This post is a little late but needed to get it posted to get us caught up.

We arrived at the Timberlane Campground in Clarksboro, New Jersey on Monday afternoon and a short drive from West Chester, PA. We decided to use the afternoon to work, plan our week, and rest. Bella was sitting in her normal location on the window sill when she started barking, I looked out the window and there were two ducks wondering around the camp site. A little later the same scenario started again but this time it was two deer approximately 100 feet from our motor home eating grass. Brian was able to take a couple of pictures before they ran away. I later saw a rabbit run from underneath our motor home when I took Bella out to potty. New Jersey has definitely been the best place to see wildlife closer than the National Zoo.

Tuesday we visited Philadelphia, PA and our first stop was at Tony Luke’s Restaurant,  to taste a legendary Philly Cheese Steak sandwich with Cheese Wiz. After lunch we headed to Historic Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell and all the other history involved in Philadelphia. We visited the Liberty Bell but could not get tickets to see Independence Hall so we walked around viewing other parts of our history including Benjamin Franklin’s printing business where we watched a park ranger print a copy of the Declaration of Independence on linen paper. Zachary and Carson have started the Junior Ranger program that is sponsored by the National Park Service in which they complete certain requirements in a booklet to receive a Junior Park Ranger badge for that particular national park. We just started this program when we were in Gettysburg, so they are now Junior Rangers for Gettysburg and Philadelphia complete with a certificate, one patch and one badge. This program helps both boys learn the history of the area and receive a small reward too. We also purchased two small passport booklets that they boys can stamp at each National History location we visit.  We thought that this would be a good souvenir for the boys to remember the places that we have visited. One of the most exciting places that we visited was The Philadelphia Mint. Zachary and Polly went on this tour since there were no cameras allowed Brian and Carson stayed outside with our camera and the BlackBerry since it also had a camera. We saw some pennies that had been punched and were ready to go through the process to become a penny. After we left the mint we walked around looking at different buildings and reading signs in order answer the questions in the Junior Ranger booklet. The day ended with both boys receiving their Junior Ranger Badges and a stop at Dunkin Donuts for a snack for the rush hour traffic. When we got back to the campground the boys went to the pool and enjoyed playing for about one hour before it closed.

Wednesday, on our drive into Philadelphia we stopped at a wonderful store called IKEA. IKEA is a Swedish company that sells almost everything. This was one of the largest stores I have ever shopped. This one had a kids play area, a cafeteria which had breakfast for 99 cents just about any Swedish food you can imagine. We have Swedish friends that introduced us to wonderful food when they lived in the United States and since they moved back to Sweden in 2003 I have not been able to find Swedish candy or cookies. I could have walked around in there all day but we had other things planned for the day so I had to leave. This IKEA had three levels and had all types of kitchen gadgets, furniture, food, any many different home accessories. We did not hear much complaining from the boys until we had been there over an hour and we did not allow Carson to go back into the play area then he was ready to leave the store. We purchased some Swedish cookies, candy and breakfast, I could have purchased many other neat gadgets but we only have limited space in the motor home. I will have to visit another IKEA

We rode into to Philadelphia to an area of town where you can find open markets selling all types of vegetables, fruits, and meat that is very fresh. You could pick your chicken, rabbit or duck straight from the cage and carry it home with you. There were meat markets selling all types of exotic meat such as bison, rattle snake, reindeer and ox tails. There were Italian markets with fresh mozzarella cheese and pasta made in the store. Zachary and Carson did not like all the smells and Zachary especially did not like seeing the animals in the cages since he knew why they were being sold, Carson just thought they were ready to be adopted (and no one told him any different). I think Zachary was truly disturbed by selling the homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk, the food hung in windows, and the mixture of unusual smells. Carson was complaining that it smelled “bad” when we walked by a fish market he said it smelled like crickets; he knows what crickets smell like is because we had to buy crickets to feed the 3rd grade anole that Zachary brought home from school. I did not tell him that smell was a seafood market I just laughed. I enjoyed the Italian markets with fresh pasta and cheese and imagining why there is a need for approximately fifty different olive oils in such a small store. Since Zachary was getting really upset about the entire situation we decided to leave. We rode by another market but the parking was $20 for the first 1 hour and then $27 for 2-3 hours, so we decide to drive to Delaware which was about 30 minutes away.

We rode around the river and downtown districts and decided to go back into the motor home. Our visit to Wilmington, Delaware was short and uneventful. The afternoon was spent with working, researching our next destinations, and getting ready to leave on Thursday. Brian took Zachary and Carson to the pool and I washed a load of clothes. We will be leaving early on Thursday morning heading to Connecticut. Please pray for our travels on I-95 through Bronx, NY switching lanes with a 40’ motor home are not as easy as our small Saturn Vue. Hopefully leaving early will get us through New York after morning rush hour and before afternoon rush hour. More adventures to follow in New England.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 8:49 pm and is filed under Places we've Stayed. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.