Rainy Day Activities

It rained much of the night last night and quite a bit of today.  Looks like outside actives will not be great, so today was a day to take care of some of the more mundane but still necessary things.  First order of business: laundry.   After nearly two weeks the laundry bag was full and socks were running low.

We found a laundromat in Pottstown, not too far away from where we camped overnight.  It was probably one of the nicest laundromats I have been in.  And not very busy.  We stripped the linens off the bed, collected all the clothing, and ran everything in, getting a shower ourselves in the pouring rain.  We used the wait time to catch up on some emails and Bible study.

Just across the street was an Aldi grocery store and a Walmart.  We resupplied ourselves with groceries and even got a half gallon of ice cream since there was now a little room in the freezer.

Valley Forge near Philadelphia was not too far away.  Its exhibits are mostly outdoors, but we decided to take a crack at it anyway.

On the way, Deb spotted the Philadelphia Premium Outlets and we turned in there to check it out.  There was also a Costco located right next door.  We went into the Costco to see if they had any good samples and to inquire about a flu shot.  We managed to snag a flu shot there--check that item off the list--but the food samples were rather disappointing.  I guess we’ll actually have to make a lunch.

Costco was unbelievably busy.  It seems like any Costco we visit is super busy.  I probably should buy stock in the company.  I felt a little conspicuous as I was taking four parking spaces in the absolutely full parking lot but we weren’t there long.

One of the things we do on these trips is try to find good barbecue sauce.  We’ve stopped at several places over the years that have been recommended by a friend from church who smokes a lot of meat.  We also happened upon a store a couple years ago that deals exclusively in sauces.  This store, the Pepper Palace, is often located in outlet malls and this mall had the store.  We scored a few bottles of our favorite sauce, to be used the next time a slab of meat comes off the smoker.  Honey Chipotle Rum.  Mountain Q Hickory Mild.  Looking forward to slathering some of that on smoked meat.

We spent most of the afternoon at Valley Forge.  Quite amazing that the fledgling US Army survived the winters there and managed to push back the British during the Revolutionary War.  We saw the 1778 version of the Pentagon, where George Washington planned and led the war effort at Valley Forge, a rather unassuming stone house that he rented from Mr Potts.

The soldiers lived in little log huts.  There were thousands of these built by the soldiers themselves under the direction of General Washington.  A few of them still remain on the grounds, a silent testament to a difficult but pivotal time in our nation's history.

The rain held off for much of this, for which we were grateful.  After driving quite a bit of the auto interpretive tour through the grounds, we again headed south and ended up at a Cracker Barrel just across the Delaware River from Wilmington, Delaware.  We had a leisurely dinner in the restaurant, and are now settled for the night in their back parking lot.

The red line is getting longer and now includes two states that I have never been in: New Jersey and Delaware.