Day 4

Day 4<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

4th May 2007

 

Again up around 8.30ish, this time with Bob having had a bad night, rather than me who had had one the night before.  Breakfast was at the diner where we had had dinner the previous evening- a true truckers’ diner with indecent portions of everything.  In our case we restricted ourselves to a couple of eggs each and ham (Mary) and corned beef hash (Bob).  Bob continues the narrative.

 

Then, after the rigmarole of repacking and working out how to use the fuel pump, what fuel to use and asking directions, we headed off through Harper’s Ferry towards <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Sharpsburg.  Harper’s Ferry is famous for being the site of John Brown’s raid on the Federal Arsenal in 1859, one of the contributing events that built the tension giving rise to the American Civil War, 18561-65.  John Brown became a great hero of the Northern armies, lending his name to “John Brown’s body lies a-mould’ring in the grave…”  Harper’s Ferry was also a key strategic crossing of the Potomac, that divided Maryland from Virginia (three states meet there, West Virginia being the other one), and was thus a route for two invasions of the North by Confederate armies, in 1862 and 1863.  The one in 1862 culminated in the Battle of Antietam Creek, or Sharpsburg, the one in 1863 at Gettysburg, which, combined with Grant’s victory at Vicksburg, was seen as the turning point in the war and thus provided the perfect setting for Abe Lincoln to play a typical politician’s role and spout the Gettysburg Address, one of the great masterpieces of political oratory of the era.  The Battle of Antietam Creek saw the most casualties in one day of any battle in the whole Civil War.  If I remember correctly, something like 62,000 died in one day.  Looking out across the field from the position occupied by the Confederate artillery, it was just possible to imagine what it might have been like.  The whole area had a feeling that was hard to comprehend.  Everything was so quiet and serene now, but past events had given it an indefinable aura. Unfortunately, the storyboards sited on Harper’s Ferry Road to describe this were not as clear as they could have been and I wished I’d had a map to show the positions of the brigades and divisions etc.  Still, imagination is sometimes the best illustrator.

 

Having stumbled across the Confederate artillery site and being lured by the promise of more such information boards below us, but unable to approach them directly due to No Entry signs, we then proceeded to attempt to tour the battlefield in our car. Unfortunately, there were no further signs to what promised to be a tour, we got lost. Despite seeing some delightful countryside, we never saw any more than a memorial to some Ohio troops.  We then took a series of wrong turns and ended up almost back at Harper’s Ferry, some two hours later.

 

Studying the map, we realised that we had hardly made any progress in our grand venture and so determined to put some miles under our wheels.  Connie was instructed to chart a path to Chicago, which she duly told us we could reach at 1am the following morning.  We decided to see how far we could get.  The I70 and I68 through Maryland Panhandle proved to be a beautiful scenic route, the rolling hills and mountains rising to 2740 feet eventually, where the trees were still bare, which had been a contrast to our earlier journey which had lovely new green growth to the trees and lots of purple coloured trees which we think were cherry blossom. Then leading into West Virginia, we found one of the most useless Visitors’ Centers known to mankind.  Even though the car park was full and there were lots of outdoor picnic tables, there was nowhere to buy food and the only drinks on offer came out of a vending machine.  We sampled the delights of peanut butter ice cream, also from a vending machine.  We turned north at Morgantown, heading up through western Pennsylvania on the I79, missing Pittsburgh completely (although we had no intention of stopping there anyway), and then taking the I76 West, which eventually brought us through gradually less dramatic countryside to Akron Ohio, where we sought a bed for the night.  We found a Super 8 Motel at Kent, site of Kent State University, and an inevitable chorus of “Four dead in Ohio” from RSJ.

 

And oh what joy, this motel had free internet access, free coffee and free breakfast for about 5 dollars more than we had been paying at the grotty motels.

 

Alas as soon as we entered our room, Mary opened the curtains and the air-conditioning unit fell apart: Bob sent downstairs to notify the receptionist, who booked us into another room.  By this time we were ready for some red wine, which we had fortunately purchased at our lunch stop some time earlier, where we had ordered a pizza (all 14 inches of it that I had managed to eat two pieces of and Bob had scoffed the rest).  At around 10ish we realised that we had not had any supper so ordered in some chicken and salad from thelocal pizza place.  This was good and to finish our supper off I went downstairs to get some of the free coffee,, which was cold, but the young man at reception soon rectified that by making us some fresh coffee and ringing our room for us to pop down and collect it.   Mind you the milk had vanilla flavour added, so an interesting taste experience.