Westward Ho! (Well, Northward First...)
We loaded up the car ready to start our meandering trek back to California. This time we planned on taking a more northerly route. But as always, we could "accidentally detour" at anytime if something looked interesting enough!

Suffiently caffeinated at mile 4413 and we were on our way home! We left Columbia, MD and headed for Philadelphia, PA as our first stop. We tried to get an early start, but after making what we thought were quick stops at PetSmart and the grocery store, we finally got going in the right direction after 10am. We got off Interstate 95 just for change of scenery before we crossed into Delaware at about 11:40am. That was probably a mistake because we lost a lot of time and didn't really see anything interesting in return. Got back on I-95 and drove through the city of Wilmington. We didn't stop though and couldn't see much of the city from the Interstate. Probably got that backwards. Should have stayed on the freeway until Wilmington, then gotten off to see the city.

We hit the Pennsylvania state line less than an hour later and quickly came upon the city of Philadelphia. We headed straight to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Not to see art since dogs aren't allowed inside, but to run up the front steps. Why? For the cinematically impaired, those are the very same steps that Sylvester Stallone ran up in the famous scene in "Rocky." Cue the music: "Gonna Fly Now." If you remember, in "Rocky III," a bronze statue of Rocky is placed at the top of these steps. After filming was completed, the statue was given to the city of Philadelphia as a gift from Stallone. The statue triggered a furious debate in the city over whether the statue was indeed "art" or just a movie prop. Afterall, this was the Phildelphia Museum of Art. As a result, the statue was moved several times over the years, sometimes returning to the top of the steps for another appearance in "Rocky V" and the Tom Hanks movie, "Philadelphia."

After that, we tried to go see the Liberty Bell. But it is protected inside a building so we had to settle for looking at it through a rather small window. And there was a VERY long line to get in to see it anyway. Looked like at least an hour wait.

Disappointed, we pressed north to New Jersey crossing the stateline at about 3pm. Our destination, the state capitol in Trenton, was probably the northernmost and easternmost point of the trip at mile 4591. We'll have to verify that later. Trenton seemed to be a pretty quiet city. (Turns out that Trenton was in fact the easternmost point of the trip. But both Harrisburg and Pittsburgh are both further north than Trenton.)

Trenton sits right on the stateline, so we crossed back into Pennsylvania continued working our way back westward through Philadelphia again.

We stopped for gas at a little town called Devon. At this stop we took the opportunity to attempt a road trip rite of passage that we had heard about, but never actually done. We reheated food on the engine block. We had some meat and veggies that we had wrapped in foil, popped the hood and put the food inside. It worked perfectly!

While in Devon, we realized that we were just a couple of miles from Valley Forge. By this time it was almost 5pm and we were only 150 miles from where we had started in Maryland. The New Jersey trip required us to backtrack quite a bit. But we were so close to a signigicant historical landmark, so we went. This is an example of one of our accidental detours. Valley Forge, now a National Historical Park, is where George Washington's Continental Army endured an extremely harsh winter during the Revolutionary War to battle the British who held Philadelphia. As a result, the British departure from Philadelphia was considered key to the subsequent success of the American Revolution. Little history lesson there. The National Memorial Arch recognizes the sacrifices of the officers and soldiers of the Continental Army during that time.

After that we continued on the road, staying off the major freeways for the most part. A lot of the trip was spent in the Pennsylvania Dutch area, also known as Amish Country. Such a beautiful drive! Can't help but feel a little sorry for the folks riding in their horse and buggies, with cars zipping past them at high rates of speed. The roads are not very wide at all. And some people don't seem to have the courtesy to even slow down as they swerve around those buggies. I guess the Amish must be used to it though.

Harrisburg: A Nice Surprise
We made it to Harrisburg in a few hours and found our way to the state capitol building.

We discovered that we had shown up in Harrisburg on the night of a local jazz festival. The streets were packed and the city was bustling! Not sure if this town is always like this, but it was a pleaseant surprise. We also discovered (another accidental detour) that the town of Hershey, as in the chocolate, was only 15 miles away. But we decided that we liked Harrisburg so much that we wanted to spend the night there. So we made it to Hershey's Chocolate World with just enough daylight to get a photograph. Incidentally, the town did not smell like chocolate, at least not on this day.

After that, we returned to walk the streets of Harrisburg. The town was so vibrant, with packed restaurants and bars, and people walking the crowded streets. Very nice!

Although we hadn't traveled very far from our starting point, is was full day. So we called it a night at after that. Again, staying at a Walmart parking lot. We got lucky this time. An RV that was parked there was broadcasting an open wi-fi signal.