Home Again

It's been a great trip but we're happy to be home again. It is especially gratifying to have uniterrupted, reliable, and fast connectivity to the Internet!

Our "The End" for this trip is a picture of our mascot and tour guide:

Gettysburg

Friday morning’s cloudy gray skies seemed appropriate for touring the Gettysburg battlefield sites. Over 51,000 were killed, injured, or captured here during the course of three days of battle July 1-3, 1863.

We followed a two hour, 18 mile driving tour with an accompanying audio tape (thanks, Pat and Tom!) which provided a narrative of the battle and the stops along the way.




Something we had not known until recently was that the town of Gettysburg is also the site of Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower’s retirement home – “the only home we ever owned”, now a national historic site. See http://www.nps.gov/eise/ for more information.

Harper's Ferry, West Virginia

The route from the north entrance (exit, in our case) of Skyline Drive/Shenandoah National Park to Gettysburg goes through Harper’s Ferry. We thought it was worth a stop, expecting perhaps a pretty view of the Shenandoah / Potomac River intersection and a historic marker or two.


We were impressed to instead find a 2,500 acre national historic park dedicated to several themes: the environment, 18th-19th century industry and transportation, and of course the Civil War, including John Brown’s 1859 attempted raid of the U.S. armory in town as a first step towards eliminating slavery. A factoid of local interest is that John Brown was born in Torrington Connecticut in 1860 (more information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown).

Harper’s Ferry was also a stop for Merriweather Lewis in his preparation for the famous Lewis & Clark expedition.

Blue Ridge Parkway, Part 2 - REALLY UPDATED THIS TIME 5/19

A good part of the Virginia section of the Blue Ridge Parkway goes through generally more gentle terrain – lower elevations with rolling hills and meadows.


The northern entrance/exit to the parkway leads directly into Skyline Drive of the Shenandoah National Park. Unfortunately, the weather turned rainy, foggy, and windy not to long after we entered the park, so we missed most of the great views:



However, we were fortunate enough to find the rainbow after the rain let up:

WiFi Problems

Many campgrounds boast WiFi in the Good Sam Club campground directory (a telephone-book sized book that has become our bible for finding places to stay).

During last year’s trip, we found that WiFi access does not always encompass the entire campground and learned to always ask for a site with good connectivity.

A year later, we still find WiFi access to be intermittent and not as good as advertised: of the last 4 campgrounds we’ve visited, all of which have claimed great connectivity, we’ve found access to be sporadic at best. At many sites, our connection seems to die midway into loading pictures – which is why the BLOG entries took a while to complete.

We could write a book!!!!

Blue Ridge Parkway Part 1 - Updated with pictures

The 469 mile Blue Ridge Parkway stretches through North Carolina and Virginia from Great Smoky National Park up to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. Tuesday we covered the stretch from Asheville NC to Fancy Gap VA – mile markers 388 to 199. My pre-conceived image of the Blue Ridge Parkway had been that of a longer version of the picturesque Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. I had no idea that the BRP would bring us through mile after mile of breath-taking views, much of it at or above the 4000 foot level through the North Carolina section.


We couldn’t resist a side trip up the Mt. Mitchell (elev. 6,684) auto road, bringing us up to highest peak east of the Mississippi. Mt. Mitchell is part of the Black Mountain Range which boasts several 6,000 footers.



Unfortunately, the 300-yard walking path from the parking lot to the summit was closed due to repairs.


Although higher than Mount Washington, the weather on Mount Mitchell was notably milder; from past experience, I know that the summit of Washington in early-mid May is still snow covered and that the temp’s up there can still be below freezing. By contrast, Mitchell was comfortable, in the 60’s-70’s, with mild breezes and no snow banks in sight.

Just as on New Hampshire’s Kancamagus highway, the Blue Ridge Parkway attracts all types of vehicles – and quite a number bicyclists:

The Biltmore, Asheville N.C.

Built by the then 27 year old batchelor George Vanderbilt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Vanderbilt), the Biltmore was completed in 1895 and boasts four acres (!) of internal floor space, complete with heated indoor pool and bowling alleys.




We did a self-guided tour of the mansion (with rented earphones - highly recommended); internal photographs were not allowed, so we're adding a link to the Biltmore site: http://www.biltmore.com/explore/house/virtualtour.shtml.

Walking through the gift shop, we were quite excited to find a Porter Music Box --- a product of Randolph Vermont! --- on display and for sale!

The Carolina's and Georgia

The drive from Charleston to Atlanta included part of SC route 78, a state highway that brought us through a number of small South Carolina towns. The manager of the local Piggly-Wiggly in Bamberg, where we stopped to pick up a few groceries, came out to see the RV and sent us along our way with a free sample of their cheddar cheese bread.

We had been warned about the Friday afternoon Atlanta traffic and were not disappointed: however, although we had to deal with a full five miles of bumper-to-bumper on I-285, traffic in the opposite direction dragged on for almost 20 miles. (picture of traffic) This is definitely not Vermont (for that matter, I can’t remember seeing anything like this in Connecticut!).

That night we had a lovely time at the home of old friends LuAnne and Tim in Atlanta, who took us on a driving tour of some of the many estates at the north end of the city limits. LuAnne & Tim’s gardens in and of themselves are beautiful and, in our opinion, worthy of inclusion in any home improvement magazine.




Next we headed north to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; the park is bisected by the Tennessee/North Carolina state line which coincides with the Appalachian Mountain Trail.



A short walk to the tower at Clingman's Dome provided a 360 degree view of the park.




Leaving the national park , we began a several day journey along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Based on our life-long New England viewpoint, we’re admittedly somewhat uninformed about eastern U.S. mountain ranges beyond our local Green and White Mountains, and about eastern peaks beyond New Hampshire’s 6,288 foot Mt. Washington. The greater Smoky Mountain area includes a number of 6000 footers, and even the Blue Ridge Parkway reaches a height of just over 6,000 feet at its highest point.

Charleston

We lucked out with the weather as "subtropical storm" Andrea moved away from the area, giving us a sunny day to walk around the old streets of Charleston, South Carolina. We took so many pictures that we can't possibly show them all.

According to the AAA Tour Book, Charleston once passed a city ordinance (but the date is not mentioned) stating that nothing older than 75 years old can be torn down. The result is an old town with quite the variety of architectural styles.

Let's not neglect the Arthur Ravenel bridge spanning the Cooper River on the northeastern approach into the city (http://ravenelbridge.net/):

What Will Future Archaeologists Unearth?

Today was a travel day to make our way from Williamsburg to Charleston SC. The drive down I-95 and I-40 was mostly uneventful until we reached the coast between Wilmington NC and Myrtle Beach. Route 17 in North Myrtle Beach in particular is quite the collection of fast food franchises, outlet malls, golf resorts, and an odd collection of mini-golf courses and family dining establishments.

Our campground, however, was right on the shore and offered views beyond the man-made:

P.S. (Thursday morning 5/10) TIMING IS EVERYTHING. We noticed quite a number of motorcycle carriers as we drove through Myrtle Beach yesterday afternoon. We learned this morning that an annual 10-day Harley Davidson rally starts here today; we're happy to be heading out of town.