Philly!

Friday, May 27. Plymouth Meeting to Philadelphia (and back).

We decided to take a day to go into Philadelphia today, only about 15 miles from our hotel in Plymouth Meeting (near Conshohocken), PA. And since the ride would be on the Schuylkill (pronounced "school-kill") River bike path, we went to bed Thursday night looking forward to a day of playing tourist.

Friday morning's weather report warned us of rain from about 3pm on through the evening, so we took along all of our rain gear--just in case--and set off down the bike path.

If you ever get the chance to ride this route, take it! It's flat, with great views of the river. Once we got into the outskirts of Philly, near Manayunk, the bike path changed to a gravel towpath. At one break in the path there is a great mosaic on the side of a building, created by some students as part of an art network project. I snapped a couple of pix of the mural, decided against a stop at the local coffeeshop, and we continued on down the path. A short time later it came to an abrupt end--at the Manayunk Brewery! While this solved the problem of where to get a beer, we were still confused about where to pick up the trail into the city. I was still contemplating riding up to the brewery when I noticed a bike shop right at the corner. The wrenches at Human Zoom bike shop filled in the missing details, and we were off to pick up the trail.

Just as we got into the city, it started to drizzle, and by the time we got to Logan Circle, it was really coming down hard. We ducked under a construction scaffolding over a sidewalk and prepared to wait it out. It was only noon, and if these were the precursor to the predicted 3pm storms, we were going to be in for a wet day. We got out our rain jackets and helmet covers, and waited for a letup.

The squall passed over in about 20 minutes, so we decided to continue on to the Independence Mall. The park rangers told us that we were too late for tickets into Independence Hall, but there were other attractions in the area.

We locked our bikes to the fence outside the Liberty Bell exhibition, and put on the bike cover--just in case.

By the time we were done touring the Liberty Bell exhibit, the skies were clearing up. We left the bikes locked up, and found the Visitor's Center. A tour-bus employee gave us a tip to have lunch at the Reading Terminal Market, so we headed off in that direction.

And what does one have for lunch in historic Philadelphia? An authentic, historic philly cheesesteak, of course. The market reminded me of the farmer's market in Toronto, where you can find cheese, chocolate, wine, fresh vegetables and fruit, bakery items (especially good are the oatmeal cookie sandwiches at the Flying Monkey Patisserie), and ethnic take-out foods of all kinds. You can also find Philly cheesteak. By the time we sat down with our lunch at a table outside the market, I was peeling off my jacket and socks--glad for shorts and a short-sleeve shirts. The sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky!

After lunch we walked over to see the Chinatown Friendship Gate, which proclaims Philadelphia's friendship with sister city Tianjin, China. I love to walk through Chinese markets--there are always barrels and baskets of dried spices and other mysterious dried items. I can't imagine what these things might look like re-hydrated, and even though they're each labelled, the labels are in Chinese characters--so the mystery remains unsolved!

We also visited Ben Franklin's home--or rather, the site where his home used to be. In its place is a metal frame, showing what the frame of his home would have looked like. Quotes from letters between Ben and Deborah, his wife, are etched into the pavement "inside" the house. They corresponded quite a bit about the house, its furnishings, and even fabric for the curtains and the color of the wallpaper! Ben was abroad while the house was being built, and Deborah oversaw much of the initial construction.

Near the house site is a rental property that Ben owned (Franklin Court), as well as the B. Free Franklin Post Office, a working postal center. Back in the day, Ben was the first Postmaster General, and signed his name to cancel stamps sent through the mail. He signed them as "B. Free Franklin", which is thought to have been a reference to America's yearning for freedom. At this post office, stamps are still cancelled with an ink-stamp replica of Ben's signature.

But my favorite part of the whole Ben Franklin complex was the museum. This museum has to date from sometime in the 70's.

The first room has a number of replications of Franklin inventions--the Franklin Stove, the Long Arm, the Armonica, and some artifacts from the Franklin house--a desk, a chair, etc. The second room has a wall that is entirely covered in mirrors--and a sort of flash-dance flashback with neon signs that read "Statesman", "Inventor"and "Diplomat".

But the third room is the best. There are about 50 princess phones, mounted on waist-high poles in rows across the room. At the front of the room are numbers that you can call from these phones--The Franklin Directory.

Each number will call up (!) a voice from the past--not necessarily Franklin's past--who will make a short statement of their feelings about Ben Franklin. I couldn't keep from cracking up when I tried it. The first name I dialed was Franklin's son-in-law. He's probably not real busy right now, but it took 4 rings for him to pick up the phone! And the other numbers I dialed were just the same. You can hear the phone, rotary dialing the number, and then the number rings. After 3 or 4 rings, you can then hear the call being connected! This is an exhibition sadly in need of updating--or better marketing.

That room also had an odd listing of quotes from Ben, sorted into categories such as "Family", "Business", "Health", etc. This display is just not working right, because there's no correlation between the list of quotes and what shows up on the screens below. I think that at one time you could "dial-a-quote", and the one you selected would show up on a microfiche display. But the selectors have been removed, and only 2 of the 4 screens seem to rotate through the sayings. The 3rd screen is stuck on one quote (not even that memorable), and the last one is dark. Ben himself would have something to say about the poor use of this technology, I think. But I was laughing out loud, and some of the other visitors may not have appreciated my reaction. Ben was always thinking of ways to make something better, safer, or more useful. I think he would have laughed along with me.

After a stroll through and sit-down in Washington Square, we headed to the Market East Station to catch a train back to Conshohoken. Bikes are not allowed on the train during peak hours, so we couldn't get on the train until 6:45pm. Worked out ok for us, as it gave us some extra time in the city.

Once the conductors saw us, they opened a car just for us. I can understand why these trains have bike restrictions. There is no kind of accommodation for bicycles at all. We had to find a spot between the seats to park our bikes, and were glad that we didn't have to wrestle them through a car that had actual passengers.

The ride to Conshohoken was about 30 minutes--the trains are smooth and quiet. Once off the train it was only about 3 miles back to our hotel, but we scooted across the road and stopped in at Dick's Sporting Goods. Matthew had inadverdently left his sunglasses on the train, and I wasn't about to let him go on without eye protection. While we were there, I wandered over to the camping section and found a couple of new dehydrated dinners for us to try--Kung Pao Chicken and Black Bean Tamale. We're hoping to be able to camp the next couple of nights as we thread our way in and out of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. This being Memorial Weekend, we're also hoping that there will be a campsite available when we get to the end of the day's ride!

Couldn't have asked for more fun than we had in Philly, though. I'm glad we took the time to take the spur into the city. We didn't get a chance to hook up with Sue's brother Joe and sis-in-law Patty, nor meet Sue's parents, so I guess that will have to wait for the next trip.