The Best Day of My Travels

The very best day of all of my travels was the day I spent with my Grammie at the Drake Well Museum in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The day after our visit to the museum, my grandmother said she was so excited the night before for my visit that she had a hard time falling to sleep. When she woke the next day she wondered had she imagined me or was I really there. So when I arrived again to see her she was just as tickled as she was the day before. We had a terrific lunch and a nice walk together before I left for home. I tell you it was very difficult to leave my grandmother. I thank my lucky stars for every moment I have ever shared with her.

Me and Grammie

Obviously, Route 8 south entering Titusville.

This was taken heading south down route 8, north of Titusville.

Guess what the weather was doing for my visit with my Grammie? If you guessed rain. You'd be a big winner!

The world's first oil well, the Drake Well where in 1859, reaching a depth of 69.5 feet, Edwin L. Drake struck oil in Titusville, Cherrytree Township, Venangoe County, Pennsylvania.

Grammie admiring the 1912 Hatfield Truck.

The Col. Drake Steam Pumper (1868) carried 700 foot of hose and pumped water 300 feet. This pumper, no. 283, was built by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company of Manchester, NH.

Metal stencils of the various petroleum refiners.

The incredibly rugged, 4-wheeel drive, 1947 Dodge Power Wagon was used to carry nitroglycerin to the oil fields, where "shooters" would lower the nitro-filled torpedoes down the wells. The explosion would fracture the sandstone and increase oil production. 

1927 GMC Big Brute Truck equipped with a 1917 Sanderson Cyclone Drilling Rig.

I woke to these leaves outside on the ground with morning dew.