PENNSYLVANIA

Did you know Pennsylvania was named not for William Penn, but for his father?  In 1681, King Charles II handed over a large piece of his American land holdings to the elder William Penn to satisfy a debt, and called it Pennsylvania.  We learned this little bit of trivia when we spent most of the month of May, and half of June in this beautiful state.

We got here early in May.  Visited Gettysburg first, then moved up to the Lehigh Valley, where Deane's sister Pam and her daughter Dawn and children live.

Terri and Pam at the Asa Packer
Mansion in Jim Thorpe

Pam with grandsons
Jack and Karsten

Lunch in Jim Thorpe

Our RV park was about 45 minutes south of Pam.  To get to her, we drove on back roads through some amazing small towns where every yard, big or small was perfectly groomed and mowed.  No matter what day we drove by, we never saw a place with dandelions or grass higher than your ankles.

Jack getting a hit

Karsten scoring a run

A couple of our visits were spent watching Pam's grandsons Jack and Karsten play baseball.  Both are on the same team and dad is one of their coaches.  We miss seeing our grandsons play ball, so this was a treat.

Dawn, anxiously watching
the boys

#9 Coal mine and Eckley. Pa.

The Lehigh valley was once a very productive anthracite coal mining area of little towns thriving with active infrastructures.   Coal mining ended in this area in the 1970's and with it, many of the towns found themselves abandoned as residents left to find work in other areas.

We visited two areas, one where we took a tour of a coal mine, and another to Eckley, a preserved coal miners village.

At the coal mine, we took a ride in a rail car that showed us how the men and children mined the coal out of the mountain using just head lamps for lighting, hand tools and dynamite.  The ride took us
1600 ft. into Sharp mountain where we saw a mine shaft 900' deep.  This mine was opened in 1855 and closed in 1972.

Mules used to pull coal cars

Elevator to haul coal

This was a hard and dangerous work. Immigrants from Europe came to the area in search of work, willing to risk their lives for freedom.  Children were used in the mines to care for the mules that pulled car loads of coal.  The mules lived in the mines, very rarely getting to see the outside and sunshine.

In Eckley, we toured a nineteenth century industrial coal mining town that has changed very little since its inception in the 1850's.   This town also has the honor of being the site where the movie Molly Maguire, staring Sean Connery, was filmed in 1970. 

In the visitors center they show a movie depicting life in the town and how young children were brought into the mines at an early age.

Township of Jim Thorpe

A town near where Pam lives used to be called Mauch Chunk.  Following the 1953 death of renowned athlete and Olympic medal winner Jim Thorpe, Thorpe's widow and third wife, Patricia, were angry when the government of Oklahoma would not erect a memorial to honor him.  When she heard the boroughs of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk were
seeking to attract business, she made a deal with civic officials. According to Jim Thorpe's son, Patricia was motivated by money in seeking the deal. The boroughs merged, renamed the new municipality in Jim Thorpe's honor, obtained the athlete's remains from his wife and erected a monument to the Oklahoma native, who began his sports career 100 miles southwest, as a student at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.


America on Wheels - Allentown, Pa.

We found a wonderful car museum in Allentown, America on Wheels.  Fairly new, with displays of everything from Woodies, hot rods, cars from the 1920's, Mack Trucks and their many uses, emergency vehicles and personal transportation like the motorcycles and Segway's.

They also had a 1950's style restaurant, complete with an original soda counter.

 Monrovian Book Store in Bethlehem,  Pa.

The town of Bethlehem was Christened "Bethlehem" on Christmas Eve 1741.  David Nitschmann and Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf named the settlement after the town of Bethlehem in Judea, the birthplace of Jesus. "Count Zinzendorf said, 'Brothers, how more fittingly could we call our new home than to name it in honor of the spot where the event we now commemorate took place. We will call this place Bethlehem.' And so was Bethlehem named after the birthplace of the Man of Peace.'"

home still standing since the 1700's

Originally, Bethlehem was a Monrovian settlement and the bookstore was founded in 1745.  The Moravian Book Shops claim to be the oldest continuously running bookstore in the world.  In April of 2000, there was a statement in USA Today that John Smith & Son, the longest continuously trading bookseller in the world, established in 1751, was closing. Since the Moravian Book Shop was established in 1745, it was concluded that it must be the oldest continuously running bookseller in the world.



Bushkill waterfall - The Niagara of Pennsylvania
 A beautiful area in the Pocono Mountains, with boardwalk trails to eight different waterfalls, the tallest over 100ft.   They are the  beginning of the headwaters of Bushkill Creek. The water descends the mountain, towards and into the Delaware River.

Blues Festival and Worlds largest general store

Blues festival

As we came down to the end of our time with Pam, we squeezed a couple more sightseeing trips in the few days we had left.

One was spending  a nice warm day with Pam at a Blues Festival.  Heard some great music.

Deane and Obama

We also visited what is billed as the Largest General Store in the nation, Country Junction in Lehighton, Pa.  Not sure how they judge that, but it was large and had just about anything in it you might need.   Including a life size model of President Obama and adult size rocking horses.







Sadly, we had to end our visit with Pam and her family.  We are headed just a little south, still in Pennsylvania but closer to Philadelphia and into the Amish country.

Philadelphia

Benjamin Franklin

China town

Spent one full day in Philadelphia on the Big Red Bus tour.  Great way to get an overview of a city and then go back and see things in more detail.

Philly skyline

Steps where Rocky ran up



Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

Of course we saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.


Wall art

The bus also took us down "South Street" (remember the song, "where do all the hippest meet.....South Street"), a very bohemian atmosphere of shops and restaurants.

Not sure what this is suppose to
mean, but it was intersting

 

 

 

Amish Country

 

What a delightful change from the hustle bustle of the city.  Beautiful green farms, small towns and horse drawn buggies share the road with modern modes of transportation.  But more interesting were the names of towns in this part of the state.  Paradise, Bird-in-Hand, Intercourse and Virginville.
 While here, we saw two live shows.  One was a large scale production called Noah.  The story of Noah, being told by God to build the arc.   Then the struggles he and his family endured as everyone around them, scorned and laughed at their efforts.  This musical was creatively done, but the most impressive set was after the intermission.  When the lights came up and the curtains opened, we found ourselves, the audience, inside the arc....an amazing feat.  This, along with all of the live animals including a camel, horses, cows, pigs, goats and birds.

 

The second musical play we attended was called The Confession.   Held in the basement of a restaurant in the town of Bird-in-Hand.  It is the story of a young Amish girl caught up in scandal and love lost.  We found it entertaining and especially informative about Amish ways.

 

 Strasburg Railroad and Pennsylvania RR Museum

 

Out in Lancaster Country (pronounced locally Lanc a ster) is the oldest continuously operating Steam driven train.  So out we went to take a ride.  The ride, about 45 minutes long, takes you through beautiful Amish countryside farms to the town of Paradise.

  

Across the street is a  museum dedicated to the Railroad industry that played a big part in Pennsylvania's history.

 

 

 

Valley Forge

 

Our last tour before we headed south to Washington DC was to Valley Forge.  Again, we learned things not really taught in school.  Example.... In school we were led to believe that Valley Forge was the worst winter camp George Washington and troops endured during the Revolutionary War.  We learned this was not so, as the two winters before, had been  much colder and more challenging.

                    

one of the huts the men built
houses 12 men

Washington's poorly fed, ill-equipped army of 12,000 men, weary

Inside of the cabins

from long marches, staggered into Valley Forge.  Only about one in three of them had shoes, and many were leaving bloody footprints from the marching.   The army was ravaged by sickness and disease. Typhoid, jaundice, dysentery, and pneumonia were among the numerous diseases that killed around 2,500 men that winter.

Six months after their arrival, the army marched away from Valley Forge in pursuit of the British, who were moving toward New York. The war would last for another five years, but Washington and his men had won a decisive victory simply by surviving to fight another day.

 

Their trials and challenges were reported in the local newspapers and it became a testament, to the commitment of everyone involved in fighting for our liberty and freedom from England.

 

Onto Washington DC where grandson Jonathan is joining us for the coming week.