York County

Last week's playful foray into the roasting of this blog by ChatGPT seems to have amused many of you as much as it amused me, and I'm glad. It helps me stretch out my dwindling list of markers that much farther. There are, of course, more than two thousand of 'my' markers here in Pennsylvania, so I still have plenty more to cover - I'm just running out of my supply of markers I've collected. I haven't had opportunities to go marker-hunting since October or so. But Zenkaikon is now only a month away, so I'll be able to grab markers between my home and Lancaster, and since we were able to get our hotel room for an extra night, we can take a leisurely route home afterward and get some that are a bit more out of the way.

In the meantime, though, there are still a few weeks in which blog posts need to be made. So without further ado, let's take a look at the circumstances which ultimately gave us scenic York County.

Chat GPT Meets MarkerQuest

I missed last week's post for the same reason I literally forgot to send out a newsletter for February - I was hit hard with a stomach bug (not Norovirus, thankfully, but still not fun) and just didn't have the spoons. 

It's been a very topsy-turvy February, not least because this weather is driving me crazy. My longtime readers know that snow and similar conditions are not kind to me, and there's been quite a bit of that. On the bright side, the Eagles won the Super Bowl, and on the even brighter side, my sister got married. Congratulations, Liza and Taylor!

I'm working on a real post for this week, which should be going up by tomorrow morning - I'm juggling a lot of things this week, more than usual. But to make up for last week's absence, I've got something very unusual for you today. I'm no great lover of artificial intelligence; I'm one of those people who says thank you to her Amazon Echo, because when the machines finally take over I want them to remember that I was polite to them. However, this morning I saw that one of the content creators I follow on Facebook had invited ChatGPT to roast her social media accounts, and the results were hilarious. I didn't know this was a thing, but it is.

You see where this is going. I had to ask it to roast my blog. I put it under a jump cut for those who would rather wait for actual MQ content, but if you'd like to see what gave me a good chuckle, I hope you enjoy it.

Silver Spring Presbyterian Church, Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County

The temperatures are above freezing. I even heard a rumor that we could exceed 40 degrees tomorrow, which after last week feels like a prospective heat wave.

This is one of those blog posts that I have sincerely looked forward to writing ever since I collected the marker. But I knew it was going to be one that required a lot of attention and care, because of the sheer amount of information that was available just at the site alone, and I've been saving it for a week when I could devote myself to it properly. 

It seems that this is the week. So join me for a trip back in time almost three hundred years, to meet some of the Cumberland Valley's earliest European transplants and to visit what must be one of the loveliest and most historic churches in the commonwealth. My apologies to my mobile readers, because this one will be a little heavy on the images. As always, you can click on any image to see a bigger version of it.

Shippen House, Lancaster, Lancaster County

The polar vortex continues to plague me. But in just under two months I'll be making my annual return to Lancaster, one of my favorite cities, to participate in my beloved Zenkaikon. For four days (well, three and a half) I'll be regaling my fellow nerds with tales of Lancaster's historic past and spooky legends. I'm also going to be involved with this year's charity auction - there's a slight chance I'll be the one with the microphone, but more likely I'll be walking around showing off the items up for bid like a less glamorous Vanna White.

Well, as you can probably guess, my mind is wandering the streets of Lancaster as I continue with my preparations. I'm not particularly nervous, since for some weird reason I enjoy public speaking, but I am anxious that everything is ready and as good as I can make it. My to-do list before the convention is even more extensive than at other times of the year. So as long as I've got the Red Rose City on the brain anyway, I figure we might as well talk a bit more about the history in this week's blog post. Today's subject has a connection with some of the most famous - and one of the most infamous - names from the American Revolution.

Hummelstown Brownstone Quarries, Hummelstown, Dauphin County

Happy New Year! This post was meant to go up much sooner, but the year has been off to a bit of a wonky start for multiple reasons, including my husband being sick and me struggling with pain issues due to the polar vortex temperatures. (Danged arthritis and sinus headaches.) But I made it through another holiday season in retail with my sanity mostly intact and my hair only a little more gray than it already was, so I'm taking the wins where I can find them. And given how truly awful January has already been for some parts of the country and the world, that's really all any of us can do. 

Meanwhile, we've still got plenty of Pennsylvania history to uncover in the coming year, so we might as well get started. As you may remember, I had a marvelous day exploring in Dauphin County last summer with my college friend AmyBeth, and this is the second of the two Hummelstown markers. Besides, it's so bitterly cold and windy here lately that it does me a bit of good to remember that hot July afternoon.

2024 Retrospective, 2025 Plans

How on earth is the century about to turn 25? That just... doesn't feel right.

Well, here we are again. Time to look back at the highs and lows of this blog (and its little sister) during the past twelve months.

The Pennsylvania Chautauqua, Mount Gretna, Lebanon County

Important update from my post about Smithfield Church - the fire on Blue Mountain is out! Our entire community is deeply grateful to all of the fire companies who helped to bring the disaster to an impressive end - no one was injured and there was no property damage, apart from several hundred acres of trees. Hopefully it recovers quickly. Meanwhile, additional thanks to everyone who contributed in some way to the relief effort, as our home company was truly overwhelmed by the generosity. Even the visiting representatives from FEMA were astonished by the community response.

I'm still doing my best here to try to get the blogs caught up, but it's a slow process. I keep an awful lot of balls in the air at one time, and then sometimes life randomly tosses in a chainsaw or two. I appreciate the patience and the words of support I've received from many of you!

Kevin and I were at a meeting of my beloved White Rose Irregulars this past Saturday, where I talked for a little while about the family tree of Sherlock Holmes. Public speaking might be the greatest fear of a lot of people, but it honestly doesn't bother me very much at all; I quite enjoy it, even though I'm not overly fond of the sound of my own voice. After the meeting, we detoured off of the road home to collect today's marker - I found the subject so interesting, both visually and historically, that I had to make it the focus of this week's post because I couldn't wait to share it with all of you.