Day 123 -- Monday, August 31

I took in a couple of final attractions today. Soon after crossing into New Jersey, I entered the township of Washington. There's a place there called Miniature Kingdom that's somewhat reminiscent of Roadside America, an attraction I visited on my first full day of travel so many weeks ago, giving my trip a certain cyclical quality. While Roadside America was a scale model of a small American town, though, Miniature Kingdom features recreations of various European locales - castles, cathedrals, and the like. Like Roadside America, though, it has several trains a-running through it.

Next on the agenda was West Orange, NJ, home of Thomas Edison's third and final lab. Of most interest to me was the authentic reproduction the museum boasts of the Black Mariah, the world's first movie studio. It's a one-room structure, with a raiseable roof, that revolves on a turntable, accessing available light as the sun moved across the sky. It was this reliance on sunlight for successful filming that finally led to the movie industry heading west from the east coast and, in the very early days, this was the Edison Company's way of garnering as much of the everchanging light as possible.

I also stopped by the Grover Cleveland Birthplace in Caldwell, NJ. Visitors to this exciting spot are accorded a peek at a slice of the great man's wedding cake, dating from 1886, which would certainly qualify it as the oldest piece of cake I've ever encountered. Unfortunately, the museum had unexpectedly closed on this Monday. You can imagine my disappointment.


Continue on the American Odyssey.
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