Ithaca, NY 7-10-09

My friend since 4th grade and her husband had us over to their beautiful home in Ithaca, which is about an hour away. They gave us the royal tour of the area. This is Taughannock Falls, which is higher than Niagara Falls.

Margot and Fred chose Ithaca for retirement and we can sure see why. There is a wealth of summer and winter activities, cultural opportunities, civic activism, and it isn't far to many other interesting places.

Treman State Park had one breathtaking view after another. We didn't hike into the falls at Watkins Glen since we had seen this one.

The geology of this area was fascinating. The shale is eroded in some places and breaks off in enormous slabs in others.

That's Fred and Ted probably looking at the people walking the trail on the other side of the falls.

Margot and Ted are climbing the many steps back to the top.

Ah, we are back on flat ground

See what I mean about the water eroding the rock?

Ithaca is home to Cornell University. The views from this campus are stunning. There are falls along the walking path, too. Students stay fit just climbing steep hills to get to classes. The style was sun dresses with knee-high socks! Colored tattoos were popular, too.

The Commons is the downtown outdoor mall that was full of people visiting, eating, playing chess, reading, etc. The shops were artsy and fun. This is one of several sculptures in the shopping area.

Watkins Glen and Corning, NY 7-8 & 9-09

Here we are at the Watkins Glen KOA. It is definitely above average for a KOA. The sites were big with large patios. The view out our windshield was of the woods, wild flowers and birds. Mighty nice.

This photo is for our RVing friends. Note the hanging basket of flowers, double swing, and picnic table with metal plate for grill. This place has a walking path through the woods, very nice indoor pool, huge inflated jumping mate, pirate ship playground, play area with equipment for pets, and more. The guys next door to us were a hoot. Their lighted pink flamingo was the most humorous outdoor ornament we have seen. Ted captured these bird photos sitting on our patio. This is an American Goldfinch.

This is a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

This is a Baltimore Oriole. There were other birds that Ted just wasn't able to get.

For those of you who don't know, Watkins Glen sits at the southern end of Seneca Lake, which is one of the Finger Lakes in New York. The drive around the lake was full of beautiful views.

The village is truly that, although there was a WalMart Super Center.

Corning, NY was about 9 miles south our where we stayed. It is bigger and cute.

The downtown buildings are all occupied and seemed to be thriving. The Corning Glass Museum is here. We had fun shopping in the Corning store.

This is for Brent and anyone who is a race fan. Our park was about two miles from here.

We couldn't get any closer, but that is the part of the track that goes up hill into a blind curve.

Trucks and RVs were coming in while we were there, but we couldn't find out what was racing that weekend. There was nothing on the track's website. We heard the cars going on Sunday while we were at our campground. Whatever it was didn't fill up our park.

This is another part of the track.

This is the view from the entrance to the raceway. The weather was cool and sunny almost the whole time. We had one impressive thunderstorm that left our fire pit with about 5 inches of water in it.

July 1, 2009, Gettysburg

I have been a Civil War buff for years, so I took over the blog again to chronicle our trip to Gettysburg.

This house was on General Jubal Early's march route. It is in the neat little town of New Oxford. We were here on July 1. One hundred forty six years earlier to the day, the fighting began on McPherson's Ridge in the area of McPherson's barn seen here.

At the beginning of the day, Union troops were on one side of this fence. By the end, it was in Confederate hands.

These monuments mark the location of Confederate regiments at the end of the first day. The small white monument in the left corner was the left flank.Legend has it that during the heavy fighting, a cannonball hit a tree knocking the top out. A union soldier, noting that a nest of robins had been knocked to the ground, climbed up what remained of the tree and replaced the nest while cannonball and bullets were flying.

These confederate cannons on Seminary Ridge faced the union line at the end of the first day.

This is a statue of General G. K. Warren, the man who probably preserved victory for the Union. He came to the top of this hill, Little Round Top, and noted that it was undefended and Confederate troops were moving toward it. Had it not been for him and the quick action and gallantry of two Union regiments, the battle could have turned out very differently.
From the top of Little Round Top, you can easily see how it commands this part of the battlefield. The rocks you see are called the Devil's Den and the lower area in the bottom right of the photo is called the Slaughter Pen. Both were aptly named. This is the lower part of the infamous Wheatfield. It was the scene of the most prolonged fighting of the battle. The area you see changed hands six times during the course of the battle. It was said that you could walk across it without your feet ever touching the ground because the bodies were so thick.

This is a statue of Father William Corby. As the famed Irish Brigade was about to go into battle, he asked that he be allowed to address them. He urged them to conduct themselves honorably and granted them general absolution for their acts of this day. He was later President of The University of Notre Dame for years. A replica of this statue stands on the campus.

Looking across this cannon, you can see the field where, on July 3rd, Pickett's Charge , the final skirmish of the battle, took place. It was a desparation tactic by the Confederates after failing to dislodge the Union soldiers from their positions in day two. Although casualties were horrendous on both sides, the Confederates were repulsed with a greater loss of life.

The next day, Lee retreated.

This is the railroad station at which Lincoln arrived for the Gettysburg dedication ceremony.

The David Wills house is in the center of Gettysburg. It is where Lincoln stayed while putting the finishing touches on The Gettysburg Address. We didn't take any photos of the Cemetary, so I borrowed this one from the internet.

I had looked forward to visiting Gettysburg, but had not expected it to be such an emotional experience. The overcast that we had all day seemed fitting. Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil with nearly 50,000 casualties. May it forever remain so.

Nearly 150 years after the event, the citizens of Gettysburg do an excellent job of honoring those who fought here. It is obvious that it is more than just a commercial exercise. It is a clean, well kept, beautiful little town with many well maintained period buildings. We saw many people in period clothing and many shops selling it.

If there was an upside to this terrible tragedy, it is in what it has brought to the community. Tourism purportedly brings in excess of $20 million annually to this community of 7,500.

Hershey and Intercouse, PA 6-30 and 7-2-09

Hershey, PA is a pretty town with lots of facilities and schools for the residents thanks to the generosity of Milton Hershey, the founder of Hershey Chocolate. Light fixtures like this alternate with unwrapped chocolate kisses.

The Hershey Factory is in the center of town at the corner of Cocoa and Chocolate Avenues.

The amusement park across the street looked like a great family place.

We spent one day exploring Lancaster County, Amish country. We found a wonderful meat market with scrapple, garlic bologna (and other flavors), tongue souse, shoo-fly pie, and so much more. We stocked up.

This shop had very high-end quilts with exquisite hand quilting. A lady was demonstrating. She told me that she can hand quilt a king sized quilt in two weeks!! Then she showed me a photo of a quilt that she designed and made for a lady in California. The lady paid $6,000 for it. It was multicolored appliqued flowers on black in wall hanging size. It was gorgeous. She pieces all her quilts by hand.

The Old County Store has handmade gifts and food, quilts, fabric, quilt books/supplies, and many quilts made by local Amish women. Each quilt was hand quilted with tiny stitches. King size sold for $1,300. I could have stayed here much longer.

This is the view from the parking lot in Intercourse, PA where the shops were. Don't you love the name. One theory for the name is that "intercourse" meant pleasant mutual fellowship and frequent intermingling, common in a small town of the day. The other explanation is that horse races were held often. Since they began at that end of town, this was the "Enter Course," and this name eventually became Intercourse. The post office had no problem with the name because the word mean a commercial or trading site.

The infamous Three Mile Island is not far from our campground.