Gordonville, PA to the Blue Ridge Parkway

A-NYC; B-Gordonville, PA; C-Gettysburg, PA; D-College Park, MD; E-Crozet, VA

Covered bridge in Lancaster county, PA

October 04 and we are off in the rain AGAIN. Oh soggy, soggy – yuck. Anyway, we drove to Gordonville, PA which is in Lancaster County, PA. We did drive around the area a bit in the rain – it’s a wonderful Amish/Mennonite area – lots of great stores, pretty farms, fresh food markets. We would love to spend a couple of days here, but we only have tomorrow – and that day is our trip into Philadelphia.

THE Liberty Bell

More rain and off we left for the 1.5 hour drive to Philly. It was supposed to be intermittent showers, but it was more like a constant rain/drizzle. We parked in a garage under the Visitor’s Center – a huge facility. First we went to Independence Hall. Here we saw where the first Continental Congress met to put together the Bill of Rights, and where the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence were signed. The one original piece of furniture was the actual chair that George Washington sat in to sign the Declaration of Independence.

In the rain we walked across the plaza to see the exhibit including the Liberty Bell. For both the bell and the Independence Hall we had to go through security – not as extensive as in New York, but still…..

Gordon and Rich in front of Campos

By then it was lunch time and we wanted an authentic Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. The folks in the Visitor Center gave us directions and four blocks later we dined on yummy Philly fare. On the way back to get the car we walked by the US Mint. Unfortunately there are no longer tours, but it was fun to see it anyway.

When we returned to the car we were ‘thrilled’ (not) to pay the $16.25 parking fee. Fortunately we didn’t have to pay for the tours and visits to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, so it wasn’t too bad. On the way home we took a detour of 7 miles into Delaware – might as well add that to our list of states we’ve seen. Finally the rain stopped for tonight at least.

October 6 we left Gordonville and drove to Gettysburg. We only had a few hours so we did what we could. It is a huge site of great importance to the history of our nation. We watched a film about the three-day battle, then a huge Cyclorama where the fighting was brought to life. We then took the 2 hour narrated bus tour over the most important sites of the war. Our guide was a historian who really knew the battles and had lots of interesting facts. Over 5000 soldiers died in those three days. The first two days were won by General Lee of the Confederacy, but the final day was won by General George Meade of the North – this was a big turning point of the Civil War. It was very interesting and we were sorry we didn’t have another day to spend time on the battle fields and in the museum.

From there we headed to College Park, MD near Washington DC. We had rain and some traffic, but still managed to get to the campground just before 5PM.

The Hope Diamond

On Thursday we made our first foray into Washington DC. We were able to catch the bus at the park which took us to the Metro which took us right to the National Mall. We began at the Natural History Museum where we visited the new Oceans display. We found it a bit confusing to go through – no flow to the exhibit; but there sure was lots of information. We also visited the gems exhibit where the Hope Diamond was on display, along with many other beautiful gems from around the world.

SmithsonianAmerican Indian Museum

From there we went to the relatively new Native American Museum where there is a large cafeteria where you can choose foods from many different Native American areas. We spent the rest of the afternoon at that museum – It’s quite a place and had a very nice flow to it. The architecture of the building is very interesting.

Friday we again headed to the Mall – another lovely day. We started at the relatively new Newseum – This is a private museum concerning the history of news, stories that have affected all our lives, and so much more. We took an hour long introductory tour and then spent an additional three hours on our own. The museum flows very nicely and is very modern with lots of interactive kiosks, exhibits on hurricane Katrina, 9/11, photo journalism winners, journalists who have died in the line of duty, and so much more – really good.

Washington DC capitol building

From there we walked along the reflecting pond in front of the Capitol building, visited the Hirshorn Museum of Modern Art (didn’t care for it), the sculpture garden (better) and the National Museum of Art. By the time we finished at the art museum, we were beat and headed back to the RV Park.

Arlington National Cemetery

Being recovered from the first two days, we took off once again for the capitol mall. This time we drove to the subway (free parking on the weekends), then took the subway into the center of town. Today we rode a Tourbus that took us on a nice tour of the Arlington Cemetery. We visited the graves of JFK, Jaqueline Kennedy, and their children; we visited the Tomb of the Unknown and were there for the changing of the guard. And we visited General Lee’s home – Arlington House. The cemetery is so much larger than I dreamed it would be – lots of monuments to various war veterans and a separate area for women in the service.

Korean War Memorial

From there we visited the Korean War Memorial – really powerful and well done. Then the Viet Nam War Memorial – interesting but not powerful. Here there were two large volumes containing alphabetically all the names of the service personnel killed in Viet Nam with their location on the wall.

We then spent over two hours at the Holocaust Museum – this is a very well done and powerful exhibit. But on this day (Saturday) it was full of junior high school students who really weren’t particularly interested and made it very difficult for the rest of us to see the exhibits and read the panels – disappointing.

From there we walked several blocks to the Portrait Museum and spent 40 minutes at the special Norman Rockwell exhibit. These pictures were loaned to the library by Stephen Spielburg and George Lucas. At the end of that, as much as we wanted to keep going, it was after 5PM and we were pooped. We took off for the RV Park.

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at the airport

Sunday we took it down a notch. We  took off for the new large Smithsonian Air and Space Museum near the Airport. The museum was free, though the parking cost $15. There are dozens of airplanes of all shapes and sizes inside a gigantic hanger. First we went six floors up into the tower with 360 degree views of the airport and surrounding countryside. It took us 3 hours to see everything. The exhibits included many fighter planes from WWII, Viet Nam, Korea. We saw the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan) and the Concorde. There were displays of helicopters, gliders, personal planes, trick planes. There was a huge hanger wing that had the Enterprise – that huge, huge, huge thing and many other space flight displays. Many of the planes were hung from the ceiling of this gigantic building, so there were ramps where you could walk along and look down at planes on the floor and up at planes hanging from the ceiling. There were engines displayed from the beginning of aviation history through those of the present – very interesting to the fellas. It is a wonderful display.

Columbus Day and we were off – around DC and to Crozet,VA – 5 miles from the Shenandoah National Park. The weather was great and the countryside is just beautiful. We keep seeing more and more color, though we’re not into the strong yellows and reds yet. We stopped at Chancellorsville where during the Civil War one of the bloodiest battles took place. It is here that Stonewall Jackson lost his life. There was an excellent film on the battles at the Visitor’s Center. We were amused that acorns were falling continuously on our vehicles – they made quite a noise when they hit – we expected to get pelted with nuts as we walked, but never did.

Shenandoah National Park

The next day we took a drive through half of the Shenandoah National Parkway – BEAUTIFUL !! It was a great day and the colors really were lovely. From the Skyline Drive there were viewpoints to see over each side way into the distance. It is always a bit hazy because of the extensive use of coal here in Virginia, but the views were so nice.

Monticello

Wednesday we said Good-bye to Diann and Rich. Their new house in Casa Grande was completed before expected and they had to head west to get the papers signed before penalties started rolling in. After they left we headed the few miles to Montecello – Thomas Jefferson’s home. The home itself is quite grand and filled with treasures from his trips overseas. He was quite influenced by the French because of his time spent in France as ambassador there. There were also Roman influences. He owned 5000 acres and had 5 operating farms on the property. He loved architecture and had the house built and redone several times to incorporate the new ideas he acquired during his travels. He also had a great love of plants – flowers, vegetables, trees – and had quite a showplace there. We stayed for several hours – saw a film on his life, did a tour of the home, garden, and plantation. The weather was beautiful. The Jefferson Foundation recently purchased a large ‘chunk’ of hill property that used to belong to Jefferson for $15,000,000  (the same amount he paid for the Louisiana Purchase). The foundation purchased the property to prevent another buyer from building condos there in view of the Jefferson Home. Interestingly, Jefferson died $180,000 in debt.

Public chalkboard in Charlottesville, VA

From there we drove the few miles to Charlottesville to their pedestrian mall. It is several blocks long with large trees all along. The most interesting thing was a public chalkboard (probably 40 feet by 6 feet) with chalk and cleaning cloths available. Anyone could write whatever they wanted to, or wipe off anything they wanted to. Don’t know if it cut down on graffiti in the area, but we thought it was a novel idea.

Now we are off to the Blue Ridge Parkway;, Pigeon Forge, TN; and Nashville.