State Park Quest - Tyler and Washington Crossing

I have a great friend, Peggy, who is not a letterboxer but who is willing to accompany me on some of my crazy letterboxing excursions.  This day, she came with me to fulfill my State Park Quest at Tyler State Park and Washington Crossing State Park.  It was a beautiful, clear, comfortable spring day as we started out at Tyler State Park.

 We decided to hike the Neshaminy Creek Trail and had to first cross the Schofield Ford Covered Bridge.  It took us a while to get through the bridge because we were both busy taking pictures.

Peggy snapping away!

 Restful view of Neshaminy Creek.

 I have no clue who these people are but I liked the silhouettes in the bridge.

 We had had a lot of rain in the past couple of weeks so the creek was full and beautiful.  The trails were also muddy for the same rain. 

 We ran into a little garter snake as we were jumping around the mud puddles.

 In spite of the mud, the walk was lovely and very green.

 Spring wildflowers were in abundance.  Peggy got hooked on taking pictures of ALL of them!

 Even the steps back up to the parking lot looked pretty on this spring day.

From Tyler, we moved on to the Washington Crossing State Park which is a very different type of park from Tyler.  Tyler is a typical park with lots of trails and picnic tables and places to relax.  Washington Crossing is full of history and so many things to see that one doesn't have much opportunity to relax.  We started out at the Vistor Center so I could collect my state park stamp and were invited to attend the showing of the video about the history of the park which was just ready to start.  We were really happy that we did as requested, the video was helpful although it did cause us to ask ourselves many questions, mainly, why did it take Washington 14 hours to get his troops across the river which looked as though it we could reach out and touch the other side (not literally!) from where we stood.

When I got home, I did look a little deeper into our question and found the answer on the park's website.

After the visitor center, we made a quick trip up to Bowman Hill Tower.  Although it we were tempted by the guide who was there, we didn't make the climb to the top, something that I regret today. 

 I love old doors and the tower door was an interesting one.

From the tower, we headed to the Wildflower Preserve where Peggy was in heaven - lots of wildflowers to photograph!

 Peggy's enthusiasm for taking pictures of wildflowers was contagious and I began snapping some of my own.  Too bad I don't know what they are! 

 All in all, a great day.  A good friend, beautiful places to visit and two new state parks under my belt.

More Rain

 Labor Day weekend proved to be a bust here, lots of rain and gloom but I was tired of being around the house by Monday so I set off for Bucks County and several short walk boxes.  My favorite of the day was a Lotus box in a graveyard high on a hilltop.  In typical Lotus fashion, the clues were story like and very eerie.  When I reached the correct hunting area it seemed so isolated and when I got out of the car, I couldn't see too far because of the fog.  It was kind of spooky feeling and I have to admit to feeling a thrill of terror as I walked through the cemetery.  Then I heard voices.  I looked all around to see where they were coming from, fully expecting to see ghosts rising out of the graves.  The spell of the box was quickly broken as I saw two ladies jogging past the cemetery, followed closely but two men on bikes and some more women walking and talking.  What all of these people were doing on the top of the hill in a fairly desolate area still has me scratching my head.

 

 Some other boxes took me to a site that I had visited before on a non-letterboxing visit.   As a little girl, I was a bookworm and one of my strong memories was of having scarlet fever when I was about 12.  I remember my mother making a nest for me on the living room couch so she could keep an eye on me while she was cleaning.

  I also remember a stack of books being brought home from the library for me and among them was Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth".  I remember being totally shocked that a famous author could be from my home state of Pennsylvania.  Famous people lived far away in exciting places, they were not supposed to be in an ordinary area.  Pearl Buck lived in Bucks County when she wasn't in China and one day, while meandering through this county a few years ago, I had happened upon her home.  It was early in the morning so I didn't have the opportunity to actually take the tour of her property and this day, being a holiday, also meant the tours were closed.  So I enjoyed the pretty garden and grave site and found my boxes and went on my way.  Maybe one day, I will get there when they are actually open.

This Is Why I Letterbox - Penn & Ink

I had a half day off from work and although it was a bit hazy and a lot hot, Bill and I decided to head to a new destination, one I found on a letterbox clue called  Penn& Ink planted by Lovepartyof4.  As the sign noted, this was the home of William Penn, founder of the state of Pennsylvania.  Neither of us had ever been here before so we were excited to start our day, not sure what we would find.  We were pleasantly surprised when we pulled into a tree lined driveway and our first view was of Mr. Penn himself.

I really enjoy taking pictures of things that are a little off the wall and this estate offered plenty of views that I found interesting.

 The gardens were a little out of control which may have had something to do with the very hot and very dry summer that we have been having.

 

 Pennsbury is located right on the very edge of Pennsylvania on the Delaware River. The view across the water is of New Jersey, a state that we  had to be careful not to wander into because of their gun control laws.

 

 The estate as viewed from the river.  There was a man working on the grounds here who explained to us that most people arrived on the water and since William Penn was a man of great prestige, they had a long walk to the house to contemplate how they would handle their meeting with him.  I would have hoped that they would have thought about it before they even made the trip!

 The walk from the river.

 

The view of the back of the house.

 I love to see pictures of old doors and window and there were a few here.

 

 

 

 

 The barn.

 Barn residents were introduced on this chalk board.

 

 The peacock wasn't too happy that we had entered his territory.  He stalked away from us in disgust.

 There were about eight different buildings on the estate.

 

This is the boathouse which is the first and last estate building one passes when entering the estate grounds.

  

For some reason, it didn't feel as though this boat would have been the type used during Penn's occupancy here but it was picturesque.

 We left the heat and entered the museum which was filled with very neat artifacts and stories of the life of William Penn who only actually resided in the United States for a few years before returning to England where he spent much of his time fighting court cases for various offenses and then suffered a stroke, died and was buried in Buckinghamshire.

 This display was our biggest disappointment of the day.  We had thought that the grounds looked really good and well preserved but it was here that we discovered that everything was actually reconstructed based on what historians thought the area looked like during Penn's time here.

Regardless of the end of our visit being a big disappointment, we were thrilled to be brought to this site by a lettebox and I have added this to my list of "This Is Why I Letterbox" letterboxes!