We ended up in Scranton. Ginny had done some planning: a coal museum and a trip into a coal mine. That sounded like fun. So off we went. The Scranton area and eastern Pennsylvania has the largest deposit of anthracite coal in the world. When coal was king, Scranton was very prosperous. Our trip into the mine was very instructive. It is hard to imagine way in the dim past that the miners were working by candle light. Maybe that is why they call it the dim past. But I digress. The previous night I had done a little internet research and found that the Steamtown National Historic Site was also in Scranton.

We headed over there without any high hopes, and it turned out to be an unbelievably cool place. It was all about steam engines and they had many examples. We booked a ride on a steam train which was well done. The interpreter had a good story to tell. We took a walking tour of the shops which are actually doing quite a bit of work. They are doing a restoration of a big engine, Boston and Maine #3713, a 4-6-2 superpower locomotive. Only the shell was in place, and there was a LOT of work to be done. These guys handle some really big pieces of machinery. They have lathes for the wheels and enormous shears to cut metal. Our tour was led by a lady who had been an engineer and fireman on the trains there and she knew a lot.

Today's photo is of the coolest static exhibit in the museum. It is a cut-away of a full size steam engine so you can see all the internal parts. I stared at this thing for a long time. The more I learn about steam locomotives, the more I realize that the inventors and engineers who designed and built steam locomotives had to be geniuses. I would not qualify.

There is no What I Did Today entry for yesterday because it was a re-positioning day and we took no photos. Who needs to see a photo of the inside of our van?

p.s. Happy Bastille Day