When in the course of human events... NYC – Newark, DE 158 miles / 254 km

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for two guys to blog about the really cool stuff which have connected them even more to their awesome trip, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the humble and awarding station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to blog.

We the Guys of the Epic Road Trip, in Order to form a more perfect Trip, woke up in NYC on monday June 3rd and were ready to get back on the road – this time going further south. We stopped somewhere in New Jersey and had a "Traffic Jammer" for breakfast (which could have jammed us both to sleep, but thankfully Dan was able to keep his eyes open.. He was driving...), and then we headed for Pennsylvania. Philly is actually a really nice city and we were excited to hear more about its history and learn more about American history in general.

Ok, so not all areas are as pretty..

After parking the car somewhere close to the main attractions we went up to the welcome center and spent probably the better part of an hour in the gift shop. Yes, the gift shop.. I've never felt more like a tourist in my life... "Oh, look at this Dan! They have a shot glass with George Washingtons face – isn't that awesome!?!?!" No, Robin.. No it's not..... Then we had to decide whether to get the fake-parchment-almost-true-copy of the Declaration of Independence or to get the mouse mat with a list of all the American presidents, and then we had to decide whether to get book on Ben Franklin or on colonial Christmas cooking. I humbly thank whatever power that convinced us not to get any of it! (Actually I'm lying... I bought a small book containing both the declaration of independence and the constitution.. Shhhh...)

Dan – The bringer of peace

Anyways, we decided that that was enough touristy behaviour for today, so off we went – with our camera and pamphlets ready – to see the Liberty Bell. Then we saw it, and moved on. 













Time to see one of the most historical buildings in the US. This is where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed. 

The sign outside said "No more tickets available" (yay...) but we figured we'd at least see the back yard (yay.....) and take a picture of a ranger (ya.. I'm not even gonna....). The rangers were all really nice though and let those of us without tickets also join the tour – which ended up being really interesting. It was pretty obvious that the ranger giving the tour had probably given the same tour 439 times earlier that day and that tour nr 440 was the straw to almost break his back, but he lead us patiently through the history of the building, the history of these important documents and even gave us some interesting trivia on some of the big guys. I do recommend taking this tour if you're close to Philadelphia – it only takes about half an hour and you do learn alot. Not to mention you get to be in the room where so many important people have stood before you. 

This is not a photograph

One Ring to rule them all...

"Kor e' alle helter hen..?"

It was getting late again and we decided to save DC for the next day. Our original plan was to drive into Maryland and crash there for the night, but then we realized that we hadn't really planned a visit to Delaware. So we whipped out our Lonely Planet trip book and found that they recommended a small town not far from where we were called New Castle. So that's where we went! And boy are we glad we did. It was really small, and we would never have found it had it not been for Lonely Planet and TomTom GPS. We suddenly found ourselves surrounded by old, brick buildings, green gardens and US, Swedish and Dutch flags waving from every lamp post. 

Ah.. Brick...

The book recommended eating at Jessop's Tavern – a small restaurant where the servers are all in colonial costumes and the food is prepared likewise (although they do have wifi..).

Dan got Fish and chips and I got Shepherd's pie – Dan finished his, I ate probably half... And it wasn't because it didn't taste good, cause this food was awesome! It was just soooo much. You know the point where your body just can't take any more food, but you can't stop eating because it's so amazing? You'll definitely reach that point at Jessop's Tavern. Also they brew their own beer, which apparently is really good. Again, I was driving... 

We stuffed our faces to the point where no more stuffing could be stuffed and were ready to turn in for the night. We'd been on priceline.com while at the tavern (using the colonial wifi) and found a good deal at a Howard Johnson not far away. Checked in, got some beer and some cigarettes, blogged for a couple of hours and then settled in to our beds for a night in Newark, Delaware.