The Markeroni Blog
The blog of Markeroni, the Gentle Art of Landmark-Snarfing

We’re now in Baltimore for the closing stretch after having spent time on Saturday in New Jersey and Philadelphia.

We started the day by backtracking to Princeton Junction, NJ, to look for a plaque commemorating the 60th anniversary of the “War of the World” radio broadcast. Aired in 1938, more than 1 million people are believed the planet was under a real attack by Martians. Orson Welles helped make it more meaningful to folks by inserting real places, including having a Martian craft land in Grover’s Mill, which is near Princeton Junction.

We next headed to Trenton, the state capitol of New Jersey. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us do a self-guided tour of the State Capitol building. Citing 9/11 security rules, they said we had to wait for the afternoon guided tours. We didn’t want to lose any additional time in Philadelphia so we split.

A good chunk of the afternoon was spent around the downtown Philadelphia area. We hit the usual suspects such as Independence Hall. But we also came across places tourists might not see as often, such as the state marker showing how Mother’s Day started and the home of Dr. Physick, the father of American surgery. As an added bonus, we stopped for lunch on South Street, which allowed me to have a much-craved cheeesteak.

We’ll wrap things up by snarfing around Baltimore before ending the trip on Sunday back in Raleigh.

I need to get some sleep now so I’ll post photos on Sunday as part of a final post.

Today was spent mostly in the rain and stuck in traffic.

But we’re now we’re in Philadelphia as part of an effort to blitz the City of Brotherly Love on Saturday.

We started the day by backtracking from Mystic, Ct., to Newport, RI. Newport is full of homes on the National Register and is stepped in the nation’s maritime history. Monuments depict legendary naval figures such as Oliver Hazzard Perry. We picked up a few more snarfs along the way.

The Northeast rain storm and the traffic backup on I-95 shut us out for the rest of the day.

Due to technical difficulties logging on Wednesday night, I’m combining the last two days in this post.

We’re now in Mystic Seaport, Ct., after starting at the beginning of U.S. 1 on the Canadian border. We’ve spent the past couple of days traveling U.S. 1 as it runs along the coasts of Maine and New Hampshire before heading further inland in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. We’re back on the coast for the Connecticut run.

The start of any U.S. 1 trip has to be the marker located in Fort Kent, Maine, just over the border with Canada.

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The end of Day 4 finds Wandering Raleighite and I unexpectedly still in Canada — but you’ll have to wait a bit more for that story.

We started the morning in Bangor, Maine. Appropriately enough, we saw a memorial for the U.S.S. Maine. It includes the wrought iron scroll and shield that was recovered from the ill-fated battleship. We also saw a 31-ft. high statue of Paul Bunyan that, regrettably, can’t be called a snarf.

(Photos aren’t uploading now so I’ll do them later.) (more…)

Day 3 of our trip finds Wandering Raleighite and I crashing out in Bangor, Maine after a long day of snarfing and driving.

In the process, we toured the state capitol buildings of Massachusetts and Maine and saw plenty of other things as well.

We got up early to finish off the 11K walk of the Freedom Trail in Boston. The highlight was the tour of the State Capitol, which opened in 1798. It’s arguably one of the most impressive of the nation’s state capitols. We had hoped to go inside Sunday, but that’s the one day of the week the grounds are closed to the public.

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Day 2 of our trip saw us visit some of the most important symbols in American history.

Wandering Raleighite and I spent most of the day on a 11K walk of the Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is a 3-mile route, marked by a red line painted on the ground, that takes tourists past 16 national historic sites in Boston that played a pivotal role in shaping the country.

We did the trek because we’re members of the American Volkssport Association, a walking club that has chapters all across the nation. Over the past few years, we’ve done walks in places such as Oklahoma City, Washington D.C., Las Vegas and St. Louis. (more…)

With TCM’s kind permission, Wandering Raleighite and I will be blogging our travels along U.S. 1 over the next nine days.

Most of our trip will be spent along U.S. 1 from Pennsylvania to the Canadian border. Time permitting, we’ll also stop in Baltimore before returning to Raleigh.

We’re now in Boston. Our plans had to be adjusted because our U.S. Air flight into Manchester, N.H., was delayed. By the time we got on the free shuttle to Boston, we were more than two hours behind schedule. BTW, Wandering Raleighite says he will never take U.S. Air again.

We made the best of the abbreviated amount of daylight to walk through the Theater District, the outskirts of Boston Commons and the Copley Square area. It was basically a trip around part of Boston’s downtown area. (more…)

This blog is part of Markeroni, the Gentle Art of Landmark-Snarfing — a site where you can find out about historical markers and historic landmarks, and even log your visits to them.

Here are thirteen of my favorite logged landmarks from April. It was really hard to choose! To view more details and a picture or pictures, click on the link. :)

1. Garrison Cemetery Garrison, New York

   I love the image of the gravestones sticking up out of the snow. The American flag is a flash of color and the cannon adds a hint of the past. (Logged by ember39.) (more…)

Yay! My guest post about Markeroni has been taken up on the Uptake blog (formerly Kango.com). :)

If you’re a member of BumpZee, feel free to bump it up. ;)

Many thanks to Uptake for the opportunity! :)

You have got to check this out. Seriously.

Click here first…and then please click through to the details to see why this is so incredible. :)

This is beautyredefined’s discovery. Oh, somebody please go, pretty please with cherries on top. Do we have any divers?