After having such a wonderful time last year, my friend,
Liz Petry, and I each packed our cars and headed across the country to meet in
the middle. That midpoint, via the
Southern Tier (I-80), is Williamsport, Pennsylvania. We each had traffic difficulties with
construction zones. I hit the road at
10:30 a.m. and had passed only two exits on I-90 before I ended up in a nasty,
full-stop traffic jam. I lost at least
half an hour before I hit Route 11. Once
I turned East on I-80 it was one construction zone after another. I finally arrived at the hotel around 5 p.m.,
which means my 4.5 hour trip took 6.5 hours.
After I got settled in, Liz and I went to Peter Herdic House
for dinner. The parmesan crusted shrimp
was quite tasty, but I had to settle for spinach salad as they were out of
fresh local cherries for the salad listed on the website menu. One of these days, I’ll get there while the
cherries are still in season.
It was bloody hot all weekend, and frankly, I’m not quite
sure how Liz went running without dropping like a rock on the hot pavement,
even early in the morning. Just walking
the 4 or 5 blocks to Herdic House, Rumrunners, and Bullfrog Brewery was
extremely taxing in the high temps and stifling humidity.
We took a break from our writing and researching
activities on Saturday night to visit Wine and Design, an art studio that
offers painting parties and paint-n-sip classes for the public. The painting of the day was an old anchor in
an old shed. It was rather fun, but I
have to admit that I can’t draw straight lines with a brush even when I’m not
imbibing in a lovely Barolo.
On Sunday night, after another day of writing activities,
we braved the heat to walk to dinner at the Bullfrog Brewery. They had gorgeous copper and stainless tanks,
and the food was quite tasty. We passed
a gift shop (Gustonian Gifts) that had interesting locally sourced stuff in the
windows, so I decided to delay my departure on Monday and peruse the shop. I bought a beautiful walking stick for
Jim. It was numbered by the artist and
had some lovely wood burnings and relief carvings.
It was a terrific weekend. Both Liz and I made progress on our writing
projects, and we had the chance to get a good visit in as well. For those writers who can’t seem to get
anything done at home, I highly recommend that you get away, alone or with a
writing friend, and get your word counts up.
There are many options for low-cost accommodations, even a cabin in the
woods. As long as it has electricity to
keep your laptop running, you’re good to go.
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