April and May– Traveling to Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

The end of April we traveled to Elizabethtown Kentucky, a beautiful area surrounded by country towns and horse farms.  We spoke to a large group in various stages of improving their diet, demonstrating a Country Barbecue Dinner. They all raved about how delicious the food was. Our hosts were Anna Marie and Chester Flowers, who had previously attended one of our classes and Thea and Bud Guenther who opened their home to us. We spent the night in the driveway and in the morning we were able to have short meeting to learn more about their ministry of health to their church and community using their farm as a teaching tool with young children. It is great to see people who are well into retirement so actively working their farm and ministry. Activity, a healthy diet and having a purpose keep us all young.
We got back on the road and headed towards Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. We were blessed to have another showing of spring flowers that had just finished in Atlanta.  Hosted by Julie Wandling and her mother Gloria, we taught a wonderful group of young people who were in various stages of a raw food diet. We spoke about the fundamentals of Raw Food, demonstrated and served a Tex Mex Meal in the spirit of Cinco D’ Mayo. Julie is a long time Health Minister and author of Healthy 4 Him and Hallelujah Kids.  Julie has been responsible for motivating and improving the health of her community through classes, potlucks, and her line of food that she delivers and sells at markets. Cuyahoga Falls is a beautiful town on the Ohio River, which has seven falls. We were able to spend the night close to a stunning fountain depicting the falls and fell asleep to the sound of water falling.

Cuyahoga Falls
The next day was a long day of traveling toward Pittsburgh. We stopped at Raccoon Creek State park about 30 miles west of Pittsburg to spend a couple of days. Raccoon Creek State Park has been in development since the 1930’s. It is one of the largest and most beautiful state parks in Pennsylvania. Facilities at the park are a mix, with recreational areas, and large tracts of undeveloped land. The 7,572-acre park features a beautiful 101-acre Raccoon Lake, and a 314 acre Wildflower Reserve which contains one of the most unique stands of wildflowers with over 500 species of flowering plants along the 5 miles of trails. We were lucky that this was one of the peak wildflower blooming times, April through May, and August through early September. Unfortunately we forgot our camera with us on our hike.
The next time we come here I would like to spend more time and visit the remains of the former Frankfort Mineral Springs Health Resort built in the early1800’s where wealthy guests from all over the U.S. and Europe would spend their summers drinking the mineral waters that were reputed to have a healing effect on a variety of ailments. The earliest recorded history of the Frankfort Mineral Springs begins in the 1772 when there were seven different pure springs flowing over the grotto, containing 15 different minerals thought to have medicinal qualities. Today you can still visit the spring’s U-shaped grotto and enjoy walking the trails surrounding the site of the former hotel and resort area.

The next day we drove into Pittsburgh, which was quite a surprise to me, as we emerged from a tunnel with the Ohio River, with the city in front of us, reaching high on each side, it was a site to behold. We had 5 days of classes and after Gideon’s excellent driving the RV all over this beautiful city, through tunnels and up and down steep, narrow streets, and over many high bridges I felt like I had been on a roller coaster ride. Pittsburgh is a modern, beautiful, and fun city. It has been rated the most livable city in the US twice. It has world-class universities, museums, parks, and arts and is among America’s oldest cities, now celebrating its 250th year. I have a beautiful memory of Pittsburgh etched in my mind.

Our first event was at the East End Food Co-op and Café on Meade Street, which was a most impressive complex. East End Food Co-op is Pittsburgh’s only member-owned natural and organic food market, serving the community since 1977. This market is well stocked with very fresh organic produce. We had a great turnout for our Tex Mex demonstration and talk. This is a unique, large co-op that shares space with a theater. We taught our class on stage. Pittsburgh is lucky to have such a great place. We were hosted by Grace Klein who was so helpful along with the staff in facilitating our talk and demonstration of a Tex Mex dinner enjoyed by a large group.  After this we spent another night in Raccoon Creek State Park and on our day off, enjoyed some hiking before heading back to Pittsburgh.

We had another class at the home of Yona Denby speaking about the benefits of a raw food diet and demonstrating an Oriental Meal. After the class we went to the Jewish Community Center for the Israeli Independence Day Celebration. It was great to see some of the folk dancing and songs of Israel.

Our next class was at the home of Rabi Yoseph Silverman, where we spoke about the benefits of a raw food diet and demonstrated a Barbecue Meal. Having a full class of people new to the concept of a raw food diet, we could sense their skepticism during our talk and then observe the surprise and delight for the great taste of our amazing Apple Pie, Barbecue Sauce and Nibs (like ribs), Deviled Tomatoes (like deviled eggs), Marinated Herbs and Greens, and Brunswick Stew. They all said that they would be eating more raw food. When we were setting up the recipes we were assisted by Fraydi Silverman, Rabi Silverman’s wife, to inspect the greens and herbs to remove any small bugs, which would render them not kosher and as expected, none were found. They have a kosher kitchen with separate dishes, utensils, sinks, ovens, and counters to keep meat apart from dairy, a Jewish law and tradition from the Torah.

Our next class was a two day Raw Food Awakening at the home of Grace Klein where we taught over 50 recipes to a great group of people. This class can be compared to going on a raw food cruise.   Everyone loved the food and would like us to come back.

Slide Show, courtesy of Grace Klein, Pittsburgh

We drove home through the rolling hills and beautiful countryside of West Virginia (passing many ski resorts), Virginia and North Carolina spending the night at rest stops. We were home for Mother’s Day and Ashley’s Graduation.

For Memorial Day we took the kids to Cloudland Canyon State Park and all 7 of us slept in the RV. It was a practice run for longer trips and we had a ball. This place is beautiful with many challenging trails, falls and a great campground. Finnley had a great time running around and was entertained for hours picking up sticks…she’s a real outdoor girl! The kids ate mostly raw and the great fire they built was only for our comfort and enjoyment and not for cooking!

Finnley Collecting Sticks

Cloudland State Park, GA