A day in Filthadelphia…
January 3, 2024, 12:46 PM
On Friday, December 29, I went up to Philadelphia for the day with my friend Aaron Stone. We each had our goals up there, and for the most part, we accomplished them. I wanted to see the “Four Seasons”, and Aaron wanted to see the SS United States. And then we both wanted to go to King of Prussia Mall. Elyse, meanwhile, was unavailable, as she was on a work trip to Roanoke for bus museum business.
I feel like, for this trip, we scheduled it more or less perfectly. We had exactly the right amount of time for what we had intended to do. We left in the HR-V from my house, and made two quick food stops in Ellicott City and Catonsville. Then it was straight through to Delaware House. That was a bit more involved than I had anticipated, though, as there was a large backup just north of I-695, which slowed us down a bit. I was regretting not looking at Google ahead of time before deciding not to bounce at White Marsh and taking Route 1 for a ways, like I did last April on the New York trip. Route 1 is a viable alternative to I-95, and this would have been a good time to use it.
Then after Delaware House, we continued straight through into Pennsylania, taking I-95 through Wilmington. Every time I go through Wilmington, I always say that I want to explore it, but then I never plan a trip to actually go to Wilmington. It always gets bypassed, either by skirting it to the southeast on trips that go into New Jersey, or by never getting off of the highway while going through on the way up to Philadelphia. I went to Christiana Mall last year, but still haven’t done Wilmington itself. Aaron and I discussed possibly doing a quick side trip through parts of Wilmington on the way back down, time permitting, so maybe we’d do a little bit in Wilmington, but that can was kicked down the road for now.
Our first stop in Philadelphia was my stop, at the “Four Seasons”. This was not the Four Seasons Hotel, but rather, this was Four Seasons Total Landscaping, which where an infamous press conference by the Trump campaign occurred back in November 2020, which featured Rudy Giuliani as a speaker, among others. The way I figured, this was the site of a quirky bit of American political history, and it was worth a few photos.
The front of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, facing State Road. I was surprised to discover that the street-facing side of the building was not where the press conference was held.
Aerial view of the street-facing facade.
Aerial view of the back side of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping building. This was the side where the press conference occurred.
Ground-level views of the back side of the Four Seasons. Yes, Rudy Giuliani stood right in front of that garage door for that ridiculous press conference.
Metal “fstl” letters embedded in the concrete of the sidewalk in front of Four Seasons Total Landscaping’s main entrance.
Having seen all that there was to see at Four Seasons Total Landscaping (there wasn’t that much to it), I then photographed I-95 while the drone was still up in the air:
I-95 as it passes through the Tacony neighborhood of Philadelphia.
Just before I brought the drone down for a landing, I got a photo of the two of us.
Then before landing on the roof of the HR-V, the drone got a selfie of itself via a reflection off of the moon roof.
Meanwhile, as far as a drone platform goes, the new HR-V is great in this regard. The roof is broad and relatively flat, which makes it very easy and safe to launch and land from. The original HR-V was less than ideal as a drone platform, since the roof sloped down considerably on both ends. As such, due to that slope, the drone tended to slide down once the motors cut off after landing, and I had to pluck it out of the windshield wipers on more than one occasion. It was fine for launching, since I was physically placing the drone exactly where I wanted it, but I would have to land it somewhere else. Now, with the new HR-V, I can just land it almost anywhere on the roof and be just fine (I usually try to aim for the moon roof). Recognize that the most dangerous part of a drone flight is launch and landing, since that’s where the highest potential for interactions with people and other objects exists. Once it’s in the air, we’re good. Using the HR-V as a platform for launch and landing reduces that danger considerably, since it raises its height above where people walk and vehicles drive, plus it essentially blocks out a patch of clear landing space that no one will encroach on. Thus I can come straight down and land on the roof and be just fine.
Finishing up at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, we got back on the freeway and headed down to the IKEA on Columbus Boulevard in order to see the United States. This had additional meaning for Aaron as he now had a greater understanding of the ship. I first took him to see the ship in 2021, when I shot a photo set of the Big U with the Mavic Mini. At that time, I explained the significance of the ship, and also mentioned that it is larger than the Titanic. Since then, Aaron had gotten a job at a museum where fittings from the United States are in the museum’s collection, including one of the ship’s propellers. With that in mind, he wanted to see it again with a greater appreciation for what he was seeing. I’m also always up for flying around the Big U, since I love getting detailed shots of it.
Sticker on the window inside IKEA’s in-store restaurant, providing information about the ship, along with a URL for the SS United States Conservancy. The ship’s presence at this pier actually predates IKEA’s construction by a number of years.
The ship as viewed from the IKEA restaurant.
Up in the air, and preparing to fly towards the ship.
View of the ship using the Air 3’s zoom lens.
Bow shot using the zoom lens.
Close-up of the nameplate on the port-side bow.
My next move was to head towards the very front of the ship in order to get a low shot of the bow. I wanted something that looked dramatic, and which showed the size of the ship from something of a human scale, since I’ve always felt like photos taken from a distance don’t allow someone to truly appreciate the size of these vessels. So I got the drone down low, about five feet above the water’s surface, and moved towards my desired position.
Then, suddenly, I saw water go over my lens, and I reacted, WHOA, as I realized that something had just gone wrong. The drone was still in the air, but I was getting error messages about critically low battery voltage, and the battery meter was showing at zero, despite a full battery in there. With that in mind, I thought that I was going to lose my drone in the water due to power issues. Fortunately, the power held up, so I raised my altitude, and got out of there as quickly as I could. The drone was moving very slowly, but it was indeed moving. The light on the drone’s underside, intended to help with spotting it in the air, was illuminated at half power, uncommanded. I had never seen a drone LED do that before. It was quite clear based on all of this that something was very wrong.
Photo of IKEA at sunset as the drone flew back.
Despite the abnormal operation, I was able to bring the drone down and complete a safe landing in the parking space next to me. Upon picking it up and tilting it, a surprisingly large amount lot of water came out of it. That was concerning. I powered the drone down, took the battery out, and gave it a good shake, and I got even more water out of it. I left it to air out for a while, and I would revisit the drone issue later. The way that I figured, I had two options: either the drone was damaged and would need to be sent off for repair, or it would be good as new after drying out. But in any event, there was no urgency here, because we had run out of daylight, and as such, I was not planning to fly it again on this particular trip.
Meanwhile, one thing that Aaron noticed about Philadelphia was the amount of trash and other debris just sort of scattered around in the city. Let’s admit: Philadelphia is not the cleanest city around, and it lends a somewhat gritty character to the city. I’m used to this, having been to Philadelphia plenty of times, but this was new for Aaron. I let him know that this was normal for Philly by remarking, “They don’t call it ‘Filthadelphia’ for nothing!” After all, Philadelphia has been gritty and somewhat trashy for decades. That’s a constant, and for it to be anything else would be out of character for Philly. That’s also why the title of this entry says “Filthadelphia”: because I started using that term frequently after that.
Leaving IKEA, we made two grocery stops. One was at a Giant-PA store nearby, and the other one was at a Grocery Outlet store on Ridge Avenue. The Giant-PA store was like most stores from that chain, but with a smaller footprint than I was used to. Grocery Outlet was really good, fitting the typical format for that store. Elyse and I had previously visited a Grocery Outlet store on Oregon Avenue in 2022, but this location on Ridge Avenue was better. Grocery outlet-type stores generally have pretty good selection and pricing, though nothing holds a candle to Sharp Shopper. If faced with a choice between Grocery Outlet and Sharp Shopper, I’ll pick Sharp Shopper every time.
Eventually, we got on the Schuylkill Expressway and made it to King of Prussia Mall. My impression of King of Prussia is the same as it’s always been: it is a large but very generic mall. Seriously, there is nothing particularly special about King of Prussia Mall as far as architecture or other features go. It’s just a really big two-level mall. Though I did get a few shots here and there:
Interior of the first floor of the former JCPenney at King of Prussia. There were recent plans to renovate this space to house a Wayfair store, however, these plans fell through, and as such, construction never began. The space is currently being used mostly for storage.
A small dome of water in the fountain in the upper level food court, in the “bridge” area between the Court and the Plaza sections.
Floor-level exit signs near a restroom corridor in the Court section of the mall. Floor-level exit signs, along with exit signage at normal height, must be a local requirement here, because I haven’t seen them anywhere else in the Philadelphia area.
Funny the times that we live in. When I first saw this sign, my eyes rolled, thinking that this was a COVID-era holdover talking about hand sanitizer, masks, and social distancing. I was surprised to find myself delighted to see that this was a “see something, say something” advertisement about physical security. I used to roll my eyes at these kinds of messages as well, but after suffering through three years of abuse in the name of safety from COVID-19, I’ll take this message any day.
We left the mall around closing time, and started making moves towards home. But first, we dipped into Center City so that Aaron and I could see a few things. He wanted to see a building that Scientology had purchased back in 2007 or so and has not used since then. The building is at 1314 Chestnut Street, and is a narrow 15-story building that historically housed the Cunningham Piano Company that currently sits abandoned. As I understand it, Scientology was supposed to develop it into one of those “Ideal Org” buildings like they did with the Embassy Building in DC, but they have thus far just sat on this one for over 15 years. When Anonymous DC raided Philadelphia back in 2009, we briefly went past this facility, which was sitting vacant back then as well. Scientology really needs to sell this building if they’re not going to do anything with it, in order to get out of the way and put the building back to active use. Then considering our proximity to Chinatown, I just wanted to do a quick drive through Chinatown. So we did.
Then we got back on 95, and headed back. We decided to pass on Wilmington for time considerations (it figures), and then we stopped at the Sheetz in Joppa on the way home for fuel and food. We also learned, though too late to act on for this trip, that there is a brand new Sheetz in Elkton, Maryland, along the route that you take to bypass the Delaware toll. So bypassing the Delaware toll just became a lot more reasonable, because now there’s a Sheetz along the way, in a perfect spot for gas and food, too.
I checked the drone during our Sheetz stop, and unfortunately, I suspect that it is fried. After it dried out, I tested it again with a fresh battery (i.e. not the battery that it was flying with at the time), and while it would power up, the camera is jittering like it had way too much coffee, and it won’t connect with the remote. So it sounds like there’s a trip to a DJI repair facility in its future to get it cleaned up and fixed up. And in the meantime, the Air 2S is in good working order if I need to do any aerial photography.
And that was the trip. Both of us enjoyed ourselves, and got lots of good photos.
Categories: Cameras, National politics, Philadelphia, Ships, Shopping