Historic Gettysburg

Stan . . .

Leaving the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia we moved up into Pennsylvania to spend a week in the Gettysburg area soaking up as much of the history of the area as we could.

The Civil War battle at Gettysburg took place from July 1 - July 3, 1863 and resulted in the highest casualty numbers of any Civil War battle.  There were over 50,000 Union & Confederate soldiers killed, wounded or missing by the time the battle ended.  The 2,200 townspeople of the previously sleepy little town of Gettysburg were left to deal with aftermath of the battle spread out over a 60 square mile area when the Union & Confederate forces left the area beginning on July 4, 1863.

President Abraham Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg in November 19,1863 and spoke for just over 2 minutes to the crowd gathered to dedicate the Soldiers National Cemetery.  That speech - the Gettysburg Address - would become one of the most historic presidential speeches ever made.

Below is a view of the battlefield from Little Round Top as would have been seen by Union soldiers.

Another view of a portion of the battlefield is shown below.

Within a few years after the battle many states began to erect monuments located around the battlefield on the sites where soldiers from their respective states were positioned during the battle.  Pennsylvania had the largest number of soldiers involved in the battle and consequently has the largest commemorative monument located on the battlefield.  Below are several pictures of the Pennsylvania monument.

The National Park Service opened a new Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor/Museum Center in 2008 located on the eastern edge of the battlefield.  Within the Visitor Center was a 360 degree painted cyclorama depicting scenes from the battlefield.  Below is a picture of one area of the cyclorama.

And finally a bronze statue outside the Visitor Center depicting Abraham Lincoln as he awaited his turn to speak at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg.

Monticello Revisited

Stan . . .

We made our way uneventfully from Texas to Ruston, Louisiana, then to Meridian, Mississippi, on northeasterly to Fort Payne, Alabama (hometown of the country music group Alabama), then up through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to Verona, Virginia making one night stops at each of those locations until we got to Verona and decided to take a break for several days.

We chose to stop in Verona so we could do a little sightseeing and enjoy the natural beauty of the area, with our first destination being Monticello, the home of our third president Thomas Jefferson.  We had visited Monticello 27 years earlier on a 2 week family vacation during the time that we lived in West Virginia.  We remembered how much we enjoyed Monticello during that trip and wanted to go back and revisit it again.

The first picture below is the view of the house as seen from the south lawn area (the outdoor area where the family would spend most of their outdoor time.  The main entrance to the house where visitors would arrive was on the north side.

Thomas Jefferson was deeply involved in agriculture (gardening in particular) and raised over 300 varieties of vegetables and fruits during his time at Monticello.  His vegetable garden at the height of his experimentation reached a size of 60 feet wide by 1000 feet long terraced around the hilltop on which Monticello was built.  The below picture shows a portion of his vegetable garden area.

On another terraced area located just below the vegetable garden was were Jefferson unsuccessfully attempted to raise various species of grapes in an attempt to create a vineyard for use in making wine.  He experienced better success with other species of fruits such as apples and peaches.  Below is a picture of his fruit orchard area.

After departing Monticello we took a drive up along Skyline Drive northward before returning to our campground in Verona.  Below are several pictures taken at various points along Skyline Drive.

Back On The Road

Connie ...

Well, here we are back on the road.  It's very exciting to be making our way down the highway.
Our first day has been enjoyable and mostly uneventful, except for losing the vent cover for our water heater.  Not to worry; Stan has already ordered another and it will be waiting for us when we arrive in Gettysburg, PA  next Monday.
The park here in Rustin, LA is very pretty.  It's way back in the woods and backs up to a lovely lake.  The temperature is pleasant and the setting very peaceful. 
Following are some of the scenes from around the campground.  Hope you enjoy and we will be writing again as we go along.  Hope you enjoy!