298/365 Hummelstown

This past Sunday it was foggy and cold in the morning, so I opted out of a bike ride.  :P

Instead I went for a run and took my camera with me through nearby Hummelstown.  Here is your tour….

A co-worker has relatives (in-laws?) who own the Chatterbox Café.  Once a month or so we order lunch from there.  They don’t have a large menu, but the food is tasty and they don’t scrimp!

On the main town square stands the Warwick Hotel, which is a very old building --- they could probably get away with saying ‘George Washington slept here.’   The restaurant has a varied menu and it is also quite tasty.  The ‘habanero wings of fire’ come to mind. 

During the month of October Hummelstown has a ‘Scarecrows on the Square’ competition.  Local businesses and even individuals put up scarecrows of various themes and then stump for votes from the citizentry.  This is a collage of many of the scarecrows…some scarier than others:

Before heading home I wanted to hit a nature trail along the Swatara  Creek, but found out it was still a mess from last month’s flooding.  As I crossed a set of railroads tracks to get to the trailhead, the alarms went off, the lights flashed, and the barriers came down right behind me and a train came through in about 30 seconds.   It looks scawy in the fog.......

An old water pumping station by the creek was roped off.  A plague near the roofline shows the old high water mark from Agnes back in 1972.  This year the whole building was under water.

About 5 minutes later, as I crossed the railroad tracks again, the alarms went off, the lights flashed, and the barriers came down right behind me as another train came along on the second set of tracks going in the opposite direction!!!! 

These are busy tracks, since there is a large bi-modal transport hub only a few miles away. 

I manage to make it home without any more bells and alarms and flashing lights.  Yea! 

~Tooks in Southcentral PA