Beautiful Central Pennsylvania



Another glorious drive down to Danville, PA. Gorgeous with all sorts of hills, valleys, fields and farms. I saw this great sign coming down the last time and promised myself that the next time, I would capture it. I love the cow/type interface along with the pretty fearless text treatment with the overlap etc. There was some planning with this design, but I think the secondary copy grew in the development, thus the outlining in yellow as a way to give the letters some prominence against the big Bs.

It was great having a bit of think time in the car with this green landscape. Thought randomly about things to do, lists to make, ideas for pictures, and the near and dear. I got to Danville a bit early and stopped at the Weis market to use the bathroom and then do a little looksee at what was offered. Good Pennsylvania Dutch stuff? They did have the funny flat noodle, chicken pot pie in the deli. Selzer's lunch meats. No special bread but pink pickled eggs in the salad bar. No beer, of course, it's PA and they have beer distributors and state stores. Then, as I knew where I was going, I drove to a new part of the campus I was visiting and checked out which building, and where the parking might be. Then, I drove around the periphery of the campus finding myself downtown via the back routes, often with these very narrow lanes connecting the main roads. It was fun figuring it out. Had a good meeting. Hopefully this will work out. It all felt very right.

After the meeting, I took another drive downtown to see what the shopping district, I guess, the historic district was all about. There are blocks of high victorian buildings, some dressed stone, some perfect brick with high chroma detail and paint all about a block from the beautiful Susquehanna River. I discovered this amazing building/school called St. Cyrils which my new pal told me about as it is a school (St. Cyril Academy), retreat center and retirement home for the Sisters of St. Cyril>>. The amazing architecture that St. Cyril's has--with an enormous tall campanile, tower out of stone--very deco and impressive that can be a locator point in town. It rises above the landscape as a beacon for this small town.

I checked into the hotel and found there was a local, hand-drawn map on the desk. I asked about Bloomsburg which was apparently 10 minutes away. So, as I had a little time on my hands, I took a drive over on route 11 to see the college and it's small town which was charming and had a little town square with high Victorian architecture, a big fountain and a the requisite Civil War monument (complete with a tall obelisk and figures with flags). It was very Disneyland in it's americana and it's perfection. One thing I can say about these small towns is that there is such a neat and tidiness even in the working class neighborhood that bespeaks the honesty and work ethic that is so predominant here.

I came back and futzed with my computer to find out that the sticky track pad was being caused by the battery --which was bulging out of it's container. I was panicking (as of course, it was going to be ruined prior to Hartford...OMG OMG OMG)--noticed the battery, popped the battery out and restarted the computer. Just like new. Wow. It's so nice to be able to figure the obvious stuff out.

Going to work on my thumbnails later this p.m. and go to bed early to get up at 5 to return to the plateau by 9. Later>>