Alone in Lancaster PA - on foot

Today was work day. Margaret stayed home and did cleaning, laundry, and worked on her genealogy. I went into Lancaster to have some more work done on the Saturn.

Once again, I walked off without any of my cameras – when will I learn. Actually the reason I took no cameras is I anticipated spending the day in the service department waiting area. But as it turned out, luck stepped in and I was able to prowl downtown Lancaster, PA until my feet wore out.

When I first learned they wouldn’t even look at my car until 4:00 pm, I thought I would need to rent a car ‘cause there was no way they’d get it done today. So I wandered over to the nearest available coffee (Turkey Hill gas station – now there’s a name for a gas company). While sitting there pondering what to do, a city bus pulled up almost at my feet. So why not; off to down-town.

Again, I had my cell-phone camera. I found quite a few interesting spots. The down-town area is quite compact – roughly 6 blocks by 3 blocks – so I was able to see most of it the first two hours. Lots of historical things, so we are going to stay in the area another day and Margaret and I will go back – with real camera(s).

Among the things seen today were a number of really old churches – usually with one or more members of the Continental Congress as members of the congregation. One, the St. James Episcopal Church, had George Ross as a member. As the sign says, he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Bet you didn’t know that!

In the small cemetery behind the St. James Church, there were a number of elaborate tombstones including one to the founder of the Pennsylvania school system. What I found interesting though, was this small, simple tombstone to a 1-year old baby who died in 1805. There was nothing to indicate his importance, family, or history. Yet here was a tombstone sitting next to “important” people. I may have to do some more research into this – if possible.

The last photo is one of many colorful doorways found in this part of the world. I will probably have to assemble of photos of interesting doors found in our travels.

As I said, there were lots of interesting things to see and learn in downtown Lancaster. I will leave some of these until tomorrow’s blog and let Margaret report what she saw.