I found a couple diamond painting kits on sale and picked them up.  Unfortunately, the orca picture looks nothing like the photo on the website.  What I didn't realize at the time I bought it was that the measurements were in cm, not inches.  15x20 translated into inches in my mind.  Only later did I see the cm next to 15x20.  So the smaller a diamond painting is, the less detail it can contain.  

I also picked up a floral kit which was a bit bigger and I knew the dimensions really wouldn't matter much since it was just psychedelic flowers, and I like the way this came out.  

Picked up a plain birdhouse at Marsha's yard sale and paid homage to our trip to the midwest.

This is a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign design.

A few weeks ago my mother in law showed me a super decorated key that she saw in a magazine so I went right home and made one.  

Indulged myself in a couple of Russian bead embroidery kits and this was a free gift project.  Worked it up really fast in about 90 minutes one afternoon.  Came with the paper frame and a magnet.  It's on the fridge.

Made a bday card for Marsha.

Another Russian bead embroidery kit.  This is much different from any of the American kits I've done.  This was a very pleasant project that took 2 days' work. The fabric is like a heavy duty silk and I love the space and stars background.  

Here it is finished.

I've got a couple more bead embroidery kits to get to, now that I can stitch again.  It's going to be a busy summer, which will end with another trip to Ohio in late August, but I'm still hoping to squeeze in crafts and day trips.  We'll be taking care of Shadow 2 days a week too.  Crazy busy! 

Mashpee

Mashpee is the last town that I had left to photograph on the Cape.  I'd been putting it off cause there really isn't anything to see, to be honest, and I researched the heck out of it too.  It's always been mostly residential and a just a small, somewhat run down town that you had to pass through to get to Falmouth.  No one really stopped in Mashpee, 'back in the day'.  Parts of it are quite nice though....all the waterfront properties in New Seabury are exclusive.   In the late 80s, an upscale shopping and movie theatre complex was built called Mashpee Commons and it's still there, but it's not terribly picturesque.  Now there are quite a few strip malls along Rte 28, which is the main road to Falmouth.  Mashpee is the traditional home of the Wampanoag Tribe and still has a large native population.  

First place we went was Popponesset Cove, a little salt water inlet off the south side of the Cape.

Next, we stopped at the Indian Meeting House which also has a graveyard.

I loved this arrowhead stone.

Some of the stones go waaayyyy back, and the names on them are the same names you hear in town now.  

We call Zachary's "The Mashpee Center of the Performing Arts", but it's really Cape Cod's only strip club.  This particular bit of town is really the armpit of the area.  

Then Russell took me over to one of the beaches at Mashpee Wakeby Lake, which straddles the border of Sandwich and Mashpee.  That's looking towards Sandwich's side.

The "country store" which is just a convenience store.  Nothing terribly quaint and it's not filled with country type items or crafts.  I think what qualifies it as a country store is that it has a wooden floor.

This is also Mashpee Wakeby, but at the boat ramp

We finished off our brief tour with lunch at Dino's Sports Bar.  They have pretty consistently good food and Russell likes to relax with some Keno.  

That's the last of the Cape Cod towns I had left to photograph.  One more bucket list item done.

The Final Push for Home

While the delay totally sucked, it enabled to pass through PA during the day which was good because there was something I'd seen on the way out that I was sooooo hoping to get a picture of, even if we were on the highway.   

This farm was huge.

I was surprised that the Chesapeake Bay Watershed starts to far west.  Chesapeake Bay is in the Maryland/Virginia/Delaware area.

I have always wanted to see a Mail Pouch Tobacco barn.  It's sooooo quintessentially Americana.  I saw two on the way west which took me by surprise and I was so bummed that I couldn't get pics.  I did make a mental note of the mile markers though.  On the way east I thought it would be impossible, but I had Russell put down the left rear window, I set my camera on sports mode (continual shooting) and when we got close to the mile marker area, I started shooting.  I was soooo happy with how they came out, considering we were doing about 70 mph.

This is the other one, almost covered by trees but I got it!

Twas a long trip home though.

This is coming into New York City, at about 9:30 p.m.

I actually love how these came out.

George Washington Bridge.

NYC from the bridge

We got home at 2:00AM.  We had both been up 43 hours straight and literally collapsed in bed.  It was a wonderful trip though and we can't wait to go back!

Belle Vernon, PA

Too soon our trip came to an end.  I forgot to take a pic of our hotel the whole time we were there so I got this shot around 11pm which is when we started the drive east.  

We pulled over around 4:00 AM and Russell was gonna take a nap.  Unfortunately the dashboard lit up that the battery wasn't charging and there was an issue with the brakes.  Greeeat.  Thank god I have AAA cause I called them right away, but it took 3 hours for them to show up.  It was determined that it was probably an alternator issue.  We were 600 miles from home and I was so tired (having been up since 7AM the day before) that I start crying.  The guy said that he would lead us to a garage in Belle Vernon and, hopefully, they could squeeze us in.  We hobbled west for one exit and pulled in.  The mechanics were very nice and said they would get it done and us on our way, but it would be a wait.  We didn't care.  Just do it.  They took it into the shop at 10:30 and were kind enough to lend us a pick up truck that fit Sagan too, so that we could go get some breakfast and kill time.  

Since there was literally NOTHING to do, we took a short walk around so that I could take some pictures.  It's a very run down, hinky town and I was afraid to go off on my own so Russell walked Sagan and escorted me.

And guess where we were?  Below that blue bridge I had to take a picture of on the way west. 

Belle Vernon is in way western PA, only 40 or so miles from the border w/ West Virginia.  This is coal mining and steel country, which has not rebounded from prior recessions and times are still hard. 

I'd love to have gotten a look inside this place but it was being torn down.

The decay made for some interesting pictures.  I may convert some of them to black & white.

This is where we waited till about 1:30 in the afternoon.  They were good to us though, and we truly appreciated their kindness.  

Monongahela River.  If you were to follow that river in that direction (north), you'd hit Pittsburgh in about 30 or 40 miles.

They had to replace the alternator and the rear brake lines.  But on the test drive, the front brake lines blew out.  Talk about a kick in the chiclets.  That was so demoralizing to hear.  The guy said what he could do was block it off the really bad line in front and it would definitely get us home.  We finally got rolling again at about 2pm.  We were supposed to be home by then.  So back on the road we go, 10 hours behind.   Russell missed a turn and we ended up slogging through downtown Harrisburg (the state capitol) at rush hour.  I saw Three Mile Island from a distance.  Next thing I know he's off the highway and we are lost in very rural....and hilly.....PA, with limited cell signals.  My friend Liz was texting with me cause she was online trying to find where we were to tell us how to get back.  After about a 45 minute detour, we were back on I-78 and those last 300 miles were torture.