This morning I replaced the valve in the water pump selector switch.  The circular rubber gasket had failed, allowing the pump to draw air as well as water, so the pump didn’t work very well:

We drove a few miles from Walmart to Valley Forge National Historical Park, where Washington’s army spent a winter with inadequate supplies during the Revolutionary War:

Nice visitor center:

Yes, these are our children:

We drove the self-guided loop road:

At one stop, a group of reenactors manned a small cannon:

Our next stop was Washington’s headquarters for that winter:

Washington’s bodyguard detail lived in these huts:

The kids completed their Junior Ranger badges and received their badges:

We continued northwest to visit Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, where the history of early American rural iron making is preserved:

At the top of the furnace, charcoal, limestone, and iron ore were poured in to this hole to produce pig iron:

This waterwheel drives the bellows that feed oxygen to the blast furnace:

We were last here in May of 2005, so we tried to recreate a couple photos from that visit:

The blacksmith shop:

Here at the bottom of the blast furnace, a plug would be removed, allowing the molten pig iron to spill out:

The kids completed their Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:

On the way out we watched this herd of sheep:

We continued west to overnight at the Walmart of Morgantown, PA.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.