In the morning we will return the rental car and then depart Pleasure Cove Marina heading for Solomons. The weather looks benign for the next few days, so we should have an easy passage down the bay and up the Potomac to Washington. Our slip reservation at the Capital Yacht Club begins on May 10.
Over the past weekend we took a very interesting road trip. On Saturday we visited the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Mine No. 9 in Lansford, PA. The ride into the mine is by ore train for 1600 feet back into a mountain. Our guide was a coal miner working at one of the local anthracite mines, since No. 9 is no longer being worked. It was very clear that this was no Disneyland ride, it was the real thing. We spent about an hour underground, then viewed the documentary in the museum. The story of the railroad and coal barons and the way immigrant workers were treated is a part of American history that has many lessons worth remembering. And now we know the story of the "Molly McGuires".
The next day we visited Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, another fascinating but little known place. Hopewell produced iron from the iron ore in Pennsylvania, from before the Revolutionary War to the late 1800s. Cannons for George Washington were cast here, as well as thousands of cast iron stoves and other products for the industrial revolution. The national Park Service acquired the site over 85 years ago, and has done a remarkable job in preserving many of the original buildings
And now on to Washington