Friday, July 25, 2008

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The rains had gone thru last night and we woke up to wet ground and overcast skies. But ... no rain. We had been debating about going to Philadelphia for a week. Today seemed like a good day to do it. It was around 100 miles one way, but what the heck. We walked, watered and fed Charlie, left her in the motor home and headed for Philly. We almost caught up to the storm front on our way East on the PA Pike.

On the way in to Philly, we passed one Harley Davidson Dealership ... a mortal sin, I think. But, we did stop at Valley Forge Harley Davidson and spent a little cash. It seems that we stop at almost every H-D Store we pass along the way. This Biking hobby is a little on the expensive side, when you have to buy at least two of everything :)

What a city !!! Traffic like crazy, narrow streets and zillions of people. Residents, visitors and just tourists all over the place. Fortunately, it was only in the 70's most of the day. After driving around the “Independence Square” area for a half hour, Nancy spotted a parking space only One Block from Independence Hall. It took quarters and all we had were five quarters... good for 1 hour & 15 minutes. We wondered around with the crowd looking lost. A little old lady overheard me query where do we go to see the “Liberty Bell”? She yelled at me to get my attention and said “get in that line, It's Free”. A half hour later, after security checking and searching of Nancy's purse, we actually got to see the “Liberty Bell” ... The real McCoy. And it was free, too.

Then we asked a guy how much a buggy ride was. $30for 20 minutes, $40 for a ½ hour including around “Society Hill”. We finished the Horse & Buggy ride and our time was up on the meter. Nancy hurried to the car. The meter was expired, but NO Ticket ... Hooray.

We had asked the buggy driver where to get a real Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich. He said the ONLY real one was at “Pat's Steaks” on 10th & Pashiank. Thank God for our GPS. We would have been soooo lost so many times without it it is unbelievable. We found Pats after blocks and blocks of one-way streets with cars parked on both sides of the streets and only room for one car down the center of the street. Two blocks and a stop sign again and again. Gino's is kitty corner from Pats and the guy behind us in line coached us on how to place our order Philly style. Wit is with onions, name your kind of cheese or you get cheese-whiz. Nancy got hers wit & wit American. Mine was wit & wit 'shrooms. I forgot to say what kind of cheese fast enough and got cheese whiz. It was still pretty good. That guy behind us in line had driven over from Camden, NJ just for a cheese steak sandwich. He says Pat's is definitely better than Gino's, but there were similar length lines at both places. It was a zoo, but a lot of fun all the same

. After that, we headed back toward Hershey and our motor home. Nancy really wanted to go back to a little shop in Amish Country she had tried to buy out a couple of days ago, So we made a little side trip thru Amish Country. Back roads, farm roads, little cross roads towns, all under the direction of our trusty GPS. I don't think some of those roads are on Pennsylvania's road maps. Found the little shop in Intercourse, PA. Virginia may be for Lovers, but Pennsylvanians have Intercourse. Nancy got the thingy that she forgot a couple of days ago. Then we went home and had a cocktail and played with Charlie. What a day!!

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