After spending the morning in the glorious Delaware I packed up and headed west. Over the next 17 hours I’d drive through eight states and over 1000 miles. The first stop on my road trip back home was Gettysburg, PA. Gettysburg is a heavy place. I dare you to stand on top of little round top and not feel moved a little. By the time the battle of Gettysburg was finished (after just three days) during the Civil War, nearly 50,000 troops were dead, wounded, or captured. Little round top is a hill that the Union held and the Confederates wanted. It ended with one of the most famous accounts of the war. Union soldiers fixed bayonets and charged down the hill towards the oncoming Confederate troops. It was a victory for the Union that helped to win the war for the north.
Standing on little round top and looking across the battlefield is a heavy experience, until it’s ruined by one of the 50 other people that will be standing there with you. You’ll hear comments from wanna be historians like “I dont get why everyone is so caught up about Gettysburg, there were more important battles.” Even if that’s true, shut up. You’re ruining the few moments I have to stand here and look out over a landscape where 160,000 soldiers fought. There are a lot of tours groups that come through as well. These are led by the National Park Service. You can tell they are official, because they have the funny hats and grey uniforms. I think the most awkward people on the hill have to be the “reenactors.” These are people dressed similar to how Civil War soldiers were dressed back in the day. They stand under the shade and talk in the first person about how they defeated “waves of troops while defending this hill.” To be honest it makes you feel like they are doing a disservice to the people who gave their lives here and while they sound like they know what they’re talking about, I’m not a historian. So who knows. After visiting the hill, I grabbed lunch in town and jumped back into the car for the long drive home. Continue reading “East Coast Road Trip – The Return”
Bright and early the next morning I woke to head out to the beach. I’ll give this to the state, they have some nice beaches. Big sandy beaches with fairly easy access dot the coastline. I wish I could have spent the entire day there, but instead I just watched as the sun rose over the Atlantic, felt the sand between my toes, and jumped back in the car to visit something I’d been wanting to see for awhile.
Similar to North Carolina, most of the “wilderness” lies to the west, including Shendoah National Park, the Washington and Jefferson National Forests, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The AT runs through the state in the west as well. On the east the mouth to the Chesapeake sits. The Chesapeake is fascinating to me. More than 150 rivers flow into the bay, six different states drain into the bay, and at its height had 9000 people working in it (of course not so much anymore thanks to city run off pretty much screwing over wildlife – in the 70s we found out there was a marine dead zone where there was so little oxygen in the water, nothing lived).
Bivy Life 