Great Valley Baptist Church, Valley Forge, and Deer

At the Baptist Church in the Great Valley

Yesterday we took the MG out in one of our early evening spins.  Instead of heading out to the Goshen loop we took the Darby Paoli Rd route to go Valley Forge Park.  That route goes out to Church and then Waterloo following Waterloo until it merges with 252 and goes into the park.

I was very surprised to see that road conditions on Waterloo have not improved very much since the last ride we took there.  The road is still full of pot holes on torn up in several sections, especially on the return side.  I thought that by now this would have been repaired but it doesn't appear that they have done much work at all.

As we passed the Great Valley Baptist Church I made a quick decision to stop and take a couple of shot there.  I've been wanting to do that for the last 3 years and have never stopped.  Not the best or most dramatic shots ever but they will do.

From there we continued on to Valley Forge and did a couple of loops through the inner and outer defense lines.  The light was falling dramatically, especially under the canopy, and we had seen several small group of deer on the way in so I did not take the twists as hard as I would have liked for fear of having a close encounter of the deer kind.  However, it is still a nice fun drive on the MG with all the tight hair pin turns and hills to climb.

On the way back I wanted to avoid Waterloo because of the road issues so I went under 202, took the left and followed that to the West Valley Rd for another left under 202 in the opposite direction to get to Swedesford Rd.  Once there I followed it out to Walker and took that towards Old Gulph Rd.  On the way out we noticed more deer in small packs and somewhere on Walker we drove up to a doe and fawn sitting no more than 10 feet from the edge of the road.  They look at us as we slowed down and didn't even blink and eye.

Once on Old Gulph we took the left to South Wayne and took that across downtown Wayne and into the Louella neighborhood.  We followed some side roads, instead of cutting across to Conestoga, that wound us around back to 30 over by Chamonix.  From there we just took 30 to Radnor Chester Rd and Newtown Rd to home.

A great ride, specially in the park.  At this time of day there was hardly anyone else on the back roads at the park and even if I couldn't go as fast or as hard as I would have liked, it was a very enjoyable ride.  Other than the concern about keeping an eye out for deer we could not have asked for better conditions.

I made an appointment to take the MG in today for a complete check before we head out for Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix next week.

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Phoenixville Ride on the MG

Sunday afternoon we took another MG ride, this time out to Phoenixville.  We took a circuitous route as Charlene wanted to go to Mostardi's to buy a bag of potting soil.

We headed up Goshen to Boot Rd and took the right there to the Pike.  Shortly after crossing 252 on Goshen I saw a red 1950.s Jag (that may figure in another post) headed in the opposite direction.  Gave him the wave and he waved back.  Close behind him followed a blue Cobra with white stripes.  No wave back from the Cobra guy.  We continued on to the Pike were we stopped at Mostardi's got the potting soil and headed back out.

We followed the Pike to Providence and that to Goshen, then Earle's Lane out to Darby-Paoli and Church to Waterloo.  Waterloo is fine on the outbound side of the road but there are some huge holes on the inbound side.  I am talking about holes that will swallow up an aircraft carrier much less a little MGTDr so I made a decision not to come back that way.

We followed Waterloo all the way to its end on 23 at Valley Forge. It's not called Waterloo there but it's the same road.  At 23 we made the left towards Phoenixville despite signs of road closures and detours.  We stayed on 23 until we reached Country Club Rd which we took to Valley Park Rd and that to White Horse to loop back onto 23.  There we headed west to Starr which we followed to Bridge and Downtown Phoenixville.  While on Starr we saw a turquoise and white Nash Metropolitan sitting in a driveway.  This is either the third Nash Metropolitan of the same color I've seen or this one little car really gets around.

We did the passeggiata in downtown Phoenixville, got frozen yogurt, visited a couple of shops and then headed back.  We also so a gold 1950s Plymouth station wagon with huge fins cruising on Bridge Street.  Unfortunately I did not get a chance to get a shot of it.

We took the reverse way back except that we did a loop around Valley Forge because the roads there are a blast to drive.  As I didn't want to head back down Waterloo, we got on 202 to the 252 exit and followed 252 to St. Davids for the way home.

Another great day for a ride.  Perfect temps with blue skies, not any traffic to worry about, and great roads despite some pretty bad conditions in some areas.  The road crews are not moving as fast this year as they did last but they are making some progress in several areas.

The classic car tally is now three Nash Metropolitans, two 1950s Jag,one MGA, one Hot Rod, one 1950s Chrysler, one 1950's Plymouth, and one Ford Model A.  The exotic tally stands at 10 Ferraris, 9 Teslas, 6 Maseratis, 3 Cobras, 2 Bentleys, 2 Unknowns, 2 Lambos, 1 Rolls Royce, 1 DeLorean, and 1 Austin-Healey.

Phoenixville

Phoenixville

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Valley Forge Ride

Sans hubcaps

Saturday was a beautiful, clear, blue sky day so we took a ride out to Valley Forge National Park in the early afternoon to take advantage of that great weather.

We headed out Darby Paoli/Church to Waterloo and followed Waterloo all the way out to Valley Forge.  On the way out, I noticed a gun metal gray Maserati a couple of cars ahead of me at the intersection of 30 and Waterloo.  I followed him for a bit but he peeled off and we continued on Waterloo.  We stopped at Mike's Consignment Shop in the Gateway Shopping Center because it's one of our favorite consignment shops in the area and it's on the way.  We weren't there long but when we came back to the car I noticed a big pool of liquid coming out from under the front.  I freaked out a little bit but on closer examination I realized that it was antifreeze.  Montse doesn't use antifreeze, it was probably from the car parked in that spot before us.  A little bit of a scare but nothing to it.

From there we continued on to the Park, it was full of Scouts and people with kids and dogs.  We got lots of thumbs ups and waves.  At one point a group of Scouts held their thumbs up asking for a ride so I pulled over and offered them all a ride if they could fit in the back.  We all had a big laugh over that.

We looped all over the park enjoying the twisty roads and then headed back home on a reverse route.  We had a short deviation, following Church to Conestoga and Wayne Street to check out a big manor house that is now visible because the leaves have not returned.  On Conestoga, we saw a blue Tesla and a blue Maserati in short succession.

A great ride even if not very long we were probably out for about an hour and a half to two hours.

The exotic car tally now stands at 9 Ferraris, 6 Teslas, 2 Lambos, 5 Maseratis, 2 Cobras, 2 Unknowns, 1 Bentley, 1 DeLorean, and 1 Austin-Healey.

Valley Forge Farm House

Abandoned restaurant on the edge of the Park

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Montse in Valley Forge

New Jersey Brigade Memorial

Yesterday it rained on and off all day so there was no riding to be had.  Today the day was beautiful and cool so we decided to take a drive to Valley Forge Park in the Morning to see if the color had come in.  We had a nice ride up to the Park and then through some of its hills.  Great place to run a roadster, nice twists and hills to navigate.  I've done the park on the Bullet and on my old bike and it is always a really fun ride.  On the MG it was just miles of smiles.  We stopped at the New Jersey Brigade Memorial first for some pics.  Then we moved on to the National Memorial Arch and ended up at Mad Anthony Wayne's Monument.

National Memorial Arch

At the Arch, a nice older gentleman came up and chatted with us about the car for a good 10 minutes and at Mad Anthony's a really nice lady offered to take our picture in the car.  This is the first picture I have of me in the MG.  She was with an older couple who had had a 1952 MG back in 1952.  The gentleman told me that he loved his car but had to get rid of it when his wife got pregnant because and MGTD "is not a family car".

On the way back we stopped at the Paoli Wawa on 30 for sandwiches and coffee and went home via the Sugartown/St. Davids/Church Rd.  Loop.

First pic of me in the MG

General "Mad" Anthony Wayne Monument

I took the afternoon to make a pattern to order mats from Coco Mats.  I've been in contact with them and they sent me the materials to make the pattern based on their VW pattern on Friday.  These mats are definitely going to be larger than VW mats.  I also started prepping the car for the Historical Car Club of Pennsylvania car show next Sunday at the Delaware County Community College.  This will be the first car show I've ever participated in.  After finishing the clean up, I took a little ride to the True Value Hardware Store in Newtown Square to get copies of the keys made.  I've been living dangerously with only one key for the MG, now we are covered.

General "Mad" Anthony Wayne Monument

New Jersey Brigade Memorial

See the full Montse album in Flickr.

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Valley Forge Ride

National Memorial Arch, Valley Forge

Headed out towards Church Road with no particular flight plan in mind.  There was a work crew doing some repairs to the grounds by the old Ardrossan gate.  I have had that gate in mind as a place for a photo but with the crew in the way and the grass being all torn up it didn't seem like a good idea at the time.

General Mad Anthony Wayne

Not having that possibility in mind I continued down Church towards Waterloo and once there followed Waterloo to Valley Forge.  Once in the park I just followed the roads and wound about the hills, this is a good ride for a helmet camera video.  Some of the side roads were closed, I assumed for repairs or debris removal, but most of the park was accessible.  Made two stops for photos, first in the parking lot behind the National Memorial Arch and then at the Mad Anthony Monument.  The bit of cobble stone in front of the Arch was no fun to negotiate, have to take it slow through there or you might jar your teeth loose.  The road that winds up to the Mad Anthony Monument winds down to 252.  Traffic on Waterloo/252 on the way up was rather heavy from the Baptist Church in the Great Valley (another target for photos) area to the Chesterbrook turn off so I decided to follow turn right on 252 under 202 rather than to take Waterloo back.
After clearing the one way bridge on 252 traffic started getting heavy there too so I took the Sugartown turn off to Church for the way home.

I would like to do the Valley Forge ride again with a helmet camera and earlier in the day when there are less tourists in the area.  The park wasn't congested but it would have been nicer with fewer cars.  Great weather, clear and nice temps with just a little wind.  The heavy forecast for yesterday's rain did not really materialize.  It stated raining around 13:00 and probably stopped a little after 16:30 and it was never heavy rain.

After the morning commute the odo was probably clocking at around 758 miles.  By the end of the Valley Forge ride it is at 786.8 miles.

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