After leaving Plainville, Ct, I encountered the most harrowing ride of this road trip.  To be honest, I have no idea what roads I traveled as I was frequently lost.  But, as you can see by the route as illustrated to the left, what should have been less than four hours, took me almost seven.  To me, one of the scariest things to do is to drive on multi-lane highways, especially when there are six or seven lanes going in one direction.  The worst traffic in the eastern United States is around New York City and I managed to get there just as torrential rain pelted down, wipers on full, with visibility almost nil.  No opportunity to pull over and wait as there was no defined place to do so.  Despite the weather, drivers were maintaining speeds over the limit, zipping in and around lanes, my GPS telling me to turn at places where there were multiple choices and, of course, I did not always select properly.  After crossing the Tappan Zee, I managed to get into line to go through the Lincoln Tunnel back into New York City.  Why anyone would want to drive in this area I will never know.  What I do know is that I will NEVER EVER drive in that area again.

Needless to say, I eventually managed to escape the insanity surrounding our largest city and eventually made my way south to Camden where I again miscalculated and found myself at the toll booth for the Ben Franklin Bridge.  I said to the toll taker, “I’m not heading into Philadelphia, am I?”  He responded, “If you go across this bridge, you are.”  He was so nice.  He said that if I was willing to drive across ten lanes of traffic, there was a turnaround prior to crossing the bridge.  NOT!  This guy did not charge me, and he gave me excellent directions on the way to cross the bridge and come right back to Camden where, about five minutes later I found myself in front of the residence of my cousin, Chris Maier.

I lucked out and found a metered spot (broken, so free—YAY) right in front.  Chris lives in this awesome renovated building, The Victor, overlooking the Philadelphia skyline from Camden, which was originally built to be the anchor assembly building for The Victor Talking Machine Company, which became RCA.  It was “gut rehabbed” and completed in 2004, featuring 341 luxury apartments, ground floor retail and on-site parking.  Chris lives in a corner unit with this gorgeous view of the Delaware River and the Ben Franklin Bridge into Philadelphia.

Chris, Chloe, and I walked along the beautifully revitalized Camden waterfront where he regaled me with history of the area as well as the life and generosity of Eldridge Johnson, founder of The Victor Talking Machine Company.

Passionate about art, music, and history, Chris has delved so deeply into this subject, he created a one-man show to impart his knowledge in a very compelling and entertaining way.  As you can see, Chris’ apartment is alive with relics from Eldridge’s company…

We spent an engaging afternoon and evening conversing about history, our lives, loves, and just catching up.

In the morning, as you can see, Chloe made herself completely at home while we drank our coffee.  Then, before we said our good-byes, we walked the area

Finally, Chris created a fascinating video which is definitely worthwhile to view: