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Leaf peeping and just getting out for a bit.

       I have to be honest, I wasn't sure if or when I would get back to this blog.   It is easy to make excuses but honestly, I've not done much of anything to improve the "homestead" in over a week or two; and that honestly bothers me.

An old Caboose in Stoneboro
    I do tend to be a lazy man and I just feel that I should be doing more to help prepare this home for the coming winter, but so far the temperatures have not dropped below the mid 40's and the last  two days have been a pretty consistent rain, which makes doing anything outside unpleasant at best and down right near impossible at worst. 

    What this has allowed the lovely Sue and I to do however is spend a little time traveling, exploring and finally getting our new pellet stove installed.  Well Sue grew up in this particular part of Western Pennsylvania, I did not.  We decided to go sight seeing, take in the wonders of Autumn and just relax for a bit.  

    Now generally speaking I would get all geeky about going to Oil City and the surrounding area, after all this was pretty much the birthplace of the modern oil industry and the term "wildcat" - given to someone that drills for oil in unproven areas - was termed when one of the early oil explores placed a dead wild cat on top of his rig.   According to legend, he struck it rich the next day.   Now true or not, it's an interesting little piece of history.  Oil City State Park is full of old abandoned towns and sites that date back to the area's brief Oil boom in the 1860's.

    Plus, even though the peek leaf peeping season seemed to have passed us by, it was a good opportunity to get out and take the back roads some. 

    To many of these roads became irresistible to drive and we kept an eye out for the odd deer or bear to wonder out.of the surrounding woods, sadly we didn't see much of any wildlife at all.

    Their are actually three nice walking tours that you can take but the most accessible one to take is actually around the park office itself.   Petroleum Center is now officially an abandoned town, lasting but a scant seven years (1866 - 1873) it was the center of activity.   President U. S. Grant stayed at one of it's luxurious hotels.  Millionaires were made overnight and the town earned the reputation of being very similar to Sodom and Gemorrah.  There are a variety of historical markers and photo's around to review.

    Well we personally didn't hike any of the trails or visit Drakes well, we figured we would be able to do that some other day.  Plus, it's not everyday that you get to ride on an old train as well.  Which again, may be something for a lazy spring weekend.   

An old railroad bridge

View of an old bridge in the park

Same Bridge, Different view

  

     Overall it was really a good day out and about and sometimes you just need to get away and do something different.   

    I've already talked about the pellet stove enough, and I'm probably going to talk about it more in the future, but it was finally installed yesterday night.  We are planning on whitewashing the fireplace to lighten up the room in general but that is a project for the future.   If your interested in more sight seeing photo's or of the pellet stove them go to my personal Facebook page.  


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