Washington Crosses the Delaware

I was pooped after trying to get Philadelphia on the blog, so Gene is taking a turn. I'll post his work and a picture or two. Gene Speaks! "Many times on our trips we can tell the historical importance of a site by who is in charge of a site: the National Park Service (NPS), a State Park, or a private venture. Of all the things we all learned in our history class is the story of General George Washington crossing the Delaware River on a freezing Christmas night, battling ice floes and the very cold. He led his 2,400 troops on to Trenton, NJ to a critical victory for the Continental Army over the Hessians. We left Philadelphia this morning for the short drive north to Pennsylvania’s state park, Washington Crossing. The park itself is huge with large grassy areas but no camping. The visitor’s center was closed on Mondays but the maps and information signs pointed out the information we needed. The bikes were perfect way to get to all the sites on this beautiful “spring” day (in the mid 60’s!), some up stream, and some across the bridge in New Jersey’s state park of the same name. Back in Pennsylvania there were several actual houses and other buildings, a couple of replicated boats that were used that night, and the appropriate monuments marking this historic night. The river was full and rushing, but there were no ice floes this day!"