writing wrongs weekend

It's been another steamy week in eastern Pennsylvania. Wednesday I went to Fit Camp. It was me, two coaches, the pregnant girl and that's about it, until the late woman rolled in about 6:20. We did the walking loop and I was wiped. You could cut the air with a knife. While I was gone they were talking about cancelling. Coach Suki decided to run the track and see how hot it was. She made it half way and walked the rest of the way. That was it. Camp was over. It was supposed to be the last week but they are going to have it one last week. Watch it rain.

 The New VF outlet in the old Reading Glass Outlet Building.

What's left of the old buildings. From the position I think this one was "Blue".

I'm not really walking this weekend. I'm at Writing Wrongs, a community journalism project. I'm the design adviser. It began last night at a swanky Hampton Inn. This morning the kids left for a field trip, and I was left in Reading with my own devices. Pat wanted me to stop at the Vanity Fair outlet for some items. (Barb, VF has moved out of the old factory, which is being redeveloped and into the old Reading China and Glass building. All the outbuildings are also coming down.)

I decided to look on Google maps to see what was close by the hotel. Maybe there was a park.

I found an arboretum! Perfect. But it rained like hell again yesterday and I am wearing flip flops. I expected to spend the weekend in a hotel putting a book together in a weekend. I wasn't prepared. But when did that stop me from exploring?

I don't have access to a printer, so I wrote the directions. And then, in an act of braveness, I decided to splurge and use my data on the phone and the GPS. I found the address, and VF was 8 minutes away. The museum was another 3 minutes.  I got to the car, hit "start" and the lady told me to turn right onto the street that was in front of me. Then she shut up! The directions were appearing on my phone but I had to look at them. Why not just write them on paper?

Then at VF, I hit the second location. This time she didn't talk at all, and she gave me directions once. The map was showing me I was headed in the right direction, but I wasn't getting directions. I figured it out myself. Plus I had to work around a street fair or 5K.

When I found the arboretum I quickly discovered that the storm played havoc here. The one bridge was washed out. Several sections of the road were covered with muck. While walking I slid a lot. At one point I almost slid into a nun who was walking in the grass to avoid the trail. There were pools of water everywhere sometimes on the grass, sometimes on the trail. The creek was running at top speed but no longer over the banks.

I probably only walked a mile or so before I came to the washed out bridge. Then I had to turn around and come back.

There was plenty of sculpture on the grounds. It was because of the sculpture that I realized I had been here before. My "new" walk turns out o be a place I was before. Back when Megan's son was a baby, we did a Reading Volkssport walk. We walked thru this arboretum. Drats. It's not a new walk or an incredible discovery.

But I haven't been to the museum. So I went there. And the art galleries were closed.  Oh well. I saw stuffed animals, and ancient Egypt, and Asia. Typical museum stuff. There was a cool collection of political editorial cartoons from the Regan era. The "feature" was a space futuristic theme. Not my speed, but I was a bit taken aback when I saw C3PO and R2D2, and the new little orange and white rolling guy. (I've been told that is BB-8.)

Then it was back to the hotel to Writing Wrongs.