Forging and Hoping for Crayons in the Hamptons

Got up early around 6am, raring to go. Looked outside and the sun was out. WooHoo!! Outside our room was a woodchuck playing in the field and then some birds and rabbits showed up. As I was packing the bike up I was humming.

Zippiddity Doo Dah Zippidity Eh my oh my it’s gonna be a wonderful day.

First stop is right down the street in Easton PA at the Crayola factory. We arrived there before 9am and the doors are not open. Impression of Easton is a town under a big revitalization / beautification project. The center of town is just darn nice. The doors opened and got my INK then headed for Hopewell Furnace in Elverson, PA.

Picked up 3 Spots at Hopewell. Hopewell Furnace is very similar to the Saugus Iron Works in Massachusetts being one of the iron smelting locations in the early 1800’s that made up America’s Industrial Revolution. There is a small fee to visit the village, which I paid and visited.

Next Stop was Valley Forge National Historic Park in PA. I did not spend much time at VA, other than to get some INK, but my observation is the place is huge, required probably a whole day to visit (maybe more). Valley Forge is a Revolutionary War site..

Next stop was Hampton Historic Site in Towson, MD. Hampton was a large plantation with iron works on the grounds. The home was finished in 1790 and was the largest house in the United States at the time. We arrived here at 4:30pm just as they were closing up for the day. I did get my INK and was able to walk the grounds a bit. On the grounds was a deep cellar for storing ice for the family that lived in the house. How ingenious and maybe the roots of sweet tea.



Since we were headed to my cousins house and just happened to be in the neighborhood, (I told Steve it was on the way) we stopped at the Turkey Run Park for INK gold. Turkey Run has something like 18+ stamps, however they were closed for the evening. I did a quick calculation and figured it was only 60 miles from my cousin John Stoddard’s house and would return on the next day for the stamps.

Turkey Run was the last scheduled stop for the day and we had ridden somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 or so miles. Just south of Washington DC at 7pm at night the traffic was a stand still on I-95. A quick viewing on the 2610, I figured a quick jump on US 1 would do the trick to get around this traffic. Much better route and the scenery was perfect, the weather turned to a very nice evening, warm enough to travel in short sleeves. One more stop at Outback before ending the days ride in Corbin, VA.

Approxmiate route for the day http://tinyurl.com/4eexco Some where between 325 and 350 miles for the day.

The INK of the Day