John F. Hartranft, Fagleysville, Montgomery County

I ended up skipping last week, and as my Facebook followers may have seen, I blamed it on the holiday. That was only partly the reason. It had more to do with the fact that my beloved great-aunt Gene, the last surviving sibling of either of my maternal grandparents, was in her final days. A true patriot who loved her country, she was born on Memorial Day and died on the Fourth of July, one hundred years old (plus a few weeks) and feisty to the end. She was also a great reader and fond of history, so while she didn't read this blog, she enjoyed my book about Laury's Island and loved to hear about my adventures when I would be out doing research for my posts. I visited her often and I already miss her.

I would have liked to tell her about my little adventure from this past weekend, when I collected the marker of today's post. I was able to get three in all, but they were actually a side quest for a change, because I was in Montgomery County for a completely different reason. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I attended Kutztown University, and during that time I was a member of the (now defunct) Medieval & Renaissance Club. It's been several years since I had seen most of them, literal decades in some cases, but on Sunday there was an enormous reunion party and that was what lured me down that way. It was a truly extraordinary gathering, and in some respects it was as though no time had passed at all. There was a universal agreement that we can't let so much time pass again, and I think we'll be holding reunions a few times a year going forward. Thanks, everyone, I don't think I realized how much I had missed the club until you were all in front of me like that.

But before the party got started, I picked up this marker about one of our governors. The location mentioned on the marker is a bit of a mystery, though, which is interesting.

John A. Shulze, Womelsdorf, Berks County

It wasn't my plan, when I wrote last week's post, that someone who rated a brief mention in that story would be the focus of this week's work, but here we are. I collected this marker a few months back while roaming the wilds of Berks County with husband Kevin and bff Andrea - I think we were on our way home from Zenkaikon, but at this point I don't honestly remember for certain.

In any event, this week we're looking at the life of another of Pennsylvania's governors. This time, it's number six.

Bellefonte, Centre County

It always throws me off a little when there are five Wednesdays in a month, because it means one extra blog post sneaks in there. Next week is my birthday, and I'll be taking some time off from work for the occasion - not so much to celebrate getting older, but in order to get moving on a couple of projects I've been trying to get underway. If all goes well, I should be making an announcement in the next few weeks that I never expected I would be making, but here we are.

Go ahead and indulge your imaginations. No, I'm not having a child or getting another pet, but beyond that, feel free to go wild.

Anyway, for this final quest in August, we're heading out to almost the exact middle of the state for another visit to the adorable borough of Bellefonte. This time we'll just find out why the community itself is significant - it actually has two (identical) historical markers of its own.

Logan House, Altoona, Blair County

I'm waiting on confirmation about my work schedule, but if all goes as planned, I'll be in East Stroudsburg next Monday to attend a marker dedication. So there's a strong likelihood that next week's post will be about that. I still haven't been able to get up to Schuylkill County as I'd hoped, although there's a good chance I'll be able to do that very soon.

Meanwhile, let's take a trip out west to Blair County and the historical downtown section of Altoona. Today's marker is one that I was actually not able to find - when husband Kevin and I were there last year for his birthday, we did search for this one, but had no luck with it. However, my pal Kaylee of the Shenandoah Sentinel was recently out that way and got pictures of it, which she very kindly shared with me, so she's joining the list of guest photographers today with her contribution to this post.

Like so many buildings commemorated on PHMC markers, the hotel called Logan House is long gone, but it has left its mark on history in a very singular fashion.

Executive Mansion, Harrisburg, Dauphin County

Happy #143Day, Pennsylvania! This annual observance was inspired by one of my personal heroes, Mr. Rogers, whose personal favorite number was 143 - because it represents the number of letters in "I love you." So every year on the 143rd day of the year, Pennsylvanians are urged to commit acts of kindness in his memory, and share them on social media. Read all about it here.

The scavenger hunt ends tonight! 11:59 Eastern time, to be precise, so one minute before midnight at my local time. (However, if you're a couple minutes late, I won't know because I'll probably be asleep. So go ahead and submit anyway.) I can tell, based on the hit count on the posts containing the correct answers, that a lot of people have been trying to answer the questions, which is very exciting for me - thank you for the enthusiasm! Remember, you don't have to get all the answers right to win a prize, but the more right answers you have, the better your chances are. Don't forget to check the Facebook page to see all the clues I've been providing all month, and here's one last one: The answer to bonus question #2 is found in no less than three different blog posts, and if you're really stuck, you might find it helpful to go back to the beginning. Next week's post will reveal the answers and the winners!

Meanwhile, on to today's post. I really thought this would be the week where I'd have to finally repeat a county for the first time all year. But this past Saturday was the quarterly meeting of the White Rose Irregulars of York, and after discussing all things Sherlockian, my stepdad Ravi very generously took a detour through Harrisburg on the way home to help me collect some markers there. I came away with twelve thanks to his driving and my bff Andrea's talent for spotting them, so I'm doing a Dauphin County post for the first time in quite a while.

Thomas Mifflin, Shillington, Berks County

My best friend Andrea and I have both been feeling a little nostalgic for our annual trip to Lancaster, as I wrote in my last post. By happy coincidence, our boss asked us to drive down there last week to get some supplies from one of our sister stores. Naturally, that involved some marker hunting on my part, and I came home with a nice big haul of marker pictures. I think I got seven or eight in Lancaster itself, and also today's marker, which was only slightly out of our way in Berks County. It's been several months since I did a Berks marker, so we're overdue!