Sunday, July 9, 2023
This is a longer than usual post. We have combined the last three days in this post so we will now be current.
2023 Summer Road Trip – Day 3, History Day
Today began with a great breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We cracker-docked last night for a good reason. Antietam National Battlefield is just a short distance down the road and that’s where we start our road trip this morning. But first, since Maryland is a new state for us, we stopped to find a couple of geocaches along the way. Then it was on to the national battlefield. Visiting battlefields always leave us with so many mixed emotions. Antietam and Gettysburg (which we visited later in the day) were both very important battles of the Civil War. We visited the visitors center, got our passport stamped, attended a ranger presentation that gave us the details of the day of the Antietam battle, hour by hour and then did a driving tour of the park. We did the same at Gettysburg, minus the ranger presentation. At the battle of Antietam after just twelve hours of intense fighting 23,000 men had been killed, wounded or listed as missing. It was the single bloodiest day in the history of the United States. Wow. 23,000 men lost in 12 hours, on our own soil. Our own people fighting each other. Also remember that before that battle began, there were just ordinary people, living their ordinary lives, raising their families and livestock and crops, leading peaceful lives on that land turned battlefield. After the battle they had to return, rebuild/repair their homes and barns and replant crops. Some of those same families still own and farm the land around the battlefield. At our visit today, the entire area of the battle was so beautiful and peaceful much like it must have been a few days before the battle yet 23,000 men never made it back home. Lord, please help us avoid making the same mistakes again. Please heal our country.
After our Antietam visit, we headed a little further north to Gettysburg, PA. (New state #2) After pretty much the same schedule and feelings at Gettysburg National Military Park as at Antietam, we drove on to Charlise, PA. where we stayed in our first RV park of this trip. We got a good night’s rest, dumped and filled and excitedly prepared our plans for the coming day.
2023 Summer Road Trip – Day 4 – Friends
We had been looking forward to today because we were meeting a dear friend for breakfast. This visit was the primary reason we took the route we did instead of a more direct route up to Maine, and the Canadian Maritimes. Today we met Janet for breakfast at a delightful local eatery, Sunrise Café Sandwich Shop. The owner/chef greeted us as we entered and then started preparing our orders. A delightful lady who really knows how to cook.
We had not seen Janet since before covid and before her wonderful husband, Harry, died of pancreatic cancer. It was a bittersweet visit with Janet. Memories shared and a few tears were shed. After breakfast Janet invited us to her house – a beautiful place out in the country. So many memories there too. Janet shared some pictures of Harry and the family. We especially enjoyed the ones of Harry and the family sailing. Harry and Janet had shared stories of their sailing with us on one of our projects together. She also showed us Harry’s antique Model A and panel truck that he had told us all about while working on NOMADS projects. He was so proud of those vehicles. Soon it was time for us to leave, but it was hard to do. Before we left we gave Janet a banner, featuring Harry’s picture, that was used at last year’s NOMADS annual meeting. Janet we love you and we will see you again.
We left Carlise enroute to Perkasie, PA to visit with some other friends. We had planned to spend the night at a Harvest Host alpaca farm. However, our friends Phil and Mary invited us to dinner and driveway surf at their home in Perkasie. We stopped by the farm for a tour and a few purchases, informed the hosts what had happened and moved on. Phil and Mary are such wonderful hosts and great friends. We picked up like we had just seen them yesterday rather than several months ago on a project in Florida. They just arrived back, Tuesday, from a trip to Nova Scotia, so they shared lots of valuable information with us. We went on a walking tour of their lovely community and later they served us a wonderful dinner and most importantly we just continued to enjoy our time together. Too soon, it was time to say good night.
2023 Summer Road Trip – Day 5 (Sunday 7/9/2023)– Travel
This gray Sunday morning, we awoke to some heavy clouds and predictions of rain for most of the day and night. It was time to say goodbye to our dear friends Phil and Mary so they could go to mass and we could get on the road. We are so thankful to have had the opportunity of a quick visit. Thank you so much, Phil and Mary. Hopefully it will not be very long before we meet again.
We left Perkasie enroute to a Boondockers Welcome site in Bainbridge, NY. New York is our third new state to RV in (and geocache in) on this trip. We made a quick stop for gas and goodies at a WaWa station and were on our way. Thankfully, even though we did not entirely escape the rain, our drive was uneventful. We arrived at our host’s site about 1:30, pulled into the parking area and were set up in about 5 minutes. Love our little BB. Then the rain started and hasn’t stopped. It’s mostly light rain with spurts of heavier. It’s all good though. The crops need the rain and we planned a short day so we would get caught up on some of our work. It’s very quiet here and with the light rain we should get a good night of sleep and tomorrow will be another travel day.
RVing With a Purpose 