We Arrive in Philadelphia

It was another early morning of getting up and making our way to Albuquerque for our flight to Philadelphia. There was no traffic as we made our way to the Sunport and parked the car. It was a quick shuttle and check in and then we had to get through security - which was really busy. It wasn't really a problem just waiting in line. We finally made it to our gate and in less than 20 minutes we were boarding and on our way. We had an uneventful three hour flight to Chicago Midway. Here we had a two and a half hour layover. So we had a quick lunch and did some reading until the next leg of our trip boarded.

Waterfall at Penn

The flight from Chicago to Philadelphia was a little over two hours. Once we landed we made our way to baggage claim and grabbed our luggage and then caught the shuttle to the rental car place. We had lots of luck on our side and we got the car pretty fast and then we were on our way to the hotel. We landed at about 2:25pm and we arrived at the hotel a little before 4:00pm. We are staying at the Steinberg Conference Center at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas got us checked in and then we got the luggage into the room. I then drove two blocks to the parking garage and parked the car. I walked back to the hotel and put some things together to go for a walk on campus, look for a letterbox and take some pictures.

'LOVE' Sculpture

Thomas was getting ready for his reception and I left to go on my exploration of the campus. I stopped at the front desk and got a map of the campus and headed out. The letterbox I wanted to look for was pretty close to the hotel and I quickly reached the area. This box was a series of three boxes and the first one was marked 'retired'. I still followed the clues to that one since the clues for the second box started there. I got to the area which was very quiet and only a couple of people hanging out. It was near a pond with little trails all around. I easily found Box #2 and took it to a nearby bench to stamp in. When it was time to replace it I had to wait a while but I spent my time taking pictures until the coast was clear. After rehiding the box I continued with the clues. These took me to another bench (which was occupied). So I walked around and took pictures waiting for the person to leave so I could look for the box. I ended up waiting about 20 minutes but the guy just sat there - he wasn't doing anything - just sitting. So I decided to forgo this box and head out for a walk around the campus. Oh, I didn't say what box I was looking for because it was a little bit of a mystery - not very hard to solve but I still don't want to give anything away.

Benjamin Franklin

I really enjoyed the campus and had a nice stroll. But I have to say the humidity was kicking my butt. I was sweating and my shirt was really damp after only a 30 minute walk. I didn't let this get to me and I walked all over and took pictures of some of the art work around the campus and of some of the older buildings. I then decided I was hungry when I came upon a building with lots of fast food places in it. I opted for a couple of tacos at Taco Bell and then stopped by the Starbucks for an iced coffee for my return walk to the hotel. I got back to the room and quickly took a shower and ended up standing under the cold water at the end for about ten minutes to cool down. It was a long day and I am a little tired but I need to do a little planning for tomorrow. I am headed to Dover, DE and Annapolis MD to visit the Capitols and hopefully find at least one letter box in each of those states to fill in my map. I will be back tomorrow to let you know how it goes.