King of Prussia Service Center :: Grand Re-Opening and rally June 7, 2025

[Cosmo Cruz]

Still time to contribute ideas for the local Lucid rally/ drive before meeting at King of Prussia Lucid service center. Last year's event began at the Philadelphia Naval Yard, went to the Belmont plateau that overlooks the Philadelphia skyline, continued through the neighborhoods, meandering along creeks and hollows to emerge in King of Prussia. It was a great route. Kudos to those who plotted it! We want to visit and photo op around the area, have a nice bit of rally fun if we can ( I'm thinking a jaunt up 422W to test out the new "self-driving" software ). Also, Valley Forge National Park is literally right there:

There are self-guided (smart-phone) tours. Little known factoid: Valley Forge National Park has the largest whitetail deer population in the world. It is thought to have 48 to 63 billion deer. You will notice that even though there are lots of wooded areas in the park, the is not a single living thing -- not a weed nor a shrub nor even a tree, that exists from the dirt to about 5 feet up. Not a thing. All the deer in Pennsylvania (and the entire East coast of the US) are infected with Lyme disease. None of them eat dandelions. I digress..
I've fantasied about leading a column of Airs up Lincoln Drive along the Wissahickon creek, cross over Germantown Ave. in Chestnut Hill and follow Cresheim
Drive up to Stenton, then West to see the former King Ranch (used to be 500 acres of untouched pastureland ) past the Morris Arboritum, to Conshohocken to get on the Sure-Kill to KoP, or better, we should go the "back way" through W. Consho...again in the hollows following creeks to the Great Valley and KoP. But no, this might not be fun for non-locals. The Lincoln Drive / Cresheim drive part is actually quite dangerous. It's better to do this route during a snow-storm = less traffic.

Anyway I think a photo opp at Valley Forge park is good - it's right there, has lots of room to gather the cars, and parts of it are nice to look at -- like the enormous herd of deer in the Grand Parade meadow. It's very expensive (and 7 months) to kill them with your Lucid.

You many think I am joking, but the Park has a deer cull, or used to, to address the problem: they bait the grand meadow with corn then sit on the overlook with silenced rifles and shoot as many as they can. Has effectively INCREASED the deer population in the suburban collar counties of Philadelphia = where there is lots to eat, and no predators ( I have seen coyotes in my yard...but no bears or lions ). I think if we introduce polar bears to the Park it would make a real dent in the deer problem -- tourist problem too.

 

[borski]

All the deer in Pennsylvania (and the entire East coast of the US) are infected with Lyme disease.

I know this was a digression, lol, but deer are not infected with Lyme disease bacteria and do not infect ticks, at all. They serve as an important host, and help ticks travel and spread, but they do not have Lyme.

Venison is safe to eat.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

As long as you take no issue with there being ~ 50 billion whitetail deer in Valley Forge National Park I will concede your point.

 

[borski]

As long as you take no issue with there being ~ 50 billion whitetail deer in Valley Forge National Park I will concede your point.

Sounds about right to me

 

[L-Dude]

View attachment 28842

I used to live there--on Richards Road in the lower right. Small world.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Philadelphia icon: The Art Museum / Boathouse Row / SureKill Distressway (on far Left). That is the Schuylkill. ("kill" is Dutch for "river". It's the Fish River (was full of Shad when the Dutch were here). People who say "Schuylkill River" are redundant. It's just "The Schuylkill" ( the highway is SureKill, also Eggels, wooder, downtheshore).

was thinking I would loop the Avenue of the Arts from here to Logan Circle, collecting Lucids, then lead them down the East river drive past Boat House row, (West river drive is often closed for recreation summer months), and take them up Lincoln into Wissahickon Park. That should winnow out the weak of spirit. But no, it's likely that a Saturday in June that area will be mobbed with tourists and locals. The more I think of it the more I appreciate the route last year...somehow avoided all the traffic !

The King of Prussia, PA mall. The highway going W & E at the very top is the PA Turnpike. Lucid service is the smaller white-roofed building right up against the Turnpike ... the larger white-roofed building to the right is Costco. There is a bank of EA350 chargers on the other side of the mall from Lucid and a bit to the right. They are right up against Rt. 202. Rt. 202 is now open E all the way to Norristown - after that - good luck.

The yellow road going diagonally NE to SW is Rt. 202 (DeKalb Pike). The other diagonal highway, going SE to NW is Rt. 422. Rt. 422 goes past the Park so we'll likely be on it or access via Rt. 202 . Also, 422 can pretty empty past Oaks exit and you can try Highway Assist software. There is a State Police barracks at the Sanatoga exit... There is not much to see until you get to Limerick Nuclear Power station.
Valley Forge Park is just off the photo to the Left.

the Park is nice so hanging out snapping photos and BS-ing is probably good enough, as most folk had fun driving here and back. I'd love to do a rally -- just driving along with a few dozen Airs would be a blast, but around here on a summer Saturday -- maybe a lap around the Park and a jaunt up 422 is enough. I'm not serious about Lincoln Drive ... you'd need 4-wheel steering and comp-rubber for that road...and it's full of holes.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Forget 422 W as it's a parking lot from here to Reading. Just got back.
The area around KoP is fraught, as one can see from the photos above.

the Park is beautiful. It looks like PA was able to improve the exhibits before Drumpf cut the funding for National Parks. Big celebration coming up next year. Did the tour loop at about 20 mph. It was about 20 min loop without stopping to gawk. Did not see a single deer, which confirms they are now all in my front yard. Much of the woods are now looking "normal". The deer culls bait with corn and shoot them with silenced rifles. Meat goes to charity. They seem to have lots of cannons = I guess they are too loud.
Forgot about the covered bridge at Washington's headquarters and Valley Creek which used to be (before the valley was ruined by Chesterbrook) a “Class A Wild Trout Fishery”. Once can get a sense of what Lincoln Drive is like going up Valley Creek road. It's the pre-K version.
I did the loop up Goddard Blvd. past where Martin / Marietta build the spy satellites. That's the shortcut to the Park from Lucid. I'm working that day so yinz can sort the rest out yourselves. I'd be happy to do recon.

Oh... 202 (DeKalb Pike) is still out Eastbound from KoP. Probably will be out for a long time.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

octagonal schoolhouse....Yellow Springs Road Wharton Esherich
Eshrick Museum review


crossing a Class A native trout stream

Caught in Valley Creek: this is a native!

Yellow Springs road on the West side of Valley creek has some horse farms and houses that will blow your mind. Very scenic road. Route would be down Valley Creek (Rt. 252) to Rt.23, Left at the light towards village of Valley Forge, but bear (ha) to Left at Valley Park Road to Jug Hollow road. Follow Jug Hollow road up and over the ridge. It becomes Country Club road, then Diamond Hill road, then make a wicked sharp Left onto Yellow Springs Road (at the Octagonal Schoolhouse). Yellow Springs road will bring you back to the Covered Bridge.
Or, go backwards...probably easier to do!

I did not see / find any potholes. Had my 21" summer shoes on. Whole route at 25 to 35 mph on township roads. Very light traffic and tourists today (raining). Again, did not see one deer??? ... they are probably all at the King of Prussia Inn (circa 1769) drinking mint juleps and toasting to Frederick the Great. Irony is the area was settled by Welsh... the Germans settled elsewhere. The "American Revolutionary War Prussian mercenaries toasting to Frederick II is how the Inn got it's name" story is just a myth ... so we're going with that. Mark Twain advice to journalists: "If the Legend is better than the Truth, print the Legend."

In 1970 the King of Prussia Inn was still in it's origional location: in the medial strip between Rt. 202 N and Rt. 202 S. At that time is was only 4 or 6 lanes....soon to become 10 or 12. Impossible to get there...unless you are a deer.

That's the DeKalb Pike, with the tavern between. Over the decades the road became more and more busy...stranding access. It stood vacant, fell into ruin... and then locals rallied and moved it

If you are in a place on Rt. 202 in King of Prussia, and it's an intersection of just concrete in every direction = that's where the King of Prussia Inn used to be.

So even though 18th cent. locals called the area Reesville after one of the first Welsh Quakers to settle in that area...everyone everywhere knew / heard about the Inn stranded between the pike (Rt. 202)...so the place became King of Prussia ... even though there were no Germans around. It is thought that the builder of the Inn (1768 ) had a thing for Frederick II so named his Inn after the Great man. my father = Frederick, his father also Frederick. Germans were impressed with this guy = not just the landlord of the Inn. ( Irony being Mother's side is Welsh ... Quakers and Mercinaries ... what could go wrong?)

The Park is about 3 miles < 10 minute drive from Lucid Service. Speed Limit is 25 mph in the Park but mostly one-way. I tried to time the routes but got distracted by the beauty and the concentration necessary on the twisty bits (Mt. Joy, the Gorge, Jug Hollow). You can do about everything without stopping in an hour or ninety minutes, but I tried everything looking for "must do" parts so you can do it much faster. I did not stop to see any of the buildings or exhibits. There are great hiking/ running trails. There are several good places to park and grok. It's a National Park so funding is cut and people have been fired. Be kind to the staff.

 

[newlucidguy]

side question - why is the KOP center re-opening?

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I too, wonder if it's a Gravity thing. I'm attracted to the tech but repulsed by the size.
Was expecting flying cars by now, but I would like to see the Gravity... might like to drive one and be open to persuasion.

Grew up reading comics like Dick Tracy:

ahmmm .... a tech billionaire ? how bizarre !
Space Coupe ... using gravity !

Science for Big Brother!
dilithium to moderate matter/anti-matter warp drive

Only that shall happen
Which has happened,
Only that occur
Which has occurred;
There is nothing new
Beneath the sun!

quantum physics confirms Genesis origin story is pretty darned accurate.

turn on, tune in, drop out ...

... then drop back in

and lend a hand

Ram Dass

 

[JoeMa]

There is a Lucid Service Center on Mall Rd, behind the Costco but they preparing a Lucid Studio in the mall. You can select the KOP Studio on the Lucid website but you can not yet select an Air or Gravity to schedule a demo drive. Hopefully soon.