a Rant & two Rides!!!

Gettysburg, Pa. to Tabernacle, N.J. July 8th
Take Hwy 30E, out to Gettysburg to York, then Hwy 74E, then 372 E, Heart of Amish Country, though Bethesda and Buck, down Hwy 41 E to Route 1 N, pass Brandywine, 322 E to the toll bridge, south of Chester, into NJ, continue on 322 E, though Glassboro to Williamstown, then 532 N,Wharton State Forest, take 206 N, to 532 E to Tabernacle, and my sister Valerie’s house.
60.1 mpg/ 215.8 traveled
Leaving Gettysburg, site of some of the one of the worst losses of America lives our nation has ever experienced, how many souls live here, now even my own sister lays here.
Heading East , though York, large older red brick buildings and factories, downtown feels dated, you can smell blue collar sweat, honest bustle, watch out for delivery trucks, and signs for highway routes, most important. Cutting under Lancaster, into the Heart of Amish County, towns like Blue Ball, Paradise, Intercourse and Bird in Hand.
Where large Farms, using old ways to farm and live. I think an Amish farmer could use a plastic knife and still have a magnificent piece of property.
An aside-This country was divided, diffences of values, ideas, economic and racial issues tainted the country. We are still getting over a civil war that spit this nation. Are we headed to another civil war, based on ideals, worship the way I see it, or go to hell? We can’t have it both ways.
Behind an Amish Buggy, going 15mph on a small back country road that raises and falls, quick turns at the edge of some ones property, we slow down admiring the past , we have tolerance and reverence, yet can we do the same behind a vehicle of rainbow decaled, or long haired freaks before country performers thought it looked cool. I cut my hair.
Heading to Jersey between Philadelphia and Chester, slipping into Jersey, and then taking the back roads to see family and a new Grandchild Gianna.
She has curly blond hair, blue eyes, light olive complexion, dad’s Italian, she is a joy, able to function independently, observant, confident, an easy fit for my daughter Anna, a single mom now.
In Tabernacle, home of my sister Valerie and family, where the deer outnumber the humans, I have a half a day, time to go to Philly to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, I start my tour going though a screening, I take a picture, told to delete the shoot, it’s a digital, easy, no so with film, told to take my hat off, I was even told to lift the hat, to provide a better view of the inside of hat.
The Liberty Bell, freedom rings, is this Liberty, are we a free society, we take risks because of our freedom, yes. Because the government can not do their job, without making everyone guilty and then proved innocent, that is backwards. This makes us safe?
The place Ben Franklin made famous, the state that was tolerant of many religions, some still florest, and our future is not imposed on them. Where is our freedom of thought and movement, we must be vigilant, all citizens, that is our job. Again the government is taking something away, sheep we are.
What a show, low wage worker with little pay or formal training, without skills to evaluate a true threat, going though routine. Broadway America, the Musical with song and dance and frisking, even a steamy midnight show, touching and cavity searches anyone.
“Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land onto all the inbitants there of.”
A tradition of Protest, like John Brown’s raid in 1859 although usual for its attack on a federal installations part of a long tradition of protest and dissent in America. The United Sates was born in protest. In the years before the American Revolution, colonists spoke out against the laws and politics of England. Eventually they rebelled with violence and war. With the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the Constitution on the United Sates guan teed Americans the rights of free speech, a free press, the right to petition the government, and the right to assemble peacefully.
Americans frequently use these fundamental rights over the years, citizens of the country have organized demonstrations and rallies to oppose politics and champion causes. Often controversial and some times violent, these protests have laid the foundation for political, social and economic change. Today as in the past, Americas often exercise their first amendment rights. Right On, what are we afraid of, now?
Then off to see Independence Hall, decisions where made here, debating each issue, with weight on every decision, with thoughts of a new country, to be born and fathered by these men. We must take time today to listen to diffences, explore new ideas. America is asking the world to be Democratic, please practice at home. When being patriotic is to scorn at those that dissent. We are a nation born from protest, Revolutionaries, any other names one could call these people. A modern day word?
I take a picture of the front of an old building, nearby a guard tells me, no pictures, this building as been here over 350 years, cancel the PBS documentary, Independence Hall, no DVD will be made. Inside the same drill, no belt, lift my hat, scare me drill.
We must be safer.
Then into the courtyard, I did not look for cameras, yet. I wonder, long line, I love history, does anyone know why this place is so special, I go into one of the holy places of history. We get 15 minutes of talk about general stuff, please follow the guide at all times, and we do! 30 guards to one guide. I am learning.
Upstairs on the ______floor (classified), we see where great minds created the rules and guidelines for America.
Later privately I talked to the guide saying, it did not feel right, too much security, he said we should be in the streets angry, I agree. Privately.
Because of religious extremists from another country, our friends, did a horrible thing, kind of like Hurricanes did to the South, an unplanned disaster, not enough propaganda, yet we should turn our heads away, please let me see what’s under your hat.
Leaving Philadelphia, on the speed line, over the Delaware, over Camden, half the city is boarded out, in my view out the window of the train, for a long as I have been coming here, it’s been that way. Fix this, too.
Fuel for a rested mind, it takes me a day to write this, get the angst out. The taste of conformity.
Leaving Jersey the next day, I get the one finger salute from a concrete truck driver, I am uneasy driving here. In Jersey as a youth, before Oregon and a better brain, I would drive fast, test me, and go ahead. No more, I have slowed. I wave nicely to the driver, another bird, take care, I am leaving. Cars get in front, don’t look back, running up high speeds for short stretches, look I am in front of you. This is helping me leave, I will miss family, and this place of my past.
Maybe, I will learn.
July 12th
North on 206, right though the heart of Trenton, pass restaurant row, ethnic eateries, even Carolina pulled pork and Fried Chicken, connect midtown to Rt. 31N, the nicest road I have been on in Jersey, the state with the worst roads I have experienced, they don’t fix them, just patched, then pass Pennington, Washington, to Buttzville, to Rt. 46 to Columbia, the Delaware Water Gap, most impressive, where the Kittatinny Mountains have given way to eons of steady persuasion by the Delaware River, this famous notch has long been a landmark, not only for natural splendor, recreation, and gentel farmland. The Old Mine Road , the oldest commercial highway in America, which follows an aboriginal trail along the Delaware, believed to be 8000 years old. George Washington’s solders used the road and John Adams and Ben Franklin were frequent travelers. During the mid 19th Century, parts of the Old Mine Road became links in the Underground Railroad, now the Appalachian Trial goes by breathtaking overlooks, sublime glens and ravines, rugged outcroppings, a glacier lake, ancient copper mines and a pheasant drive up & out of Jersey.
Lost for a minute or two, not sure if I am in Jersey or Pennsavania. North 521, foothills, back on Rt. 206, pass the highest point in Jersey- High Point 1803 feet, then to Montique, north on Rt. 521 into New York, then Port Jervis.
In New York, take 209N to Kingston , following the Basher Kill and Roudout Rivers, though towns of Godeffray, Cuddebackville, Stone Bridge to Kingston, 28E, then 32N across the mighty Hudson River on to Rt. 9/199E to Red Hook, past Lafayette to Pine Plains, to Rt. 82N Ancramdale, then Rt. 3, Overlook Mountain Road, onto the Rothvoss Farm, home of Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, July 13th-16th.
59.2mpg/ 233.7 miles traveled
I am better now.