October 23, 2012 - Lincoln Museum and Home

October 23, 2012 - Lincoln Museum and Home.  We left the Sangchris State Park south of Springfield, IL, early this morning to tour the Lincoln Museum.  I snapped a picture of the lake on the way out.  This trip reaffirmed our affinity for state parks.  They are universally clean, spacious and inexpensive, usually costing about half what commercial campgrounds charge. 

Many of the exhibits in the museum have changed since we were there six years ago.  There are scores of senior volunteers who work at the museum.  They all seem so happy to be there.  They are all knowledgeable about the President and his presidency.  The admission price for two old timers was $18.00.  It was well worth the money.  There is a very poignant display of Lincoln's funeral in Washington.  After the funeral, his body was taken by train back to Springfield, IL, for burial.  The trip to Springfield took nearly two weeks, retracing the route he took when he assumed the Presidency in 1861. 

The museum focuses on the war years during which America lost over 600,000 of its sons.  That's more war deaths than World Wars I and II added together.  The total population of the United States at the time was about 30,000,000.  More than half were women and children and 4,000,000 were slaves.  The war took nearly ten percent of the male population.  It was devastating for families and devastating for the nation. 

In route home, we passed through Hannibal.  I couldn't resist photographing the Fifth Street Baptist Church.  The pastor of that church, Reverend Francis Kelly, performed our marriage ceremony in 1968.  Also shown is 1704 Manning, were the Farkley family lived from late 1959 until May, 1962.

So, we are home, a few days earlier than we expected.  That will give us time to clean Harvey and return him to the caves for the winter.  It will also give us time to do a few things around the house before getting back into the routine.  This has been a good trip, one that I wouldn't mind doing again sometime soon. 

Next up is a January, 2013, trip from Texas to Key West along the Gulf of Mexico.  The weather on the Gulf should be a lot more hospitable than here.  Tune back in then.  Until then, take care. 

October 22, 2012 - Washington, PA to Springfield, IL

October 22, 2012 - Washington, PA to Springfield, IL - 500 Miles of Bad Road.  As we drove out of our campground this morning, there were three deer grazing on the lawn.  We then set upon five-hundred miles of bad road, I-70 to I-74 to I-72.  The  road wasn't bad in terms of its quality.  It is just that I don't like competing with 18-wheel trucks for space on the Interstate Highways.   If we had been starting our trip, rather than finishing it, I would have found the Blue Highways.  But, like a barn-sour horse, when we're headed home, I tend to take the fastest route.  Today, that was the Interstate System.  To make the road more unpleasant, it rained on us for a while.  The wipers were barely able to keep the road grime off the windshield.  We did see some pretty Illinois farms after leaving the interstate.  We pulled into Sangchris Lake State Park about 6:00 PM this evening.

Tomorrow, we will visit the Lincoln Presidential Museum, about 15 miles from our campground.  We were there in November, 2006, when we were on the mission of seeing all the Presidential Libraries.  The Lincoln is not technically a part of the Presidential Library system.  It is not owned by the National Archives, as are libraries Hoover through Clinton 

However, the Lincoln is a state-of-the-art tribute to the Life and Presidency of Abraham Lincoln.  I admire Lincoln greatly and want to revisit the museum.  We'll do that in the morning, then drive home from there.  We should be home tomorrow night, unless we get derailed to some other location we find interesting.  It is good to be me.

October 21, 2012, Gettysburg National Cemetery and Visitor Center

October 21, 2012, Gettysburg National Cemetery and Visitor Center.  We toured the National Cemetery and Visitor Center this morning before leaving Gettysburg.  The Cemetery is, of course, sacred ground.  Not all of the 10,000 soldiers killed are buried there.  Many are still buried where they fell although an effort was made to exhume them.  The cemetery was dedicated by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863.  In about 250 words, the President refocused the attention of the nation on the reasons for the war.  He summed it up by declaring this was an opportunity for a "rebirth of freedom."  Lincoln thought the speech fell flat in the moments after he finished.  Little could he have expected that his "few appropriate remarks" would become the most memorized and quoted speech in history.  I recall memorizing it in the 8th grade at Hannibal Junior High School.

The Cyclorama at the Visitor Center has been completely and miraculously restored.  We saw it in 1988 and it was pretty ragged.  From 2003 to 2008 millions were spent to put the wonderful picture back in its original condition.  It is a state-of-the-art 360-degree view of the battlefield on day three just as Pickett's Charge is repelled by Union forces.  I tried to photograph several scenes, but the quality doesn't come through in the reproduction shown above.  You'll just have to see it yourselves.

We are now about 250 miles west of Gettysburg in Washington, Pennsylvania.  We are about 20 miles from the northern finger of West Virginia.  We are about 30 miles from Ohio.  We will spend tomorrow night somewhere around Indianapolis.  We want to revisit the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois.  We should be home Wednesday night.  

October 20, 2012 - Gettysburg on Segways

October 20, 2012 - Gettysburg on Segways.  Have you ever ridden a Segway?  I hadn't until today.  Now, I want one.  It is a cool ride.  We covered the ten-mile trail around the Gettysburg battlefield on Segways today.  After a thirty-minute training session, we set off with a Segway guide and a historical guide on audio fed to us through a plug in our ears.  The entire trip around the battlefield took about three hours with several stops when we "dismounted" the Segways to look and listen to the audio tape.  Each of the Segways was named for a horse which was on the field during the battle.  Mine was named Charlemagne, after the favorite horse of Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, hero of the Battle at Little Round Top and later Governor of Maine. 

We selected the 2:30 PM tour because I wanted the low light of late afternoon for pictures.  It was a beautiful afternoon, with plenty of sunshine and puffy white clouds hanging over the rolling hills and multi-colored forest.  There is a mystique at Gettysburg.  Commonly recognized as the battle which changed the course of the war, it was also the bloodiest battle of the war over its three-day duration.  The battle was won by the Union on July 3, 1863, the same day Vicksburg fell to Grant allowing "the Father of Water to again flow unvexed to the sea."

Today's pictures show the Segway tour and sights along the way.  There are statues of General Lee and Longstreet.  Interestingly, Lee is displayed atop his favorite horse, Traveler.  Lee actually did not use Traveler at Gettysburg.  A few weeks before the battle, Traveler had thrown the General and the General was still in a pout, leaving Traveler in the back while riding a different horse, Lucy Long.  There are also pictures of some Confederate reinactors, views from Little Round Top and the National Cemetery dedicated by Lincoln with the Gettysburg Address.  There is also the ever-present church steeple and colorful trees.  Finally, you will see a solitary bare tree, known as a "witness tree" because it was alive and witnessed the battle, including Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863.  Pickett's Charge, of course, failed to break the Union lines and turned the battle which turned the war. 

Where from here?  I don't know.

October 19, 2012 - Pennsylvania Dutch Country

October 19, 2012 - Pennsylvania Dutch Country.  We first visited the area around Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1988 when the family criss-crossed the country in our 29-foot Tioga.  There is a dominant Amish influence in Dutch country.  Enormous, centuries-old barns blanket the landscape.  The terrain is rolling and is farmed today with horses.  The Amish reject modern conveniences such as motorized vehicles or equipment.  They still use windmills to pump water from their wells and hang their laundry on clotheslines to dry.  I assume the clothing is washed by hand.  They still farm as their forefathers did two centuries ago.

It is a fascinating spectacle.  One of the changes we noticed is that in the last 25 years, the Amish have realized that the rest of us are fascinated with their way of living.  They have capitalized on our curiosity.  So, they make breads, jams, pies, peanut butter and almost everything else that we might want to buy.  They even offer carriage rides and bus service in a long wagon pulled by two horses. 

We tried the shoe fly pie again.  It is as good as I remember it being in 1988. 

We are in Gettysburg tonight and will tour the battlefield tomorrow on Segways, a battery-powered, two-wheeled, self-balancing personal transport.  The tour is audio-guided with a guide leading the way.  The tour company blocks three hours for the tour.  However, the first half-hour is used to train on the Segways.  Yes, we will wear helmets. 

October 18, 2012, Sylvanus Thayer Award - Ike Skelton

October 18, 2012, Sylvanus Thayer Award - Ike Skelton.  Colonel Sylvanus Thayer was one of the early superintendents of West Point.  He is one of the longest serving superintendents and is credited with making the Military Academy the world renown institution it is today.  The Thayer Award is the highest award given by the Military Academy.  I have mentioned other recipients of the award in earlier posts.  Ike received the award last night  He is in grand company.

It was a full day.  We began with a personal tour conducted by a major who teaches history at the Academy.  Afterwards, we had lunch with the Superintendent at his residence - the residence is pictured in an earlier post.  The Superintendent is a three-star general who considers the assignment to be the apex of his career.  There was a reception at the West Point Club, followed by a full review of the 4400 cadets attending West Point.  Ike was, of course, the honoree of the review and did a motorized inspection of the cadets.  Then dinner was served to 5000 attendees at the mess hall, an incredibly impressive structure with six wings.  Ike received the award following dinner and offered appropriate remarks. The dinner was followed by yet another reception in Haig Hall - named for General Alexander Haig who served as President Nixon's Chief of Staff.

Today's pictures attempt to capture the glory of the day.  The sky was clear until the review with temperatures in the lower 70s.  It is hard to describe the grandeur of seeing 4400 cadets marching in stride and saluting our friend, Ike.  It is a great honor for him and we are extremely happy for him.

Most of the pictures are self-explanatory.  The statues commemorate some of the highest achieving graduates of West Point, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower.  The chain links displayed are the few surviving links of a chain strung across the Hudson River during the Revolutionary War.  Commander-in-Chief, George Washington, personally ordered the placement of the chain to keep the British from navigating the river and, in so doing, cutting the colonies in half.  The chapel is the protestant chapel at the Academy, another massive and impressive structure providing seating for 1500 cadets. 

It was a good day.  We are so pleased to have been included.