Ruckersville, VA, September 22, 2009
We’ve had a full 2 days! We left Charleston, WV traveling the Midland Trail also known as Highway 60. The scenery was so beautiful. The area reminded us of Kentucky. We followed the Kanawha River through many small towns.
By golly, we stopped at the Gauley Bridge! It was beautiful!
We then continued on, stopping at the Hawk’s Nest State Park. We trekked down to Lover’s Leap and it was also amazingly beautiful. We thought about leaping, but the sign said “Do not throw things over the edge.” Since we didn’t know how to leap without throwing ourselves over the edge, we hiked the 100 steps back up and consoled ourselves with an ice cream bar. (Good decision!)
West Virginia is beautiful and we didn’t see any of the typical commercialism of the other states. People have small homes, work mostly in the coal/mining business and drive trucks. We passed through the Allegheny Mountains into Virginia.
In Virginia we crossed over the “Cow Pasture River” and thought about doing some skinny dipping, then thought again. Nah….
We drove along the Appalachian Trail crossing the Appalachian Mountains. Again, beautiful scenery. (But lousy drivers! They seem to be side magnets. You know how a car will just hang just at your side and never go faster or slower, even after they HAD to pass you?)
We arrived at the Dunstan’s home In Ruckersville, VA around 4:30pm. Joanne Dunstan and I worked together at Farmer’s and Merchants Bank in the late 70’s, early 80’s. They have a lovely home nestled in the woods. They also have the cutest 9 year old son, Andrew! Andrew was the best host ever!
This morning we left the Dunstan’s and headed toward Washington DC. We drove along the James Madison Highway passing the cities of Manassas, Arlington, Fairfax, Bull Run, Centreville, Reston, Falls Church and Leesburg. I thought about the sacrifices of the Civil War and the dichotomy of us now rushing 65 mph down an 8 lane freeway where battles were once fought.
We wanted to see the World War II Memorial. It is breathtaking.
We were honored to be there while a large group of WWII veterans from Wyoming was there. Senator Bob Dole was there the entire time, talking to all the veterans, posing for pictures with them and honoring them.
The veterans wore T-shirts that were printed on the back “If you can read this, thank a teacher. Since you are reading this in English, thank a WWII veteran before it’s too late.”
This memorial was humbling. Both Bob and I missed and honored our dads. When I saw the New Jersey carving I cried. I felt terrible when I looked at the Pacific area and did not even know where in the Pacific my dad served. Sigh, being a bratty kid has its paybacks.
When we saw the Atlantic area we recognized where Bob's dad had said he had been, we have his pictures of those areas.
The 4000 stars, representing the over 400,000 lives lost made me cry. Carved in stone at the bottom of the stars it says “Here is the price of Freedom.”
I have listed our dads in the WWII memorial on line data base. If any of you have a loved one that served in WWII you may want to add their name to this data base. You can do this at www.wwiimemorial.com. This memorial was very moving for us. Thank you to Louis Oran Carroll and Howard Pattison Foote and all the others who served to make our life in this country so wonderful.
We drove to Baltimore Maryland and checked into our hotel. We aren’t used to driving in all that traffic and confusion, so we parked Bart and caught a shuttle to the Inner Harbor. We had a very nice late lunch, walked around a bit and caught a taxi back to the hotel.
We have had a very full 2 days. We have been over 3400 miles so far. Tomorrow we will drive to Marlton New Jersey to spend the weekend with our kids, Lisa, Mike and Jenn. I’m so excited to see them and we are looking forward to several days of rest and catch up!
We love you and hope all is well with you, bc and gc.
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