Because the camping fees at Shady Rest Campground was over our usual budget, we didn't stay long before we traveled south to our next half-price Passport America campground. Now we are planning to spend over a week at Walmar Manor Campground. Even though the name is similar, we are not camping in a Walmart parking lot. We are actually in a nice campground in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, with lots to see in this area.
The purple asters are blooming, and the goldenrod is still golden here. Who knew that fall wildflowers could be so beautiful? But the flowers pictured above are overlooking a very somber battlefield. Our new camping site is just 23 miles away from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, so we spent an afternoon there.
These 1860's cannons are pointed toward the battlefields of one of the most remembered places of the Civil War. We took an auto tour route, that lead us around the three-day battle that started here on July 1, 1863.
By July 2 the two armies faced each other, about a mile apart. The Confederates were positioned here on Seminary Ridge. This North Carolina Memorial is one of the many beautiful statues that commemorate the brave soldiers that fought here. This statue was designed by Gutzon Borglum, most famous for creating Mount Rushmore. North Carolina sacrificed more than any other state in the Confederacy with 6,100 fatalities.
We spent most of our time in the car, slowly driving the 25-mile route that circles the battlefields. But there are several towers to climb to see the area from a bird's eye view. Just for the exercise, we climbed each one. You can barely see Mark, half-way up the tower in the picture below.
From there we could see the tree tops, and evidence that autumn is coming to this southern section of Pennsylvania.
The sun was streaming through breaks in the clouds, as we looked over what is now a peaceful valley. The white barn in the left hand corner is on the farm owned by Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower. Now a national memorial, tourists can only visit the farm via a national park shuttle bus. The ranger mentioned that is because Mamie never liked large groups parking on her lawn.
Just like we found northern Pennsylvania to be covered with rocks, the same seems to be true here in the southern part of the state. A different shape than the flat rocks we saw earlier, these cobblestones were also used for stone fences at Gettysburg.
The stops on the auto-tour route present a summary of the battle in chronological order, and Mark is now standing at a memorial on Little Round Top. This was the vantage point of the Union army on the evening of July 2.
From our view on Little Round Top we can look down on one of the bloodiest battlefields at Gettysburg. The Confederates were based around Devils Den, the pile of rocks in the left hand side of the picture below. When they attempted to cross this valley to storm up Little Round Top, 1,200 confederate soldiers were lost.
We normally are light-hearted as we enjoy climbing up and around boulders. But this is a somber and almost religious place, as we know that so many men lost their lives defending this pile of rocks.
Our next stop was the largest memorial on the battlefield. The Pennsylvania Memorial stands near the center of the fighting, and can be seen from almost any location in the national park. The bronze plates at the base includes the engraved names of all of the 34,530 Pennsylvania soldiers that participated in the Battle of Gettysburg.
Since we are temporarily living in the state of Pennsylvania, this feels a little like our home state memorial. Besides, Oklahoma didn't become a state until over forty years after the Civil War. We climbed to the top to get a view, and you can see Denisa with up-raised arms on the top balcony.
From that vantage point, we look over a small section of the national park and can see over 50 memorials around us. Gettysburg national park has more monuments than any other park with a total of 1,328.
Another of the beautiful memorials was built in honor of the Virginia soldiers. Atop the memorial is General Lee riding his favorite horse, Traveler. The open field to the east is where the last Confederate assault of 12,000 soldiers, known as "Pickett's Charge" occurred on July 3.
The one hour battle cost 5,000 Confederate casualties.When that assault was repulsed, General Lee rode his horse to this point to meet his demoralized soldiers. It was then that he knew this battle was over and his forces would begin retreating on July 4. In total this Battle of Gettysburg had left behind 51,000 soldiers that were dead, wounded, or missing.
The last stop in our tour took us to the Soldiers' National Cemetery in the town of Gettysburg.
A group thought that a dignified resting place was needed for the Union soldiers that were hurriedly buried in shallow or mass graves on the battlefield. So four months after the battle, they started moving 3,512 soldiers into individual grave sites in this new cemetery at the edge of town. Since most of the soldiers' names were unknown, they were given a number.
Just like the battlefield, this cemetery has many beautiful memorials to the soldiers that lost their lives at Gettysburg in 1863.
At the dedication of the cemetery in November 1863, Edward Everett delivered an eloquent two-hour speech to the large group that had gathered. But the most remembered speech of the day was the two minute talk given by a tall man. President Lincoln recited the 272 words of the Gettysburg Address while standing in the area that Mark stands today.
We considered not coming to Gettysburg, since we visited here with our sons about 15 years ago. But much has changed, and we are glad that we made the short trip to come again. One of the changes is that a brand new visitor's center now hosts the film, diorama, and battlefield museum. The bad news is that it is owned by the Gettysburg Foundation instead of the national park, so entrance to those things is not covered by our national park pass. We opted for the free option of visiting the battlefields in our car, but there are certainly other options now. One of those is via segways with a guide that gives narrative through headphones.
There are also huge bus tours or smaller van tours. We saw many people with private guides that drive your car through the park while they tell the stories that the individuals ask to hear. Another option is to view the battlegrounds on the back of a horse.
There are plenty of entrepreneurs offering services to the thousands of tourists that visit Gettysburg every day. We were surprised to see that most of the parking lots were full on this weekday in October. It is obviously a place that many Americans feel should be remembered with a prayerful attitude. Even our wildlife picture of the day believes that. As we walked back to our car, we saw a large praying mantis in our parking lot. He was so willing to pose for pictures that we just have to include one.
The northeast section of Pennsylvania is filled with rolling hills that are tagged as "The Endless Mountains." Our trip south means that the trees aren't as far along in their fall foliage change, but we did find some color in these Endless Mountains.
They get enough snow here to host a ski resort, so we hiked up to see what a Pennsylvania ski slope might look like. But the fog hid the top of the mountain and most of the chair lifts. On our drive between New York and Pennsylvania we saw several highway signs warning about the fog, so we're guessing that this is a common phenomenon in the Endless Mountains.
We were at Elk Mountain Ski Resort, that seems to have a disproportionate number of black diamond trails. We also need to point out that Mark is leaning against a fence made of the native field stone--something we have seen over and over as we drove the country roads in this area.
It seems that this flat stone is everywhere. It must be removed from the ground before any plowing or planting can be done. So stacking it into stone fences is a great use for it.
One of those country roads took us to a "you-pick" apple orchard. Mark is modeling the latest in apple-picking fashion. That bag can hold 35 pounds of apples, but we didn't need near that many. It seems that Denisa has an addiction for buying fresh apples, and we are having a hard time eating them as fast as she can buy them.
We picked three new kinds of apples today--Eastern Spy, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith. Some of those names sound familiar, but we haven't ever tried them this fresh. We are delighted with the taste of apples that are tree-ripened and just plucked from the branch. You just can't find that at a grocery store in Oklahoma.
The apples and cider are sold out of a hundred-year-old shed. The owner was happy to tell us all about his orchard, and his love of apples.
Denisa is finding that she likes arched railroad viaducts as much as covered bridges. This day we found our third one in the Endless Mountains--the Starrucca Viaduct. Its size is just amazing, as you can barely see Denisa leaning against one of those large columns.
The Starrucca Viaduct is made of the native Pennsylvania Bluestone, blasted out of a nearby quarry. Built in 1847, it is 1,200 feet long and 110 feet high. Again, Denisa is certainly dwarfed under one of those arches.
Looking straight up at those arches over 100 feet over our heads makes for an interesting picture. The viaduct is 30 feet across at the top, and wide and strong enough to support a thundering train. We are certainly impressed with the engineering of the bridge-makers in this area!
We have been well entertained by the beauty of the Endless Mountains, but our main destination for the day is the Old Mill Village Museum. They had a blacksmith working in his shop, and a woman demonstrating how to make soap from lye and tallow. But we were here because this small community historical museum was hosting a Civil War re-enactment, and the public is invited. The Union army was smaller than we had envisioned, so we just had to imagine this as a small skirmish.
The re-enactors use the same kind of clothing and the same fire arms that were in use in the 1860's. The Union army is putting up a barrage of gun powder against the Confederates on the other side of the grassy meadow.
The Confederate army marched up the hill to face their enemies that were now re-positioned on the hill. This army includes a Father and two sons. We found that participating in these events is often a family affair.
Most of them make a weekend of a re-enactment event--camping in tents and cooking the same way that soldiers over a hundred years ago would. We had conversations with several of the re-enactors, as they explained their love of history that started this interesting hobby. One described his emotions at the Gettysburg re-enactment that included 30,000 soldiers. When we asked how re-enactors knew when they were "hit," he explained that usually happened when they ran out of gun powder. He also grinned and explained that on a hot day, most of the hits happened where the wounded soldier could lie in the shade.
Both armies were backed by the artillery corp, who readied and shot their cannons over and over. Mark caught this picture with the fire shooting out of the cannon, and the gunners covering their ears for protection from the concussion. Denisa can affirm that these shots will make your ears ring if you wander too close.
We had to ask this guy which side of the battle he was going to be on. He quickly answered that his role was as an opportunist--he would always find himself on the winning side.
Re-enactors that are too old for the rigors of war can still find a role in the music corp that adds to the ambiance of the day.
We haven't gotten as much exercise as usual, so after the Civil War, we found one of the local rails-to-trails in the Endless Mountains. On the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail we got to see some of the changing leaves in our new home further south.
We were glad to have our jackets, as the temperatures dipped in the afternoon. We can certainly tell that the days are getting shorter, as it is getting dark before we run out of things we want to do.
We were busy for the two days we had in this area. Our time wasn't endless, even though the mountains were.
The drive south out of New York was a beautiful ride with hillsides filled with changing foliage. Denisa kept saying "oh" and "ah" as we were entertained by the rolling mountains of southern New York.
We've been in New York for several weeks, and we've noticed their road-side signs warning about the fines for texting while driving. The state also provides "text stops" along the highways.
We have passed the Pennsylvania welcome sign as we drove across the narrow section of the state along Lake Erie. But this is the first time we've actually spent a night in this new state. We set up camp at Shady Rest Campground, in the northeast corner of the state near South Gibson, Pennsylvania. We've stayed in a string of full-hook-up private campgrounds, even though we usually prefer state park campgrounds. That is because the recent states charge higher than usual camping rates, that include an extra premium for out-of-state campers.
We found that we are in the middle of a section of the country whose foundation was built on coal, steel, and the railroads. So we headed to Steamtown Museum in nearby Scranton, Pennsylvania. A national historic site, Steamtown showcases everything about the American steam locomotive. Out front is one of the longest steam locomotive engines in the world--appropriately named Big Boy.
There are dozens of steam locomotives on the grounds of the historic site, and visitors are able to climb aboard several of them. This one even comes with the traditional bell that can be rang by all the wanna-be engineers.
There are lots of controls inside the cab, but the steering wheel is strangely missing.
We enjoyed touring through the cars that were often pulled behind these old steam locomotives. This is a business car, built by the Pullman Company. It is best described as a very comfortable rolling hotel for rail travelers. Right behind Mark is a sitting room with couches and chairs for guests to socialize.
There was also a formal dining room (backed with a full kitchen) for meals on the rails.
With a view of one of the bedrooms, we got a snapshot of the first-class travel possibilities on a steam train in the 1930's.
These trains were also a big part of the postal service during this era. They would snag the white canvas bags of outgoing mail that local post offices would leave on poles beside the tracks. That mail was sorted and bagged by postal clerks while the train was moving; and those same bags were thrown from the train for delivery to the post offices along the tracks.
We took an hour-long tour of the machine shop at the museum. There wasn't much work going on this afternoon, but they have all the machinery necessary to do big jobs like changing out tires on these old steam trains.
The machine shop is working on several projects, including this old steam engine that was named, "Constitution" in its heyday in the 1930's.
Steamtown also offers train rides, in passenger cars pulled by steam locomotive #26. This engine was brought back to life in the machine shop that we had just toured. They completed the work, bringing #26 back to its original grandeur with a fresh sparkling coat of black paint. That's when a historian noticed the original engine was actually painted a dark olive green. To keep with its historical correctness, it went back to the shop for a new paint job.
Mark took this picture while he was standing on the tracks, with the engine in gear and puffing smoke. This could be disastrous, except that the gear it was in was actually reverse. The train was backing into the round-house to drop off a passenger car.
The passenger car was disconnected, and we watched as they gave it a spin on the round table in the center of the train museum grounds.
Trains were needed in this area to transport coal, as well as the steel produced here. The Scranton iron furnace, built in the 1800's, is still standing in a public park close to Steamtown.
The columns that were once used to cook a batch of steel, now just cook up an interesting picture with Mark at the top looking down.
Looking at all that steel and old railroads can make a couple of travelers hungry. So we found an equally old diner for lunch. We shared the special on the menu--a cheeseburger, hotdog, bacon, and chili burger on one loaded bun, with a side of french fries with gravy. It was a gourmet healthy food lunch today.
Those steam locomotives needed new tracks across this hilly country-side. So elevated viaducts were built in areas to connect the hills, and bridge over the water. It was fun to drive the country roads to find the famous Tunkhannock railroad viaduct. At close to a half-mile in length, it would have been hard to miss it.
We were already familiar with this bridge since our campground host had recommended we see it. There was also a model of this famous bridge at the Steamtown museum.
The Tunkhannock Viaduct is famous because even though it was built in 1913, it was way ahead of its time from an engineering standpoint. It is made completely of concrete, which was a relatively new building material at the time. Today it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
The sun was setting as we found our next railroad bridge--Martin's Creek Viaduct. This would have been a show-stopper view if we hadn't just seen the largest concrete bridge in the world a few miles before.
It was dark by the time we pulled into our campground. We'll only be here three nights, so we have two full days of touring all that northeast Pennsylvania has to show us.
