October 8-12, 2009 8 weeks down -the half way point of our American Safari
Thursday was the beginning of our 9th week of this incredible adventure; we packed up after a wonderful week in Mystic and headed south, leaving beautiful Connecticut behind. Another gorgeous drive today leaf peeping along the way . We skirted along New York, staying clear of NYC, just south of Poughkeepsie where Marq went to Vassar. We crossed over into Pennsylvania, stopping at the Delaware River Gap overlooking a huge expanse of orange, yellow, red and green trees. We were now in the Poconos region, once known as the playground of the “Big City rich”. We stopped for the night in Stodsburg, PA.
Friday we headed toward Hershey Town – only to be met by HUGE crowds, traffic jams, and no place to park in sight. We were not sure what was going on, this was Columbus Day Weekend in the East, but this was amazing. We decided to keep on driving and look for my chocolate fix somewhere else. We stopped for the night in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This is an area where many Mennonite and Amish families live and farm. We took a nice drive along Highway 340 and saw many beautiful farms and homes. There were many horse drawn carriages on the road as we drove along. Looks like a simpler way of life for many of the local inhabitants, kind of appealing.
Saturday we headed west through York, Pennsylvania the home town of the Harley Davidson Motorcycle, would have been a great tour to stop for had it not been the weekend. We then drove on to Gettysburg where we revisited the interesting battlegrounds that we saw many years ago with our kids. So much history, so much incredible information to try and understand, so hard to believe that so much happened here in only 3 days in July 1863. The weather was perfect for walking in the battlefields and getting some of the perspective of what the troops saw and felt.
Sunday we finished up our tour of the area by seeing the History Channel prepared video that gave us a better understanding of the battles and the strategies of both the Union and Confederate soldiers. We spent some time walking through the War Cemetery that holds the remains of the 6,000 soldiers that died in the battles and saw the location that President Lincoln gave the immortal Gettysburg Address.
Monday saw us heading south again; we traveled along the interstate about 200 miles to Williamsburg, Virginia. We will have a chance to get some more history lessons tomorrow. What a wonderful experience we are having.