Delaware vacation

Visiting Malcolm and Terry was like going back to our beginnings. We met them in Louisiana. We stayed there at Linn and Lynn's at a parking lot of a church, lake away from New Orleans. They were our second Boondockers Welcome hosts.

When we got there and Linn told us where we can park our trailer, from the trailer next door came Malcolm and offered help (let's not forget we didn't have much experience maneuvering Eddie back then). Couple hours later Terry knocked on our door with a bowl full of delicious pasta. And next day they went shopping and came back with toys for Maciek and Kalina.

With Malcolm and Terry in Louisiana

During our stay there we talked a few times about life and travels and our new friends cordially invited us to visit them in Delaware. After we got stuck in Nevada we didn't think we would make it at all to the East Coast, but as we finally did we couldn't not visit Terry and Malcolm.

Those few days we spent there we can call vacation. Of course this entire journey was one big vacation but it wasn't until Townsend when we finally allowed ourselves to do nothing, sit in pool, drink beer and juat relax. Ok, not really. It was the last state on our route with no sales tax so we spent one day shopping.

We also went on a day trip to Washington DC, we'll write about it in a next entry. But we skipped the nearest area. We really wanted to do some sightseeing, we even went to historical center of Dover but it was so hot and humid that we just took a couple of pictures through the window and we went back home.

Dover is a second largest city in Delaware and it's a state capital, but it still has a little bit more than 37,000 residents. Dover was founded in the end of 17th century by William Penn. There are a few buildings that remember 18th century, spread across downtown. Spread so wide that it was too far for us to walk. Besides, probably they were not open to public (ok, we're just racionalizing our lazyness).

To sum up: sometimes it's better to relax instead of seeing all the MSP (must-see places) and enjoy hospitality of friends, especially if those friends have swimming pool, golf cart and a large meadow you can ride on.

Post office in Dover

Next day after we came Terry had to leave to take care of her mom, so we stayed with Malcolm who proved to be a great host. We spent long hours talking over grill and beer and watching iconic chase scene from "Bullit", and on July 6 Malcolm completely surprised us with a birthday cake he bought for Kalina's birthday!

Birthday cake from Malcolm

Terry and Malcolm are an interesting couple. They both have serious health problems. However they are very positive and optimistic and they keep repeating how happy they are and how grateful for all they received in life. They make the most out of life, as much as they can considering their health.

Last year they bought an RV and they headed south - when we met them they were on their way to Texas to listen to blues, and recently we got an e-mail from Malcolm where he wrote about his 10-day solo canoe trip through Canadian interior in August! We invited him to come for canoeing in Poland. After he read about Polish rivers he said he is seriously considering a visit. We keep your word (oar).

Sweet laziness

Malcolm ended up in Delaware accidentally. He is Canadian, or actually Canadian-British and when he was young he lived in Toronto area. Some day he decided to go to Texas to become a cowboy. He got as far as Delaware where he got a job in carnival. He stayed there for a while until he heard there is GM factory opening nearby. His background was matching the requirements so he went to the interview. He had only Canadian papers but the guy he had interview with was Canadian too. Thus he was hired and ended up working there for 20 years. When GM decided to close down the factory it was just after Malcolm could retire and acquire rights to all benefits. 

We really liked one of Malcolm's travel stories. One day during his travels, he was young and didn't have much money, some woman invited him for something to eat. She asked him if he could send her postcards from all the cool places he visits. He did so for many years. He stopped when she wrote that she is very ill.

Many years later when he got a Facebook account some people he didn't know wrote him a message. They thanked him for sending postcards to their late grandmother - based on Malcolm's postcards she would tell them stories about the world. After she died they wanted to find him and say how important part of their childhood he played.

Malcolm and Terry live in a huge house full of dolls and porcelain ornaments. The first thing we saw entering their house was...a Christmas tree, there is another one too, further in a corner of living room. Malcolm's explanation was easy: "Terry loves Christmas". It's so simple... In Poland everyone would whisper and point fingers. Poles really like to tell you what you should and shouldn't do and if you differ it's sometimes tough... But thanks God it's changing.

We left Delaware begrudgingly. Laziness and good company is not something you leave easily... But we had 800 miles to go to Chicago and our flight was leaving in 3 days…

We wanted to be tough and drive to Chicago in one go. But Maciek got a fever where we were in Washington and two days later it was still there, plus his tummy hurt, so we decided to take it easy(ier) and break it into two days.

This time we found a place to stay on couchsurfing. After sending a few messages while we were already on our way we got an invite from Rick from Grove City, Ohio. We got there after 10 pm, we had a quick small talk with Rick and his family and we went to sleep on the couch and carpet in their living room. When we woke up Rick was already gone, he went to work. We talked for a while with his wife and sons, and after a quick breakfast we headed to Chicago. We got there early evening and our great hosts, Aneta and Milosz were already waiting for us with dinner…

Our first couchsurfing hosts

Short stop in Philadelphia

From NYC we headed south. We left Staten Island via another awfully expensive bridge and we drove on "95" towards Pennsylvania. We were on our way to Delaware, but we wanted to stop for a short while in the cradle of the American nation - Philadelphia.

Streets of Philadelphia

On the way we entered "garden state" again - New Jersey. It's supposed to be a very beautiful state but not many people really know that. Everyone passes through on "95" that runs along western border and nobody takes off towards Atlantic ocean. They say it's really  nice there. But our memories, as those of millions other passers-by, from New Jersey will be limited to the highway - with its closed lanes due to some road works, going through industrial or pretty much indistinct counties of NJ.

We reached Philadelphia pretty quickly even though we left "95" for a while to get some gas (New Jersey compared to surrounding states has very good gas prices and we almost didn't get lost looking for a gas station). According to google it was 1.5 hours , it took us a bit over two. We left the car few blocks from historic center as we didn't want to risk parking on the streets (we found large, cheap parking thanks to one of apps on our phone) so we ended up seeing more than we wanted to.

The touristy part is elegant and pretty, but our way there was a proof that Philadelphia is not at its best. On one of the main streets instead of expensive boutiques we've seen mostly second-hand shops and K-mart store. But that was no surprise, considering that looking for a cheap parking we found ourselves in a cheap district. And it's still a big American city, not quite following Detroit yet, so at least those cheap shops were on ground floor of beautiful houses and well maintained skyscrapers.

After all we reached our destination. Visitors center in National Independence Park was as usually great, ranger gave us all the information we needed, but, as our time was very limited, we decided to keep our sightseeing to a minimum. As usuall, maybe if we had left New York City earlier we would have had more time for Philadelphia.

We reached National Independence Park going through Town Hall. Built in the beginning of the last century 167-meter-tall building was at some point the tallest in the world. And for over 80 years it was the tallest building in Philadelphia. And today is still the world's tallest inhabited masonry building.

Ratusz

It was city's creator, William Penn, who decided where Town Hall would be built. It was designed in the Second Empire style, which, as we know now, after visiting Philadelphia, we're not very keen of. Building has jus to many details, unproportionally tall tower with Penn's statue on top. What's more in its gates and on its courtyard you can feel and see that maybe Philadelphia is after its worst (in 80s it felt to the bottom) but still it didn't go back to its best.

In National Independence Park we spent an hour or so. City was getting ready for Independence Day celebration. Some buildings were fenced with barriers, there was lots of police on the streets.

Independence Hall

Independence Hall, where Declaration of Independence was signed, was closed to visitors. We could walk around it but we didn't have enough time. But we have to admit that you can feel the history in the air. For example in San Antonio we tried to feel the historic atmosphere but we couldn't because of ugly skyscrapers around us. On the other hand here, in Independence Park we could easily transfer ourselves into 18th century. Probably if we could see original interiors of historic bulidings it ould be even easier. But still, crowds, police, fences couldn't spoil the experience

Due to lack of time we skipped Liberty Bell too. It is the bell that announced a public reading of Declaration on July 8. Now it's standing in it's very own pavilion, but there was a long line of people there. We decided there is no way we can wait there with kids and we just peeked through the window. 

There's a bell inside

We wrote in an our article on Mt. Rushmore that looking at July 4th and celebrations first in Mt. Rushmore and now in Philadelphia, we're more and more surprised we do not celebrate May 3rd in Poland. Despite the fact that our constitution was never actually in force, it was a big deal and streets of Warsaw were filled with joy. It was announced a national holiday only two days later. Meanwhile on the Declaration of Independence there was only one signature on July 4th, it was first read in public on July 8th and most of delegates didn't sign it until beginning of August.

Well, Declaration of Independence led to foundation of the most powerful country in the world. On the other hand in Poland only one year after our constitution people of Warsaw didn't have time to celebrate the anniversary as they had to defense their city from Russian siege. Two years later Poland disappeared from the map of Europe. However it was a revolutionary act, state-building and well-worth celebrating...

Facepalm

Back to Philadelphia... We quickly passed by Liberty Bell and before going back to the car we decided to breath in a bit of old town atmosphere, seeing some Polish accents on the way too. We passed by Polish-American Cultural Center and we got to the house Tadeusz Kosciuszko used to live in.

Little Poland in Philadelphia

In this house "Polish hero of American revolution" lived since 1796 after exile from Poland. It was found for him by his secretary Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. Kosciuszko healed his wounds there and received visitors. Until 1970s building was not in a good shape but later it became a national monument and it was beautifully renovated. As we're in States it has to be "the most" at something. So it's the smallest area administered by National Park Service. It's only about 600 square feet! Of course, as usually, we got there too late and we couldn't go inside...

Tadeusz Kosciuszko's house

Old part of Philadelphia is really charming. 18th century architecture (Penn's idea of Philadelphia was it to be quiet, agricultural town but this idea was lost some time ago) old trees, little and well organized car traffic. Unfortunately, the old, unspoiled neighborhood is only few blocks wide. Next a little younger buildings replace the very old ones and soon ugly blocks of flats spoil the view. They look almost as in center of Warsaw.

Almost like in Warsaw

Even they didn't scare us away. After all we lived couple of years in a building exactly like this in Warsaw. What did scare us away though was pouring rain which started suddenly and didn't look like was going to stop any time soon. So we ran back to the car as quickly as we could and we headed south.

Doesn't look like the rain is coming, does it?

We spent in Philadelphia only few hours but it we found it quite interesting. Too bad we didn't get into any of historic buildings. But even just a walk through Independence Park and the old part of time was really worth the time.