Stupid Stamps!

Remember I ordered up these nifty postcards to send to all the locations I'd visited during my journey? Well, I went to the post office the other day to buy more postcard stamps as I was about to run out... and learned that in January the cost of mailing a post card went up! All this time I'd been mailing post cards- and not knowing I wasn't paying enough postage! And I've gone quite a few places this year, I feel so terrible about this! One of my Twitter followers (follow me! @50states5years) told me that they may have still been delivered but that there would be postage due once the places I'd gone to collected their mail, if that was the case. In reality, I know that means none of my 2012 cards sent were received, and this saddens me a little bit. Well, at least now I know.

In the meantime, I'm busy planning the next twelve months, and I have to say it's actually a bit overwhelming to try and cover each state by August 31, 2016 but I'm determined to get it done! I will get to Ohio and the Florida panhandle by the end of this calendar year, and will try to squeeze in West Virginia if the winter doesn't get too crazy too soon. 2013 already promises trips to Georgia, Illinois, and Massachusetts and a sincere effort to make a trip to Alaska with my godmother at some point as well.

Hope all is well, and I'll be back soon!

Pennsylvania - Oram's Donut Shop

First of all, I owe you all the biggest of apologies. I haven't posted since July- and that is not acceptable! I hope you all can understand that while I may not have been posting, I have kept this journey in my heart and on my mind nearly everyday- to the friendly annoyance of anyone who asks about me traveling anywhere. In order to make my postings not only more frequent, but easier for me to manage, I've decided to make a few changes to how I am approaching the blogging of my journey. First, gone are the super long posts about each destination. I think that although they are overall interesting, they can take a while to read. Also, rarely do I get to go someplace and do everything in one trip. The Part I, II, III, etc. seemed a little too formal, so I've decided to just blog about each place as I get to them. With that being said...

ORAM'S DONUT SHOP

I was watching PBS (that's the Public Broadcasting Station for my international readers) with my grandmother, and being in Pittsburgh, many of the shows we see focus on the history and culture of Southwestern Pennsylvania (to my delight!) One of the shows had a segment about this small bakery, and there were lots of people on the show who praised the shop, it's staff, donuts, and most of all it's famous cinnamon rolls. I was determined that I was going to try them for myself!

Normally, I rely on Google Maps to show me the public transportation directions to places once I'm close to a site I want to visit, but Oram's is not in the same county as Pittsburgh, and the county it is located in (Beaver County) does not yet have it's transit system uploaded to their database. After a few calls to the bakery and the Beaver County Transit Authority I determined which bus I needed to take from the city (Route 1, which only comes into the city Monday-Friday) to make the nearly two hour trek to Oram's. The good news- it was a coach bus and not a standard public transportation bus.

Inside Oram's Donuts

Once I arrived to downtown Beaver Falls (well, I assume it was their downtown) I was immediately drawn to all of the extra old but beautiful buildings. Didn't get to snap any pictures of them, but for all of my fellow old building lovers, it would be an amazing walk-thru trip. I went straight into Oram's, which was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be based on the TV show, and completed my order. See, I went there on a Friday, and their website said that it's best to call ahead on Fridays and Saturdays to place an order and make sure that there will be donuts available as they tend to run out after the morning. I called ahead and requested that six of their famous (gigantic) cinnamon rolls be held for me, and I would pick out my remaining six once I arrived and could see them for myself. I'm glad I did that because just as the woman came from the back with my large white box half filled with the cinnamon rolls, two different customers were saddened to find out that my six were the last six of the day. The remaining donuts were pretty slim pickings as well, so I picked two each of the three flavors that had the smallest numbers- to me meaning that they were the most popular ones. That left me with Glazed, Pumpkin Cake, and Vanilla Cream. My box was packed up, and I lugged (yes LUGGED- that box was heavy!) my donuts home.

My donuts!

The Vanilla Cream was good, but a little too sweet for my personal tastes (but I'm highly picky about my vanilla cream so don't let that influence you too badly! It had a wonderful true-vanilla flavor and a creamy texture), and the Glazed and Cinnamon Rolls were delicious warmed up in the microwave. My favorite were the Pumpkin Spice, that had just the right balance of flavors to keep the flavorful and moist! Be sure to check out the entire menu- because they have quite a few flavors that I wasn't able to try (sounds like another trip will be in order someday...) I spent $11.50 on the dozen donuts, and the Beaver County bus was $2.75 each way (side note- that has to be the FRIENDLIEST driving staff I've ever experienced! The drivers knew ALL of their regular passengers names, and called ahead if they thought they would miss another route at the county transit station to ask the bus to wait because they had passengers who would need to transfer. Amazing service!)

You can see the rest of the photo's from my trip to Oram's (as well as all the photos from all of my adventures) on my Facebook page and related pics on my Pinterest page. Follow me on Twitter and feel free to send me your comments, questions, and suggestions!

Thank you for reading, and I'll see you next adventure!