Days #13-15 Exploring Chester County, PA

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 - Days 13-15

I have not made a blog entry for a few days so I thought I better place one before you all think that we have met a terrible fate. However, in reality, we have been enjoying our friends, Nick and Ellie Hilosky, whom I have known for over 50 years. Nick and I played in bands together during our youth and this was how I earned money to pay for my college at Drexel University (Drexel Institute of Technology in those days.) I am the geek with the guitar and Nick is the handsome devil with the accordion. :) Later we added my brother David on bass and my brother Richard on drums.

During our stay with our friends, while they worked, Earline and I visited other friends and explored the area. Earline had never really visited Valley Forge so we went there one day. It has changed a lot from when I was a child. There is a new visitor's center and a driving path around the park to explain the different areas of encampment. As you are no doubt aware, there was no battle at Valley Forge, but rather it was a harsh winter encampment of the troops where many perished from lack of supplies.

Valley Forge National Park

Visitor's Center

 Log cabins for winter encampment

 Washington's Headquarters

Memorial Arch

Throughout the years, there was a rumor that there was an escape tunnel under the headquarters to allow George Washington to escape should the British arrive. I remember as a boy going into the tunnel that led to the river. I asked the park ranger about the tunnel and was told that it was only a root cellar. Still, I know there was a tunnel, but the purpose may not have been for escape or perhaps the historical revisionists would prefer we think of Washington in the highest possible manner?

We also visited historic Saint Peter's Village.

Saint Peters is a community located in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The village is a historic 19th century industrial 'company village' at the Falls of French Creek in Warwick Township.

The town is located in a narrow ravine along French Creek. The Falls of French Creek have formed where French Creek cuts across a series of diabase (trap rock) dikes.^[2] Erosion of the diabase dikes by the creek has caused huge boulders to fall into the stream, almost filling the creek bed at points.^[3][4] The igneous intrusion that produced these diabase dikes also replaced limestone ormarble in the surrounding rock with iron ores.^[2][5]

The presence of iron ore led to the establishment of the French Creek iron mines in 1845. In 1880, quarrying of the diabase, known locally as "black granite",^[5] began, and the "Excursion House" hotel opened, distinguishing the community as both an industrial village and recreational weekend retreat. The bulk of the residence and businesses were built following the hotel's opening.

Spurs of the Wilmington and Northern and Delaware River and Lancaster railroad lines once ran through the village servicing the local mining, forging and quarrying operations.

Rocks on French Creek

By the early 1970s industrial operations had ceased and the village was developed by its owners as a local tourist destination. Owned until 1978 by the Knauer family, it subsequently changed hands several times and portions of it are now privately owned. Historical preservation efforts, however, have led to the appearance of the village today that is almost entirely of its historic period. Local ordinances prevent exterior alterations to historic structures and limit new construction in designated areas in and around the village.

The main street, St. Peter's Road, is lined with private residences, a hotel and restaurant, and number of small specialty shops. The boulder-strewn French Creek running directly adjacent is one of the area's most popular attractions.

Saint Peters Village was entered onto the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Another interesting place that we visited was the Hopewell Furnace.

Hopewell Furnace

This site demonstrates what it took to produce iron for use in castings. One needed a source of running water to drive a large water wheel to drive bellows for the furnace. You needed a source of charcoal to mix with limestone and iron ore to make iron so it required nearby forests and mines. The entire operation required a village of people to service the needs of the iron master who directed the process. I would highly recommend that you visit this place if in the area.

 The Iron Master's House

 Charcoal Wagon

 Early Anthracite Furnace

 Collier's Hut - They tend the charcoal pile

 The Company Store

 The Company Store

 Casting of cannon

 Iron Master's House

Pig Iron

Day #12 Exploring the Pennsylvania Area Around Honey Brook

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Today was a day to rest and to see some of the local area and to have lunch with a good friend from the past, Patricia Walker. We planned lunch for 1 PM so that I could actually find Eagleville, PA. The roads have all changed and not for the better in most cases. The population has greatly increased since I left Pennsylvania in 1974. The highways brought people who work in Philadelphia to the surrounding suburbs and with it,  increased traffic congestion. Still, pieces of my memory remembered times when I played music in the Audubon Inn, a place next to the Audubon Society of Valley Forge.

Click Link:  Audubon Society of Valley Forge

After lunch with Pat where I just had to have a Philly Cheesesteak, Earline wanted to check out a quilting store in the Phoenixville Area. She came out with some goodies that included threads and some quilting squares of fruit and vegetable fabrics. Very suitable for a dietitian. :)

We then thought we would drive to the Nemours Dupont Mansion in Wilmington, Delaware area. It was 38 miles away but I had forgotten how hard it is to drive that distance on the east coast. It just seemed to take forever and when we got there, the mansion seemed to be non-existent. The grounds are now shared with a large children's hospital and we found out later that the mansion only has tours three times a day and the number of people are limited. Since we arrived after 3 pm, the time of the last tour, we would not have been able to see it anyway.

Nemours Mansion

To sooth our wounds, we found a brewpub called McKensies where we tried their black and white stoudt. It was pretty good, but not outstanding.

http://www.mckenziebrewhouse.com

We headed back to Honey Brook and decided to stop at a state store where you buy alcohol in Pennsylvania. We were amazed over the inflated prices of wines and spirits from California prices. A bottle of Seven Deadly Zins sells for $9.99 in California and for $19.99 in Pennsylvania. There must be significant taxation to cause this. I looked up the tax rate and it is 18% on spirits sold in the stores. I guess we will drink a bit less wine and skip the hard stuff in this state. :)

Tomorrow, more exploration and finding old friends. :)

Day #11 Pittsburgh to Gettysburgh to Honey Brook, PA

We were happy to exit the Pittsburgh area, even though it might have been nice to spend some time exploring the revitalized city. The traffic was just awful and it reminded me why I don't like to be in cities in a vehicle. I like visiting cities when I don't have to drive in them but this was not to be.

To enter Pittsburg from the west, you go through some interesting, long tunnels. Since Pennsylvania has a long mining history, this must be why they use tunnels rather than go around the city.? I found this:

Once a flat sea floor, millions of years of erosion have carved the surface of Allegheny County into a maze of ridges and valleys. Pittsburgh sits where the Monongahela River from the south, and the Allegheny River from the north, join to form the Ohio. Many named and unnamed tributaries steadily cut through layers of sedimentary rock: limestone, sandstone, shale, coal.

Today as one stands atop one of the many hilltops above 1,200 feet, it is not difficult to imagine that they were all part of a single, vast plateau, sloping ever so gently down toward the northwest.

Pittsburgh and its suburbs are known for steep hillsides covered with buildings, streets which have steps for sidewalks, and sidewalks which are named streets. From the highest point in Allegheny County, 1,401 feet at River Hill in Forward Township, to the 710 foot normal pool level of the Ohio River at the Point in Pittsburgh, and down to the 682 foot elevation on the banks of the Ohio as it exits the County in the west, the elevation varies by a bit more than 700 feet. Other locations may have greater relief, but they are not as heavily urbanized; other cities may be more densely built, but they will tend to be on gentler terrain.

With topography such as this, it is not surprising that there are so many bridges. One count reports over 2,000 bridges of 8 feet span or greater. Most types of bridges are represented in this area with the exception of cable-stayed, pontoon, or movable deck designs.

Bridge engineers hold their conventions here. The Gateway Clipper Fleet offers guided riverboat tours featuring the bridges. It's virtually impossible to travel any notable distance without crossing a bridge.

Long ago, indian trails crossed the area, often following the tops of the ridges to avoid any stream crossings. But with the European conquest and settlement, and nearly simultaneous start of road-building, it was not long before stream fording was replaced by the first simple bridges in the area. In fact, commenting on the British General Braddock's march to the Point in 1755, Colonel George Washington remarked: "instead of pushing on with vigor...they were halting to level every mole-hill and to erect bridges over every brook, by which means we were four days in getting twelve miles."

Mount Washington, formerly Coal Hill, rises over 400 feet above the Monongahela River opposite downtown Pittsburgh. This and other ridges and hills were once tunneled into for coal. Now they are tunneled through for transportation.

When we crossed the Ohio River, we were amazed at the size of this river. California doesn't have rivers of this magnitude.

We acquired Route 30 and traveled through very scenic countryside along the marked Lincoln Highway. The one thing that Pennsylvania does poorly in comparison to other states is allowing travelers to read historical marker signs. There are plenty of them along the road but there is no way to pull off the road to read them. In Nebraska, they have signs saying "Historical Marker 1/2 mile Ahead" and then have a pull out for you to stop and read the marker. I think I will write to the Department of Transportation (or Tourism) to mention this. However, I doubt anything will change.

The road Across the Allegheny Mountains

The Coffee Pot Tourist Stop

Second Generation Full Service Station - In service since around 1933

Vintage Looking Denny's Diner

FLIGHT 93 NATIONAL MEMORIAL

As we were traveling the remote areas of Route 30, we saw a sign for this national memorial to the passengers of Flight 93 who fought with the terrorists of 9/11 rather than allow them to fly the plane to Washington, D.C. and into the capitol building.

The memorial preserves the field where the flight crashed.

Click link:  http://www.nps.gov/flni/index.htm

GETTYSBURGH BATTLEFIELD

Since this is the sesquicentennial years of this bloodiest battle of the Civil War, and since Earline had never visited this area, it was high on our travel list as a place to visit. I had been here years ago but much has changed and my memory had faded.

My first impression was how massive the battlefield was. It covers many miles and involved thousands of troops from each side. Thousands of soldiers were left dead on the battlefield and medical care was almost non-existent. There were about 100 doctors total with 40 being from the South and 60 in the North.  Most of the injuries were from rifled bullets that could penetrate a 10 inch pine board at 1000 yards. These bullets produced a lot of bone fragments if they did not kill outright. Knowledge of microorganisms was non-existent and there were no antibiotics, IV fluids or transfusions. Sepsis killed many and thus amputation was a major surgical technique to get infected tissue off.

Anesthesia was available via ether or chloroform, but not much else was done. Sutures were horsehairs softened in boiling water. The surgeons kept records on the patient care and adjusted techniques are they discovered what worked or didn't work.

The visitor center is the first place to go when you arrive and there is a great movie and diorama painting that is circular and 40 feet high painted by a team of Frenchmen and recently restored. This gives you a good idea of the scope of battle and what happened over three days. You can then do a self-driving auto tour and using a free app from iTunes, you can visit the locations of various battles, see the memorials and hear dramatizations and diary entries along the route. Also available from the bookstore is a CD of the battlefield that you can use as well. We chose the iPhone app that has GPS localization and marked sites that worked well.

We left Gettysburgh and headed to my old bandmate's house in Honey Brook, PA., the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch country. They were gone for the weekend but he and his wife were kind to let us use their house. We had a quick dinner, a couple of dinner drinks and crashed.

Travel distance about 333 miles.

Day #10 Ft. Wayne, IN to Pittsburgh, PA

Thursday, June 20, 2013 - Day #10

322 miles

We left our lodgings in Ft. Wayne and set out to locate the grave of Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman). He is buried in a grave in a small park as the sole gravesite.

John Chapman was born in 1774 and the common image is that he went about randomly planting apple trees. However, he mainly planted apple orchards and sold trees to settlers. He lived a nomadic existence and was well thought of.

Johnny Appleseed   (Click the link)

After visiting this gravesite, we headed east on Route 30 and the Lincoln Highway that follows a very difficult to trace path throughout this area. The route does not follow a single highway number, and Route 30 is a realignment of the original Lincoln Highway. Still, Route 30 served as a way to return to the path when we would get lost on the original highway, which was easy to do.

The road took us through a lot of small towns with great historic districts.

Ft. Wayne ---> Van Wert led us to a great French Style City Hall in Van Wert with an old style breakfast place next door that served extremely hot coffee. In California, the owner would have been sued by someone for burning their tongue at the very least.

Next, we encountered the Miami and Erie Canal in the town of Delphos. This town was land locked and they used this canal to transport goods from Toledo, OH to Cincinnati, OH. This created a water route from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Currently, portions have been filled in for various business parking lots. This small town does not have the funds to restore the canal to its former glory. It is amazing that the locks still hold water.

Lock on the canal

There is also a great history museum in this town that is worth seeing. Admission is free with a donation jar at the exit.

Early vacuum cleaners - pull on the handle to create suction.

Earline admiring vintage quilts

A "Magic Lantern" projector

An early foot x-ray machine for fitting shoes. Remember the Buster Brown stores radiating little boys testicles?

The museum from the street

After Delphos, we went to Lima, OH, then Upper Sandusky, Bucyrus, Mansfield, Ashland, Wooster, East Liverpool and finally to Pittsburgh. The travel was slow at points and much of the scenery repeated itself with small farms, and little towns with old buildings of similar architecture. Still, it was very interesting to travel roads off the Interstate highway system.

Earline makes the most of relaxing after a day of riding in the car! We decided to get off the road at Green Tree, just north of Pittsburgh, because of intense traffic congestion at 6 PM. 

Tomorrow we move toward Gettysburgh to visit the battlefields for the 150 year celebration.