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Weather: High 75/Low 43, Sunny
NPS Stop 12-Independence National Historical Park: https://www.nps.gov/inde/index.htm Philadelphia was initially the capital for this new country we now know as the United States of America. The most famous historical events that happened in Independence Hall were the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Our ranger guides painted an excellent picture of what it might have been like as a representative of one of the original colonies to come to this location and determine what this new land would become, a country ruled by its people and equality for all. We still wrestle with some of the same issues they had back in the 1700s but it is amazing that our forefathers created these documents which we still use to govern our country over 245 years ago! We also visited the iconic Liberty Bell and the ranger took a ‘bellfie’ of us, see it in the photos below! Photos: https://www.nationalparkplanningguides.com/photos.html Current location: https://trackmytour.com/5pTZ3
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Weather: High 66/Low 37, Sunny all day and a bit breezy
NPS Stop 10-Eisenhower National Historic Site: https://www.nps.gov/eise/index.htm This property was purchased in the 1950’s by the Eisenhowers as a retirement home. They enjoyed this property before retirement and even brought international dignitaries to visit their farm. Ike was a very accomplished man and enjoyed raising show cattle and farming during his retirement years. The house was not open for tours but the property is a beautiful piece of land. Photos: https://www.nationalparkplanningguides.com/photos.html Current location: https://trackmytour.com/5pTZ3 Weather: High 66/Low 37, Sunny all day and a bit breezy
NPS Stop 9-Gettysburg National Military Park: https://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm When we arrived in Gettysburg, we took quick trip to the Visitors Center and Bookstore to gather information and start making plans for our time here. The next day we watched the film and visited the Cyclorama which is an amazingly huge oil painting first displayed in Chicago in 1883. The museum was nicely done and has lots of artifacts. Some of the interactive displays were not working (assumed due to COVID) but it was very interesting anyway. We downloaded an auto tour of Gettysburg and did a self-guided tour of the battlefield (3 hours). We like the audio tours because they provide a lot of information and facts but they also include some little know facts and details that are not listed on the story boards, some of them are quite humorous. Weather: High 64/Low 46, Cloudy and cleared later in the day
Drove from Mechanicsburg, PA to Gettysburg, PA. We are staying at Round Top Campground from 4/25 to 4/30. We had to drop the trailer, for the first time, at the entrance and back our RV into our site. There are lots of sites in this hilly campground and most of them are seasonal campers. Weather: 46 and rain off and on all day
Left Wakarusa and drove 500+ miles to Mechanicsburg, PA and spent the night before going to Gettysburg on 4/25. We left the Thor Service Center in Wakarusa, IN on Friday, 4/23 per original plan, but returned to the service center, after driving two hours, because we had a complete failure of our control panel. We have had intermittent electrical problems but now it’s really broken and they know what it is and can fix it. We made some ‘plan improvements’ to adjust for the extra day at the service center and we are back on schedule. Weather: High 37/Low 27, Cloudy, cold, raining, snow predicted
Our RV was serviced on 4/20 and 4/21 and all items have been resolved except for the AGS (Automatic Generator Start) problem. Yes, we will be coming back to the factory one more time. Yes, it did snow, sideways, as a matter of fact. It was pretty on the evergreen trees, and the lawns looked a little like cotton fields but the backdrop was green instead of brown. Some folks have been asking where we are and our current location can be found on TrackMyTour and here is the link: https://trackmytour.com/5pTZ3 We have a few friends who want to know what route we took to get to these sites and below is a Google map version with a little more detail of the highways we took and where we have been so far. Weather: High 53/Low 30, Cloudy morning, sunny late afternoon
The drive to the factory was less than five hours! Cindy thought we were going to have another marathon drive day. We stopped at ATC Trailer and unloaded the Jeep. The trailer is awesome but there is a slight raised area in the center of the floor and Ken wanted them to look at it and see if it was an easy fix. They close the shop early on Friday afternoon, so we didn’t get to talk to anyone and we had lunch in their parking lot. Cindy followed Ken in the Jeep to the factory just a few miles away. We have a full tank of fresh water, 50 AMP service and thank goodness the AquaHot Diesel heat is NOT one of the items that needs repair! We have very limited internet service and for us techno geeks, this is a very bad thing. Weather: High 54/Low 36, Cloudy and cold
NPS Stop 8-Hopewell Cultural National Historic Park: https://www.nps.gov/hocu/index.htm The Visitors Center was not officially open but we were able to talk to a Ranger. We grabbed brochures, stamps and trail maps and began our discovery of the Hopewell Culture. The ancient American Indian mounds were originally discovered on the Hopewell farm, where the first mound was discovered, hence the choice of the name. Archeologists have dug up all sorts of things left from these peoples in what appears to be burial mounds. Some of the buried items came from far away and must have been traded with other groups. The artwork and sculptures tell us something about the life in this time. What is really interesting is that there are several areas of ancient mounds and the size and shape of them is very similar. Where these people nomads? If not, why are there so many groups of mounds built in a like configuration? We thought this area looked a bit familiar and looking back at our stamps, we did visit this site in 2019. Weather: High 62/Low 39, Sunny morning with some drizzle in the afternoon
The trip from SC to OH was filled with pretty views, trees in bloom with white and purple flowers, lots of construction, truckers and hills. Everything was going as planned for the 400+ miles until we got to within 5 miles of the campground. We are technology geeks and operate 3 GPS devices when we travel. This time the GPS’s didn’t agree which exit to take, two said the first exit and the other one said to take the next exit. We took the first exit because two minds are better than one, right? Well… this took us down a narrow country road and we had to crawl under an overpass marked 13’ 9”. We heard the radio antennae tap the underside of this overpass but no other bad noises. Phew, we cleared this one. We continued on about a mile or so and then there was THE SIGN, “LOW CLEARANCE, 10’ 2”!!! YIKES! We started looking for a place to turn around our monster RV and trailer and guess what? There was a sign that said ‘…Take a left here and go back out to the highway…’ and we did. Obviously, this happens frequently and the neighbors who happened to be outside just stared at us as we passed (probably thinking, there goes another one who followed their GPS). We got back on the highway and went under the 13’ 9” overpass again and followed the GPS who did not agree with the other two. We poked along and low and behold, we see the same “LOW CLEARANCE, 10’ 2” sign. You can imagine what Ken said! We pulled over on the side of the road to figure out how we were going to turn around again and then find the campground. A gentleman came over to us and asked us where we were going and gave us directions. We also called the campground and got very vague directions, basically, keep going down the road, don’t make any turns if your GPS says to, look for the blue house on the left and our driveway is opposite it. We did find the blue house and campground. We did not find the low clearance obstacle. Lesson learned: If the GPS’s do not agree, listen to the one in the RV which is specialized for trucks, even if it takes a longer route. Our site is on top of a hill and is very quiet. We have plenty of space to keep the trailer connected and unload the jeep for exploring tomorrow. We do not have internet or cell service for the first time. We forgot how spotty service can be in the mountains. Oh well, the birds singing outside are wonderful. |
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May 2021
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