Roy Orbison singing for the lonely, hey that's me and I want you only

Thunder Road

 

Red Eyes

She Moves

Like a Wrecking Ball

 

 

Let the Good Times Roll

 

Ben Franklin's town

 

Philadelphia, the birthplace of America. To me, it was an interesting mix of the historic and the gritty. Like Rocky Balboa running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

 

Philadelphia Museum of Art. I would've run up the steps like Rocky did, but it was closed for a private event that day.
...gonna fly now....gonna fly now....

Independence Hall. I took the tour, excited to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Found out after the tour ended that those two documents are now kept in Washington DC!

Where it all happened. The room in Independence Hall where the state delegates birthed America. Honestly, it was a small room. I wonder if the got any cheesesteak delivered.

Rodin's The Thinker, at the Rodin Museum. Philly would've been my 67th guess for the city that The Thinker was in, but here it is.
 

Reading Market. A cool place with a ton of eateries. Seemed like many of them were German or Dutch or Amish. I had some Dienner's BBQ chicken wings. They reminded me of how my mom makes chicken wings.

Nice buns.

Liberty Bell. This bell is a symbol of freedom throughout the world, but the visitor's queue was too long for me. I peeked in through a side window to catch a glimpse.

Are we back in New Orleans? A wedding marched through the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood.

Another wedding! This one in the historic buildings near Independence Hall. I wish both couples a long and wonderful marriage.

I had Pat's cheesesteak, with cheez whiz and grilled onions. The cheesesteak was delicious, even though there is probably no way it could ever match the hype it gets.

Street fair in Philly's Italian neighborhood (I think it is the south side, heading down 9th St). I had an Italian sausage sandwich, with peppers and onions. So good. Walking down this street (and also South St) also made me realize how close Philadelphia is to New Jersey.



All you need is love.

These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray...

New York City is one of my favorite places. This trip, I tried to see some parts of the city that I'd not visited before.

Fountain in City Hall park.

Statue of Horace Greeley. Can't remember what square this was in.

Walked down 9th Ave. between 30th-50th Sts., and there was a huge street festival.

Seems like all things Korean are taking over the world...

The clock at the entrance to the children's zoo in Central Park.

Harlem Meer at the very northern edge of Central Park.

A boat/restaurant moored in the Hudson River. I walked the Hudson River greenway. Amazing. Playgrounds, free kayaking, sunbathers. There's even a beach volleyball court!

A small slice of the High Line walking path.

Garbage, and The New School.

Most famous person in NYC? Duane Reade.

I also went to two bars that were new to me, and pretty cool. The Haines Law Room, a classy speakeasy, and Bangia, an underground (literally) Korean joint. New York always has something new and interesting.

From sea to shining sea.

 

Four score and seven years ago...

My tour of America wouldn't be complete without visiting a couple of Civil War battlefields.

Gettysburg

Statue of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg PA. His Gettysburg address is one of the great speeches in history.

Union cannons overlooking the battlefield at Gettysburg.

A view of the Gettysburg battlefield. The Confederate army crossed this field and charged up the hill ("Pickett's charge") but suffered a heavy defeat.

Memorial for the Pennsylvania soldiers. The national cemetery at Gettysburg is filled with memorials and markers for the regiments and brigades from all of the different states.

 

Display of Civil War firearms at the Gettysburg visitor center. There is a great museum and 15 minute movie on the Battle of Gettysburg.

A small section of the Gettysburg cyclorama on display at the visitor center.

Manassas (Bull Run)

A statue of the great Confederate general "Stonewall" Jackson surveying the Manassas battlefield (aka Battle of Bull Run). Here Jackson led the Confederates to a resounding victory over the Union army.



Bull Run. This creek doesn't look like much, but this is where the Union army crossed Bull Run in their drive to capture Manassas railroad junction. I was able to walk roughly the same path as the Union army for the First Battle of Bull Run.



Stone bridge over Bull Run

Battlefield display of where the Union cannons were placed on the battlefield.

 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

 

Abraham Lincoln

November19, 1863

Southern ramble

A few photos from my trek north from the Carolina coast to Virginia. Honestly, not a whole lot of sites for visitors, but I get the feeling that it wouldn't be an altogether bad place to hang your hat and have a sweet tea.

One thing I missed out on is the Skyline drive and Shenandoah National Park. A note for next time.

Pullen Park in Raleigh NC. Beautiful day. Lots of folks taking a stroll in the park.

Botanical garden at UNC Chapel Hill. I swear there were flowers, ferns and other plants and things there. But I sort of got lost amongst the pines. I like some of the names of flowers and plants----honeysuckle, bladdernut, doghobble, witch alder, joe-pye-weed, little sweet betsy, goldenrod...

 

A view of the James River from Belle Isle in Richmond VA. You can see downtown in the distance. People were out laying out on the rocks in the river, enjoying the day.

The Pit BBQ in Raleigh NC. Fried chicken, pulled pork, mac n cheese and baked beans. Looks a bit dry in my photo, but it the food was moist and tasty.



I wish I was in Dixie

Hello again, fellow couch potatoes. The odyssey continues in the low country of Savannah GA and Charleston SC!

Both towns harken back to a bygone era. Some good, some bad. This area was settled back in the colonial times so have a lot of historic buildings. Also seems like a lot of influence in architecture from the Caribbean, which reminded me a bit of New Orleans and the gulf area. And I did notice that people tend to have better manners down in these parts---yes ma'ams, pleases, and thank you sirs aplenty. Southern gentility lives on.

But this area was also key cities for slavery in the south. Many slaves from Africa arrived at port in Savannah to work the plantations. South Carolina was also the first state to secede from the Union (mainly of states rights and slavery), and the shots fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor also started the Civil War.

I toured the historic district of both cities, and it was beautiful. The rest of both cities are like many others I've visited on this trip. A never-ending strip of strip malls, with lots of fast food joints and auto body shops. 


Forsyth Park in Savannah. Savannah is filled with squares, parks and streets, tree-lined and heavy with droopy Spanish moss.

St Michael's Church in Charleston SC.



Southern beaus, taking pictures before the big cotillion.

And their southern belles.

St.Phillip's Church in Charleston. There are a lot of churches in Charleston.

 

Soul food in Savannah from a place called Sisters of the New South. Fried chicken, corn bread, black eyed peas, collard greens and red rice.

 

Franklin Square. Savannah's old town is organized around a bunch of squares filled with monuments, statues and memorials. This is a memorial for the fighters from Haiti who came and fought alongside Americans during the Siege of Savannah in the Revolutionary War.

Fort Sumter in the middle of Charleston harbor. The secessionists from South Carolina fired the first shots of the Civil War at this U.S. fort in April 1861. Because of the heavy bombardment during the war, not much is left of the fort besides some of the outer walls.



I wish I was in the land of cotton,

Old times there are not forgotten;

Look away!  Look away!  Look away!  Dixie Land.

In Dixie’s Land where I was born in,

Early on one frosty mornin,

Look away!  Look away!  Look away!  Dixie Land.

I wish I was in Dixie, Hooray!  Hooray!

In Dixie’s Land I’ll take my stand

to live and die in Dixie.

Away, away, away down south in Dixie.

Away, away, away down south in Dixie.