Liberty Bell Wanderers Newsletter
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As we approach the end of the year it is nice to reflect on some of the recent events that we held...

The picnic at Lake Galena was blessed with exceptional weather. We filled the pavilion with a large number of volkssporters and about a ton of food. We had 67 people that did the walk and a large number of members that enjoyed the day by visiting with old friends.

The walk was the regular trail around the lake. It is really nice now that the entire trail is paved. A number of people reminisced about some of the past walks where we had to tread through mud. One year it was so bad that we had to detour and use the road. However, the 8% grade hill is still there, but that just helps to work up an appetite.

To celebrate our 25^th anniversary we decided to have roast pig for the main course. The Fowlers and the Missfeldts did some checking with different suppliers. Lydia Fowler decided that the prices were too high so she spent untold hours cooking and shredding many pounds of pork and supplied the pork for about one third the lowest price quoted. Thank you Lydia. We also had some bratwurst and hot dogs and the hungry volkssporters finished all those also. Members contributed many side dishes to complement the pork, sauerkraut and brown gravy. I always try to sample a little of each but the plate was too small. A second trip through the line allowed me to try a few more but my brain kept reminding me that there was also another table loaded with desserts. Two trips through this line made me exceed my normal weekly allotment of desserts.

A lot of work is necessary to make the picnic a success. I would like to thank the following for all the work they did; Dean and Lydia Fowler and Bill and Helen Missfeldt for all the planning for the picnic, Ben and Elsie DiGennaro for cooking the brats and hot dogs, Larry Wagner for help in setting up, Al Kilburn for putting up the directional signs, Al Kilburn and Eugene Maier for handling the start table registration, Janet Nelson for handling Sales and photo albums, plus many others (you know who you are) that just pitched in wherever they saw something to do. Also thanks to everyone that brought all the delicious salads, and desserts and finally thanks to everyone that came to share this special day for the club.

The new date of Sept 20 was well received and we will try to schedule it for the same time (Sept 19, 2010) next year.

The Steuben Parade finally became reality after Philadelphia reduced the fee they were charging for police and cleanup. The parade started 2 hours earlier than in the past with start at noon. We had 26 walkers on a beautiful day. The parade was restricted to one traffic lane, but that worked fine. The hoagies arrived late; we ate them after the parade rather than before. Nobody complained and they vanished in a hurry. It would have been nice to have more walkers but we had fun waving to the parade watchers and throwing candy to the kids.

Many thanks to Eugene Maier for all the hours he put in for this event. He attended meetings throughout the year and then arrived early to set up and sign in walkers and then dashed off to pick up the hoagies. Also thanks to Heinz Weiler and Al Kilburn for helping Eugene.

October began with a walk in Perkasie. Joan Lampart and Janet DeOrio planned a nice trail that included much of Old Town Perkasie as well as newer sections of town and also a walk along the creek. The covered bridge was a major highlight of the walk and 37 of the walkers were able to get a stamp in their Covered Bridge Event book. Perkasie added to the enjoyment by hosting their Fall Fest, and our start point was a part of the festivities. The weather was nice and we had 83 walkers with walkers from 7 different states (PA, DE, NJ, MD, NY, NC and FL). We also had 2 walkers sign up as new members. The festival was oriented towards kids but they did have some interesting things for adults. They also had some food, mainly hot dogs (but no sauerkraut) and ice cream. We had many good comments so we may consider doing it again in 2010.

Many thanks to Joan Lampart and Janet DeOrio for doing much of the work in planning this event. Also thanks to everyone that volunteered to work; Dean and Lydia Fowler, Al Kilburn, Larry Wagner, Sharon Smetzer, Janet Nelson, Ed Lampart, Bill and Helen Missfeldt, Bev Robinson, Jean Meyers and Joyce Deibert.

Our final 2 regular events were part of the 4 county walks in western PA. We sponsored 2 (Indiana and Punxsutawney) of the 4 walks with the Nittany Nomads doing the walks in Clarion and Clearfield.

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. by President Ron Nelson.

There were l8 officers and members in attendance.

The pledge of allegiance was led by Ron.

We celebrated: 2 anniversaries - the Nelsons & the Gussmans, and one birthday – Paul Dallas

Ron reviewed the walks in September:

Lake Galena – 67 walkers

Steuben – 26 walkers

Perkasie – 83 walkers

Canadian bus – Phila. East & more – 44 walkers

The bus trip for the Fall Foliage was leaving at 7:30 a.m.

On the trip, a 2^nd banquet was added to be held at the museum.

Orders are now being taken for the Starting Point Book, which includes all information for year round walks. Cost is $17.50.

Ron has to place the order very soon, so contact him at

215-699-946 to purchase your copy.

The club needs to conduct board elections once again and we need non- board members for the nominating committee to contact people to run for the various offices. If you would like to do your club a service, volunteer to help by calling Ron.

Larry Wagner will attend the VE banquet, and we approved to give to the club a donation of $800 for use of their facility.

Christmas Party: Sunday, 12/13/09, 2:00-5:00 p.m. at the Vereinigung Erzgebirge, $25 per person. The members voted to not exchange gifts but to bring an unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots (any age child). This will give more time for singing and socializing. The time was also shortened.

Helen Missfeldt is stepping down as Program Coordinator for our meetings for next year, so we are in search of someone to take her place. She is willing to give guidance to the next person.

The walks for the remainder of the year are:

Stroudsburg - Nov. 7, 10:00 a.m.

New Hope - Nov. 21, 10:00 a.m.

Bethlehem - Dec. 12, 10:00 a.m. (Moravian)

Make up Walk – Oct. 29, 9:00 a.m. - Allentown( Lehigh)

Mystery Walk - Nov. 5, 9:00 a.m.

A January/February walk may be planned; see in December Newsletter.

Walks will resume on a regular basis in March. Schedule will be in the Newsletter.

Other club walks: Hershey Walk – Nov 27-28; Lititz – Nov 29

Treasurer, Doris Simon, reported an operating budget balance of $1,403.70, after $7,792.04 is being held for the bus trip.

Nov. 18 – Ripley’s Believe It or Not – Part 2

By Carol Talaga, Sharon Smetzer, and Joan Brown

Day 1: Our Hagey Motor Coach departed promptly at 7:30 am from the VE, with 46 Wanderers, arriving for an afternoon stroll through Indiana Pa. Make no mistake, this is the home of Jimmy Stewart! We 46 Wanderers were not deterred by the light rainfall, although some of us opted for the shorter walk which did not include the Indiana University campus. Points of interest included the Jimmy Stewart birthplace and childhood home, both now private residences, and his Museum. The Museum showcases the 81-film career of the town’s favorite son and traces the Stewart family presence in Indiana County from the 1820’s. A war memorial in the center of town recognizes fallen Indiana County soldiers since the French & Indian War. That evening, after check-in at our base camp, the historic [1899] Pantall Hotel, it was time to eat and discover history at the Punxsutawney Area Historical and Genealogical Museum. The dedicated staff was the essence of hospitality: stopping traffic so we could cross the street safely, attentively serving a delicious lasagna dinner, and guiding us through the collections. The highlight of the evening was a guided tour of a scholarly vintage clothing exhibit "Objects of Costume".

Day 2: A steady morning rain did not dampen the spirits of 141 hearty souls (46 Liberty Bell Wanderers and fellow walking colleagues), who ventured out on 5 & 10 K treks through the streets of downtown Punxsutawney and up the long hill to the fabled Gobbler’s Knob (site of the Ground Hog Day festivities). It was a rare treat to take in everything "ground hog" from paw marks along our rural path, to Phil’s infamous tree trunk "cage" on the Ground Hog Day stage, to the 19 colorful 6 ft fiberglass themed "Phantastic Phil" statues scattered along our walk routes, to even a Ground hog Zoo! Upon completion of the walk, everyone was presented with a color photo of Gobbler’s Knob to commemorate our Liberty Bell Wanderers event.

Our afternoon walk was planned by the Nittany Nomads and featured 5 & 10 K routes wandering through the town of Clarion and the Clarion University campus. A special highlight of that walk was finally the absence of raindrops!

Day 3: What a difference a day makes! Sunday dawned warm and sunny … a gorgeous autumn day. After our hearty buffet breakfast, Bob (our bus driver) drove our busload of eager walkers up the long winding hill to Gobbler’s Knob where we met Ron and Janet Nelson for a group photo. Then it was ‘on the road again’, to Clearfield, PA, the last of our four counties. Clearfield was a beautiful little town along the west branch of the Susquehanna River. It is the site of an Indian village Chinklacamoose and is said to get its name from clearings made by grazing bison along the nearby creeks. The walk passed through the Old Town Historic District with its 4 blocks of quaint Victorian homes dating from 1860 to 1890 and the home of Daniel Ogden. We also saw the 300 million year old cast of trunk from a prehistoric tree (on the lawn of the Clearfield County Historical Society and Museum) and the Ritz Theater, whose foyer was built in the 1890s. After getting our many books stamped we were back on the bus for a short drive to lunch. (For walkers like me - Joan - who participate in the special event programs, this trip was a windfall. I got 39 stamps in three days.)

Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub, "Home of the World’s Largest Burgers", in Clearfield, was our lunch stop. The pub opened in 1977. Its claim to fame is its large hamburgers. The restaurant keeps expanding the size of its hamburgers to keep the record as having the biggest. It started with a 2-pound burger challenge and now has a 123 pound burger priced at $379. That burger could have fed our entire bus! Many of our walkers did manage the ½ pound burger along with a few beers (in rather interesting glasses) to wash it down. After our delicious and leisurely lunch, we were back on the bus again for our long trip home. After snacks and a movie ("Shall We Dance?"), we arrived safe and sound at the VE. Thanks to Ron and Janet Nelson, Carol Rautenstrauch, Marian Walsh, the Nittany Nomads and the many others who volunteered their time to make this such a memorable Fall Foliage trip.

A must see in this country is the beauty of our National Parks; and what better way of doing that then WALKING!

Six members of our walking club, Pat Cavanaugh, Joann Cummings, JoAnn Drury, Marie Horeis, Wanda Musse, and a former member, Caroline Sljuka now in CA. and me, departed on Sept. 19-Oct. 2, 2009, for Denver, CO, where we joined 42 other walkers on a fabulous Tater Tour.

We walked the capital, Denver, on a beautiful sunny morning, and moved on to Estes Park, CO in the afternoon. Here we were entertained on our walk by a herd of elk coming out of the woods, crossed the road and onto a golf course, where the males bellowed out their mating calls that not only informed the females, but excited all the tourists as well to hear nature in action.

We awoke in Rocky Mt. Nat’l Park, CO, to what we feared when we saw the dates of this trip, a dusting of snow on the ground. The light snow flurries only added another beautiful dimension to our walk through the high mountains, fall foliage, and more elk.

We drove on to another capital walk, Cheyenne, WY. An interesting town with Wild West type sculptures everywhere. It sure gave one the feeling that you are now in "cowboy territory!" They also have a soft spot for beauty, for the walk included botanic gardens that were in full bloom of gorgeous flowers, even though the windy, cold day was telling us that winter is not far away!

Once we arrived at beautiful Grand Tetons Nat’l Park, WY, the weather was excellent for walking the rest of the trip – 65^o – 75^o. We had luck on our side, or Mary was praying to the sun god, for we were always one day ahead of a predicted storm moving into the area.

We walked around Jenny Lake and up through the forest pines to a beautiful waterfalls. Rounding out the evening in Jackson Hole, WY, was splurging at a lovely restaurant where several of us enjoyed, what else, but Buffalo steaks and the biggest Buffalo burgers I’ve ever seen, and ended the day walking the western town.

We traveled up the road to neighboring Yellowstone Nat’l Park, WY where we stayed at Old Faithful Snow Lodge for 2 days. Here there is so much to see, smell and digest the phenomena of Mother Nature. No one misses Old Faithful erupting before walking the boards to many geysers having their own shapes and beautiful colors.

The 2^nd day we drove 50 miles through the park to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Here we went light on walking and did a short walk around and down to the "little" Niagara Falls... On the way out of the park, we spotted a herd of Buffalo walking through the woods and some antelope.

Now the next day was my birthday and I thought what an awful, god forsaken place to celebrate a big event but at our next stop, Virginia City, MT. I never even heard of the place. What a surprise when we arrived in an authentic, original, 1800’s gold mining town. We hiked up to Boot Hill where a cemetery included 4 men charged for stealing gold were hanged and buried. We walked on wooden sidewalks through the town and had a delicious lunch and shopped. We also walked a mile down the road to Nevada City, MT, another original old gold mining town, peeked in the windows of many old, furnished, wooden buildings where at least 10 western movies were filmed. We ended the day in Idaho Falls, where my friends treated me to a delicious dinner at a lovely restaurant along the Snake River. It will be a birthday I will always remember and cherish!

The walk in Crater of the Moon Nat’l Monument in Idaho was a different kind of beauty; black, flowing lava spewed from cracks in the earth’s crust millions of years ago, now hardened black rocks cover the area as far as the eye could see.

Man made beauty was our next walk, Salt Lake City, UT. We started our walk through a beautiful mile long city park with lots of trees and interesting sculptures which led to the Capital Bldg., museums, the Mormon Church grounds, and concluded with a delicious lunch at Siegfried’s German Deli. Before departing the area, we stopped at the Kennecott Copper Mine outside the city, one of the largest copper mines in the world, and one of 2 things that can be seen in outer space.

Back to Mother Nature, the walk in Bryce Nat’l Park, UT, was the highlight of natural beauty. Some walked down to the canyon floor and others walked the 6 mile rim. Both presented the majestic colors of red, orange, tan, spirals of rocks, side by side like popsicles, as far as the eye could see. This is a place every walker should experience.

The next day, Zion Nat’l Park, UT, competed with Bryce for beauty by having a different type of rock formation and colors. It had huge, solid rock mountains where tunnels had to be carved in order to enter the park, where the walks were more level and on the valley floor.

Nearing the end of our trip, in the a.m., some walked around both Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, while others only around Lake Mead, and in the p.m., Las Vegas casinos and streets. A few of us celebrated the end of this wonderful trip with a delicious Italian dinner at the Mirage, followed with a terrific Cirque du Soleil performance of the Beatles "Love" music.

You will never be disappointed if you go walking on one of Mary’s Tater Tours!

LBW Website – www.ava.org/clubs/libertybellwanderers

Atlantic Region – www.ava.org/clubs/reg_atlantic (a line between the g & a)

4 Fried Shrimp Chicken Parmesan

11 Baked Ham Fried Chicken

18 Pot Roast Seafood Newburg

25 Crab Cake Chopped Sirloin

Dec 2 Shepherd’s Pie Chicken Marsala

Dec. 12 Bethlehem (Moravian) 10:00 a.m. – meet @

If you want to carpool- call Larry Wagner 215-422-1337

Oct. 29 Allentown, Lehigh (Make up walk)

Nov. 5 Mystery Walk

A January/February walk may be planned; see December Newsletter.

Walks will resume on a regular basis in March. Schedule will be in the February Newsletter.

Other club walks: Hershey Walk – Nov 27-28; Lititz – Nov 29