Valley Forge National Historic Park
Today we took a day trip to Valley Forge we had wonderful weather today as well as some very beautiful scenery. Valley Forge was PA first state park until President Ford made it a national park on July 4, 1976. We were able to tour the camp headquarters were George Washington lived during the encampment in 1777-78. Actually saw where Geo Washington slept!!
We also toured the QVC studios. Very interesting and informative tour. We have a good understanding of the behind the scenes of live TV.
We finished the day in South Philly with dinner at Pats King of Cheesesteaks- there is a long time feud with Genos who is across the street about who has the best cheesesteak, we choose Pats for no particular reason. We don't think you can get a bad cheesesteak in Philly, so as far as we are concerned they are all good!!!
We are John/Cathy Robnik, we have been traveling fulltime since 2001. We have a 2005 Kountry Star Motorhome with a Jeep Liberty Toad. We have enjoyed every mile and hope to continue traveling for a long time to come......
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July 28, 2005
July 24, 2005
Amish Farmland Tour
We had a nice time touring the PA Dutch countryside, it was very beautiful with all the farms very green and most of the homes have these wonderful red roofs. One thing you will notice in our blog is there are no pictures of the Amish people. It is against their beliefs to have their pictures taken, they believe it to be vain . In order to honor their beliefs we were asked not to take photos of the Amish. The Amish live a very simple life, no phones, TV, electricity. All though they are permitted to use those items they just cannot have them in their home. Cars are not allowed all though they can ride in one. The Amish use a gas powered washing machine and propane refrigerator...Very interesting people.
We also went to the Ephrata Cloister the reconstructed buildings are from 1720, when a German man by the name of Conrad Beissel came to PA to find religious freedom. By 1750 there were 80 brothers and sisters. This group lived a very simple and celibate life, Beissel felt that God would be coming soon and he and his followers wanted to be ready they believed God would come in the middle of the night, so at 12am they all went into the church and prayed and until 2 am before going back to bed again. The community is most known for its charity helping new settlers to build houses, caring for the elderly. Beissel died in 1768 and the last member of the German Seventh-day Baptist Church died in 1813. I could go on and on as I found this to be very interesting. By the way, during the winter of 1777-1778 the Cloister was the site of the Revolutionary War Military Hospital.
We also toured the oldest pretzel bakery in north America . In 1861, Julius Strugis opened America's first pretzel bakery. Did you know that.... the pretzel, the world's oldest snack food, dates back to as early as 610AD at a monastery in Southern France or Northern Italy where monks used scraps of dough and formed them into strips to represent a child's arms folded in prayer. The three holes represented the Christian Trinity.
We had a nice time touring the PA Dutch countryside, it was very beautiful with all the farms very green and most of the homes have these wonderful red roofs. One thing you will notice in our blog is there are no pictures of the Amish people. It is against their beliefs to have their pictures taken, they believe it to be vain . In order to honor their beliefs we were asked not to take photos of the Amish. The Amish live a very simple life, no phones, TV, electricity. All though they are permitted to use those items they just cannot have them in their home. Cars are not allowed all though they can ride in one. The Amish use a gas powered washing machine and propane refrigerator...Very interesting people.
We also went to the Ephrata Cloister the reconstructed buildings are from 1720, when a German man by the name of Conrad Beissel came to PA to find religious freedom. By 1750 there were 80 brothers and sisters. This group lived a very simple and celibate life, Beissel felt that God would be coming soon and he and his followers wanted to be ready they believed God would come in the middle of the night, so at 12am they all went into the church and prayed and until 2 am before going back to bed again. The community is most known for its charity helping new settlers to build houses, caring for the elderly. Beissel died in 1768 and the last member of the German Seventh-day Baptist Church died in 1813. I could go on and on as I found this to be very interesting. By the way, during the winter of 1777-1778 the Cloister was the site of the Revolutionary War Military Hospital.
We also toured the oldest pretzel bakery in north America . In 1861, Julius Strugis opened America's first pretzel bakery. Did you know that.... the pretzel, the world's oldest snack food, dates back to as early as 610AD at a monastery in Southern France or Northern Italy where monks used scraps of dough and formed them into strips to represent a child's arms folded in prayer. The three holes represented the Christian Trinity.
July 15, 2005
Gettysburg
John and I spent two days in Gettysburg what a learning experience!! We did an 18-mile auto tour of the battlefield. It is unbelievable how beautiful the area is and at the very same time hard to imagine the horror of all those soldiers dying in the battlefields it is unbelievable how many men died. During Pickett’s charge more than 5000 men died in one hour. In total 51,000 men either; died, were captured/missing or wounded in a three-day battle beginning July 1 ending on July 3, 1863. We also did a ranger led tour of the Gettysburg Cemetery. I found one (of course there were many others) interesting fact of the Gettysburg Cemetery. This cemetery was to be a Union Soldiers Cemetery and several years’ later historians found that there are two Confederate Soldiers who are buried at Gettysburg. Know one really knows how/why this happened. One speculation is they had taken a dead union soldiers clothing or they were wounded and claimed to be union to get better medical care…. In any case it was to be determined that they would remain in the Gettysburg Cemetery. We also saw the 360-foot Cyclorama painting of Pickett’s Charge it is an original painting by Paul Phillippoteaux it is awesome. It is 121 years old and we feel very lucky to have seen it, this November the exhibit will be closed until 2007, they are going to attempt to restore the painting.
We found the Harley Davidson Factory in York, PA and took a factory tour. Pretty cool
We also toured the Boyd’s Bears “Factory” with boomer friends Larry & Claudia King…
Coming Attractions:
Lancaster, PA Dutch Country
John and I spent two days in Gettysburg what a learning experience!! We did an 18-mile auto tour of the battlefield. It is unbelievable how beautiful the area is and at the very same time hard to imagine the horror of all those soldiers dying in the battlefields it is unbelievable how many men died. During Pickett’s charge more than 5000 men died in one hour. In total 51,000 men either; died, were captured/missing or wounded in a three-day battle beginning July 1 ending on July 3, 1863. We also did a ranger led tour of the Gettysburg Cemetery. I found one (of course there were many others) interesting fact of the Gettysburg Cemetery. This cemetery was to be a Union Soldiers Cemetery and several years’ later historians found that there are two Confederate Soldiers who are buried at Gettysburg. Know one really knows how/why this happened. One speculation is they had taken a dead union soldiers clothing or they were wounded and claimed to be union to get better medical care…. In any case it was to be determined that they would remain in the Gettysburg Cemetery. We also saw the 360-foot Cyclorama painting of Pickett’s Charge it is an original painting by Paul Phillippoteaux it is awesome. It is 121 years old and we feel very lucky to have seen it, this November the exhibit will be closed until 2007, they are going to attempt to restore the painting.
We found the Harley Davidson Factory in York, PA and took a factory tour. Pretty cool
We also toured the Boyd’s Bears “Factory” with boomer friends Larry & Claudia King…
Coming Attractions:
Lancaster, PA Dutch Country
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