Monthly Archives: March 2018

Sweet

I visited The Hershey Story at the corner of, ahem, Chocolate Ave. and Cocoa Ave.  (Man, this whole town is on-brand.)  After the museum, I had this awesome S’mores Sundae at the cafe.  Hershey’s chocolate ice cream, marshmallow sauce, Graham cracker … Continue reading

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Charge

Looking  westward toward where Pickett’s Charge would have approached the Union line.Seminary Ridge can be seen in the distance.

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Top

Looking up the hill toward Little Round Top.The Union line had formed an upside-down fish hook atop the high ground of Cemetery Ridge.  (Not since Revenge of the Jedi has the high ground been so important.)The Union suddenly realized that … Continue reading

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Den

This jumble of rocks south of Gettysburg is called Devil’s Den.  It was one of the major battlefields on the second day of fighting.The “production design” of the whole place seemed worthy of Imagineers.Like something found on Tom Sawyer’s Island.Looking … Continue reading

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Divided

I spent quite a bit of time at the Gettysburg Visitor’s Center.  There was a widescreen film with an overview of the battle (with voice over by Morgan Freeman, naturally) and then a very strange 360 degree panoramic painting brought … Continue reading

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Young

Over a mountain ridge of thick, tangled forest from the Elders in Dry Run… …, the Youngs lived in Lurgan Township.My great-great-great-great-great-grandfather William Young, who had brought the family over from Northern Ireland, died here in 1753.

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Elder

In the rolling, pastoral farmland of central Pennsylvania’s Path Valley……lies a stream called (somewhat ironically) Dry Run……from which the nearby village gets its name.This is the small village where Mary and Elizabeth Young lived with their parents.  Their parents, David … Continue reading

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Indian

Despite fighting in the American Revolution, John Young owned (at least one) slave.  However, his sons, John Jr. and David, became fierce Abolitionists.  John Jr. owned a farm somewhere on Indian Run while his brother David owned a farm nearby. John … Continue reading

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Rites

A huge structure looms over the town of Mercer in western Pennsylvania.  I had assumed it was the county courthouse or something, but it turned out to be huge, expensive Scottish Rite temple.  The influence of the Scots in this … Continue reading

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Revolutionaries

Although Pennsylvania had (mostly) well-defined borders when it entered the Union in 1787 as the 2nd state, it’s western edge was still wild country.  Over the years, the original counties of Mercer and Beaver had Lawrence county carved out from … Continue reading

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Nightfall

The falls are colder and seem even more ominous at night.  The colored lights that illuminate the falls only add to this ominous effect.

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Franc

Surprise number one was that Niagara Falls has a culinary institute.  Surprise number two was that the student working at the culinary institute’s wine shop told me that New York state has the highest wine production after California and Oregon. … Continue reading

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Tesla

I was surprised to find a Nikola Tesla statue but apparently he had consulted on how to best transmit power from Niagara Falls.

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Falls

Niagara Falls was just as impressive (and impressively loud) as I had imagined.I shivered at the thought of falling into the gelid waters.  Smart of Lois Lane not to throw herself in during winter.I did find myself yelling over the … Continue reading

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Blank

“I should have brought my gun.” “What was that?” “Should be fun!”

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