In the previous year John Adams had traveled in the other direction to the Congress at Philadelphia and, in his journal, he notes, as if he were traveling in foreign lands, the strange manners and customs of the other colonies.
The journey, so momentous to Adams, was not new to Washington.

Some twenty years earlier the young Virginian officer had traveled as far as Boston in the service of King George II.

Now he was leader in the war against King George III.

In New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut he was received impressively.

In the warm summer weather the roads were good enough but many of the rivers were not bridged and could be crossed only by ferries or at fords.