Joe Hurley walks towards Cambridge Springs with a handful of followers behind him as a group of bikers zoom by.

When you rescue a building that was on death's door, it becomes something more than wood and brick, paint and wallpaper. It becomes part of you. You'll see that in the people I met last week.

PEN PALS

This is an old-fashioned love story: convict writes to professor; professor ignores letter; later they meet by chance, fall in love and live happily ever after in a church. Just a regular old love story.

John Edwards bought the church more than a decade ago and spent years renovating the two-story building in tiny Venango, PA. Unfortunately, the government took a dim view of John's other enterprise - growing marijuana in nearby Erie.

John served 2 years in federal prison, where he led a literary discussion group. At one point, he wrote to Diana Hume George asking her advice for the group's discussion of the role of women in Shakespeare's plays. Diana is an author and professor of English and Women's Studies at Behrend College, Penn State University at Erie.

Well, Diana's son is a cop and he had a thing or two to say about responding to unsolicited letters from prison. So she didn't answer John's letter.

Later, when John was free, he spotted Diana in a bookstore. He recognized her from a picture on one of her books. He introduced himself. They became friends and went out together occasionally.

Then John invited Diana to his house and she fell in love - with the building.

"When I walked in, my jaw dropped. I've frequently been accused to marrying him for the building," Diana said as she sat in a comfy chair nestled between two 15-foot-high stained glass windows. There are eight more windows like that under the 24-foot-high ceiling.

"I feel honored to live here," Diana said. "I think of all the people who worshipped here, who were baptized here, who were married here - we're the restorers and guardians of this place."

The artesian Jon Edward purchased a local, abandoned, and deconsecrated church in the small town of Venango, PA where he now lives with Diana Hume George. Both having pastors as fathers, they feel comfortable in living in a church setting. They are continually investing in fixing up the old church, and strive to maintain its original appeal.

John bought the church long after the congregation had moved out and the building was deconsecrated. His first impression was under whelming.

"It was kind of dismal. It looked like a haunted house," he said.

Travis and I encountered the church almost by chance. The Venango villagers had gathered to meet us at the end of one of my walks last week. One of them said we should see the church and asked John if we could take a look inside. He said, "Sure."

So all of us, Travis, the villagers and I, walked over to the church.

Poor Diana had no idea what was going on. She was reading a book when upwards of 15 neighbors and strangers walked into her living room ready for a tour of her house. But she was a good sport and soon we were having quite a party.

The villagers knew there was something in John's past, but they were more interested in his present. They know him as their part-time postmaster and former library board member.

Diane sees more in him. She says John's marijuana days are far, far behind him.
"He's the kindest man I know. I've never heard him say a bad thing about anybody," she said. John has equally nice things to say about Diana.

Like I said, it's just an old-fashioned love story.


NOBLE RIVERSIDE INN

Ask folks in Crawford County about the Riverside Inn and they'll tell you it's a grand old hotel that was once one of the most famous spas in the nation.

In the late 1800's the Springhouse housed the spot where mineral spring water was discovered in Cambridge Springs PA. The Springhouse is perhaps one of the first "Health Spas" of its kind. Cambridge Springs was a thriving area through the late 1800's and early 1900's, because of the early claim that the mineral spring water had medicinal effects on people.

Many of them know that Dr. John Gray found a mineral spring here more than a century ago - on land where he was actually hoping to find oil. Over the years, tales of the spring's healing powers drew more and more tourists to Cambridge Springs.

Riverside was built in 1885 to accommodate the tourists. By the turn of the century eight trains a day brought tourists to town.

The hotel kept its aura for decades, but the building eventually declined. Perhaps it was the faded glory that attracted Mike Halliday, a lawyer who loves to rescue things. (He rescues people, too, but that's another story.)

So, when Mike tried to coax his wife, Marie, into visiting the hotel in 1985, she refused to even look at it. She knew what he had in mind. When Marie relented and finally visited the inn, she was horrified.

"I said my God, Mike, the paint is peeling, the wallpaper's coming down, the porch is sagging. Don't even think about buying this," Marie recalls as she sat in the hotel lobby last week.

Well, it was too late of course. John was already negotiating to buy the building.

Nearly 20 years later, Marie, the practical one, still spends six days (and many nights) a week greeting guests, paying bills, planning events, talking with cooks and gardeners at the sprawling wooden complex.

The first thing she did when they purchased the building was to fix the inn's 14 furnaces so the hotel could stay open in the cold weather.

In the early 1900's a 1/4-mile cement and wooden boardwalk was constructed from the Riverside Inn to the Springhouse, so patrons could walk back and forth. The concrete pillars and parts of the Springhouse are the only remains of what used to be called The Medicinal Mineral Springs. It was a thriving place for visitors who would come from miles and miles away.

Marie and Mike added weekend events like dinner theaters, murder mysteries, wine tasting, magic shows and a Christmas gala (that's now taking bookings for 2006). There's a chess tournament that celebrated its 100th year here last week and there's an annual convention of Nelson Eddy fans. Honest.

The events, along with weddings, receptions and other functions attract hotel and dinner guests.

"Mother's Day, we served 1,032 people," Marie said.

Mike is still a lawyer, but he helps out at the hotel. Many of he furnishings are his ideas.

"He stopped at every tag sale and antique place and came back with the strangest things," Marie said. She added that he's finally becoming the maintenance man he always thought he was.

"He walks around with this tool belt but he doesn't know what to do with half the things in it," she chuckled.

Walk down the hall and you'll see different wallpaper, beds and furnishings in each room.

"People tell us it's like going to their grandma's house," said one long-time employee.

But the years have taken their toll on Marie. She admits that she doesn't have the zest and energy she once had. It might be time to hand the hotel on to a younger owner, she said.
But Marie and Mike won't sell to just anybody.

"We have so much or ourselves in this - we have to find someone will care for it as much as we do," she said.

Then she went back to work.

LABOR OF LOVE

Don Brian could be living a comfortable retirement on the farm he converted to a living complex or managing his bed and breakfast inn.

Don Brian of Meadville, PA takes a break as he rocks on the porch of his families Bed & Breakfast. Besides taking care of his Bed & Breakfast duties, he is restoring an old historic house and works his farm.

Instead, he's working with his hands (which don't work so well any more), his back and the sweat of his brow to restore what was once one of Meadville's finest houses.

Over the years, the sections of the building were removed and it became an apartment house. When Don and his wife, Lynnell, bought the building, a neighbor was eyeing the land for a parking lot.

But to Don, the house is as much about art as living space. He pointed to the graceful curves in the molding high above the ground.

"Any time you see that kind of skill and detail, you know the workers put time and energy - and love - into it, he said.

Some parts or the original building, like the cupola, are likely gone forever, but Don is trying to preserve what remains.

"I do all the work myself," he said as he paused while unloading a truck. "I would never have the money to restore it as I would like."

For him, the old building on Chestnut Street isn't an investment. It's a labor of love.


HEROES FOR A DAY

Travis and I would love to personally thank all of the people who greeted us on the street, walked with me, beeped as they drove by, waived from their homes and gave us gifts.

Many local supporters from Meadville anxiously waited on the corner of Chestnut Street and Park Avenue (Rte. 6) for Joe's arrival as he walked from Venango to Conneaut Lake, passing through Meadville on Tuesday afternoon (May 18). People congratulated Joe by offering supportive words on his recent achievement into Meadville and extended best wishes and support for the rest of his journey. Their excitement led to pictures, donations, various gifts, and autographs when Joe arrived.

But, wonderfully, there were just too many of you in Crawford County. Hundreds, thousands actually, of people welcomed us in a way we never expected. We may never be treated as royally again, so we're enjoying being heroes for a day. We've been inspired by the kindness of people we met throughout our adventure, but in Crawford County we were overwhelmed by generosity.

A group of local Meadville supporters walked with Joe Hurley as he started in the early morning from Venango, PA on Tuesday, May 18. Many other locals joined him on the walk as he neared downtown Meadville, where a large group anxiously awaited his arrival.

Thanks to all of you - from both of us. I want to offer a special thanks to the folks (including an 83-year-old woman) who walked with me.

Now we're just getting ready to move on to Ohio. Next week, we'll tell you about our last day in Pennsylvania.


SEEDLINGS

When Amara Geffen plants a garden, she does it big - and unusual. At least that's the way her garden on Route 6 turned out.

Just take a look at the 12-foot high daisies, chrysanthemums, daffodils, and lilies of the valley in the garden that Geffen's Allegheny College students created at the State Department of Transportation site in Meadville.

It's made from discarded road signs.

Professor Amara Geffen (left), along with students such as Julie Nagel (right) from the Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, help promote community-based public art projects through the school's Arts & Environment Initiative. Their first project began at their local Pennsylvania Department of Transportation where they utilized old road signs, which were fabricated by the students to beautify the ground's appearance.

There's a flower with a red stop sign at its center with white one-way signs radiating from the center. There's another with yellow signs.

"People pull over and come back to look at the flowers. They want to buy them," said John Moyer, assistant manager at the DOT complex.

The DOT asked the college to help spruce up the site, which includes a highway maintenance area. Geffen, director of the Arts and Environment Initiative, took on the task.

Students worked with DOT road crews, welders and equipment operators to create the flowers from stop signs, one-way signs, speed limit signs and town name signs.

Geffen said the DOT workers were skeptical at first, but not for long.

"By the end of summer the guys were bringing in flowers and saying: "Can we make one like this?" she said.

The project worked so well that DOT asked the students to use more signs to screen their working area from the road. They're building a mural that depicts regional features.