Yep, no doubt about it, if I could, I'd follow Casey anywhere.

I started this puzzle several weeks ago hoping I could entice Dh away from his 'constant need' to fix things and rest his body while working on it. Didn't happen, so I satisfied my 'constant need' to puzzle.

Love your puzzle, Gazania!!

Good puzzle, Gaz. My DH is a car nut, and we've done a few car puzzles.

Ghost Town Trail, a biking trail in western Pennsylvania, honors the coal miners of Mine No. 6 Portal, etched in black stone.

That's really cool, Marcia! Gazania, you have the most interesting puzzles! That's a neat one.

Marcia, Central Pennsylvania coal mining towns are in my blood. Several generations of my family were supported by coal mining. The Rails to Trails system covers many areas where I grew up, one of the trails less than 100 feet from the front door of my childhood home. Loved reading about the one in your pic. Thanks for posting it.

Anyone here familiar with Marimekko fabric designs? Your photo, Caflowerluver, reminds me of their bright, cheery fabric designs that I used to sew with during my California days. Now their fabric is available over the internet...but their prices are a tad steep for me these days. Still love the designs though.

anne-ct - I had to look up Marimekko designs. Beautiful fabric, bright and colorful. I see what you mean about the prices. There was some OK prices on eBay.

marcia_m, I really like your photo. I live deep in coal country also, in northeastern Pa. I don't think that there's anything as nice as that around here.

Western PA had a lot of coal mines and many immigrants came here to work in them in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Several of my family members were coal miners.

It's the same here. One Grandfather from Poland and one from Lithuania, both miners. My father and uncles were also. Lots of Black Lung around here at one time. That incidence is way down because most of the miners so inflicted have passed on. There is little mining left, what there is, is strip mining not deep mines.

My maternal Grandparents supported their family of 11 working the deep coal mine that was on the land they owned and where their home was built. Of course all the kids as they got old enough worked in the mine. It was wholly owned and operated by the family. That would have been in the early 1900's to about 1940.

My Dad died suddenly at age 49, just 3 days before the letter came accepting his application for State Mine Inspector in PA. Heart Disease complicated by black lung took him. He had spent all his working life in the mines mostly as a general foreman and actually teaching night classes in mining in our town for Penn State University.

Deep mining supported lots of families here in Pa in the early and mid 1900s. It was brutal and dangerous work and was a slow, painful death to many, many miners. God bless them all.