RussLeona Trip 10/20/12 DC-Annapolis

We are at Cherry Hill Park, just into Maryland, outside of Washington, DC.  The first day we took the subway into the Capital.  We toured the Aeronautical and Space Museum.  It took us most of the day.  It is an unbelievable collection of the history and development of anything that flies.  We touched a moon rock, saw John Glenn's first space capsule, the lunar module, a copy of part of the space station and more airplanes than you can imagine.  We watched a couple great Imax movies.  The next day we drove to Annapolis.  It was a beautiful drive as the trees are really coloring..  The town of Annapolis was pretty with alot of old, beautiful buildings.  The Naval Academy was probably the coolest campus, I have ever been on.  The buildings were gorgeous.  I took a tour where I learned alot about the history of the school.  We took a scenic rural drive home.  The drive ended with a really hard rainstorm.  It is easy to see why it is so green here.

Cherry Hill is a nice campground.  The trees are really coloring, so pretty.

A nice man took our photo in front of the Capital.

The lunar module.

This is the main Naval Academy Hall.  It is a huge continuous building built in the shape of an "H" that covers 33 acres.  The Memorial Hall, that you are looking at is in the bar of the H.  All  the ~4000 cadets live and eat in the building.  They all eat at the same time.  They are served in 5 minutes and have 25 minutes to eat.  There are Doctors, Dentists, Tailors, and everything they need in the building.  They even have their own zip code.

A photo of part of the Memorial Hall.  The name of every graduate that was killed in action is displayed.  Every graduate that served in action is listed on the walls.  It is a gorgeous.

The inside of the Naval Academy Chapel.

RussLeona Trip 10/16/12 Gettysburg

This has been one of the soberest experiences of our trip.  It is a beautiful area but a sadness seems to linger everywhere.  107,000 soldiers battled here with ~50,000 casualties.  We watched several movies and attended a couple spectacular dioramas on the battle.  The bravery, loss of life, and suffering is beyond believe and very emotional.  The Confederacy and the Union soldiers lined up and rushed each other all around the battlefield, until less than half remained. General Mead's Union Army was so tired and short of supplies that they could not immediately chase General Lee's shattered army.  General Mead was able to quickly replenish his supplies and General Lee was not. General Lee's wagon train of wounded as he retreated after the battle was 17 miles long. The town of Gettysburg was left with thousands dead and wounded. The outcome of the battle would determine the outcome of the war.  If just a couple things had went differently the outcome of the battle and the war might have been different.  One must ask himself, if that would have happened how would our country look today.

This is looking down onto Gettysburg from the top of Culp's Hill.  The first day of the battle, the Confederate forces drove the Union forces through the town.  They reorganized on this hill and the Cemetery Ridge to the left.

Monuments like these are all over the battlefield.  They were put their by the Brigades on the site that they fought.  Small concrete markers mark the edge of their battle line.

Looking down from Little Round Top. This was called Death Valley because of the great loss on both sides as the Confederates tried to take this hill from the Union Army.

This is looking across what became know as Pickett's Hill.  The Confederate forces attacked across this field towards the bunch of trees on the ridge that the Union Army held.

This is looking down Pickett's Hill from the Union line.  The trees on the left are the ones that the Confederate forces were attacking.  Greater than 50% of Pickett's forces were killed, wounded, or missing.  The bodies were stacked up at the fences and walls.

RussLeona Trip 10/11/12 Amish

We are in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which is home to many Amish.  We took a drive through the beautiful farmland.  The farms are small but very neat and well kept.  Many have dairy cattle.  We took a 4 1/2 mile buggy ride through the countryside.  We had a great driver that was Mennonite.  He grew up in this area and understood the way of life very well.  The Old Amish don't use tractors but will use auxiliary LPG or diesel motors to run their balers or other equipment.  They have diesel or LPG generators at their farms for their milking machines and to run an air compressor.  The houses don't have electricity.  They use LPG or naphtha lights.  An air line from the barn compressor runs to the house.  The housewife has mixers and other kitchen tools that have air motors and run on air.  The men wear dark clothes and a straw or felt hat, the women wear conservative blues and whites and always have their heads covered.  They don't drive cars, only use horses and buggies.  You see many buggies traveling on the roads, sorry I didn't get a good photo as I wanted to be respective as far as pictures.  The kids can't have peddle bicycles but two wheel scooters.  The young Amish live similarly but will use tractors and some have solar generators for some equipment but still don't have electricity in their homes.  It has been very interesting.  We didn't realize how many Amish lived in this area.  We were told that there is 18,000+ in this county.

A covered bridge out of Lancaster built in the early 1800's.

Beautiful countryside.

Our tour guide and the horse and buggy that took us around the countryside.

Amish horse and buggy.

RussLeona Trip 10-10-12 Valley Forge

As we left Philadelphia on our way to Lancaster, we toured Valley Forge.  It was very interesting to see where George Washington and the Continental Army spent the winter.  They built 2000 small cabins (12x16) each housing 12 enlisted men or 2 officers.  They were all built to George Washington's specifications.  Contrary to some perceptions, the men had adequate shelter.  They did experience shortage of supplies at times.  In spite of the fact that there was never a shot fired against the English at Valley Forge, 2000 men of the 10-12,000 died of disease during the winter.  The camp was very muddy and concentration of people encouraged disease.  The troops were intensely trained and their moral remained good..  The house in the photo was George Washington's Headquarters.  The covered bridge was built in the 1860's and was in the park.  It was another great day.

There were rows and rows of cabins like these.

These were cabins for George Washington's guards that set behind his headquarters.

The typical interior, except that there would be six beds on each side, three high.

George Washington's Headquarters, the building on the side was the kitchen.

A covered bridge in Valley Forge National Park, built in the 1860's.

RussLeona Trip 10/9/12 Philadelphia Mint

We drove into Philadelphia so we could tour the Mint and the Constitution Center.  The Mint was real interesting.  No cameras were allowed.  We were able to follow the complete process from coin development through distribution.  We were able to walk behind windows above the actual working process.  We watched them load large spools of flat metal onto the machines that punched the blanks out.  The blanks were annealed, imprinted, inspected and loaded in large sacks for distribution.  We were able to watch the entire process.  We toured the Constitution Center.  We watched a great presentation on the development of the Constitution.  There were many displays, videos, etc.covering the history of the development and evolution of today's Constitution.  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin and the others were very brave and did an unbelievable job. We were able to sign a copy of the original Constitution.  If you look at the photo below, you can see our signatures.  I was unable to rotate the photo.  As we were driving back to our motorhome, Leona and I were saying that after touring Boston, Lexington, Concord, New York, Philadelphia and the 911 Memorial, a person would have to be extremely hard not feel a great surge in Patriotism.

The front of the Philadelphia Mint

The copy of the Constitution with Leona's and my signatures.

RussLeona Trip 10-8-12 Philadelphia Independence

In our last blog, I covered our drive to Philadelphia but I wanted to include this photo of our drive.  In our experience, this is a familiar sight driving on the east coast, trees and more trees.  However, the drive from Vermont was very pretty as the trees are very colorful.  Today, we drove into Philadelphia over the Ben Franklin bridge.  We started with a tour of the Independence Hall.  It was really interesting and very informative.  It was cool to see the room, with actual chair that George Washington sat in, where the Declaration of Independence was signed.  It is where the Constitution was developed after the war was won.  The guide explained the process of developing the Constitution and some of the negotiations required to reach a consensus between the thirteen colonies.  The guide did an excellent job.  The area is full of historical buildings and buildings containing historical items.  We were able to walk around the Liberty Bell.  We walked a few blocks through the old buildings to a great cheese steak shop recommended by a security guard.  The sandwich was awesome.  We stopped at the City Tavern where Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and many others dined and discussed the development of our country.  Leona had an apple cider and I had a beer made with one of Thomas Jefferson's recipes.  With a fresh patriotic fix and the fact that it was cold, in the 50's, we called it a day.

An example of the view driving through upstate New York.

Independence Hall were the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was developed.

The room in which the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was developed.  The chair in the center is the actual chair that George Washington sat in.

We have all seen photos of the Liberty Bell before but it is cool.

RussLeona Trip 10/6/12 Vermont

We had a wonderful time at the Zecher's.  We wined, dined, played cards and did lots of touring.  The only problem was, we had a couple days of foggy, hazy rain so our photos weren't too terrific but the sightseeing was awesome.  It was so beautiful, we hit the leaves perfect.  However, they didn't last long as the rain and wind dropped many of them quickly.  It is a beautiful area with beautiful trees and neat old houses.  Stan and Janie drove us all over the area.  We toured their son, Doug's, Sugar House where he processes Maple Syrup from over 4500 trees.  He did a great job explaining the processing to us. It was very interesting.   It is obviously a great deal of work.  We thanked Stan and Janie for being such great hosts and said good bye until we get together again in Arizona. We drove to Clarksboro, NJ just out of Philadelphia. 

A scenic Vermont farm.

Trees were beautiful but after the rain, many leaves had dropped.

A beautiful church in Manchester.

A gorgeous view but the haze challenges the photo.

Doug Zecher's Sugar House where he processed Maple Syrup.