Our Philadelphia Story

 We are in Philadelphia for a couple nights and one day. Generally we avoid big urban areas. They are difficult and stressful in the big truck and camper. We have never visited Philly before and it just seemed wrong to pass by without seeing some of these famous icons of America. As we approached I did an internet search and came across a very helpful blog describing visiting here in a large RV. We followed their advice and came to a mobile home park north of the city that is near public transportation. We arrived late Sunday. This morning we got on a two mile bus ride to the Lansdale train station. There we caught a train that took us to downtown. 

 Our first stop was in the Reading Terminal. Pronounced "redding" -- I bet that is how the railroad in Monopoly is also supposed to be pronounced, who knew?!

This is not much of a photo and I only took the one. This place is the Philly version of Pike Place Market except more food and less other merchandise. It pretty much hit me with sensory overload. We wandered through, headed for the history stuff and came back for dinner before the train ride home. 

We had to get a ticket for a tour of Indepence Hall. We had a brief wait then a nice little tour. 

This is the room where our founders met and hashed out our declaration and constitution. We went on to see the first rooms where the house and Senate met for the first 10 years while the capital in Washington was being built. 

We asked a local person away from the tourist area where we should get the best Philly Cheese Steak sandwich--her recommendation was Ishkabibble's on South street. 

 It was worth the 8 or 10 block walk! Served piping hot and fresh! Mmmmm

This is Frankin Square -- an imaginative "replica" of Franklin's house. Historians do not know what the house looked like but the have the house plans and letters that describe it. So the replica is just an approximate shape and stones with quotes from letters on the paving stones that lead your mind to "build" the house in your own mind as you read them. 

Several times during the day we checked the line to see the Liberty Bell and it was crazy long. Finally about 4, the crowd dissipated and we got right in. 

 They have a nice display leading to the bell about all of the different ways she has been used as a symbol of our struggles and triumphs in the pursuit of liberty. 

Tomorrow we travel on. There is lots to see. Valley Forge, Gettysburg ...

One little back-up in this narrative: we took a pause from travel and stayed a couple nights with Dan's cousin and her husband in Madison, New Jersey. It was nice to sleep in a real bed and especially to use a regular shower. Saturday, they took us to the village of Chester for lunch and a little shop wandering. 

 I found a vintage sewing machine. It is a Singer 301A, built in 1951. I am thrilled! It only cost $40 and has quite a few accessories   I ran it a little, the motor is fine, the machine just needs cleaning and oil. We tucked the case in behind Dan's seat in the cab of the truck. I can not think of a better souvenir. 

I am a happy girl. Non quilters may not understand what a find the machine is, but on a Facebook quilt group I am in, my post about the machine has 320 "likes"

So the rest of the story-- the reason we took the extra time in New Jersey-- In my last blog post I wrote about sewing in the camper when we were in Connecticut. While I was sewing Dan had given me a glass of wine and was sitting opposite me at the camper table with the laptop out to work on. When I wasn't looking the computer took a gulp of my wine and died. Big oops, to say the least. 

 This is inside where all the wine hit that we could see. We took it to an Apple store in New Jersey where we learned that the hard drive and data were safe. We needed to decide whether to buy a new machine or pay a lot and wait a while to fix the old one. We took some time to think about it knowing there would be more Apple stores down the road. Our first stop here in Philly was Apple where we bought a replacement. It was our sales person who suggested Ishkabibble's. The data from the old hard drive has been put on the new one and we will pick it tomorrow. 

Always have took look for the silver lining...if I hadn't spilled the wine, we might not have had the extra time in New Jersey, and I might not have found my new old sewing machine. AND We might not have found out about Ishkabibble's.