Went to beautiful and historic Princeton, New Jersey. Grover Cleveland lived there at the end of his life. The house is privately owned, so I took pictures from the street. I parked a few blocks away where I knew parking was legal. Cleveland called it Westland, and it is for sale! Sotheby's lists it for $5,750,000, 6 bdr, 7 bath, 1.57 acres, and the house is set back from the street. Not bad considering Cleveland lived there in the 1890s!
From a house he once lived in, I drove to Caldwell, NJ to see his birthplace. Much more modest house, on the main drag. A display said the road was a turnpike during his childhood, and legend says someone saved him from a runaway wagon. The local group that oversees the house is working on it and the visitor's center. They are very nice and enthusiastic, but there is just not much to see. Only a few original artifacts, including Cleveland's office chair from the White House, and we have it because he gifted it to his doctor, and the doctor's estate gifted it many years later, to the birthplace. No coffee mug, but now I have a simple beer stein that says "Grover Cleveland".
Cleveland was the 5th of 9 children. When he got older, he had to watch the younger ones. Story goes that he wanted to go outside and play ball with the others but could not go until his baby sibling fell asleep. He rocked that cradle every way he think, but baby just kept watching him. He even tried crawling under the cradle so baby could not see him. One of his sisters finally relieved him so he could go out and play. Anyways, as a big brother, I can relate.
The nice ladies in Caldwell warned me away from I-80. Some massive sinkhole has jammed it up, so I let my GPS give me an alternate route to Scranton, PA. I have now driven EVERY county road in New Jersey! And at about 45 mph!
Joe Biden's childhood home actually has a simple sign out front attesting to his having lived there, and invited me to take pictures, from the sidewalk, of course. Cute little home, nice neighborhood. Right down the street from a local university.
I am in the Clarks Summit Best Western in the town of the same name. Lots of dining choices, but I think I will pass on the Tuscan place across the street. The desk clerk said "Think Ruth Chris's"! I saw a ristorante Italiano down the street.
The various desk clerks at Best Western make a show that I am important with my platinum loyalty membership. They act like its a big benefit to comp me two bottles of water. I buy that stuff at H-E-B for about 12 cents each, but its the attitude I like. I think I have save a few shekels with my rewards points.
Tomorrow I am looking for Fillmore Glen State Park in upstate New York, log cabin replica number ?? By the way, Garfield was the last president born in a log cabin. I have seen many, and I think all are replicas. By the way, those manufactured log cabins you can buy today with perfectly straight logs that fit perfectly on top of each other . . . . . The ones I see on display are crooked logs with massive gaps filled with mud / adobe / something.
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