Debbie's Post: Celebrating our 43rd anniversary back in Pennsylvania again Part One

43 years ago we honeymooned at the Birchwood Resort in the Poconos for one week and then to Gettysburg and Lancaster area for the second week. We have been brought back to this area many times over the years to see new sights and this time to cross an item off my bucket list, but more about that later.
This vacation has turned out to be unique, surprising, fun, inspiring, fattening and just a really great time. This one will be remembered fondly. Here's Part One:
We decided to travel half way to our first destination on the first day landing us in Dunmore, PA. This is how we travel now that we are older. We had never been to Dunmore before. We went to a little diner, the Dunomre Bucktown Diner and I had to take a picture of George's three meat open faced sandwiches--ham, turkey and roast beef! And note to self: what a great idea an author had--advertising his book on the diner's place mats, maybe someday......

The main street of Dunmore, PA is lined with banners of men who served in various wars, such a nice way to honor them.

This guy was hanging out on a bench in the rain. The town had a lot of references to deer. I sadly have to say I have never driven to Pennsylvania without seeing a dead deer on the side of the road, so there must be a huge population.

Our motel that night was nothing special. We were too tired for the pool and the place looked like it needed some upgrading. We did have HBO and enjoyed an unusual movie ("Three Billboards in Ebbing, Missouri"). Well, turns out this humdrum motel will remain in our memories because at 7 am, the alarms all went off. I opened our door at the same time as a guy across the hall in his room, we were seeing if anyone was evacuating and we didn't see anyone else but since the alarms were still going off, we decided to evacuate. Now we did a stupid thing, I know, but we didn't smell smoke or see anything, so we threw on clothes first, even went to the bathroom quickly and I grabbed my purse, phone and chrome book while George grabbed the room and car keys too. We were wise enough to use the stairs for the three flights. When we got outside, we went to our car to keep warm and watch as the fire trucks arrived. Not a way you want to start your vacation....

It ended up being something to do with the dryer in the laundry room and we were let back in after about 1/2 hour thankfully.

From there were went to Wilkes-Barre, George wanted to attend a Mennonite Church for some reason. I just dutifully found one and went, but am glad we did. They were very welcoming and I really enjoyed the message. It was inspiring and a reminder that we all need to be doing our part in this world and he gave so many examples of people in the Bible doing things--some seemingly small but still as he said, "he/she did what he could".

The building was a Catholic church that they bought hence the stained glass windows.

I thought this stone wall in front was interesting--no sitting on the stone wall.

They invited us to lunch and we might have stayed but we had another 2 1/2 hours to our next destination. This one I had as a surprise for George but I couldn't keep it a secret any longer and told him as we were a couple of hours away. He loves trains and I found this place that had converted cabooses and other train cars into motel rooms. When I was booking the room, I had to go for the Mail car, of course. What a unique and fun stay. We won't forget this.

The neighboring car had a back deck.

Here was our car. It has to be renovated on the outside, but it was good.

It turned out we had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, two TVs, two table and chair sets, two microwaves, two refrigerators. Would have been a great deal for two couples or small family.

Our host did note to us that the mail car ceiling is higher than the caboose if you get claustrophobia. It must have been the mail room car that made me dream about a former postal co-worker that night.

No hiding the Bibles in a drawer--both were open on the tables to the same passages in Psalms.

And outside, more Bibical encouragement.

There's a gift shop and Casey Jone's restaurant, which is also a converted train car. The background music had quite a few train songs. Never thought about how many songs mention trains. Atmosphere was great, food not so great.

The property also has a silo which you can climb to the top for a view and we did. Next to it is a barn where a free movie is played in the evening. There is a petting zoo and buggy rides too.

View from the silo.

We ended the night with a free movie in the barn. They played "The Greatest Showman", which we really enjoyed in the chilly barn as the rain tapped on the roof, just the two of us--the only ones who showed up and the horses who we could hear in stalls underneath. I am sure our stay at the Red Caboose Motel will be long remembered as a unique and fun experience.