Philly, cheesesteaks, toll roads and New York

We woke up and got a bit of a slow start. We weren't in too big of a hurry so we got everything cleaned up, packed up and grabbed our swimming suits. Before we left the campground we spent some time in the pool. The kids were happy about that as we were a little sweaty just putting the trailer away. Philly was a tad cooler, but still a little bit muggy. Once time was spent in the pool, the goal was find a Walmart to park the trailer and then head into town to see Philadelphia. However the toll roads are killing us. We had know idea we were even on a toll road and having never done this before we didn't know we had to have cash. Their sign said debit cards accepted, but we were apparently in the wrong line. Their sign also said $5 but apparently they changed the price effective July 1, but forgot to change the sign. This was our first real encounter with frustration and toll roads . . . And more to come.

Once we got off the toll road we found a Walmart - side commentary - Walmart is not my favorite place to shop because they do have a reputation for coming into towns and putting the small business owner out of business, however, they have some policies that really help travelers, such as letting them park rigs in their parking lots for the day and even over night if you have to. Not real interested in shopping at the one in Cornelius near home, but granted they do have everything you might need in a pinch and for cheap prices. Now back to the story . . . it was time for lunch. The hunt begins for an authentic Philly cheesesteak sandwich. We found one on the Internet that claimed to be the best so we figured why not try. We plugged it into GPS and off we went because we were hungry.they roads are interesting and this part of Philly is very dirty. The roads are basically one way and narrow. If you tried to turn down a road and there was a car stuck, fender bender, or whatever then you were stuck until it got taken care of, especially if there were cars behind you. You couldn't go around, there was no room. It was also very dirty, garbage everywhere. The "Give a hoot, Don't pollute" slogan apparently didn't apply to Philly, at least this part. Finally found the cheesesteaks, but no parking or at least it wasn't easy. Mark dropped Kaleb, Chelsea and myself off to get our sandwiches while he drove back around to pick us up. Apparently there is a right way and a wrong way to order your sandwiches, and I did it incorrect and the server was not pleased. I also found it funny in a "sad, that is totally not PC" kind of way that when I asked him to cut them in half his response to the "cook" was to "handicap them". That just sounds wrong to me for some reason. Anyway, we can officially say we have experienced a Philly cheesesteak sandwich and none of us were overly impressed. Personally and proudly, we all think I can do a better job. There was nothing special about it. Oh, well . . . We had to try.

Off to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Once we found some parking in this area, we went to the visitors center to get some tickets for the Independence Hall tour. I will say this particular part of Philly was definitely cleaner, but still more garbage on the ground than I would have expected. Oh, it was also free, none of this Gettysburg pay for everything stuff (that was just bazaar as Mark noted last time). We started with a little 20 minute movie telling the stories of four people in the area (based on diaries that had been found) who had to choose between being loyalists or patriots. Funny, one of the actors, I'm sure when she was unknown was Kristen Bell from the movie "When in Rome" which is a chick flick and us girls recognized her right away. We giggled at that. Time to head to the Liberty Bell. The cool part about this historical place is everything is really close together. As we were walking to get in line, we got to listen to a army band playing a little bit of everything, some jazz, so classic rock, etc. They were very good and we finally heard a little jazz after our disappointment in New Orleans. It was just a song, but it was fun. The Liberty Bell was fun.





Independence Hall was next but we were a little early so we wasted time in the hall of congress where congress and the senate met. Only a few original pieces were authentic, but the rest of it was decorated the same way. It was kind of fun to listen to this ranger. She had a pretty strong Philly accent. When we were done with congress we went on our Independence Hall tour. The ranger was cute and funny and we learned a lot. This was the second location we made connections to the movie "National Treasure", a very fun, clean movie if you haven't seen it. We enjoy watching it every so often. Anyway, part of the movie took place in Independence Hall and so we were trying to compare the set to the actual Hall. We made a few connections to the movie in DC.





This was basically a quick day stop. When our tour was done we went back to the visitors center and gift shop. We had to find postcards and Kaleb had to get his National Parks stamp. We were done, but the story doesn't end. We had to go back and get the trailer. We needed to get some shopping done, but we weren't overly impressed with this particular Walmart and they are not all created equal, so we decided to hook up and head out. While we were heading out, the kids and I witnessed what I believed to be domestic abuse, it seemed to me the two people knew each other and possible child abuse. I'm sort of thankful I'm not a mandatory reporter in the state of Philadelphia because I probably should have called someone for this. The little girl was screaming and the man close-fisted hit the woman two or three times in the face. It completely freaked me and the kids out and as much as Mark was somewhat compelled to help, someone already appeared to be helping so we booked it out of there. Not interested in going back to Philly anytime soon that's for sure.

Off to NY. . . But don't forget we need cash for toll roads. If Mark survives this east coast traffic I'll be extremely grateful. We aren't even anywhere close to letting Kaleb drive, it is that scary. I've hesitantly offered to drive a little, but he told me I don't want to. The roads are crazy just like in DC, when you take an exit you have two or three new roads to choose from and they look like they are on top of each other on the GPS. The difference between NY and DC is DC's roads are in better condition. Roads in NY are in horrible condition. Heading out we took the New Jersey turnpike, a toll road. They had you trapped. You got a ticket going on to it and the price is based on how many miles you go and of course we had almost 100 miles to go. Mark calculated it would probably be around $15. I thought paying the tolls was supposed to help pay for the up keep of the roads??? It's not working very well if that is the intention. Not only did they have you trapped, as taking non-toll road routes would have been double and triple the amount of time and miles, but also getting off and getting gas and/or snacks. You could not get a fountain coke, which sometimes hits the spot better than a cold can of coke, for anything less than $2.50 and that was a small. They have a little monopoly going on. Needless to say we didn't get a fountain coke and did just fine with the cold cans in the cooler. When we finally reached our turn off the turnpike, we were pleasantly surprised to have it only cost about $5, but the next one was around $15. So far just in this day we have paid almost $30 in toll fees and almost that in parking.

I would say some of the biggest surprises for the trip at this point and in this area are the amount of money paid in parking and toll fees (which I reiterate is cash only) and the amount of money spent on ice keeping the food cool.

We did finally make it to our campground and after waiting for the camp manager to come back to the office and Mark spending a funny conversation with him about getting a site closer to the bathroom without being charged a fee for moving sites, we headed to a Walmart for a few groceries. Remember not all Walmarts are created equal. This one was not a Super Walmart so it's grocery section was limited. We got a few things to complete dinner and got a package of ice cream sandwiches, which of course had to be eaten soon. We had dessert first and once again had dinner at 10:00 at night. It seems to be a reoccurring theme.





Mom and kids in Philadelphia Independence Hall.

Location:Philadelphia