Lancaster

Wow. It's a lot tougher to get wifi then it seems. So there haven't been as many updates lately but now it's time to catch up. Afterwards we left the coffee shop and went to scope out a great location in Lancaster to do some plein-air painting. We ended up on an empty lot surrounded by train tracks. We were on the grounds of what used to be the Armstrong factory. Eric began painting the scenery and I worked on my own project. That became our afternoon painting spot for three days straight.

The next morning we went for a drive through Amish country looking for a good place to work. The farm land was beautiful. Everything was incredibly manicured and created a very picturesque environment. We took some pictures but ended up working at Eric's old teacher, Fred Roger's house which was the perfect place to work. We spent the afternoon painting in his yard, had a break for some hotdogs off the grill then ended the day with a critique.

The rest of the trip was spent painting in Eric's dad's back yard and at the Armstrong factory. We saw old friends and family (new to me) ate good food and got work done. You couldn't really ask for any more.

1st Stop

So after a week long delay of our departure due to Kickstarter confusion we finally made it out of town. Eric picked me up in our 1989 Ford Econoline a little before 11 on wednesday morning and we headed straight to the studio to finish packing up. Once the van was loaded we were on our way to Lancaster, PA, Eric's hometown.

During our drive on the Pennsylvania Turnpike we started noticing some vibrations in the car. Those vibrations got increasingly worse until the point where the car was rocking back and forth like a boat. We realized immediately that the car could not be driven any further but luckily we were just a few miles away from our destination. We got off the road and headed to a mechanic who referred us to a Midas station down the road. Unfortunately the Midas was closed, but they had a key drop off so we grabbed our important belongings and left the van there over night.

Eric's brother Steve picked us up and we went back to his place to drop off our gear and make some BLT's. After that we played a little basketball, shot some pool and went on a brief walking tour of Columbia, a town just outside of Lancaster. We walked a bridge and saw the fire flies.

This morning we found out that the car problem was that one of the belts in the front right tire broke and we were driving on what the mechanic described as a pretzle. Luckily it was nothing mechanical and despite the $700 setback for new tires we're fine.

Today we are checking out Eric's Gallery, Red Raven and after lunch it's painting time. I'm very excited use the new brushes and paints (courtesy of Gamblin) on our custom stretchers and panels. With all of the preparation that went in to this project it will be great to finally focus on the work. We're here until Monday morning, then off to Detroit. We'll keep you posted.