The Big Wheel, Knoebel's Amusement Resort

All summer, several members of my family and I had been talking about scheduling a visit to Knoebel's, an amusement park in Elysburg, PA, near where one of my older sisters lives. And on this day, our plans finally came together and we did it!

We were fortunate to have a gorgeous, cool, clear, blue-sky day. The weather was perfect. We couldn't have asked for more. And so at 7 in the morning, I packed up my car and headed out.

The trip had several legs. I started at my house, drove to my parents' house and visited them for a little while, then drove to my little sister's, where I rode with her and her daughter to the park. We were to meet two other sisters and my oldest nephew and his family there, but alas, one of my sisters - the one who lives nearest the park, and whom I lived with in the summer of 1984, when I was a "pizza girl" at Caesar's at Knoebel's - was ill and unable to join us. The return trip reversed the process, but without a stop at my parents'.

I wish I could show you all of the snapshots from my day, for I saw so many wonderful things and took so many pictures that my head was practically spinning. Here is a sampling of what I saw:

-the sparkling sun shining through the morning mist rising off the Juniata River, when I stopped for a quick stretch break on my drive down

-the cool, abandoned old cars that I stopped to photograph for about five minutes along the road below my parents' house

-the hummingbirds at my mom and dad's house, cavorting and hanging out and eating like crazy to get warm on one of the first cool mornings of what we all surely must agree now is "late summer"

-huge, golden pumpkin blossoms on the vine, loaded with fat, happy bumblebees, in my mom and dad's backyard

-my mom and dad sitting on the couch for me, posing for pictures and obligingly, giving each other a hearty smooch for the camera - a picture that may quite happily have ended up as today's blip, except that I think it might have embarrassed my mother, who is a modest woman  :-)

-my sister's black kitty, Gracie, rolling and rolling on the floor, glad for the attention

-my younger sister sitting on her couch, hugging her daughter, before our adventure at the park began

-the yellow swallowtail butterfly that was the welcome crew, one of the very first sights I saw when I entered the park

-the many rides that my little sister's daughter rode, and a few that we all rode together, including the little train through the woods and the big wheel shown in this picture

-the junk food we ate, including pizza at the park and some really gorgeous golden french fries (what some people might call "chips")

-the many wonderful creatures at the carousel museum (which I photographed and posted here last year when we went to the park)

-the pretty things I saw all around the park: many-colored flavors of frozen slushees, the swans in the creek, the covered bridge

-and best of all, family, beloved family, the smiling, dear faces that I love, but do not see nearly as often as I wish (the most priceless part of my day, by far!)

And finally, around 6:30, my little sister and her daughter and I packed back into the car and left the park. A quick stop in Richfield for soft-serve ice cream was a treat on the way. At my sister's house, I changed cars and headed for home, with the half-moon hanging in the sky to my left for company, and the sunset over the mountains to my right. By shortly after 9 pm, I was home. It was a beautiful, beautiful day.

The song to accompany this festive and colorful big wheel that keeps on turnin', turnin' . . . is Ike and Tina Turner, with Proud Mary.