Showing posts with label Mercer Museum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mercer Museum. Show all posts

Thursday, May 29, 2014

The scenic route home

So, just for a change of scenery, I drove back on the old roads.  Picked up old US 1 off the Baltimore beltway.  In Maryland it's a two lane road, must date back to the 1920's.  It was Memorial Day, lovely weather, but the traffic was light, pavement in good shape, road signs legible.  Crossed the Susquehanna River/Head of Chesapeake Bay on the old Conowingo Dam.  It's old, but looks like it's still making juice, plenty of water behind the dam.   Crossed the Mason-Dixon line into PA.  In PA they had widened old US 1 into an up-to-date 4 lane divided highway built to interstate standards.  Probably did the widening in the 1960's.  Swung north on old US 202 thru West Chester.  The never ending construction mess at King-of-Prussia was finally ended.  The road crews had moved south toward West Chester and were tearing up a perfectly good 4 lane divided highway. 
   Stopped at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown PA.  Neato.  A guy named Mercer had some money, and got interested in early American artifacts.  He collected woodworking tools, kitchen utensils, horse drawn vehicles, whaling boats, guns, farming tools, gunsmithing tools, gristmills, spinning wheels, looms, everything.  He had the money to put up a seven story vaguely medieval looking museum to hold all his stuff.  It's still open to the public, and it's cool.  There is material in that building to write twenty books on period stuff.  Well worth stopping in.