What the Walrus said . . .

Photos and Anecdotes from a vagabond!

Yah . . . a new Laptop!!

I truly do regret that I have been away for a while, but it could not be helped. I had been having sporadic issues with my laptop being able to connect to the internet. I made a bad assumption that it was the campsite wi-fi failures, but as it turned out it was the wireless connection integrated into the mother board on my Dell laptop that was the true issue. It finally died three days ago, probably immediately after I sent out the last update!! LOL

So, I now had to find a new laptop while still staying on time on my travels. That may sound simple . . . just pull into any Best Buy and get a new laptop. Not so . . . in the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky, the Best Buy stores are far and few between and not necessarily on the roads I am using to go from Point “A” to Point “B”. I was finally able to pick up a new HP yesterday . . . but the camp last night had no wi-fi and I had no power, thus I could not go through the initial setup of the new computer, plus I could not load Lightroom Classic that I need to process photos.

Today, after touring Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky, I finally pulled into a hotel and here I am . . . ready to give you a bunch of photos.

Over the past couple of days, I have been through ChocolateWorld in Hershey, PA, Gettysburg Battlefield National Park, PA, Harper’s Ferry National Historic Park, WV, and Mammoth Caves National Park, KY.

The history of Hershey Chocolate, Hershey, PA, and Milton Hershey are amazing. What started as one man’s dream to create a product that every American would crave, would lead to the creation of an entire town, a candy known around the world . . . and now a great amusement park that seems to employ a mountain of the populace of Hershey, PA!! LOL Naturally, the day that I toured ChocolateWorld it was raining, and I opted out of the amusement rides (I do not weather rollercoasters like I did when I was young!) Instead, I did the basic tour which shows you how Hershey makes his chocolate and why he built Hershey, PA, where it is. I am not giving away the secret, but I will challenge you to take your kids for a fun day, and you can see what one man built with a dream! I challenge you as well to walk away from ChocolateWorld without having at least one piece of Milk Chocolate . . . I failed disastrously!! There are still multi-flavored chocolate kisses in my car!

Gettysburg Battlefield was humbling and, in some ways, still has me questioning “Why?” I love history, always have, and probably always will. I do firmly believe that if we do not remember and learn from our history, that we are DOOMED to repeat the same disasters, the same mistakes of the past. The battle at Gettysburg was never planned. Neither side choose the fields around the small town of Gettysburg as their killing fields, but that is what they became, almost by chance. If certain forces had shifted their arrivals throughout the entire three days battle, the outcome could have, and more than likely would have been completely different.

I had read the stories of such places as the Wheat Field, Bloody Creek, Devil’s Den, Little Round Top and others, but until I stood on them, and actually saw what the defenders and attackers saw . . . my visions were way undersized. I saw “Gettysburg: and the march of the Confederate Troops from Seminary Ridge as they crossed the Wheat Field . . . but until I stood on Cemetery Ridge and looked the almost one mile across the rolling field to where the Confederate Troops started their attack, I never understood just what it must have been to be on that field.

The Battle of Gettysburg lasted three days, a mere 72 hours, in a very long and bloody four-year civil war. In those 72 hours, 32 to 34 thousand men died on both sides. In those 72 hours, 52 to 54 thousand men were either killed, maimed, wounded or taken prisoner. With the population today, that would be equivalent to somewhere between 7 to 9 MILLION people . . . in 72 hours!

As I sat on the crest of the infamous Union battle line at Little Round Top, looking down the rocky slopes to where Devil’s Den, Bloody Creek and Massacre Valley are located, all I heard ringing in my mind where the ridiculously juvenile comments most recently made by some American journalists regarding the coming “civil war” between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals in this country. OBVIOUSLY, these people have NO CONCEPT of what a civil war is, and how decimating in can be. Historians now say that the Civil War killed 2 percent of the population of this country in those four years, and that number does not include those people that died innocently, killed as collateral damage, killed by disease (cholera and typhus decimated areas after major battles when bodies. both human and animal, that rotted or were poorly buried, impacted water supplies) or that died in prisoner of war camps (that were notoriously inhumane on both sides!)

As I said . . . that if we do not learn from our history, we are doomed to repeat it!! I surely hope my kids, and my grandkids, and their grandkids never see a civil war in this country again. I can only hope and pray that we as a Nation are better than that!

Visit Gettysburg . . . visit Antietem . . . learn our history and teach it to your children so they understand . . .

My next stop was into Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Again, as a history geek, I had read about the Reverend John Brown and the raid he led on the Armory and Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, with the intent to incite an insurrection and slave revolt. I had read of his capture by Federal soldiers under the command of a then almost unknown officer by the name Colonel Robert E. Lee, the very man who would lead the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

I was quite astonished at the park. The Park Service has worked miracles in reconstructing the town of Harper’s Ferry, building it back to what it would have looked like in 1859 . . . and they have done an incredible job! I took the bus from the parking area at the visitor center that goes down into the town . . . and it is literally like stepping back in time! The houses and stores look almost exactly as they did in the pictures of the era around 1859. Many are furnished as they would have been in that period, and the stores and saloons are stocked with many wares from the same time. The only thing missing are the people in the period dress . . . and the roads are cobblestone versus the packed dirt that existed in the mid-1800’s.

One thing I did not realize was that Harper’s Ferry is almost the middle of the Appalachian Trail. From here it is about 1068 miles south to the start of the trail in Georgia, and another 1167 miles to the end of the trail in central Maine. I had a chance encounter with a couple of people hiking through the town, working their way north, most who had started in Georgia just six to seven weeks ago, and who believed that they would finish the hike in late August or early September. Brave Souls all! Maybe I should do the Appalachian Trail next . . . I will need to give tht some thought!!

Harper’s Ferry was followed by the New River Gorge National Park, West Virginia. One of the newest National Parks that is still being developed. It offers some incredible hiking trails but is really known for great rafting and kayaking on the Green River. The Park’s claim to fame is the New River Gorge Bridge near the Visitor Center. I went on a short hike but spent most of my time in the park with the various wildflowers.

And today . . . Mammoth Caves National Park! I love caves, but I was way under dressed for this one!! Two important lessons . . . first, Mammoth Caves is a huge draw for tourists, especially on a summer weekend. It is also located in the center of a bunch of RV and Tent Camps, so the crowds descend quickly! The Park offers about seven different tours within the 420 miles of tunnels in the cave network. I did not realize that I should have booked the tours in advance, because when I arrived, everything but the self-guided tour was booked, and had been booked for the past two weeks! If you plan on coming to the park, book your tour prior to coming!!

Second, the cave is cool . . . well . . . cold!! The breeze coming out of the cave actually creates a chill while you wait to enter down into the cave mouth. Once you get into the cave, it is a crisp 57 degrees. about 12 degrees C. Wearing shorts and a thin tee-shirt outside the cave was fine, but I was freezing inside the cave, so . . . if you come, carry a light sweatshirt or buy one at the Park Store before your tour.

Now . . . the photos . . .

Great Rhododendron. Growing wild along the trails at New River Gorge National Park.
Giant Rhododendron about ready to burst into bloom!
The bridge. Simply a work of engineering art! It seemed like all of the mountains in West Virginia had steep slopes and quite a few are spanned by these amazing bridges.
Wild Hydrangea. These huge plants are magnets for bees and butterflies.
Common Milkweed. These unusual plants are growing alongside the wild hydrangeas. The bees and butterflies were massing to get at all of these blossoms.
Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly with a bumblebee on a milkweed blossom.
As you can see, Milkweed Blossoms are a real treat for the insects and pollinators.
The view from the New River gorge Visitor Center down into the valley.
Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly on Butterfly Milkweed.
A gorgeous, tiny blue blossom. SEEK was saying this was Chickory but I don’t think so!!
Scarabs. Not the kind you see in “The Mummy” . . . this are smaller than a dime, but they were on most all of the broad-leafed plants . . . devouring them all!
The New River Gorge Bridge solved a traffic issue that had plagued the local community and travelers for years. The original road was a narrow and winding track that took 45 minutes from one ridge to the next, crossing a narrow bridge at the base of the valley.
One tour I will never takes allows you to walk across below the bridge roadway. You can see they are each wearing a safety harness and lifeline!! Not me . . . no freaking way!!!
St. Johns Wart. Growing on the side of the road, this gorgeous little yellow plant screams “YELLOW!!”
I decided that I wanted to see what the old raod that the bridge replaced was like to drive. You can still do it, but it is one-way for the majority of the run. At the start, there are signs advising large RV’s to NOT use this road because it is very narrow and has some tight turns. Imagine my surprise when, in my rear-view mirror, I find a bus on my bumper! I found a pull off and let him pass! As you can see, the bus had to stop and wiggle around most of the turns all the way to the bottom of the valley!
This is what the road looks like. How this was ever a two-way road, I do not know!! It was a great drive and loads of fun!
Growing along the edges of the seeps that come down off the rocky overhangs onto the edge of the road. these tiny blue blossoms are bursting forth. These are Water Forget-Me-Nots.
A long-legged spider has taken command of a Purple-Flowered Raspberry.
Daylilies are growing everywhere in the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky.
My camp site last night outside of Mammoth Caves National Park. I was really enjoying this place until the boaters started racing down the river at 5 AM as dawn broke!! LOL
This is the “NEW” entrance to Mammoth Cave which was created when the roof of the cave collapsed. You can still hike to the “Original” opening of the cave, but it has been basically abandoned. As you stand here, you can feel the cool breeze blowing out of the cave like an air conditioner.
This is what gives Mammoth Caves its name. The channel leading deeper into the cave is HUGE!! It is hard to imagine that this has been carved by the flow of water through the limestone rock over centuries.
If you are claustrophobic, this is not a good place to go, especially when the Ranger points out the last rock collapse in 1994. Look at the cave ceiling and tell me how safe that looks? LOL
This is a panorama of the large cavern at the end of the self-guided tour. It is immense! I can only wonder what the first spelunkers thought when they first saw this by candle and lantern light. There are other tours that take you deeper into the caverns below, down where the albino and blind creatures live. I asked, but they do not have a tour that lets you crawl through the mud and wade into the subterranean river . . . but wouldn’t that be fun???
And if you want, you can hike to one of the many springs around the outside of the cave system. This is the river Styx, coming out from the subterranean tunnels, flowing into the Green River. As you can see, there is hardly any flow right now. This region of Kentucky has had a very dry year . . . but with the rain, the flow will increase, and the tunnel system will continue to grow. It is now at 420 miles and counting!

I hope with my now working laptop computer, and a more reliable internet capability, that I will get back to regular updates. Keep checking in or sign up to get automatic updates whenever I submit a new blog. Be safe and enjoy your summer!

majik756

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