Day 11: A Civil War History Lesson
This day was one of my most anticipated and most planned of the whole trip. Heading east out of Pittsburgh we would be going through successive ridges of the Allegheny mountains. My goal was to completely bypass the freeway through this section but most of this route had to be abandoned due to an early morning Disney gig in Pittsburgh and a similar gig to make in Maryland that night. Since the morning gig could only accommodate a few cars we all met up down the road aways and headed to our lunch stop at Sharrett VW in Hagerstown, MD where we had great crab cakes. After lunch we were on our own again to roam the countryside for the whole afternoon with our dinner stop at King VW in Gaithersburg, MD only an hour away by freeway. So I led the group south, with the help of a local whom we dubbed Canoe Bob, for Harpers Ferry, WV. Before we left Maryland I saw the turnoff for Antietam site of the bloodiest battle in the Civil War. There was a tall tower overlooking the area and many headed to the top. Canoe Bob is a disabled Vietnam vet and stayed in his Bus while we were out shooting pictures. At some point he got into a disagreement with a Southern sympathizer which surprised those of us who happened to be nearby. We never dreamed that such old animosities would come out in a chance meeting such as this. After leaving the battlefield Bob took over the lead so he could direct us into the back road into Harpers Ferry. Many of the houses on this main street were around when the Civil War happened but unfortunately there was no parking in the area so we didn't get to hang around. Going out of town on the other end we were headed back into Maryland and just after we crossed the Potomac River we turned off the main road to follow the river to a place called Point of Rocks. Unfortunately the left turn out of Harpers Ferry was onto a busy highway and we lost Rachel in the process. We waited for close to an hour getting ahold of her by phone once but she never showed so we eventually had to continue on to King VW. The rest of the road into Gaithersburg was a nice lightly traveled highway but we were disappointed that Rachel wasn't with us. When we got to the dealership Rachel was waiting for us and we tried unsuccessfully to find out where we had gone wrong.
Day 12: The Atlantic Ocean
The next morning we were headed back into Pennsylvania to lunch in Lebanon at H.A. Boyd VW. Our route would take us up through some pretty country and past Gettysburg. I missed the first exit and took the next like I knew what I was doing and ended up coming in the back way bypassing town and seeing some of the farms and other buildings that had served behind the lines as hospitals and command center. The crowds at the main building were insane but we got to see most of the museum before heading out. At our lunch stop we were greeted by a class of 1st or 2nd graders who had come over to see Herbie. After lunch we headed off for a challenging leg through Philadelphia in the rain with several freeway changes while trying to keep the crew intact...at rush hour. We all managed to make it into New Jersey together finally and set out on a busy 2 lane road headed for the Atlantic Ocean. Our evening stop was at an deserted beach arcade and were disappointed to find no dinner. So it wasn't until after getting to the motel and making a late night trip to Wendy's that Dave and I got to eat. I also needed to prepare the car for the following morning when Brent and I would be heading to Baltimore to drop the cars off at the docks for shipping.
