Chapter Three of Pat and Ron's Excellent Adventure in Sullivan County and World's End State Park

Camp Chili and Covered Bridges Day, Forksville Show, Lazy Sunday

Friday, September 25: I declared Friday "Camp Chili" day, filling the crock pot with my frozen homemade venison chili, and taking the corn muffins out of the freezer. I cheated this year. I usually make the chili from scratch on vacation, but because of the dearth of decent local plum tomatoes upstate the past few years, I made it ahead of time. I was just as glad. I don't know what possessed me to think blanching and peeling tomatoes, browning ground meat and chopping onions and peppers at seven in the morning while on vacation was so much fun.

As the chili simmered, we headed north to Dushore for water. (See slideshow here of Dushore.) Downtown Dushore is one of those tiny hamlets that takes exactly 90 seconds to drive through, if you don't hit the red light - the only one in Sullivan county! It wasn't a half bad weather day and, after flipping through my folders, I talked hubby into seeking out three more covered bridges.

An hour's ride took us up Rte. 220 to Rte. 6 in Bradford County, to the Kendall Bridge in downtown Troy, which is actually in the backyard of a store and appears to be part of the building. On the way back, we found the Knapp Bridge off Rte. 6 on a secluded road in Luther's Mill. Not easy to find, the Google map being sorely lacking, and the locals' "down the road a piece" not exactly detailed directions. Many bridges are close to people's homes, to the point of almost being in their yards, and the neighbors tend to be very protective. Ron thought I was nuts going up and knocking on people's doors, but I was determined!

With over 100 covered bridges in the four-county area, we could have spent the whole vacation just doing covered bridges. But this activity soon lost its luster for hubby, who told me to "find another hobby." To be fair, that was after we had gotten lost on our search for the third bridge on lumber roads with shotgun peppered no-hunting signs. I could tell from the picture the bridge was probably on private property, so we gave up on that one. After a stop at Cindy's barn to say hi, we picked up a coconut custard pie from her and called it a day.