After the sweltering heatwave in the midwest, we had to turn on the heat to warm up when we arrived at our condominium in Pennsylvania in the pouring rain. We left Cincinnati in a rainstorm, saw a little sun in eastern Ohio, then drove back into the rain near the Pennsylvania state line. We’re at the edge of the woods watching the deer run by on the golf course through the trees.
Today’s license plates were Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennesee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Akalena didn’t lose any of her speed at finding the states in the three days we didn’t travel.
This will be our home for a week as we explore the history of Pennsylvania and Arthur St. Clair’s part in it between 1764 and 1818. He came to Pennsylvania as a young husband and father, soon taking positions in the courts and with the government. He acquired land, eventually owning more land than any other private landowner in Western Pennsylvania. When he was called to service in the Continental Army he bankrolled the regiment himself, using most of his fortune, and like many others was never paid back. When he came back squatters had taken over his property. He was soon elected to Congress, then became Governor of the Northwest Territories, and never regained most of his Pennsylvania property. When Jefferson removed him from the governorship because of his Federalist and abolitionist views, he returned to Pennsylvania and at the age of sixty-eight.