All in under 100 miles, round trip.

Tuesday, August 12

The weather was questionable this morning. It had started storming during the night, and there were flash flood warnings out for the area, but the rain was pretty much done by 9 am.

We started with Gettysburg, and the clouds actually made the morning a little less hot than it had been, so it was fairly pleasant. We had the good sense to hire a personal guide (costs the same as taking a bus tour for the three of us.) Joel, from South Dakota, has a degree in history and a passion for the Civil War. He drove the car, and spent three hours taking us around the battlefield. He covered the battle in a mostly chronological order, beginning with day one as the troops from each side began converging on the town of Gettysburg, and ending with Pickett’s charge on day three. He really brought it to life for us. We’d each been here before, but none of us had gotten so much out of it as we did this time.

After a lovely lunch downtown (where we critiqued the grammar, but loved the food and the owner), we drove to Harpers Ferry, which is situated where the Shenandoah River enters the Potomac. The weather had cleared up, and it did get fairly warm, but the scenery on the drive was gorgeous – rolling hills, cattle, horses.

At Harpers Ferry, you can see three states: West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia. We drove into and out of all three – only about one minute in Virginia (don’t blink) – and ended back in Gettysburg where we are staying again tonight.

Tomorrow, up early and on the road to Dayton, Ohio, to visit the National Museum of the USAF. At least, Dad and Paul will visit it.

Mark: I’ll have Paul take photos for you, because I’m probably gonna skip it.