Part IV

I headed back into Volant, PA. I stopped at the little welcome area the village has. Unfortunately, the door to the 'facilities' was locked. But, imagine my surprise when the Mayor stepped out of the building next door and handed me a key!

I brought the key back to him, basking in the cool air of the office. He asked how the filming was going, and I told him that I found it fascinating, but I wasn't being allowed to get any closer to the afternoon filming. I said, "It sucks, considering how far I've come to be here!" Then, I bluntly told him I was looking for a back way to the covered bridge, so that I could watch from afar.

Mr. Mayor smiled and said, with a twinkle in his eye, that there *was* a back way in. He gave me directions, and sent me off, wishing me luck!

I headed up the road, where I had travelled many times earlier that morning. Just past the road with the Amish farms, there was the road the Mayor pointed out.

'Covered Bridge Road'. I rolled my eyes at the simplicity of it, and turned left down the winding, narrow road. After about 3 miles, I came to a crest and could see the covered bridge...and the 'Road Closed' sign! I rolled down a parallel road, and took this pic.

There didn't look like there was any activity going on around the bridge, so I decided to head back to town, to see if there was a place to grab a bite. Hhhmmm...nothing. I drove up by the original filming location I had been at, and found the 'Road Closed' sign still in place, but all of the people gone!

So, I headed to the back entrance to the Covered Bridge again. This time, I parked along the side of the road and decided to walk up to the bridge for some photos. I didn't see anyone around, but all they could do was shoo me off, right?

Just as I was getting ready to walk up there, a pick-up truck with two ancient men pulled up along side me. "What's going on down there"? the driver (and younger of the two!) asked.

I explained that there was filming of a television show going on down there. They both squinted and looked toward the bridge. I did, too. Didn't look like anything was going on to me! Maybe they took a late lunch...

Seriously...these gentlemen were in their 80's, if they were a day! Seems that the nice house right before the bridge was theirs, and so was all of the fields that you could see around. I gulped. I was parked on their land!

They proceeded to explain the woes of farming as a family institution to me. The Michaels Brothers. Not sure if they had *ever* been married. Suddenly, this was reminding me more of Minnesota, and Norweigian Bachelor Farmers!

Regardless, they were charming old gentlemen. Although they gave me permission to park on their land, they suggested that I move my truck up closer to the bridge. They owned that, too! I thanked them for their generosity before they left. Once they turned the corner, I moved my truck about a hundred yards closer to the bridge. I parked it behind a hedgerow, so it would be out of the camera shot, should they be shooting through the bridge in this direction.

It was nice to be out there by myself. I was able to get close, and get some nice photos of the bridge. This is one looking from my side to where they would be filming the scene. (If you look really closely, you'll see a rise in the hill on the left side, looking out of the bridge. This is where I sat for over an hour with a nice bunch of local folks, waiting for filming to resume.)

Up close and personal...If you look down the left edge of the bridge, you'll see the curve that the teenage boy drives the jeep around before he stops just in front of the bridge.

This shot is a close-up, looking from the scene set through the bridge.

This is a shot of the area where most of the action of this scene takes place. The jeep stops right in front of all those road signs.

From what I can put together, it seems that Josh, Donna, and Toby have missed the Presidential motorcade. Somewhere during their odyssey, they are picked up by a teenage boy with lovelife problems. He's driving a red jeep, and I assume he's driving them to the train station. (Pics on that later!)

Anyway, he pulls up short when he sees the girl he loves biking with a couple of friends. He stops the jeep, jumping out to talk to her. (Her name in the show is 'Kiki'. She's supposed to be some really well-known young actress, but she didn't look familiar to me.) They talk, then he shouts something about 'Sue me! I love you! Why don't we just throw me in jail and get a writ of...' He waves back toward Josh.

At this point, Donna has come out and around the jeep to talk to the kids, and Josh and Toby reluctantly clamber out of the back of the jeep. I couldn't hear much of the conversation from the distance we spectators were forced to stay...;-) But, it seems that the kids trigger something in Donna, and she rushes back to the jeep to grab some papers.

More dialogue, and then we hear Josh shouting, "Time zone?!?!" He proceeds to rant about time zones and the government. Toby gets into the act, saying, "What are the people who commute supposed to do? Change their watches when they cross the county line?!?"

Both men stalk off in a huff toward the covered bridge, Josh shouting to the heavens, his arms raised in supplication. "I'm just trying to do an honest day's work here!"

Toby is muttering a lot of stuff I can't hear. But, I can hear the growl! Toby growls, snatches a stout fallen limb from the left hand side of the road, and marches over to the right side of the road. He proceeds to slam the branch against the right hand side guardrail, causing Josh to spin around. (RS didn't do that the first couple of takes. I think he added that of his own accord, and that BW spun around because he really *was* surprised. After the first time RS did it, they had him do it every time!)

All this time, Donna stays with the teenagers. Telling them that Josh and Toby are crazy, but harmless, no doubt! ;-)

I thought about trying to put these pictures together sequentially, but then I thought it might be better to group them by type. So, here's the afternoon's activity, where I got my nifty sunburn and was afforded the kindness of strangers!

Everyone

Brad

Brad and Janel

Janel

Rehearsal

Richard

Richard and Brad

Richard and Janel

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll be putting more of my odyssey and the ensuing pics up in the next day or so. Stay tuned!

Traveler

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

Click on the Presidential Seal to be taken to 'Everything You Need To Know But Are Afraid To Ask...The West Wing Tutorial.