July 28th Revisit to Independence National Historic Park Philadelphia Pennsylvania

Did a revisit here with Cooper and Tracy-  Only new stamp I got was the Old City Hall one, we actually visited 3 stamping locations-  Perfect weather for visiting-  we drove in from Jersey.  

July 3rd Delaware and Lehigh NHC- The Canal Museum and HQ Easton Pa.

Got here on a combined visit to Allentown and Easton-  There was formerly a stamp for this NHC and the Crayola Factory, but it has been removed.  

Got a pin for here also.

Quick revisit to Ben Franklin National Memorial in Philadelphia Sept 1 2013

Managed to snag some on-street parking right across from the front door at Ben Franklin Memorial, and dashed in and grabbed the new site stamp for this location, then right back out. 

Got to stop in at Gloria Dei Church, which is an affiliate and doesn't count towards the 401 units, but does count for stamps.  I can cross this site off the list. 

Revisit to Edgar Allan Poe NHS in Philadelphia

I was able to get to the Edgar Allan Poe NHS house on North 7th Street in Philly yesterday-  I had stopped by once before, but it was closed, only open on Wed/Sun. 

As a matter of fact, the house had been closed for the last 8 months, due to exterior renovations/restoration, and was just reopened this weekend. 

There were 3 stamps there, and I'm 100% done for here.  I got a pin for this location also- Didn't have a hiking medallion. 

This was a bit of a disappointment as a visit-  Did the house tour and watched the video, but the house was essentially void of any displays-  No furniture, very few artifacts, maybe it was too close to the reopening. 

Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial- Park #273 Philadelphia, Pa Sept 1, 2013

On my third try, I made it to the Thaddeus Kosciuszko N Mem  House at 301 Pine Street in downtown Philadelphia.  I made it there on the way back from Hopewell Furnace and Valley Forge.  Had to park illegally in the street for a minute, got in, looked around for a bit,  got the one stamp,  and they didn't have a pin or anything else, actually.  Probably the sparsest gift shop I've ever seen.   I can now at least count this now as a visit. 

Multiple site visits in Metro Philadelphia today Sept 1, 2013

I totally had one of my better days stamping and getting around today. I started off by arriving at the Independence NHP Visitor Center parking lot at 0820, before the center opened at 0830. 

They had like 10 stamps out here, plus a couple of more I asked about.  Then, I sat down and checked my data base sheets, and realized I was missing a couple- went back and asked about them, and they were produced!  The nice young ranger also gave me 31 different trading cards!

Then, I headed down to the new Benjamin Franklin Museum, which just opened last Week. 

Then, a block or so over to the Pemberton House, to pick up a couple of new stamps there-

Then, I drove over to the Edgar Allen Poe House, which had just reopened after an 8 month reconstruction-  pretty cool. 

Then, I decided to consolidate my plans for tomorrow and went ahead and headed out to Hopewell Furnace, which is a new site for me- #272.  Got two stamps that were out, then two that were underneath, thanks to another Ranger. 

That was about 45 miles out of town-  then, next I ran back down the turnpike to Valley Forge to get a missing stamp there-  which I got. 

Then, I swung into the city and got two more stops, Thaddeus Kosciuszko NM and Gloria Dei Church.  The Thad was a new stop for me, #273, and Gloria Dei is an affiliate, so it "doesn't count." 

Oops, I forgot that I also stopped in at the Ben Franklin Memorial to get a new stamp also. 

Park 267 Allegheney Portage Railroad NHS Cresson, Pa.

I have to confess here I didn't really know the "whole" story behind this park-  The Allegheny Portage was a scheme to move cargo and tow boats over the Allegheny Mountains for a stretch of some 30 miles so that the State of Pennsylvania could compete with the westward movement of the 1840's to almost 1860, when it lost out to more powerful steam engines on the railroad. 

That pretty much sums up the park and its purpose. 

They had a really pretty visitors center- I hit the mother lode here for stamps, they had a box underneath the register with about 8 old stamps that had expired, dating back to the 90's.!

Also got a pin and medallion, postcards, and Civil War Trading Cards for my Roanoke Buddies. 

Park 266 Johnstown Flood NHS St Mary's Pa. July 18, 2013

I've been wanting to visit here for a long time, as I have always found this historical aspect interesting-  learning the story about this great tragedy of 1899- and this park did a wonderful job with the interpretation of it. 

We opted to park in a high school parking lot down in the little valley, and I unhooked and drove up to the site-  Watched a 35 minute movie that was very sobering, and looked at the incident from a very personal perspective of the victims. 

Got a pin and medallion here, and some postcards as well.  The 1899 club house portion of the park was closed, but I got the stamps anyway.  So I was 2 for 2 here. 

The sidebar to the story is a couple of things I think, one, the decision to locate the town in a flood prone valley in the first place, and two, the liability of the "rich folks" who built the damn that failed, and escaped any culpability from it.   Interesting visit. 

Park #265 Flight 93 National Memorial Shanksville, Pa.

I had been really wanting to get to this site, and now that I've been there, glad I made the effort.  There was obviously a lot of planning and thought that went into this park-  It's literally out in the middle of nowhere, but they've built a beautiful 3.5 mile approach road, and a wonderful permanent memorial. 

The actual memorial-  there is a panel for each of those who died. 



This is the site of the new Visitor's center, which is scheduled to be available in 2015.