A Wonderful day at the Races

Had a wonderful day at Pocono Raceway.  Left the hotel about 7:00am this morning and got to the track at about 10:00am; after having breakfast and waiting in traffic, of course.  Pocono is a very nice track that is placed among the trees in some beautiful country. Got out of the area a little after 6:00pm and are headed back to Concord.  Do not know if Mark wants to stop for the night.  He is the drier, so he can decide.  Thus comes the end of the final chapter of Mark and his Dad’s fantastic trip to Pennsylvania

Philadelphia

Spent the day in Philly, most of the time at the time at Independence Park. Got there when they opened at 8:30.  Had a great time; enjoyed seeing the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. A lot of people to contend with,of course.  After there we drove down to Geno’s to have an original South Philly cheesesteak.  Most excellent !!  Had a hard time deciding between Pat’s and Geno’s, but Geno’s won out on a coin-flip.  I know it must have been good, as I was covered from shirt to shoes with Cheez Whiz that had dripped.  We were on our way to the art museum to see the Rocky statue, but there was no place to park we could find, so we kept on going back to the hotel.  Still had a few hours, so we decided to go to Valley Forge for a couple of hours, as from the hotel it  is only about 15 miles.  So, that is what we did.  Really enjoyed the auto tour (similar to Gettysburg) of the place where Washington wintered with his troops of the Continental Army in the winter of 1777 and 1778.After leaving there it was some dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and back to the hotel to get ready to head out in the morning for raceday at the Poconos.

Gettysburg

 

 

Busy today.  Got up and ate a light breakfast and was down to the visitors center at 8:00am when they opened.  Toured thru the museum and took in the Cyclorama program.  Absolutely fantastic !!  The Cyclorama was painted in the 1880’s by a Frenchman and was restored several years ago and is now housed in a new visitors center that is turning 4 years old.  Took a tour bus from there to the Eisenhower Gettysburg farm.  It was a very interesting and informative tour to see where Ike and Mamie spent some time during the Presidency.  The tour bus driver personally knows the Eisenhower family as he grew up in Gettysburg; so he had some very interesting tales that he related to us.  After getting back to the visitors center from the farm, we went on a self-guided auto tour of the Battlefield.  Very interesting to see; however one cannot see all the monuments as Gettysburg is said to have more monuments than any other site in the world! I believe it.  After the tour we stopped for lunch and then left Gettysburg.  We was planning to drive thru the Penn Dutch area of York and Lancaster to get to Philly, but decided to reroute to a little faster route.  Cannot see everything I guess.  Here at our hotel now just outside oh Philly and plan on getting up to go to Independence Park in the AM.  Lottsa fun !!

7:00pm

 

Arrived at our hotel about 4:00 pm.  Rested a little and went back out an hour later with the intention walking around town some.  Most the shops were closing down for the night, so we just decided to go eat dinner.  Ate at a great brew pub called Appalachian Brewing Company.  Mark had a pulled pork sandwich and I had what was called “Mile-high Meatloaf”.  Both were absolutely fantastic!  And of course the hand-crafted beer was great.  Got 4 PA locations and would highly recommend.  Was raining after we finished, so we  just made a quick tour around town and came back here to the hotel to call it a night.Enough for one day.

2:00pm

Driving along I-81 in the area of New Market,VA enjoying the scenery.  Driving thru little rain showers every now and then; but then the rain pops out again for a while.  Still got a couple of hours to go to Gettysburg.  Filled with gas and had a Subway sandwich here and now back on the road.

12:00 Noon

Stopped at the Martinsville track on our way by.  We were amazed to find that track was so easily accessible.  Gate was open to the track and could walk right out on it !!!  Lot of fun to see just how small a 1/2 mile track is.  Right now we just got on I-81 and about 250 miles to go to Gettysburg

9:00am

On the road now.  Left the house about 8:00am after delivering the babies (Blossom and  Chelsie) to their temporary home at the kennel.  Stopped at Mickey D’s for some breakfast, so got underway about 8:30.  Got off I-85 around Lexington and are now heading into Winston-Salem.