A quick post from Kutztown, PA

We came up here for nostalgic reasons, Jan wanted to go to the Kutztown Folk Festival that she hadn't been to since way back in 1973 when she took me before we got married.  We took the horse and wagon.  But mother nature kind of nixed the plan with hard constant rain.  So not to be outfoxed, she decided we should go to the Allentown Farmers Market instead.  We both have fond memories of coming there from, yeah, about the same time frame.  We remembered fresh ground beef that Viv would bring back that we would all eat raw with onion on top, Vern's favorite ring bologna, homemade horseradish ground right in front of you, scrapple and souse, shoo fly pie, produce, etc.

Now I know you can't go back, but we did, and we had a good time, with a few changes.  Can you imagine that, after, dare I say 40 plus years?  They don't grind horseradish there anymore, not allowed:-(  But, it was great, we planned to have breakfast there, and that was super, homemade Amish apple fritters, and we also managed to share a real bagel and cream cheese.

So we got half of a extra wet shoo fly pie, homemade horseradish, made off premises now, apple butter, a bunch of produce, exceptional half sour pickles, lebanon bologna, an order of perogies and onions, and an honest to goodness italian hoagie for our lunch later. So now we are back and holed up in the pouring rain, enjoying a cup of coffee and a slice of magnificent pie, doing absolutely nothing.  What a good day!

Gettysburg

We spent 2 more days in Gettysburg, toured the battlefield again in the truck to try to pick up and understand some of it that we missed or couldn't visualize from horseback, and then walked around downtown looking at the different points of interest.  We saw where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, and where he wrote most of it.  Many of the buildings are still standing that were there during the battle.  I'll tell you, even for non Civil War buffs as we are, it is a very interesting and sobering place.

The synopsis of the end of the battle from my perspective.  The Confederates were winning from the very beginning of the battle, which was not planned by the way.  It began north and west of town of Gettysburg with 2400 inhabitants.   After, the Confederates set up along Seminary Ridge, south and west of town, and the Union was, actually retreated back to Cemetery Ridge, south and east of town.  Downtown was pretty much no man's land, as the Confederates set up snipers in many of the buildings, and would pick off anyone that moved out on the streets.  The townspeople retreated into their cellars, those that were not attending wounded.  In fact, here is a shot of a building that was used as a sniper point and you can still see the bullet holes and scars.

They shot out of the tiny window at the top
and since this side of the building faced the
Union lines you can see all the bullet holes

The shooting started on July 1st, and it was hot.  It was on July 2nd that they had taken up positions as described.  Meade had instructed Major General Sickle to hold the line from Little Round Top to Cemetery Ridge, but he disobeyed orders and moved his men forward to a Peach Orchard, a full mile ahead of his ordered position, where he formed a salient or "bend" in his line that was attacked and overrun by the South.  This was the effective end of his career.  They fell back to Little Round Top which was held by the North, but the valley below became a killing field referred to as the "Valley of Death".

The rock pile on the left was "Devil's Den" where the south set up sharpshooters
The valley directly below and around the road is the "Valley of Death"

The string of monuments in the distance is the approximate location
of the Union line along Cemetery Ridge anchored by Little Round
Top where we are standing

On July 3rd, both sides started the artillery barrage, likely the largest of the war, both sides firing hundreds of guns for 1 to 2 hours.  The problem was they both were for the most part overfiring each other, and as the wind was calm, visibility lowered so they could not see what they were firing.  Gen Hunt, the Union general for the artillery ordered his guns to stop firing and to conserve ammunition.  He even ordered the cannons to cease firing one by one to make the South believe they were being destroyed.  The South believed when this happened that they had decimated the North's cannons.  Gen Longstreet was ordered to attack, and although was against it indicated to Pickett to charge the Union lines, so the famous "Pickett's Charge" began with 12,500 men moving towards the Union lines.  The artillery that was not destroyed started decimating the Confederates, but on they came, hindered further by having to cross several fence lines from the farms in the area, still they came up to as close as several hundred feet.  In only 45 minutes the South retreated leaving some 6,000 killed and wounded on the battlefield.  Yes, a very sobering event.

Pickett's Charge came from behind the farm back along the trees in
the distance, Seminary Ridge.  If you look close, you can see some of the
fence lines they had to cross.  The stone wall in the foreground is as far as they got.

Another view, more of the charge came from the right as well

This is the Pennsylvania Monument placed on the Union line along
Cemetery Ridge.  It has all 34,000+ Pennsylvania soldier's names that participated
in the battle.  Very impressive.

 After the charge was put down, Lee ordered Pickett who was inconsolable about the charge who disagreed with Lee about the charge, to rally his division for the defense, he answered, "General Lee, I have no division."  Meade never attacked again and Lee moved his troops off the the west and south, and although Meade once he got reassembled followed did not catch up to Lee in his retreat.  No one ever learned what Lee's thinking was and why he ordered the charge, he never wrote memoirs, and his battle report was cursory, most of the other officers involved were casualties so those reports were never written either.

This was a turning point for the Civil War, even though it went on for 2 more years.  Total casualties were 51,000 killed, wounded, or captured for the 3 days.

A couple milestones

We had a nice trip over to Gettysburg.  West Virginia is a pretty state, and as I said before there are no straight or level roads and that includes the interstate, constantly curvy, up 6% grades and then after chugging to the top of the hill, then back down the 6% grade on the other side.  The Jake brake definitely got a workout.  And a little over halfway here we passed one milestone, 100,000 miles on the coach.  It had 9,000 miles on it when we bought it in 2008, so about 13,000 miles a year.

Missed the exact mileage too busy going up and down hill:-)

Second milestone.  Now those of you that know me know how I feel about horses.  Mostly ambivalent, but I know they know that and want to get me.  As a kid we rode quite often as we traveled around, but I enjoyed it less and less and then in college when I got thrown off and almost trampled I decided that was it for horses.  I don't know much about them, don't trust them, and am real uncomfortable around them.  Horseback riding is NOT in my wheelhouse!  Having said that, as we were researching our trip to Gettysburg, one of the most recommended ways to see and learn about the battlefield was on horseback.  Oh boy!  Well, I can now tell you I survived (and enjoyed) our 3 hour battlefield tour.  We went with a great outfit, Hickory Hollow Farm that accommodated my nervousness and weight.  We were accompanied by a licensed Battlefield guide who was an absolute wealth of knowledge about the battle.  We believe we went about 8 miles or so, and started behind the Confederate lines and worked our way across the lines into Union territory right by the spot of Pickett's Charge, which was the "end" of the battle with a terrible loss of lives, and broke Lee's winning streak.  We went as far as Little Round Top.  Gettysburg was the turning point of the war, although it went on for another 2 years.  It was a beautiful day in a beautiful spot made almost overwhelming to realize how many died and were wounded on those hallowed grounds.  And to think it was American against American makes it even worse.

My huge "Sonny"

Oh wow

Following our guide

A happy Jan, although her horse, "Big Moe" was kind
of a pain, young, and a little independent

The two of us in front of the Trostle Farm, right to the right
of Jan's arm you can see a cannonball hole in the brick

We had a great time, yeah, me too.  And I have to admit the horse was okay, and the ride was fantastic.  Maybe more in the future?????

Summerville Lake and the New River Gorge

As we were driving towards WV, it popped into my mind that there was a bridge, a really high bridge that they either bungee jumped off or parachuted off or something.  Jan looked it up on her phone and sure enough the New River Gorge bridge, which used to be the second highest bridge in the US at 876', and is now the 3rd highest, was just 10 miles down the road from our campground.  And for those of you like me that wondered what is higher, it's the Royal Gorge Bridge in Cañon City, CO at 955', and the newly constructed Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge at 890' just below the Hoover Dam.  They close the bridge one day a year on the 3rd Saturday of October for Bridge Day when you can walk across the bridge, it is normally closed to foot traffic, and parachute off if you so desire, no Jan and I will not be coming back to do that!

From the viewing platform

From the old bridge built in 1902

So after we got the bridge covered, we wanted to do a little exploring to include a few hikes.  Summerville Lake is really beautiful, 28,000 acres with 60 miles of shoreline.  It is very clear water and is surrounded by sandstone cliffs.  We found a hike to Long Point, a rocky point on a curve of the lake.  It was a pretty nice 4 mile trail in the deep woods, now I should mention while we have been here we have been plagued with rain showers, clouds, and high humidity, so add that to the dense woods, it made for a pretty sticky and buggy trail, but very pretty.

Our trail

Beautiful rhododendrons

View from the end of the trail

Looking back at Long Point from a viewpoint

Pretty rugged

We were both pretty soaked by the time we got back, so we cleaned up, and went down to the bridge visitor center.

Lots of rafting here

So kind of by accident we found the old road that winds down along the side of the gorge and over the old bridge and as we were climbing back up out of the gorge, almost getting run over by all the rafting buses returning from the river, we found what looked like another interesting hike to the Kaymoor Mine ruins that was described as a one way 2 mile hike, perfect, we'll come back and do it.

Meanwhile we learned of the Sandstone Falls and there was a gorgeous picture of it in the visitor center.  It said it had a nice 3/4 mile loop trail and a picnic area, so off we went with our picnic lunch the next day.  It is the largest waterfall on the New River, about 1500' across with a height from 10' to 25'.

A small view from above

Rocky and constantly changing

Not a bad spot for a picnic

Another view

The interesting thing about getting there is you have to go south about 7.5 miles past the falls, cross the river and drive back up to the walkway.  All good but wow we can tell you, there are NO flat or straight roads in WV!  In fact some of the numbered routes are so narrow you can't pass a car without stopping and getting to a spot where you squeeze through!

A main road in WV!

It was a nice drive, picnic, and walk around the falls.  The GPS almost got us lost on a tiny dirt and mud road on the way back, but we got it figured out.

So today we went back to the Kaymoor Mine hike, and it was pretty nice, again, the humidity, dripping trees, and the heat made it a bit wet, Karen, you can be glad in a way you weren't able to make it because this was truly "oppressive humidity"!  And I was a bit miffed at first as our fairly level hike went right up the mountain for the first 1/2 mile!  But it was good and enjoyable.

A waterfall across the trail

One of the mine openings

This is a vent and the cold air was just pouring out!

Basically, all that is left

A view from the mine site

About 800 people worked at this mine that was open from 1900 to 1962, there was a community along the river some 500' below and another settlement about 500' above.  The pay in the 1902 was about $1/day for a 10 hour day, now the thing that got me was reading that the vein of coal in this mine was 36" thick, so the area the miners worked in was about that high!  Can you imagine 10 hours a day and most of it working in a space that small, and they went on further that this was considered a fairly thick vein!!  All in all 16,900,000 tons of coal were produced here.

The vegetation is so thick you can't really appreciate the location of this mine on the face of the gorge like you can out west with few trees to obscure the view.  There was a set of steps, 800 in fact that would take you down the 560' feet to the river below, we opted not to do that:-)

Had a nice walk out, all down hill you know.  So now we are bracing for more thunderstorms and getting ready to leave tomorrow for Gettysburg.

A pretty fungus beside the trail

Water flowing everywhere

West Virginia

I left you thinking no doubt that all we were doing was working on stuff and biding our time, not so.  We have gotten pretty interested in bourbon, sounds better than we're drinking a lot of bourbon, huh?  Anyway, while we are in Kentucky we are not too far from the Bourbon Trail, so it's only appropriate that we visit, and of course, sample some bourbon.  We had gone to Makers Mark a couple times, and decided to visit Four Roses this time which makes one of our favorites, Four Roses Small Batch.  Jan and I were hoping our friends John and Diane were going to be able to join us, but unfortunately they couldn't make it, so off we went.  It is a unique distillery in that it was built with a Spanish Mission Style unusual for Kentucky.

Four Roses

Inside it is much the same as others, which makes perfect sense since all bourbon has to be pretty much the same by definition.

     It has to be made in the USA

     It has to contain at least 51% corn

     It has to be aged in new charred oak barrels that can only be used once

     It has to be bottled at at least 80 proof

But the interesting thing is is that they all taste different, hence the fun and enjoyment of imbibing:-)

The fermenting vats

The distillery

The "doubler" which does exactly that, doubles the
alcohol content

And the best time, the sampling!

We also had heard there was a farm nearby raising all natural bison and we had never gotten there for some reason.  We love bison and eat it often, but other than ground bison it is difficult to find.  Jan looked it up and found Woodland Farm, a 1000 acre historical farm that raises not only all natural bison, but also pork, eggs, and produce.  

We went to visit which was a kick as it was apparent they have a sense of whimsy along with some great product.

Along the entrance

Herds of snails

It was a great find, and we picked up quite a bit, and it was an opportunity for Karen to have bison for the first time, which she enjoyed.  Also we were able to get some eggs which were dynamite!

Multi-colored goodness

And now we are in Summerville, WV, about 300 miles east of Louisville.  Jan and I have spent very little time in this state, so we wanted to give it a visit.  The drive over was non eventful until we got within 50 miles or so when it became narrow, very winding, and  hairpinny, is that a word?  

A bit of a challenge!

We had to take both lanes to get around a couple of turns, but it was worth it, here's the view from our campsite.

Nice, huh?