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A blog for the benefit of friends and family, allowing me to keep in touch while I'm on holiday.
Saturday, July 12, 2003
Not really a letter from America this, since I'm now back home in dear old Blighty. But I thought I should finish the story for all you devoted readers out there.
The day after I last wrote, on Sunday, Chris Palmer and I visited the battlefield of Gettysburg. It's a marvellously well preserved place, and a must see if you have any interest in the American Civil War. To give a very brief summary for non-wargamers, it was the turning point of the Civil War, with the Confederate army under General Robert E Lee attempting to march on Washington, and being met and repulsed by the Union army under General Meade. Lee didn't want to fight at Gettysburg, but his mission was to engage and destroy the Union army and thus end the war, so when the first day of fighting went well for the confederates, he decided to risk a battle. The Union army managed to get dug in, with very good positions on either flank where they repelled the Confederate attacks on the second day. On the third day, Lee decided an all or nothing attack would break the Union position. A massive artillery bombardment was followed by what became known as "Pickett's Charge", in which the Confederates poured across an open killing ground between two ridgelines. Despite terrible losses, the Rebels managed to break the Union line at one point, but not in sufficient strength to exploit the breach. That position would become known as the "Highwater mark" of the Confederacy, and it would be the closest they came to winning the war and defeating the North.
The position of every unit on the battlefield is marked by a memorial, and artillery positions often have one or two vintage guns marking them as well. It was amazing to see the actual land where they fought a hundred and forty years ago. And we were visiting just a couple of days after the anniversary, so it was the same time of year, which gave an impression of the sort of heat they were fighting in. I was particularly thrilled to visit the position of the 20th Maine Infantry regiment, right at the extreme left of the Union position at the hill called Little Round Top. I stood and worked out how they would have been deployed, looking at the ground and the position markers, and in my mind's eye could almost see the ragged line of Confederates working their way up the wooded hillside, to be met by a fusilade of fire from the 20th Maine's position. Later that night, we watched the section of the Gettysburg movie which featured the regiment's finest moment, when after hours of heavy fighting and almost out of ammunition, the 20th broke the final rebel attack with a bayonet counter-charge down and across the slope.
There are three things you must do if you visit Gettysburg. First, see the Electric Map show. This is a 1950s vintage attraction, featuring a detailed sculpted terrain of the countryside on which troop movements are indicated using state of the art electric bulb technology. Everything there looks like it's original 1950s vintage, from the seating and decor to the taped "Mr Voice Over" narrator.
Next is the Cyclorama, a huge 360 degree panoramic painting featuring Pickett's Charge on the third day. It portrays the view from the Cyclorama center's current location, so after it's over you can go up onto the roof and see the real ground that you've just seen in the painting. The painting is displayed in a light and sound show which again is not exactly state of the art, but the overall effect gives you good feel for the battleground detail.
Finally in the gift shop get either the tape or CD tour and drive around the battlefield. It talks you through the route and is the best way to see everything - the field is just too big to walk being about 5 miles from one end of the line to the other. Be warned that the running time does not include any time to explore or the many times you are asked to pause the tape until you reach point X, so the two and a quarter hour tour we took lasted about six hours (and we only stopped at less than half of the stopping points.)
Monday, Chris took me up to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he and his mother work in an antique market. Lancaster is the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, so there's good eatin' there! An all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for less than five bucks gets you unlimited bacon, pancakes, sausage and what have you.. let's just say I met my match.
Lancaster is also Amish country, and we saw quite a few. They're not quite as insular as they are sometimes portrayed, and have adopted many modern necessities, so although they are forbidden to own a motor vehicle, most have drivers licenses so they can operate borrowed or hired cars, or mechanical farm machinery (on the way in I saw one driving a little mechanical digger up the road). And although they are not permitted to have a phone line to the house, many have phones in outbuildings which may be used for business or emergency purposes only.
We visited the railway museum at Strasburg, which features a restored line running vintage steam trains, and got to ride on one of those monsters. The line started off with a bunch of railroad enthusiasts running a restored engine up and down a few hundred yards of track for kicks, and now they run hourly tourist trains from Strasburg to the nearby town of Paradise, through beautiful farmland.
After this I said my fairwells to Chris and his mom, and as a parting gift Chris gave me a genuine Indian stone arrowhead and spearpoint, and the real prize, a genunine 1863 vintage one cent piece. Although obviously impossible to prove, it may well have been carried in the pocket of some anonymous soldier in the Civil war, which is kind of awe inspiring.
This was really the end of the holiday, the rest of Monday I drove most of the way across Pennsylvania, pausing only to pick up my Amish Hat and "I (heart) Intercourse PA" coffee mug... oh yeah that's Pennsylvania's one big joke, that they have a town called "Intercourse", so you can get T-shirts and baseball caps bearing slogans like "Maryland has crabs, but Pennsylvania has Intercourse". They really milk that joke to death.
I stopped for the night at a small town called Donegal just off Interstate 76, planning to spend the following morning visiting Fort Ligonier, a French & Indian Wars vintage fort (think "Last of the Mohicans) that had been rebuilt. But that night the heavens opened, there were terrible thunderstorms and flood warnings the following morning, so Tuesday I decided not to take any chances and pushed on back to Columbus. Incidentally as I was leaving I discovered that I was fairly close to Falling Water, the famous Frank Lloyd Wright house with the stream that runs through the middle of the house, but with the thuderstorms I'd had enough falling water to last me. Tuesday afternoon I reached the Red Roof Inn at Reynoldsburg after a couple of shopping stops on the way, and spend an easy afternoon and evening packing my bags. I had to buy a third bag to fit all the purchases into, and even then I had to fly home wearing my Amish hat.
The flights home were less comfortable than the flights out. Partly I guess it was due to the lack of excitement at heading off on the big adventure. Some of it was no doubt down to the fact the flights started in the afternoon and evening and I arrived home in the morning out of sync and not having slept for 24 hours. And surely matters were not helped by the rowdy drunk on the transatlantic flight, who supplemented the in-flight safety movie with his own suggestion that we should "kiss our asses goodbye" and later on assaulted a flight attendant. Glad to say he was an American by the sound of it.
Arrived back in Manchester around 9:00 on Thursday morning, to be greeted by the news of the fatal minibus accident on the motorway which ground traffic to and from the airport to a halt. There were very few taxis, and the one I got was at first unwilling to take me past the accident as he said it would take him two hours to get back. But eventually I made it back home where after a couple of days of fractured sleep patterns I'm mostly back to normal, except for what's shaping up to be a stinker of a cold, possibly as a result of coming back to a much cooler climate.
So what have I learned from the trip? Well the Yanks are generally nice people. That whole "Have a nice day" culture that we find so phoney is mostly quite sincere to them. They're also a lot less cynical than we are - they really do buy into the Red White and Blue thing, that makes our Last Night of the Proms seem positively half hearted.
Most things are cheaper over there than here, consumer goods tended to match our sterling price with a dollar price (so a Playstation which might cost £150 here would cost $150 there, for example) Some store bought foods were a little dearer, but eating out was dirt cheap. And it's true what they say about the obesity epidemic over there - I felt quite petite at times.
Things I never got to do - while there I never found either a Twinkie, or Jolt Cola (which may or may not exist) and I didn't eat at Dunkin Donuts (although I did every other food chain I found - my favourite being the Wendy's burger chain, although IHOP comes a close second)
While there I developed a Milk Duds problem - Milk Duds are chocolate covered toffees a bit like the toffee fingers in Quality Street chocolates. I quickly got addicted, so I'm giving away the packs I brought back. I also tried Fat-Free Pringles snacks, which are made with Olestra, an oil substitute that the body can't digest. Just as tasty as regular Pringles, but I found that the rumours about the effects of Olestra on the body's digestive system were true.
All in all I had a whale of a time, and can't wait to go back next year. A friend of mine wants to go too, and there are a couple of gaming conventions which if we could attend if the dates fall right. I'll leave this diary open until then, and next time I'll plan my route a bit more carefully and see if I can't stay in better contact all the time. Until then this is your American correspondant signing off for the last time this year.
Chris Johnston
Manchester, England
The day after I last wrote, on Sunday, Chris Palmer and I visited the battlefield of Gettysburg. It's a marvellously well preserved place, and a must see if you have any interest in the American Civil War. To give a very brief summary for non-wargamers, it was the turning point of the Civil War, with the Confederate army under General Robert E Lee attempting to march on Washington, and being met and repulsed by the Union army under General Meade. Lee didn't want to fight at Gettysburg, but his mission was to engage and destroy the Union army and thus end the war, so when the first day of fighting went well for the confederates, he decided to risk a battle. The Union army managed to get dug in, with very good positions on either flank where they repelled the Confederate attacks on the second day. On the third day, Lee decided an all or nothing attack would break the Union position. A massive artillery bombardment was followed by what became known as "Pickett's Charge", in which the Confederates poured across an open killing ground between two ridgelines. Despite terrible losses, the Rebels managed to break the Union line at one point, but not in sufficient strength to exploit the breach. That position would become known as the "Highwater mark" of the Confederacy, and it would be the closest they came to winning the war and defeating the North.
The position of every unit on the battlefield is marked by a memorial, and artillery positions often have one or two vintage guns marking them as well. It was amazing to see the actual land where they fought a hundred and forty years ago. And we were visiting just a couple of days after the anniversary, so it was the same time of year, which gave an impression of the sort of heat they were fighting in. I was particularly thrilled to visit the position of the 20th Maine Infantry regiment, right at the extreme left of the Union position at the hill called Little Round Top. I stood and worked out how they would have been deployed, looking at the ground and the position markers, and in my mind's eye could almost see the ragged line of Confederates working their way up the wooded hillside, to be met by a fusilade of fire from the 20th Maine's position. Later that night, we watched the section of the Gettysburg movie which featured the regiment's finest moment, when after hours of heavy fighting and almost out of ammunition, the 20th broke the final rebel attack with a bayonet counter-charge down and across the slope.
There are three things you must do if you visit Gettysburg. First, see the Electric Map show. This is a 1950s vintage attraction, featuring a detailed sculpted terrain of the countryside on which troop movements are indicated using state of the art electric bulb technology. Everything there looks like it's original 1950s vintage, from the seating and decor to the taped "Mr Voice Over" narrator.
Next is the Cyclorama, a huge 360 degree panoramic painting featuring Pickett's Charge on the third day. It portrays the view from the Cyclorama center's current location, so after it's over you can go up onto the roof and see the real ground that you've just seen in the painting. The painting is displayed in a light and sound show which again is not exactly state of the art, but the overall effect gives you good feel for the battleground detail.
Finally in the gift shop get either the tape or CD tour and drive around the battlefield. It talks you through the route and is the best way to see everything - the field is just too big to walk being about 5 miles from one end of the line to the other. Be warned that the running time does not include any time to explore or the many times you are asked to pause the tape until you reach point X, so the two and a quarter hour tour we took lasted about six hours (and we only stopped at less than half of the stopping points.)
Monday, Chris took me up to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he and his mother work in an antique market. Lancaster is the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, so there's good eatin' there! An all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for less than five bucks gets you unlimited bacon, pancakes, sausage and what have you.. let's just say I met my match.
Lancaster is also Amish country, and we saw quite a few. They're not quite as insular as they are sometimes portrayed, and have adopted many modern necessities, so although they are forbidden to own a motor vehicle, most have drivers licenses so they can operate borrowed or hired cars, or mechanical farm machinery (on the way in I saw one driving a little mechanical digger up the road). And although they are not permitted to have a phone line to the house, many have phones in outbuildings which may be used for business or emergency purposes only.
We visited the railway museum at Strasburg, which features a restored line running vintage steam trains, and got to ride on one of those monsters. The line started off with a bunch of railroad enthusiasts running a restored engine up and down a few hundred yards of track for kicks, and now they run hourly tourist trains from Strasburg to the nearby town of Paradise, through beautiful farmland.
After this I said my fairwells to Chris and his mom, and as a parting gift Chris gave me a genuine Indian stone arrowhead and spearpoint, and the real prize, a genunine 1863 vintage one cent piece. Although obviously impossible to prove, it may well have been carried in the pocket of some anonymous soldier in the Civil war, which is kind of awe inspiring.
This was really the end of the holiday, the rest of Monday I drove most of the way across Pennsylvania, pausing only to pick up my Amish Hat and "I (heart) Intercourse PA" coffee mug... oh yeah that's Pennsylvania's one big joke, that they have a town called "Intercourse", so you can get T-shirts and baseball caps bearing slogans like "Maryland has crabs, but Pennsylvania has Intercourse". They really milk that joke to death.
I stopped for the night at a small town called Donegal just off Interstate 76, planning to spend the following morning visiting Fort Ligonier, a French & Indian Wars vintage fort (think "Last of the Mohicans) that had been rebuilt. But that night the heavens opened, there were terrible thunderstorms and flood warnings the following morning, so Tuesday I decided not to take any chances and pushed on back to Columbus. Incidentally as I was leaving I discovered that I was fairly close to Falling Water, the famous Frank Lloyd Wright house with the stream that runs through the middle of the house, but with the thuderstorms I'd had enough falling water to last me. Tuesday afternoon I reached the Red Roof Inn at Reynoldsburg after a couple of shopping stops on the way, and spend an easy afternoon and evening packing my bags. I had to buy a third bag to fit all the purchases into, and even then I had to fly home wearing my Amish hat.
The flights home were less comfortable than the flights out. Partly I guess it was due to the lack of excitement at heading off on the big adventure. Some of it was no doubt down to the fact the flights started in the afternoon and evening and I arrived home in the morning out of sync and not having slept for 24 hours. And surely matters were not helped by the rowdy drunk on the transatlantic flight, who supplemented the in-flight safety movie with his own suggestion that we should "kiss our asses goodbye" and later on assaulted a flight attendant. Glad to say he was an American by the sound of it.
Arrived back in Manchester around 9:00 on Thursday morning, to be greeted by the news of the fatal minibus accident on the motorway which ground traffic to and from the airport to a halt. There were very few taxis, and the one I got was at first unwilling to take me past the accident as he said it would take him two hours to get back. But eventually I made it back home where after a couple of days of fractured sleep patterns I'm mostly back to normal, except for what's shaping up to be a stinker of a cold, possibly as a result of coming back to a much cooler climate.
So what have I learned from the trip? Well the Yanks are generally nice people. That whole "Have a nice day" culture that we find so phoney is mostly quite sincere to them. They're also a lot less cynical than we are - they really do buy into the Red White and Blue thing, that makes our Last Night of the Proms seem positively half hearted.
Most things are cheaper over there than here, consumer goods tended to match our sterling price with a dollar price (so a Playstation which might cost £150 here would cost $150 there, for example) Some store bought foods were a little dearer, but eating out was dirt cheap. And it's true what they say about the obesity epidemic over there - I felt quite petite at times.
Things I never got to do - while there I never found either a Twinkie, or Jolt Cola (which may or may not exist) and I didn't eat at Dunkin Donuts (although I did every other food chain I found - my favourite being the Wendy's burger chain, although IHOP comes a close second)
While there I developed a Milk Duds problem - Milk Duds are chocolate covered toffees a bit like the toffee fingers in Quality Street chocolates. I quickly got addicted, so I'm giving away the packs I brought back. I also tried Fat-Free Pringles snacks, which are made with Olestra, an oil substitute that the body can't digest. Just as tasty as regular Pringles, but I found that the rumours about the effects of Olestra on the body's digestive system were true.
All in all I had a whale of a time, and can't wait to go back next year. A friend of mine wants to go too, and there are a couple of gaming conventions which if we could attend if the dates fall right. I'll leave this diary open until then, and next time I'll plan my route a bit more carefully and see if I can't stay in better contact all the time. Until then this is your American correspondant signing off for the last time this year.
Chris Johnston
Manchester, England
Saturday, July 05, 2003
I'm in Edgewood, Maryland now, visiting with Chris & Jennifer Palmer. I'm on their computer, and they have a dial-up connection so I'll have to be brief.
Got here the day before yesterday, Hotel is good although there was a mix-up and they put me in a smoking room. I stropped a bit, but it all sorted out in the end. Went with Chris to his local wargaming group and took part in a game there, a car racing game, and guess what, I won! Obviously driving on the left is better training Heh heh heh.
Yesterday was the 4th July, first we had a pancake breakfast at the local high school, where we then saw the traditional turtle racing and frog jumping events - the local kids all loot the countryside of wildlife and makes them compete - not sure what the Animal Rights folks would say back home. After that it was off to Chris's parents house for a traditional crab feast. And yes, the crabs were live and struggling as they went into the pot - one of them nabbed the other Chris for a flesh wound. I was inducted into the fine art of eating crabs, which involved a lot of surgery and scooping out of bits - not sure I liked that part, but the resulting crab meat was delicious. Then we went down to the main street to watch the 4th July parade. Lots of floats from local businesses, lots of patriotic hoo-har and marching bands. We were near the end of the route by which time a lot of the participants were flagging, but some still put on a good show. Then back to the elder Palmers house to watch the fireworks display from their front garden. All in all a really nice day - Mrs Palmer insisted I take some tea-bags and milk back with me so I could enjoy a cuppa in the hotel room.
Today I've mainly been chilling out, doing a little shopping. I'm at the younger Palmers' house now and we're going out for a meal and possibly a movie. the plan is to stay in this area tomorrow, then head out to Lancaster Pennsylvania on Monday on the return leg of the journey to Columbus for the flight home on Wednesday.
Having a great time, will write again as soon as I can.
Got here the day before yesterday, Hotel is good although there was a mix-up and they put me in a smoking room. I stropped a bit, but it all sorted out in the end. Went with Chris to his local wargaming group and took part in a game there, a car racing game, and guess what, I won! Obviously driving on the left is better training Heh heh heh.
Yesterday was the 4th July, first we had a pancake breakfast at the local high school, where we then saw the traditional turtle racing and frog jumping events - the local kids all loot the countryside of wildlife and makes them compete - not sure what the Animal Rights folks would say back home. After that it was off to Chris's parents house for a traditional crab feast. And yes, the crabs were live and struggling as they went into the pot - one of them nabbed the other Chris for a flesh wound. I was inducted into the fine art of eating crabs, which involved a lot of surgery and scooping out of bits - not sure I liked that part, but the resulting crab meat was delicious. Then we went down to the main street to watch the 4th July parade. Lots of floats from local businesses, lots of patriotic hoo-har and marching bands. We were near the end of the route by which time a lot of the participants were flagging, but some still put on a good show. Then back to the elder Palmers house to watch the fireworks display from their front garden. All in all a really nice day - Mrs Palmer insisted I take some tea-bags and milk back with me so I could enjoy a cuppa in the hotel room.
Today I've mainly been chilling out, doing a little shopping. I'm at the younger Palmers' house now and we're going out for a meal and possibly a movie. the plan is to stay in this area tomorrow, then head out to Lancaster Pennsylvania on Monday on the return leg of the journey to Columbus for the flight home on Wednesday.
Having a great time, will write again as soon as I can.
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
First thing's first - I'm not dead. I have however been in Virginia, which may be considered a similar fate. Unfortunately the idea of public internet access hasn't caught on south of the Appalachians, judging by the complete blank looks I got from the various hotel clerks I asked.
Anyway, what have I been doing? Monday I went and picked up the car. On the way the cabbie said that I really ought to upgrade the Cavalier (pronounced cah-vah-lee-ay, french style over here) to something bigger and "More American", so when the Avis clerk offered me an upgrade for $3 a day, I went for it. My steed is a Chevy Impala, modern, air conditioned, electric everything and CRUISE CONTROL. This is fantastic, the way driving ought to be. You accelerate up to cruising speed, hit the button and it maintains you at that speed. Brilliant! I've had no problems at all with the driving. At first I struggled to judge the car width to my right, and hit the gravel at the edge of the road a couple of times as a result, but no damage. Now it seems quite natural.
So, astride my gas-guzzling steed, I headed south, through some very nice countryside into West Virginia. I called it quits in Charleston, West Virginia, or more accurately Kanawha City, which leeches on to Charleston the same way Salford does to Manchester. This was a fairly industrialised town, and the neighbourhoods I drove through were a bit rough, but the motel itself - and this was your classic American Motel where you park right outside your room door, was in the nicer end of town, on what we would call a trading estate (a bit like Trafford Park), with several restaurants and diners all around.
Tuesday I continued south, crossing over into Virginia proper into the area known as the Shenandoah Valley. This was a key area in the Civil War, and saw a lot of action. I stopped off for an hour or so in Lexington, a very historic town which is full of very old buildings often used for period movies. I visited the house of General "Stonewall" Jackson and the Virginia Military Institute, of which more later. I then swung north-east, heading up the valley and stopped in a town called Staunton for the night.
This morning I started early. I had been planning to do the "American Frontier LIfe" museum in Staunton, a recreation of four period farms. But unfortunately the heavens had other ideas, I'd run headlong into the after effects of "Tropical Storm Bill". Bill has just hit the southern coast quite badly, causing massive flooding, and although he'd died out and become reclassified as a "depression", he was still causing bad weather much further north.
So rather than trudging around a farm in the pissing rain, I decided to go underground. There are several large underground cavern complexes here that sounded interesting... until I saw what they were charging for entry ($17) Over ten quid to look at a hole in the ground? Bollocks to that, says I. Just then I saw a sign to "New Market Battlefield". And this is where it gets interesting. Remember the Virginia Military Institute (VMI)? Well during the Civil War, a bunch of cadets were called up to serve in the army of the South, and at New Market made a charge that went down in history. A bunch of kids, aged 15-19, held the centre line, and made a desperate charge into the teeth of an enemy artillery position. The battlefield was great, if very wet, and I got to walk the path that those kids took all those years ago. Pretty poigniant I can tell you. Looking at the ground, it was a marvel they only lost ten boys instead of many more. The field they charged across was churned and muddy, and most of them lost their shoes in the deep mud, earning the place the name "The Field of Lost Shoes".
And here's the especially poigniant part. On their march from Lexinton, guess where they camped the night before the battle. That's right, Staunton, the same place I'd stayed the night before. I'd unwittingly been retracing their steps the past two days.
On from Newmarket, I headed up to Manassas. This was my planned stopping point for the night, as it's the site of the first battle of the American Civil War, and another battle in the same place some time later (first and second Bull Run). Unfortunately, like the old song goes "They paved paradise, put up a parking lot". The place was completely developed with strip malls and Burger Kings and all sorts of modern nastiness. I changed my mind (notice a theme developing here?) and decided to push on towards Baltimore.
That's when I ran into the first real traffic of the trip, on Interstate 495 around Washington DC. It ground to a stop, and it took me a couple of hours to get around it and onto I95, which is where I've stopped at a place called Laurel, about halfway to Baltimore. And they have internet access in their cafe here.. ahhh civilisation again!
So I'm tired, piss wet through, and footsore, but I'm otherwise well and having the time of my life. Tomorrow's plan is to visit Baltimore and just see what the place is like, ending up in a hotel on the other side of the city in Edgewood, which I have a reservation for, and where I'll be meeting up again with Chris and Jennifer Palmer, for the 4th July celebrations. Chris said I could use his computer, so I'll definitely be able to post again in the next couple of days.
Hope all is well back home.
Anyway, what have I been doing? Monday I went and picked up the car. On the way the cabbie said that I really ought to upgrade the Cavalier (pronounced cah-vah-lee-ay, french style over here) to something bigger and "More American", so when the Avis clerk offered me an upgrade for $3 a day, I went for it. My steed is a Chevy Impala, modern, air conditioned, electric everything and CRUISE CONTROL. This is fantastic, the way driving ought to be. You accelerate up to cruising speed, hit the button and it maintains you at that speed. Brilliant! I've had no problems at all with the driving. At first I struggled to judge the car width to my right, and hit the gravel at the edge of the road a couple of times as a result, but no damage. Now it seems quite natural.
So, astride my gas-guzzling steed, I headed south, through some very nice countryside into West Virginia. I called it quits in Charleston, West Virginia, or more accurately Kanawha City, which leeches on to Charleston the same way Salford does to Manchester. This was a fairly industrialised town, and the neighbourhoods I drove through were a bit rough, but the motel itself - and this was your classic American Motel where you park right outside your room door, was in the nicer end of town, on what we would call a trading estate (a bit like Trafford Park), with several restaurants and diners all around.
Tuesday I continued south, crossing over into Virginia proper into the area known as the Shenandoah Valley. This was a key area in the Civil War, and saw a lot of action. I stopped off for an hour or so in Lexington, a very historic town which is full of very old buildings often used for period movies. I visited the house of General "Stonewall" Jackson and the Virginia Military Institute, of which more later. I then swung north-east, heading up the valley and stopped in a town called Staunton for the night.
This morning I started early. I had been planning to do the "American Frontier LIfe" museum in Staunton, a recreation of four period farms. But unfortunately the heavens had other ideas, I'd run headlong into the after effects of "Tropical Storm Bill". Bill has just hit the southern coast quite badly, causing massive flooding, and although he'd died out and become reclassified as a "depression", he was still causing bad weather much further north.
So rather than trudging around a farm in the pissing rain, I decided to go underground. There are several large underground cavern complexes here that sounded interesting... until I saw what they were charging for entry ($17) Over ten quid to look at a hole in the ground? Bollocks to that, says I. Just then I saw a sign to "New Market Battlefield". And this is where it gets interesting. Remember the Virginia Military Institute (VMI)? Well during the Civil War, a bunch of cadets were called up to serve in the army of the South, and at New Market made a charge that went down in history. A bunch of kids, aged 15-19, held the centre line, and made a desperate charge into the teeth of an enemy artillery position. The battlefield was great, if very wet, and I got to walk the path that those kids took all those years ago. Pretty poigniant I can tell you. Looking at the ground, it was a marvel they only lost ten boys instead of many more. The field they charged across was churned and muddy, and most of them lost their shoes in the deep mud, earning the place the name "The Field of Lost Shoes".
And here's the especially poigniant part. On their march from Lexinton, guess where they camped the night before the battle. That's right, Staunton, the same place I'd stayed the night before. I'd unwittingly been retracing their steps the past two days.
On from Newmarket, I headed up to Manassas. This was my planned stopping point for the night, as it's the site of the first battle of the American Civil War, and another battle in the same place some time later (first and second Bull Run). Unfortunately, like the old song goes "They paved paradise, put up a parking lot". The place was completely developed with strip malls and Burger Kings and all sorts of modern nastiness. I changed my mind (notice a theme developing here?) and decided to push on towards Baltimore.
That's when I ran into the first real traffic of the trip, on Interstate 495 around Washington DC. It ground to a stop, and it took me a couple of hours to get around it and onto I95, which is where I've stopped at a place called Laurel, about halfway to Baltimore. And they have internet access in their cafe here.. ahhh civilisation again!
So I'm tired, piss wet through, and footsore, but I'm otherwise well and having the time of my life. Tomorrow's plan is to visit Baltimore and just see what the place is like, ending up in a hotel on the other side of the city in Edgewood, which I have a reservation for, and where I'll be meeting up again with Chris and Jennifer Palmer, for the 4th July celebrations. Chris said I could use his computer, so I'll definitely be able to post again in the next couple of days.
Hope all is well back home.
