We have emerged from the Catskills and are plugged back into the virtual world.  I have several updates to provide, but first i have to catch up on emails and review more than 700 photos shot by Ann in the last two days to prepare for another round of family history photos on Tuesday.

I managed to receive my second warning of the trip.  It all started with Ann asking me to stop so we could take a picture near the water.  It turns out that water isn’t any old water hole; instead, it is New York City’s main source of water.  And, it turns out, they are mighty protective of that water.  But, there weren’t any fences and there were a lot of little row boats littering the beach.  So, we thought, for the picture, we would be ok … below is the picture of us and a picture of me and the police while they wrote us both a warning.  To the officer’s credit, they were professional and even apologized for writing the warnings.  I guess they quickly concluded we were clueless tourists on a road trip.  I even gave one a card in hopes they’d drop by the website.

UPDATE II:  We spent last night at Andy’s place in the Catskills. Just as I posted this the power went out, remaining out most of the night.  Once again, I was without power and cell service so updates came to a halt.  I am thinking some higher power didn’t want me doing updates yesterday ….

UPDATE: Well, this was supposed to post this afternoon, but it turns out that there isn’t much broadband cellular service while driving through the catskills.  Then, once I did get service, I got through a variety of updates.  Unfortunately, my computer battery ran out just before finishing this last post.  Not to be deterred, I tried to use my power converter.  I plugged into the cigarette lighter only to discover the converter had blown a fuse.  sigh … but, I’m back up now.

Alex reports that Jeepneys are alive and well in Manila.  Here are some pictures from this week.  Thanks Alex!

We stayed the night with Bob & Mindy Christy on Thursday night in Akron, Oh.  They were delightful hosts, sharing their stories, food and cats with us.  They even scheduled a possum to come into their breezeway to add some excitement to the evening.

Bob & Mindy gave us the full tour of their place, including a tool tour.  My favorite tool wasn’t in the garage. Instead, it was Bob’s hand operated meat slicer from the 1950s.  I loved it!

Their love for jeeps is evident, with toys, calendars and pictures of them on many of the rustic wood walls of their cabin-like house.  In fact, they both worked on their beloved CJ-3B jeep, ‘Gertrude’, restoring it in time  for their wedding about a decade ago.  At the end of their wedding they drove away in it.  Positioned proudly over their fireplace mantel is a wedding picture of them next to it.

Their friends Bob and Brenda eventually joined us and we all went out to dinner at their favorite restaurant, the Falcon.  On the way we discovered that Ann and Bob had the same job in the Air Force, so talk quickly shifted to comparing notes on all kinds of things that went over my head.

Once we arrived at the restaurant, we enjoyed a fine meal. One of their specialties is the falcon burger, but I was disappointed to learn there was no actual falcon meat used to make it.

When we returned, Bob (of Bob and Brenda) pulled out a stack of 4WD catalogs freshly printed.  Gertrude recently made the cover of the Vintage Jeep 4WD Catalog.  Below is a picture of the catalog with me on the left and Bob on the right and Gertrude in the background and on the Catalog.  Many thanks to Bob and Mindy for their hospitality!!

After leaving Bob and Mindy we traveled north to North Tonawanda, where we stopped by the local Museum.  The museum is a work in progress.  We stopped to learn how far the museum has come in developing its Wurlitzer collection, as my Great Great Grandfather is Rudolph Wurlitzer.  We learned that they hope to have an area devoted to the Wurlitzer family and the Wurlitzer Piano and Organ Company by December.  The head of the museum was kind enough to take us ‘in back’ and give us a special tour.

From there, we drove to Niagara Falls to see it at night.  The lights were very cool and we used up all kinds of digital space shooting picture after picture!  Today we head towards Rochester for more family research.  The picture below shows the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, in the background and the falls to the left.  Changing colors of  lights from Canada shine onto the falls, illuminating them in different ways.  At 9pm, those crazy Canadians started launching fireworks, too.  Though chilly, it was a beautiful night!