Gehlke Family 2007 East Coast Vacation travelogue -- Day 9

Now that we've added Res a the mascot for our journey, we have to figure out how to use him in our photos. Roni and Ben horse around with him in the morning before our departure from Newark. Photo by Glenn.

A short drive later we are at Valley Forge, Penn. Glenn had been here about 30 years ago, but the visitor center is new since then. Photo by Glenn.

Gen. George Resetti... er, Washington... stands in the visitor center awaiting tourists with cameras. Photo by Glenn.

We hustle out of the visitor center and reach the park just in time to catch the tail end of the Revolutionary War soldier demonstration. Here one of the docents dressed in period costume goes over some of the daily routines of soldiers stationed at Valley Forge during the 1770s. Photo by Glenn.

Preparing a musket for battle was an arduous task, as we learned during the demonstration. Our docent explains the importance of keeping one's gunpowder dry and properly loading the cartridge. Photo by Glenn.

The highlight of the demonstration, of course, was seeing the actual firing of the muskets and this 3-pounder cannon. It makes one heck of a boom. Photo by Glenn.

This is a replica of the log cabins used by Continental Army soldiers during the bitter cold winter of 1777-78. Not sure how the conditions were back then, but the cabins did a great job of providing us with shelter from the sudden storm. Photo by Glenn.

Glenn poses for a photo with the National Memorial Arch at Valley Forge. It was constructed in 1910 at a cost of $100,000 — chump change by today's standards, but a major capital outlay in those times. Photo by Roni.

The courtyard at our hotel in King Of Prussia is an inviting place, complete with fireflies at night. Too bad the weather wasn't nicer for us to enjoy it. Photo by Glenn.

It's Independence Day, but there won't be much in the way of fireworks displays for us due to the relentless rain that began in the afternoon and went right on through the night. Photo by Glenn.

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Soldiering on to Pennsylvania

Wednesday, July 4 (Day 9) — We celebrated Independence Day in Room 283 of the Best Western Inn at King Of Prussia in King Of Prussia, Penn. We'd known for some time that this would be one of the easiest drives of our vacation, about 80 miles that took us from Newark to the doorstep of Amish country, and Roni thought we should use that to our advantage by taking it easy on the sightseeing and getting rested up for the week ahead. We almost succeeded.

We departed late from Newark, leaving the hotel at 11:15 a.m. We were quickly on the New Jersey Turnpike (I-95) southbound for Pennsylvania. We stopped at a couple of service plazas for souvenirs and gas that slowed us down. Our lunch was the three slices of pizza we had left after last night's in-room feast.

We reached King Of Prussia just before 2 p.m. and checked into our hotel room. Roni and Ben thought we should head straight on in, but it was much too early to call it a day. King Of Prussia is home to Valley Forge, a Revolutionary War historical site, and this would probably be our only chance to see it. Besides, at 2:30 there was a scheduled demonstration of how colonial soldiers lived nearly 250 years ago. We didn't want to miss it. We had less than 25 minutes to make the demonstration, but fortunately the park is less than 2 miles from our hotel. We got to the park, hiked up a small hill for about a quarter mile, and reached the demonstration site with a few minutes to spare. There was a pretty good crowd on hand, so we were standing on the perimeter for the end of the interpretive talk given by one of the docents in period costume. But when it came time to fire the muskets and a 3-pound cannon, we slid in next to the fence for a good view of the action.

You might know that the beautiful weather we had while in New York totally disappeared on us overnight. The day had been overcast and a bit humid, although not too bad, for most of the drive. Now, the skies opened up and gave us a good soaking while the park folks did their demonstration. It was blessedly short, so we were quickly able to retreat to shelter and then walk back to the visitor center. We went throught the gift shop before returning to the car and taking a short drive around the park's auto tour route.

I had been to Valley Forge at least 30 years ago. I'm sure it has changed significantly in that time, but I'd have no way of remembering now. The visitor center was definitely new. The park looks like a great place for a bike ride or a picnic lunch, but not in nasty weather. As it was, Roni was so damp from the thunder shower that we almost bagged the auto tour, but she humored me and we got in a little bit of sightseeing.

It was closing in on 4:30 by the time we left the park. We decided it would be a good idea to get something for dinner before going to the hotel, so we wouldn't have to go out again once we got settled. We stopped off at the local shopping mall, which the town proudly boasts as one of the largest in America. Perhaps. We didn't see enough of it to decide for ourselves if that claim is true, but we did visit the food court for Italian food for us and Chinese for Ben. Afterward we went to the Eckerd pharmacy in the downstairs portion of the mall to buy postcards, then we picked up some ice cream treats from Stone Cold Creamery and returned to the hotel by 6:30 p.m. While a record for early arrivals on this trip, it nonetheless wasn't early enough to say we'd truly had a day of rest.

Roni had thought perhaps we could head down to the swimming pool, but the storm had kicked up again and was dumping some serious rain on us. We pretty much stayed in the room. Ben watched some TV while Roni did what was left of the laundry she didn't get to last night and I napped a bit.

Our room is one of the nicest we've had on this trip. We're on the second floor, with a balcony that overlooks a large grassy common with a gazebo in the center. As the sun set we could see a few fireflies moving about near the bushes. What we couldn't see, however, was fireworks. We heard a lot of explosions from a show to the east, but our view was largely blocked by the rest of our hotel and the neighboring hotel. Every so often I could see the sky light up. Some of the light was lightning, but a lot of it was the municipal display. It was raining so hard that we wouldn't have wanted to be outside watching it to begin with. The rain was actually cascading waterfall style from our roof, soaking the balcony and forcing us to close the sliding glass door lest we get water on the carpet inside the room. We finally got to see a few fireworks from someone nearby who was shooting off a home display. Not quite the same, but it will have to do.

I'm very tired tonight. Got to get an early start tomorrow to visit my grandparents, so off to bed now at 12:30 a.m.