quote:

Originally posted by big al:
We had an interesting adventure leaving Cin Cin after dinner Saturday night. We turned on our GPS navigator, entered our hotel address, and set off. We proceeded in a generally southerly direction and generally down hill. At one point, we came to a fork in the street that the navigator gave no instructions for, so I continued down hill, thinking the Schuykill River was in that direction and eventually we'd come to it.

When we reached the bottom of the grade, we passed through a parking lot and by a building. The road became rougher and had park benches at frequent intervals alongside. We drove for what seemed like miles, passed under one bridge high overhead, and passed one small building (like a shed or shelter) until we finally emerged on Lincoln Drive near the river and I-76. I could not believe we had been so removed from apparent civilization until I reconstructed what we had done on Google Earth. The name on Google Earth for what I believe we traveled on was Forbidden Drive.

Apparently, we had entered a road (trail, bike path?) in Fairmount Park and drove on it through a large part of the park. That accounted for why we saw no houses, businesses, cars, or other people for that entire part of the trip. Our GPS was of no use because it kept searching for a route, but didn't recognize where we were as a road in its data base. We were actually relieved to see busy highways again. Reminded me of the old Grateful Dead line, "What a long, strange trip it's been."

I'll try to post some details and maybe pictures of our later adventures in the Philadelphia area soon.

Big Al