Day 3 - 2025 East Coast Adventure - Philly for a Day

 7/20 - Killens Pond, DE to Mahlon Dickerson, NJ


Today was another longer drive day so we didn't linger at camp. We started with another morning of bagels and then, since we didn't know if we would have showers or not, we all hit the showers before we hit the road. 

The driving part of today was pretty stressful. We took highway 1 north which brought us to our old friend (read: nemesis) I-95. We rolled through Wilmington and then into Philadelphia. The plan was to drop the camper at a Walmart and then drive downtown to visit the Franklin institute. That plan went great until, when we unhooked the camper, I realized I forgot to grab the second set of camper keys which has the keys for the camper locks. Sigh....

While we considered leaving the camper, we decided that Philly's reputation suggested something else so we left the Pathfinder in front of the camper and opted to Uber to/from the museum. Not a bad short term solution!

The Franklin Institute was amazing and included body exhibits, space, sports, physics, and their collections which included a full sized steam engine and Benjamin Franklin's tea set. They also had Body Worlds as their special exhibit was body worlds.  While Amy and I had seen it, it has been almost 20 years since we last saw it. We didn't know how the boys would react, but they were curious enough to learn a few things about human bodies. For those of you that haven't seen it, it's certainly worth checking out if you get the chance. 









As we came out of the institute, we were going to walk over to either independence hall or the art museum. It turned out that it wasn't a short walk as I thought it was.  Independence hall was a 40 minute walk and, while the art museum was closer, it had also started to rain. So, even though Mister Softee (ice cream for those that don't know Philly) was outside the Institute, we decided that the Franklin Institute was enough for Philadelphia tourism and so we hailed an Uber to get us back to the camper.  We didn't even get a cheesesteak.  I guess we will have to come back 

The Uber arrived and we got back to the car/camper - right where we left them thankfully (though now surrounded by 6 shopping carts). We got on the road and after 15 minutes of more I-95, the traffic eased up, we crossed into New Jersey and headed north. 

The camp we found was SUPER quiet and with trees for the boys to enjoy their hammocks with. There were very few sites, well spaced, and everyone tucked up in their very large, air conditioned campers. We will enjoy the low of 61 with our screened windows, thank you very much. Another busy day, but a great one. 




# miles - 650
# states - 6

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