Where in the World is the Box?: LINGLESTOWN AREA, PENNSYLVANIA

Yesterday was Susanne's birthday, so we did some extra special things, depending on the Box to get us where we wanted to go.

Susanne was chilling in the living room when I lied and said I was going to the church but headed instead to a jewelry store on the West Shore. There I looked through little bins of glass beads ready to be strung onto a silver bracelet she already has. In fact, I lifted the bracelet from her jewelry box and took it along so I didn't buy a bead she already had. I picked a bead from among the large selection, thinking that I should have invented this little bauble and marketed it to women at what Mr. Cheap (myself) considers to be an outrageous price! Still, it means I don't have to come up each year with something new! By the time Susanne is 85, the bracelet will have to turn into a necklace.

A ride through Linglestown.

Now it was time to get home and get the celebration on the road. We checked out the progress on the construction of the round-about in the square at Linglestown as we drove west on Rt. 39 toward Colonial Road. Throughout the ride, Susanne was guessing where we were headed. As we passed our old house on the left (the sad looking green house at the start of the video), she exclaimed, "Lio's!" ahead on the right. Wrong! We passed a restaurant in the old Church of God, then a Dunkin Donuts, where Susanne loves the blueberry coffee, and finally turned up the hill to Mt. Hill Tavern.

Mt. Hill Tavern.

The most excellent celebration of Susanne's natal day began with lunch at the Mt. Hill Tavern. The tavern is housed in a modern building appended to a 1798 stone house just off Linglestown Road on Colonial Road. It's been a restaurant for a couple of years now and seemed like a nice place to celebrate. I invited two of Susanne's teacher friends. Only one -- Debbie -- could join us, but we had a wonderful time enjoying lunch and dessert and talking about all sorts of things.

Bring on the tractors!

After we left Mt. Hill, we headed for home so Susanne could change from her birthday suit, er outfit, into something more casual. Soon we took off for the next stop, a place Susanne has wanted to visit for years, Tractor Supply Company on Jonestown Road. It's full of stuff needed by gardeners and farmers, including special clothing for them. We checked out all the bug repellants, watering cans, $50 garden hoses, plastic hawks to scare off smaller birds, rat traps, toys, and clothing.

Not content with what they had to offer, we continued down Jonestown Road to Rt. 39 and headed south to the Agway store. There, Susanne's attention was captured by the paraphernalia needed to can dill pickles! We met a very nice and very fat kitty lying on a bag of dog food. Mr. Cat enjoyed some scratches behind the ears and then went back to sleep.

Pickle, anyone?

We took the scenic route home and cruised through a neighborhood called Sagewicke, which is a very beautiful development ("plan" for our Pittsburgh-area readers) perhaps ten years old. Classic traditional houses and beautiful landscaping make it a desirable place to live. Some one-story "villas" were especially attractive to our creaky old bones. There was only one house for sale, and after checking it out on the Internet, we'll have to leave lovely Sagewicke to the nouveaux riches. After all, we already live in lovely Englewood Heights, la dee dah.

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