Cody’s blog

Shawnee State Park
132 State Park Rd
Schellsburg, PA 15559

814-733-4218

May 7 – May 12, 2024

Our very first camping trip in my Thor Tellaro campervan was to Shawnee State Park, PA, in May 2024. I met my brother and sister-in-law on their last two stops on their way home from their winter travels.

Since I’d never camped in the van before, I moved into it the night before with the cats, so we could get used to it and make sure we had everything we needed before we left. So technically, I suppose you could say our first night camping in the van was in my driveway, on May 6. All went reasonably well, and we headed out on the morning of the 7th at around 11 AM to meet my brother and SIL at the campground.

The drive was longer than expected due to a detour on I-81, a stop for lunch at a rest area, and then missing my exit on I-80 because I’d turned my headlights on for a construction zone, which dimmed the screen on my tablet so I couldn’t see the map, and while I was fiddling around with the screen trying to get it brighter I accidentally turned off the navigation. By the time I realized I was no longer getting directions, I was 10 miles past my exit, and had to do some winding through country roads to get back to my route. I arrived at the campground around 5 PM, got set up and visited briefly with J&J, fed the cats, made myself ramen for dinner and called it a day!

It was a pretty camground, with lots of trees and spacious mostly-level sites. I was in the area that allowed pets, and J&J had their trailer around the corner and about halfway down the loop.

The most difficult part of the trip was poor Mister’s health, which had been deteriorating over the previous months. I was hoping the stress of traveling wouldn’t make him worse, but my hopes were dashed as soon as we left. Every day, I spent time cleaning up his various messes and washing out towels at the bathhouse. I had his medications with me and tried to get him stabilized but nothing worked.

But we had a lot of good times, visiting sites in the area. On Wednesday, the first full day of our stay, we visited the 9/11 Flight 93 Memorial, the location where the courageous crew and passengers aboard the hijacked Flight 93 brought the flight down before it could crash into the Capitol. Everyone aboard was killed, but the crash landed in a field where no one on the ground was hurt.

First stop was the Tower of Voices, a 93-foot tall structure containing 40 wind chimes, representing the voices of the crew and passengers aboard the flight. We stood inside it and listened to the chimes ring.

Next, we went to the Visitor’s Center, which contains a timeline of the events of the day, including recordings of the cockpit voice recorder and artifacts recovered from the crash. Extending out from the Visitor’s Center is the overlook where one can view the Field of Honor where the crash occurred.

Then we followed the walkways through the field to see the Wall of Names, where the crew and passengers are listed. It was a beautiful and moving visit.

Afterwards, we had lunch at the 9 Mile Tavern. I had a vegetable stromboli that was delicious and so huge I could only eat half of it. Took the rest home and ate half the leftover for dinner and the other half for lunch the next day.

On Thursday, we took a small tour of a few of the covered bridges in the area. First was Turner’s Bridge, with a weight limit of 3 tons. We couldn’t drive through it, but stopped and parked and walked through it. On the far side, we saw that even if we had been able to drive through, we couldn’t have gone any farther. The road was closed on the other side.

Next was the Colvin Bridge, which had a high enough weight limit, but the height was too low to allow J&J’s van through, so once again we parked at the side of the road and walked through the bridge.

Last on our mini-bridge tour was the Herline Bridge. At last, one we could drive through!

Friday was a rainy day so we spent the day at the campsite, relaxing in our RVs.

Saturday was our last full day at the park. We started our day by stopping at a Scenic View inside the park, where we walked down to Shawnee Lake. Very pretty views and hiking trails.

Then we drove into the historic town of Bedford, PA, to visit the Fort Bedford Museum. The fort was built in 1758 during the French & Indian War, and the museum holds many artifacts and historical exhibits from the fort’s history.

After visiting the museum, we ate lunch at the Village News café, where I had a fish sandwich and fries.

Then it was back to the campground for our last night at the park. Although we were leaving the next day, I wasn’t sure my van’s toilet cassette would last another day, so I had my first experience unhooking the van to drive to the dump station to dump the cassette and gray-water tank, then going back to the site. It went quickly and smoothly and I was pleased with how easy it was.

Sunday, after a lovely stay at Shawnee State Park, we packed up and headed out to the next campground!

When my heart kitty, Spot, died in July 2013, I was devastated. I wanted another orange cat, but I still had two cats, Socks and Jerry, and Socks in particular didn’t like other cats, so I decided not to get another cat as long as she was around. When Socks died in November 2015, Jerry seemed lonely, so I started looking for a cat to adopt.

I spotted Mister, called Simba by the shelter, on the Best Friends LA website in December 2015, and his little orange face really tugged at my heart. But it was three more months and another cat (Davey) later before I finally adopted him. In my “gotcha” post, I wrote:

I’d called about him, but found out he’d been sick from not eating, and was waffling about going to see him. On the one hand, I didn’t want to get caught up in yet another series of endless vet visits and treatments, after spending several years dealing with Socks’ and Spot’s slow declines. On the other hand, it was possible he was just not dealing well with being in a shelter and he might be just fine in a home. I waited a week or two and finally said, heck with it, I’m going to at least go and see him! So I drove all the way to Mission Hills (1hr 40min from here), only to find when I got there that Simba was in the clinic again, very sick, and it was not even sure he’d survive. I visited a few other cats, but came home empty-handed.

I kind of gave up on him after that, and eventually got Davey the kitten instead. But things were not ideal. Jerry never really got to like the kitten, and Davey is such a handful! He wants to play all the time, and pesters Jerry (and me) endlessly. I started to think that maybe a third cat — one that was playful enough to keep the kitten busy but not so wild that Jerry would be further upset — might help the situation.

And then, on St Patrick’s Day, I got an email from Best Friends with news of their March adoption specials. Not really expecting anything to come from it, I decided to take a look at their adoptable cats. And there was Simba! He’d gone into foster care and was doing really well. So I immediately thought, THERE IS MY CAT I MUST HAVE THIS CAT! and emailed them and set up a time to come and see him, which was this afternoon, and brought him home.

He walked around the house a bit and looked at the other cats. Hissed a bit but didn’t seem aggressive, just wary. Jerry ignored him. Davey immediately wanted to play, but I didn’t let them get together just yet. His foster mom said he got along well with all of her cats, played with the youngest, and cuddled with the ones that wanted to cuddle. So I expect he’ll get along with my guys once he gets used to them, and them to him.

I totally love him already.

Mister was always kind of a strange guy. He meowed a lot for no apparent reason, was anxious and nervous, hissed when most cats would howl. He either ate too much or not enough. His health problems — which I was hoping to avoid when I originally passed on him — were endless and varied. He tried to be friends with Jerry, but she wouldn’t have anything to do with him. Davey tried to play with him, but he hissed and growled and ran away. Eventually, they learned to get along, but there were always spats.

Mister loved his food, and would eat anything you gave him, but he had a sensitive stomach and couldn’t eat too much dry food or it would give him diarrhea. He had urinary crystals, bladder stones, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, assorted UTIs and stomach upsets. Seemed we were constantly treating him for something. He was on meds for his anxiety and prescription foods for most of the time I had him.

Despite his health issues and oddities, he was a sweet, friendly cat, who would sit in my lap for hours on end and let me give him his various meds without much fuss. When he was diagnosed with HCM, I thought I wouldn’t have him much longer, since that was what ended Spot’s life, but it turned out to be less of an issue than his other conditions. I worried about taking him across the country in a trailer when I moved, but he survived the trip in good health, his only problem being that he hated riding in the travel carrier while we were on the move. I eventually had to leave the carrier unzipped so he didn’t feel trapped.

I noticed after we’d moved and I took him to his new vet for an exam that he was gradually losing weight, although he’d been eating fine and having no other problems. He continued to lose weight, and have increasing issues with diarrhea and vomiting. We tried numerous different medications and prescription foods, but nothing worked for long, and eventually he just got so skinny his body began to fail him. We were never sure exactly what the underlying condition was, but we think it was probably lymphoma, which would have been fatal eventually no matter what we did. He was down to 3.8 pounds (from his healthy weight of 11.5 pounds) when I finally had to let him go.

He was a good kitty and I miss him.

Our first family cat was Snap. Technically, I think he was my brother’s cat, but we all loved him. He was a sturdy black tabby tomcat. In those days, we didn’t think about neutering our pets or keeping them indoors. He would go out every spring and be gone for about a week, romancing all the lady cats he could find and fighting with other toms.

Here I am with Snap, in a photo dated May, 1963. I would have been around 11. I have no idea how old Snap would have been. I can’t really remember when or how we got him, it just seems like he was always there.

Whiskers was my first cat. This picture was also taken in May, 1963. Yes, that is a poodle skirt I’m wearing.

I got Kitty somewhere around 6th to 8th grade, I don’t remember exactly. A classmate asked if anyone wanted a kitten. I said I did. Presumably there was some conversation between our parents. All I remember is my friend and her mother driving up to our house, handing me a kitten, saying, “Here’s your cat,” and driving away. She told us the kitten was purebred Siamese, but not registered. Presumably not show quality, or she wouldn’t have been free, but I never cared about that. I loved her to bits! She was a fussy little diva, typical Siamese, very opinionated and talkative. She was my best friend throughout junior high and high school and beyond.

She always had to be the center of attention.

After I graduated from high school, I bummed around for about a year before returning home to go to community college. Somewhere along the way, someone gave me a tiny little orange ball of energy we named O.J. He grew up to be this behemoth, sixteen pounds of muscle and fur. Note how broad his chest is.

O.J. was the sweetest, friendliest cat ever. He loved everything and everybody: people, other cats, rabbits, dogs, horses. He had a purr you could hear from across the room, and a tiny, squeaky little meow. When I moved back home I brought O.J. with me. Kitty was appalled and offended. He ran right up to her to try to make friends. She hissed and growled and retreated under the bed and wouldn’t come out until O.J. had been banished to the garage. He was content to be the outdoor kitty while she ruled the house.

When I moved away to go to university, I left Kitty and O.J. at home with my parents. O.J. died a year or so later, the victim of someone who was poisoning neighborhood cats. Kitty lived on to be around 16 years old, always happy to see me when I came home on breaks. My mom said Kitty would start waiting by the door a couple of days before I arrived, somehow knowing I would be home soon. She always greeted me like the old friend she was.

Living cat-free at university, I discovered that the constant runny nose and cough I’d been suffering for years was a severe allergy to cats I’d developed. I didn’t have another cat until I moved to Tehachapi over twenty years later, and found that a cat came with the house I’d bought on the mountain. My allergies had gotten better over the years, and I was very happy to be able to have cats again.