Moving Slowly East

Our last excursion in Pennsylvania and our first in New York included some baseball "musts". Pennsylvania is where Little League had it's beginning and we picked the right day to visit it's home base (hehe) as there were no crowds. Pictures show the swing technique of Rose and Chris. In the lower level of the museum they have several interactive exhibits. Each participant is filmed for a minute either batting, pitching or running. Then the replay can be viewed so improvement can be made in their technique. Rose and Chris loved batting most, throwing next-best. Of course they didn't mess with the film thing, who cares about technique? We just hit until we got tired and threw about the same. RUN???? That is too much like work, so we skipped it altogether.

Cooperstown, New York is home to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Enough said of that. It is also the place where baseball had it's start. Now that really is enough of baseball. Jerry toured the town alone because he couldn't find another party remotely interested in spending a day looking at baseball stuff. However, we did make him go back a second time as we wanted to see where James Fenimore Cooper had his start in life. To be fair, only one of us was interested in the author's start...and it wasn't Jerry.

If that name rings some kind of bell, but you can't quite place him, he wrote Deerslayer and Last of the Mohicans (two of his most famous works). At the bottom of the lake (or the top of the Susquehanna River) lies a rock: "Council Rock" (picture included...looks like a rock with a cannon on it). The story with this rock is what is most interesting. Besides being part of the opening of Deerslayer, this rock was used by Indians and white men alike as a meeting place. One legend tells of a white missionary that was asked by the local Indians if he thought his God was big enough to actually move this rock. Swelled with pride, the missionary responded "Indeed He is." The Indians proceeded to roll the rock on the missionary telling him to ask his God to move the rock. No one has moved the rock yet to check for the bones...but rumor has it they are there.

The cannon on the rock is another story. The American army needed to move provisions and weaponry down stream to fight the Indians (I am thinking it must have been the French and Indian war...but I could be wrong). Part of the army marched down beside the stream. The other part with their flat-bottomed boats waited while a group of engineers went to the headwaters (right at council rock) and built a dam across the narrow inlet. In a few days the lake level rose four feet and the boats down stream were made ready for a white-water trip. The dam was breached and the boats passed the marching soldiers, getting to their destination somewhat before them. The Indians seeing the flood of water realized they were up against a phenomenal army and lost the heart to fight. The American army won. Now to the cannon part. For many years afterward fishermen were hanging up on all the left-over rocks from this dam. They got tired of cussing them and decided on the 100 year anniversary of the dam episode to blow the left-over rocks off the face of the earth. They used a cannon to do the deed. The current cannon is a memorial to that event. Now on every July 4th they have some sort of explosive party at council rock with that cannon. We weren't there then, so I must take their word for it.

The group shot is us standing at the foot of Otsego Lake, renamed by James Fennimore Coopers as Lake Glimmermore or something like that. Anyway....that was a lot of words compared to the four or five minutes we stood there for our picture.

We are not only in apple season, we are also where they are grown. A cider mill isn't far from Cooperstown, so we had to stop and give them some money. The cider was good and it is gone. Rose and Chris had a grand time playing in their park and tractor speed-way. They managed to have the usual farm animals that we could buy feed for.

Our travel through the state of New York illustrates that east and west don't understand each other. New York state is NOT all cities...not by a long shot. There is wonderful countryside, complete with farms, rivers and hills (called mountains here). A bit further east and those hills really do grow larger and even more beautiful. They are then dubbed the Adriondack Mountains.

We must have gone to heaven

Ok...ok...I know that we couldn't possibly have entered heaven. But this is
Hershey World...land of chocolate!!! How much better can life get? Do you
know they actually pay people to hand out chocolate there? How hard of job
is that??? Can you think of anyone declining their offer? Hershey is a
tourist trap, no doubt about it. But it was delicious to be trapped that
way. There is a "tour of the factory" which is educational...sort of. All
is forgiven as at the end they give you candy. Then there are several
interactive stations that are designed to take the adult's money and delight
children. One that we did was to let Chris and Rose try their hand as
factory workers. They, of course, loved it. We did take the Hershey
trolley to see what was left of the original factory town. The tour guides
kept us entertained with antics while they gave us the history of Milton
Hershey. In actuality the best thing he did had nothing to do with
chocolate. He and his wife were told they would be childless, so they
started an orphanage for boys. This orphanage was unique in that the boys
were raised in a houses (built by Hershey) with house-parents, giving them a
"family life". Besides the regular schools he also built a college. A boy
could decide if he wanted to learn a trade or go on to school. Each
graduate was given $100--a huge amount when it was begun. When Milton
Hershey died, he willed the Hershey empire to the orphanage...not a trifle,
I'd say. There is an amusement park, water slide, restaurant, and gardens
there. We didn't make it to all of them...just didn't want to get trapped
that much I guess. Warning: They charge for EVERYTHING, and not just a
little, for example parking: $15 for four hours. No way did we eat that
much free chocolate.

Gettysburg was our first civil war battlefield tour. Our campground has a
guided horse tour that sounded fascinating. Unfortunately (hooray for me),
Rose and Chris were too young...so Jerry had to go without us. He wasn't
thrilled with the experience since they don't go in a loop to give you
continually new vistas. We later did the motor tour and it was much better.
The campground also has a diorama that is worth seeing to give insight into
just what that battle was all about, besides it is incredible how many tiny
soldiers and horses it took to lay out the battle field.

Here I go with the history stuff--again. The battle of Gettysburg was a
three-day event, happening on July 2 - 4. The confederates amazingly came
up from Virginia without being detected with their host of soldiers. The
plan was to win a major victory and get the north to concede. The north
realized they would need to win to finish the war. This battle was pivotal
for both sides. When hearing about the battle while in school it never
dawned on me just how massive it was. When we drove we noticed it was about
20 miles long and easily 10 miles wide. There weren't "pockets" of soldiers
there were armies over the whole landscape. Over 23,000 were killed in
those three days. I appreciated that the monuments were for both the
northern AND southern states. Each company has a monument, most of them
were erected within 10 years of the battle. Picket's charge was the most
notable part of the battle. This one company fought bravely...and broke Lee
s heart with their valor. Of course, we all know the outcome. The site of
Lincoln's address is in the National Cemetery...a most hallowed field. The
silence both in the cemetery and on the battlefield is noticeable.

After a couple of days hanging-out in the pool and making new friends, it
was time to visit Antietam. It is fun to travel through these states as you
can actually go through two or three of them in less than an hour. Makes
you feel like you are getting somewhere. We happened to visit Antietam on a
day when they were having a reinactment. They also had a children's program
where they were teaching them what a confederate soldier's life was like.
Rose and Chris both enlisted. They were drilled and given sticks to
practice firing. At the end of the program they were given a three-day pass
and paid an apple and $3 confederate.

Two days later, Rose decided to leave our family. When they paid Rose and
Chris they warned them if they weren't back in three days that they would
send the provost to get them. Rose has a keen memory and takes everything
literal. She brought up that she had to be going back to the army, I told
her that is was just for fun and we wouldn't be going back that way. She
started tearing up, that is when she said she was leaving the family. She
was going to go back to the army...she had to! I asked her how she was
going to do it, she said she would be going on her bike. RATS!!! Trying to
convince her that those soldiers were only pretend soldiers was hard. They
had shown they were real by shooting their guns during the reinactment.

Chris was very impressed with the firing of guns. He was very into it, his
very words were: "this is sooo cool". They had musket loaders. Now, he
must prime his sticks and pack the ball before he can lift and fire. They
both bought Yankee caps so they could look the part. I am surprised how
much they are getting of this history stuff.

Tah-dah!!! You are now up with us in our latest campsite in Pennsylvania. Thought I would send a picture from our window--just so you could see how we suffer.

Can you still hear me?

Not sure just where I left you folks, but I think you are still in West
Virginia. My intention is to get a couple installments done while Jerry is
driving. We are on the interstate and there just isn't much to see…so I can
get some work done. Oops, just left the interstate and I want to watch..
will get this one finished and work on the other--later(?).
WORK???? That is a four-letter word that we just aren't too familiar with,
but I will try.
Here is a warning for anyone thinking of hooking up their rig to a camping
device and pulling it all the way to the other side of the world…avoid
lesser highways when going through the Appalachian Mountains. These
mountains tend to run north and south, so if that is the general direction
wanted….no problem, the roads hug the valley floor. However, if you decide
to go the other way (east or west) you have to go across their spines. The
lesser highways follow the basic geography up and down and up and down (got
the picture?). Nice for a Sunday drive, but not when you have to use breaks
going down and the transmission going up. We made some unscheduled stops on
turn—outs to cool things off. Oh, by-the-way did I mention we didn't have a
back window? And it was raining? We can laugh about it now, because we are
not going back through that country when we head south.
Now about that window. We were hungry. There was a sign (somewhere in West
Virginia) that a county park was on the next exit. Seemed like a smart
decision, except…secondary-secondary roads should be posted that no
foreigners are allowed…not even on a bike. We realized our mistake when we
got on the one-way bridge that our cat had about an inch on each side for
clearance. Turning around wasn't an option...we were committed. We did
make it to the park and ate lunch before we lost the window…of course then
Jerry about lost his lunch. Fifth-wheels and tow vehicles cannot occupy the
same space—this is one of the basic laws of physics. Something gave and it
was the window. Like I said, we can laugh about it now.
Phew…got you through West Virginia.
Looking at the map we noticed that we were going to be rather close to a few
sites that someone recommended. Silly us...we thought we could do them all
in one day, and on the same day we were traveling to our next camp stop.
Around 3:00 in the afternoon we realized we might be able to make one stop
and still get to our campsite. We chose to go to Harper’s Ferry.
Skip this part if you don't want a brief history lesson. I am so impressed
with John Brown’s resolve that I must tell you the story.
John Brown had the same success rate for business as Abraham Lincoln. He
tried several businesses, failing at most of them. He was a devote
Christian which also was similar to Lincoln. Both men were gifted orators.
Before Honest Abe could act, John Brown convinced some followers that it was
time to get rid of slavery. He had a plan to overtake the supply depot at
Harper’s Ferry and give the guns and ammunition to the slaves to start a
revolt against their masters. His plan was so well made that he was able to
secure the supply depot (which consisted of 20 buildings) with less than 30
men. He held it for several days before the federal troupes recovered the
buildings and captured John Brown and his followers. He was hung some
months later. Not sure if all of them were killed or not. The slaves that
were to be armed didn't have the heart to follow through, John was left as a
leader without a following. Eighteen months later, the civil war started,
with the first major battle being in Antietam just north of Harper’s Ferry.
He truly was a man of conviction, as was President Lincoln. They were both
killed for living-out that amazing trait.
We had enough time to race through the John Brown museum and then we hiked a
bit up the cliff. There were two churches worth noting at the top of the
cliff. Both were there during the civil war. One is a beautiful
structure…the other is a ruins. The one still standing was saved by the
priest because he flew the union jack during the civil war. The destroyed
church was used as a barracks by one side or other (maybe even both).
During that war property changed hands a lot.
The Shenandoah and Potomac merge at Harper's Ferry. The Shenandoah River is
worth singing about. It is the most beautiful river I have ever seen. It
would be a great one to find a camping spot next to, alas our reservations
are further north.
Still with me? On to Pennsylvania. We are camping on what was part of the Gettysburg battlefield.

Our country is amazing

This is Susan again…this time leaving Ohio and entering West Virginia.

You must know how nice it is to get all of the wonderful messages from you. We enjoying knowing that all is well with the friends we have left behind. We will return!!! But the catching-up won’t be so hard since you are still in touch with us.

It was truly a surprise to find Ohio so delightful. Our destination was Wayne National Forest along the Ohio River. Getting to the campground on Monday means that the weekenders have gone home and the campground was mostly ours. The few campers that were there were treated to Chris in full measure. None of the campers were strangers long. He brings all his new friends home…but they are all retirees. When we left this morning all his new friends were very sad to see him go. What a treasure he is.
Marietta was the first settlement in the Northwest territory. It boasts (complete with brass markers) of having the very first white woman to settle there in the frontier days. It was the shipping center for the Ohio River for many years as well the shipbuilding capital. Why, right next to the downtown DQ is a momento of that industry…a smoke-stack. This smoke-stack has never been used on a ship since the company that ordered it never could come up with the money to pay for it. It sat along the shore for who knows how many years until the local citizenry said it was an eyesore and something needed to be done. Someone suggested digging a hole and burying it…which is just what they did, all but the very top, which is now a planter. It also has a brass marker. In fact, in less than a block there is over a dozen brass markers about every little known historical fact or person that stepped foot in the town. Some of them are interesting…but I already told you them, so if you come here you can find something else to do. The icecream at DQ was just as good as in Oregon. (Picture of Jerry, Chris and Rose next to the Ohio River. The site is where a fort once stood.)
Having two active children means we are limited to how many “talking” things we can do. One we choose was to go to the Fenton Glass Factory across the river in West Virginia. Think West Salem, over the river. Most of you probably have heard of Fenton glass (I hadn’t). They have been making a huge assortment of gee-gaws and doo-dads for several generations. The factory tour is rated one of the top ten by some organization that has merit (don’t remember who it was). The tour was interesting…and fun for Rose and Chris. What made it fun for them was after each station the tour guide would ask if anyone had any questions. Two short little arms would shoot up. By the end of the tour, she quit asking. But we now know why they have a fan over a machine, and why the glass is colored….just in case that question is in a trivial pursuit game. I was surprised how expensive this stuff is. Included a picture of some glass-blowers...very interesting.
Our afternoon’s entertainment was going by bicycle on a beautiful bike trail along the river to the aquatic center. It is a new 3.3 million job. I think they got their money’s worth as it was a blast! It was complete with slides and many fountains and pools. The biggy was the pirate ship with cannons that shot water. Rose spent most of her time floating the lazy river on tubes. Chris was entertained with the escape slide from the pirate ship…until he had to sit-out for going down head first…the second time. Those lifeguards are GOOD!! Of course, I think Chris was more interested in sitting next to a pretty girl than being in trouble. It was fun to watch him wrap her around his finger. By the time his time-out was over they were holding hands. Are we in trouble, or what?

Chris and Rose are still going to bed very late, but now my attitude is much different. I know that this is a once in a lifetime trip and they should not waste any more time than necessary with sleep. Our evenings are spent figuring out dinner which happens anywhere from 8 on. Then it is time to collect the magic! I am talking fire flies. There are millions of them. Our camp-spot has an unobstructed view of the Ohio River. We can sit at our table and watch the tugboats pushing the barges up and down the river. There are some huge fish that jump periodically. At night the barges turn on a bunch of lights and it is similar to the river parade in Portland at Christmas...except we are wearing shorts and it doesn’t last as long. There are a few houses across the river have that romantic reflective light at night. There is a picture with Rose, Chris, Buttercup and Spotty taken from the table in our camping site.
We rode the bike trail through our campground one morning and was surprised by a magnificient flower garden tucked away at the end of a trail. When Rose saw it she said someone should paint it. I told her that God already had. An observation platform was built so we could stand above the slough. About 30 feet out was an island that was covered in an array of wonderful flowering bushes. Some of them looked like bright pink wild roses, and then there were purple spikes of flowers amongst the roses. At the waters edge were water lilies and hyacinths. There were so many orange and yellow butterflies that they made it look like flying flowers. This evening I rode back over there again to see it and there was a deer standing amongst all that splendor, adding to the magic were the fireflies just starting to light up. It was the most beautiful flower garden I saw this whole trip. (Of course there are several pictures of what we saw, but it just doesn't do justice to the real thing.)

It is a hard campground to leave…but West Virginia beckons.

This is too much fun

This is Susan again...a bit behind, but hopefully will catch-up with this
installment.

Part of our trip through Kentucky included stopping at what remains of a
Shaker Village. At one time there were over 1000 residents living in a type
of commune. They not only were self-sufficient, but they increased the
local economy with their trade as well as taught the local residents what
they were learning in the way of farming and industry. I don't know if all
Shaker Settlements had the same industries, but this one had a broom factory
creamery, sausage production, cabinetry, fabric production among more that
I forget. Of course the sect was doomed since their belief was based on the
belief that God did not want them to marry. Several times ambassadors
traveled south and collected orphans in Georgia to bring them to live at the
village and learn their beliefs. The very remarkable thing about this
effort, is they allowed the orphans to choose for themselves if they would
join the community or not. Most didn't and left when they were old enough.
We can thank the Shakers for the flat broom, circular saw and advances in
many other fields. They were certainly an industrious group and have my
admiration. It was interesting how they established their celibate
life-style. The main building was built with two identical sides. It is
four stories high. The east side was men-only and the women would be on the
west. Each sex had their own staircases and doorways and would not cross
the center line. This is not unlike what parents do with children when
traveling in a car. Both groups are serious that men and women shouldn't mix
Parents are sometimes more serious about the whole separation thing not
even willing that one child should breathe another child's air. Oh, yeah..
I was explaining about Shakers--their meetings included dancing and partying
..but you can't convince me that it was all that much fun. Their dances
were circles within circles. Each ring was an opposite sex ring. Could
work...but I don't think you would get any teen-agers to agree to a life
like that now.

We stayed in the northern part of Kentucky for a week or so...in Berea.
Berea doesn't have as much history as other areas, but what it does have is
impressive. The college in town is the central point of the community. It
was started just after the civil war as a place for the poor (or
economically challenged if you are politically correct) mountain folk to
finish an education. The president would take periodic trips to market the
college and to solicit support from other areas of the country. On one of
the trips he took some of the local crafts (quilts I believe) to display and
found there was great interest in them as well as a profitable market. He
returned and offered the students free tuition to the college if they would
be willing to work in the craft department 20 hours a week. It was the
first integrated college and as far as I could figure the only college that
still has a no tuition policy. It now draws students from all over the
world and they do have wonderful crafts to see in the area.

There is a beautiful hotel/inn/restaurant in the downtown core called Boones
Tavern. We immediately assumed that Daniel Boone had something to do with
the place and decided we must eat there. Rose and Chris were staying with
our friends, so it seemed like the perfect place to dine--NOT! We knew it
was out of our league when there were linen tablecloths on the table for
lunch. It seemed way fancy for ol' Dan to sit in...but we decided to read
the menu just for fun...then we went next door for a sandwich. Later we
checked on the Internet to see what history Daniel had in the area. Well
now, we were making the wrong assumption all together. This place is called
Boones Tavern because that is a catchy name. Daniel may have walked through
this area, but he never stopped long enough to put up a tent...let alone a
whole big building. The tavern was built in 1911 because the wife of the
college president was tired of housing all the guests that were showing up
to visit the school. It is reported that she had 300 house guests at one
time. I would think something would need to be done, but we still felt
tricked somehow with that name...but felt much better at not spending so
much for lunch as well.

The main reason that Berea had captured our attention was due to Rose and
Chris having a half-brother living in that area. Rose has been asking to
visit Jonah for months and adding a stop in Kentucky was a natural thing to
do. Prior to this week we had never really known much of this part of their
life, but we are willing to learn. We are so very thankful that we did!!
We had a rare opportunity to get to know a living mountain man that had the
kindest heart of anyone we have ever known. A picture is attached of one of
the many meals they hosted for us...Wayne is the tall one with the white
hair and beard, you should recognize the short critters. Wayne has so much
knowledge about the hills and nature. When he is explaining things you don
t realize how much you are learning until you think about it later. Then
there is Peggy...somehow we got away without me getting a picture of her.
She has a way of making you feel like you have known her most of your life
after you have only been there a few minutes. If there is any kindness that
can be done you can count on her being there to do it. They have a most
interesting farm in the hills and share it with Jeremy and Jonah. Jonah is
the half-brother that accepts his role very seriously. Jeremy is Jonah's
dad. There is more people coming and going there than there would be in a
train station (I exagerate...but you get the point). They are a wonderful
family and we fell in love with them. We are hoping they will come to
Oregon and you all can see what I say is true.

Rose and Chris were also blessed with a week-long visit with their mother
Jennifer. She has been spending some time in Kentucky with Jonah and waited
for our visit before returning to her home.

Jonah stayed a day with us in the cat and we took all of them to the aquatic
center to swim. Jonah and Chris were inseparable on the slide. Rose was
reluctant to go through the slide-tube until the last hour or so...then it
was a huge competition who was going to go down the most. Another day they
went swimming at the newest Kentucky lake. I expect in a few years this
lake will have a lot of houses built around it, so it was a treat to see a
lake without any development.

One event that Peggy and Wayne took us to was the Amish produce auction.
While the children played hide-n-seek we watched (and sometimes
participated) the bidding of the most beautiful produce I have seen in a
long time. Of particular note was the green beans that sold for more than
$25 a box. Amazing. They looked good, but not that good. We did buy some
vegies and cantelope. It will all be gone in a week so I can only tell you
it was good.

Parting gifts were given to Rose and Chris from our new friends. Their
names are: Buttercup and Spotty...unless Chris changes his name again. They
are a pair of turtles. Not as cuddly as a puppy, but smaller and never
whine.

The Country Music Hall of Fame Museum was within 20 miles of where we camped
We wouldn't know anyone listed in it if they sat next to us on the bus,
but we decided to go look anyway. What we found was more than the museum..
which was good because it was closed that day. There is an old dance barn
there that was famous in the past for being a hotspot for radio programs.
That wasn't nearly as interesting to us as a small area behind it that is a
museum of mountain living. There are a dozen or so buildings that have been
moved there from all over the area. All of the buildings are what they call
log buildings. The logs have all been squared before they stack them for
walls and then chinking is added. The chinking sometimes is thicker than
the logs. Uh...Jerry made me take a picture of him in the library building.
.there is also one of him in the stocks. You figure out where he looks more
at home.

The building that gave us pause was a two-story, four room structure. It
was brought there sometime in the last ten years when the last resident
moved. She was 70+ when she moved into an assisted-living center. The
house had never had electricity and there was no indication of plumbing. We
were able to look behind the scenes a bit (no one was around) and we could
surmise where the wood stove might have been. Mountain people are very
hardy...it must come from all the work they do.

Our leaving Kentucky was bitter-sweet. Happy to continue our adventure
across America, sad to leave some very good friends.

If someone were to ask us the highlight of our stay in Kentucky it would be
the people--hands down. We found the natives to be warm-hearted and most
welcoming. They are perhaps the most colorful and interesting people we
have met so far.

We were camping next to one of those nice people. She has been a full-timer
for ten years...started when her husband was alive, but now travels "with
God leading her and Henry by her side." Henry is her dog. If I were to
guess I would say she is in her 70's...at least she looks a bit older than
Jerry.

Amazing people. Our lives are truly rich because of all the people we know--and you are one of them. Thanks for enriching us.