So the beginning of June, I had a visit from the Fabulous FDot.  

He arrived Saturday the 1st.  We got some Chinese, watched the new Doctor Who episode and then I taught him to play the Road To The White House game, and we played it....which he won. 

The next morning, after my Rutters coffee and later lunch sandwiches from Rutters, we packed up his car and off we went.

Roughly 5 hours later, we reached Bradford PA.  We had planned on eating at Beefeaters that night...but found out they weren't open on Sundays.  We walked around town (to parts of it I had never seen before in the 24 years I've been stopping there), and ended up eating at a McDonald's there.

He came to my room afterwards and we watched some TV before he went to his room.   We both got rooms with King sized beds, although my room was quite a bit bigger than his, for whatever reason.

The next morning, after getting ready, we went to the European Pastry Shop for breakfast.   He had blueberry pancakes, I had the Big Breakfast: two eggs, two pieces of toast, your choice of meat (they gave me 5 sausage links), and a pile of home fries.  That was $10.95.  More than I remember, but it's been like 9 years since I had eaten there, so that's understandable. But it was still delicious as always.  And we got served by talk, blond, young, with a hairthing, Noah, whom we both agreed, was pretty dame easy on the eyes. 

After this, we got back in the car and headed north, into New York.  And hour later we were in Jamestown. Why Jamestown you ask?  Because that's where Lucille Ball and we were on a quest to see all things Lucy!

We went to the I Love Lucy Museum, and the Lucy and Desi museum next door.  Cost $23 apiece to get in, but it was worth it.  Saw a bunch of I Love Lucy stuff.  While paying, the guy gave us a map that showed where the Lucy statues were as well as Lucy's grave, the house she was born in and the house she grew up in. 

After the museums, we went to the Cemetery and easily found her tombstone.  After that, we went to the Park which has the old, hideous Lucy statue and the new, much better one that replaced it.   Then we followed the map the birth house and the house she grew up in.  Both of those are privately owned, and we only got park in front of them and look. 

Then we returned to the hotel to rest a bit before heading out once more to Beefeaters and getting, once again, the Best Damn Steak Of Your Life.  And it was inDEED a great steak.  With fries.  And a side salad.  And the dessert...raspberry cheesecake.  Absolutely delicious!!!

After this, we took a walk around the opposite end of the town, again to places I've never seen before.  And then we came back to my room to watch more TV, before he went to his room and we went to sleep.

The next morning, we packed things up, went back to the European Pastry Shop for another breakfast (without Noah, sadly).  And then we did something unplanned.  When talking to his mom the night before, FDot's mom realized he was in Bradford which is where he family is from!  Started out there, then the family moved to Tulsa OK.  And a generation or two later, they moved back East.   At any rate, FDot found the gravesites of two of his great-great grandparents.  So off we went, to two separate cemeteries so he could find their gravesites and get some pics of them for his mom.  After this, we started home. 

We made a detour to the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville PA.  It was a very solemn place.  We weren't there a long time, but it was long enough to see what all was there and be a bit overwhelmed by it all. 

After this we started the hour or so left ride home.  However, on the way, he got a call from his mom.  She was golfing, first time she's been golfing in like two years, and she fell getting out of a sand trap and broke her ankle.  In three places.   He was planning on staying the night at my place and going back on Wednesday, but after finding this out, he packed things up and headed out Tuesday night. (his mom was in the hospital for like two days and now is home recovering).

So not the ending of the trip we expected, and despite his mom's injury, it was still a great time!

And of course, I've got pics. 

The adventure begins.

My hotel room. 

Bradford's "Flatiron" building.  It's a bnb now I think. 

European Pastry Shop.

Outside of I Love Lucy museum. 

Me in Ricky and Lucy's second NYC apartment.

Me in Lucy and Ricky's Hollywood Apartment.

Even in Jamestown, western NY, there's some gay pride, this time, on a church painted stairs.

Polt's Vitameatavegamin commercial.

The path leading up to Lucy's grave from the road.

Lucy's tombstone.

Lucy's current 'good' statue.

The horrid, scary 'bad' statue....several yards away from the more prominent 'good' one.

Brick streets in parts of Bradford. 

Beefeaters.

The Queen cut steak, au jois, and fries. 

Raspberry cheesecake

The remains of breakfast at the European Pastry Hop.  Forgot to take a picture before digging in, so this one will have to do. 

Flight 93 Memorial,

Wall of marble panels, one name of each victim per panel.

I just grabbed this shirt on a lark.  All the times I've been in Bradford and I never got a shirt.

And the cookies we got at the Pastry Shop and brought home.  Kinda surprising to see a Gay Pride heart cookie in a store in such a conservative Republican area as Bradford.  But you GO, European Pastry Shop!

POLT