Newlin Grist Mill's Fall Festival

Newlin Grist Mill had absolutely stunning weather for their annual fall festival. Which was a good thing because almost every group in the area held their fall festival on September 19th rather than holding it the weekend of the anniversary of 9/11 the weekend before. 

Last year about 1,700 people attended the festival. The year before it was closer to a thousand. This being my third year appreciated that this is an all-hands-on-deck kind of event. I also appreciated that most of our original crew would not be able to attend for a variety of very good (and personal) reasons.

I reached out to my digging friends from Red Bank, Fort Mifflin, and Ewing and asked (begged) them to join me. Mark and Martha took me up on it and were great sports about the chaos. Mark has been to some of our Wednesday digs, but Martha (whom we called Marty to not confuse her with the other Martha) has a full time job and can't make it when life is calmer.

I am still marveling about how much fun I had at the fall festival. A week later I was asked where my outdoor happy place is, I answered Newlin Grist Mill.

I arrived and Brian asked me about our trip to the Azores, a place he has done archaeology over the past two seasons. I told him my trip was cancelled, but we rescheduled for the winter. He then gave me the most practical advice I have ever heard: When your flight arrives too late to make the connection walk out off the airport and across to the hotel where they rent rooms by the hour during the day. For about $50 we could get a decent nap. He also said the smaller places are closed during the off season, but to definitely make a reservation in advance for Tony's as that will still fill up in the off-season.

Then I was talking to someone in the children's section. I commented on his archaeology stance (which I have not mastered). Basically it is a squat while also leaning over to dig. His wife answered he is a professional archaeologist. I asked where he was digging. He said, Peru, a country I visited earlier this year. We talked about the joys of digging in the sand and how long some of the digs have been taking.

The third archaeology related conversation I had was with a woman who said her boyfriend dug in Israel. I asked where, but she wasn't exactly sure. She then commented he said they left piles of pottery pieces behind. I confirmed, yup, that's what they do.

I even allowed to dig for about 15 minutes before Ed came back to his digging post.

It is not that often I get to spend the day talking about archaeology, despite how many posts I make about digging.

Hello, friend