Field of Dreams

Q: Is this Heaven?
A: No, it's central Pennsylvania!
Paraphrased from the film Field of Dreams.
More actual film quotes can be found here, as there are many I like and it was so hard to choose! Have you never seen this movie? Do you like Kevin Costner or James Earl Jones or Ray Liotta? For goodness' sake, go see it!

It was to be a hot day, with a heat advisory, but my husband and I decided it was time to get out of the house and get into some cold water. So we thought we'd head over to Greenwood Furnace for a swim and enjoy a nice, hot lunch at Couch's of McAlevy's Fort. More photos from this day can be found here on Instagram.

We ended up at lunch first. We've been taking turns ordering the hot roast beef sandwich with gravy, and this time it was his turn. I had the American hoagie, and he had the hot meal. We each saved some for later: about a third of the roast beef sandwich, and half the hoagie. The parking lot was lined with rudbeckia, black-eyed susans. The photo above is of the cornfield, with the corn beginning to tassel, and blue skies with puffy white clouds overhead.

When we got to Greenwood Furnace, my husband ran into one of his favorite people: a park ranger who works there. When the two of them get together, girl, you'd better go sit down, because the talking can last quite a while. 

They share many common interests, including riding bicycle, jogging in the woods, a love of nature, and an annoying propensity (so says this wife) to park as far away from where they are going as possible. You know, just to get a little more exercise in. My husband is not satisfied unless he can park our car in the spot furthest away from the front door; a remote spot a parking lot or two away would suit him even better. But I digress.

The ranger was regaling my husband with tales of the latest rattlesnake he'd had to relocate - making sure it was far enough away that it wouldn't crawl right back but not so far away that it could not find its winter den. 

They talked about the water temp, which has been around 60 degrees F of late. One Memorial Day weekend a few years back, the local parks waged a contest to see who had the coldest water: R.B. Winter won, with 49 degrees, and Greenwood Furnace came in second with 53.

I have mentioned on these pages that on July 7, when we took our last shower at home, the bathroom tub faucet, which had been leaking a little bit, became much worse, and we decided not to use it again until the plumber can fix it. My first response was just to close the tub and use the water out of there. However, the tub stopper no longer works, so I've put a large blue basin in the tub to gather the water so it's not wasted.

Every day, I use empty plastic 2-liter soda bottles to move water out of the basin and into other containers around the house and yard for our use. The plumber who showed up two weeks ago gave us an estimate and said he'd be back this coming Thursday morning to actually fix it. In the meantime, we've been showering at state parks.

All of this is the long way around to telling you that Greenwood Furnace has the nicest showers I know of. There are two private showers in the ladies' changing room and two in the gents' changing room. I typically use the larger one (you can see it in the Instagram set), with a little platform you can set up to sit or lean on. 

The water eventually gets warm, and it is just lovely. Unlike many other local parks, you do not typically end up showering with bugs. There is also an outdoor shower type spot where you can rinse off a bit, but golly gee, you'd better keep your swimsuit on in that one or you might get arrested for the free show!

In other news, last week, while shopping at Ocean State, the first thing I saw when I entered the store was a bright pink bathing suit, an Aqua Eve monokini for $10.* It was cut all the way down to the navel, and it had sexy side cut-outs. It was such a bright shade of pink that it practically made its own light. Well, of course, I bought it.

When I got it home, I put it on for the first time (no fitting rooms at Ocean State). My husband said, "It looks like it was custom made for you!" I have to tell you, though, that while buying a somewhat more revealing swimsuit than you are used to is mighty fun, actually putting said swimsuit on and tromping out onto the beach in front of people in it is an entirely different experience! But I think I did just fine. (My husband later said a thing that ALL husbands should say to their wives who wear a new outfit: "It really looked GOOD on you!") Thank you muchly!

It was indeed a hot day, but at the park, there were some nice breezes, especially if you sat in the shade, the water was cold and refreshing, the showers were nice, and the conversation was interesting and stimulating. We stayed longer than we expected to, and then headed home. 

Later that same evening, we did a strange new thing: we swapped our leftovers! Criss cross! I reheated and ate the rest of the hot roast beef, and he finished up the American hoagie! It was the end of a very good day!

I need a soundtrack song and so here are the Cranberries with Dreams.

*Bonus: link to the new Aqua Eve monokini swimsuit I bought, on Amazon. This is the exact style, but the bright pink color I purchased it in is apparently not available on Amazon.