We're Back!!

June 22, 2026

Hello Everyone, and sorry for the long delay in posting to this blog. It's been a long haul since our last post with a lot of bumps in the road along the way. But, as we are writing this, we are finally on our first camping trip of the season. This trip will be featured in a later post, but for now we'll feature some of the day trips we managed to squeeze in while trying to get our lives back on track.

Shenks Ferry Wildflower Preserve - April 3, 2026

In early April we revisited the Shenks Ferry Wildflower Preserve in Conestoga, PA. For details about the preserve, here's a link to a previous post from 2024 when we last visited the preserve. We were a little early in the season for some of the flowers, but we still enjoyed walking through the preserve and this time took a path up to the Enola Low Grade Trail and then looped back into the preserve just above the tunnel leading to the preserve's parking area. The Preserve is always a great way to start off your spring, especially if you're craving the sight of flowers!

Even though we didn't see as many flowers as we would have liked, but we always enjoy the quiet peacefulness of the preserve and the sounds of the birds chirping away in the trees.

Northwest Lancaster County River Trail - April 3, 2026

After leaving Shenks Ferry we drove to Columbia so we could ride our bike on the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail. This trail is one of our favorites, and we try to return to it every year. We detailed our ride on this trail in a previous post, but this time we created a YouTube Short video with some of the highlights. It was a great day for the ride. We had the trail mostly to ourselves and took our time stopping along the way to take photos for the video.

Fricks Lock Village - April 11, 2026

The "New" section of Frick Locks Village

Fricks Lock Village is located just south of Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the shadow of the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant. The hamlet sits along the Schuylkill River Trail and consists of buildings dating back to the 1700s. The hamlet is generally closed to the public except for the "new" section of houses built in the 1800s right next to the trail. However, from April to October, visitors can take guided tours through the entirety of the mostly fenced off village during occasional open days. Visit East Coventry Township's website for dates and historical information about the village.

We really enjoyed the free tour. Even though we had stopped in the village during a bike ride on the Schuylkill River Trail, we had no idea that there was much more to see beyond the fence at the end of the road in the photo above. We made a YouTube Short Video with photos and some information about the village and it's Civil War connection.

Chanticleer Garden - May 10, 2026

In early May we joined our daughter and her family for a day trip to Chanticleer Garden, located in Wayne, Pennsylvania, on Philadelphia's Main Line. The privately owned 48-acre botanical garden was built on the grounds of the Rosengarten estate and welcomes visitors for a reasonable fee.

The weather was perfect on the day we visited and the many displays were beautiful. This is a place we will definitely have to visit again. For more information about the garden and its history you can watch our YouTube Short video.

That brings us up-to-date on our day trips. Coming up in the next blog post is our 3-night trip to Hampton, Virginia with our daughter and her family. Remember to check back in another couple of weeks for that post!

* All photos and videos are the property of the blog owners unless otherwise noted. *