Wow...where has time gone??? October has just flown by and I am behind in travel updates. We are going to try and get caught up with the next two posts, wrapping up our time out east exploring battlefields and lots of history. After leaving Harpers Ferry KOA we rolled on down the road to another wonderful Boondockers Welcome location. We spent 3 nights at a wonderful spot in rural southern PA near Gettysburg. Our host couple was the sweetest Amish couple who warmly welcomed us and helped us get tucked in behind their house and even supplied 50amp hookups and water. The nights were peaceful and our days were filled with exploring. While parked on a nice paved driveway, Rick was able to perform some annual maintenance. Last year we upgraded to the independant suspension and it was time to grease the zerk fittings. With the new suspension it made quick work since we went from 12 to 4 fittings. Our main reason for picking this location was its close proximity to Gettysburg National Military Park. I had visited Gettysburg on my high school trip to Washington DC, but that being oh soo many years ago, this felt like a new experience. We took two days to tour Gettysburg. Fortunately, this visitor center was open and we toured the museum and bought tickets to see the movie and cyclorama. Rick was able to get some panoramic shots of the cyclorama depicting the battle but pictures really can't do it justice. It was really interesting how they made the cyclorama painting 3D with period props and landscape in front that sort of faded into the painting. The next day we toured the battlefield via the auto tour. It is very well laid out and marked and it was amazing to see all of the monuments throughout the battlefield. The detail on some were so intricate. The monuments for the WI Iron Brigade who fought at Gettysburg were not as elaborate as the NY and PA monuments but beautiful nonetheless. The auto tour was well laid out and chronicled the 3 days of battle in early July, 1863. Some areas of the battlefield were pretty sobering, especially Little Round Top that overlooked Devils Den and Wheatfield where some 4,000 soldiers lay dead our wounded on day two. The climactic moment was on Day 3 on Cemetery Ridge, famously known as Pickett's Charge where 7000 Union soldiers repulsed the bulk of the 12,000 Confederate soldiers and defended Copse of Trees, The Angle and Brian Farm. Total casualties for the 3 days totaled 23,000 Union soldiers and 28,000 Confederate soldiers. On July 4th, Lee's Confederate troops began retreating. The final stop of the tour was the National Cemetery where Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address on November 19, 1863 at the cemetery's dedication. Since we still had some time to burn in the late afternoon, we drove right next door to Dwight D. Eisenhower's home that he bought after he retired from the military after WWII. Earlier, prior to WWI he trained on tanks at the Gettysburg battlefield, which was strangely a tank training area prior to becoming a national park. He loved the area and wanted to come back. This farm is adjacent to the national park. Once retired, he hosted several notable dignitaries from his Supreme Allied Commander years at the farm including Field Marshall Montgomery, Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth, just to name a few. Once he became president he used the farm as his retreat. Due to Covid, we were only allowed to roam the grounds and could not enter the house or farm buildings. On our last day at our PA Boondockers location we took a drive to Carlisle, PA to visit the US Army Heritage and Education Center located on the grounds of the Army War College for officers. This was a free museum to honor the American Soldier and preserve their experiences. They have an education and research center that has a comprehensive collection of contemporary and historical materials that are available for research and education opportunities. This portion of the complex was still closed due to the epidemic but the museum, inside and out was open to the public. The outdoor Heritage Trail had several static displays of key points in Army history. The WWI exhibit included a replica of the trench system and a German pillbox. We did have many more pictures of the outside exhibits and the museum but for some reason they went MIA. The museum inside was dedicated to the military history from the viewpoint of the soldier and their families. It was very well done and a must do when in the area. Plus, did I mention it was FREE?!?!?!
From PA we traveled south of the Mason Dixon line to our next destination...D.C. More to come on that in our next post.
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When in the eastern US it's hard to not come across historic places, especially battlefields. I visited some of these battlefields on a class trip to Washington DC in high school, which was many moons ago, so most everything was new to me. I guess back then I wasn't as interested in history as I was having fun with friends. Rick loves history, especially military events, so I had my own tour guide! We had a couple weeks before our workamping gig in NC so we decided to immerse ourselves in history. We were also going to share some of that history with the boys later in the trip. We started in Harpers Ferry, WV where we stayed at a KOA that was situated on part of the battlefield where John Brown raided the arsenal years before the Civil War started in an effort to arm slaves to start a rebellion. It was interesting to see the union defensive positions within the campground, but that was about all the campground had going for it, in our opinion. The sites were on top of each other, with sewers hook up next to your picnic table and rules were not enforced, nor was management responsive to issues. Part of the park has many full time residents, who feel rules do not pertain to them and parties can go all night long. With a nightly rate in the high $60's to $80's, it again reinforced our feeling that KOA's just aren't our thing and are not worth the price. The town of Harpers Ferry is actually the the National Park and the park service owns several of the buildings and has museums and period setups in them. Due to COVID some were closed but others were open and were pretty interesting. Historical importance here goes back to the days of Lewis and Clark. During the course of the Civil War, Harpers Ferry changed hands several time due to it's critical location on the convergence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers with railroads running through the area. We walked around the rest of the town and found several beautiful homes, a cool hotel up on the bluff that folks are trying to bring back to life and also the home of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The National Park also includes area surrounding the town of Harpers Ferry were several battles were fought. Bolivar Heights, an area above Harpers Ferry was the site of 5 different engagements throughout the Civil War with other areas being key confederate victories for Stonewall Jackson's confederate troops. It was a beautiful sunny day to drive the area and take a couple walks, which had some amazing views! We also visited Monocacy and Antietam battlefields while in the area. Both of these battlefields were driving tours through the countryside. Visitor Centers were closed but Antietam had park rangers in a tent out front who were more than happy to answer questions and hand out guides. Monocacy is a lesser known battlefield and it showed as we were the only ones we saw touring the sites. This battle encompassed several family farms and was the battle that saved Washington, D.C. on July 9, 1864 during the third and final Confederate Invasion of the North. Our last battlefield in this area was Antietam. In September of 1862, General Robert E. Lee's forces engaged Union Gen. George B. McClellan's union soldiers in what was known as the bloodiest one-day battle of the Civil War. Throughout this driving tour, there were many monuments, Dunker Church which was the focal point of the Union attacks the morning of the battle and the beautifully preserved Burnside Bridge which Union Gen. Burnside finally overtook and pushed Confederate forces back toward Sharpsburg. Sunken Road, also known as Bloody Lane, was the most sobering portion of the tour. To stand where soo many lost their lives and to read the observation..."They were lying in rows like the ties of a railroad, in heaps like cordwood mingled with the splintered and shattered fence rails. Words are inadequate to portray the scene." It really amplified what took place in this unassuming country lane. There were several other roadside historical markers and areas of interest, but we just ran out of time in the area. We ended our area battlefield tour with a fantastic german sampler dinner for two at Schmankerl Stube in Hagerstown, MD. Next up, the biggest battle of them all...
West Virginia was not on our radar this year but, again, due to the pandemic, we rerouted ourselves to explore this wild and wonderful state. Most states have different areas to explore and W. VA was no different. There is the coal mine area in the SW part of the state, know as the Hatfield-McCoy Mountains, which we unfortunately didn't have time to dive into and just to the north is the Metro Valley and Mid-Ohio Valley region, which we spent our first few days in the state exploring. The drive from Kentucky was a short one, but was beautiful drive along 64 and then north on 77 to Rippling Waters Church of God campground. We found this quaint place on Passport America and scored a pull thru, full hook up site for $20 a night. They are known for their chapel by the water, which was beautiful view from our rig. The people there were soo friendly and accomodating. They have a small pool, which was closed due to Covid, a laundry and fishing in the little ponds on the property. The road to the campground is not for the faint at heart, but taking it slow around the sharp corners got us there unscathed. It is a narrow country road and really only traveled by the locals to and from their homes. We used this location as our base camp to explore Charleston, the capitol of WV and surrounding areas. We spent a day in Charleston and were fortunate enough to get into the West Virginia State Museum, which is a must do when in the area. It was free and definitely rivaled museums we have paid for. They had beautiful champion quilts displayed in the entry area and the museum chronicled the history of WV. The timeline was well done and reminded us of the Streets of Old Milwaukee in the Milwaukee Museum back home. Unfortunately the Capitol was closed to visitors and there were working on the gold dome so the pictures aren't the best but still beautiful grounds and monuments on the campus. We had lunch at Adelphia Sports Bar & Grille in downtown Charleston that is known for their fried feta. Of course we had to try it....AHHHMMMAAAZING! We then went to check out the Capitol Market which is a permanent market in the restored train depot. It expands in the summer and fall to the outdoors to include a farmers market as well. Such beautiful fall flowers and produce everywhere! We took a day to head north to Parkersburg and explore Blannerhassett Island Historical State Park and Museum. This state park is an island out in the Ohio River. We took the steamwheeler ride to the island and then were able to explore the grounds by horse drawn carriage ride and then took a guided tour of the mansion. Such an interesting backstory to the Blannerhassetts from them being second cousins, to hosting many dignitaries to the conspiracy plan with Aaron Burr that eventually had them flee their beautiful estate on the island when the scheme collapsed. The museum on the main land in Parkersburg did a good job of representing the history of the area, which is rich in the oil and gas industry. We then relocated to the middle of the state and set up camp at Summersville Lake Retreat. This RV park is located high above Summersville Lake, which is the largest lake in WV. Is is a COE lake, with high rocky cliffs and the largest manmade rock dam in the US. Due to Covid, the park was peacefully quiet during the week and we just had one night neighbors passing through. Our site faced the woods, which provided a beautiful backdrop to our stay and behind us was the lake's lighthouse, high on the hill. This location gave us the ability to visit some of what WV is best known for...it's rivers and the largest man made steel bridge in the western hemisphere. We spent a day exploring the New River Gorge area, marveling at the majesty of the bridge and the beauty of the river. The National Park Service did a great job with the overlook viewing platform near the bridge, with its 178 steps. The bridge views and those up river were soo beautiful! The bridge is a major road that now connects the two sides of the gorge that, prior to the bridge being built in 1977, travelers had to wind down through the gorge to get to the other side over a narrow bridge that took 45 minutes. We took that route and it was very narrow and at times a bit nerve wracking in a big dually truck! There was even a point where we needed to stop and back up a bit to get around a corner. Once at the bottom of the gorge, we spent some time standing on the old bridge, watching kayakers go over some of the world famous rapids. Our time here wrapped up quickly and we were on to our next stop to visit the now famous secret bunker under the west annex of the beautiful Greenbrier hotel. We stayed across the border at Glen Maury City Park for the weekend and we can honestly say this was one of our least favorite stays. It was party central for the locals, a true hootenanny with banjos going all night in the site next to us and a large birthday party across the street trying to drown them out with their own blaring music. There are really no rules at this park and we ended up having the AC fan on all night long to try and get some sleep. The set up there was just a large field with a power box that could accommodate 6 30amp hookups and a water bib that was used by numerous people who just added splitter after splitter. There were no sites per say, but just where you could find room and could reach electric. Thank goodness we used our Passport America and got half off the site at $17 a night. Regardless, we would never stay here again on a weekend and maybe during the week for one night if needed. We actually were able to get into a larger spot, if you can believe that by the picture. What you can't see is that there is a Class C to our left, just out of the picture frame. The park was located in a cute little patriotic town, Buena Vista, VA, who proudly displayed their flags and honored their veterans. Our visit to The Greenbrier hotel was an interesting one, to see the 112,544 sq ft bunker that was built for Congress in the 50's, and remained a closely held secret for over 30 years. The bunker was carved deep into the mountainside as a Cold War emergency shelter and the west wing of the hotel was built atop it to "hide" what they were really building at the time. Due to some of the bunker area still being used by a data storage company for some of the Top Fortune 500 companies, we were unable to take pictures anywhere and you could not take anything with you into the bunker area, including any electronics or purses. So, in lieu of pictures of the hotel or bunker, here are pictures of postcards they gave us after the tour and a stock picture of the hotel. Well that wraps up our tour of West Virginia...most of it. Did you ever realize how oddly shaped WV really is? We are now off to the tiny little piece in the waaaayyyy upper east that really looks like it should be a piece of VA or MD. SHOP AMAZON HERE
Would you like to help support our blog and keep these updates coming? It is easy to help, just do your Amazon shopping through the link above. You still get all your Amazon Prime benefits and the prices are the same. Since we are in the Amazon affiliate program, any shopping you do through our link, provides a little kickback to support this blog. Thank you for stopping by!!!! Upon leaving Cincinnati, we had a short drive south on I-75 to Lexington, KY. We were excited to explore this area of KY since we had never been east of Louisville. Being the Labor Day holiday weekend, we were happy to score one of the last sites at the Kentucky Horse Park campground. Several people we know have stayed here and had good things to say about it. It is a huge park, 4 half circles, with 260 sites. They also have a seperate area for tents and yet another area for electric only in a field. We arrived just after noon on Friday and were surprised to see that most of the sites were already full with weekend warriors. Our site was on one of the outer loops and we wiggled our way into the site. The sites are spacious but the asphalt rv pads are narrow without aprons so unfortunately we had to drive over the soft grass a bit to get into the site. Each site has electric and water and the park has wifi, but with 260 sites occupied, it was pretty slow. The pool was closed but the park did have activities all through the weekend, including a decorated golf cart parade and families were out and about walking and biking. The campground is well kept with lots to do, 2 laundry rooms, 2 dump stations and a great store that has alot of groceries, sundries you night have forgotten and souvenirs. We stayed through the weekend until Wednesday and it was fun to watch just about everyone leave Monday. The dump station lines were long but orderly and soon it was just us and a handful of other campers enjoying the peace and quiet. I will say, even though it was a holiday weekend and the park was full, everything quieted down around 10pm. It could have been that the park is patrolled by the mounted police from the horse park. We took advantage of a special the KY Horse Park was having that Friday and bought our tickets for the park at the campground, which allowed us to visit and park for two days for only $6 each! It is usually $20 per person plus parking. Albeit, we weren't able to go into some of the barns but we did have a chance to see some dressage competition, a movie about the park and the surrounding horse farms, the museum and a chance to meet some of the past Kentucky Derby winners who are now retired and living a life of leisure at the park. We even got to see a horse show that introduced some of the horses that live at the park. Throughout the park there were memorials for other championship horses including Staff Sergeant Reckless, Man O War and several of his descendants. We also went for a drive in the countryside to see some of the horse farms in the area. It truly is the rolling hills of Kentucky and they treasure their horses. Since we were in the area, we had to go check out the Ark Encounter. We were amazed by the sheer size of it and enjoyed taking the day to explore the Ark and the beautiful grounds and small zoo. This stop was another one that we quickly cobbled together after having to change our original plans due to the pandemic. We were pleasantly surprised with the area and are excited to explore a new state next.
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