Sometimes when I wake up I have no idea where I am. I woke up Monday morning in a hotel close to the Baltimore/Washington airport. After a shuffle of appointments and many changes, my main destination for the day was Educational Etc., located on Ritchie Hwy, in Severna Park, MD.

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Educational Etc., located in Severna Park, MD.

Good thing I had lots of time. It seemed like a scavenger hunt trying to locate this place, driving up and down Ritchie Hwy from what seemed like one end to the other. When I finally located the place, which should have been easy to begin with, I was lucky to find the buyer was available. Lara, the store’s buyer, is also a mom of the cutest little six month old boy. He accompanies her to her office in the store every day, playpen and all.

Educational Etc. is a chain of three stores. The other two are located in Largo and Oxon Hill (Prince George’s County).

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Lara [left] was nice enough to make herself available to meet with me, despite my tardiness. As you can see, the inside of Educational Etc. [right] is as welcoming as their staff.

Those of you who know me will laugh when you hear of my next escapade. I do have one true addiction. I am addicted to the Internet. At home, I am connected all the time, like an umbilical cord. Since I’ve been on this trip, I usually have a ‘hi-speed hit’ by the time the afternoon rolls around. This addiction has led me to altercations in public libraries, stops at hotels along the highway, and many afternoons in Starbucks cafes. You can’t imagine how excited I was to find a café offering free Internet along Ritchie Hwy.

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Not originally one of my scheduled stops, but Corky’s Hard Bean Café should have been.

Corky’s Hard Bean Café, located in a Severna Park plaza, is a café full of soul. Not only do they offer free Internet, tasty meals, and great coffee, they have live music up to four nights a week (with only a three dollar cover charge). The walls are tastefully decorated with paintings and photographs of local artisans. There is a grand piano standing stately in the corner. Corky’s Hard Bean Café made my day. I got my fix of both coffee and the net, and was on my way. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, check it out. You can find the Hard Bean Café at 562B Ritchie Highway in Severna Park, MD.

The telephone number is 410-518-6077.

It’s the last day of my first week on the road. I sat and talked for a long time over breakfast with Laura and Gil. I am almost sorry to be leaving. I wanted to tell them that their house was like a real home. It wasn’t just a house. It was a real home.

The first stop on my schedule, Tammy’s Home School Resource Exchange, wasn’t far from Laura and Gil’s place and conveniently located just beside the Farmers Market in Lemoyne, PA. (Ha-ha.) I figured they had locked up. Laden down with samples and boxes, I tried to open the door with my left hand. It appeared to be locked. I went back to my van to look for the phone number. When I returned, I saw someone at the door. It turned out that only the right-hand door opens. Serves me ‘right’ for being left handed.

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Tammy showing off her new samples to excited patrons.

Tammy, the proprietor, was very gracious and really excited to see all of our audio kits. She wanted to open them and try them right away. She had customers placing orders before I even left. I can see why her store is a success. Tammy is such an outgoing and positive person; her enthusiasm is felt throughout the store.

On the way out, I couldn’t help but stop in at the Lemoyne Farmers Market. Pennsylvania, what a great place for great food!

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I had to include this picture of Lemoyne Farmers Market. What a great place!

Finally, I dropped off some samples at the Home and School Connection in Hagerstown before retiring for the evening.

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Inside of the Home and School Connection, my final stop of the week.

Pennsylvania always amazes me. Amazing stone houses, majestic barns, rolling hills and farmers markets. So many areas of this beautiful state seem to be frozen in time.

The two retailers I visited today were based around Lancaster. The headquarters and main bookstore of the Provident Bookstores chain is located in Lancaster. It’s a spacious store filled with the sounds of soothing music. This is clearly a favorite place for locals to shop. The Provident Bookstore chain has nine stores, spread over Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Ohio.

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Outside [left] and inside [right] of the Provident Bookstores location that I visited.

My next visit was to Ken’s Educational Joys, which is located in the small town of Ephrata, just outside of Lancaster. Ken Sauder’s store is filled with personality, charm and Mennonite shoppers. This is a major shopping point for homeschoolers in the area.

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Ken behind the counter [left] before taking me on a quick tour of his wonderful store [right].

While in Ephrata, I couldn’t help but stop at a small indoor market offering sandwiches and soup to go. I asked the young ladies at the Village Farm Market if the Amish also live in Ephrata. “No,” they replied. “The Amish live in a community a few miles down the road.”

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The Village Farm Market, offering soup and sandwiches along with local insight and information.

The most amazing part of my fourth day on the road was the overnight stay with my Bed & Breakfast hosts, Laura and Gil of Mechanicsburg. They treated me so well, I felt like an honored guest. Laura made special cheese fondue with superb vegetables (broccoli-rabi). We drank white wine and talked until late.

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Laura [left] and Gil [right] were possibly the best hosts I could have asked for.

They have a beautiful grand piano so I played a few songs for them. I’m sure that Laura, who was once a vocalist and entertainer in NYC, is probably a much better player than I am. Laura, who is now a potter, was also a professional caterer for 20 years. No wonder the food was so very tasty!

Gil is a retired engineer and is very much involved in ecological projects. He is especially into making migration of fish possible by allowing them to bypass man-made dams that have cut them off from the local streams and rivers during recent years.

Quite a few people have asked me about the Educators Bed & Breakfast Network, which is how I found out about places to stay while on my odyssey. Educatorstravel.com enables educators (current, former and retired), their spouses and families, to travel world-wide, and be hosted by other teachers along the way. The fees are modest and the life enriching experiences are priceless! It’s really a well kept (public) secret, and an amazing network. I can now vouch for it myself. By the end of this trip, I’ll have made several dozen new friends (owners of these Bed & Breakfasts), all of whom I’ll want to entertain once I’m back home.

If you decide to join Educatorstravel.com, please let them know I referred you. Credits are furnished for referrals and the hosting of guests. These can later be used for free accommodation. My membership number is 133571.

It was an eventful day even though I only made two visits. Due to miscommunication, I spent over an hour sitting in Helen Ericson’s home driveway while she sat in her store, Teach and Learn, wondering what had happened to me. No worries. By the end of the day I was able to backtrack and had a good visit with Helen. We laughed about my long trek through the suburbs. Helen and her husband, Lance, own Teach and Learn in Southampton. They have been in business for the past 20 years and their store draws teachers from Montgomery, Bucks and Philadelphia counties. You can learn more about Teach and Learn by visiting their fine website @ www.iteachandlearn.com.

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Outside of Teach and Learn [left] Helen shows off her eye catching window display before showing me the inside of the store [right].

I also stopped in at the Becker’s Headquarters and Distribution Center in Philly, where I met with Rob Bonczkiewicz the catalog manager. You’ll find many of our titles in Becker’s catalog. The distribution center supplies Becker’s 10 retail stores, sprinkled across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

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Inside Becker’s warehouse. What a stunning catalog Rob is holding!

Other than getting lost on my way from Philadelphia to Lancaster, PA, it was smooth sailing. Well, except for having to deal with some thick fog that made me pull off the highway at a small town about 60 miles short of Lancaster. I’m a firm believer in not taking unnecessary risks. I found a nice little hotel, bunked down for the night, (with my laptop close by so I could check my emails), and figured I’d just get an earlier start in the morning so I’d be on time for my appointments in Lancaster on the 13th.

The nicest, most dedicated group of retailers I have ever met are those who sell educational resources. They take a lot of care in the selection process of new titles. They care about the impact on kids. Every single person I meet really wants to make a difference. It’s exhilarating. Over the next two months, I’ll feature the places I visit and the people I meet.

My first stop, after spending a comfortable night in Dunmore, PA, was at Hoban’s Parent Teacher Store, also in Dunmore. Denise and Betty-Ann met with me, but Nikki Hoban (the mascot), insisted that she be featured on the net. Nikki comes to work regularly every day, helps take care of the shop and greets shoppers. Hoban’s Educational Store is impressive. Teachers and parents come long distances to stock up at Hoban’s.

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Outside of Hoban’s [left] on a snowy January morning. The store’s mascot, Nikki [right] was not camera shy at all.

My second stop took me to Educational and Fun in Reading, PA. What a great, bright store. I met with buyers, Karen Smith and Jeni Touhsaent.

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Karen [left] and Jeni [right] while showing me around their beautiful store.

If you are like me, I bet you played Monopoly, and all those years pronounced “Reading” wrong. Remember “Reading Railroad”? Well, it’s pronounced “Redding”. I’m just letting you know in case you visit Pennsylvania, or want to seem like a more enlightened Monopoly player!

Next, I went to meet with Mirella Romualdi in her new store, The Teacher’s Lounge, located in downtown Reading. The store is tastefully decorated in solid primary colors; it creates an inviting and very warm atmosphere. Mirella has a background in “Early Childhood Education” and has also taught diversity workshops for the military.

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The Teacher’s Lounge [left] as seen from the street and Mirella [right] behind the counter.

With three back to back meetings, my day was full. I couldn’t wait to get to my next hotel stop just outside of Philadelphia, and kick back a bit. Well, kick back and do some work on my laptop. Busy, busy, busy!

The big day has finally arrived. It is time to start my two month, 10,000 mile U.S. promotional odyssey. The trip will take me along the Eastern Seaboard to Florida, the Deep South, the Mid-West, and then north-east through Canada to sunny Niagara. Not surprisingly, with tons of last minute things to do, I got off to a late start. Such a lot of driving. The weather wasn’t the greatest: I had to contend with snow and freezing rain while driving through Western New York on my way to Pennsylvania.



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Memories of the time I hitch-hiked to the University of North Texas thirty years ago (with my bicycle no less), flooded through my mind. As it got late, I shared the road with lots of eighteen wheelers and there were lots of truck stops along the way. I stopped here and there to refuel and down some coffee. The one main difference I see now, though, is that truckers carry laptops which they plug into data ports extending along the lunch counter. How times change!



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