On the road Again Dec 28

The weather has been fickle.  A day or two of warmish weather and then a few days of bitter cold.  Christmas day was a beautiful 70 degrees, and the next day a frozen 26 degrees.  We left JAX today on a cold sunny day headed south.  We have gone inland into the lake and pine forest country.  One of the features of this country are the many fresh water springs.  We visited Salt Springs and Silver Springs in the Ocala National Forest.  The springs are crystal clear and full of fish.  The water temp is a constant 72 degrees coming out of the ground. 

Silver Springs is an amusement park which started early in the 1900s.  Over the years, it has been used to film many movies, like Tarzan, Sea Hunt, The Creature from Under the Sea and James Bond movies.  Today it features glass bottomed boats, alligators, tropical birds and poisonous snakes.  For the season, holiday music blares over the grounds for our listening enjoyment.

Dec 18, 2010 Finally Florida as Advertised (Sort of)

The last couple of days has been what one hopes for, moderate winter weather in Florida, temps in the 60s and 70s mostly sunny with brief thundershowers. I’m sure the locals are not happy with the slight amount of rain we have had the last few days, it is just enough to be amusing, causing one to think, “I’m going to get caught in this rain”, but in reality it just sprinkled a bit and blew out to sea.


The season has caught up with me, I’ve enjoyed too many meals and not enough prudence and have gained some weight. (Just like Dede did at Joan’s) I have been riding my bike on the beach for an hour or so. I used to ride up and down the hills around Denver for 4 to 6 hours at a time, now I can barely do an hour on the flat sand. Takes me most of the afternoon to recover.

JAX beach is a great beach for riding bikes and for walking. It is a flat wide beach with mostly hard sand. In the good old days, folks used to drive their cars on the beach and many an “old timer” resents the fact that only a few beaches allow that practice today. Lots of folks here use the beach, walkers, riders, joggers and surf fishermen abound. Not the season for sunbathers, no one seems to lie on the beach, but there are a few swimmers, surfers, kayakers and the like. The shore is lined with hotels, condos, old beach houses, and some palatial estates. But there is public access at every block. Some of the neighborhoods are run down and being restored, others are well established upscale communities, but there is a wide mix of folks on the beach who use it for recreation.

Out to sea, there are always a parade of boats and ships plying the water. Close in are the shrimpers dragging their nets along the coast only a couple hundred yards off the beach. Further out are fishing boats and pleasure craft, both power and sail, and then a mix of commercial ships, cruise ships and military craft. Quite frequently a Navy helicopter will fly up and down the beach on patrol. There is a lot of activity at the beach!

December 12-14 Hangin’ Out in the Frozen South

When we last left Florida, it was in the mid seventies and low eighties nearly everyday.  The locals were complaining that it hadn’t rained enough. “Its too hot and dry.” they said.  Well, be careful of what you wish for.  When we returned to Jacksonville, the weather had certainly changed.  There has been some rain, not a lot by local standards, but the temperature has gone way south, lows in the teens, highs in the thirties and low forties with winds blowing a gale.  Not real pleasant to hang out in, unless of course you had ice skating in mind.

We are very fortunate not to be braving this weather in the trailer.  It is still sitting snugly in its warehouse and we have rented a house near the beach, with central heating, hot water, and a fireplace.  It has 3 bedrooms (with king size beds) a nice kitchen, and big living room with  fancy TV and WIFI.  We have been waiting out the weather mostly inside, either in bed or sitting under blankets watching TV, reading books or cruising the WEB.  What few forays we have made outside require hats, coats, and gloves, which really makes one feel kind of silly stepping out into what looks like a sub-tropical locale.  The palms, hibiscus, bougainvillea and palmettos are still here, some of them not looking very good, but in the bright sunshine it looks like it should be warm, but the wind in your face, your frozen feet, and cold hands bring you back to the strange reality that it is dangerously cold out here.  Talk about cognitive dissonance. 

All is not lost however,  Today, (Wednesday) the temp is rising to a high in the fifties,  and by Friday it is supposed to rise into the seventies.  After that it is supposed to stay in the mid sixties.  I hope that is true.  We want warm weather in Key Largo by the time we get there.  (This week it got down to 33 degrees) Not so good.

Enough about the weather.  We picked Dede up at Joan’s and while she was happy to see us I think she rather enjoyed her stay with Joan.  She has gained a bit of weight as Joan did quite a bit of cooking for Dede when she refused to eat her dog food.  It is now back to cold stark reality, or cold dry dog kibble.  Dede still likes to run on the beach, when we can coax her out of the warm house to go down to the beach. 

Pats is doing fine, she has recovered from out trip to Santa Cruz, and is spending some time with her sister and friends, getting ready for the holidays and just hanging out.  We have both been mostly keeping warm in our beach house. We are looking forward to doing more outdoor activities once it warms up.  

Intermission (Santa Cruz) Dec 1 -11

We have taken this time to go home and reconnect with friends and family and to visit familiar places. The flight from Jacksonville to Las Vegas was one of the worst flights on record. Every seat on the plane was filled and sitting next to me was a young man and his year old son who was totally out of control. This kid was a screaming, squirming juggernaut who was in constant agitation pretty much through the whole flight. I survived by turning my I-touch up to full blast and concentrating on my Kindle book. Once we got to Vegas I had the $15 margarita to recover.


Once home we were met by our good friend, Bobbie, who took us to her house, which coincidentally is next door to our old house in Scotts Valley. She promptly put us to bed so we could recover from our arduous journey across the country.

My first significant event was to attend Kischka’s birthday party where I was able to celebrate with Kischka and be with my work colleagues. (the colleagues I had when I used to work) After that event, Bob O and I went up to the campus to visit with more friends we had not seen in a while.

Our next big event was to visit Jackie and hang out on her farm for a couple days. Got to feed the horses, chase the chickens and play with the dogs. We had great meals, conversation and walks in the country.

Back in Scotts Valley, we visited more friends and family and generally over ate at every opportunity. Being home has given us an opportunity to relate with friends our experiences and to think back on all the places we have visited. There were good times and bad, and times when we were feeling far from home, but looking back on the trip so far, I think we can say we are glad to have made the trip. We have driven over 12,000 miles and stayed in dozens of RV parks, but we have seen many interesting sights. We are only scratching the surface in the places we have been, as there is only so much we can absorb at any one place. There are times when we have been overwhelmed with history and detail about the places we are visiting. One cannot possibly take it all in. Writing this blog has been the only way I can keep track of where we have been and when we were there. We are looking forward to continuing our journey, but we are also looking forward to the time when we return to our family and friends.

We will be in Jacksonville for Christmas and then continue on to Key Largo right after.

Have a happy Holiday Season.
e

Thanksgiving Nov 25

Happy Thanksgiving!!!   We are very much enjoying the fall weather here in northern Florida, mid seventies, bright sun, light breezes.  Gives the holiday a whole different kind of feel, no impending feeling of long hard winter here, in fact, I think it is the signal for folks here to get out doors and enjoy the outside world after the long hard summer of heat and humidity.

We are going down to Saint Augustine to celebrate the holiday with Stacy and Jason, Patsy’s nephew and his wife.  They will be hosting the immediate family plus us.  

Our park which has been near empty this last week has filled up.  There are some 300 campsites and nearly every one is occupied for the long weekend.  It have a feeling lots of turkeys are going to be boiled in oil, barbequed, or smoked.  I guess some of the big rigs might have full sized ovens, but roasting a turkey in an RV in warm weather doesn’t seem prudent.

We are getting mentally prepared for our trip back to Santa Cruz, figuring out the logistics of storing the trailer and the truck, arranging for rides to the airport, deciding whether or not to leave Dede with friends or take her on the plane with us, etc. etc.  We are looking forward to being back home for a visit.

We hope you all have a very  pleasant Thanksgiving, and enjoy the food, camaraderie and the long weekend.

e

Jacksonville Nov 19

On the beach

We’ve been in Jacksonville a week now, the longest time we have spent in one place on the GTTT to date.  We have been pretty busy with social engagements: football games, golf, dinners out with friends, pedicures, quilting fests and just hanging out.

I have played golf three times now and have come to the sad conclusion that after 25 years of participating in this activity I still don’t have a game.  At best I have an occasional good shot.  This can be quite frustrating.  After hitting a spectacular drive,(or pitch or putt) I begin to think I might have some talent for this game after all, only to proceed to miss hit the next three shots and putts, ending up with an average  score of 8 or 9 strokes per hole.  My biggest mistake here is that I actually bothered to keep score for a while.  My only consolation is that I am getting out on the course, hanging out with friends, getting some exercise in very pleasant surroundings, and that I get to drink a lot of beer when it is over. 

Bright berries in our front yard

We are both thinking that this time here in Jacksonville is a prelude as to what it is going to be like in Key Largo.  It has been very pleasant here with temps in the mid 70s, mostly sunny, with only heavy rain during one afternoon.  We were interested to see where the leaks might come from should it rain on Patty O’Room really hard.  There were only a couple of places where the water got in a bit, pretty good really considering this is essentially just a tent.  So far no leaks at all in the trailer which is great as they would be much harder to live with and harder to fix.

The other good news is that we have had great TV reception using the roof antenna on the trailer.  We had never used it before, and the reception seems better than cable.  Now that the TV stations are digital, the picture fills our entire screen, and it looks like high def TV although I’m not sure if that is the case.  When we are connected to cable the picture is significantly smaller leaving about a 2 inch margin around the screen.  We borrowed some DVDs from Kurt and use the computer to play them on the TV via an HDMI cable, and that works great too and is easy to set up.

All in all, the mobile infrastructure we have set up is so far working pretty good.  I am still concerned about the axles separating from the trailer frame, but I check for cracks now every time we get ready to move.  The Tundra has performed admirably  over the last 11,000 miles.  Still getting about 11 mph towing the trailer.  I did have a rear fender bender in Washington DC with a bollard that I backed into.  Put a big dent in the rear bumper.  I went to Toyota and bought a new one and installed it myself, so now it looks as good as new. 

Day to day living has been good.  We have had some leisurely mornings, when we are not off at the crack of 8:30 to make a tee time or a breakfast date with friends.  Days have been filled with social events, walks on the beach, bicycle rides in the park  and forays into town to the supermarket etc.  Today we are going through all our winter cloths that we won't have to wear anymore and will send back home for storage.  Pats is rearranging the patio furniture.  She has rented a car for these two weeks so we are each free to come and go given our divergent social calendars.   I think the GTTT is going to work out after all.

Nov 12 – Dec 1 Jacksonville

Home Sweet Home at Hanna Park

We will be here until Dec 1 when we fly home for 10 days to take an intermission from the Trailer Trash Trip. We are camping in a city camp ground very similar to the camp we stayed in at Myrtle Beach. We are very near the beach, in a forest setting, some 1000 acres, surrounded by Navy base and city. It has full hook ups so we have water, power and sewer. We set up Patty’O Room so we can spread out our stuff and it has been warm enough to sit and dine in the patio. We will be visiting with family and friends and taking a breather from life on the road. This will be the first time we have spent more than 5 days in one place. I am looking forward to not being behind the wheel.

Dede takes a spin with Pats

Took a turn around the park on our bicycles, went to the beach and to some lakes in the park. Dede seemed to enjoy the ride, she does tire from too much walking.

Three turtkes and a Heron

And No Booze either

Nov 9-10 Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach is a beach resort area on steroids.  The beach stretches for at least 20 miles or so and is a beautiful wide white sand beach. Just behind the dunes are the high rise condos, hotels, every chain theme restaurant, pee wee golf courses, dinner theaters and for dad, “gentlemen’s clubs”, you can imagine.  Driving down the main road almost reminds one of driving on the Vegas Strip.  Big advertising signs, fake mountains and palm trees,  a 40 ft shark who’s mouth was the entrance to the store, all kinds of good fake stuff.

We stayed in a very nice state park right next to the beach, it was located in the middle of the beach area but on 300 acres of forest.  So it was very peaceful and serene in the midst of all and fake madness built up around the park.  We had some good beach time; I rode about 6 miles on the bike along the beach. I played a little golf at a nearby pitch and putt course.  We thought about staying longer but the temps here were a little cool still, the weather is warmer further south and we are within a day to or two drive to Jacksonville, Florida where we have family and friends.

Nov 11  On the road.

 Past Charleston, past Savannah, to mid way down the Georgia coastline we drove. Travelling down I-95 the busiest freeway on the east coast. We have seen much of this country before on earlier trips, so we continue toward JAX.

Nov 8th On the road to Myrtle Beach

We were on the road to Myrtle beach and we knew it was farther than we wanted to go in one day.  So we looked at the map as we were driving south trying to determine approximately where we should stay.  We decided to stay at a park near Surf City.  As we approached where we thought Surf City was following the directions in Woodalls we realized that we were not where we wanted to be.  No problem, fire up the GPS, and enter in the address.  No go. The GPS did not recognize the street name.  No problem, enter in the Lat/Long coordinates, listed in Woodalls.  Viola! A route was determined that at first seemed to be logical.  Then it started to take us in a direction that seemed totally wrong.  We were supposed to be going to the beach and the road we were on was going inland.  Since all the GPS tells you the next turn and how far away it is, I was not sure of the final destination.  After about 20 miles we finally determined that the Lat/Long coordinates were obviously wrong.  So we turned around and retracted our steps, and got out the maps, and finally found our way.  I’m not saying that the GPS made the mistake, but one has to use common sense to use one.  This day it turned a 25 minute trip into a 2 hour trip. 

Roanoke Island and Cape Hatteras Nov 6-7

View from our campsite on Roanoke Is

We camped on Roanoke Is. at a very pleasant RV park along a lake.  Roanoke Island was the site of the first English settlement established in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh.  It lasted about a year, but when Sir Francis Drake showed up the settlers said “We’re out of here! Take us back to England.” The next year Sir Raleigh brought in another batch of settlers, and promised to re supply them in a few months.  Unfortunately, England was at war with Spain, and did not get back to the settlement for three years.  When they arrived, the settlement was empty, 116 settlers disappeared.  We would like to think that the settlers went off and joined the Indians, but there is no evidence to support that outcome.  They might possibly have been saved by space invaders.  It remains a mystery.

The last vestige of the "Lost Colony" (recreated of course)

Today Roanoke Island is a fishing and seafood processing center, or a tourist trap, depending on which end of the island you visit.  The north end of the island has the tourist stuff, the south the harbor. The harbor reminded me very much of Moss Landing, lots of working boats, and weathered buildings.

Toursist Harbor on Roanoke Is

I went to a concert put on by students of the North Carolina Agriculture and Technical University.  It is a traditionally black college, (I am not sure how these schools deal with integration) and the music was a combination of Spiritual music, scenes from Porgy and Bess, and a jazz ensemble.  The music was great and it was quite enjoyable.

Blowing sand on the road to Cape Hatteras

Today we took a day trip down the outer banks to Cape Hatteras.  The lighthouse was built in 1870 and is the tallest on the east coast at 208 ft.  In 1999 it was moved a half mile inland as its original location was getting too close to the ocean.

Pats,Dede at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

It took 2 years to separate the lighthouse from its foundations, put a steel structure underneath that could be jacked up on to a track so that the tower could be moved 5ft at time.  It took 23 days to move the lighthouse 2900 ft.  It sits today like it had always been there.  They also moved the brick lighthouse keepers house and put them in the same relative positions at the new location.  They call the project “The move of the century.”  Lighthouses today are of marginal value to navigation, they are totally automatic, but they make great tourist attractions, and climbing all those steps can help in the battle or fight obesity.  I think we should build more.

Kitty Hawk, the Outer Banks of North Carolina Nov 5

First flight

The Kitty Hawk Memorial to the Wright brothers Orville and Wilber is an inspiring place.  I had no idea that it would impress me as it has, as a monument to everyday people who do great things.  On this sand dune, Kill Devil Hill, the brothers tested kites and gliders for two years, and then flew their flier four times on the beach at the base of the dune.  At the end of the day a wind gust took the flier and smashed it to bits.  Luckily for them, they had a guy take a picture of their accomplishment, and were able to show that manned flight was possible.

Wright Bros Memorial

I guess what I find inspirational, is that these guys discovered how to fly on their own, and they did it at Kitty Hawk because in those days the area was pretty much deserted.  They did not want a lot of people around to distract them from their pursuit of flight.

They lived and worked in Dayton Ohio.  They built their kites, gliders, and the flier there.  All was disassembled and shipped by train and by boat to Kitty Hawk a journey of seven days.  They lived and worked in a garage like structure out on the dunes.  The reasons they chose Kitty Hawk was that it was consistently windy, sparsely populated and that it was sandy. They knew they were going to crash a few times and sand is a lot softer than hard land.

The Wrights airfield

Today the dunes are covered with grass and there sit replicas of the two wooden buildings they used,  and monument stones which depict how far they flew on each flight.  On the top of Kill Devil Hill there is a large memorial to Orville and Wilbur erected by Congress in 1932.  There is a visitors center with a replica of the flier (the original is in the Air and Space Museum in DC)  One of the pictures on display is Wilbur with Amelia Earhart taken in 1932.

Kill Devil Hill

Williamsburg, Jamestown, York Va Nov 2-4

The Governor's Palace

Patrick Henry discussing the concerns of the day (July 17, 1776)

These are the settlements that the Virginians would have you believe were the beginning of everything American.  They may be right.  Jamestown, founded in 1607 by the English, (James Smith, Pocahontas. Etc) struggled to evolve into the beginnings of the Virginia Colony with representative governance (free, white, male and propertied) and were the first to declare independence from England.  They also were the first to separate church and state. (Sharon Angle take note)

The locals here with the help of John D. Rockefeller, have turned all this history into multiple theme parks, at Williamsburg, Jamestown and York.   It is kind of cool, we attended a diatribe by Patrick Henry who in character spoke quite candidly of the state of affairs in 1776.  He was not very kind Thomas Jefferson.  We met with members of the House of Burgesses who engaged us in a debate as to whether voting was a God giving right or a privilege granted to citizens by government.  We had coco in a coffee shop where we conversed with the local pastor and the innkeeper about the stamp tax and how unfair it all was.  We visited the blacksmith where the smithy was forging a hinge out of wrought iron in coal fired hearth.  We went to a glass factory in Jamestown, and watched as the glassmaker made a pitcher out of molten glass.

In purgatory again

At Jamestown we went to the national park and attended a ranger talk that was quite good, The presenter was very informative  and gave us a an understanding of why they came, what happened when they got here, and how they overcame the difficulties that they experienced here.  It was pretty grim.  Over 50% percent of the settlers died within the first two years.  Average life expectancy was in the mid 20s.  If you survived two years, then you could figure , then you could figure you successfully adjusted to the new world and would be okay. 

   Pocahontas, In real life she didn't wear so many clothes

One interesting item, it was thought that the original fort had been washed away in the James River over the last 400 hundred  had been washed away in the James River over the last 400 hundred years.  In 1994, archeologists discovered the foundations of the original fort  and have found over 1 million artifacts from the site.  The museum on the site is quite fascinating and has recreated many details of what life was like in the area in the early 1600s. 

Shenandoah Mountains – Monticello Oct 31- Nov1

View from Skyline Drive

Left Washington  DC Sunday morning in bright sunshine headed for Virginia.  We were not sure exactly where we were going but we wanted to travel along the Skyline Drive above the Shenandoah valley.   Skyline Drive was built in the '30s to give people from the city a way to see and appreciate the scenic beauty of the mountains. We got on Route 66 and drove to the village of Front Royal  where we started up Dickey Ridge on Skyline.  We soon found out two things, Skyline Drive is narrow, steep, and full of tourists who want to travel the 105 miles of the road not behind a slow RV that at best can go 30mph up the steep hills,  and that it is 105 miles long .  We went about 30 miles and bailed out.  The views were great, the trees in full color, but the traffic a little intense.  We went west into the Shenandoah Valley and stayed outside of Luray, a town known for its caverns.  Pastoral, and peaceful countryside.  Reminded me of  rural New Zealand everything neat, tidy and mowed.

Monticello

Pats, Tom, and I

We drive on south to Charlottesville and on to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s plantation home.  It is on a beautiful hillside with commanding views of the piedmont below.  The house was designed by Jefferson and took some 40 years to complete.  It had a number of innovations that Jefferson is credited; three tiered sliding windows, that allowed windows to be turned into doorways, or adjusted to create maximum cross ventilation, dumbwaiters for wine and beer bottles to be hoisted up from cold cellars into the living quarters, storm windows built into the window openings, and the arrangement of all the utility buildings (dependencies), kitchen, stables, ice house, cellars and slave quarters  built into pavilions that were below the level of the main house so that the view of the gardens and landscape would be unobstructed.  One of the attractions was a wonderful vegetable garden with all kinds of fruits and veggies and herbs.  They even had a huge artichoke field.  They made their own beer and wine although Tom preferred French wine when he could get it.

Ash Lawn Highlands

We also visited James Monroe’s home, Ash Lawn-Highland.  Jefferson requested that like minded friends live close by to him and James Monroe bought an adjoining estate.  It is quite small compared to Monticello, but Monroe was quite busy doing various government jobs so he didn’t need a big place.  He had other estates closer to Washington.  In those days it took three days to travel from Charlottesville to DC.  Monroe’s place is comfortable and he had 30 slaves to look after it.  After he left the presidency, he was forced to sell all of his properties to pay his debts and he moved in with his daughter who lived in New York.

  

Washington DC- Annapolis Oct 26- 30

At the repair shop

Arrived early afternoon in Greenbelt Nat’l Park and set up camp.  I noticed that the trailer wasn’t sitting quite right and much to my distress, I saw that the forward mounting shackle had parted from the trailer frame.  This means that we are in danger of losing the axles and wheels off the trailer if the other two shackles were to break.   Using our Aircard and Google we were able to locate a welding shop only a few miles from our campground.  I called them up and they said come on over.  Slowly we made it to this big shop that looked like a scrap iron yard but they were able to weld the shackle  back on to the frame and put in some extra reinforcing.  Disaster averted!

Ed and Pats at Arlington

The next day we went into Washington and met up with our friend Sonya, whom we have known for many years, and has always welcomed us into her home as long lost family.  We spent the next three days catching up, visiting  with her kids and seeing some sights in DC.

Muster for Lunch  USN

I spent a day in Annapolis where I visited the Naval Academy.  It was very impressive, beautiful buildings, spacious grounds, great harbor.  The Navy does a much better job of showing off their Academy to visitors than does West Point.  The West Point tour was mostly by bus and you only got to visit the church.  The Annapolis tour was a walking tour, where you got to go in many of the buildings, see the midshipmen in formation, see what their dorm rooms looked like and get a better idea of what it was like to be a midshipman at the Naval Academy. 

Sanity/Fear

On our last day we went to Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity/and or Fear on the Washington Mall.  It was mobbed.  I think there was some 70 to 80 thousand people.  Unfortunately there were not enough giant television screens and speakers to see or hear very well, but it was fun seeing the crowd and all the creative signs people made.  It was a very sane crowd, I saw little or no fear.  We did manage to see Stewart’s and Colbert’s opening shtick, but the crowd move in around us and some we couldn’t see or hear much.    BUT WE WERE THERE. 

Lancaster County Pennsylvania Oct 24-25

This is Amish-Mennonite country.  I don’t know much about them, but what I have seen on TV and the movies.  The country is rolling fields with tidy farms and antique shops along the road.  The houses are large and look to be modern with cars and farm machinery in the yards.  What few people I’ve seen, dress in an old style, long dresses, white bonnets, plain pants and coats.  We saw an old couple completely dressed in black, pushing a wheel chair with an even older woman in black, down the highway.  On the way to church I suppose. 

We’ve seen many carriages, most of them completely enclosed, so the passengers were not visible.  We did pass one open carriage with two teenage girls.  It was a small carriage, pulled by a pony, the girls seemed to be enjoying their Sunday drive. 

The villages here have interesting names, Compass, Blue  Ball, Bird in the Hand,  Virginville, Intercourse, and Paradise.  It seems to me that there must be deep passion beneath those long dark dresses and straw hats.  I have the definite impression that this is a mixed neighborhood with Baptists and Presbyterians  mixed in with the Amish and Mennonite. 

Interlude in Intercourse

It is all very bucolic and definitely different from any other American suburbs and countryside.   We visited a quilt museum in Intercourse and the hand work was magnificent.  Next door was an antique shop full of authentic antiques made in China.  Just down the road from here is the town of York, which is the home of Harley-Davidson.  We passed the motorcycle factory on the way.

We took a day trip to the Brandywine Valley hoping to visit the Wyeth Museum, but it was closed on Mondays.  Instead we went to the Hagley Museum which is the home and gun powder factory of the Du Pont’s.  The Du Pont’s started the gun powder works in 1803 and it operated until 1916.  It was powered by the water from the Brandywine River.  Using canals to route water over water wheels, they ran grist mills that ground up charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur to make black power.  Each mill could grind up to 500lbs at a time.  Dupont had 20 mills along the river to become the largest manufacturer of black powder in the world.  It was mostly used in construction and mining.  Only about 20% was used by the military.  The highlights of the tour were to watch the 16 ton wheels being driven by the water wheel,  and the explosion of 1 gram of black powder.  In addition there was a demonstration  of water powered machine tools used to make parts for broken down machinery.

Gettysburg Oct 23

Pennsylvania Monument

We left Newburgh and drove and drove and drove until we arrived at Gettysburg.  Along the way we went through the Poconos and the Catskills and saw miles and miles of trees turning into glorious reds, yellows, and golds.  We went through Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Harrisburg.  Did you know that Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania?   I didn’t. 

 We arrived at Gettysburg to stay at the Artillery Ridge RV park and stables.  You can bring your horse here or rent one of the nags they have here and  ride in the battlefield.  This is a  and huge RV park and this weekend it is packed.  We have pretty much stayed in sparsely populated parks and camps since labor day, it was a real surprise to see all this activity here.  Not only the horseback riding they are doing a big Halloween thing for little kids and folks have decorated their RVs with Halloween stuff.

Union cannon

The battle field is quite large, 6-7 miles long, 4 miles wide or more.  Over 165,000 troops participated over 3 days.  It was pretty much a draw, until Pickett’s Charge where the Army of the Potomac eventually prevailed.  Fifty one thousand either perished or were wounded  and it was a turning point in the war which continued on for another two years.   Of course this is where Lincoln delivered his “Gettysburg Address” five months after the battle.

Eternal Flame

Today it is a National Military Park with hundreds of monuments erected by the states who provided the military units dedicated to the soldiers who served.  There are cannons in place where the artillery was used in the battles, and plaques explaining the events that happened at those places during the three day battle.

At the visitor center there is a movie (narrated by Morgan Freeman,  of course) explaining the events leading  up to the war, and of the battle, and Lincolns address.   There is also a 360 degree painting  40ft tall and 380 ft long painted  in the round in 1884  depicting the battle.  You stand in the middle of the room and the picture is all around you.    With all depiction of death and privation it is a sobering experience.  The visit to the battlefield is by a self guided car tour.  Follow the signs and stop along the way at the sights that interest you.  I don’t think it would be possible to stop at each spot in one day, I certainly didn’t have the attention span to do it.  But it gives one a good perspective of where the battles were fought and size and scope of the encounters.  I think this would be an excellent place for our West Point cadets to visit.

General Meade's view of the field of battle