Liberty Island, Thursday, July 1

The next stop by ferry was Liberty Island, where we stood in awe of the Statue of Liberty. It doesn’t take many words to describe that experience. Three hours later, when we returned to Liberty State Park, Al was there to meet us as promised and kept us interested and amused on the drive back to the campground. It was a great day!

Scheduling The Recall, Wednesday, June 30

Today we focused on scheduling repairs at our next stop, which will be a week from now. Meanwhile, in an effort not to be discouraged, we took a drive into town and while I did a little grocery shopping, Ivan got himself a “Radio Shack” fix. He also found that there is a Best Buy not too far away, so that will probably be on the agenda one day while we are here.

Florida, NY, Tuesday, June 29

We traveled today from Pennsylvania to New York. It was an interesting journey because there were so many different interstate highways and state roads on the route. We had planned to avoid the toll roads, but one “missed” turn off took us into New Jersey, where we had to backtrack over the Delaware Toll Road (it was only $5.75). That was the bad news…..the good news was that the back roads we were on were absolutely beautiful. We had perfect weather to boot!

We arrived at our campground in Florida, NY, where our sites are very pretty with woods and wildlife all around. As we were settling in, we spotted a fawn very close to us, resting on the ground close to us and it didn’t seem to mind our being there at all.

Nail Salon, Monday, June 28

A welcomed day of “not much”. We made a quick trip to the grocery store which was only about 2 miles away and amazingly, there was a nail salon in the same mall. Call it necessity, call it indulgence, whatever you call a pedicure, it was great!

Amish country, Sunday, June 27

A day of rest…..sort of. Laundry took a big part of the morning, but the rest of the day was mostly spent just taking it easy.
I failed to mention that we are in the heart of the Amish country. The evening we arrived, horse drawn carriages came through the campground, their occupants selling homemade canned and baked goods. We bought a loaf of that “just out of the oven smelling” bread. It is delicious!

Saturday, June 26

We began our day in Philadelphia with a very informative bus tour around the city. There is never enough time to see everything, so we picked a few sites to visit more closely. Curt, Yvonne, Ivan and I walked to Christ Church, founded in 1695 where we sat in the pew where George Washington worshiped. Betsy Ross also had a pew there and Benjamin Franklin raised funds for the steeple.
Our visit was not to be complete without having a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. “Sonny’s” was recommended by several as one the best so how could we not? It really was good.
A tour of the Betsy Ross House was next to learn the story of this Philadelphia patriot, believed to have created America’s first flag. We walked to the Christ Church Burial Ground, the final resting place of five signers of the Declaration of Independence, including Philadelphia’s most famous resident, Benjamin Franklin. We had a ranger guided tour of Independence Hall (built 1732-56), where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and signed and we saw the Liberty Bell (crack and all).

Eastern State Penitentiary , Saturday, June 26

Ivan and I explored the Eastern State Penitentiary which held many of America’s most notorious criminals, including bank robber “Slick Willie” and “Scarface” Al Capone. Creepy! Yvonne and Curt visited some other sites in the afternoon, but all of us enjoyed the “Ducks Ride” at the end of the day. In this amphibious vehicle, we toured historic Philadelphia, then splashed into the Delaware River at Penn’s Landing where we motored for a while. Our pilot/guide was hilarious and it was the most fun of the day.