When Plans Go Awry

When Lee and I first started traveling in an RV three years ago, I remember on more than one occasion being told by fellow campers that one has to learn to "roll with the punches".  It helps to be laid back rather than uptight about mechanical issues, and know that they WILL happen.  Be flexible.  Generally, Lee and I are both pretty good at it, but this last week was a bit too much.  It all came to a head on Thursday.

Here is the setup.  We had decided, while in Pennsylvania, that we needed to replace the air conditioner unit on the front end of the motorhome, because it didn't seem to be working properly.  We found a place in Frederick, Maryland, that could do the work, so we headed for Williamsport, Maryland, which we had planned anyway.  We were to get the new air conditioner this last Monday morning.  Unfortunately, the air conditioner got lost in shipping, no one knew where it was, so the unit had to be ordered again.  The work was scheduled for sometime later in the week.  We would be called when it arrived.  In the meantime, we had several other small problems fixed since we were already at the RV repair place on Monday.

Lee did not like making the left hand turn out of the RV repair facility, so we turned right instead, heading back to Gettysburg.  This was fine, because we were able to discover more about Lee's ancestors in Chambersburg, 40 minutes west of Gettysburg.   No problemo.  Besides which, the restaurants are better in Gettysburg than in either Williamsport or Hagerstown.

We got a call on Wednesday from the parts guy, saying the air conditioner had finally arrived.  We were scheduled for Thursday morning.  Lee and I had a lovely dinner at a French bistro in Gettysburg Wednesday evening, but I ate too much.  The strawberry dessert crepe was way too big, but I ate it anyway because was afraid it wouldn't be any good the next day.

Lee and I woke up Thursday morning and prepared to drive to the RV repair place.  I had a stomach ache from eating too much the night before, and Lee had caught a cold.  We drove to Frederick, Lee sniffling and me groaning, and got the new air conditioner.  Great!!  It works much, much better than the old one, and we have been more comfortable since.

Lee turned right out of the RV repair place, and we headed back to Gettysburg, back to our site in the campground.  As we put out the slides, one of them made a funny noise.  Lee went under the motorhome, and discovered the bolts that attach the slide motor to its casing and drive shift had ripped out of the casing.  Oh, no.  

Lee called the RV repair shop in Frederick, and those people started to track down a part.  Meanwhile, a local RV repair man helped us push the slide back in, carefully, where it has stayed since.  The inside space is still comfortable enough, but part of the TV is blocked so Lee can't see the right side of the screen while watching from his comfortable chair.  The slide will stay in until the new part arrives and the old part is switched out.  You can see in the photo below that the small slide, at the back of the coach, is out, but the front slide is in. 

 

We also found out that the Gettysburg campground had no sites for us for the weekend, so I made reservations for the campground back in Williamsport.  What a lot of back and forths between Williamsport and Gettysburg!  We know both areas very well now.  They are relatively close to one another, and we understand why Lee's ancestors chose the path they did.

Now here is the real clincher.  On Friday morning I received an email from a friend wishing Lee and I a belated happy anniversary.  Lee and I had both forgotten about our 26th wedding anniversary!!  (It's better when both people forget, not so good if only one forgets.  So we're good.)  Our anniversary was the day that we were both sick, had one problem fixed, and another created!  Yikes!!  My friend's message put things into perspective for me, and I started to laugh heartily at our mishaps of the day before.

I told Lee we had forgotten our anniversary, and do you know what he said?  "Every day is a happy anniversary with you."  What a sweet thing to say!  That's why I love my hubby.  

That morning we headed back to Williamsport, but this time taking a different route.  It was the route the Confederates, with their wagons laden with the wounded, took on their retreat from Gettysburg.  It was an absolutely beautiful drive, going through a mountain pass to Waynesboro and Greencastle.  On the way, I finally got a photograph of a log cabin, something I had wanted because we had passed several.  Unfortunately, none were in a spot where we could stop.  I find this photo interesting, taken from the RV at 45 miles per hour.  I can assure you the house itself did not lean, but I can only guess that the camera sensor captures light starting at the top, moving to the bottom, so the bottom of the house is captured last as we move.  Interesting, huh? 

Anyway, the part is supposed to arrive tomorrow, and then we will be on our way again, albeit behind schedule. 

I believe that everything happens for a reason.  In this case, there is severe weather where we had planned to be today with possible tornadic activity, so I believe that is why we are still here.  In addition, Lee was able to dig into his family roots a little bit more, and put more pieces of the puzzle together.  All good.  Not to mention this is a beautiful part of the country, and we don't mind being here.  And as Lee says, "These are my people."  As far as we can tell, he is related to everyone between Gettysburg and Williamsport. 

The Busy Port of Williamsport

Williamsport, although a small sleepy town now, was once a very busy port.  After the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was constructed, Williamsport became a major transport and distribution center.  Canal boats loaded up to take coal, grain, and other products to Georgetown, the downstream terminus.  Georgetown ports then had easy access to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

As you may recall, Lee and I took a boat ride on the C&O Canal at Great Falls, just north of Georgetown, a few months ago.  Williamsport is a little past the mid-point of the 184.5 mile canal, being at the 100 mile marker.  People on the east coast know the C&O canal as great for bicycling - the tow path has been maintained and is relatively level the length of the canal.

The Williamsport portion is interesting for the peculiarities of its canal features.  Just north of the loading docks is an aqueduct which crosses the Conococheague Creek.  The aqueduct was part of the canal, and allowed boats to cross the creek.  Historical photos best illustrate this.  In the photo below, a pleasure boat crosses over:

 
A canal boat prepares to enter the aqueduct from the far end:

 

Floods have since destroyed the eastern wall of the aqueduct, so today you have to imagine what it once was.

Imagine this with a wall on the right side, and filled with water:

The C&O Canal was known for its innovative features.  One such example is in Williamsport, just south of the aqueduct, where train tracks crossed the canal.  Engineers created a lift, which would raise the tracks when boats passed through:

The cement bridge in the photo below was not there when the canal was operational.  Pretend it is not there, and imagine the tracks rising to create an opening for the boats:

Williamsport, as I said, was a major port.  Boats were loaded from a warehouse next to the canal:

In order to allow the boats to maneuver for loading, the canal had to be widened.  Boats were as long as 96 feet, so were not easy to turn around.  Most of the canal was the width of two canal boats, at 14'6" each, to allow for one traveling in each direction, but not this section. 

Today there isn't much left of the canal for most of the 184.5 miles:

But, as I said, the tow path is well-maintained, and makes for a beautiful walking or bicycling trail:

One of Lee's ancestors owned a farm along here, although we haven't determined exactly where yet.

STUFF HAPPENS:

We have been in Williamsport longer than anticipated.  As you may have garnered, when one travels, stuff happens.  We discovered, during the few days of very hot weather in Philadelphia, that the air conditioner on the front end of the motorhome was not working very well.  We decided, because we are planning to go south, that we need to have it fixed.  So this coming Monday the motorhome is going into a shop in Frederick, not too far from here, for a new air conditioner.  The second air conditioner, in the back, works well, but doesn't have quite enough power to keep the whole coach cool on hot days.  This would not be such a big deal, but I don't want Beanie and Barney to be too uncomfortable (to state it delicately).

We had another glitch this week, which is funny in retrospect.  Lee dropped a tube of ointment into the toilet on Thursday night.  The toilet has a "macerator" on it, which grinds everything that goes into the black water tank.  We didn't want to macerate the tube of ointment, mostly because it would probably destroy the macerator.  So on Friday, Lee went to Home Depot for supplies, then had to disconnect the toilet and all its electrical components, tip it upside down, disconnect the main hose, and fish out the tube of ointment.  Fortunately, it was there, intact.  Whew!  Lee hooked everything back up, and the toilet now seems to be working fine.  Good job, Lee!  I am so proud of you!  (Better Lee than me!)

 Fun, fun, fun.   Life on the road is always an adventure.

A Reenactment of Small Proportions

Williamsport is just north of the Antietam Battlefield in western Maryland, on the Potomac River.  We stopped here so Lee could further explore his Williamsport ancestors, but discovered many other items of interest.  Here is Lee conducting research at the Washington County Library, Western Maryland Room, in Hagerstown.  This photo proves it, see?

My library friends will be happy to know that this is a brand new library building, opened in the fall of 2013.  The library is old, but moved here from another location.  It is a very nice facility, I was impressed.  This library actually holds a place in history.  It sent out the first book mobile, a wagon loaded with library books well over 100 years ago.  The archives includes letters from librarians of both U.S. and international libraries, asking how to establish their own such program.

Williamsport, it turns out, was the town from which General Robert E. Lee planned to retreat from Gettysburg, across the Potomac River back into Virgina.  Unfortunately, because of heavy rains for several days, the waters of the Potomac were too high to forge.  In addition, a Union regiment had destroyed the Confederate Army's pontoon bridge at Williamsport on July 4, as the Confederates were pulling out of Gettysburg.  The result was the Confederates were trapped in Williamsport for ten days, waiting for the Potomac to recede and while they built another pontoon bridge.  (Pontoon bridges are temporary floating structures, as in the photo below, not taken at Williamsport.)

The Confederates set up artillery on a ridge just east of Williamsport and the river for defense.  The Union army slowly moved in and prepared to strike, resulting in the Battle of Williamsport.

By serendipity, we arrived in Williamsport just in time for the anniversary of this event and spent two days watching reenactments of skirmishes and battles, and listened to several excellent talks by experts on the Gettysburg battle and retreat through Hagerstown and Williamsport.  I like history, so I found it interesting.  In addition, the talks were held close to the battlefield, and the speakers could actually point to where events took place.  This is much better than pictures in textbooks.

I also liked that the event was small, with nothing like the crowds that occur on the Gettysburg battlefields during those reenactments.  At the Gettysburg event, up to 15,000 reenactors show up, and grandstands are set up for the spectators.  Not so here.  It is only the fifth year of the event, and not too many people know about it.

In 1863, the number of troops varied, as they were still filing in from Gettysburg over a period of several days on both the Union and Confederate sides.  There were skirmishes first on the streets of Hagerstown, which were reenacted the first day in Williamsport.  Williamsport was chosen for the reenactment since it is the smaller of the two towns, so blocking off a street wouldn't cause as much disruption to daily activities.

The entire weekend was organized by one person, a councilman from Williamsport.  I admired him for his persistence, tenacity, and enthusiasm.  He was also a nice guy with two cute little girls.  He said he wasn't sure he would have the energy to pull it off again next year, which I can understand.  It takes a lot of work, and the number of people who showed up to watch was disappointing.  I liked the eccentricity of it all, though.  

I don't mean to be mean, but I felt the reenactors lacked urgency.  Perhaps it was the fact that the cartridges were fake, or that the soldiers were made up of a preponderance of Baby Boomers.  It is hard to say.  I found it all quite charming, and somewhat amusing.

While people waited for the 11 a.m. start time, the councilman fraternized with the troops, and the Confederate officers joked around with the Union officers. 

Some soldiers fraternized with locals.

  

Oh, look!  Fidel Castro!  Who knew??

Some spectators were dressed in period costume.  It was a hot day, over 90 degrees, and this lovely woman and her son were seated in a cool spot.  I asked if I could take her picture, but the little boy decided to be shy. 

 
Following are a few photos of the battle.  First came rounds of cannons to soften opposing ranks.

The canons were LOUD.

Next were "skirmishes", where the two sides felt each other out for location, distance, numbers of troops, and strength of force. 

It takes a couple of minutes to load a gun, so everything took time, especially with so few troops on each side.  In reality, with a few thousand troops, the bullets would have been fast and furious.  Not to mention smoky, loud, and smelly.

 

Finally, lines of troops would march forward.

Oh, oh.  This could not be good.

The guy with the trumpet communicates commands through what he plays.  I did not know that!

The Union Army routed the Confederates this time.

The next day we watched a reenactment of the Battle of Williamsport, which took place east of town on the ridges and in the fields.  The reenactment took place on a manicured lawn.

 

This time there were six cannons, and they were even LOUDER than before.  I have posted a video on YouTube, but it does not capture the loudness of the event.  It does, however, capture the slowness of the event.  I think if my life were in danger, I would have more adrenalin coursing through my veins than these guys do:

Click here for video. 

This time, a Union soldier is killed and the Union Army retreats:

Click here for second video. 

All in all, it was a fun weekend.  I liked the "Mayberry RFD" aspect of it - Small Town, USA.

To end, here are a few more photos of the event:

 

 

 

 Maybe this guy is only injured, although he seems awfully relaxed.  I think he is just enjoying the action.

The Battle of Gettysburg and Lee's Family

Our first stop after leaving Philadelphia was Gettysburg.  This was our fifth or sixth trip to Gettysburg, but this is the first time Lee realized that he had family there during the Civil War years.  So, we visited the Adams County Historical Society in Gettsyburg rather than the battlefields.

To read my post on Gettysburg from two years ago, in which I did post photos of the battlefields, go to:

http://eileenstravelblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/gettysburg.html

Researching Lee's ancestors in Gettysburg was interesting because it gave us insight into what happened to farmers in the area during the battle, which I will attempt to relate here using documents we found.  But first, let me give some background.

We did spend a little bit of time in Gettysburg itself.  In the past, we have visited during the off-season when store hours are limited and everything (such as potted plants) look a bit more drab.  But we were definitely in the midst of Gettysburg's busiest period this time, and the town was prepared.  We arrived the day after the big weekend, when battles are reenacted each year to coincide with the days the battles were actually fought (July 1 - July 3, 1863).  In addition, motorbikes started to arrive while we were there, for their big event the following weekend.  There were motorbikes everywhere by Thursday, and they thundered down the streets and into the campgrounds.

Lincoln Square is in the center of town.  We ate dinner at the pub across the square one evening.  Abraham Lincoln, when he gave the Gettyburg Address, stayed at a lawyer's home on the square, directly behind me when I took the photograph below, so it does not appear in the photo.

The area around Gettysburg is beautiful, comprised mostly of farmland.

Lee's ancestors in the Gettysburg area were the Deardorffs (also spelled Dierdorff and Dirdorff), of which there are many.  The first in Lee's ancestry, Anthony Dirdorff, came over from Germany in the early 1700's and settled in Amwell, New Jersey, where he lived for the rest of his life and is buried in Germantown, Philadelphia.  Several of Anthony's children moved west in the late 1700's to farm in York and Adams Counties.  Like the Prices and Millers, also Lee's ancestors, the Deardorffs were members of the Church of the Brethren and were often influential in their church communities.

Peter Deardorff, one of Anthony's sons, settled near Washington Township, York County, and was buried in a family plot there.  We found what could have been his home, as it is in the right location.  If this is not his home, it is of the right period and would have been very much like it.  It is typical of the early stone farmhouses of southeastern Pennsylvania.  Peter had a large barn, and Brethren services were often held there.

I may skip a generation here, or two, I am not certain.  There are so many Anthony's in this part of the family that it gets very confusing.  Anyway, we finally arrive at Benjamin Deardorff, who was alive and well during the Civil War.  His farm was approximately 5 miles northwest of Gettysburg, near the small town of Mummasburg.  4.5 miles south of Mummasburg is Cashtown, and it is in Cashtown that the Confederate soldiers stopped to regroup before marching on to Gettysburg, and they marched back through the area in their retreat.  To support the troops, farms, homes and stores were raided for supplies and food.  After the war, people could ask for restitution from the Federal government, as long as the destruction and loss came from the Confederate troops, not the Union troops.  Benjamin Deardorff filed an application, and received money for his losses.

Are you able to read it?  He lost 1 bay mare, 1 black mare, 1 bull, 20 head of cattle, 9 milk cows, 50 bushels of corn, 500 bushels of oats, 1 wagon bed, 1 carriage, 1 wagon saddle, 2 bridles and 2 halters, 1 collar, 1 felt side leather (I think), and 1 horse blanket.  His crops were trampled and he lost wooden fencing as well. 

We attended a talk where we learned that many farmers abandoned their farms or even committed suicide after the soldiers came through, because the destruction was so great.  Benjamin, however, stayed, and, in fact, is buried in a nearby cemetery.  We found the location of his house, and a photograph from the period when Benjamin lived there:

Today, the house looks like this:

Cosmetic changes have been made, but I am almost certain it is the same house.  The footprint is the same, it is located in the right spot, and the chimney is in the same place.  Bricks have been added, the porch is gone, and the windows have been enlarged.  A door and window may have been switched, but that is not difficult to do, and one window was added upstairs.  Part of the house is gone, the single story on the left side, but that too can be explained away.  (Lack of maintenance?  A storm?)  That's my theory, and I am sticking to it.

Cashtown and Mummasburg lie at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, and the scenery is beautiful.  Apple orchards are in abundance.

Benjamin begat Samuel, and Samuel begat Charles. It was Charles who moved west to Ogle County, Illinois, in 1900, following in the footsteps of many other Brethren families.  The Brethren always seemed to be looking for more farmland, as was the case of many pioneers. Lee's parents met and married in Lee County, Illinois, just south of Ogle County.

I hope this wasn't too much genealogy for you.  I know how another person's story can produce great yawns.  I hope, however, that you find the details interesting, because the story of Benjamin's life relates to the stories of so many other lives, and helps to tell the story of our United States.  For me, it makes it all the more interesting and helps me to remember facts that, in school, can seem abstract and unmemorable.

The Bucolic Brandywine River Valley

We are currently staying in a campground a few miles west of West Chester, Pennsylvania, sandwiched between Kennett Square and Coatesville, in the small town of Embreeville.  This is a beautiful area of green rolling farmlands and old stone farmhouses that are 100-300 years old, some are even older.  The west branch of the Brandywine River flows along one side of the campground, where on weekends people canoe with softened voices and fish quietly on the banks.  It is really a beautiful area, and one of the many reasons I love this part of the country.

Last week Lee and I went canoeing on the Brandywine.  The campground rents canoes at a very reasonable price.  (The people in the canoe below are not Lee and I.)

 Looking upstream:

Looking across the Brandywine from the campground.  The landscape is so perfect is hardly looks real!

It is certainly a perfect spot for a flock of Canada geese:

Across the street from the campground is the coolest thing - a train engine!  It is parked there on weekends and nights, but during the day it hauls stuff, apparently from Coatesville (a steel manufacturing town) to a train yard somewhere to the east.

The engineer blows the whistle when the train crosses the road next to the entrance of the campground:

On weekends, it is safe to walk on the tracks, so I am told:

The train engineer is self-employed.  Can you imagine?  What a cool job!  Perhaps even I could do it, except when there is a mechanical problem of some kind.  Then I would be "up a creek".  Maybe the Brandywine.