Philadelphia, 2nd day

Ara, Steph and I got an early start to visit the Magic Gardens, an incredible exhibit of mosaics, sculpture, old salvaged pieces, and you name it.  It is put together in a wonderful museum with gardens and upper and lower levels - almost overpowering.  Isaiah Zagar's murals are also seen on a great many walls in the city, and the mosaic and glass pieces glitter.  (Please click on the pictures to enlarge).

We then took the bus to the Philadelphia Art Museum.  I am not a movie fan and I don't know anything about Rocky, but evidently a lot of folks do.  I've never seen so many people run up steps, shake their fists in the air, flex biceps, etc.  I guess you know about it, but it seemed crazy to me.  Tour buses pulled up with loudspeakers playing "Eye of the Tiger" - I hope I got that right.

We ate lunch in the museum cafe and then Ara left us to go to work.  Steph and I toured a whole lot of the museum exhibits - from American artists, to European, to Medieval.  There is a very large exhibit of Armor, including armor for horses.  All I could think about was the poor horse carrying a knight decked out in heavy armor, and the horse having to wear his own as well.  Cruelty to animals goes back a long way.  There were a lot more exhibits that we looked at but I've forgotten what they were.

The first two pictures depict the City Center from the Museum.  I did fine climbing all those steps, by the way, as well as those to three floors in the Museum.  I was pretty tired of stairs, though, and Ara's apartment has some wicked steep stairs.

We went out that night for a German dinner and some Oktoberfest beer.  Had a good time and raised a pint to Bill, Papa, Uncle Bill.  

I left the next morning after I thought the rush hour traffic would be over.  Ara brought my car the few blocks where it was parked over to around the corner from her house, and I was soon on my way.  I did miss a turn to get me onto I-95 and it seemed forever to go back and find a place to get turned again in the right direction.  I finally made it ok, and drove I-95 to Chester, PA where I turned west.  I found myself at Gettysburg in the early afternoon and thought I might stay at a campground there.  The NPS has no campgrounds and all are privately owned and operated.  I called two of them, Round Top CG and Artillery Ridge but decided against it for the rate of $31 for a tent site, no utilities needed.  

I kept driving until I got to Front Royal, VA, near the northern entrance to Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive.  The motel was a welcoming place and as tired as I was I did a microwave meal.  (I'm doing one of those again tonight, but I'll cover that when I get further down the road in my blog.

I've had a wonderful trip so far and had planned to camp again this evening, but I'm on the Blue Ridge Parkway and just drove about 50 harrowing miles through dense fog.  In fact, I couldn't get any decent pictures on the BRP because of the fog and haze, but hopefully it will clear up tomorrow.  

I hope to post in a day or so, depending on the MiFi connection and whether I'm tenting or in a motel.  See ya!