<– Day 26 – Thursday May 24th: Architecture & Organs | Day 29 – Sunday May 27th: The Exley House Curse –>

On Friday we drove from Philadelphia to Chester, Virginia.

Day 27 & 28: On Friday we drove from Philadelphia to Chester, Virginia. I made a major miscalculation with this decision, as half of Philadelphia decided to head to the beaches early for the Memorial Day Weekend, so the 5 hour drive I expected took 9 hours.

We saw a few interesting things, but mostly it was a long drive in traffic. The drive on the Chesapeake bridge-tunnel was pretty neat. And, I thought that would be the most interesting thing we’d see.

But, no, it wasn’t.

As we drove north on I-64 through Virginia, about where Yorktown is, I was going 70mph in a 60mph, just keeping up with traffic, when this car roared up in the lane to my right, traveling about 85-90. Then, two other cars pulled up behind them. Finally, a noisy (muffler leak?) early black Chevy Yukon(?) appeared to our right in the slow lane, passing us and running at about a 2 O’clock angle to us, several car lengths ahead of us.

Suddenly, the rear driver’s side wheel started smoking. Then bits of tire started shooting across the highway. I slowed, not knowing what would happen. Then the tire exploded (no way he didn’t hear and/or feel it), flying across the middle lane and into our lane. The Toyota truck ahead of us didn’t have a chance and ran over the tire roughly.

I’d slowed enough to dodge the tire, but I wasn’t so much watching the tire as I was the driver, because he wasn’t slowing down. He was still driving about 55mph without the tire, bits of tire still flying off his rear rim. And, he didn’t seem to care that the tire was gone.

The Toyota truck that had hit the tire moved from the fast lane to the middle lane to either (1) complain or (2) notify the driver that he was missing the tire. Apparently, the driver didn’t care, as he never slowed down.

Seeing my chance, with a wide-open fast lane, I floored the jeep and created a large amount of distance between me and the Yukon.

Ann suspected the guy may have stolen the Yukon and didn’t want to stop driving. I don’t know why he wouldn’t stop, but it was one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.

So, we landed late in Chester at my cousin’s house. We spent Saturday helping her fix some things around the house. Other than that, we’ve been working on my cousin’s house in Virginia. That’s a nice change of pace.

<– Day 26 – Thursday May 24th: Architecture & Organs | Day 29 – Sunday May 27th: The Exley House Curse –>

<– Day 25 – Wed. May 23rd: Steel, Strings & Sellersville | Day 27 & Day 28 – Fri/Sat May 25th/26th: What is Happening? –>

Wurlitzer Pipe Organ at the Macy’s in downtown Philadelphia. Ron scored us a visit to see it and the Wanamaker Organ. I don’t know how these things happen to us …

Day 26: We spent Thursday guided around Philadelphia by my cousin Ron Emrich. Having worked in building preservation for most of his life, he is well acquainted with the city’s architecture. We walked down to the first hospital in the country, then checked out Reading Market, where we relaxed and has some launch. Next, we visited the former Wanamaker store, now Macy’s, which houses both the largest organ in the world and a Wurlitzer. Ron got a behind-the-scenes tour. It was a wonderful journey on a beautiful day. Ron will soon be making us some ‘Ron’garitas, followed by some South American food at a restaurant 30 feet away. So, this is the only post for Thursday. Friday we leave for Richmond.

Shown here is Washington Park, one of multiple large parks in downtown Philly:

Here’s Ron and I in front of a mural made of Tiffany glass. It was almost destroyed, but has since been turned into a Landmark. Ron and I are connected via my great great great grandfather Jacob Emrich (he still has the family name of Ron Emrich).

And, of course, Independence Hall:

We looked at a variety of things on our way to the Reading Market. Here are a few photos from the market:

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<– Day 24 – Tues. May 22: Rain N’ Fog in Coal Country | Day 26 – Thursday May 24th: Architecture & Organs –>

Heading out to dinner with Chuck and Laurie in their CJ-2A. It was perfect weather for a drive. in my hand is a step ladder so we could get Ann in and out of the jeep.

Day 25: We changed up our plans for Wednesday and it all worked well.  We drove from Bethlehem to Philadelphia, with our Jeep’s navigation steering us through north Philadelphia, precisely the place folks said we shouldn’t go. Thanks Jeep-Nav. Why it didn’t take us onto the Interstate is beyond me.

Wednesday’s drive from Bethlehem to Philadelphia.

On Tuesday night, after looking at the Crayola Experience more closely, we decided that it might be geared too much for kids. So, after doing some research, we chose to visit the fairly new National Museum of Industrial History, followed by the Martin Guitar factory.

We started at the NMIH, located inside one of the original Bethlehem Steel buildings. There were plenty of reminders that the effort to restore/retain the Bethlehem buildings was an ongoing process.

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