Wednesday, October 6

We drove a short distance from the Bloom’s house to Thomas Jefferson’s home, the architectural delight, Monticello. It is a fascinating house that was forty years in the making and is full of innovations of all kinds--the first dome on an American house, a wine cellar to dining room dumb waiter, an inside/outside clock which also tells the day of the week, L-shaped north and south walking terraces which extend beautifully from the house thereby hiding from view underneath storage rooms and cellars, stables, washrooms, and a French cuisine inspired kitchen. The grounds and gardens are equally impressive and beautifully restored. An excellent stop!

Our next destination was Gettysburg, some 180 miles away to the north and slightly east. The first forty miles we wandered, at Mark’s insistence, through the Blue Ridge Mountains in Shenandoah National Park on the Skyline Parkway (the more romantic sounding Blue Ridge Parkway goes south from Charlottesville).

The 35 mph road winds up and down through tree covered low mountains. We were 1-2 weeks early for the best fall colors but enjoyed the occasional bright red colors of sumac and black gum intermixed with dusky purplish dogwoods and just yellowing birches and poplars. The day was cold hovering around 50 degrees plus cloudy but the colorful trees amidst rocky outcroppings with many overlooks for the long vista made for an enjoyable drive. Nonetheless, forty miles was enough and we cut back to highway 81. Too many miles yet to cover before nightfall.

Our route took us through the easternmost little tag of West Virginia as well as some 11 miles of Maryland. By late in the day, we entered Pennsylvania and began to zigzag east through countryside dotted with small farms featuring red barns with many silos and fields thick with corn stalks both green and brown. After some map mishaps and campground hunting, we finally happened on a pleasant wooded RV park just miles from Gettysburg.

16. West Virginia--Mountaineers are always free/Mountain State

17. Maryland--Manly deeds, womanly words/Old Line State--??

The state motto, Fatti maschii, parole femine, translates literally from the Italian as "Manly deeds, womanly words", or more generally, "Strong deeds, gentle words," which is what the Government of Maryland cites officially. Maryland is the only state with a motto in Italian. The saying is the motto of the Calvert family (the Barons Baltimore) who first founded the Colony of Maryland.

According to some historians, Gen. George Washington bestowed the name “Old Line State” and thereby associated Maryland with its regular line troops, the Maryland Line, who served courageously in many Revolutionary War battles.

18. Pennsylvania--Virtue, Liberty, and Independence/Keystone State

At a Jefferson Republican victory rally in October 1802, Pennsylvania was toasted as "the keystone in the federal union," and in the newspaper Aurora the following year the state was referred to as "the keystone in the democratic arch."