Month: September 2017

Shenandoah National Park

Good morning!!  Another beautiful day on the road.  Coffee on the back porch, with a view or two!! https://www.nps.gov/shen/index.htm

Today is our communing with nature day.  We drive along the Skyline Drive/ Blue Ridge Parkway and stop along the way for hiking and exploration.  The drive in the daytime is for sure less stressful than the night time drive getting to the resort which was fraught with dark and winding roads and deer in the headlights…just sayin’

The visitor center midway gave us another stamportunity with multiple stamps..along with a very helpful gentleman ranger who gave us multiple suggestions for hikes.

Hikes

Through the woods, past an orchard end in a cemetery.  Up to a summit with interesting cascading rocks and a reconstituted 1890’s subsistence farm complete with dulcimer playing by old people.  Pictures below  include a picture of the trail map that Glenda insisted we must go right when, in fact, it was pretty clear we needed to go left.  Clearly map reading was not a prerequisite for a successful Verizon career.  Thankfully, Susan prevailed and we are thus writing this post.  Glenda adds that Susan’s skills in this area are only marginally better.  Susan agrees and it is a miracle we made it cross country and back in 2012 now that we think about it.

Lexington, VA

Home of Virginia Military Institute and men in white uniform.  A brewery filled with men in white uniforms.  Devil’s Backbone Brewery.  A brewery, food truck and 22 year old military cadets.  How millennial.  We fit right in!!!!

Valley Views

Up Next: Asheville, NC

 

 

Oops

We missed some crucial moments from day 1 in our previous post. And just like we don’t like to miss a meal, we don’t want you to miss a moment. So here goes…

Saying hello to enormous Amish people

Our first stamportunity

Jim and the battlefield tour

Promptly at 9:30 am we met Jim, tour guide extraordinaire, teacher (with a short-lived foray into law enforcement), and history buff. Glenda loved his promptness and Susan was enthralled with his law enforcement experience. We then embarked on our 2-hour private tour (Skipper Jim turned the 2 hours into 3, which we loved).

Random Facts

1. Structure of Civil War Army people:

Army > Corps > Division > Brigade > Regiment > Company

2. The national park service owns about 6,000 acres of Gettysburg but the battlefield “theater” included about 30,000 acres.

3. About 15,000 people turned out for the sesquicentennial re-enactment of Pickett’s charge.

4. Most Gettysburgers remained in place during the 3-day siege and hunkered down in their basements.

5. A Gettysburg College professor recorded the weather during the battle which was hot and humid (July 1,2 and 3).  Duh.

6.  About 51,000 men were killed, wounded or captured as a result of the  3 day battle.

On to Shenandoah National Park 

Plan: Glimpse a marker of the Mason-Dixon Line and then head to the visitor center at Front Royal, the north entrance to Shenandoah, get our bearings and take a hike….

OK, you try and find a marker of the Mason-Dixon Line. We hunted high and low (under very stressful driving conditions – just ask Susan) and ok, we didn’t find it! But, we did find this (see photo below) and we’re calling it our MDLM (Mason-Dixon Line Marker) because who in their right mind puts a random piece of public art where a historical marker should be? Please weigh in.

Plan interrupted!!!!  2nd major clog en route

Recalculating!!! Recalculating!!!!  Divert to Harpers Ferry WV.   Glenda missed a sight and needed a return trip!!

Harpers Ferry offered another stamportunity, history lesson on abolitionist John Brown, view of the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, and an overall charming village.

The Final Leg

En route to our accommodations Skyland Resort…(can I put quotation marks around resort?) Here’s what we saw:

We arrive at the “Resort” in our resort wear freshly purchased at Bergdorfs –natch!

5 minutes later, headlamp still in place…

Looking for my resort wear.  Where is it???

So, it’s five years later. Do you notice anything different? There’s the gray hair, of course. But how about the matching eyeglass loops? As for the things you can’t see – the prescriptions, the “readers”,  a few extra pounds (maybe they are visible!) and an older, wiser and perhaps grumpier attitude. We haven’t had to get orthotics yet but maybe soon!

On The Road Day 1 Thursday September 28, Weehawken to Gettysburg PA

The first minor set back…we are stuck in a major road clog barely out of our beloved Jers across into PA.  We sat in park for half an hour, finally turned off the engine, got out a snack and voila….the traffic starts to move!

Onto the Fork in the road – Centerport, PA

Roadside America – Indoor Miniature Village – Shartlesville, PA

This was a most extraordinary, astounding, surprising place. A man and his family worked on this for over 50 years; he died in 1963 so time stopped then. Trains, trolleys, mini people, hill and dale and buttons to push that activate motion. Fantastic! Oh, and an employee supervising everything with binoculars.

Ahhh….the finale..Kate Smith, Jesus, the Statue of Liberty and the American Flag.  Enjoy!!………

Glenda prepares the lunch

Shoe House Road – Hallam, PA

Signs along the way…looks like an official DOT sign..what on earth does fresh oil and chips mean?  And we’re back on the Lincoln Highway which runs from NYC (passing through Weehawken naturally) to San Fran .  Cool!!

The day’s not over yet; more to come…

We managed to get 2 things in when we arrived in Gettysburg…the cyclorama a huge painting/diorama in the round of the battle, painted in 1883; and a visit to the National Military Cemetery where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address. Wow!!

The end of Day 1!  wooooooooo

 

 

 

 

 

We’re already gray….and now we’re going…..somewhere!!!!