New England 2013: Pennsylvania

We detoured to the Hudson Valley to see Amber and John in Hyde Park.  She was a student of Don’s years ago, and we have kept in touch.  The last time we saw them was at their wedding here seven years ago, so we were overdue.

 The Poconos in northeast Pennsylvania and the Delaware Water Gap National Rec Area is a lovely part of the state.  We hiked to a couple of waterfalls and enjoyed driving through the area.

 Dingman’s Falls

 

Bushkill Falls has eight waterfalls viewable from a two-mile trail.

 

 

We settled into the Brandywine valley southwest of Philadelphia for a few days.  Our son Troy stayed with us in the camper and drove us into Philly one day to see the progress on his warehouse.  One section had been one story, so he built an addition to bring it up to three floors like the rest.  He has 17 apartments finished with five more in progress to finish out the building in spring.  Each is different making the building a unique interesting place to be.  Some of his other businesses are also located in the building—Tattooed Kingpin (clothes and tattoo equipment and supplies) and Villain Arts (printing and publishing) and a noncommercial winery with a few friends.  He plans a storefront and gallery for the front spaces too.  He also took us to his latest building—a warehouse to store equipment and supplies for his big tattoo shows and the truck and supplies for his table, pipe and drape business catering to other conventions.  I don’t know how he manages everything and tattoos in his shop too.

Troy took us to the esteemed Barnes Foundation Museum.  Albert Barnes was a doctor and chemist who made a fortune on developing several pharmaceuticals and selling out just before 1929.  He used his wealth, beginning in 1912 until his death in 1951, to acquire a stunning collection of art, largely impressionist work including the world’s largest collections of Renoir (181) and Cezanne (69).  We wandered about in awe.

Another day we enjoyed the Brandywine Valley.  It is a lovely river valley with wonderful old stone and brick and Victorian houses. 

 

N. C. Wyeth chose Chadd’s Ford there to study illustration with Howard Pyle.  Wyeth became one of America’s greatest illustrators, painting the pictures for Treasue Island, Kidnapped, Last of the Mohicans and many other books, magazines and advertisements.  He taught his five children including Andrew Wyeth and grandson Jamie Wyeth.

Studio

 

Troy is envious of this natural light studio.

 

N. C. Wyeth's mural of William Penn and Troy looking to the New World

 

The Battle of Brandywine ended with Washington’s troops retreating to Philadelphia due to intelligence failure, but the experience showed the patriots that they could engage the British respectably, and it fueled the rebels’ cause.

This huge sycamore probably was there for the battle.  Troy and Don must have gotten the tree-hugging from me.

 

House where Washington stayed and planned strategy with his generals. 

 

We are heading south now.  It is time to get home to Florida, see the grandboys and settle down for a while.

View from the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia.

New England 2013: Connecticut

The map on the side of our camper is now full.  Our criteria for adding a state to the map is that we camped in the state AND experienced something of the state—a museum, park, natural feature.  Not shopping--we are not big gift shop or souvenir shoppers.  Sorry, nobody gets any trip gifts--except a cool book for the grandsons sometimes.

Mystic Seaport is perhaps the most impressive living museum we have ever seen.  Historic sailing ships and buildings have been acquired from the Connecticut to Massachusetts coast and reassembled and restored at the site of a 19^th century shipyard. 

A keel from an old whaling ship.  Don is standing at the other end of its 100 foot + length.

The Charles W Morgan, launched in 1841, is the only surviving wooden whaling ship from an industry that provided oil for lamps in the 1800’s.  Her masts were being repaired, so this model is a better picture of her. 

She has been completely restored in Mystic Seaport’s Preservation Shipyard which uses X-rays and other state of the art methods to analyze the original construction and the extent of damage. 

 

Then ships are restored using the old methods sometimes enhanced by modern technology to guarantee that the reconstruction is authentic.  The village has restored buildings producing everything needed for the ships to operate.  Sails are created in the sail loft mostly by hand with some assistance from sewing machines over 110 years old.  Barrels are made using old time tools in the cooperage. 

 

Wooden rings for the masts are steamed and bent in the hoop shop. The shipsmith shop purifies bituminous coal to make the pure carbon fuel needed to heat the forge where they make whale harpoons and all the metal work needed for the reconstructions.

 

 

The shipcarver's shop makes signs, decorative carvings, even ship figureheads.  Ropes are made in a 250 foot long ropewalk building by twisting fibers into strands and then twisting the strands into heavy ropes as long as the building. 

The Morgan completed 39 voyages over 80 years, each trip taking 3 to 5 years to process enough whale blubber into whale oil to fill all the barrels in her hold.  In the Pacific, reached by sailing around the Horn, the whaling ships sometimes had to search a long time for the behemoths they sought.  Whaling dories manned by six sailors fanned out from the ship to harpoon and kill a whale.

 

They towed it back to the ship where the valuable parts were stripped out at the side of the ship by men on scaffolding. 

 

The spermaceti, a liquid waxy substance used for lubrication, candles, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and other uses, was gathered from the head.  Baleen, the flexible plates in the whale’s mouth for filtering and catching food as water passes through its mouth, was prized for corset stays, combs, and other products.  The biggest use of the whale was the blubber, cut off the body in heavy, thick strips, hauled aboard, cut into smaller pieces and then cooked down into whale oil for lamps in iron kettles over a brick furnace right on the top deck.

 

During slow times on the long voyages, sailors would carve scrimshaw on whale teeth.

 

Mystic Seaport has a whole village of rescued, restored buildings containing specialized museum collections.  The nautical instrument shop has a collection of sextants, chronometers, and navigation tools second only to Greenwich in England.  The chemist shop has old pharmaceuticals and an old ship captain’s medicine chest full of medicines that might or might not cure various ailments the sailors could suffer.  The figureheads building has an impressive collection of carved wooden figureheads salvaged from old ships. 

 

There are an original oyster house, a lobster shack, a fish house, a lighthouse moved from Nantucket, a chapel, and other display buildings.

Cod was cleaned and salted on the ship.  Ashore it was soaked to remove some of the salt and dried on drying racks.

The harbor features a remarkable collection of old restored ship, dories, fishing boats, training ships for apprentices, and recreational sailing boats.

 

 

We wandered about the entire day, pausing for another lobster roll for lunch before we leave the sea coast.  We are still seeing beautiful fall foliage as we drive.

Boston: Part II

We missed a lot of National Historical sites in Boston because of the government shut-down.   So when the government reopened, we decided to go back.  These states are so small--it was only 45 miles from our campground north of Newport, RI to one on the commuter rail line into Boston.  I would never try to drive my big truck on any street in Boston other than the interstate.  We actually did tow the camper through the heart of Boston a few days ago on I 93, across the bridge and then into the bowels of the city where the interstate goes underground for miles.  Amazing.

We spent a few hours at the JF Kennedy library.  I was reminded of Obama--not just the inspirational speeches, but the insight, the commitment to making the US a better place, the concern for the underprivileged, improving the reputation of the US abroad, using wisdom, strength and patience in crises.  Can you imagine if Bush had been President during the Cuban missile crisis?  Half the world would have been blown up.  I was stricken anew at the tragedy of JFK being cut off so young when he was doing so much good.

We walked in the footsteps of the British through Charlestown, the area on the north side of the Charles River which is also Boston harbor.  They marched 2200 strong to quell those ragtag colonists who were trying to rebel against His Majesty's care of them.  The colonists had entrenched on Breed's Hill, deciding on the last day that it was higher and more defensible than Bunker Hill nearby.  In three onslaughts the Redcoats managed to repel the rebels, but at the cost of half their men.  The colonial militia lost the battle, but lost only 400-600 men.  The war had begun. 

The memorial obelisk may seem strange where the militia was defeated, but the battler here showed the colonists that they could effectively engage the powerful British army.  It became a rallying point and a symbol of patriotism.

We had a wonderful lunch at Warren's Tavern, a pub Paul Revere enjoyed until his friend Dr. Joseph Warren lost his life on Breed's Hill.

The USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship in the world still afloat.  She was built in Boston's North End in 1797 with a white oak and live oak hull 24 to 36 inches thick.  Paul Revere invented a way to make copper sheathing which was applied to her lower hull.  In the War of 1812 British cannonballs bounced off her, gaining her the nickname "Old Ironsides."  She never lost a battle. 

 

Meandering back to the commuter rail station to get home to the condo-on-wheels, we visited Old South Church where Sam Adams gave the order to dump the tea for the Boston Tea Party.

We also saw Trinity Church near Back Bay.  Breath-taking.

 

 

New England 2013: Rhode Island

It’s official!  We have now been to 49 states.  Somehow when we visited New England for our belated honeymoon 43 years ago, we missed Rhode Island. 

 Today we wandered around Newport looking at the summer mansions of the millionaires in 1900.  I cannot imagine the wealth in this rocky ocean cliff town back then.  The Vanderbilt’s Breakers was a summer cottage of 70 rooms with an enormous ballroom overlooking the ocean crashing on the rocks, gilt and platinum wall covering panels, 40 servants, and 20 bathrooms at a time when most houses in the US didn’t have any.  Cornelius’s hobby was building opulent, state of the art homes to dazzle the wealthiest people in the country.

View of the back from the Cliff Walk.

 

At The Breakers yardmen use a lawn mower that cuts an 11 foot swath. 

We also toured Rosecliff, Tessie Oelrichs’ neuveau riche fantasy house.  She was determined to make hers the best party house Newport had seen.  When the Gilded Age faded, she missed the social life, lost touch with reality, and wandered about her house talking to imaginary party guests. 

The Cliff Walk is 3 ½ miles of paved path along the ocean cliff below the mansions.  Billed as a walk through their front yards, in reality most of them had impenetrable hedges to protect their privacy.  It was a lovely ocean side walk though.

We camped two night here, paying more than we probably have paid anywhere to camp.  Nice nature walk in the park.