After 26 days, 16 states (and Washington DC), 5412 miles, and a whole lot of fun, we are home! It’s good to be back but we are already planning trips for next year so make sure to stay up to date by hitting us up on social media.
We would also like to thank everyone who regularly follows us and say hello to new subscribers. Stay tuned for more pictures and videos from the Along the Way with J&J Road Trip 2015…we’ll see you on the road!
J&J
Mabry Mill
Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia
Our plan for today was to visit Gettysburg National Military Park in the morning and then spend the afternoon in Lancaster, PA. I guess we should have done a little more research because it would have been impossible to spend less than a day here and still be able to claim that we visited Gettysburg.
The Battle of Gettysburg was a critical turning point in the Civil War and claimed more lives than any other battle. It also inspired the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln’s most famous speech and arguably the most famous presidential speech ever written. 
Once we were in the Visitor’s Center, it was difficult to decide what to see first, so we started in the gift shop. We got our park passport cancellation and spent about 40 minutes just looking around. This is definitely the largest national park gift shop we have seen and is a must for any Civil War buff!
There are several options for touring Gettysburg but we decided to drive Lady T into the park and explore on our own. When we were reviewing the package options, we noticed the Eisenhower National Historical Site Shuttle. For a small fee, a shuttle takes you down to the private home and farm of President Dwight D. and Mamie Eisenhower. Visitors are able to tour the only permanent home that the Eisenhower’s ever owned, which was donated to the National Parks system while the late General and President was still alive.
According to the tour guide, many people to this day are not aware that the President and his wife lived in Gettysburg during his presidency. Many of their personal items are still in the home and it was quite amazing to step back in time and peek in on each of the rooms. President Eisenhower also owned several prize-winning Angus beef cattle and he stipulated that the farmland be used for that purpose after his death.
After the tour, we returned to Lady T for a light lunch and then drove to the battlefield. If you have never been here, it’s difficult to describe the feeling you get when you see it for the first time. There is a sense of reverence and sadness but also triumph. The grounds are massive and we followed the visitors guide to each of the stops. The self-guided auto tour will also take you through downtown Gettysburg, which is a nice little tourist town these days.
We thought we had hit the monument mother load in yesterday but DC’s got nothing on Gettysburg. There are 1,328 monuments and memorials in Gettysburg National Military park! The pics below represent just a fraction of them.
Lancaster will have to wait for another trip but we are so glad we spent the day in Gettysburg. We just settled in at our last Walmart in Hazel Township, PA and will be up bright and early tomorrow to begin the 6-hour journey home. Check in then for one last post from the Along the Way with J&J 2015 Road Trip!
We continued our Civil War-themed tour of the National Parks system this morning by visiting Antietam Nation Battlefield in Maryland. Antietam was the bloodiest one-day battle in American history and the Confederate loss provided the opportunity for Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s hard to imagine that something so horrible occurred is a place of such serene beauty.
Without a tow vehicle, we had to find somewhere close enough to DC to park Lady T for the night that was also close to public transportation. Cherry Hill Park is exactly what we were looking for! This full-service RV park in College Park, MD is less than 40 minutes from downtown DC and the shuttle bus to the subway stops directly across from the camp store.
After a quick shower and late lunch, we walked to the entrance of the park and arrived just as the shuttle was pulling in. You can either pay with cash or a SmartTrip card and the subway only accepts the SmartTrip cards, which can be purchased on site.
We’ve both been to Washington DC before but it was a long time ago. I’m going to let the pictures speak for themselves but suffice it to say that we visited a LOT of monuments today, mostly in the National Mall. My favorite was the Lincoln Memorial, partly because Abraham Lincoln is my favorite president and partly because we are huge Forrest Gump fans! I couldn’t help but imagine that Jay was Forrest, standing on the steps facing the Washington Monument and I was Jenny, running through the reflecting pool calling his name. I’m glad that we were here together in our nation’s capital.
On the way back to the subway station, we ran into a few street performers who had quite a crowd gathered and put on a pretty decent show. We caught the last shuttle of the evening back to Cherry Hill and are now relaxing as we prepare ourselves for our last full day on the road before heading home.
Follow us tomorrow as we explore the hallowed grounds of Gettysburg National Military Park!
Yesterday, we had hoped to take Blue Ridge Parkway all the way North, which ends just shy of Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive. However, we ran out of time after admiring all there is to see and didn’t want to rush through like we had to in The Smokies. Skyline drive is 105 miles long and runs the entire length of Shenandoah National Park. We drove about 70 of them, stopping frequently to take pictures of the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains. We also visited the Harry F. Byrd Visitors center within the park for our first passport cancelation of the day. 
Unfortunately, we weren’t going to have much time to explore West Virginia so we decided to spend it in Harpers Ferry. Most of the town is part of the National Parks system and we arrived at the main Visitor’s Center just before 5 PM. A shuttle bus brought us down to the historic town, where the Battle of Harpers Ferry was won by the Confederate Army, resulting in the largest surrender of Federal forces in the Civil War. This is also where abolitionist John Brown was captured and hanged after attacking a federal arsenal.
Harpers Ferry has been maintained to conjure the Civil War era and many of the storefronts have been restored to their original appearance. Most of the stores were closed by the time we arrived but we did stop in Cool Confectionaries, a candy store that offers authentic treats from the Civil War era all the way up to the 1950’s. I was psyched to find a peanut brittle made from an original recipe by George Washington Carver that was sans dairy!
Next, we visited St. Peters Roman Catholic Church, a active Gothic style church which is also the meeting place for Ghost Tours of Harpers Ferry, which claims to be the best ghost tour in the U.S. We then crossed the road to the Harpers Ferry Railroad Bridge, which is short a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Potomac. Along the walkway, we saw a number of different locks randomly placed along the fence and had to look up their significance. They are called Love Locks and it was pretty neat to read the inscriptions. Lastly, we walked down to the waterfront, where we watched two huge ducks placidly floating in the river. That is until they heard me open my peanut brittle. Jay and I almost had to make a run for it as these tourist-fed fatties waddled after us and my candy!
Our home for tonight is a Walmart in Charles Town. WV. This may be our last Walmart sleepover on this trip and I think it’s my favorite. Although I already had dinner planned for the evening, we were mesmerized by the intoxicating smell of Chinese food emanating from China Fortune Restaurant, which is less than 300 feet away from where we parked Lady T. While I waited for our takeout, I watched the second most beautiful sunset on this trip from the parking lot.
Check in with us tomorrow as we head to Washington DC to explore the capital city!
