LAS VEGAS VISITS WINDBER

Rambling toward The Rambler with the Newmans.
(Click photos to enlarge.)

We enjoyed a wonderful visit last week from the family I visited in December in Las Vegas: Joe, Melinda, Hannah, and Matthew Newman. I told the Pilkingtons when I got back in December, "These people are awesome!" My family here had followed all my blogs from Vegas, and now it was time for them to find out in person how great the Newmans actually were. The four days they were here, I kept saying, "Well, didn't I tell you? Huh?Huh? Didn't I tell you how great the Newmans were?" I made a nuisance of myself, but they all kept saying, "Yeah, you told us! Be quiet already!"

They didn't actually tell me to be quiet. They never really ever tell me here to be quiet. I don't know why, exactly; it's just the wonderful way things are.  

The Newmans, being from the arid land of Nevada, were happy about the green of Pennsylvania. Well, yes,

Nice try, sucker.

we actually have had trees turning green around here. Some flowers blossomed as well, but they have since been disciplined and hammered back into the ground by cold spells. The trees are a little hardier and are able to "flip off" some of the more brutal Spring weather and survive.

On their first night here, we all walked down the hill into downtown Windber and went to an ice-cream place called "The Rambler." The Newmans thought this was a real treat, and I suppose it was.

Cindy and Melinda en route to The Rambler.

Nathan rambles.

Hannah thinks Windber is small compared to
Las Vegas (imagine), but she loves it.

C3 springs into worship. 

Is this 1953?

Clyde, Joe, Matthew.

Cindy guards the napkin dispenser.

Oh! Joe wanted some beer, so we told him to go to the beer drive-thru. He had never heard of such a thing. Apparently, in Las Vegas you can get beer anywhere: on a bus, in a bar, at a grocery store. That's not the case here. Joe had never heard of driving into a building to get beer. In fact, they have no such things as drive-thrus in Las Vegas. So that was a real treat for Joe. "You mean I just drive into the building?" he said.

Everyone drinks beer in Windber.

Oh, the wonders of Pennsylvania.

Clyde and company took the Newmans to the damn dam that broke in 1889 and flooded Johnstown. As I've told you before, this part of PA is known for epic disasters. So I think the Newmans also went to the Flight 93 memorial. (United Flight 93, of 9/11 infamy, crashed in this very county.)

The last day the Newmans were here, Aaron Locker led them to the abandoned Interstate tunnels near Breezewood. I have never been here, but apparently it is fun and a little bit spooky. Well, it was the highlight of the trip for them, I kid you not.

Watch that first step.

Don't forget to go back a couple blogs and read Hannah's poems. She is quite a talented little writer.

We enjoyed the Newman's visit, and made a deal with them. They will come here in the summer, and we will go to Las Vegas in the winter.

That's a safe bet for everyone, I'd say.

Copyright 2013 by Martin Zender.