Fall Odyssey 2006
September 29, 2006--Lawrenceville, NJ to Farmingdale, NJ (181 mi)

I woke up this fine overcast Friday morning in New Jersey at 9:30am--bit of a sleep in today. I caught up on my email at the hotel and didn't get out for the day until 11:15am. I drove 40 miles back into downtown Philadelphia, PA in time for noon bells. I was excited about touring Philly for the first time ever. Afterall, it was hometown to Benjamin Franklin, Rocky Balboa, Bobby Clarke and his amazing 1970's Flyers. Not bad for starters.

I parked in a garage near Independence Hall and then made a bee line straight to the historical building. You actually have to reserve a time to tour the grounds there so I bought a ticket and then spent the hour wait at other interesting spots. The skies had cleared up to form a perfectly crisp blue canopy for my little tour.

The Independence Hall tour was cool. I just love American history, and this was where a lot of very significant stuff happened. Above are views of the Hall's exterior, and below is a shot I took inside where the Continental Congress was held back in the 1770's--this was taken from General Washington's vantage point in the room (his table being the one front & center in my photo). It was here that Congress appointed Washington to be the Commander-in-Chief of the American Army (as it were at the time) in 1775.

Besides Independence Hall, I toured a few other historical district gems such as the Betsy Ross House, the Christ Church Burial Grounds, and of course the Liberty Bell Center. But before I got to all of that I made sure to stop for a "dog" at a street vendor (see photo below).
Here's a shot of the Christ Church Burial Grounds right there smack in the middle of the big city. The headstones here are really, really old. Even Benjamin Franklin and his wife are buried here under a very plain marble slab (see photo below) onto which it is considered good luck to toss a penny. I didn't toss coins though--I didn't want to risk pissing off Franklin or anything.


When I first walked by the Liberty Bell Center at noon there were maybe 100 people jammed up in a huge line up. When I came back later on after seeing Independence Hall I waltzed right on in to see the Bell without waiting at all. It's all in the timing--that Philadelphia hot dog was calling my name anyway. I spent maybe a total of 10 minutes checking out the Bell. Yep, there it is. Snap a few shots, and off I went. The photo (below) of the Bell has the Independence Hall in the background--making for an extra cool photo op.

So I drove 80 miles round trip to get to Philly and I only stayed for 2-1/2 hours. THAT's how bad I wanted to see the place. I really would have stayed longer, but I decided that Philly will be one of those towns that I fly to later on and give it its' proper due--probably take in a Flyers game while I'm at it.

My goal was to head to the Jersey shore, so I plotted a course across the Garden State going from Trenton to Ocean Grove, NJ. But first I stopped in to get my hair cut near the snooty town of Princeton, NJ at 3:30pm. Afterwards I stopped in at the Quaker Bridge Mall and bought a few pairs of pants. My old jeans were worn to tatters and I was looking like more of a bum than I usually do. I had a spaghetti & meatball dinner at a place called The American Cafe before I headed back out on the open road. While I was walking back to my car in the mall parking lot I came upon a little black car that had the most incredible collection of bumper stickers. I snapped a few shots of it (below). My favorite sticker spirited the slogan: "Are you stalking me? 'Cause that would be super".
As I drove toward the Altantic coast in the darkness I called up my friend Julia to get directions to a hotel for the night--she was my personal-remote GPS assistant for the evening. Julia steered me to an Econolodge in the village of Farmingdale, New Jersey which is 10 miles inland from the coastline. I checked in at 11pm and then I went back to a roadhouse called Mulligan's Grill that I passed coming in on the backroads. There was a great little trio rock band playing there that night called "American Hawk". The Hawk were great! I stayed for the final 2 sets of the evening. These guys were the consumate pros--great players and great rock vocalists in general. I really enjoyed catching their low key show in what I considered "the middle of nowhere". I spoke with the Hawks themselves during their break. I spoke with their drummer first. He introduced himself to me as "Ought". I had to ask him 3 times to clarify his name because I've never known the name "Ought". Ought clarified that his name is spelled: A-R-T at which point I remembered that I had driven soooo faaaaar in the previous 11 days that I was now in the land of the HEAVY eastern seaboard accents. I enjoyed talking with Art and his bandmates about music and travels. I fully intend to see these guys in concert again some day. They were even nice enough to shout out good-bye to me as I left Mulligan's at 1am. What a fun day!

Fall Odyssey 2006
September 28, 2006--Bird-In-Hand, PA to Lawrenceville, NJ (185 mi)


I woke up in my Bird-in-Hand Village Inn bed & breakfast room at about 7:30am and was out the door actually withOUT breakfast. They only had ordinary continental-style miscellaneous breakfast food--I wanted eggs and other more substantial stuff. Plus I was anxious to get out in the morning air--It was another perfect day. I managed to snap a shot of an Amish carriage driving past the Village Inn (see above). I took a few shots from inside the room (see directly below) showing the room itself as well views from my windows of the other quaint little red brick buildings of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania.

View looking westward (above) and southward (below) from my room's windows. The street shown is Hwy 340 through Bird-in-Hand which is actually just a little 2-lane road. It's also known as the "Old Philadelphia Pike".

After checking out from my room I just drove around the neighboring towns looking for a cool place to stop for breakfast. This wasn't as straightforward as one would think. I finally settled on Bird-in-Hand Restaurant at 10am after having driven through many backroads of the region looking for something a little more "off the beaten path". No dice. Had to settle for the huge tourist restaurant only a few blocks from my bed & "breakfast" spot. There were actually very few tourists any way. It was a Thursday morning in late September--most people are all Amished-out by then I guess.

So between about 8:30am and 2pm I toured the triangular region between the townships of Bird-in-Hand, New Holland and Intercourse, Pennsylvania. New Holland is famous for being the home town of the New Holland Co. which produces tractors and other large farm & construction equipment. Intercourse is famous for.....yeh, well..... it's made a name for itself too.

I savored the expansive, rolling farmlands of this region. Sure enough it's wall to wall Amish farms and people. They absolutely rule the roost in these parts. I really got lost in the simple and peaceful vibe of this area. Once again, the beauty of the landscapes can not be fairly captured by the limitations of my little SONY DSC-W1 Cybershot camera. I tried anyway.

I took a few shots of things besides farms that were distinctively Amish: buggies of various "horse power" going down the road...



...furniture stores and craft stores like The Hidden Green Barn which claims to be: "The Best Kept Secret In Intercourse" (and that's quite a claim!).....

....and a typical Amish school house (below) with kids out playing in the school yard. This became my favorite photo of Lancaster County because it's like a peek into a previous century. The purity and peacefulness of this setting became horrifically disturbed only 4 days after this photo was taken when on Monday, October 2nd a twisted soul took the lives of 5 Amish girls at their schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, PA--7 miles from where this photo was taken. After experiencing the Amish community and countryside on this trip, I was beyond stunned that anyone would bring violence to this setting. It just makes no sense.

Before leaving the region I stopped to write-up and mail postcards at the Bird-in-Hand post office (below), then I was back down the road eastward toward Philadelphia, PA. Somewhere along the N. Ronks Rd between Bird-in-Hand and Ronks, PA a truck with flashing cop lights pulled up close behind me. I thought: "oh crap! I'm going to get a ticket for going 37 mph in a 35 mph Amish zone!" But then the truck pulled away and raced past me and I could see that it was a pick-up truck filled, both in the cab AND the rear bed, with teenaged Amish boys (all with their wide brim black hats)! I was duped by a bunch of Amish teens who were no doubt out to mess with anyone sporting an out of state license plate. Whether you're Amish or not, you still gotta' be a teen a SOME point! Kinda' funny actually--wouldn't their poppas be cross with them seeing them riding in a gasoline-fueled motor car!?! There's trouble a-brewin'.

I took Hwy 30 to Hwy 202 toward Philly and then I got so tired that I had to pull over somewhere to sleep for a while--I was falling asleep at the wheel. I pulled into the parking lot of a Prespyterian church in General Warren Village, PA just off Hwy 202. When I got back to driving I noticed that I was within a few miles of Valley Forge National Historic Park, so I went on a very misguided and windy backroads trek to find Valley Forge. I got lost repeatedly along these country backroads, but I was grateful to be out there viewing all those stunning, lush farms and estates nonetheless. This is no doubt "gazillionaire country" in this area--all those wealthy gentleman farmers from Philadelphia out there staking their claim of nearby quasi-rural America. Lucky bastards indeed. The photo below was taken in this region--how's that for a front yard, eh? Horses and geese and enough sod to play polo on.

I arrived at Valley Forge as it was becoming dark, so I was unable to tour around. I just sat in my car in the Visitor's Center parking lot and tried to decide how to spend my evening. I didn't want to arrive in Philadelphia after dark--I like to navigate a large city that I've never been to before during the daylight, thank you. Eventually I just drove on through the impressive night-lit Philly metro area anyways. I called up my friend Brad on my cell phone and had him guide me through the area while using Mapquest. It was kinda' fun actually: my personal live GPS assistant Brad steered me across the Delaware River over into New Jersey to a Red Roof Inn near the Quakerridge Mall at Lawrenceville, NJ (which just is a few miles NE of Trenton, NJ). I checked into the hotel by 9:30pm and then went out for dinner at a Red Lobster--just because it was RIGHT there.

Fall Odyssey 2006
September 27, 2006--Gettysburg, PA to Bird-in-Hand, PA (128 mi)

I was up at 8:30am today. I wanted to be up much earlier, but my room was really dark and I didn't set an alarm. I had stayed at the semi-posh Quality Inn at General Lee's Headquarters (photo above) near Seminary Ridge. They provided an adequate in-house breakfast for me before I headed out for the day. I was really excited to explore the Gettysburg battlegrounds--been interested in this history for years. I actually own the Ken Burns "The Civil War" documentary series and I've watched it 10 or more times. But I knew nothing about the modern town of Gettysburg and was anxious to check it out.

I arrived at the battlefield sites by 9:30am and started off with a trip to the Visitor's Center. Watching their presentation on the proceedings of the battles (which occured July 1st-3rd, 1863) went a long ways to help me map out the battle sites when I was actually out touring them firsthand. I enjoyed seeing the Civil War antiques in the museum, but even more so I enjoyed watching this one really amazing Russian brunette girl that was at the museum with her other little Russian friends. It's funny how during the Cold War they tried to portray all Eastern Bloc women as being giant, hairy oafs. I don't think that was ever true--so many of those women have blessed genetics to say the least.

Okay, anyway. I digress. It was a nice, mostly sunny day today and I got a little sunburned. I was surprised to see that the battlefields have been left largely preserved. These are still just great big wide-open fields surrounded by tree-covered hills. The only modern structures invading these old battlefields are the dozens and dozens of war monuments that dot the periphery of the region, and most of these monuments were erected in the late 1800's.

The photo (above) of the cannon shows a westward view of one of the main battlefields called the Peach Orchard. On July 2nd, 1863 General Longstreet's 1st Rebel Corps led by General Hood came from the distant trees and pushed eastward toward Big and Little Roundtop (the hills shown in the photo directly below). I shot this one from a big observatory tower that is there for tourists to climb if they have the wind to do so. The Rebs made their push through the "Valley of Death" (see photo of rocky valley below--taken from Little Roundtop) toward these hills to gain the high ground advantage in the battle. They came really close to succeeding, but a few superstar leaders from General Meade's Union side made sure that didn't happen on their watch. There were some amazing heroes created in this battle.


Another shot from Little Roundtop (below) shows the NW vantage that the Union would have had.
I didn't try to tour ALL of the Gettysburg history (that would have taken days), so I focused mainly on Little Roundtop and Cemetary Ridge. It's overwhelming to see all of the monuments scattered everywhere. Why is this place such a big deal? The Battle of Gettysburg is credited as being the tipping point of the Civil War in which the Union forces seized the upper hand. As a result of this they went on to victory 2 years later. If this hadn't been the case we would be living in a VERY different country today.
The largest of the monuments is the Pennsylvania Monument (above). The New York Monument is shown directly below.

The monuments just dotted the landscape. In this shot (below) you can see the Pennsylvania Monument in the background.
This next shot (below) will be familiar to Civil War buffs--this is the red-brick Evergreen Cemetary entrance building which can be seen in battlefield photographs from July 1863.



I spent a couple hours touring around the actual township of Gettysburg after I'd had enough battlefield stuff. I even got so touristy as to buy some fudge from a shop next to a cafe (below) that sold "Battlefield Fries". Most of the townsite is restored and quite charming though (see next photo below).

After a late afternoon stop to write up postcards and mail them out at an official Gettysburg post office (photo below), I drove on eastward toward my evening destination in Lancaster County, PA--the Amish capital of America.
I took Hwy 30 through York, PA and then I-83 northward to Harrisburg, PA where I was curious to get a glimpse of the infamous "lantern glass" profiles of the cooling towers at Three Mile Island. I did in fact get a peek at these, but it was from the I-76 bridge that crossed the Susquehanna River and I couldn't get a photo from my moving car.

I continued eastward along Hwys 283 & 30 through Lancaster, PA and arrived at the tiny Amish village of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania by 7:30pm and had dinner at the Amish Family Cupboard restaurant. It was a buffet style dinner--I filled up on the beef stroganoff and corn as much as I could before they closed at 8pm. Afterwards I checked out several bed & breakfast spots there in town and finally settled in at the Bird-in-Hand Village Inn Bed & Breakfast ($69) just down the main drag (Hwy 340) through town. I had walked a LOT today and took on a LOT of sunshine. It was lights out by 11:30pm. And yes, my little Amish bed & breakfast room DID have a TV and yes I did watch it a little before falling asleep.

Fall Odyssey 2006
September 26, 2006--Marietta, OH to Gettysburg, PA (408 mi)

Despite being half awake most of the night I was nonetheless up this morning by 7:30am. It was REALLY foggy this morning until about 9am. The photo (below) of the Ohio River bridge was taken at 8:30am after the fog settled quite a bit. It all made for a stellar morning to start off what became a very scenic day.

I had breakfast at the Gun Room (photo below) inside the Lafayette Hotel (photo below: red brick 5-storey bldg) and then I took a short walk along the river to take a few photos. I really enjoyed my stay here in Marietta. Choosing the Lafayette Hotel was a brilliant choice. When I travel alone I get so used to either checking into cheap, nebulous motels or sleeping in my car. For future reference: look for interesting, historical places to stay at--same goes for restaurants (apologies to my good friends at DQ).




I got back in my car around 9am and started off to the NE along HWY 26 where I was in search of covered bridge sites before continuing on along the Hwy 7 Ohio River Road. I fully enjoyed both routes. I stopped along the River Road a few times to walk for a few minutes and take some shots. The photo directly below was taken at the toll ferry site between Fly, Ohio and Sistersville, West Virginia. I got a kick out of the long barges traveling along--we don't get many of those in Denver.
I discovered my first covered bridge about 1 mile north of Rinard Mills, OH along Hwy 26. The Knowlton Covered Bridge (see photos below) was built in 1887 to cross the Muskingum River. The idea of the covered bridge was borrowed from Europe in the 1800's based on the concept that whoever goes through the hassle of constructing a great big wooden truss bridge might just as well cover it from the sun, rain and ice to help it last longer. Unwittingly, this idea perpetuated what I consider to be a really cool tourist attraction and I was excited to visit the Knowlton: my very first covered bridge encounter.



So...nothing's sacred to the spraypainter (see photo below). Apparently Riannon had at some point jilted somebody that liked to hang out in the middle of no where on antique wooden bridges.
I started to notice that barn advertisements are not uncommon there in the eastern U.S., and apparently Mail Pouch Tobacco is a really, really popular ad to have on one's barn--I saw many of these around. This one (below) was shot near the junction of Hwys 26 & 800 in Monroe County, Ohio.
Once again, none of my photos can come close to capturing the beauty of this region. I was so elated to cruise along at 35 mph with the windows down and take-in this region. I made several stops to just walk around for a while. I guess I expect too much from my camera. Afterall, it can't record my peripheral vision, senses of smell and sound or do justice to subtleties in lightings. All it can do is jog my memories later on when I publish its' photos. I guess that'll have to do.

Below is a shot along a dirt road off Hwy 26--I thought the purple weeds were pretty. I was just in a mode where I appreciated some of the smaller/sideline things in life. Hell, I even took some time to squat down in some riverside grasses to see what bugs & critters might happen by. In fact, I'll even recommend this practice to anyone who is no longer impressed with the simple things in life--it might bring you back to earth a little.

After leaving behind the inspiring routes of Ohio's Hwys 26 & 7, I crossed over into West Virginia over the Ohio River between Dilles Bottom, OH and Moundsville, WV. This was not a pretty leg of the river road--just a bunch of neglected small town buildings and stuff. I headed northward on West Virginia Hwy 2 to Wheeling, WV and then proceeded eastward along I-70.

I was distracted almost right away though by the allure of a sign that read: "Cabela's Superstore". So I was compelled to pull off I-70 at Exit 10 in the West Virginia panhandle to get to Cabela's. I was really intrigued because the freeway overpass bridge actually displayed a name placard that read: "Jim & Dick Cabela Bridge". This told me that the West Virginians took Cabela's SERiously! I had 3 missions at the Cabela's Superstore: a) check on Garmin GPS gadgets, b) take a stroll through the huge Cabela's fish aquariums, and c) to see how long it took before I overheard someone say: "Paintball 'zover here!" in enthusiastic West Virginian drawl (it took fully 6 minutes upon entering the store).

I was back driving on I-70 east by 2pm but I was forced to stop for a nap in my car between 2:30-3:30pm (not much rest last night). Afterwards I drove to the Flight 93 crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I arrived there around 4:45pm. About 20 other people were there at the time. I lingered at the site until about 6:30pm just thinking about stuff associated with 911. There are so many beautiful homes, villages and farmlands in this region that it amazes me that the aircraft went down in this giant uninhabited field. The middle photo below shows the crash site (which is off limits). If you enlarge the photo you will see a fenced-in area where crash debris was collected. This Memorial is only a temporary memorial. At some point a more substantial one is to be erected.

After paying respects to the Flight 93 Memorial I continued eastward again along Pennsylvania Hwy 30 which is enormously beautiful and comes complete with a mini mountain pass. There are a few little towns (like Schellsburg, PA) along the way with homes and storefronts lining the main drag showing off 200 year old architecture--much of it restored and stunning. I saw it on the way in to Shanksville, but on the way back it was too dark to see much.

I stopped for dinner at the Breezewood, PA Denny's and then went on along Hwy 30 eastward to Gettysburg where I checked into the Quality Inn at General Lee's Headquarters ($88) by 10:45pm. I was pretty tired when I arrived and fell asleep fast.

Fall Odyssey 2006

September 25, 2006--Heath, OH to Marietta, OH (130 mi)

It was another late start today. I was up at 8:30am but didn't get out the door until 10:30am because I was caught up in some important, relevant film called: "City Slickers II" on HBO. Damn those Super 8 Motel pimps for sucking me in like that with their alluring wares. Jeez!

My first stop today was a pre-planned visit to the Longaberger Company headquarters building in Newark, OH (see photo of "basket-bldg" above). This is one of the coolest structures I've ever seen. It may well be one of the nuttiest things I've ever seen as well, but salutaions ARE unquestionably due to SOMEbody out there that said: "we are BUILDING this giant basket-shaped office tower no matter WHAT you say!" Yes!!

I briefly toured the interior atrium of the Longaberger office basket and chatted with the concierge lady for a while about the construction of the place. I was in my final year of engineering school when I read an ENR magazine article about this structure. I was fascinated then by someone's audacious vision. My friend Deidra here in Colorado used to be a sales rep for Longaberger, so I learned all about the "basket company" before this roadtrip. What an amazing rags to riches story Longaberger is--made me want to shout: "you GO Basket Man! Make your dreams come true!" Man you can get rich doing almost ANYthing--except everything that I've been involved with in the past.

You'd think I'd could have called it quits at the giant basket building, but no, I had to travel onward to the Longaberger Homestead in Frazeysburg, OH (see photos below). I needed MORE weaving-themed fun! I did cut the Homestead tour brief though. I felt a little out of place around the senior women that shuffled by me that were out with their senior women pals hoping to buy more basket merchandise for their homes. I just felt plain silly. But first I had to see the gargantuan basket-making factory where all the English majors work. It was very cool indeed (see photo below). My only Longaberger purchase wound up being a very pricey chocolate milkshake that I procured at the big, alluring white barn place (see photo below). I took two spoonfuls, however, and pitched it in the trash--it sucked. So, that was the Longaberger spectacle. I did enjoy walking around their grounds on such a perfect blue sky day though. I left there by about 1:45pm and headed south/SE along Hwy 60 toward the much anticipated Ohio River Roads. After a Jiffy Lube pit stop in Zanesville, OH I noticed something I wouldn't have imagined existed: a Route 666--the Devil's Hwy! Interestingly, I noted the "Zane Casket Company" on Furnace Street & Hwy 666. Bet they garner some promising business with that address, eh: location, location, location.This Hwy 666 detour turned out to be a great find. This was truly one of the most beautifully, lush stretches of American scenery I've witnessed to date. I especially enjoyed the tiny, one-laned train bridge underpass along the Devil's Route that spirited the spraypainted slogan: "Repent and Accept Christ". A traveler is more likely to experience a head-on collision here at this location than to find Christ. The Route 666 neighborhood locals should start praying for a wider train bridge underpass--think of all those senior folks coming by trying to navigate their giant motorcoaches through Hell's Underpass here. Good Hell!After playing on the Devil's Route for a while I turned around and continued south along Hwy 60 between Zanesville and Marietta, OH. This is beautiful country. I was knocked out by nearly every vista I experienced in south-eastern Ohio in general: wow indeed. The photo at the very top of this entry shows a farm near Neelysville, OH along Hwy 60. No photo can do justice to the splendor I traveled past, but I snapped a few nonetheless.

On a side note, I began noticing that EVERY town in the eastern U.S., no matter how diminuative in size, possessed both a Dairy Queen AND a Dollar General. Some towns didn't even seem to have a Post Office, but townspeople everywhere were never denied nearby access to Dilly Bars and 72 cent bags of assorted color balloons. I love that about America. And, yes, that IS my car out in front of that Duncan Falls, Ohio Dollar General (see photo below). I stopped at the Duncan Falls DQ (below) for a chocolate/M&M Blizzard before pushing further south along Hwy 60--as you can see it was a good day for a treat. One other footnote: DQ consistently hires the cutest counter girls in the Free World--I fell in love for 5 minutes at each DQ counter between Denver and NYC along the way. I salute you DQ--you provide essential calcium for my bones and tears of joy to my lonesone traveling eyes: thank you and god bless.
I decided to stop for the night in Marietta, OH right on the Ohio River. I arrived in town at 6:30pm while it was yet light out and I scoped-out the very cool riverside Lafayette Hotel which was reportedly built in 1898. I checked into Room 505 on the top floor facing the Ohio River. It made me ever so happy to discover a DQ (see photo below) highlighting the riverside vista from my top floor vantage point. God Bless America.I went on a little evening walk across the bridge into Williamstown, West Virginia after checking into my room. It was a quiet and pretty evening to find myself in such a setting. Very cool indeed. I kept my hotel room window open all night because I wanted to listen to the boats pass by below. This made me sleep with one eye kinda' open all night, but there was a certain bliss to every moment of that night