September 10, 2007 Champion, PA

We drove to Somerset, PA and did some shopping at WalMart Supercenter. Grocery time. The rest of the day has been laid back. Tomorrow we leave Pennsylvania and are not sure where we are going next. We will probably make a decision when we get started driving. We either will head through Wheeling, WV back through Southern Ohio or take the northern route through Pittsburgh and then toward Cleveland. If we go south, we definitely will not stay at the Grand Haven Resort in Loudonville,OH again. That was a mild disaster when we were there during the floods all around us. The damaged Monty is the one item that we will probably recall from that stop. Maybe we will try Zanesville. Seems like a nice stop and only a few hours away.

September 9, 2007 Champion, PA

Sister and Brother in Law had to leave early today so we played a round of Adventure Golf first. What a great two weekends in a row we have had - last week in Virginia touring Fredericksburg and area and this week in Pennsylvania touring the Flight 93 Temporary Memorial and Johnstown. Thanks for making two great weekends into fabulous weekends. Sorry that they had to go early but it had to be. Several years ago when we were camping in Gettysburg, they came up and spent some time with us and we were introduced to Adventure Golf at that time. That is Putt Putt on steroids. We finally got a chance to do it again. Such fun. It was great this time because we were there when they were opening and there were no others on the course with us. I am so proud of my sister. She is a nurse at Bethesda Naval Hospital and the other day received an award and Admiral's Coin from the Admiral at the hospital. We took the rest of the day and, so far, have done nothing noteworthy - reading the Sunday papers, doing the puzzles, watching football on TV and napping. This is the first lay back day we have taken in a while and it feels great. We now have a week to make it to Goshen for the Montana Owners Rally. It is only 400 miles so we will be able to really take our time. Yesterday we forgot to tell about a really nice, small Italian restaurant in Ligonier, Rosalie's Jioio's Little Italy Restaurant. The food was homemade, fresh and delicious. The place was very small and had people lining up for take out. Busy as it was, the food was great and the service was friendly and efficient.

September 8, 2007 Somerset County and Johnstown, PA

Today was another gut wrenching day. We traveled to rural, mountainous Somerset County, PA and saw the temporary memorial to Flight 93. This is the site where, on September 11, 2001, Flight 93, bound from Newark, NJ to San Francisco, CA, crashed killing all 33 passengers, 7 crew members and 4 hijackers who had been on board. The plane was taken over with the intention of flying it into either The White House or The Capitol. Several crew and passengers were able to use their cell phones to inform authorities and families that they had been hijacked and they were, in turn, advised that two planes had just crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City and now it was confirmed that these crashes had not been accidental. The crew and passengers took a vote and decided to rush the hijackers in order to keep them from crashing into Washington, DC. The plane then crashed, saving the lives of untold numbers of innocent people. "Lets Roll" became a famous saying coming from one of the passengers, starting the actions that took control away from the hijackers. Selfless, humble, bold and brave - those were the people on board Flight 93. It was truly awesome being here with a wide range of types of people who all were so respectful of this site. There was a wall with momentos left by organizations and individuals. The momentos that would be damaged by weather are taken in regularly and preserved by the National Park Service. We then traveled to Johnstown, PA, the site of the great flood of 1889. We started in South Fork, a small town 14 miles upstream from Johnstown. Here the steel magnates from Pittsburgh had built an exclusive club along the Conemaugh River. There was an earthen dam here and the club used it to make a two mile long lake. The dam fell into disrepair and during a tremendous rain storm, the dam was overrun by water. This eroded the earthen dam rapidly and eventually a forty foot tall wall of water was rushing downriver at 35 miles per hour. Johnstown was an industrial town of 30,000 which had withstood floods in the past. They had never faced one this powerful before and after the "ten minutes of hell" were over, at least 2,209 persons were dead, either from drowning, being battered by debris or burned in the ensuing fires. It was fascinating to see the negligence and downright haughtiness that led to this series of fatal events. The exclusive club and its prominent members were never held accountable for any of the actions that led to this tragedy. The last two photographs show before and after shots of the town. These were taken at the Flood Museum.

September 7, 2007 Front Royal, VA to Champion, PA

Today was moving day again. We left this morning from Front Royal, VA and drove to the Roaring Run Resort in Champion, PA. As we were leaving the park in our Montana, we saw a sign on a travel trailer with the sign "Poor Mans Montana" and a mountain logo from a Montana. We crossed from Virginia into West Virginia, then into Maryland and finally into Pennsylvania. I was using the rest room in a rest area along I-81 somewhere south of Hagerstown, MD and heard someone approach from the rear and poke my shoulder, muttering something. Men just don't talk with strangers at urinals and I wondered what was happening. It was my brother in law who, along with my sister, had pulled into the same rest area, spotted the Monty and the next thing there was a family reunion in the rest area. We were going to meet in Champion, Pa but now had someone to travel with. My sister walked up to Carol, who was sitting in the truck unaware that they were even in the same state, let alone the same rest area. A beautiful day became so much better at this time. The mountain views from the Pennsylvania Turnpike are still awesome but, after Skyline Drive the other night, seemed somewhat tamer this trip. We are going to Johnstown, PA tomorrow to research the great flood.

September 6, 2007 Harpers Ferry, WV

We traveled to Harpers Ferry, WV, this morning. This was about an hours drive through the Shenandoah Valley. This is an old town built on the high rising banks of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. The Shenandoah forms from the Potomac here. This is the town that the raid by John Brown actually led to the beginnings of the Civil War. This raid led to heated discussions, succession and then the actual war. He was an abolitionist who led a band of several, including Afro-Americans in an attempt to free slaves. Harpers Ferry was on the waters where the two rivers are together and the railroads also were here. Because of its proximity to the railroads and rivers, the United States Government created one of two arsenals and armories here to manufacture its arms and ammunition. The armory was located on the banks of the river. After the war began, both sides knew the strategic and logistic value of Harpers Ferry and the town changed hands eight times during the war, all but destroying the armory and much of the town. Today, the armory is gone but much of the town still stands. Coming into town on High Street is a real treat - old homes and shops coming right up to the narrow street. The old buildings which housed general stores, taverns, rooming houses and the Provost Marshal's office are open to the public. The National Park Service has restored and takes very good care of this downtown area. The old town, the portions along the rivers and immediately downtown, are where the restorations have taken place. A tree in an open area near the old armory has a tag identifying it as being from 1775. It is gnarled but still stands. In a book written about Civil War battles that we have read, the author suggests that one stand at a location near the former armory called The Point and imagine the feelings that a person would have had when the enemy was firing heavily at the city from the high mountains along the rivers. It was an awe inspiring experience. It was not difficult imagining what the workers, soldiers and townspeople must have seen and felt under this bombardment. Since the town changed hands eight times, it must have been bombarded at least eight times. This position would have been much simpler to conquer and almost impossible to defend. From the high ground, all could be seen and destroyed. Once again, we learned so much in a short period of time. We now have seen the origins of the much storied and sung about Shenandoah River. Also, the town is part of West Virginia, which was part of Virginia and withdrew from the CSA because the majority of the people in these parts believed in abolition during a time that slavery was prevalent.

September 5, 2007 Gordonsville to Front Royal, VA and Skyline Drive

We finally pulled out of Shenandoah Resort in Gordonsville, VA this morning and have checked into North Fork Resort in Front Royal, VA. During my walk before leaving, the horses even came out to wish us a safe journey. The resort is in the process of constructing several Yurts for rental purposes, canvas walled and roofed but with a wooden frame and floor. As we left, we saw that the first one is almost finished. They can be best described as fancy, luxury tents. After setting up in Front Royal, we took a drive along part of Skyline Drive. This is the beginning of this route through the Shenandoah Valley National Park that continues on into North Carolina into the Smokys. It ends in Waynesville, NC, where we camped this spring. We were on this road for approximately four hours and used up all of our combined quotas of "oohs" and "aahs." We took 198 photographs today. What a difference from when we had the film cameras with film to develop and prints to purchase before we were able to see what we had shot. We saw 11 or so deer and an elk. The roadway has many scenic overlooks where we could pull over, park and just admire what rugged beauty God has produced in the Appalachians. We also saw how, during the Civil War, both sides used this high ground to observe and spot troop movements in the valleys below. We are so wonderfully fortunate to be able to see so much of our own beautiful country. Every time we see something new we wonder how it can be topped. Then we move on and it seems to be topped with something else new to us. What a country.

September 4, 2007 Gordonsville and Spotsylvania, VA

We finally made it to Spotsylvania. This was the site of a very long, bloody, costly in manpower series of battles. From the stalemate at The Wilderness, General Grant saw the intersection at Spotsylvania, next to the court house, as the spot to beat General Lee so that he could stop Lee's retreat to Richmond. He believed that the war could be ended here, if he stopped Lee. Lee won the race and was waiting for Grant. This turned into a war of attrition with Grant knowing that he had almost unlimited manpower and that Lee had a dwindling force. Grant believed that he could end the war by simply overpowering Lee with a tide of manpower - if his losses were great, the north could stand them better than the south could. What looked, prior to going there, to be a small area that could be observed in a very short time turned into another several hours of observation. At Gettysburg, we took our time looking and reading and now have a good feel for what took place. We took this attitude into this tour and, once again, came out with a tremendous understanding of what actually occurred. We saw earthwork bunkers that had been dug and logs and trees piled onto them. The trenches are still there but the logs and bunkers have disintegrated in the hot, humid, insect infested Virginia environment. A reproduction of one of these bunkers is present. The Spotsylvania Tourism Center stated that the bunkers were similar to those used in World War I. The 17th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment fought in this battle and the units of the 17th are listed on the only unit marker that we saw here.