Raced through Philly and Trenton today....

Left the motor home at 0730, with a very ambitious travel schedule, and made it!

Almost got tanked on the way to the first stop- seems there was a major tractor-trailer accident on the Pensy Turnpike, and I ran into literally a 30 mile back up, plodding along, stopping, going along at 10 mph, and it was even in the other side of the Interstate!!!  Stoopid gawkers. 

Lost about an hour and 25 minutes getting to the first stop, which was Valley Forge-  I had been there before, I was pretty sure, but did a revisit anyway-  got a site stamp and a Schuylkill River Valley Stamp- 

Cooper had just been here from SC on a school trip back in late May-  Hi Cooper!!

Then, I headed over to the Eastern National Warehouse and got 2 stamps there, and engaged the guys in back about their collections of pins, or lack of- very enlightening- and got a good contact out of it, and a free pin to boot.  

Then, it was off to the Edgar Allan Poe NHS, which I knew to be closed, but I thought I would try it anyway, and at least say I went there, it was for sure closed, no stamps there, but there were stamps at two other locations for this park downtown, so I am counting it as a visit. 

Then, over to the Franklin Institute, which was home to a special non EN self inking stamp, got a lucky parking space right in front, and got the stamp there, next time I'll have to allot lots of hours for a visit-  the place is huge! It is also the home of the Ben Franklin National Memorial, just like in DC!!!

Then, off to downtown and the Independence Visitor Center, parked in the parking garage- 16 dollars, and then spent about the next three hours doing downtown Philly,

Did the Independence Center Visitors Center, 8 stamps,
Walked a block up the street to the Declaration House, 1 stamp,
Walked about 4 blocks down to the Pemberton House Bookstore, 8 stamps,
Then about 3 blocks down to the Custom House, 2 stamps, then walked back to the Independence VC to eat, and rest a bit. 

The Declaration House

 

The Independence House



All in all, got about 30 stamps from the 8 locations, so it was a good day.  I realized I still had time to kill, so I decided to go ahead and head up to Trenton NJ and got to the Old Barracks location for a Schuylkill River stamp, and also got to the Trenton Thunder for a baseball. Score!!

 

 



Got back to the coach by 4:10, no traffic on the way home....  about 170 miles all told today.

Tomorrow we move the coach on over to Hamilton Wal Mart for a few days, and after we move, I'm driving up to Newark, Patterson, Morristown, and then East Orange for stamps and a baseball visit to the Newark Bears, if their gift shop is open. 

May try to dinner with the old Hickory Corner Road gang tomorrow night....
Thursday is NYC and well as Fri.