July 6 = Day 10

Synopsis:  313 miles driven; 5.75 hours on the road; Mount Pocono, PA to Greenfield, MA; Visited Steamtown USA, Mall at Steamtown, Amistad Memorial

Hot Breakfast including bacon at our hotel got everyone off to a good start, that and we didn't leave our hotel until 8:00 am. That's sleeping in on our vacation! We drove from Mt. Pocono into Scranton and stopped at a couple of "Office" sites before heading to Steamtown USA. We also visited the Mall at Steamtown after the Park and got a couple of "tourist" photos taken.

I visited Steamtown as a small child when it was located in Massachusetts so I really wanted the kids to experience it. We got there at 9:00 am and got to look at some of the exhibits before catching the short train ride at 10:30 am. I would say the train ride is probably usually very worth it but not so much on our trip. First, they do not run the steam engines on Monday or Tuesday (which we knew before we got there) - they run the Diesel engines. Second, the train is not air conditioned and it was between 90-100 degrees while we were there. Third, the train never got above 20 MPH so the air barely moved.

I would recommend Steamtown to anyone who loves trains or wants to learn about an important part of our nation's history. Make sure you see the film in the museum as it helps you understand the impact on our country and the changes in our country that influences the railroads.

After picking up some lunch at the Mall at Steamtown, we hit the road for a 3 hour drive to New Haven, CT. We were going there to visit the Amistad Memorial located in front of City Hall. As we got close, we were looking for a parking space when we could see that the whole street was closed in front of us about three or four blocks ahead. We quickly pulled into a side street and got a parking space. We walked towards the memorial and could see that the police had the road blocked off. We heard from people walking nearby that there was a bomb threat at City Hall and they were evacuating the area. Since they didn't stop us, we walked up as close as we could (they did have it taped off) and got a picture or two.

We then got back on the road and found our way to our hotel in Greenfield, MA.

Hotel Deal of the Day: One night at a Quality Inn for $0 by using points accrued with stays on last year's trip.