Fred McFeely Rogers, Latrobe, Westmoreland County

I'm very pleased to report that yesterday's mission was a complete success - thanks to my 'baby' sister Liza, I was able to collect nine markers, including all three of those in Latrobe. So hello to the good people of Westmoreland County, and welcome to the blog! And a particular hello to David Newell, aka Mr. McFeely (Speedy delivery!), my mutual on Twitter and a truly lovely gentleman.

This has actually turned out to be a somewhat difficult post to write. Not because of a lack of source material - goodness knows, there's an abundance! No, it's a little difficult because there is so much information about the beloved topic that it's been a challenge to cut it down so the blog post doesn't go on forever. But I'm doing my best. 

Packer Mansion, Jim Thorpe, Carbon County

Before we get into the meat of today's post, I wanted to share a link that was sent to me by Karen Galle, from the PHMC office. She enjoyed my description of the Richard Moore marker dedication and wanted to make sure I knew (and could tell all of you) that there's a calendar on the PHMC website, detailing upcoming dedication ceremonies. If you'd be interested in attending the unveiling of a new marker near you, be sure to take a look and mark your own calendar! Thanks, Karen!

I live very close to the point where the borders of Lehigh, Northampton, and Carbon Counties all meet. Jim Thorpe is not too far from me, and I'm rather fond of the quaint little community. We used to drive through it periodically when I was a child, on the way to visit relatives in the nearby town of Nesquehoning, and the view of Jim Thorpe as we would enter it from its southern end has always been arresting to me. Of particular interest to my childhood fancies was the enormous green house with the red roofs, nestled into the distant hills. What was this fairy tale come to life? Who lived there?

Pearl S. Buck, Perkasie, Bucks County

It frequently happens in my video games that while I'm on one quest, I stumble across multiple unrelated side quests (as they're called). MarkerQuest isn't all that different. It happens - quite often in fact - that while I'm out in the world simply doing whatever I'm doing, I stumble across those telltale markers which form the basis of this quest. However, it also happens, both in games and in real life, that one of the other characters will direct me to a side quest, and that's what happened in today's post.

I visit Peddler's Village in Bucks County with my mother a couple of times a year, usually in the company of friends. We were coming back from one such trip when she said, "You know, one of your signs is nearby. We should go get it."