Another change in plans, and new adventures. This past weekend, we had two events to help HillarysHandmade with. The first was in New Castle, Delaware. That was Art on the Green that got Nor Eastered out last week. The following day was supposed to be the Blackwood Pumpkin Festival, very close to home.
We needed to take Spud, as my car decided it needed to spend some time with it’s mechanic. Since we were taking the van, we figured we could spend the night out. We started looking for a property, most perfectly a winery, that we could spend the evening and get to the Pumpkin Festival in the morning if needed, as the weather was uncertain. We hadn’t found a place that would work, but not long after we got set up for Saturday’s event, the Pumpkin Festival decided to raindate. Now we knew for sure we needed to stay out, but where was still hard, as rain was predicted for a broad area for Sunday.
The first place I checked with was having a special event that night and wasn’t taking Harvest Host members. Several others didn’t have openings or needed us to arrive before we could. Finally, we settled on Brisinger Farm, in Coatsville. I didn’t realize we actually had been there a year earlier until the owner messaged us back and said we could come but they would be home late. I could then see the thread of old messages.
We remembered the roads being rough and difficult to navigate after dark, so as soon as we were packed up from the craft fair, we headed out. Since we were missing our winery opportunity and we noticed Harvest Ridge Wine Bar was right along the route, we stopped and picked up a bottle of white sangria for the evening, it wound up being really delicious.
We traversed the rough roads and got to the farm before dark. We were surprised to see the large field that had multiple campers the last time we were there was fenced off, now the home to some of their animals. We found another parking spot. There was a bit of farm odor, which we realized in the morning was from being parked right in front of the chicken coop. We figured out in the morning that it was the chicken coop as the rooster kept telling us. Fortunately, we had collapsed early after the sangria and a dinner of leftovers from home.
Once we were up and dressed for the day, we went out to meet some of the animals and a bunch of the farm people. It winds up that there was a local county fair and some of their animals were spending their weekend there. But there was still a cool assortment of animals left at the farm. We asked if there were some fresh eggs we could buy to help support their business, especially as this was our second time there without paying. The farmer’s wife sent their daughter out to the chicken coop and she came back with a basket FULL of eggs. They packaged two dozen and tried to just give them to us, but we insisted on paying. We always buy fresh eggs if we can, but this was certainly the freshest.
Then came the harder part: what to do on a day that was predicted to be quite rainy. Every place we thought of was at least an hour away in a direction away from home. Finally, we decided to visit the American Treasure Tour Museum in Oaks, PA. When we had been at the Punk Rock Flea Market in the convention center in Oaks a few weeks earlier, they had given us some discount coupons. It was a place we had talked about visiting since our older son and his wife went several years ago. It seemed the perfect indoor solution for a rainy day.
The museum is hard to describe. A person, know only as “The Collector,” bought an old factory to house his collection that had started with antique cars but kept growing in so many directions. The pictures speak to it a little better, but it’s really one of those places you have to see for yourself. Most of the tour is done riding in a tram car where the narration tells you about the different things you are seeing, along with some corny jokes. It seems they change the narration slightly by the Season, so we got the Halloween version, but definitely not spooky. Then there are two large areas you can walk through and explore more of the collection.
They even sell the nostalgic candy of American youth (we didn’t buy any but reminisced about what we used to like).
Once we had finished touring, we decided we would go to Tai Me Up in nearby Phonixville for lunch. We had tried to go there after the Punk Rock Flea Market (if you read that blog) but there was an event in downtown Pottstown and parking was too hard. This time the main street was blocked again, but the event that was going on was mostly rained out. We parked a few blocks from the restaurant and had some really good Thai food for lunch. Then despite the rain, we strolled the main street a bit, checked into the local record store, and then walked back to the van.
From there we decided we had had enough of an adventure so we would head home by way of cheap gas, the free dump station, and a stop at a local store for dinner ingredients.
Still loving the flexibility of doing these things on a whim, especially when so many plans are being weather effected. We’ll see if the next adventure is planned out or not, we have one longer trip planned for the first week in November, but that is SO far off.
