Thursday 28 June 2007


So after philly i have booked into Washington DC for next Saturday and Sunday, but in the meantime i have hooked up with Chris from the Horizons motorcycle site, in Northern Penn, We went riding today, and took in the Lackawanna Coal mine. I learned that there is so much coal in the region. but the sad bit was about all the Irish workers who came over here after the famine, virtual slaves to the mining companies, or the railroads. They really had it though. SO got a tour of the mine, and gosh the pay was low, 11 cent a day for a nipper boy who opened and closed the doors into the mine, the miners did little better at 25 cent a day, and if the cart wasnt filled with coal you didnt get paid. This was the site of the first organised labour unions, and the Molly Maguires, its interesting to put a human side and to visualise the back ground in Tim Pat Coogans book "where ever green is worn" which i am reading at the moment. I Must look up the film of the Mollies, about a group who were hung by the Pinkerton Dectective agencies at the behest of the mine company, another miscarriage of so called justice. It is rumoured that there is a hand print on a wall from one of the ghosts of the mollies and even when the wall was replaced the hand re appeared! So will be going to check it out tomorrow. But it does make you appreaciate how hard the Irish worked and stuck together to get out of the poverty and the religious decrimination the encountered here. Had lunch at the Banshee Irish bar in Scranton (town is really irish) AOH was addressed by Gerry Adams back before the 98 ceasedfire and downing street declaration). So maybe will go back and see if my passport gets me any female attention The scenery here is really lovely, its a bit like rural France. Will get some more shots with the bike up in the next few days. But now have to consider my options, Have an offer, which i am seriously considering here, which is to ride up to Montreal Canada, with the guys here, and around the top of the Great lakes to a BMW rally in Milwakee Wisconsin. Might be good for making contacts for the trip down south. Right now i must go to bed. So talk to you all soon!

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