WINTERTHUR

Winterthur in Delaware is the mansion and property owned by the du Pont Family and is now an extensive museum of the collections that Henry Francis du Pont acquired through his lifetime. They decorated his home and were put on display in a museum when he opened his childhood home to the public over 60 years ago. He was also a horticulturist and property has extensive gardens. A visit to Winterthur can be quite extensive with walking tours through the trails in his gardens or a guided tram tour through them, a visit to the du Pont home, and a visit through the extensive museum with changing and static exhibitions.

Our plan to visit Winterthur started over a year ago when Meryl learned of a special exhibition of antique samplers and embroidery. Things just did not work out for us to visit that exhibition, but this past summer another exhibition of samplers opened and we had planned several times to go to Delaware and see this exhibit. It looked again like things were not working out but during our vacation trip we decided that we would spend a day in Winterthur and not only see this exhibition but also tour the house and see the musuem.

Many of the places that we travel to involve being outdoors. One of the problems of planning trips when the weather seems never to be cooperating is finding indoor museums and attractions that we can easily get the Roadtrek to. Cities pose a problem, as I have said before. Many cities have gone to all indoor garage parking and with the height of the Roadtrek this is just not possible. The trip we planned this past summer was one in which we had a few places to stop where the weather would not matter - and we saved the good days for the outdoor places we were going to and the raining days for indoors - and this is when we went to Winterthur.

Winterthur is not far into Delaware across the Pennsylvania border and the drive there was a pleasant mix of country roads, Route 1 and more country roads. We arrived after an early fast food lunch and parked in a large parking lot that would not be a problem for even the largest RV or Travel Trailer. We walked down a short trail to the Visitors Center and purchased tickets. Tickets are $20 adults or $18 senior (love those senior discounts) plus they were having a limited time adult discount of $3.00. Tickets entitle you to the whole thing - house tour, museum, special exhibitions, and all that is in the gardens. Our main interest was the special exhibition on Samplers and this was where we were heading first. You reach the house and museum by shuttle bus. The museum is also the entrance to the house tour and your ticket puts you to be on a specified time tour of the du Pont family home - home should read  Mansion. The Sampler exhibition was on the second floor of the musuem and we had some time to go their first before our tour would start.

Meryl is a student of 18th and 19th Century embroidery as well as being an accomplished hand embroider, herself. We have been to many exhibitions on 18th and 19th Century embroidery and Samplers and Meryl is becoming quite in the "know" between what she has seen on exhibit and what she has read, along with stitching reproductions. This was one of the smaller exhibitions that we have been to and we decided that we would go through it quickly before our tour of the house would start and then come back to it later after the tour to spend time with each piece of embroidery in the exhibit. To give you and idea, the following photo is just one element in an embroidered picture created by an 18 year old girl in Boston in the year, 1748. What has fascinated me about all of the Samplers that we have seen here and in other museums is that these are all art created by children. Age 18 is old for some of the exceptional work we have seen. We have seen exceptional pieces worked by girls of 8 to 12 years old. Anyway -

The tour through the home starts with gathering the tour group in a meeting room and showing a brief video about Henry Francis du Pont and the family. You are then escorted through doors and past - and not stopping at - a display room of 17th (1600s) furniture - which we would have loved to spend some time looking at but the guide was determined to stick to her schedule - which in the end she did not do as she got carried away with anecdotes about the family. We were then all loaded into an elevator adn taken up to the first floor of the home which was the second floor of the building. From the elevator we were taken out to an outdoor balcony with a view of the house and the Library that is housed in one of the building of the estate. First photo - side view of the house from the porch. Second photo - view of the library building from the balcony. (The library is open to the public for research.)

   I will not go into details of the tour. Here are some photos that I took as we went along. The rooms are decorated in antiques - many from the Federal period - late 18th Century into the early 19th Century. As the family came originally from France there are a number of antiques of French heritage.

The upper floors of the house are the family and guest bedrooms. The du Pont's liked to entertain and would have guests stay with them. Their guests included dignitaries and U.S. Presidents.

The house was not our favorite part of the visit and we both felt that were we to return to Winterthur we would skip the house tour and spend a lot more time in the museum. The museum is extensive. We returned to the special exhibition of Samplers that we had specifically come to and spent a great deal of time there looking closing at details. I photographed everything for Meryl and she also took notes. She was able to find a catalog of the exhibition in the gift shop/bookstore and that was a must have.

The museum had another special exhibition of South American embroideries and we spent a lot of time there as well. There were also the regular exhibit galleries which also had textiles, needlework, and Samplers, along with furniture, every day items, and home decor. There was also a room with an entire building displayed that was a 1700's Clock Makers Shop with all of the equipment and tools set out in the two rooms as they were when the shop was in business.

18th Century Woman's Gown (Sack Back Gown)

 We really did not have enough time to do that museum justice and we stayed until the announcement that the musuem was closing and the guards came through to make sure everyone was moving to the exit back on the first floor. When we got out side we had missed the last shuttle bus back to the Visitors Center so we walked back.  The gift shop/bookstore is open past the museum and we spent some time in this shop at the Visitors Center. There is a larger gift shop with reproduction pieces in a building near the museum.

We never made it to any of the gardens - though we were not much interested in touring those. I am certain that anyone who loves gardens will find these exceptional and there is a children's fantasy garden in the gardens as well.

We had a very nice time. If you like the material and cultural side of history you will enjoy Winterthur. Since we are writing about this in relation to a visit in the Roadtrek - or any RV, it is easiest to stay in a campground in Pennsylvania. The one thing you don't want to have to do is cross the Delaware River as the tolls on the various bridges are expensive. There is a new toll being charged as you cross the Delaware River Bridge from the New Jersey Turnpike into the Pennsylvania Turnpike that used to be included in the turnpike toll but is not a separate toll of $5.00. Of course, the turnpike tolls have remained the same. If you are in Pennsylvania you can go into Delaware without crossing the river again. There is a campground, a KOA (we have not stayed there) in West Chester, PA. Winterthur is about an hour's drive from several of the Lancaster, PA campgrounds.

Winterthur is located at 5105 Kennett Pike, Wilmington, DE 19807. This address in your GPS will get you right there. Their actual address is 5105 Kennett Pike (Route 52)
Winterthur, DE 19735. Winterthur is CLOSED on Mondays so plan accordingly. They are open until 5:00 pm. The last house tour tickets are sold at 3:15 pm. They have a website - http://www.winterthur.org/ .

Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania PART II

PART II
PART I WAS THE LAST ARTICLE

We left Part I with our just leaving the film in the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitors Center and being escorted with everyone else who had just watched the film up to the Cyclorama. The Cyclorama is located in the dome in the center of the building. So what is a Cyclorama?

In the 1880s, French artist Paul Philippoteaux painted the Battle of Gettysburg in the round. He and his assistants took more than a year to do the actual painting after months of research on the battlefield with veterans, guides, and a photographer. The painting is 377 feet in circumference and 42 feet high. What you are seeing is a depiction of Pickett's Charge on the third day of the battle. Four versions of the painting existed in the United States. It is the Boston version that is on display here and this first was displayed in Boston in 1884.

You come up into the center of the dome and there is a metal walkway all around the dome facing the painting. You can walk anywhere around the painting to see it. The painting is displayed as the artist originally intended with a three dimensional diorama in front of the bottom of the painting - making what you are seeing very realistic. Each place you stop around the painting and each place you look you are seeing another part of this battle.

There is a very short recorded narration that is played while you are up looking at the painting. What they do not do is tell you to look at any one particular part of the painting as the narration starts and you may be looking at a part of the painting that has nothing to do with what the narrator is saying. Your time with the Cyclorama is short - perhaps ten minutes and everyone is then asked to follow back down and out of the Cyclorama. You are then brought into a room with an explanation of the Cyclorama and its own historic artifacts. Frankly, this should have been at the start of the Cyclorama experience and not at the conclusion of it.

The Cyclorama is the end of your escorted part of the building and now you are on your own to go into the museum. Your tickets are only good for the day of purchase, so unless it is very early in the day it would be unwise at this point to leave intending to come back later. Your ticket does let you into the museum throughout that day. The film and the Cyclorama may be seen only once with a ticket. We went right into the musuem.

The museum consists of 12 galleries. The exhibits are displays of artifacts - some put together to create a room or a scene. There are also video presentations in some of the galleries. The first gallery is the Impact of War. The second gallery is the Causes of War from 1776 to 1861. Gallery three is the Approach to War. Gallery four gets into the Civil War 1861 to1863. Now in the galleries are approaching July 1863 with gallery five's Campaign to Pennsylvania. Included in Gallery five is the Campaign to Pennsylvania Voices Theater, a film program where you will hear from people who were there.

General Robert E. Lee's campaign furniture as it would have been set up in his tent.

Now the museum turns to telling you the story of the Battle of Gettysburg that took place from July 1, 1863 through July 3, 1863. (Think of the irony of the timing of this battle in relation to the Fourth of July.) Gallery six is divided into six sections - essentially six galleries - Into Battle, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Out of Battle.

Soldiers' tent - two men share this tent - each carries half the tent with him.

General George Meade's bedroom furniture from his Gettysburg Headquarters

Two bullets that met in mid-air!

 Gallery seven is Aftermath of Battle: the Brave Men, Living and Dead. The gallery includes the Voices of the Aftermath Theater, again with a video program with people who were there. Gettysburg is one of the bloodiest battles in American History. Over the three days of fighting 50,000 men died or were wounded. During the battle the people of the town saw their homes and buildings used by both sides as places to fight, hospitals, and places to die. You will see furniture from some of those homes full of bullet holes. These three days were devastating to both sides and everyone who lived in Gettysburg. Some historians feel that this battle was a draw. Some see it as a turning point for the North toward victory. (I personally do not agree with that as much more will take place in the two years that the war continues.) Both sides reported the battle as a victory but it was the Confederate forces who had to quietly move themselves and those who they could carry on July 4th out of the threat of total destruction and further danger.

This photo of a piece of a hospital tent from the battle kept and embroidered as a remembrance. This photo and a series of photos of this piece were taken for Meryl who is an embroidery historian.

 When most people hear Gettysburg they think of the Gettysburg Address, a short speech made by Abraham Lincoln - added to the ceremony is a secondary speaker. Gallery eight is about the Gettysburg Address. The ceremony honored all that fell in the battle and dedicate the cemetery - part of the battlefield - where so many who died in the battle were buried. That is Northern soldiers - Confederate soldiers were buried in mass graves and then later moved to a well known cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. In this gallery you will learn about the ceremony, the speech, and see documents written by Abraham Lincoln.

Gallery nine is the Civil War, 1863 to 1865 - the remainder of the war all the way through to General Lee's surrender of his army to General Grant at Appomattox which led to the end of the Civil War. There are some very significant artifacts to see in this gallery.

The Surrender Pen

Chairs used by Grant and Lee while signing the surrender

Gallery 10 is Results of the War: That These Dead Have Not Died in Vain. Gallery Gallery 11 is Preservation of the Battlefield in which you learn about the immediate collecting of artifacts of the battle, the reunions of both sides held at the battleground, and the work done to preserve the battlefield as a National Military Park. That work still continues. The NPS is currently removing trees that did not exist on parts of the battlefield in 1863. They are trying very hard to put the battlefield back to what it looked like at the time of the battle. (For every tree removed, another tree is planted at another local site.)

The last gallery is a special exhibits gallery and the exhibits here change here on a schedule. At the time of our visit this exhibit was (and may still be) Treasures of the Civil War: Legendary Leaders Who Shaped a War and a Nation. This includes artifacts from collections from all over the country. The following three photographs are of artifacts in that exhibit.

Robert E. Lee's Dressing Gown

Pickett's Sash

George Meade's Boots

 After the gallery we went into the gift shop - which was soon to close at 6 pm. We knew at the beginning of the day that we would not have very much time to see any of the actual battlefield itself - and as I said at the beginning of Part I of this article, we have been through the battlefield many times before - but never in a Roadtrek. We headed back to the parking lot and decided that before dinner we would try to see a little of the battlefield and headed toward the route of the tour. The tour road goes in one direction only. You start the tour on the Confederate side of the battlefield at the bottom and drive along in a long oval past the field where Pickett's Charge started - and the statue of Robert E. Lee.

The route takes you along to Big Round Top and then Little Round Top. There was fierce fighting on Little Round Top. You may park and climb to the top of both looking out over the entire battlefield.

Atop Little Roundtop

After Little Round Top in the Roadtrek it is important to make the correct turns and I am not certain that it is a good idea to go down along the route to Devil's Den where the route climbs a rather steep hill and then drives through some very tight roads with rocks on each side. Now, tour buses do this route, but these are drivers experienced in maneuvering a large vehicle on a road they know well. I have driven on these roads with a car and with a small van - as it was beginning to get dark, I decided not to attempt it with the Roadtrek and we took the alternate route that continued the oval.

Devil's Den - a famous photograph taken right after the war was taken at this same spot by Alexander Gardener showing dead soldiers between the rocks right here.

 The oval route then takes you past the ending point of Pickett's Charge and the High Water Mark monument. This then leads you out of the park. There are other routes through other parts of the battlefield. As I have been saying this battle took place all around the town.

It was getting dark and we went to a place that many reenactors know to go to for dinner when in Gettysburg - General Pickett's Buffet - a Southern buffet menu restaurant almost outside of town. Going into the main parking lot entrance of the restaurant the Roadtrek banged as it hit bottom in the back going up the driveway cut from the street. I hoped that no damage was done - and so far it seems we were OK. Leaving the restaurant later that night we went out the rear of the parking lot where the exit cut was less of an incline - and no bang.

We returned to the campground in Lancaster that night the same way that we came. What happened to the rain? It did not rain in Gettysburg while we were there. The roads to Lancaster where wet and it had rained there. We saw some interesting lighting shapes in the distant sky as we drove back - one of which was red and in the shape of a U - high in the sky.

I recommend going to Gettysburg. Go for more than one day. There are several campgrounds in Gettysburg. Some are better in the reviews than others so be sure to check RVparkreviews.com before you go and pay close attention to the reviews. There is a Walmart in Gettysburg but overnight parking is not allowed in their parking lot. This is a local ordnance and applies to all parking lots in Gettysburg. When in Gettysburg be sure to see walk around the town. There is a great history bookstore in town called The History Store. There are also a number of ghost tours of the town at night - these cost money and may or may not be showing you anything but legends, but we aware that Gettysburg is said to be one of the most haunted places in the country - and considering what happened here, I would not doubt that at all.

(The three photographs taken of the battlefield above were not taken on this trip. It was too dark and we had no time to stop for photos when we drove the battle route with the Roadtrek. These photos were taken by me on a trip to Gettysburg in the Fall of 2008 and this explains the color of the leaves on the trees in General Lee's statue photo.)

National Civil War Museum, Harrisburg, PA

Our most recent trip in the Roadtrek found us in Pennsylvania with some bad weather forecast. We were in PA for some outdoor places to go and with severe thunderstorms coming we kept moving our plans for those places off toward the end of the trip when, hopefully, the predicted improvement in the weather would actually take place. I started thinking about where to go in or around Lancaster, PA that was indoors other than outlet shopping - which we both had no desire to do. I remembered that a number of years ago we drove to Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania state capital and went to the National Civil War Museum. We remembered it as a good museum and decided to go back to avoid the storm (which in Harrisburg as it turned out, we totally avoided).


The National Civil War Museum is located at the top of a hill in Reservoir Park in the city of Harrisburg, PA. A GPS will bring you to the park entrance and there are clear signs to follow to the museum. Once you are up to the parking lot, the museum is actually further up the hill, just a short walk up some stairs and to the entrance. There was an RV and Bus section of the parking lot but I was able to park the Roadtrek in a regular parking space that allowed me to overlap the sidewalk with the front of the van. Other large vehicles nearby had done the same. It was not crowded the day we were there on a Wednesday though it was Fourth of July week. 

The museum is open seven days a week (closed some holidays) and the hours vary by the day of the week. Wednesday is the late day and the museum is open until 8 pm. There is an admission. Adults are $11, seniors $10, and students $9. You purchase your tickets in the museum store which is large and has a nice book section. Once you purchase your tickets you are told to take the stairs across from the store to the second floor where the exhibit galleries start.

The museum is a combination of artifacts, scenes that you walk into the middle of, and videos. There are ten galleries on the second floor (with more on the first) and you start your tour at the gallery, "A House Divided, 1850-1860" which sets the stage for the occurrence of the Civil War - how people felt and what the incidents and issues were before the start. Here besides cases of artifacts including Abraham Lincoln's hat box (shown below), you are introduced to some people - men and women - white and black - who lived during the war by videos in which they introduce themselves and you encounter various views and circumstances. These same people will appear throughout the museum on video screens as the war goes along.

Lincoln's Hat Box

This is one of the few Civil War museums located in the North and it very much reflects the Northern point of view (perhaps "attitude") toward the Civil War. This is a different prospective from Civil War museums in the South that I have visited. While I say this, this is not to say that both sides are not represented in the collections and many of the artifacts that I will share with you in photos taken on this trip are primarily Confederate - perhaps because these belonged to prominent and recognizable names.

You move along to the next gallery "American Slavery: The Peculiar Institution 1850-1860" in which there are exhibit cases along two walls and a scene of a slave auction that you walk into the middle of. This is done with mannikins who, while not animated, speak to each other so that you are in the midst of what is taking place.

From here you go on to "First Shots, 1861" and you find yourself standing in the middle of the first shots fired - the firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina.  On one side of the darkened gallery is the fort and on the other side a cannon and two men who are firing it. You listen to the two men (again well done mannikins) and you will see the cannon flash and roar with corresponding hits lighting on the fort. Well done, especially with a good explanation accompanying artifacts of what took place and why.

The war has begun and you move on to "Making of Armies", a gallery of artifacts of recruitment, equipment and uniforms of both sides. What is interesting is that they have contrasted the two sides showing in parallel what each side's soldiers were given and used. This gallery continued along to the next with a similar theme - "Weapons and Equipment".

Union Blue Uniform

Confederate Butternut Uniform (No, not Grey)

The galleries continue along - "Campaigns and Battles of 1862", "Battle Map, 1861-1862", "Camp Curtain" (the largest Union camp in the Civil War and located in Harrisburg, PA) which is another scene that you walk into, "Why Men Fought 1861-1863", and "Civil War Music" where you will hear recordings of music from both sides and a collection of field and brass instruments of the period.

Blood stained Sleeve from General Pickett's Coat when wounded at the Battle of Gaines Mill, Virginia

Stonewall Jackson's Gauntlet

At this point you are lead down a flight of stairs with pictorial exhibits on the walls to the First Floor Galleries - another 9 exhibits. The first exhibit that you come into is "Gettysburg, 1863" and because of the proximity of this museum to the battlefield and that it is a battle fought in Pennsylvania, this is one of the largest galleries. You will see a Civil War cannon - and videos showing how it is loaded and fired. You will see videos of battle tactics and the loading and firing of muskets. The battle is well explained and there are many related artifacts in this gallery. As we entered the gallery I was reminded that this was July 2nd - day two of the three day battle and a very bloody day in history.  And there were some very important artifacts on display.

Robert E. Lee's Gauntlets

Robert E. Lee's Bible and Hat Cord

General George Pickett's Cap

Moving on in the museum, you come to "Costs of War" - Civil War medicine, "Women in the War", "Navy" - the war at sea, "Campaigns and Battles of 1864-1865", "Battle Map", "Theater" showing an award-winning video on the end of the war, "Lincoln: War and Remembrance" including "Meet Mr. Lincoln" an animated, computer Lincoln on a screen who answers questions, and an exhibit gallery with temporary, changing exhibits. At the end of the galleries there is an exhibit on Civil War Soldier Reunions with photographs and contemporary descriptions of what the men on each side remembered - and you see them meet each other in these photographs as old men who once faced each other in battle.

If you have any interest at all in the Civil War you can spend a full day at this museum. The museum is not without its faults - some of the labeling of artifacts is out of order, and there are exhibits in galleries that do not follow consistently in time sequence which can be confusing to anyone not familiar with Civil War details. All and all, it is well worth the trip and a very interesting museum for anyone who has an interest in the American Civil War or would like to be introduced to its history. There are artifacts here on a level that I have not seen elsewhere in a general Civil War collection in regard to whom they belonged to. The museum has 4,000 artifacts and 21,000 archival documents. That is quite a collection!

We had an enjoyable day. We will go back again at sometime in the future. And we avoided the storm and spent the day constructively entertained.

Valley Forge National Park, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

We took the Roadtrek to Pennsylvania to the dealer for service and after the service visit we went to Valley Forge National Historic Park just north of Philadelphia and right off the Pennsylvania Turnpike at the Valley Forge exit. We have been to Valley Forge many times before but this was our first time there with the Roadtrek.

When you arrive at the park you drive past the Visitors Center building and enter the parking lot. There is an RV parking area and while the Roadtrek is small compared to most RVs that would park in these spaces, we parked there as the car spaces were tight.

 

We were there in the middle of the week in early August and the park was not crowded. This parking lot is just for the Visitors Center. When you tour Valley Forge you do it along the park road from stop to stop. There is a map that is free at the desk inside the Visitors Center. There is no park fee to visit Valley Forge. In the Visitors Center you will find a small museum, a film, information about Ranger tours, and a gift shop.

Valley Forge was the first winter encampment of the Continental Army during the American Revolution.  Fighting was difficult in winter in the 18th Century for both sides and armies would go into winter camps for the winter. This was not a time of truce and each side was always on guard. Valley Forge has a reputation in history as being a bitter cold, freezing winter but this is more myth than fact. It actually was a mild winter and while there certainly were hardships and a great deal of boredom, it was not as history books like to portray. The hardest winter for the Continental Army was spent at Morristown, New Jersey where two winter encampments were held in years after Valley Forge. At Morristown, all of the horror that is attributed to Valley Force actually did take place. You can visit the historic sites in Morristown of those encampments.

The musuem at Valley Forge should be better than it is. There are few exhibits. There had been plans to locate a full musuem of the American Revolution here where this museum and Visitors Center stands  but Federal funding was never allocated to do so. That museum will be built with private and government funding in Philadelphia and planning is underway now. Much of what had once been in the museum at Valley Forge has gone to be placed in that museum. What is left are just brief glimpses of what remains of camp life at the Valley Forge encampment.

Cooking utensils found from the encampment

Musket cartridges found from the encampment. The musket ball is tied at the top of the paper cartridge filled with blackpowder

See the museum and then go up the staircase and outside to a separate building that houses a film about the encampment at Valley Forge. Seeing the film will give you a better appreciation for what you will see when you tour the park. After the film, go back into the Visitors Center and stop in the gift shop which has a very good selection of books. Then head back to the parking lot with your visitors map to your Roadtrek as you are about to see where and how the American soldiers lived during this winter encampment.

You drive out of the parking lot the way that you came in and at the Visitors Center building make a right turn onto the park road. These roads are not only used by visitors to the park but also by local traffic. Most are one way. There will be parking lots or side of the road parking spaces as you get to each of the sites shown on the map. The first stop you come to has the most detailed presentation of a typical unit camp.

Soldiers slept in huts which they built themselves. Each unit had common areas that included cabins for the soldiers, a common fire pit for cooking, and a bake oven. At this stop you can walk inside a cabin and look inside of others.

Six men sleep in this cabin. There are another three pallets on the opposite wall. One man to a pallet. One man to a pallet. This is actually pretty good for the Army at this time, as six men also slept in one small private's tent. Each cabin has its own fireplace. While smaller, this cabin is not much different from a poor man's home in Colonial America.  One room and a dirt floor were common.

Cooking is done in a common fire pit. Each man is given his own rations. Many pool those to create a larger meal.

A common bake oven is used to bake bread. Each man is given a supply of flour per day.

You leave this stop and drive through the rest of the park following the map. There is a lot to see and if you stop at each site you will spend most of a day. There are a few memorials to see including an arch. There is a church/shrine with a very good museum (private) within the church. This museum is better than the one in the Visitors Center. You can also visit the house that George Washington stayed in with his officers and his wife, Martha, during the encampment. Martha Washington came to be with her husband several times during the war and each time became a part of the camp and helped care for the soldiers and the wounded.

The map will lead you to the house that Washington stayed in. It is important that you follow the map as at this point the park road goes out onto a main route with a lot of traffic - especailly at rush hour. Make sure that you make a right turn and not a left (as we did). The right turn will take you to the parking lot for the house which is a little distance away from the house location. We turned right because in the long past there was a smaller parking lot and a direct road to the house just to the right of the intersection. Remembering that old way to go, and not that they completely closed that road to all traffic we went the wrong way and this took us in rush hour traffic onto a busy two lane route that climbed hills with no place to turn a vehicle as large as the Roadtrek around. At this point there we were reaching closing time for the park exhibition areas and we decided not to try to get back. Eventually we relied on the GPS to route us back to a main road that would take us back toward the turnpike without having to make a U-turn. We have been to Washington's house before. It is worth seeing. At some point in the future when we have more time, we will go back to Valley Forge. It is really worth a trip if you have any interest in history.

Most who come to this area in a motorhome and want to stay in a campground stay in the KOA West Chester/Philadelphia. This campground is southwest of Philadelphia and a distance from Valley Forge. There is a campground north of this area in Quakertown. There is also a campground in Kutztown, Pa - Pine Hill Campground. All of the campgrounds will involve a drive to get Valley Forge. While George Washington and his army could camp there - you cannot. I have not stayed in any of these campgrounds other than Pine Hill and I cannot recommend any but Pine Hill which is perhaps the most distance away - the length of the PA Turnpike Notheast Extension from I78 south to the main turnpike.There is a review of Pine Hill on this site.

The Valley Forge National Historic Park has a website. This will take you to it.  Since our visit, the Visitors Center front is under renovation.

Mount Vernon - Home of George Washington, Alexandria, Virginia

We left Williamsburg and headed back north.  We were stopping for the day at Mount Vernon, the home and "farm" of George Washington, located in Alexandria, Virginia. We would not be spending the night in a campground near here and, as a matter of fact, campgrounds in this area are few and far between.

As we headed north on I95, we decided that we would stop for lunch at a fast food restaurant. I had decided to wait until we got almost to the exit that we needed to take to make our way to Mount Vernon before we stopped for lunch. I should have stopped earlier, because as we came up to the last few exits before we needed to head east to Mount Vernon a sudden, severe storm came up. In a heavy rain storm in the Roadtrek you slow down, but keep up with vehicles in front of you to be able to follow their lights when visibility becomes reduced. This is exactly what happened and it was difficult to see what was ahead. As it got worse, we came upon the exit for Mount Vernon and we very cautiously and slowly got off the road. As with every other day of this trip the forecast was - you know it, if you have been reading along in this series of articles - scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms. This was far from a shower. It was a heavy downpour with strong winds. The road that I exited on was a mix of country road and commercial two lane highway. When we saw a safe place to turn off, I did and we just sat in the Roadtrek watching the rain come down pounding on the roof, hoping that it would let us and we could continue along. These storms seem to come and then go in Virginia and almost as sudden as it started it let up. We pulled back onto the road and headed straight for Mount Vernon. There would be no stopping for lunch. I just wanted to get there hoping that the rain would completely stop. And when we arrived, it did.

There is a lot of parking for Mount Vernon. We followed the signs along to what is designated as RV parking and this was in the last parking lot - and then there were only a few spaces that were sized for RVs. Other parking spaces, in this lot and the others is just slightly short for the Roadtrek, so we parked in one of the large RV spots. It happens that car drivers seem to feel that they need to park in these few RV spaces also. When we arrived there was one other RV and a number of cars in RV spaces. The photo on the right is when we were coming back to the Roadtrek at the end of the day and as you can see, this little car had to park in the "big boy's" space.

This was not our first visit to Mount Vernon. We have been there many times, but never before with the Roadtrek. Several years ago, there were some additions built at Mount Vernon and now in addition to Washington's house, the outbuildings, his tomb, and his farm, there is a wonderful education center and also a museum. You can spend a lot of time here and we spent a full afternoon which was not enough time to see everything. We did not go down to the farm which sits along the water of the Potomac River and we did not spend time with someone who works at Mount Vernon who portrays an exceptional Martha Washington who happens to be a friend. We did stop for a few minutes to see her while she was doing her portrayal. Plan to spend a full day. In fact, if this is a first time visit, I recommend two days. You can purchase a ticket good for a full year for just a little more than a single day ticket and you will be able to come back whenever you want. The year the new education center/museum complex opened we spent two full days at Mount Vernon and still did not go to the two locations off the main property - Washington's mill and Washington's distillery.

Let me tell you about what you will see when you go to Mount Vernon. There is no photography allowed inside the house or the museum. Photography is permitted anywhere outside and also in the education center. When you purchase your ticket you will be give a time to get on line to see the mansion. First stop in the Introductory Center to watch the film about George Washington. Then walk out to the house and the property. Arrive at the line before the  time on your ticket. How long a line you will encounter will depend on the time of year and the day of the week. We had very little wait on this Sunday at the end of August. By this time the rain had stopped, though everyone was clutching umbrellas. The line takes you into an outbuilding to the left of the mansion where you will be shown a short video of how the house progressed in its construction from a single story small house to what it is as you see it today. There is a tour guide there who will answer any questions about the house's construction. As the line in front of you progresses into the house, and the presentation in the outbuilding concludes you move along to the door that you see above on the left side of the house. This is where you will enter the house and the first room that you will come into is the formal dining room. The house is restored and decorated exactly as it was when George Washington lived in it. The formal dining room that you enter is also the room that Washington was laid out in when he died.

Washington lived in this house with his wife, Martha, and Martha's two children from her first marriage - Patsy and Jackie. Patsy died of an epileptic attack in Washington's arms here at Mount Vernon. Jackie died of disease at the Battle of Yorktown, but he was married and had children of his own. Two of these children came to live with George and Martha while two others went to live with their mother and other grandparents in Philadelphia. Washington raised Martha's children and grandchildren as his own.

As you exit the dining room you are actually going through a back door outside to the veranda where you will have a short wait to re-enter the house through the river side of the house's main door, shown here in the center of the photo. You are now entering the main hall entrance to the house.Here you will see most of the rooms on the first floor, looking from the hall into the rooms through their open doors. You cannot enter any of these rooms. There are only three rooms in the house that you actually walk through. Ahead to the left is the stairway to the second floor. There will be a tour guide in the hall explaining what you are looking at and answering questions. Before you go "above stairs" be sure to see the large brass key that hangs on the left wall in the hall between the two rooms. This is the key to the Bastille in Paris sent to Washington by Lafayette, following the French Revolution.

When you are ready to move on, you go up the stairs and you will see all of the bedrooms on the second floor. Some were used by guests. Some were used by family. There is a tour guide on the stair landing to talk about what you are seeing. When you walk through the open bedroom ahead on the left you are approaching the most private part of the house - George and Martha's bedchamber. Another tour guide meets on in this narrow hallway. The bedroom door is on the right at the far end of the hall. The furniture that you see is all original and the room is as it was the day that George Washington died. The bed that you see is the bed that Washington died in. He died from a swollen throat that cut off his breathing. There were three doctors in attendance that night. The youngest suggested a new procedure that he had read about - one that today we would call a tracheotomy. The other two physicians thought that idea was barbaric and refused to allow it to be done. The two continued to bleed Washington - and accepted procedure of the time. That young doctor's suggested procedure would have saved Washington's life. When Washington died the clock on the mantel was stopped by Washington's "personal" physician and friend. The clock remains as it was on that night. Martha closed the room and never slept in it again. There are special tours at extra cost that will take you up to the room that Martha moved into after Washington's death. This small, pleasant room is below the cupola in the attic. The room had been open with regular house tours during Christmas. Now that they are offering this special tour with an additional ticket, I am not certain that they are including that room during the Christmas season any longer.

After you have seen Washington's bedchamber, you go back down on a narrow stairway to the first floor. You will walk through a narrow hall to Washington's office. Of course, another tour guide is there to tell you about the room and all of Washington's personal belongings that are in it. This leads you to the end of the house tour and you exit out to a portico that will take you to the kitchen building.

You may now tour the grounds. Look into any of the outbuildings. There are guided walking tours of the property that are included in your ticket with themes like Plantation Life and The Gardens. Once outside the paths become slightly steep. You go down hill to the Farm and half way down you can stop to see Washington's tombs - the original and the one where he and Martha rest now which is a more ceremonial tomb that Washington was moved to several years after he was placed in the "old" family tomb. Every day there are ceremonies held at the tomb and two veterans in the crowd are selected to come up, enter the tomb, and lay a wreath at Washington's feet.

Do not miss the Farm. You can take a shuttle bus down to the river or walk on either of two trails. It is all downhill, so you may want to take the shuttle bus back up when you are ready. At the Farm you will see Washington's round threshing barn and its unique use is demonstrated with running horses several times a day. When you come back up to the level of the mansion, be sure to see all of the outbuildings. There are stables, paid workers housing, indentured servants and slaves housing, 18th Century maintenance buildings, and a manure pit. There is also a building in which you can meet Mrs. Washington (the friend I mentioned above) and she is a delight. She is the perfect Martha and she loves it when children come in to speak with her. She will talk about herself, Mr. Washington, her children, her grandchildren and will answer questions - but keep in mind that she knows nothing about anything that occurred after the 18th Century. She is Mrs. Washington and remains so.

Laundry

Overseer's Quarters

Stables

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a special walking tour being offered now at Mount Vernon. It is not cheap, but if you are a fan of the movie, "National Treasure II", you will be taken to all of the sites that were filmed in the movie including the "secret chamber". Call ahead to find out when this tour is given if you are interested. 

When you finish seeing the property, head back to the Visitor's Center. There is a lot more to see. Start with the Education Center. Here you will learn about Washington's life thorough state of the art interpretation exhibits. You first learn about Washington's boyhood with a brief film shown across the top of a wall in which the young boy grows to a young man as he moves along the wall. You next come into what looks like a scientific laboratory where you will see how a remarkable recreation was made. There are portraits of Washington as an older man. There is a bust of Washington as an older man done by Houdon that is said to be an exact likeness down to size. Scientists have taken that bust and the life and death masks that were made of Washington and created three dimensional figures of what Washington most likely looked like as a young man, when he was General Washington in the Revolutionary War, and when he was inaugurated as the first President. There are no known contemporary images of Washington as a young man. As you walk out of the laboratory you walk into a forest and encounter Washington - young man and surveyor.

Continue through the Education Center and learn about Washington the man. When you get to the Revolutionary War years there is a must see - in fact, we often go into this more than once. But I will keep you guessing for a few moments to share with you Washington, the general.

Across from Washington is a theater with continuous showings. Go in for a very unusual experience. You will see three battles of the Revolution shown to you on two screens but with effects that will shake you in your seat when cannons roar and real snow that falls down on you as you are shown the soldier's winter at Valley Forge. This is terrific.

After the theater, see the exhibit about George Washington, Spy Master and also the artifacts from the Revolution.  As you move along now you will see Washington, the civilian and Washington, the farmer. You will also see Washington's false teeth - and no, they are not made out of wood. They are made from human teeth, rhinoceros teeth, and ivory all fit not very comfortably into a metal frame with springs to open and close them. You move from here to Washington, the President.

At the end of the exhibit area is Washington's death and you will see a replica of his coffin, some actual pieces of the casket, and learn about the funeral. With this you enter a hall out of the Education Center with another theater. This is a brief film in the round that shows Washington's legacy on America.

I should add that if you have children with you, there is a children's exploration room in the Education Center that will let the kids put on 18th Century clothing and experience the life of children in the 18th Century. It is located after the Revolutionary War section.

As you exit the Education Center you come to the Museum. Here you will see Houdon's bust and a cute film about the observations of his granddaughter when it was made. You will also see original Mount Vernon furnishings and furniture up close and items belonging to George and Martha. The Museum also has temporary exhibits that change.

When you have completed the Museum, walk along the long hallway that takes you to the Visitors Center that has two large gift shops and also a food court. If you recall, all the way back at the beginning of this article we arrived without having stopped for lunch. We wound up eating in the food court and paying over $7 each for a basic hamburger. The food court is not inexpensive. A soda was  $3.

Mount Vernon is open 365 days a year. Hours do change according to season and you can check out every detail about visiting Mount Vernon on their website. I highly recommend that you visit Mount Vernon if you are visiting Maryland, Virginia, or Washington, D.C. I have to say that since the Education Center opened it made the visit very much more than just touring a house.

Washington played the Lottery