Tom had a few days off so we had made plans to head to NJ. We drove through Baltimore and then into Amish country along the way. Found The Kitchen Kettle Village by accident but there was wonderful food store where they were offering samples of everything! And let me tell you, we took advantage of it because it was all yummy. We all ended up making purchases as well so they're no dumb dumbs!
That countryside through Pennsylvania is so pretty.....
We stopped to buy lemonade from these cute kids selling it along the road. It was yummy!
We wanted to drive through Wayne, PA where Tom's dad grew up. We drove by the ball field named for Tom's uncle and then by the family's flower shop.
We had just taken this picture out in front of the shop when someone walked out helping a lady to her car with flowers. He immediately reminded me of Joey. Tom says....."uh, that's my cousin". Now mom had been trying to get him to go into the flower shop but Tom wouldn't do it. But NOW, here is his first cousin standing right there and he pretty much had to say something.
Tom introduced himself and it turned out to be his cousin Charlie, and inside was cousin Michael.
They had a good visit comparing stories, including the ones about how their fathers Joe and Charlie both served in the military along with their other brothers. One brother died in the war and their mom had this flag hanging in the flower shop while she and their only sister ran the place.
Tom shared with them the family history he knew and they've promised to stay in touch and have also put him in touch with their sister who had more history to share. They also tried to describe to Tom where the family home was so he went hunting for that down in a nearby neighborhood but was never positive he had found it. He photographed a bunch of homes just in case. We were so glad the "run in" happened the way it did because it's just not Tom's nature to go in looking for relatives! It was totally worth the trip just for that!
Once we reached NJ we stopped on the way to pick up subs at Vic's (of course) and Marie, Dennis and Sean were waiting for us when we got to Marie's. Tom was VERY happy for mom and dad to finally get to eat a real Italian and Cheese Steak Sub.
