We are in a Red Roof Inn just south of Trenton, NJ tonight. We did not have good internet access the last two nights so I couldn’t send email or write a blog. I could read email and the internet, but just couldn’t upload. Thanks for all your comments on the last post.
On Saturday we visited the Canterbury Shaker Village. In case you don’t know, the most unique thing about the Shakers is their belief in celibacy. They replenish their ranks by way of converts and adopting orphans. Not surprisingly, there are very few left in the United States today. But it was interesting to see this village that once was home to 300 Shakers. There are none left there now.
The rest of the day, we just drove. We went all the way across New Hampshire and Vermont and turned south back toward Massachussetts. We spent the night just outside Stockbridge where Norman Rockwell lived much of his life. On Sunday morning, we visited the museum there, and had lunch in the village just off Main Street which is depicted in his famous painting “Christmas in a Small Town”. It was a most enjoyable morning before we drove on into Connecticut. We made a quick stop at a beautiful covered bridge in Connecticut to take some pictures and drive across. We only stopped in Rhode Island long enough to step out and take a couple of photos, but at least we can say were were there. It was a wet and windy evening when we drove through.
While we were eating lunch in Stockbridge, we sat next to a couple from New Jersey. When they discovered our plans for NYC, they had some great suggestions for us about getting into and around the city. We took their advice and drove down to Philadelphia today where we visited Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, and then found a motel back up near the state line. Tomorrow we will take the Amtrak train into Penn Station and purchase a ticket for the double decker bus that goes around lower Manhattan. We can “hop on – hop off” at various points of interest along the way, and then take the train back down to Trenton in the evening. We’ll spend the night here again and be ready to head toward Washington on Wednesday morning.
Glenda and I are getting along fabulously (who wouldn’t love traveling with my sweet friend?) and we have even managed to listen to one book on tape that was 11 hours long. All those miles of country roads in the rain made a great backdrop to the story about cheesemakers in Ireland. We have an early morning, so we better get some rest.