Day 56 Doylestown Pennsylvania to Allentown Pennsylvania 39 miles
The weather is cloudy, hot and humid. Sure looks and feels like it could rain.
We decided to go see the outside of the Fonthill Castle. The web site says the only way you can tour it is in a 60 minute guided tour. Also it has steep narrow stairs and that didn’t sound appealing. The building is made entirely of hand mixed reinforced concrete. It has 44 rooms, 18 fireplaces and over 200 windows. It was the primary residence of Henry Chapman Mercer who was an archaeologist and ceramist. It was completed in 1912. Henry lived there until his death in 1930.
The Mercer Museum is about a mile from Fonthill Castle. Henry Mercer also had this built of reinforced concrete to showcase the many tools he collected. He did collect a lot. The building is seven stories tall and crammed full of stuff. He wanted people to see all sides of an object. Many of the large objects such as the whaling boat, conestoga wagon and fire engine can be seen from the bottom, sides and above. They seem suspended in air. Smaller hand tools are displayed in locked rooms. Lots of good descriptions however. The museum also has a smaller wing that showcases traveling exhibits. Today’s exhibit was all about the Doan Gang that was composed of British Loyalists. They robbed from Revolutionists and spied on them too. Some were eventually killed, two were hanged and most fled to Canada. We spent about three hours here and could possibly have spent more.
We ate lunch in the parking lot and then headed for Allentown. It will be too late when we get there to go to the America on Wheels Museum so we will do that tomorrow. Part of the drive was through a residential area with big homes each sitting on about an acre of lawn. Riding lawn mower sales do well in this area.
We did end up driving a few miles on the freeway with all the big semis. Not much fun with the bumps in the road added to the travel.
After checking in we did go to a nearby grocery store. Nothing different or unusual there.
The process of turning left to turn right is called jug handles. They are used most frequently in New Jersey but can also be found sometimes in a few other states. We saw one in Pennsylvania today.
Spoffords Travel 