Looooooooong day of driving today, longer than I thought it would be, despite not actually going that far, in the overall scheme of things.

Started out in Wilton last night, with a power outage. Fortunately, it was cool enough that we didn't need the power, and because of my almost prescient purchase of a mobile device charger, I was able to keep my phone (and thus my maps) available throughout the day, despite a lack of charging last night.

I said goodbye to Megan and her family around 9:00, and to their enthusiastic dog, Duncan about ten minutes later, when he let me win our faux-bone wrestling match. Bill had convinced me to go check out Philadelphia, and I agreed, since it was fairly close, all things considered. This gave me my first experience with two things: New York City traffic and the New Jersey Turnpike (and to turnpikes in general.) I will just say one thing about the turnpikes: including both the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Turnpikes, and a mistake exiting philadelphia, I have spent more money on Tolls today then I spent on my hotel room.

I arrived in Philadelphia around noon, and had really only one goal in mind, and only time enough for about that one thing: I wanted to see the Liberty Bell. It represents one of the main ideals of the United States, that being the ideal that everyone should be free, not just from slavery, not just from sexism, not just from racism, not just from religious prosecution, not just from oppression, but free to live your life as you want to. It's an ideal that is very admirable, and it's something that has defined the US as a country.

Seeing the Bell itself took a surprisingly little amount of time, the park was very well run, and it took almost no time to get in. The park is very simple, and there's a very nice amount of run-up to it, giving the history of the bell from its' time as the State House Bell to the Liberty Bell, as well as the history of the Womens' Liberty Bell, or the Justice Bell, which I had never heard of before, but which I was really heartened to hear about.

Since it was so quick, I ended up having more time than I had thought I would. I took in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Washington Park, as well as catching a Philly Cheese Steak from one of the local vendors. I'm sure all of them will tell you they're the "Authentic" one, but this one was good enough, and I can say I've had a Philly Cheese Steak.

Unfortunately, this is where my blog gets boring. The entirety of the rest of the day was spent driving towards Columbus, which I wasn't able to reach because of an accident on the I-76, which held up traffic for about an hour and a half, so I stopped for the night in New Stanton, PA, a town about 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

I'll be going direct to Chicago tomorrow, so hopefully tomorrow's blog will be more exciting!

Cheers!