A trip to Harrisberg, PA

This is our first blog attempt for two years! We recently attended another Bon Homme Richard reunion in Harrisburg Pennsylvania.  Ruth Aulds, Sue’s sister, accompanied us on this trip. So we converted her into a temporary sailor. 

The reunion events and hotel accommodations were pretty much the same as years past. So this blog will be about the travels that we made in the Harrisburg area.

The reunion committee arranges tours in the area and this time it included the Hershey Theme Park in Hershey, PA and a visit to the Gettysburg National Park also in Pennsylvania.

Our first stop was at the Hershey theme park. The tour included the fares to enter but any extra displays or activities cost more.

There was a “tour” of the manufacturing techniques for making milk chocolate where one entered a little car and then went through a tunnel was very interesting displays.

Animated characters extolled the virtues of buying various Hershey candy products. Turns out you cannot buy a single candy bar but rather a whole box of maybe 25 bars. Sue made the mistake of asking about M&M’ and was told “shush. this is a foreign word here“ in a friendly way since that product is made by the Mars Company.

It was a rainy day so we waited for the tour bus under some shelter and then went off to the Pennsylvania state capitol building in Harrisburg.

This is a beautiful fountain where the water jets are programmed to make various formations. It is in front of the entrance that we used into the building.

Unfortunately the bus guide missed the appointment time and the internal tour inside the capital building was aborted.

The rotunda was impressive but that was the extent of our tour.

Our next organized tour was to the Gettysburg National Battlefield Military Park. It was a pleasant day and we enjoyed seeing the sights.

This is a view of a circular painting known as a Cyclorama. We visited one years ago in Atlanta depicting the Battle of Atlanta and this one is in the visitor center at Gettysburg. Cycloramas were created after the Civil War and were transported from place to place for people to view the history of the battle.  Once motion pictures were en vogue after 1900, cycloramas fell out of fashion.

Like the memorial in Washington DC to World War II veterans, the states involved in the Civil War placed monuments all over the the Gettysburg battlefield.  This one honors a New York regiment.

We went by ourselves to the Civil War Museum in Harrisburg Pennsylvania.

A memorial to the thousands wounded and killed as a result of battles during the Civil War.

Dioramas of a slave auction, the firing of a mortar and camp life somewhere.

We went to the Antietam National Military Park in Maryland. 

I had always visualized the battle at Antietam taking place in a heavily wooded area. The opposite was true. In the first view is the Dunkers Church which is featured in stories about the battle.

A monument to the 132nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment standing along Bloody Lane (Sunken Road) at Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland.

This is the Bloody Lane (Sunken Road) where Confederate troops laid in wait for Union soldiers coming out of a cornfield resulting in a many casualties.

A farm house that survived the battles at Antietam.

Next to the house is a "German" barn that was tucked into a hillside where two levels were accessible.

A nice house outside the boundaries of the Antietam battlefield.

Next we went to an annual event at Fort Hunter, an early site to protect settlers moving west.  

There were performances and booths at the event.

Really big soap bubbles!

A house built early in the history of Harrisberg.

Digging for history.

Then we went to Lancaster, PA.  We found it to be very interesting, old and very different from cities in the Midwest.

A civil war monument attesting to the size difference between buildings of its time of construction and now.

A fine place for a lunch.  Looks interesting, eh?

Since its dedication and reveal in November 1889, Lancaster Central Market has continued to welcome visitors each week to share in community fellowship, local commerce, and most importantly, a love for fresh, sustainable food excellence. Source: https://centralmarketlancaster.com/history/

This is where we were introduced to the Scarlet Runner Bean.  I have since ordered more from the
The Herb Shop
Lancaster Central Market
www.theherbshoplancaster.com
They are delicious.

Row houses in Lancaster.  An unknown sight around where we are from.

Hope you enjoyed this little tour.

Reunion next year is scheduled for St. Louis, MO and the year following in Norfolk, VA.

Arizona Fiddlers

Have you ever felt underwhelmed by something?  We thought the Arizona State      Fiddler's Championship would be a big event.  After all, it had some publicity.  Well, it was a very small venue.  

This is the Payson, AZ, event center which is setup for rodeos.

This was the viewing tent.  

The booth for the sponsors of the event.

A family from Phoenix, AZ, all of which were under 15 except for the leader

A fiddler from the senior division.

This was a small town event with most of the audience composed of other musicians.    Payson is a very busy town of about 15,000 people, true small town America at its best. We were on our way from Holbrook to Tucson so we stopped off here for a while.

The Petrified Forest National Park

On our way to the Petrified Forest National Park, we had to make a stop at a rest area

 I began to think that we were not in Minnesota anymore.

This sign proved it!

There are lots of things to see within the Petrified Forest National Park. We started from the south entrance and proceeded by auto to the north entrance on I-40.

At the south entrance there are exhibits of fossilized animals of various sorts.  In their "backyard" is an exhibit of fossilized or petrified trees.

Some are huge.

Sue photographed this guy at the base of the tree.

We came across this field of petrified logs as we drove north through the park.

Another large tree in the park some 32 inches in diameter.

Other views of the park.

This formation is known as the teepees.

The telephone poles without wires denote Route 66 through the park with I-40 in the background.  Some parts of the old route are available for hiking.

This is said to be a 1932 Studebaker, left over from the folks who passed this way from Oklahoma to California in the 1930's.  One may read "Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck for a feeling of what these travelers went through.  

This mural by a contemporary Hopi artist denotes ancestors traveling from their village at six o'clock counterclockwise to a salt lake and their trip home.