Visiting Civil War Sites on the Way to NJ

Tennessee was an interesting and beautiful state to visit.  After we left Nashville, we were in the Riverside RV Park in Seiverville, TN.  This is a good time to share with our readers our fun with trying to discern how to pronounce place names.  Seiverville, which we thought would be pronounced “see ver ville”, turns out to be pronounced “sa veer ville”.  We know that is the official pronunciation because Dolly Parton comes on the news all the time inviting all of us to visit her hometown of Sa veer ville.  We think this trend of misleading newcomers is a way of distinguishing us from the locals.  For instance, the town of Celena, which we thought was “sa leen a” turns out to be “sell a na”.  Staunton is not “staw ton” but “stan ton”.  So we try to adjust as we travel through the country.

The Riverside RV Park is a Baptist mission with a large open-air church.  It turned out to be a good choice as we celebrated Easter there and joined other campers and the local congregation.  The service was not what Doug is used to but it was a lovely service enhanced by the minister’s four charming granddaughters singing “Jesus Loves Me”.  The tiniest child was not even two years old and the oldest was about 8 years old.  It was a good Easter experience to enjoy these pretty children’s voices.  I have to note that I was unable to find a single box of matzah to eat for Passover, but the lesson for next year is to look for it earlier.

We made sure to visit Pigeon Forge which was a fun day of miles of walking as we checked out the crazy wild rides, the junk food stands, and endless cheap t-shirt stores.  We decided it was like a boardwalk without the ocean.  We walked the River Walk, spent time in the Christmas Place, and found my favorite store – Old Time Pottery.

We also saw Gaitlinburg and the devastated area where the fires destroyed homes, hotels and business.  All that was left for many of these establishments were the chimneys.  This mountain area is still just beautiful and as we drove through the Great Smoky Mountains we relived our first camping trip there in 1996 with two little girls and our fairly new pop-up tent trailer.

Being away from mountains for a long time made the first glimpse of the Great Smoky Mountains pretty exciting.  One of the first places we visited was Newfound Gap where we hiked along the Nature Road Trail.  We enjoyed every inch of our drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Cades Cove in the Smokies was one of the places I had been looking forward to visiting again.  The old buildings, the wide expanse of grassy meadows and rolling hills, with large swaths of forest weaving through the countryside, was just as I had remembered it and just as wonderful to wander through again.  I love that spot.

We did some easy hiking, lots of interesting auto tours and a few picnic lunches that were leisurely times to enjoy these old, lovely mountains.  The smell of the woods immediately brings me to my happy place.  We even walked a little bit of the Appalachian Trail just where North Carolina meets Tennessee – a very little bit, actually.

After leaving Seiverville, we checked into Hungry Mother State Park in Marion, Virginia.  If you’ve been following our blog and counting states with us Virginia is the 20^th state on our journey.  Here’s the perfect spot to tell The Legend of Hungry Mother which captured our imagination.  A long time ago, some settlements on the New River south of the park were raided and two survivors, Molly Marley and her small child were first taken prisoner and then they escaped.  They wandered through the wilderness eating berries.  Molly collapsed and her child followed a creek until she found help.  The child was traumatized and the only words uttered were “Hungry Mother”.  The search party eventually found Molly, but she was dead.  Today, the mountain is called “Molly’s Knob” and the stream the child wandered down is now known as “Hungry Mother’s Creek”.  In the 1930’s, the surrounding area was turned into a park and the creek was dammed to form Hungry Mother Lake.  Learning this type of local lore adds interest and fun to our nomadic lives.

We left Marion, VA for Walnut Hills KOA in Staunton, VA.  This area of Virginia is just such beautiful country.  On our first full day there we took Skyline Drive and enjoyed the scenery along this famous road.  We stopped at Big Meadows Campground in Shenandoah National Park.  Years ago we had one of our favorite vacations with the kids camping in this campground.  It brought back great memories.

Our road trip continued into Maryland, our 21^st state.  We stayed at a very large and very family-oriented Jellystone Campground.  Yes, there were lots of Yogi Bear and Ranger Smith references all over the campground.  On the weekend it was filled with families.  We are often in very quiet campgrounds so we get a kick out of all the kids running around and all the noises they bring to our own life.

On April 26^th, we toured Antietam Battlefield.  The auto tour takes you to the buildings which still stand, actual battle sites and lots of informative markers and monuments along the way.  Thinking about the bloody confrontations is in great contrast to the serenity of the countryside.   We are absorbing lots of information about the Civil War in this part of the country and trying to put it together with what we learned in Missouri, Georgia and other states.  We’ll keep up this learning adventure as we head north, probably getting a completely different perspective.

Harper’s Ferry National Park in West Virginia gave us even more of the Civil War experience.  (Just a note here:  we only officially count states that we overnight in, so we don’t add West Virginia to our state count.)  The displays about John Brown’s efforts to free the slaves gave us another episode to add to our education.  Harper’s Ferry and the walk we took from the Visitor Center to the old town made for a really great day.

On Saturday, April 29^th, we explored a canal – the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in the town of Williamsport.  It happened to be a day when volunteers were cleaning up the park and we saw first hand the love and care they gave to this historic and one-time very valuable part of our history.  We walked along the tow path and really got up close to look at the lock system.  Industry along the canal thrived because of the canals.

Finally, after many miles of travel, we arrived at Timberlane RV Park in Clarksboro, New Jersey.  This is a homecoming for us.  I grew up in NJ and Doug and I lived in South Jersey for 10 years.  We are in this part of the state to be near my brother Dan who is recuperating from an illness.  We dropped in on him and his wife, Lisa, the first day we got here and expect to spend lots of time hanging out with them.

This part of our trip will be filled with family and friends.  Our daughter, Becky and her wife, Paolo and their adorable sons, Benjo and Mati are nearby.  Our son, Jon is close by in Philadelphia.  We are seeing lots of them too – Mati’s first birthday party yesterday gave us a chance to be with lots of family and friends and today we walked through historic sites in Philly with Jon.  We had a chance to visit with neighbors, Genni and Sal; we’ve made plans to see my cousin, Diane and her husband John.  Tomorrow, my brother Steve, his wife Sharon and our nephew Nico will come for dinner.  Next weekend we’ll see my brother’s whole family at his grandson, Christian’s birthday party.  I learned how to decorate a Parisian Floral cake at my sister-in-law Sharon’s new cake decorating business, Sugar Plum Studio in Cherry Hill.  Our nephew Andrew will be graduating from Thomas Jefferson Medical School and we will have dinner with him and his parents while they are visiting.  Next week we eat dinner with our niece Emily and her fiancé Claude.  There are many more events scheduled – in fact, our calendar is happily filled.  We will be here for almost a full month and we will be sure to see everyone and make this a truly special part of our trip.