So at our first fill up at the service station, Jonathan is taking the thing apart again and fixing it.

But no, it honked as soon as we got it put back together!

The third time was the charm.

The middle of the next day, Jonathan saw this smoke at a rest stop, and braked, thinking it was about time to stop anyway, and that the children would be curious.

Were they? After all, it's not every day you see a car on fire. 

Thankfully the driver had gotten out.

We watched for about ten minutes while a poor lady's car was demolished with fire before the fire trucks could arrive.

The firemen coming to extinguish the flames before it caught the tree on fire.

It was so refreshing to be back in Amish country with horses and buggies!

We made a quick stop at the beautiful country home of the Yarrison family about one hour this side of my family. 

I loved all her hanging baskets, the wrap around porch, their productive garden, and the farm in general.

DonnaLee served us fresh peaches with icecream while we visited out on the front porch. Hannah didn't want most of hers, so I finished it.

Yum!

Jonathan told their boys we'd like to take them along sometime on a Mission Helps trip. 

It was a delight to be there.

At the top of a Pennsylvania mountain, we came upon this tired horse pulling a buggy. 

The Amish man had gotten out and was encouraging the horse along. It was almost to the very top.

One of the boys decided that now it was time for the horse to ride the buggy back down the steep other side!

We arrived late Saturday night, and stayed at Craig and Joella's home. 

Sunday we attended church with most of my family and then had dinner together outdoors at Fain's place.

The boys had slept in a tent outdoors the night before. 

Are the girls checking to see if their beds are made nicely??

That evening, Crystal and the three cousins who had gone to Africa showed their Africa slides to an almost full church. They sang the songs they had sung in Africa.

The slides were all very interesting indeed!

Joella's little Laura is the cutest little dolly I have ever seen with her head of the cutest curls ever.

Timmy and Ethan try out a couple hoops. 

Their garden with such pretty flowers along it is in the background.

Monday we took Crystal to Penn View to drop her things at the girls' dorm. 

She and Jonathan and I are going in to the office at the main school building.

There we met Ned and Judy Sherman, who had a few things for us to take over to Detroit.

The happy expectant couple!

Crystal heading to the girls' dorm.

.

Things were a big rush that day, because we had to hurry and try to leave before too late

so we could arrive in Detroit before too late at night.

I got this quick snap of the other side of the girls' dorm, where there are pretty trees and grass.
I hadn't known how hard it would be to say goodbye to my first daughter!
It was awful!

We had thought that perhaps Jonathan would take most of our family and several cousins on to Detroit that afternoon while I stayed back with Elon and a few others who were planning to follow us and join us in Detroit,  so I could have a little more time to see Crystal settled in and visit family.

However,

then we got the news that the car Anita had driven home had broken down 35 miles from their home near Clearfield, and Elon and boys ended up having to pack up in a hurry to go see about the car.

They ended up having to call and ask if we could tow the car with our motor home, which we were able to do, since their home was only about 20 minutes out of our way on our way to Detroit.

Those crazy boys who had gone with Elon, as soon as they saw our motor home arriving around the bend, 

they grabbed their tow rope and started running up the hill, pulling the car behind them!

The radiator had burst, and probably, the men decided later, probably the head gasket, too.

So here is a picture out our back window of the motor home, pulling the car!

Anita had four little puppies with her, that Hannah adopted for the remainder of the trip to their home.

I was glad to finally have a chance to see Elon and Anita's little home tucked back in the hollows of PA,

with flowers all around the front porch,

even if it was only for a few minutes.

Then we set off for the six hour trip to Detroit from there, arriving about 1:00 a.m.

More about Detroit in another post.