18 September 2022 Shenandoah NP

 We visited our third NP for the year. Shenandoah NP is long but narrow, mostly along the ridge top of the main spine of the Shenandoah Mountains. As we left the RV Park, we took a side trip to see the Meem’s Bottom Covered Bridge and drove the Behemoth through its narrow confines. We drove to the middle of Shenandoah NP where US211 crosses the Skyline Drive and took Skyline Drive north to the north end of the park. We stopped at many of the overlooks and enjoyed the views of the Shenandoah Mountains. It was fairly humid, so we could not see really far due to the haze. Leslie’s toe is not healing as fast as she wants it too, so we stuck to an auto tour for today. Near the northern end of the park, we stopped at the visitor center to collect our passport stamp and purchase a mug, hat and postcards.  After exiting the park, we took US11 down through the Shenandoah Valley and enjoyed the beautiful Virginia countryside down to US211 before heading back to the Wanderer. 

Meem's Bottom Covered Bridge

Shenandoah NP Entrance Sign

View from Skyline Drive

View from Skyline Drive

View from Skyline Drive

16 September 2022 Gettysburg PA to Mt. Jackson VA

 Our travels took us down US30 to I-81, through four states, to just outside Shenandoah National Park. We are staying at the Shenandoah Valley Campgrounds ($40 per night with GSC) near the historic town of Mount Jackson. We were surprised to find out that the Shenandoah Caverns were just down the road from the RV park. Leslie can’t wait to see them. We also plan to visit Shenandoah NP to drive the Blue Ridge parkway and maybe a waterfall hike or two if Leslie’s toe starts to feel better.  

Camp site in Shenandoah Valley Campground

15 September 2022 Hershey RV Show

 When we originally planned this portion of our itinerary, we did not know the giant Hershey RV Show was this week. Since we were little more than an hour from Hershey, and having an interest to see what the latest and greatest RV technologies are, we decided to make the drive back to Hershey. Leslie’s toe is still hurting pretty good, so we were not planning to walk the whole show. We mostly wanted to see the vendor areas to see the new gadgets and also to visit the New Horizons display to see what they were cooking up for new fivers. Just the walk in from the packed parking lots was longer than we expected. We toured the vender areas in the Giant Center arena finding a few things of interest and picking up some brochures. One thing we were interested in was the Fantasy RV tours since they do caravan tours to Alaska and RV tours in New Zealand/Australia. We then went out to the trailer displays, stopping to tour a few other venders just to see what we might like in a future fiver. We ended up at the New Horizons chalet and toured the Summit and Majestic fivers they had there. The both featured new formats with the kitchen in the back, a bar along the passenger slide out (instead of a table) and a wraparound sofa in the living room. Of course, they had modern materials and decor. The rear kitchen was interesting but is not accessible with the slide outs pulled in.  One featured a two-burner inductive stove and the other had a four-burner propane stove. There are times when we wish we could put three pots on our stove. We liked the new famers kitchen type sinks in both. The Majestic also had a residential type heat pump instead of the usual propane heaters and roof top air conditioners. David talked with Brian, one of the sales people (Drew is no longer in sales and Ken has not retired yet), about some of the latest changes and the ambassador program. We may be interested in becoming ambassadors since we give so many tours of our fiver to curious people. Brian said the one requirement is that you have to be “nice people”. I think we meet that requirement!

New Horizons Chalet

Summit

Inside the Summit looking toward the rear

In the Summits kitchen, the new sink design

In the Summit looking forward from the kitchen

In the Summit, the bedroom (a bit cramped for David)

In the Summit, the vanaty

looking at the Majestic

Looking toward the back of the Majestic

In the Majestic looking toward the front

In the Majestic, the bedroom with attached Bath and walk in closet

In the Majestic, walk in closet is cool but there is not much room for hanging cloths.

The heat pump in the Majestic.

14 September 2022 Gettysburg Battlefield

 We went to the Gettysburg National Military Park visitor center to kick off our visit. We’re not Civil War buffs, but we wanted to explore this famous battlefield. The visitor center is quite large. After collecting our passport stamp, we paid ($16 each) to view the park movie and the Cyclorama painting. This is the first time we have had to pay to see the park movie. We first viewed the movie, then went upstairs to see the cyclorama show. We don’t think it was worth the money. But it was interesting to see the historic cyclorama painting of Pickets Charge simply because of the artistry. Leslie had had the nail of her big toe worked on yesterday, so she was not feeling up to any long walks. After exploring the options for guided and self-guided tours, we decided to do the self-guided auto tour of the battlefield that is on the NPS app. We followed the tour signs and listen to the app describe the battle that occurred at each site over the three days (1-3 July 1863). Parts of the battlefield were closed for renovations. The battle field encompasses large swaths of land to the north, and east of the small town of Gettysburg. Over 1300 monuments dot the landscape as memorials to units and individuals, erected in the years since the battle (latest was in 1989). Seeing the field where the Confederates rose up from Seminary Ridge and marched in formation toward the Union Lines on Cemetery Ridge during Pickets Charge gives you a deep appreciation of the valor of the men in both armies during that battle. Over 12,000 men from various Confederate Army units (6,000 in Pickets Army) marched in tight formations extending almost a mile, across that open field with Union Artillery tearing huge holes in their ranks. Roughly two thirds of the way across the field, there was a fence along a road that slowed down the formations as they had to climb over or under the fence rails. Most of the formations never made it past the road. Only at one location, called The Angle (where the rock wall the Union Soldiers were using as cover made a 90 degree turn) did the confederates breach the Union lines. Union reinforcements quickly arrived to push them back. Faced with either surrender or having to go back across that open field under Union fire, many surrendered. Of the 12,000 that started the charge, 6000 were casualties (dead or wounded) and less than 3000 made it back to Seminary Ridge. The next day, under cover of heavy rain, the Confederate Army retreated from Pennsylvania. In one part of the battlefield, there is a peace monument built in 1937 and dedicated in 1938. Surprisingly, considering it was 75 years after the battle, over 1,300 survivors of the battle were at the dedication. 

 

At the end of the tour, we explored the soldier cemetery where the 3500+ Union casualties were reburied. Immediately after the battle, the dead were buried in shallow graves where they fell, many with wooden markers identifying who they were. . In the ensuing months, rains and animals uncovered many dead. The Pennsylvania government bought land on Cemetery Ridge overlooking the field where Pickets Charge took place and built a cemetery for the Union dead. Over the next 6 months, Union dead were dug up and reinterred in the new cemetery. Over 900 bodies could not be identified and are buried in numbered plots. Confederate dead were buried in mass graves. After the war, Confederate dead were removed and buried in cemeteries in the south. It was at this Soldiers Cemetery that President Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg speech. Of the 165,000 soldiers involved in this battle, over 50,000 were wounded, over 7,000 killed from both sides. 

Soldiers National Cemetery, graves of the unknown

Soldiers National Cemetery

Monument at Soldiers National Cemetery

Monument to Lincolns Gettysburg Address

View of the field that Pickets Charge occurred from the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge. This is The Angle where Confederate soldiers briefly broke through Union lines.

The field where Pickets Charge occurred from the Confederate lines on Seminary Ridge.

Monument to North Caroline troops

Peace Monument

Monument to Union Artillery

Cyclorama painting of Pickets Charge

Cyclorama of Pickets Charge

Entrance Sign

12 September 2022 Hershey to Gettysburg

 Our drive to Gettysburg was only 64 miles. It was a nice casual drive on good roads. We once again found ourselves on US30 for part of the drive. We are staying at Gettysburg Campground ($93 per night, no discount) which is a sister to the Hershey campground we were staying in. This is a large campground that was pretty empty. Our site at the end of a row was difficult to pull into because of the angles, but we worked our way into. After we had gotten set up, a huge class A pulled into the site directly next to us. They had problems getting into their site also. We could almost reach through the window and touch their rig. Why they placed us side-by side on this row when there are large numbers of open pull through sites on this row? Sometimes RV campground management practices make no sense to us campers. 

11 September 2022 Independence and First State

 Being so close to Philadelphia (only an hour and a half away), we wanted to visit the city to see the Independence Historical National Park and get an authentic Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich. Thanks to Lauren and Bryan’s help, we located a parking lot in central Philadelphia that could take the Behemoth. After parking, we walked in the occasional rain shower to Woodrow’s Sandwich shop (a DDD restaurant) and David had a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich for lunch (Check that one off). We then walked to Independence Hall only to learn they had instituted a reservation system for touring Independence Hall. We got on line but found the next available tour was not for over an hour. Since we had other plans, we decided to skip the tour of Independence Hall (Leslie had toured it once before and David had seen enough pictures) and went over to the Liberty Bell Museum. While touring the exhibits before getting to the bell, we learned that they are not even sure if the bell was rung when the Declaration of Independence was first signed. Independence Hall and previously been the Pennsylvania State House and the bell was housed in the original bell tower and used to ring in various events. The bell originally cracked twice, prior to the Continental Congress first meet there. Two attempts to repair the cracks failed in time. The crack as we see it today did not occur until the 1780s. So it is interesting that there is such mistic about it when there is no historical record of it being rung for the American independence movement. We then walked back to the Behemoth and set our sites for Delaware. Being so close, we decided we needed to go to Delaware so we could check it off our list. We decided to visit one of the units of the First State Historical National Park. It was originally made a National Monument in 2014 by President Obama after several failed attempts to create a national park by congress. In 2015, congress changed it to a historical park. The unit we decided to go to was in New Castle Delaware. We arrived around 3PM in New Castle and began searching for the historical park. After searching around, we stopped in the visitor center for the state park to learn that there was not a national park visitor center yet and that the old courthouse museum had already closed for the day. But they did have the park passport stamp, so we collected our stamp and wandered around the old square and down to the Warf on Chesapeake Bay. We decided to check if there was a vineyard nearby, but were surprised to find that there are only 2 vineyards in Delaware and they were in the southern part of the state. So we jumped in the Behemoth for the long drive in the rain back to the Wanderer. 

Davids Philly Cheese Steak

Independence Hall

Liberty Bell

Park sign for First State Historical Park

One of the streets in New Castle

Upper Chesapeake Bay with ice breaker islands in the foreground

10 September 2022 York

 After learning the Continental Congress had met in York to write the Articles of Confederation and where the Term “United States of America” was first used, we had high expectations of what we would find in the old town. We were disappointed. None of the colonial era buildings are left and there is very little to mark the importance of York in our early history. After a nice lunch at the White Rose, we wandered around the old town area of York. We visited the York Central Market House, which was built in 1888. Its now basically a big food court with a few retail vendors mixed in. We then sought out a vineyard and ended up at the Grandview Vineyard (our 15^th state for wine tasting) in Mt Joy. We enjoyed our wine tasting and the grand views of the valley below but we did not pick up and bottles to bring home. 

Grandview wine samples

Central Market House built in 1888

Inside the central market

View from Grandview Vineyard Tasting Room