Author: daveleu

 

 

We left our campsite near Confluence, Pennsylvania today and headed down the road towards Burnsville, West Virginia.  As we worked our way through heavily forested country roads, going up and down mountain ridges and weaving over the winding country roads, John Denver’s song “Take Me Home, Country Roads” was playing in my head.  If you are not familiar with that 1970’s hit song, you can listen to it here.

We got a bit nervous at times as we passed by road signs posting weight limitations that were about half of LeuC’s 20 tons.  In fact, in one instance, we refused to follow the GPS generated suggested route because the road looked way too narrow, windy and steep.  Furthermore, it was posted with a weight restriction of 10 tons.

 

Instead, we continued down the road we were on, keeping our fingers crossed that it would eventually take us out of this mountainous terrain and drop us near I-68, the freeway that would take us near our next stop at the Bulltown Campground near Burnsville, WV.

 

At times the views were breathtaking with rolling ridges of the Allegheny Mountains before us. 

At other times, there was white knuckled excitement as the narrow country lane plunged down steep ridges with sharp curves, no guard rails, and ravines that if you fell into, no one would ever know.  Fortunately, we have become rather good in keeping LeuC on roads which are narrow, windy, and steep with deep, plunging banks. Part of the secret of doing this is keeping the speed well under control and using as much of the center of the road as you can.  The other part is having the navigator keeping eyes peeled on what is in front of us to see if another vehicle is heading our way just past the curve that is in front of us.

 

After 45 minutes of such fun, we spied and then pulled into a gas station that was in a little town next to the freeway.  After we put LeuC into neutral, pulled on the air brakes and shut off the engine, we both looked at each other and took a collective big sigh of relief.  Another driving adventure behind us!

 

The next hour or so was easy peasy as we boogied down the freeway, past Morgantown, WV, driving deeper and deeper into West Virginia.  We then left the freeway and returned, once again, to the narrow country roads as we made our way to Bulltown, WV.

 

Bulltown actually no longer exists.   Nevertheless, it is the location of the Corp of Engineer’s recreational area that houses our campground.  It is also the former site of where Captain Bull, a Delaware Indian chief, had set up a camp and was massacred by a white settler who had his wife murdered by Shawnee Indians back in the 1700s.  He had mistaken Captain Bull and his tribe of Delaware Indian for the Shawnees. Captain Bull was actually well liked by the locals who lived near what they called Bulltown because he and his tribe discovered a salt deposit and would trade his salt for food and goods.  I will get into this history in my next blog.

We have now setup camp and I have also discovered that I can buy Internet time from the campground.  Since there are not cell towers that reach down into the valley where we are, it pains me to say that I bought access at an outrageous cost.  Actually, it would not be so bad if the Internet connection was reliable but it keeps dropping, which makes uploading the blog and pictures very frustrating.

 

Just another day in the lives of RV nomads….

 

We have just returned to LeuC from spending the last two days with our old friends, Donna and Rob, who live in Pittsburgh.  Yesterday, we hopped into our little Fiat and drove about two hours to see them.  The last time we had gotten together was about 35 years ago, which is it literally a lifetime ago.

When we arrived in Pittsburgh, we experienced what we thought were a bunch of crazy and rude drivers.  There are tons of stop lights in Pittsburgh and none of them appear to be very well timed and all of them seem to ignore the current traffic patterns.  In other words, when you arrive at a red stop light, you tend to sit there for what seems an eternity, even when there is no cross traffic.  As you sit there, twiddling your thumbs, you can feel the frustration and anger build and build.

Thus, when the light finally does change, you step on the gas to make up lost time and quickly accelerate to move through the intersection.  However, as I did this, on two occasions, the driver sitting cross the intersection from us, would turn left and cut right across in front of us as he/she made a left-hand turn.  Whoa!  Only a quick slam on the brakes on my part prevented an accident.  What we did not know at the time, was that we were experiencing what is known as and loved by locals as The Pittsburgh Left!

When we arrived at Donna and Rob’s house and had our hugs and kisses, I was so exasperated that I ranted and raved about the crazy drivers we had experienced driving through Pittsburgh.  This resulted in a laugh by our hosts as they explained to us The Pittsburgh Left.  Apparently, this novel way of driving is part of the local culture and everyone does it.  Holly Molly!  If this is so common and is an expected driving habit, the city should post large warning signs along the roads entering the city explaining The Pittsburgh Left as it is so contrary to standard driving customs around the rest of the country.

Once I settled down and decided not to let The Pittsburgh Left get under my skin, I began to enjoy our getting together with Donna and Rob and catching up after all of these years.  It was so great to see and be with them again.  It was remarkable as Mary Margaret made a comment that was very true.  Specifically, it seemed like it was just yesterday we had last seen them as they had not changed a bit and we just picked up our conversations right from where we had left them the last time we were together.  How remarkably neat is that!

Donna and Rob took us over to “The Strip”, a section of town that has made a comeback from the disastrous closing of the many steel mills that Pittsburgh had grown up on.  We ate lunch in a neat bistro that was housed in an old restored brick building.  We then rambled around the strip, taking in the views and inspecting the many trinkets and tourist stuff being hawked there. 

When we returned to Donna and Rob’s house, we settled in and continued catching up.  We had such a great time doing this.  We also were able to meet their son, Grant and his son.

After a wonderful dinner we then stayed up late continuing our catching up.  It was only after yawns and heavy eyelids started making their appearance that we all retired for the night. 

This morning, after Rob made us all a breakfast of French toast, it was time to part, with hopes of seeing each other sometime in the not so distant future.  Our brief stay was wonderful and we are so thankful that we were able to get together again.  What dear friends.

By the way, tomorrow we take off for our next campground, which will be the Bulltown Campground, near Burnsville, West Virginia.  It is another Corp of Engineers’ site and has not only water and 50 Amp power at each site but all sewer.  Whoo Hoo!.  Unfortunately, we have read reviews that it does not have cell phone or Internet connection.  Thus, we may be “dark” for the next 4 or so days.

Today I took the day off and went golfing.  It is something that I had hoped to do more now that we are back on land and exploring North America.  However, it is something that I just have not had the time to do.  The last time I played golf was last March when we were back in Alabama.  Go Figure!

There is a nice little course in Middleburg which is about 30 minutes from our campsite.  It is just a nine- hole course but it is full length and you could get in 18 holes by just play two rounds.  18 holes and cart only cost $25.  Whoo Hoo.  As it turned out, the course is beautiful, very well groomed and the greens are in perfect shape.

Had a great time and ended up playing with a fellow and his nephew during the second nine.  I was surprised at how well I played and ended up shooting a 94.  Not too bad for a 68-year-old guy…

On the drive over to the golf course, I decided to take a back road (actually, all of the roads in this area are what I would call back roads) to follow one of the branches that flows into the Youghiogheny River.  By doing this, I discovered a covered bridge that crossed the river.  I had not seen a covered bridge in years so I just had to stop and capture it with my camera.  I did not realize that Pennsylvania had a covered bridge but this is proof that it does!

Clear out of the blue we received a surprise email today from a couple that we have been trying to locate for months.  I had thought that I had their contact information but discovered that I just could not find it.  We have not seen Donna and Rob in over thirty-five years but knew that they lived in the SW Pennsylvania area.

 

I had first met Donna way back in college when she and I, along with about 8 other people, worked together at the University of Michigan as Freshman Orientation Leaders.  During the summer, high school students who have been accepted into the University’s upcoming freshmen class are invited to attend a 3 day-long orientation program to help prepare them for the big jump from living at home to leaving home and attending college.  During orientation they learned about the university, enrolled in classes, discovered where their classes are located across the University’s various campuses, and how to get there., what university resources and program were available to them, etc., etc., etc.  As Orientation Leaders, it was our job to help them through this process, give them tours of the various campuses and feel welcomed to The Big U.

 

We each had a group of about 25 or 30 soon-to-be-freshman for a 3-day period and the orientation program would last through about a 10-week period over the summer.  By the time the summer was over, the ten of us orientation leaders were a pretty close-knit group and it was hard to say goodbye as we each went our own way, focusing on our school work and our respective lives as upper classmen.

 

Donna and I really did not get close until after we each had married, graduated from college and then discovered that we and our spouses had moved to the East Coast and were living just 40 minutes from each other.  Actually, it was thanks to Donna and Mary Margaret that this discovery was made as they shared Christmas letters each year.  Donna and her husband, Rob, had moved to Philadelphia where Rob was attending Med School at Thomas Jefferson University and Donna was working as a nurse to put Rob through Med school and getting her Master’s degree at U of Pennsylvania.  It was Donna who got MM her interview with U of Penn to transfer and finish her Master’s degree there.  Mary Margaret and I had moved to Newark, Delaware where I was getting my Ph.D. at U of Delaware and Mary Margaret was completing her Master’s Degree at U. of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

 

After Rob graduated they moved back to Southwestern Pennsylvania (where they eventually set up a series of family clinics), then both of our families started having kids, we then moved to California and before we realized it, we kind of lost track of each other.  Life just seems to get in the way of things sometimes and over the years, contacts are lost.  Sigh!

 

As it turned out, they somehow discovered our sailing blog when we were sailing and a couple of times a year would check out what we were doing and where we were.  They have kept this up when we moved into LeuC and this is how they discovered that we were now in their neck of the woods.  Whoo Hoo!  These blogs sure are helpful sometimes!

 

We are so happy they reached out and we have now made arraignments to drive up to Pittsburg this Saturday to spend the day with them and catch up after all of these years.  We are so excited and can hardly wait!

 

Yesterday, we rested from our all-day outing at Gettysburg and got ready to leave our campsite.  This meant running into the nearby town of Hanover to reprovision.  Along the way, I stopped along the country lanes that are the main travel arteries in this area and took these pictures.  The first is one of the many red barns that dot the countryside. 

The other photo is of a little one room red brick school house that used to be a mainstay for education.  We have seen a number of these small school houses in our drives to Gettysburg.  They have all now been replaced with modern campuses but are a nice reminder of what was so common in the last hundred years.  MY grandmother, Helga, on my mother’s side taught in a school house similar to this in North Dakota during in early 1900s.  Thus, every time I see one of these, it lights up a special place in my heart.

Today, we bundled up LeuC and headed down the road.  Our next two campsites are located in the heart of what is known as Coal Country.  While 25 states in the US produce coal, the biggest coal beds are in southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  Today, we are staying near Confluence, Pennsylvania.  Confluence is located at the juncture of the Casselman River and Laurel Hill Creek with the Youghiogheny River.  Here is a copy of a 1900s era postcard that shows what this area looked like back then.

Now, the upper reaches of the Youghiogheny River are now dammed to ease the likelihood of downriver flooding.  Since its completion in 1943, it has prevented flood damages estimated to be in excess of $569 million. Youghiogheny has the capability to store the equivalent run-off of 11 inches of precipitation from its 434 square mile drainage area.  Since we have had almost of foot of rain in the last 6 weeks, you can guess that it is now bulging with water.  In fact, as we wound our way over the curving country roads to get here, following the river valley, we saw that the river was at it very peak and, in places was flooding the low areas.  This must be because the Corp of Engineers is releasing massive amounts of water that has been captured by this dam during this period.

 

We will be staying at the Corp of Engineers campground called Overflow, aptly named since we are just downstream of the dam and the overflow portion of the dam.  As you can see from the Google Maps image I have captured, we are literally at the bottom of its emergency overflow that would channel the water out of the lake if it rose to top of the dam.  Yikes!

Fortunately, we are projected to have nice, sunny weather while we are here.  Nevertheless, with all of the rain we have had, one of the first things I will be doing tomorrow is going over to the dam to check out how high the lake is.  LOL!

After we setup LeuC, I walked over and met our neighbors.  They are two couples who also have two of their children setup nearby.  The ladies are sisters and they live just 30 miles north of Johnstown, which is about 30 miles to the north of here.  One of the husbands, Jim, yesterday caught a 22-inch brown trout in the river here.  He showed me a picture and it was a monster of a fish.  He caught it using a nightcrawler worm.  Needless to say, the fishing is great here!

Our campground is just lovely with lots of green grass and a beautiful mix of evergreen and deciduous trees dotting the grounds.  We are right along the Youghiogheny River and we can see it from our site.  It is gushing by!

We will be here for 4 nights before we move on into West Virginia.

 

 

Yesterday, it poured and poured.  Thus, we hunkered down and sat out the rain.  As we rested, we surfed the Internet and learned that this area has received about 12 inches of rain since April.  That is a lot of rain.  In fact, that is about a whole year’s worth of rain in Dana Point, California, where we last lived.

Today, the rain started moving out and, as it did, things began to dry out.  So encouraged, we hopped into our little Fiat and returned to the Gettysburg National Military Park.  We wanted to take a tour of the battlefield to see and learn more about this Civil War battle that so impacted the development of our country.

The Park Service offers a guided bus tour which takes you to the major points of interests and has a historian on board who provides a detailed discussion and offers insights on what happened and why during the three-day battle.  It was most interesting and very informative with lots of facts about each of the areas that we saw.

Our first series of stops were near McPherson’s farm where the first day of the battle began as Lee’s army approached from the west and ran into Meade’s scouting cavalry.  Over the course of the day, both armies rushed toward the battle in support.  The day ended with the Confederates pushing the Union soldiers out of the town of Gettysburg and up onto the higher ground overlooking the town.  It was this higher position that ended up being so important in determining the outcome of the battle.

Our next series of stops focused on what happened during the second day’s battles.  During the second day, Lee attacked the two ends of the Union’s line.  A number of these attacks were along the southwestern end of the Union’s position which terminated on a hill called Little Round Top.  General Longstreet (Lee’s second in command) repeatedly attacked this position and while coming very close to taking the hill, ended up being beaten back each time.

VIEWS THAT THE CONFEDERATES HAD OF LITTLE ROUND TOP

 

VIEW OF THE CONFEDERATE’S POSITION FROM THE TOP OF LITTLE ROUND TOP

(this includes the rocky outcrop called Devil’s Den)

A CLOSE UP VIEW OF DEVIL’S DEN WHERE A VICIOUS BATTLE TOOK PLACE

Our last series of stops focused on Lee’s attacks during the third and last day of the battle.  The major attack was General Picket’s charge across the open fields that was between the woods that had hidden Lee’s troops and the Union’s forces along Cemetery Ridge.  This was the center of the Union’s defenses.  Again, Lee’s troop came close to breaking into the Union’s position but was rebuffed each time with a tremendous loss of life.

All told, the Union causalities were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing) and the Confederate’s causalities were 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing).

The tour provided new insights for us into this horrific battle and gave us a better understanding of the slaughter and waste of life that occurred.

Tomorrow we will rest up a bit for our drive to our next campground, which is the Corp of Engineer’s Outflow Campground located near Confluence, Pennsylvania.  This is in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania and is in the western portion of the Allegany Mountains.  It is also near Fort Necessity, where George Washington surrendered to French and Indian forces during the French and Indian War in 1754.

Yesterday, we bundled up LeuC after our wonderful 2-week stay in the Washington DC area and left Virginia.  Our goal was the Codorus State Park just 30 miles or so south of Gettysburg.  It was a very pleasant drive through Northern Virginia, Maryland and into Pennsylvania that took less than 2.5 hours.

During our drive, we commented to each other that we had forgotten how wooded the East Coast is with mile after mile of deep forests dominating the scenery.  No other part of the US is as extensively forested as the East Coast is.  We say this after living in the East Coast, the Midwest and the West Coast as well as driving coast to coast a number of times throughout our lives.  Even driving between our campground in Reston, Virginia to downtown Washington DC we found the various routes we took were though dense forests with roads canopied with tree limbs and dark green leaves.  It was just so verdant and beautiful.

Our campground for the next four days is the 3,500-acre Codorus State Park which is located in the wooded rolling hills of southern York County, Pennsylvania.  The heart of the park is its 1,275-acre Lake Marburg which has 26 miles of shoreline and is a rest stop for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds.  Most of the campsites are in the woods but we are camped in a grassy field, dotted with trees and we are back up next to the woods.

I think this area is where the bigger RVs and trailers are and it was designed so these bigger units have unobstructed views of the TV satellites overhead.  Having satellite TV connection is not a big deal for us because, if we want, we can almost always get local channels though our TV antenna that is affixed to our roof and we can get cable channels through the Internet and then project it from our smart phone or tablets onto our flat screen TVs.

Today, we hopped into our little Fiat and drove into Gettysburg.  While there, we spent most of our time exploring President Eisenhower’s home and farm.  We decided that there is just too much to see in Gettysburg so we will make it a two-day exploration with the home/farm our objective for today and saving the Civil War battlefield for Monday.  This made great sense to us since the battlefield Visitor’s Center was overflowing with people because it was the weekend.  In talking with one of the park rangers, we learned that the Eisenhower home and farm is seldom busy and the battlefield crowds are the worst on the weekends.

To get to Eisenhower home and farm one needs to take a park shuttle bus since no cars are allowed.  It was a short drive and as we arrived we were greeted by two WW II paratroopers.  As it turned out, they were having a small D-day reenactment to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the D-Day landing that General Eisenhower was in charge of.

We both were born during the Eisenhower era but neither one of us really know much about him.  The visit was very interesting as our park ranger guides gave us a number of insights into Eisenhower and the home that he and his wife, Mamie, retired to.  After touring the house, we attended a nice lecture on the first Khrushchev visit to the US that occurred during Eisenhower’s presidency.

Afterwards, we then strolled over to where the paratroopers were bivouacked.  We learned some remarkable facts about what the paratroopers carried during D-Day when they were dropped behind the German lines.  For example, no matter what your weight was, they tried to even out the weight of each paratrooper being dropped to between 250 and 280 pounds.  They did this by adding gear so that when the paratroopers were dropped, they would all descend at about the same rate.  If they did not do this, then the lighter paratroopers would take longer to descend and the troops would be scattered over a larger area.  Of course, this means that the lightest paratrooper would have the heaviest gear!

We also learned that the paratroopers were dropped at just 300 feet of elevation because the German groundfire was so severe.  The pilots did not want to go up to the 600-foot height that was recommended and be an easier target.  We also learned that many of the paratroopers were sick when they were dropped because they had been given a large breakfast before going and that meal was followed with a Dramamine pill to prevent flight sickness.  However, the combination of the big meal, the pill, the rough flight over the English Channel and the stress of the upcoming drop caused many of the paratroopers to vomit during the flight, making the drop very slippery inside the plane.  Yuck!

Instead of writing about what we learned about Eisenhower, which was a lot, I have found an excellent history video that you can watch, if so interested.  It takes a while to load so be patient.  It also has a number of commercials embedded in it that I found annoying.  However, the history part is worth the annoyance.  Click Here To Watch The Eisenhower Video

After our tour of the farm, we were returned to the Gettysburg Visitor’s Center so we decided to taken in the Gettysburg film, Cyclorama and museum since the crowds were now thinning out as it was late in the afternoon.  The film was instructive and the Cyclorama was amazing.  It was originally painted over 135 years ago.  I will post a number of pictures that I took.

Since we will be returning to tour the battlefield on Monday, I thought that you might enjoy watching a great annotated map video of the battle and what led up to it.  It has no commercials embedded in it and, unlike the Eisenhower video, it is relatively short.  It really provided to me a much better understanding of what went on during the three-day battle.  Click Here To Watch The Gettysburg Annotated Map Video.  There is also an excellent 4-minute video that offers great insights as to how and why the Union forces won this battle.  Click Here To Watch The Battle Of Gettysburg 4 Minute Video

 

These last few days have been a whirlwind as we try to cram as much into our diminishing time we have left here near Washington DC.  One day was spent in conducting errands such as doing scheduled maintenance on our little Fiat, grocery shopping, banking and picking up our mail that we had forwarded to one of the Reston area Post Offices.  Another couple of days were spent with Mary Margaret’s sister, Lonie and her husband Rich.  On one of those days they came to see us in LeuC while another day was where we returned to their house for a lunch of Pete’s Pizza, which was delicious.  The fourth day was spent touring the Washington Mall where a number of national memorials and monuments are located.  Specifically, we visited the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials and the Washington Monument.

 

If you have ever visited the Washington Mall you understand how huge it is and how much walking is entailed.  Fortunately, the city runs a bus service that shuttles you around the grounds of the Mall for just $0.50 per person (this is the Senior rate) each time you hop on.  If it were not for this shuttle service, it would have taken us all day and many, many miles of walking to take in just these three sites.  There are many more monuments to see but these were the three we really wanted to focus on.  Actually, my main objective was the Jefferson Memorial.  It has been about 40 years since we were last at that Memorial and I remembered being in awe of the various quotations he had made that were inscribed into the walls of the monument.  I recalled that they captured some of the base values that this country was founded on and that I put so much stock into.  Given the upheaval in values the US seems to be going through with the election of President Trump, I wanted to revisit these quotations and reassure myself of the values that this particular founding father believed in.  I was not disappointed.  I captured them in photos and will share them with you here.

Tomorrow, we bundle up LeuC and make our way up to Pennsylvania to camp near Gettysburg.  We are anxious to return to this Civil War Battlefield which was one of the main turning points of that war.  It also goes to the base values of which we believe this country stands for but seems to be under attack by our country’s current Administration.

Today, our niece’s son, Brendan, formally graduated high school.  As proud relatives, we joined his family and friends and attended his graduation ceremony.  It was a two-hour affair filled with a number of very nice speeches presented by students and facility along with songs sung by students.  It was followed by a tasty spread of hors d’oeuvre and deserts.

The family and friends celebration continued at a tapas restaurant hosted by Brendan’s parents where a stream of tapas kept coming and coming and coming.  I think they would be still coming if enough of us had not started waving to the service staff to stop because we just could not eat anymore!

It was a lovely day, spending this special moment with family, even though Washington DC was once again deluged by another massive storm.  It rained and rained, causing some serious flooding.  However, the wet weather did not dampen our spirits as everyone had a great time.

What made Brendan’s’ graduation so special to me was it fell on the 50^th year of my graduation.  Today, Brendan stands on the great precipice that marks the real beginning of rest of his life, with college, profession, a wife and family, all still in front of him.  And here I stand, looking back on the life that I have been fortunate to have, with college and profession behind me and a wonderful wife and family still wrapped around me.  I can only hope that Brendan can be so lucky as I have been.

There is another really cool part of this story.  It has to do with Brendan’s younger brother, Jamie and Mary Margaret.  You see, they also share this 50-year relationship as Jamie will graduate from high school next year in 2019 while Mary Margaret graduated in 1969, 50 years apart.  It is all about family!

 

 

Today, during a massive rain storm that totally drenched the Washington DC area, Mary Margaret, her two sisters, Lonie and Gaby, their two respective husbands, Rich and Bernie, and I had a wonderful dinner at a very trendy DC restaurant called Sfoglina.  It’s renowned for its pasta and we were not disappointed.  Rich has made the reservations for the 6 of us and we were pleasantly surprised that they had set up a table in a primo room which we had all to ourselves.  Whoo Hoo!  This allowed us to celebrate getting together and having a great time without noise impacts from other tables.

I love pasta and was not disappointed.  I had the chef’s special for the night, which was spugnole pasta with a rabbit ragu and a few sun-dried tomatoes.  It was to die for!  First, I was not familiar with spugnole pasta and was delighted to learn that it is a sponge shaped pasta that is designed to capture lots of sauce, especially light sauces which the rabbit ragu was.  Each bit was a taste sensation with an explosion of flavors bursting on my tongue. OMG!  THE BEST!

The evening was fun as the three sisters and we spouses enjoyed the conversations and the wonderful food and drinks.  There were lots of laughing and grins on faces.  We even had a surprise visit from Lonie’s youngest daughter, Sarah, and her cute little daughter, Finn.  They live just a block or so away and knew that we would be having dinner here.  What a nice treat!

While we were enjoying dinner, a massive storm rolled over the Washington DC area and monsoon like rained pounded on Connecticut Avenue, the street that was in front of us.  The street was not designed for such a downpour and we oohed and ahhed as the street started to become swamped with the rain.  Fortunately, the downpour only lasted a half hour so the flooding was minor.  By the time our dinner was over, the rain had stopped and we were able to walk to our cars without getting wet.  Yea!

Earlier in the day, I had a chance to walk around our campground and explore the park we are staying in.  The pictures I took can give you a better idea of the beauty that I experience so I will not even try to describe it.  I hope you enjoy them.