Park # 272 Hopewell Furnace NHS Elverson Pa Sept 1, 2013

I combined a planned second day of travel to run about 40 miles up the turnpike from downtown Philadelphia to get to a new park for me, Hopewell Furnace. 

Got a total of 4 stamps here, including two that were not readily available, good stamping day. 

Quick stop at Ben Franklin Memorial

Managed to snag some on-street parking right across from the front door at Ben Franklin Memorial, and dashed in and grabbed the new site stamp for this location, then right back out. 

Gloria Dei Church, and affiliate that "does count, but doesn't count"

Last stop before heading over to the motor home today was Gloria Dei Church NHS, which is an older Episcopalian Church that is an affiliate of the NPS.  Does have a stamp in three locations in town-  Can now cross this one off the list.   

Got to drop in and say hello to Edgar Allan Poe House in Philly.

I was able to get to the Edgar Allan Poe NHS house on North 7th Street in Philly yesterday-  I had stopped by once before, but it was closed, only open on Wed/Sun. 

As a matter of fact, the house had been closed for the last 8 months, due to exterior renovations/restoration, and was just reopened this weekend. 

There were 3 stamps there, and I'm 100% done for here.  I got a pin for this location also- Didn't have a hiking medallion. 

This was a bit of a disappointment as a visit-  Did the house tour and watched the video, but the house was essentially void of any displays-  No furniture, very few artifacts, maybe it was too close to the reopening. 

Finally made it to the Thad- Park # 273 Philadelphia Sept 1, 2013

On my third try, I made it to the Thaddeus Kosciuszko N Mem  House at 301 Pine Street in downtown Philadelphia.  I made it there on the way back from Hopewell Furnace and Valley Forge.  Had to park illegally in the street for a minute, got in, looked around for a bit,  got the one stamp,  and they didn't have a pin or anything else, actually.  Probably the sparsest gift shop I've ever seen.   I can now at least count this now as a visit. 

Well, I really did it today!

I totally had one of my better days stamping and getting around today. I started off by arriving at the Independence NHP Visitor Center parking lot at 0820, before the center opened at 0830. 

They had like 10 stamps out here, plus a couple of more I asked about.  Then, I sat down and checked my data base sheets, and realized I was missing a couple- went back and asked about them, and they were produced!  The nice young ranger also gave me 31 different trading cards!

Then, I headed down to the new Benjamin Franklin Museum, which just opened last Week. 

Then, a block or so over to the Pemberton House, to pick up a couple of new stamps there-

Then, I drove over to the Edgar Allen Poe House, which had just reopened after an 8 month reconstruction-  pretty cool. 

Then, I decided to consolidate my plans for tomorrow and went ahead and headed out to Hopewell Furnace, which is a new site for me- #272.  Got two stamps that were out, then two that were underneath, thanks to another Ranger. 

That was about 45 miles out of town-  then, next I ran back down the turnpike to Valley Forge to get a missing stamp there-  which I got. 

Then, I swung into the city and got two more stops, Thaddeus Kosciuszko NM and Gloria Dei Church.  The Thad was a new stop for me, #273, and Gloria Dei is an affiliate, so it "doesn't count." 

Oops, I forgot that I also stopped in at the Ben Franklin Memorial to get a new stamp also. 

And on the way home, I made a new baseball stop, at Campbell (Soup) Field in Camden, NJ the home of the Independent Camden River Sharks.  Got a ball and pin!

Man, what a day!

Today is Philadelphia

Continuing with the major trip change theme, today I am heading to central city Philadelphia to get as much as the Independence National Park as I can.  That will also include stops at the Edgar Allan Poe house, the Thaddeus Kosciuszko house, the Gloria Dei church, and the Ben Franklin Memorial. 

Looks like tomorrow on Labor Day, I may head back and get Hopewell Furnace and Valley Forge, since it looks like they will be open. 

Off to the shower. 

Visit to the Upper Delaware S&RR

I had thought I had visited here before, but it turns out I had not!  The Upper Delaware is actually not associated with the Delaware Water Gap area, as I had thought.  It actually resides in New York state, and upper Pennsylvania. 

I took basically a big loop trip today: 

 

First leg was 43 miles up to stop 2 on the map, which was the Berryville Ranger Station- 
It was listed as a maybe stop on the Data Base, since it was rarely staffed- 

I actually almost gave up on the location, since it wasn't clearly marked, but luckily, I did check, and determined that this in fact was the location-  well, when I first got there, it was locked up tight, so I took a couple of photos, and as luck would then have it, a Law Enforcement Ranger drove up and let me in, and I got the 4 stamps for this location!  They had not been gotten since last September!  

Then, I drove almost 6 miles up the road to the next stop, the Roebling Bridge Toll House, but it was closed also.  Someone had previously reported that this location may be a bust, but it was worth the check. No stamp here. 

Thanks to information provided by the Ranger at Berryville, I went a half a mile across the bridge to the Zane Gray Museum.   Got two stamps here, plus a pin for the Upper Delaware. 

Then, on a chance, I headed about 12 miles up the road to Narrowsburg NY, which was listed as an information center/bookstore.  It was listed as being open only Fri, Sat and Sun, and it was in fact closed. 

Then, a mile and a half across the river, the park Headquarters was next, got two stamps there, and then learned that the Narrowsburg location will be permanently closed after Labor Day. 

Then on another chance, I headed about 6 miles up to the Milanville Ranger Station, and found out that this location was not a stamping location anymore. There were supposed to be two stamps there, but one had never been confirmed, and the other was last confirmed in 2007! 

I had a notion I would head back to Narrowsburg on Sunday, but I may pass on that now, have to wait and see. 

Pretty scenery today! 

Tracy at Dingmans Falls

Bette shot this at Dingmans Falls while I was finding out that the Visitor's Center was closed- 

Two Stamp snags and a miss at Delaware Water Gap today.

Made several stops today at the Delaware Water Gap-  Bushkill Meeting Center was and is closed- so I will give up the chance for the stamps there, but they are duplicates, so no big deal. 

We also stopped in at Dingmans Falls Visitor Center, but it is only open on weekends. It was closed up tight.  Looks like I'll make the trip back up here Sunday from Lake Hopatcong to get the several stamps that are here.

We did manage to get our stamp at the Environmental Education Center-  

Then, we headed over to New Jersey, and took in the Peters Valley Craft Center location-  glad to get that stamp. 

Also on next Sunday, I'll stop in at the Millbrook Village location to complete the stamps for the Gap. 

Tomorrow is the Upper Delaware locations. 

Bye to Tracy for now, a day early.....

Tracy lobbied to take a return train to Hamilton a day early, so we bundled her up and headed over to Port Jervis, NY to catch the train- then she opted for an even earlier train, then we discovered that due to track work, those going on the train would now have to ride a bus for two stops-  So she boarded the bus instead for her 1130 train.  We may see her this weekend at Lake Hopatcong- if not we'll see her in Hamilton next Thursday. 

Long day, executive decision, and ball stop

Pulled up anchor at Cape Cod at 0745 this morning, and proceeded to the New Britain, Conn site of the New Britain Rock Cats for a ball and pin, pulled into the stadium with no issues- 

Got a ball and a nice pin. 

Then, we later stopped at a Wal Mart and had the notion to go to a Cracker Barrel to eat, but the street was too busy to cross, so we looked at a Boston Market, and it had nasty food, so we wound up having a quick bite at a Pizza Hut. 

Then, we got to our original campground, Dingmans Ferry Campground, and hit a disaster.  The girl at the desk told me to go in a certain way and back into the spot, except it was the wrong way-  then I had to drive all around in a big circle to get back to being able to back in- along the way, I barely escaped smashing the motor home on four or five sets of very narrow trees, actually did hit one of the rear view mirrors and luckily, just pushed it in, rather than mess it up-  was able to manually put it back into position-

Then we got hooked up, deep in the woods, only one other unit in the park- no tv- no sewer. 

Tracy and I ran on down 13 miles to the Delaware Water Gap HQ for 4 stamps, and along the way, I realized that we were very near the Outdoor World at Timothy Lake.  When we got back to the campground, Bette announced that the electric was going on and off- 

Easy decision, I called Timothy Lakes, where we are members, and they took us in.  16 miles down the road up a twisty turning mountain road, but we have a nice flat space, full hook up, free, and full TV.  We will argue with the other campground in the morning about the 60 we paid for them, since they closed promptly at 4 pm today. 

Headquarters for the Delaware Water Gap - got 4 stamps here. 

Our site at Timothy Lakes.