Barren Hill - May 20, 1778

Real World Walk to Barren Hill

With the onset of spring in 1778, General George Washington expected movement of some sort from the British army in the City of Philadelphia. To protect the encampment at Valley Forge and to determine British intentions along with annoying their foraging expeditions, on May 18, 1778, Washington sent 2,200 men and five guns across the Schuylkill River to the area north of Philadelphia.

Commanding the force was Major General Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gibert Du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette...

...better known simply as Lafayette. Lafayette was just 20 years old, and this was his first command. A fabulously wealthy adventurer, the French volunteer had endeared himself to General Washington, who viewed him as the son he never had.

Unfortunately for the fledgling Americans, the British came out of Philadelphia that day. Generals Grant, Grey, and Clinton had the patriots nearly surrounded. Lafayette and his forces were lucky to escape that day.


You can see the distant heights on the left which rise above the river. Lafayette's men marched down Barren Hill Road in the hollow visible to the right of these heights. They then continued along the riverbank on the left of the picture. A mile or so further, near the center of the modern town of Conshohocken, Lafayette crossed the river to safety at Matson's Ford (which is now the name of the road that goes over a bridge at this site). Once across the river, he was protected from any British pursuit by heights similar to those on the right of the picture.

The forces of Clinton and Grant met up at Barren Hill, making it clear that "the boy Lafayette" had escaped. The British returned to Philadelphia, with Clinton and Grey getting back by 2 PM, but Grant's men arriving only in the evening after marching a total of forty miles that day.

Source

Pictures from the Real World Walk to follow.

Mile 467 - Saint Augustine

As of February 2, 2008 at 8:45 PM
Steps: 1,105,372
Miles: 470.65
Miles to Georgia: 62.35

The City of Saint Augustine is an old, old place in New World terms. St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish in 1565. The first Christian worship service held in a permanent settlement in the continental United States was a Catholic Mass celebrated in St. Augustine. In 1586, St. Augustine was attacked and burned by Sir Francis Drake. In 1668 it was plundered by pirates and most of the inhabitants were killed. In 1702 and 1740 it was unsuccessfully attacked by British forces from their new colonies in the Carolinas and Georgia.

But no story of Staint Augustine would omit two names, Juan Ponce De Leon and Henry Morrison Flagler.


Juan Ponce de Leon (c. 1460 – July 1521) was a Spanish conquistador. As a young man he joined the war to conquer Granada, the last Moorish state on the Iberian (Spain) peninsula. Ponce de Leon accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish Crown. He is also notable for his voyage to Florida, the first known European excursion there, as well as for being associated with the legend of the Fountain of Youth which is said to be in Florida.

Source


Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913) was an American tycoon, real estate promoter, railroad developer and Rockefeller partner in Standard Oil. He was a key figure in the development of the eastern coast of Florida along the Atlantic Ocean and was founder of what became the Florida East Coast Railway. He is known as the father of Miami, Florida.

Henry Flagler's non-Standard Oil interests went in a different direction than Henry Rogers', however, when in 1878, on the advice of his physician, Flagler traveled to Jacksonville for the winter with his first wife, Mary (née Harkness) Flagler, who was quite ill. Two years after she died in 1881, he married again. Ida Alice (née Shourds) Flagler had been a caregiver for Mary Flagler. After their wedding, the couple traveled to Saint Augustine. Flagler found the city charming, but the hotel facilities and transportation systems inadequate. He recognized Florida's potential to attract out-of-state visitors.


Ponce de Leon Hotel

Though Flagler remained on the Board of Directors of Standard Oil, he gave up his day-to-day involvement in the corporation in order to pursue his interests in Florida. He returned to St. Augustine in 1885 and began construction on the 540-room Ponce de Leon Hotel. Realizing the need for a sound transportation system to support his hotel ventures, Flagler purchased the Jacksonville and Atlantic Railroad, the first railroad in what would become known as the "Flagler System" or the Florida East Coast Railway. He would eventually lay tracks the whole way down the east coast to Miami and then on to Key West.

Source


Saint Augustine Lighthouse


Plenty of Water for Sun and Fun The hotel Flagler built is in the background.

Trivial Quiz (in the second section) See how Saintly you are.

A Sunset So Nice You Can Feel It

As of February 2, 2008 at 8:40 AM
Steps: 1,081,913
Miles: 460.66
Miles to Georgia: 72.34


I like the feel of warm sunlight on my face. I can close my eyes and almost feel the warmth from this picture.

Hurry home Captain, it gets dark very quickly in the Florida Keys.


The Loggerhead Turtle is watching.

Mile 456 - The Really Brown Real World

As of February 1, 2008 at 8:15 AM
Steps: 1,072,158
Miles: 456.50

Total miles for January: 230.15


The Real World Walker plodded along the empty trail lost in thought:

1) Am I trapped in a UPS commercial? It's brown, so very brown.

2) Why do we need a fence here? There isn't anything "over the other side."

3) It's so deserted here today... am I the last person alive? There aren't even any aliens around.

4) I am by myself. Alone, but not lonely. I look for sights and I imagine what some other people would say, if they only could see those sights too.

-Until next time, I'm plodding along.