Wednesday 3rd - We decided not to stay for 3 nights in New York as it is so expensive and we tee'd up a place to stay in Philadelphia with Todd for 2 nights. The trip up the Hudson and back was done more quickly than we had planned so we ended up changing our ticket to Philly to an earlier one. Better to sit in the Philadelphia station and wait than at the busy New York station. The trip took half an hour and we popped out into a lovely big old recently restored Union Station (nearly all the stations we have gone to have the same name). David was there to meet us and make sure that we had connected with Todd and had somewhere to stay and to make arrangements for the next day. Todd picked us up when he finished work and took us to his apartment downtown, not that far away. Carol finished the evening by falling asleep on the couch while Kent showed Todd some pics of New Zealand and google earthed NZ as well.
After a great nights sleep we met David for a tour of the city. The day here was also unseasonably hot. We saw Independance Hall, the Liberty Bell, Betsy Rosses cottage (and met her as well, she's about 200 yrs old now and still looking surprisingly young), the oldest street, Ben Frankins house etc. At the Liberty Bell we were searched (9/11, 9/11, 9/11, getting sick of hearing those numbers) they wanted to know why Carol would have scissors in her bag (little scout that she is) she replied that she is a traveller (not a raving psycho), they looked doubtful but let us through. Luckily they didn't delve deeper in the bag and find the full on multipurpose pocket knife that was at the bottom of the bag. So we didn't use the scissors to defame the bell which must have been cast from slag anyway as it broke pretty easily when it was rung not once but twice! We figured as the bell was cast in England and sent to the colonies the makers banked on a no-return policy and didn't bother making it properly.
In the afternoon David took us on a road trip up through the greenbelt of the city called Fairmont Park and out of town to Valley Forge, where Washingtons troups had winter quarters. Then on to Lancaster County where the Armish live. The countryside is picturesque,rolling and fertile, with farms, silos, crops, and buggies on the roads. The houses are big (they have big families) with no power and close to the houses are huge barns and silos for the grain for feed in the winter for the animals.
We stopped for an icecream, Carol swooned over her butter brickle and black cherry in a waffle cone and also devoured a milkshake. All with full cream organic contents. We drove around the area and looked at a railroad museum and also a motel which consists of rooms in cabooses/guardvans. When the railroad went computerised these cars were no longer needed and were sold off. This guy on a whim purchased 3 of them and turned them into motel rooms which were so popular that he went out and got a whole lot more. Almost every railroad is represented in his collection.
In the evening we went out to a piano bar with Todd, the music and company were great. Home just after midnight and packed up for the morning ready for the next journey, to Washington DC.
