Snowy Sunday

Laurie & Chris at Miss Flower have started a new thread - Snowy Sunday! No snow here yet. As you can see from my new header. I took the photo yesterday, Saturday the 29th, on our way to Altoona, PA. I thought I'd join in and post some photos of snow in our area from past years and maybe some current snow photos if we are lucky to get some snow this year. Join in if your interested!



I took this from a snow covered bridge about 3 or 4 years ago. This is Will's Creek. It runs through our town. It has flooded several times and we now have flood control walls which were built in the 40's. This photo was taken above our town in the Narrows.


More Snowy Sunday photos here!

A Beautiful Saturday in March!

We are having a beautiful spring day! We went to a pancake breakfast this morning and it was very filling. We took a little drive and then back home to enjoy the sun coming in the windows. I hope everyone else is having a beautiful day!

Here are a few photos from the day!

Spring is coming! Something is coming up in my neighbor's yard.

The church we used to attend. The pancake breakfast was in the fellowship hall. My friend Debbie's girl scout troop put on the breakfast. The parents cooked while the girl scouts served.

Mountain Maryland and Allegany County looking out toward Martin's Mountain.

A thing called Homecoming!

Saturday, November 10th was the annual Homecoming Game between the two high schools in the city where I live. The Fort Hill Sentinals hosted the Allegany Campers. I'm not a alumni of either school but two of our children have graduated from there - John in 2000 and Sara in 2004. Lori is a senior this year! Graduation is May 27, 2008 Wooh! So of course we want the Big Blue to win. Homecoming is a big thing to our town. The fans talk about it all year long and can't wait until fall and football season. Those of us who graduated from the smaller schools in the county we just don't quite understand all the hoopla over homecoming! Until you go to the game! We don't usually attend but since this is our youngest child's last year in high school, we felt we should make an appearance. Here is what we found:

School spirit is everything to those who attend the game! Over 10,000 people in a town of around 21,000 show up in their BLUE & White or



RED & White!




This game is the biggest game of the year and whether the teams go on to win the State Championship doesn't really matter. It matters who wins homecoming.


To the delight of our daughter, Allegany WON this year 33 to 14! Go BIG Blue!





This year there was an added treat for our area! NFL Films came to town for a week to film our homecoming game. It is scheduled to be broadcast on national television over the Thanksgiving holiday! They will showcase several high schools across the nation and will talk about the rivalries between neighboring schools. Our schools are across town from each other and have been playing a Homecoming Game for 78 years! I guess I can understand a little why the fans get so excited!



Coverage of the game in our local newspaper can be found at The Cumberland Times News website.

A Beautiful Saturday in July!

Today was the first Saturday in several weeks in which Paul didn't have to work. So with the whole day ahead of us we started out with his school reunion. 2007 marks the 30th year of Paul's graduation from Mt. Savage School in Mt. Savage Maryland. This year is the 55th anniversary of the school and to celebrate the school hosted a school wide reunion. Paul enjoyed visiting with some old friends and then we took ourselves off to do some photography but first we stopped by Paul's school. Here he is in front of the place where he spent 7 years of his life.



We visited a church in the town and snapped a few photos. Doesn't this look like a lovely place to sit and wonder on the magnificence of God?



An archway looking out to the road of the cemetery. I think cemeteries are peaceful places.


After leaving Mt. Savage we went to Frostburg, Maryland to wait for the scenic train to arrive. While we were waiting I took a few snaps of the lovely flowers around the station.









Then I thought I would try my hand at some photos of the station. I think these turned out rather well.



Paul used Photoshop to make this one Black & White. Makes you feel like your in the 40's doesn't it?


Then the train arrived. Paul & I both like steam engines. There isn't anything quite as nostalgic as a steam train and nothing quite as powerful. It made the ground shake!


And filled the air with cinders and smoke. I ran for the cover of the station.





To finish our morning and afternoon out we had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Texas Grillhouse. The rest of the evening we are spending at home resting and enjoying our back deck.

Weekend Fun!

This weekend we attended a two day festival in Oldtown, Maryland. Paul did two of his talks during the festival. The first talk on Saturday was about the C&O Canal and the race with the B&O railroad to reach Cumberland in the 1880's and the second on Sunday was about George Washington and the Potomac River. Both were very interesting. The festival is small but was well attended by locals. I had a strawberry smoothie and it was delicious! Lori had funnel cake and shared it with us and it was delicious too. We hadn't had one in quite a long while. Today, Sunday, we also did some biking on the C&O Canal. We biked about 8 miles total and went through the tunnel on the canal at Paw Paw. Here are a few pictures from our fun weekend. Hope your's was fun too!


The west side tunnel portal. 3,181 feet long. We walked our bikes through here.


The east side portal.



These marks were made about 100 years ago. They were made from the tow ropes the mules used to pull the canal boats along the C&O Canal.



A quiet place on the Potomac River. That's West Virginia on the other side.


Paul doing his talk.



Some festival highlights!

We made it!

Loading up to go across town and home.



The trail ends at the Western Maryland Train Station. The C&O Canal starts here. There are offices, The C&O Canal Museum, Allegany County Vistors Center located in the station.


Ready to go again????????????????

Ann

What year is this?????

What year is it? We followed this car up Centre Street yesterday. I couldn't resist taking a picture. If I didn't know better I'd think I was back in the 40's!

Sunday biking!

Sunday we biked on the C&O Canal. It was a beautiful day.



This is a photo of Cumberland. I've lived here for 30 years this year! The V shape is called the Narrows. This was at one time called the "Gateway to the West". For more photos of this area look at the label for Photos. The other trail we bike, The Allegheny Higland Trail, goes through the Narrows and into Pennsylvania.

Weekend bike ride!

Here are a few pictures from our bike ride on Saturday on the Allegheny Highlands hike and bike trail. It doesn't look like it but you are going up hill. But is it a fun place to ride.







This cave is located along the trail. Here is info from Wikipedia: In 1912 workers excavating a cut for the Western Maryland Railway broke into a partly filled cave along the western slope of Wills Mountain on the outskirts of Cumberland, Maryland near Corriganville in Allegany County, Maryland. The cave became known as the Cumberland Bone Cave. Forty-one genera of mammals were found, about 16 per cent of which are extinct. numerous excellent skulls and enough bones to reconstruct skeletons for a number of the species were present. Skeletons of the Pleistocene Cave Bear and an extinct Saber-toothed cat from the Bone Cave are on permanent exhibit in the Ice Age Mammal exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Many of the fossilized bones date from 200,000 years ago. The Cumberland Bone cave represents one of the finest one Pleistocene-era faunas known from eastern North America.

Winter Road Trip

Saturday was another pretty day here so we decided to take a road trip. We drove up into PA to a little town called Bedford. Here are a few things we saw along the way. Ann