Between the Jewish holidays, a spate of funerals, my weekly British Invasion class, and the five other classes I'm taking at OLLI, we have both been stressed out. Last Sunday, Joe had a full day of Sunday school, Hebrew classes and teen programming at temple. The weather looked good, and I decided to take the day off and visit my October county, Bedford, Pennsylvania. It's just one hundred miles from home, so I figured I could go and come back. Statistically it had 49,762 people in 2010, is part of metropolitan Altoona, is overwhelmingly Caucasian and votes Republican. I couldn't find a synagogue or decent shopping mall. Both of those exist in Altoona, less than forty miles away. The county seat, Bedford is small and dates back to colonial times. Nearby is Bedford Springs Resort, a sprawling hotel with mineral springs, similar to the Homestead, in Hot Springs, Virginia, where I spent a night in August. Both are just barely on the east side of the Appalachians, so geographically in the same region.
I ran into the Fall Foliage Festival, a two-weekend event in the center of Bedford. Lots of booths selling wood-carved Santas and black cats for Hallowe'en, homemade jewelry and signs saying things like "Steelers Fans Only" or "Retired, Gone Fishin'." Most of the town is a historic district, so I took a few pics. The leaves were beautiful as advertised, it was sunny and the temperature rose from 55 - 60. I ate a sloppy chicken on pita sandwich, and because Tappuz, our cat, was a rescue, and because the local Humane Society was sponsoring it, I had to have a big bowl of fresh homemade apple cobbler, topped with locally-made vanilla ice cream.
I found two other historic districts in smaller towns in the county, pretty, but a bit rundown. There's an ancient mill on the Juniata River, with a trail through the area. There are maybe sixteen covered bridges in the county.The weather clouded up after a while, and started to cool down. Winter is not far away.
I drove back over the mountains, and I was home by six.
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| Bedford Springs Resort |
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| Pitt St., downtown Bedford |
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| historic cemetery, Bedford |
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| Fall Foliage Festival, Bedford |
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| Juniata Mill, Snake Spring Township |
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| Jackson's Mill Covered Bridge, East Providence Township (under repair) |
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| Schellsburg Historic District |
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| Summer Lake, Shawnee State Park, near Schellsburg |
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| Russell House, Bedford |
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