The clerk had told us that there was a parking fee at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park less than a mile down the road, which in turns out was just the entrance fee that would have been covered by our annual National Parks pass. Not knowing this, of course, we opted to walk the fifteen minutes to get to the park. Arielle wasn’t so sure Abe knew where he was going when we descended down the steep grass and walked through a KOA campground to get there, but we made it! We thought about taking the shuttle down to the town first but opted to do the recommended walk/hike first after a detailed historical recounting of events by a park ranger. We set out for Murphy-Chambers Farm, which started downwards through the woods before it took us along a road surrounded by grass, which was once the site of a major battle and features several real cannons still there. We ended at a beautiful view of the water from high above and walked back to the visitor center, where we raced to make the shuttle that ended up not leaving for a few minutes.
The town of Harpers Ferry was only a few minutes away (we could have chosen to walk but it wasn’t a terribly exciting trail), and our first order of business was to find a restroom. We learned that this town was destroyed in the Civil War and never really rebuilt, and while it does feature old-time businesses, most of them were closed, likely because we were so early in the season. Arielle was excited to take a picture at a restaurant called Almost Heaven that Aunt Nancy had recommended, though we opted to keep walking rather than eat there. We stopped in to look at a few casual restaurants and to explore a historic candy store, which features recreated versions of many popular snack food items from decades and centuries past. We walked over to where rivers converge and the states of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet. We crossed a bridge that took us into Maryland, which was cool and also very windy, which resulted in the loss of some of the popcorn we were snacking on while walking over it, leftover from our movie theater stop in North Carolina a week earlier.
Satisfied with our short tour of the town, we took the shuttle back to the visitor center and retraced our steps to arrive back at the hotel. There, Abe made a peanut butter and banana sandwich while Arielle was able to toast her bread and make a salami sandwich. We hit the road, crossing into Virginia within moments and then into Maryland just a few minutes later. We got gas just before crossing into Pennsylvania, where we stopped at the welcome center in search of a postcard. Abe managed to get a few historic state postcards and learn the trivia fact that James Buchanan was the only president born in Pennsylvania.
We saw a sign for the Flight 93 National Memorial and decided to make a 45-minute detour to stop. This very moving tribute to the people who died bringing down this plane before it reached its intended destination on September 11th was quiet and somber, fitting for its surroundings and the fact that it really is in the middle of fields, trees, and a lot of land. The design of the memorial pieces is intentional and powerful.
We got back on the road and got into Pittsburgh about an hour and twenty minutes later. We were warmly greeted by Elana, who had requested a visit when we had seen her at Lisa and Alexi’s weddings in California, and her husband Jeremy. They had even saved us some of dinner, which was delicious: salmon, Brussels sprouts, rice, and salad.
We brought a number of our things in, socialized for a bit, and went to bed since we knew that we’d have plenty of time with these guys over the next few days.
Approximate number of miles covered: 199
