Yesterday we moved from Goshen, NY, to Owego, NY. Owego is just north of the PA border on the Susquehanna river, in the Finger Lakes region. We'll be here more than a week, but no one's really sure for how long. We were supposed to do some shovel tests on a nearby large field, but now that the field has been planted we can't dig it up. Instead, we're walking the surface looking for artifacts, which should take a few days but not as long as anticipated.
We're reaching the inevitable point of job insecurity that always comes with these projects. Rumors are flying - we've heard July 4th layoffs, and then most recently by the end of June. Talk of more work at the beginning of August, but we were planning on moving to North Carolina in August....
This project was supposed to be 4-6 weeks. I was hoping that we'd have something through the rest of the summer, but I guess it's my fate to be laid off in July. I've been laid off in July twice before! We'll see what happens. We've been able to save almost 100% of our paychecks and live off of per diem, so we have a bit of a cushion.
On the plus side, we're in a great hotel here in Owego. If you are looking for a place to stop on a road trip or something, I heartily recommend the Holiday Inn Express. We have two huge rooms with tons of space (Leland upon walking in: "we could have a dance party in here!"), including a full size refrigerator, kitchen sink, and stove with two burners. Flat screen TV, pool and lounge - and, of course, an actual hot breakfast. Plus the grocery store is right across the street! Shovelbum heaven.
Before moving we were driving more than an hour from Goshen into the Poconos, which is gorgeous country but, seriously, we need to discuss the definition of "mountain". Being more familiar with the Rockies or the Bighorns, I didn't even realize that we were in the mountains here. Seriously. After a week or so I heard someone talking about the mountains and I was like, "Mountains? Where? Oh, we're on one? Um... where?"
We drove through the Catskills on our way from Goshen to Owego, and I was much more convinced that these were actually mountains, although really they are still way too rounded and green on the tops. But if it makes you feel better, East Coast, I guess we can call them mountains. The drive was fantastic, over windy roads and through great scenery, and I could even sing at the top of my lungs to the my music because Leland was driving a company vehicle so I made the trip alone.
I'm excited to be in the Finger Lakes, as I've never been in this part of the country before. I'll try to keep posting pictures, but our new internet connection seems to hate Blogger picture uploads. Perhaps we'll try an internet cafe to get some pictures up
Ok, I finally have the RSS feed for your blog on my igoogle page and am caught up with all the posts. Just for the record, I want to say that I knew that flower was a wild geranium. :)
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that living in a hotel sounds kind of cool to me too. The problem is that I don't like paying for it.
I always thought the same thing about the mountains. There are some places where it's more obvious that yes, these are mountains. But I usually think of them as hills.
We're planning a trip down to Mankato to see Tyler tomorrow since Daddy has never seen the apartment. I thought we better do that before he moves into a house with some friends. Ellen is planning on going to a Gay Pride parade after work. Sam's birthday was yesterday but the grilled steaks got rained out. Two-three feet at some intersections around town.
Glad to finally catch up with what you guys are doing. Love the blog, Mom