The hubby and I are fans of Steve Martin. So when he heard that Steve Martin was going on tour to perform bluegrass, he decided we were going.
He was scheduled to perform in a tiny town called Shippensburg PA. which really isn't too far away form us. 4 hours away I believe. So we booked our hotel room and took off for a few days.

This was our trip to Shippensburg.

One of the things I love most in life is souvenirs. I always tell myself I am going to start collecting those little spoons, or bells with the states on them, but for some reason I still haven't started. So I was pumped to hear of a weird place called Breezewood PA. It looked like a 4 block long truck stop. It was a sort of huge oasis for the road worn and weary, or those craving french fries as 3 a.m. When the hubby told me about this place I was interested. Then sure enough, I saw a billboard advertising a souvenir shop in Breezewood. We had to stop.

It was huge!


And it had everything!

Tiny thimbles,

an army of pigs,

even an arsenal of toy guns!

Huh?
While I will save my purchases for another post, I will tell you, I left without any tiny spoons yet again.

We meandered into Shippensburg quite quickly. After seeing the size of the town, we realized we were probably at the nicest hotel there. If not the only hotel there.
That led the hubby to believe that Steve Martin was probably somewhere in the building. He felt no shame in calling the front desk to ask if Steve was staying there. The clerk gave him a vague answer which once again led us to believe even more that he was indeed staying in our hotel. "They usually don't give their real names." The clerk told him in regards to his question.

We checked in, got to our room and saw this!
What is it?

It's an ashtray of course. I don't know if you're as surprised as I was, but here in Cleveland, you can't smoke anywhere anymore. Yes, I'm still smoking. :(

One of the first things the hubby does when we check into a hotel is look for the Gideons Bible. He usually makes a witty comment about it's presence in the room, then puts it back in the drawer. This time we not only found a bible, but we found this.
It was quite XTREME!

XHAUSTED from all that XTREME-ness, and a long drive, we went down to the hotel bar, took up residence at a patio table and had a bottle of wine. Our server brought us the wrong bottle, but we didn't care. He was awesome!
While sitting and enjoying our wine, we kept getting whiffs of something horrid. In fact, we had noticed it the minute we drove into town. It was manure! "Shit" to city slickers like us. We first thought it smelled because we had driven past about one million farms, but even sitting on the bar patio in the middle of town, we still smelled shit. The whole town smelled of it!

After the bottle of wine, we staggered back to our room. The hubby, still determined to find Steve Martin wandered through the halls calling out "Steve?" "Steve?" As if looking for a friend. We decided that he was staying here...


(That's some drunk photo takin'!)

The biggest room in the hotel. It was on the top floor near our room. Mr. Martin, if you were in fact staying at Shippen Place, I'm sorry for the disturbance.

We woke up the next morning to find many trucks pulling trailers of hay down "main street." Lots of hay. I wasn't quick enough to get any good photos, but there were quite a few trucks.
We had to go buy cigarettes so we found a pharmacy. I figured it was sort of like a CVS, or Walgreens so we could pick some up there. But no, it was an actual pharmacy.

While I'm sure there isn't much to do around town day in and day out, we found plenty of stuff to do to keep us occupied before the show.

A stack of trunks sitting outside of an unmarked store front caught my eye.
We walked in and I nearly puked from excitement! Antiques and vintage as far as the eye can see were stuffed in every single nook and cranny of this place.

I will admit. I usually get a bit nervous walking into places like this. The owners usually seem not so fond of assisting tattooed "kids" with their purchases, and I always feel like I annoy them when I go in to look around. Like I'm somehow not worthy of collecting old stuff. But the owner greeted us with a huge smile, and right off the bat, began explaining his entire inventory to us, his history of collecting, and how he finds what he sells.

While we were shopping two young men stopped in to pick something up. The owner greeted them, and asked them if they had "been to the hay sale yet." Ah. So that explains all the hay going up and down the street.

We also found a thrift store across the street form our hotel. They were having a sale! All the clothes you can fit in a paper bag for $3.00! OHMYGOSH!

We did some day drinking...
 ...and even found a pay phone. I didn't think those still existed!
We went back to the hotel to change for the show, where we saw a stack of pizza boxes outside of Steve Martin's supposed room. That only led me to believe, that it was not his room. In my mind Steve Martin doesn't eat pizza.


They warned us that we weren't allowed to take photos, so I was afraid that some bluegrass lovin' security goon would rip my camera from my hands, and proceed to crush it beneath their big feet should I even try to take pics.

The show was fantastic! I was disappointed when Steve left the stage during the set to take a break. I didn't pay to see a band without Steve Martin! Then my disappointment turned to anger when the band (without Steve) went into a 3 part harmony hymn. Now I REALLY didn't pay to see a band minus Steve Martin play religious tunes! But he had redeemed himself when he came back onto the stage, and sang a 4 part harmony song all about how atheists don't have any songs. Thank you Steve! We now have a song.

After the show we had even more drinks, and went to bed. The next morning, the door to Steve Martin's supposed room was left open as it's guests were packing up to leave. Sadly, but not surprisingly, it was a little league team in there the whole time. 

Our trip to Shippensburg was great! It was by far the friendliest town we had been to. Even the guys at the local tattoo shop were friendly. I know it sounds like I have been making fun of this place by saying it smells like shit, and the hay sale was the biggest event of the week. But really, it was more of a culture shock to me. Hearing a horse clop down the street outside your window is quite startling, and seeing an Amish woman running her errands was weird.

I love a town where a beauty queen makes headlines...

 ...a signed picture of Michael Bolton hangs proudly on the wall of a bar...
...and where it's local citizens can be remembered for being "close to perfect."

It's somehow more honest.

Next up...our short trip to Gettysburg.