Cumberland Gap

On the way to Tennessee, we went through the Cumberland Gap. Nice view-the mountains were pretty impressive!

Long Island Deer

We went on a few walks on Long Island, this is from the nature preserve where the turtles usually hang out. We didn't see any this time, probably too cold. But we did see a few deer!

Fort McHenry

After spending a few days on Long Island, we drove south towards Tennessee (where my mom, brother and SIL live), passing through The Appalachians. We drove through Baltimore and spend a few hours at Fort McHenry. During the War of 1812, this was a very important defensive fort for the United States, and it's been restored to it's original condition. There were quite a few additional buildings here during WWI that were used for hospitals and offices, but they were torn down in the 1920's.

Francis Scott Key wrote the US National Anthem, Star Spangled Banner, while on a ship in the harbor after a particularly brutal shelling of the fort by the British.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Mchenry

I took quite a few pictures here, I'll just share the best ones! They've restored the barracks, and there are a few exhibits of how life was at the time. I've included a few for you Sharpe fans-notice the Shako and rifles!

This is a model of the fort inside the visitor's center.



An embankment....


Entrance to the barracks area of the Fort.



One of the cells in the guard house/prison where prisoners of war were held during the Civil War.

Inside the junior officers' quarters.



Powder magazine...
Typical uniform from 1812.



An actual Congreve Rocket...made famous in Sharpe's Enemy and Waterloo! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congreve_rocket

Gettysburg

I'd never been to Gettysburg, PA, even though we've driven by it several times on our way to NY. Very interesting-lots of monuments, of course, and a very nice new visitor center.


This is a 3D representation of the battlefield.


Some guns....



Battlefield


The Pennsylvania Monument...



Gettysburg Address panel on the PA Monument...

Harley Davidson Factory

Holy cow, how could I have forgotten the Harley Davidson tour in York, PA? Must have blocked that.....

Very interesting, actually, but really hot and noisy in there. They had us wear little earpiece thingies that were hooked up to receivers, and the guide wore a mic. That worked quite well, and there'd be no way you could hear anyone talking in that place!

They had all the new Harleys on display, some are made there, some are made in KC. They even had a Buell! (which is what we live for in this house.....) But it wasn't the Blast-I would have sat on it, at least!

Well, we made it to LI safe and sound, not without a few traffic hassles outside Pittsburgh and NYC. Typical of PA transit to keep closed highways lanes a big secret.....then typical of them to time the stoplights so that only about 3 cars coming from the highway get through, while 20 can get out of the mall.....duh.....Anyway......lots of cursing and swearing coming out of both the driver's and passenger's seat of that Ion. LOL

Driving through New Jersey wasn't as horrendous as we thought it would be. We remembered the Lincoln Highway show on PBS (the real reason we did this in the first place), and a restaurant they mentioned during their journey. It's called Beana's in Rahway, NJ. The claim to fame is that it's Mexican, but owned and operated by an Irishman! It was very good, and it was nice to take a break from driving. They seemed truly impressed that we'd remember them from the show!

We got a bit misdirected (stoopid signs in NJ) when looking for the Lincoln Tunnel. Even though the tunnel has nothing to do with the Lincoln Highway, we still felt it was appropriate to go through there to get to NY. The Lincoln Highway ends at Times Square at 42nd street. We drove through Manhattan and out to LI.

The Empire State Bldg was shrouded in fog, and the top was lit green. Apparently Bill Clinton has declared some sort of green bldg day, and that was the first one to be lit green. They will be renovating it at some point to reduce the electricity bills from $11M to about $4.5M. They'll be switching out about 6000 windows eventually.

Here's what started all of this:
http://www.wqed.org/tv/sebak/lincoln_hwy/blog/

Here's Nathan's museum info, but it looks like some of the specific links are broken.

http://www.blackiowa.org/index.html

Spirits & Sequins exhibition reception--MEMBERS ONLY

	Friday, April 3, 2009, 5 – 8pm
	This vibrant new exhibit showcases some ornately decorated Haitian drapos, or prayer flags, from the largest Haitian art collection in a public museum in the U.S., courtesy of the Waterloo Center for the Arts. Each piece depicts a Haitian vodou loa, or deity, with his or her own personality and story—much like the Greek gods. You can see the African influences in Haitian culture, and how those influences compare to African American culture. Enjoy Haitian foods and see Haitian dancer Celia Bambara perform with a Haitian drummer. Haiti is a rich, exciting place, so our grand opening will be, too! Stop back on Saturday, April 4th at 1pm to participate in a Haitian dance workshop with Celia Bamabara. It’s free! Anyone from ages 5 and up are welcome!

Writing from Gettysburg, PA. We've driven close to here several times (I guess a couple times a year-every time we go to LI), but never stopped. Since we're doing the Lincoln Highway, it only seems fitting that we stop and see the Battleground.

We walked around downtown while waiting for our table at "The Pub and Restaurant" in downtown Gettysburg. Looks like a pretty nice town-obviously very touristy. The restaurant looked pretty nice, and the food was decent, but the service was lacking.

There really wasn't any other choice, since it was about 8 pm when we got into town. When I went up to the hostess station to put our names on the list, we got the big eyeroll from the hostess when I said I preferred waiting for a table as opposed to sitting in the bar. Well, when I looked, there wasn't any place in the bar, so I got a bit put off when she argued with me.

We were given a dinky rickety table in the middle of the aisle, server was too slow in refilling our beverages, my panini was cold, and the takeaway box was way too small for the leftovers! She's lucky I wasn't paying, because her tip would have been a lot smaller! Granted, not all of that was her fault, but still.....I was a bit peeved when we left.

Can you tell I'm tired? :P

Exploring the Battleground tomorrow!

Note to Ohio....

Get a dome on the capitol! LOL

We spent the night in Upper Sandusky, which is actually south of the real Sandusky, but upriver on the Sandusky River, so I guess that makes sense... In an odd Ohio sort of way....LOL

We are still poking along on US30, basically trending the Lincoln Highway. There are several places where it leaves 30, but if we took all of the bypasses, we'd still be in IL.

You really feel like you're in the east once you get to Mansfield,OH, because it starts getting hillier, and the road gets narrower and crappier. :P

Bad experience years ago when we were our way back from NY, trailering the Ile de France (yes that's right). The trailer axle broke on a Sat night, nothing open on Sunday, and we had to spend a ouple of nights in a cheap motel while waiting for it. Decided not to wait, so rented a UHaul to throw it all in. Ended up with a busted windshield from some dumb truck blowing out a tire and the pieces hitting us. Much nicer this time.

On our way to East Liverpool now, where the Longaberger pottery used to be made. Not sure what happens there now!

We are starting our Lincoln Highway Odyssey after seeing Nathan last night.

We were at Nathan's big museum shindig! Very impressive, it was a bigger deal than he let on. He was listed as curator and had to "say a few words" to the crowd! He was not amused...but the director/curator was very impressed with the exhibit.

Haitian flags are absolutely gorgeous in person. I might try my hand at some serious beading when I get home. The flags themselves aren't flags like one would normally think of, but very colorful works of art. Some are made for use in religious ceremonies and are blessed for use. All that we saw on display, except for one, were made for art and/or tourist market. They depict different religious symbols or icons, or other aspects of Haitian culture.

We were also treated to a Haitian dancer and two drummer musicians. Very enjoyable and interesting! No photos because of copyright and religious reasons, but she let me sneak a few since it's family.

The museum is the African-American Museum and Cultural Center in Cedar Rapids, IA. I don't know if they have a website or not! But I'm sure googling Haitian flags would give you an idea of what's what.

We just passed thru Dewitt, IA, home of Evergreen car air fresheners!! LOL

IA has it all! :D