Harpers Ferry

Harpers Ferry, WV – High 82  Low 66

Our good friend Linda, who lives in Germantown, MD (a suburb of DC), joined us in Martinsburg for a couple days of sightseeing and visiting.

I have known Linda longer than I’ve known Jim. In fact, Linda was with me the night Jim asked me to dance. He also took us out for breakfast after the nightclub closed. Linda spent a week with us a few years ago when we were exploring New York and Niagara Falls. However, this time she had to get a motel room because our Bungalow really is only big enough for two adults. She does not like to have her picture taken so I had to sneak one of her.

Harpers Ferry was our first destination. George Washington chose Harpers Ferry as a site for a U. S. Armory. The arsenal was built in 1794 and was one of only two in the United States. They produced most of the small arms for the Army.

Definitely no place to park along these streets.

Harpers Ferry is best known for John Brown’s raid on the armory in 1859. John Brown was an Abolitionist and on October 16, he led 21 men on a raid on the arsenal. During this period of time, assisting fugitive slaves was illegal and Brown hoped to secure the weapons depot and arm the slaves starting a revolt across the south. But it didn’t work out. Brown was captured, tried for treason and hanged in Charles Town.

The few pictures I have were taken as we drove by the buildings.

During the Civil War Harpers Ferry changed hands eight times between 1861 and 1865. Robert E. Lee led an army of 40,000 into Harpers Ferry in September of 1862. After the Confederate artillery bombardment, the Federal garrison surrendered. The surrender of 12,419 troops was the largest surrender of U. S. military personnel until WWII. 

I was really disappointed with our visit because it is not set up for people who cannot walk very far. You have to park at the visitor’s center (absolutely no parking in town) and ride a shuttle bus to an unloading area. Then you have to walk back to the town. Since neither Jim nor I can do much walking anymore, we did not get to see very much. I thought maybe the visitor’s center would have a movie or some pictures or something. But there’s nothing there. A couple of Park Rangers who hand you a map and show you all the walking and hiking you can do.

Shenandoah Pulp Factory

These are the remains of the factory that was built in 1888. By the 1920’s, the mill had the capacity to produce 15 tons of ground wood pulp daily. The mill closed in 1935 and was destroyed by a flood in 1936.

Linda and Jim did get a great ice cream cone at Yup’s which was outside of the historic district. We also were able to stop and get a picture of the Harpers Ferry Bandstand. It was originally in an amusement park on Island Park. Island Park was completely destroyed by floods but the bandstand had been moved to higher ground and was saved.

This building was John Brown’s Fort. It is now the headquarters of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Whiskey Rebellion

Washington, PA  (I’m so far behind I can’t remember what the temperature was but it wasn’t bad.)

We stayed at the KOA in Washington. It was definitely out in the hills. This is the road from the office to the actual campground.

I got a text from Delores wanting to know if we could meet for dinner. She is married to my high school classmate, Larry. They bought an older home that has been keeping them busy.

One problem, we did not plan to unhitch and they lived north of Pittsburg. Well, maybe that’s two problems. But they were willing to drive down and pick us up to go to dinner. Now that’s friendship.

On our way to the Union Grille, Larry told me that Washington, PA was the one of the leading towns in the Whiskey Rebellion. The Whiskey Rebellion was a tax protest beginning in 1791 against the whiskey tax imposed on domestic products by the newly formed federal government with George Washington as President.

Larry and Delores

Loved his shirt.

Did you know that they put French fries on their salads in this part of the country? Really strange.

Thanks guys for making the trip down to see us. It was so much fun.

Wish we had more time to explore this area but we pushed on the next day to Martinsburg, WV.

Quirky Museums

Logan, OH   The weather was pretty much the same the whole time we were in Ohio. Highs in the 80s and Lows in the upper 60s. We did have one day of rain. And lots of humidity.

We love strange little museums so we go out of our way to find them. Lucky for us, there were two of them in Logan, OH.

Pencil Sharpener Museum

The Paul Johnson Pencil Sharpener Museum is located at the Visitor’s Center.

When the Reverend Paul Johnson retired, he needed something to do and his collection started with two metal cars that his wife bought for him in 1989.

Paul died in July of 2010 and he continued to collect pencil sharpeners until his death. He collected over 3400 of them from sharpening cars, toys, Garfields, Mickeys, Tweetybirds, transportation, US Presidents, and panda bears.

Did you know they even wrote a book on how to sharpen pencils?

Washboard Museum

Jim went to the Washboard Museum while I stayed in the truck with the dogs. It was too hot to leave them by themselves. I honestly thought he’d only be gone a couple of minutes because “it’s a washboard museum”. But he was gone for a lot longer and when he came back he had really enjoyed the tour. They took him back into the factory where the washboards are made and explained the whole process to him.

The Columbus Washboard Factory is the only remaining washboard manufacturer in the U.S.A. They use many of the original presses and machinery to make their washboards.  The Company was started in 1895 and it has been estimated that fewer than 1,000 washboards were produced and sold in any one year during their first 30 years of operations.

During the second world war, wage and price controls and the inability to secure metal for the rubbing surfaces led to the creation of the glass washboard. 

Today the single largest market for washboards in the United States is for display, crafts, laundry and musical instruments.

They offer washboards with a variety of rubbing surfaces including spiral metal, galvanized, stainless steel, brass, and glass. They also have chalk, cork, and mirror surfaces. All of these boards are hand assembled one at a time with equipment dating back to the 1900's.

Washboards are shipped from the factory to places such as ACE and BEST Hardware, hobby stores as well as internationally.

A couple of fun places to visit if you’re ever in the area.

We Love Dives

One of the fun things we like to do while on the road is fine the local restaurants to try. While we were in Ohio we found a couple of places to check out.

Hometown Hot Dogs – Millersport, OH

Jim had a regular hot dog and a chili dog. I had a fresh meat burger and fries. Really good.

They had great signs and odd little whatevers in this restaurant.

For breakfast the next morning we went to Deb’s Corner Cafe in Lancaster, OH. The food was good but nothing to make us want to go back again.

After filling our stomachs we went out exploring. Found the Flight Of The Hawk sculpture alongside the road.

This red-tailed hawk weighs 2500 pounds, has a 14-foot wingspan and is composed of 3000 torch-cut pieces.

Just another one of those roadside attractions we love to find.

While in Lancaster, OH we stayed at Lancaster Campground. It is located in a huge church owned encampment. They offer a Passport America rate from Sunday through Thursday.

I forgot to take a picture of our site with our Bungalow in it, but this was a really nice, level site. The only issue is the speed bumps that you have to drive over to get to the campground. They really mean business with those bumps.

This is the only tree that we’ve seen that had any color to it's leaves.

Canal and Glass

New Bremen, OH    High 81  Low 67

The Miami and Erie Canal is 249 miles and runs from Cincinnati to Toledo. Work was begun on the canal on July 25, 1825 and completed in 1845.

Most of the work was done by Irish, French, and German immigrants who worked for 31 cents a day and a jigger of whiskey.

Lock One North is located next door to the bicycle museum. It was constructed of white oak and was replaced in 1910 using concrete. It was rebuilt in 2006 when the concrete was poured using forms specifically designed to replicate the wooden planks used in the 1910 lock.

There are 105 locks used to raise and lower boats traveling between Lake Erie and the Ohio River.

An interesting quick stop to see a part of our country’s history.

Our next stop was the Ohio Glass Museum. We were disappointed because their furnace was under repair so we did not get to see any glass blowing.

But we did get to watch a bead making demonstration which was interesting. That really takes a steady hand and a whole lot of patience.

We didn’t get to see our bead as it had to sit in vermiculite for 24 hours.

They had some really beautiful displays – the theme was Red, White, and Blue.

I also really liked this green bottle.

Remember ashtrays?

And coca-cola bottles? Here’s one of the molds used to make them.

The docent was very knowledgeable. Her father, father-in-law, and husband were all glass blowers for many years.