Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

Hi Blog. I know we haven't been spending as much time with you as we used to. Now that we are back to vagabonding, we'll try to keep you up to date.  Hurricane Sandy really knocked us for a loop. We also went overboard trying to schedule as many doctor, dentist, mechanic, family visits as humanly possible while back in the Philly area. Next time, we'll try and pace ourselves a little better.

On Tuesday, November 6th, we woke up bright and early and voted. Afterward, we packed up the rig and the cats and headed west. We spent a couple days in Lancaster, PA getting the RV inspected, plus a little warranty work and yearly maintenance.  We have now owned the 5th wheel for two years.

We had reservations at the Ramada in Lancaster only to find out they are no longer pet friendly.  When asked then why did you accept our reservation from petfriendly.com, they had no answer other than WE ARE NO LONGER PET FRIENDLY.  So, you no longer have our business! We had to go out to the parking lot and find another hotel.  It wasn't hard since we were right across the street from Dutch Wonderland Amusement Park and could see at least 15 different hotel/motels down the street.

We visited with our fishing buddies Dick and Evie Bergey at their home in Lititz. We just missed winter storm Athena. The snow didn't make it as far west as Lancaster. However, we did get a few flurries on the way home from dinner. We picked up our rig on Thursday, November 8th and drove south and west to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

Since we will be here until the end of November, we are taking our time getting settled in. We found the grocery store and visitors bureau.  We picked up lots of brochures on all the cool things to do in this area.  Our first order of business was to visit Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. Here is a photo from the site of the arsenal.

Harpers Ferry has a lot of history. Before the Civil War it was a very prosperous and busy city sitting on the point where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers meet. It had a busy rail yard and access to the C&O Canal. During the Civil War, the town changed hands eight times. At it's height, Harpers Ferry had over 3,000 residents.  Today, there are only about 300. Much of the old town remains and most of the point is part of the national park.  Many of the old buildings have been converted into small museums that talk about a particular aspect of Harpers Ferry history. We were not the only visitors in town that day.  Here is a little deer nibbling on the green grass of the armory.  The park rangers stopped traffic to let the doe continue her tour through town.

Here is one of several railroad bridges that cross the rivers.  This one crosses the Potomac to Maryland and has a pedestrian walkway that is also part of the Appalachian Trail.

I don't think we expected Harpers Ferry to be so hilly. The only flat part of town is right next to the river banks.  Everything else was uphill. Here is the view from the back of St. Peter's Church on the way to Jefferson Rock - the rock outcropping that Thomas Jefferson used to survey the area.

After our historic outing, we came back to the rig and built a campfire and at a scrumptious dinner of crock-pot chicken chili, washed down by mead - wine made from honey.  The campground is filled with weekend RV'ers this holiday weekend, and the campfires Friday and Saturday nights were a sight to behold.  People are already leaving this morning, while we walk the campground, sip our morning coffee, hunt for kindling for our next campfire, and watch the weekenders pack up their tents, pop-ups, trailers and 5th wheels.

Today is Sunday, November 11th - Veterans Day.  Thank you to the men and women of the armed services who protect our freedom enabling us to do what we love to do best.