3 week trip..............

that added a few new states to our travel map. We are history buffs so a Civil War tour was on our

Flight 93 

list of things to experience. Our first stop was at the Flight 93 memorial, a very chilling site that left many with misty eyes. Very well done display of what these brave people did on 9/11/2001.  Onward to Gettysburg on the Lincoln highway, our week there was spent touring the battlefields and soaking up as much history as we could from visitors center and museum.  One day we spent 8 hours touring the battlefields and monuments as we learned about the carnage of brothers fighting brothers. We went to a WW 2 reenactment at Eisenhower farm.  All branches of the service where represented along with equipment of that era.

Our next stop took us to Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland and its sister park Chincoteague in Virginia , not only is this a barrier island with a great beach on the Atlantic Ocean , but wild horses run free. We had horses grazing right beside Canyon Star several times and you could find them in the park just about everywhere. What a neat place to unwind for a few days.

As we got back on the battlefield tour we rolled into Fredericksburg Virginia to tour not only Fredericksburg but Chancellorsville, The Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. These site where some of the most deadly battles of the war. On one day in Fredericksburg it was estimated that a 1000 men where killed every hour for 13 hours of fighting.

Shenandoah Valley was up next for us to enjoy.  Skyline road travels the entire 109 miles thru the  National Park, large vistas give you wonderful views of the mountains as you snake tour way thru. With two visitor centers to stop at to share some of the local history of the area it made for a very fun day despite the late afternoon heavy rain storm. The next day we drove 60 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway, we enjoyed this drive as much if not more than the day before.

New River Gorge and Gauley River in West Virginia was the next stop. The Gorge is know for the tallest single arch bridge in North America, Its a very impressive structure that has its own day when they close the road so people can walk the bridge or repel down the side of the bridge to the gorge floor below.  The Gauley is world famous for its white water rafting. Numerous class 5 rapids draw huge crowds. The whole area is a beautiful peace of earth.

Time to head for home, our last night was spent in the Daniel Boone National Forest on Cave Run Lake so pretty and quite, a place we would like to explore when we have more time as its only about 4 hours from home. Our travels took us 1860 miles from home and we made a lot of memories and reinforced how what a wonderful place the United States is and how its worth saving for all future generations.