"Time to Leave", Day 37, Monday, July 5,1976, at VALLEY FORGE

                                                                                     Photo: Carol Tacy

"Time to Leave"

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Journal Entry: Day 37,  Monday,  July 5,1976, at VALLEY FORGE

This is our camp at Valley Forge

     We got up around 7am—we wake up by habit now.  They did serve breakfast so we went down and had hash, cereal & coffee then there was a teamsters meeting about mileage money for trucking.  We got 10 cents a mile ($24) to get home & Pat gave us $40 from the RI Grant money so we should have enough money to get home.
 

Great Lakes "Hooter" Up In Smoke

    Around 10 am Paul & I were standing near my truck and through the bushes we saw a raging fire.  We ran over across the road to find the Great Lakes train burning their out house.  They were wooden on the outside so they burned very well but the tires on the trailer made a lot of smoke.

    Paul & Sandy Cabot's  trailer came about noon so they left  for New Hampshire, but they are coming to our house next week because they are buying Pat’s horse trailer. So we hope to see them again.  All the other RI people are leaving this noon. A lot of people have their rigs loaded and ready to go.

     Also the reporter,Richard Papiernik from the Philadelphia Inquirer was back today gathering more information.  He is very interested.  When he saw us leaving, he came over and shook my hand. 
 

We start to leave about 1o’clock and but after saying goodbye to everyone then buying 
souvenirs & saying goodbye to the wagons, we finally got on the road a little after 3pm.

      Went out Yellow Spring Rd to Rte 29 then we will probably pick up Rte 209 to Rte 84.  The trailer doors are tied open because it's so hot and the horses are sticking their heads out and catch the wind.

     Cathy and Tom are riding on the back of the truck so we’ll not be hot & cramped in the front because it must be close to 100 degrees. (It's a flatbed truck...there's no way this would happen
 today !!)

     We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant and bought some news papers.  There was a picture of Peggy the pig on the front page. ( I have been told that "Peggy Bank" and "Floyd" the goat went to live on a farm in Vermont)

Peggy and Linda

       Then we went out Rte 29 to Rte 663 to Rte 309 to Rte 191 we will switch off to Rte 402 from Rte 209 and will go through the middle of the Pocono Mountains.  It seems to be cooling off a little now.  But it is still hot.  Just went by a sign 88 degrees-5:24 pm.  Around 7:30 we found a camp ground  just off 209 and they will allow us to camp with horses. We all took showers and felt a lot better.  Showers got to be a high-light of the trip and we had been on that muddy hill at Valley Forge for three days with no water and obviously no showers.  It had been said that if they did not give us any facilities we would get out faster and I must agree with that statement. 

   When we came to the camp grounds we asked to be alone so no kids would get hurt with the horses and so they let us use a grassy field across from the house which was just great because the horses got to graze most of the night.  When we went to “bed” we tied them to the truck*

* Addendum: The Campground we stayed at was Mountain Vista Campground in E.Stroudsburg,Pa
in 1976 we paid $6.25,  in 2016 it would cost $52.75 ! In 1976 sites were $4.25 + $1.- additional adults. In 2016 sites with no hookups are $40.75 + $6.- additional adults.

Journal Entry:  Tuesday July 6^th,1976,  the Pocono’s

We got up around 7 am after sleeping on the ground.  We were covered by a heavy dew and the pillows and sleeping bags were all wet.

We were on the road by 8:30 and after stopping for breakfast at Miller's Diner we were on the way home.

Going thru Hartford we saw a sign that says it's 98deg at 2:30pm.So we stopped and Lee opened the doors on the trailer so the horses would be cooler. 

It's now starting to feel that we have just come out of a dream !I don't know how we are going to cope with reality, but I sure will soon enough. This whole trip gave us and many others a chance to live out childhood dreams of being on a wagon train !