In July 1999, we decided to take a family trip out to Washington, DC and Gettysburg. We loaded up our 1988 Pontiac Safari station wagon, and hit the road (the wagon, one or two of our friends thought resembled the car from "National Lampoon's Vacation").
We overnighted in Fairmount, Indiana (hometown of James Dean & Jon Davis, for those keeping score at home, and a place with a lot of family connections for us), and we hit the highway for a long, adventuous trip. Our girls, ages 4 and 21 months at the time, were along for the trip.
We had hoped to do some cemetary searching in Ohio (my grandfather's birthplace), but were greeted by heavy rain and had to continue on through. We made the trip straight through to Williamsport, Maryland in an incredible 13 hours, considering we had young children. The next morning, we headed up to Gettysburg. We came in through Chambersburg, which I consider the essential way in. Between the two towns is a place called "the Elephant Museum", a candy store with a free museum of elephant memorabilia as an attraction. Well, the word "free" always had its appeal, so we were hooked. Inside were glass cases full of every elephant themed thing you could imagine (the kids' favorite: an elephant potty chair). There was a large "bridge" of elephants from Kenya that featured several conjoined elephants carved from a single puece of ivory (my favorite piece).
As we arrived in Gettysburg, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed at what an incredible place it is. It wasn't overly expensive; rather cheap for a "tourist trap", I found, and the locals know their history extremely well. We visited the battlefield, the cemetary, and many of the houses, but our trip was limited to one day, and so we left, vowing we'd have to return one day.
We might as well have stayed in Gettysburg both days, though, as we soon discovered.
I had not realized before we left that so many people would be coming into Washington DC the days following the deaths of JFK Jr. and his wife, but we couldn't even get into Arlington, as so many were lined up to lay flowers at JFK Sr's grave. We did get a tour of the capitol, though (I wish we'd have done the White House tour, then, though, as that's now severely restricted).
On our return home, we had scheduled a welcome stop at the Cumberland County fair. Two hours from the beltway, this place was nestled deep in the heart of the Appalachians, and was a world away, culturally speaking. We listened to some incredible bluegrass from folks who were raised to the stuff, and watched a very impressive fireworks display for such a small town. I was most impressed with the pride these folks showed in their community; even though they were on the interstate, people rarely stopped there as they were always travelling on.
The only regret I had about this trip is, we didn't get to do enough. But I did leave with a better awareness of how much time I will have to schedule for the next time we go.
signing off,
Gideon MacLeish