Nebraska (06-29-19)

Mike and Julie were in the small town of Bayard, Nebraska,  exploring the Chimney Rock Pioneer Crossing area. I had no idea what that was, so I googled it, and its part of the trail the Mormons used to cross the country back in the 1800s.

It turns out, Paul's third great grandfather and his family were Mormon Pioneers who passed by this very place in 1856, on their way to Salt Lake City.

Travelers were always excited to see Chimney Rock, as it marked the psychological halfway point between the beginning of their journey, and their destination. Most had never seen anything like this "chimney" and were fascinated by it.

With most groups of Mormons using the same trail to head west, it was soon a more established route, and was used by the Pony Express, Forty Niner gold miners, and many emigrants who were headed west to Oregon and California. It was designated "the Mormon Trail".







At the small campground we stayed in, there was one traveler who was in the process of hiking the Mormon Trail, and another who was following the Pony Express Route- by horse. Apparently that's not uncommon.

Nearby Scotts Bluff was also recognizable and visible from a long distance. 

 It is now a national monument, with a visitor center ( which was closed for renovations ) and a few hiking trails. 

The four of us took the opportunity to stretch our legs with a 3 mile walk that included a tunnel,  a big hill, and great views of the surrounding area.

This small town amazingly boasts several museums- we checked one out, but the highlight of the visit was trying to rescue Mike from a very talkative clerk/volunteer.












Before moving on to our next destination, we took a scenic drive around the area. We came upon a replica of an 1820s trading post .....

And lots of cows in the road....  They weren't very happy with us, either.















Having come upon Mike and Julie, we weren't ready to leave them yet, so we followed them to their next destination, which was  Fort Robinson State Park, less than 2 hours north.

Fort Robinson started its life as an army camp, in the 1870s, when it was used during the Indian Wars.  Since that time, it has been used for many things- in the 1930s the U.S. Olympic Equestrian team trained here, and during World War II it was a German Prisoner of War camp.




Julie and I liked that it has an Olympic size swimming pool, although we only used it once.

Several of the buildings, which do exist even though I didn't get a single picture of them (borrowed one from the web) have been made into museums, some are used as lodging, and some have been restored.

The four of us took off exploring in the Jeep, not having any idea what we would find. Well, we found a road/trail with very confusing signage. One sign said "Do Not Enter- authorized vehicles Only" or something to that effect.

The other sign said "Jeep Trail" and since we were in a Jeep, Paul decided it meant that we were authorized to use the trail. Off we went, down a one way trail. Did we get caught? Yep. We almost made it, but the "official Jeep Tour" was coming from the other direction. We had to back up and find room to pull off so they could get by.  The ranger guy wasn't too happy with us, but we had fun.




Our other Jeep outing was a little more fun and didn't involve almost getting arrested...We went to Toadstool Geologic Park, where it was hot enough that we elected to hike the shortest trail-  the interpretive Trail.

Julie was in charge of interpreting what we were seeing.

One of the items was what used to be a riverbed. Parts of it are tipped over, making it easier to see the footprints of ancient animals.

We thought it was supposed to be less than a half mile, but we are pretty sure it felt like almost 2 miles. It was really hot out though, so maybe that affected our thinking.

Also at the park was a reconstructed Sod House. You can actually go inside, and the temperature difference was substantial.

Facebook is awesome! That's how we found out that our friends Deloris and Charley were not that far away.  Fore once, things worked out, and the 4 of us jumped in the Jeep to meet them for dinner.

  Of course I didn't take any pictures, except on the way home, when the setting sun lit up the wildflowers and grass to an amazing degree.

Stafford, VA (04-29-13)

This is a first for us- we are driveway camping!  Usually when someone offers for us to stay in their driveway, we decline.  Most people, even when we tell them we are 36 feet long, have no concept of how big we actually are.  But Charley and Deloris are RVers and have spent time in our rig.  We met them in the Florida Keys and when they heard we were headed this way, they offered their driveway to us. 

It still wasn’t easy getting in, but we made it, and we’ll be here for a couple of days before we leave for the other side of Washington DC.

In the meantime we are having fun spending time with them, and exploring this area.  I didn’t know that Stafford was the boyhood home of George Washington, but I do now!  There are a ton of civil war sites in this area, including a brand new park, 10 minutes from Charley’s house.  We went with them and their son Jake to opening day, when they had a re-enactment of a Union Winter Camp.

Charley and Jake were surprised to see that it was a Union camp, since so many of the sites around here are Confederate. 

After having our fill of the  Civil War, we ate at our first “Five Guys” hamburger place.  The burger was excellent, as were the fries.

The weather hasn’t been the greatest, probably because, as Charley says, we moved too far north too fast.  Since it rained the next day, Paul and I decided to head to Quantico, to the National Marine Corp Museum, so we could stay inside all day. This is a free museum, dedicated to all things Marine Corp, and it is very well done.

The Marine Corp was started in 1775 and has been a vital part of our Armed Services ever since.  On the legacy wall there are plaques with pictures and hand written notes from marines.  The notes answered the question “why did you join the Marines” and the answers ranged from the philosophical to “ I was bored after high school”.

There are numerous rooms with information from different eras, including some “immersion” scenes, where you walk into a room and are inside a battle scene, complete with audio and visual. This scene depicts the “frozen Chosin Reservoir” during the Korean War.

The scene below represents the Viet Nam War- you enter through the airplane into a room that is hot, noisy with gunfire, and depicts a medivac situation.

There was an entire room dedicated to the music of the Marine Corp. The Marine Band was established by Congress in 1798, but became more well known under the direction of John Phillip Souza in the late 1800s.  At this virtual stage, we could press a button and listen to the Marine Band play a Souza march. I listened to all 4 that were available, of course.

The last room was a memorial for September 11, 2001

There was a timeline showing the events of the day, and it was all mesmerizing to me.

 

Reading cryptic signs simply stating things such as the time each plane became non-responsive to air traffic control, or when each plane’s GPS tracking device was turned off, was chilling. That day is so etched in our collective memories, it was odd to listen to the conversation of some nearby young teens who were discussing how old they were when it happened. They were all too young to remember it. 

Even though the weather was wet, we only had one more day, so we headed to Fredericksburg to tour the battle sites there.  Fredericksburg was the site of one of the first urban battles.  It was literally fought in the streets and most of the town was destroyed.

Originally a Confederate town, the Union army, led by General Burnsides, arrived to seize Fredericksburg for the North.  Unfortunately for him, he made a few huge tactical errors.  The most costly one was a timing error. He needed pontoon bridges in order to cross the river, and they were two weeks late in arriving.

During those two weeks, General Lee was busy amassing his troops. By the time Burnsides was able to cross the river, the Confederate army was 85,000 men strong, and held the easily defended hillsides of the town. As a result, the battle was one of the bloodiest, one sided battles in the Civil War.  In one day alone, 7500 Union soldiers fell- some wounded, some dead.

With the battle still raging, Richard Kirkland, a confederate soldier, couldn’t stand the injured Union troops cries for water.  He filled canteens full of water and under enemy fire, brought the canteens to the wounded.  When the Union soldiers figured out what he was doing, they stopped shooting at him and cheered him on.  He is called the Angel of Marye’s Heights.

Fredericksburg was at the epicenter of many Civil War battles, and there are over 20,000 Civil War graves in this area.  Very few headstones contain names- most of them are unknown soldiers.