Note: I am getting a little burned out on trying to keep a semblance of a narrative journal. I have had a hard time getting down to writing, so I have decided to change the format a little bit. I will be making some, more or less disjointed comments about the day. I will still post pictures, but my comments may be limited to identifying what the pictures are.
Tuesday, May 21
This morning was another very cold morning. It was also kind of a noisy morning. This
morning was the primary election in Pennsylvania (as well as ours in Oregon), and it turns out
that the KOA at which we were staying uses there community house as a polling place. As
soon as it became light, people started working to set up the polling station. In a brief
conversation with one of the poll workers, she told me that this morning set the record in
the area for the latest spring frost. The good news was that it was sunny and not raining.
We spent most of the day wandering around Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. It was mostly
sunny, and when the wind wasn't blowing, the weather felt pretty nice. Unfortunately, most
of the time there was a really cold wind. With the weather cold for so long, we are really
getting tired of wearing the few cold weather clothes that we brought with us.
Friday, May 24
A novelty, today was the first day since we left Portland that we didn't have to use the
furnace to take the chill off before we got up in the morning. After a very pretty drive
through Northwestern Connecticut, we did a Volkswalk from Portland, Connecticut. The
walk included Wesleyan University, where I spent a short time, learning about things other
than academics. The turn of the weather is pretty complete at this point. By the time we
finished the walk, the thermometers that we saw were reading above 90 degrees. For now,
however, we are not complaining. We found a motel room to start the holiday weekend.
We drove to Princeton and did a Volkswalk there. The campus is beautiful. Not only that,
but Linda tells me "Lili must be smart now. She's been to Princeton." After leaving there we
drove up the Delaware River into the Northwest corner of New Jersey. After only having
seen the New York Metropolitan area and the Interstate 95 corridor, this is a New Jersey
that I have never known. Maybe this has to do with why the license plate says it is the
"Garden State."
We also started getting some anxiety about the coming weekend. The word is out on the
street that there are no campsites in New York or New England over the Memorial Day
Weekend. We are starting to work on how adjust to this.
Thursday, May 23
It was cool again this morning, but not so cool that I couldn't wear shorts. After I made an
effort at an artistic picture (I walked from the camp down to the Delaware River and took a
picture at dawn), we drove to West Point to do a Volkswalk. Unfortunately, the terrorism
threat has closed the campus to the general public. After missing that we drove up the
Hudson River Valley to Hyde Park to see both Val-kill (Eleanor Roosevelt's cottage) and
Hyde Park (Franklin Roosevelt's Home). Here we discovered a bit of mixed news. The good
news is that the temperature has improved, but the bad news is that it is far too warm to
leave Lili locked in the car. As a result, Lili and I walked around the grounds and Linda, with
a much greater interest in the details of historic homes, took the tours.
