Hello from Gettysburg, PA
Friday evening– October 22, 2021 (fifth post of this travelogue)
We are at the Artillery Ridge Campground (Google Maps)
{google_map}39.8011, -77.2270{/google_map}
Tuesday we had a laid back day and only drove around the huge campground. The property is about 5 miles long and has been in the family since 1957. They opened it to the public in 1960. It has two large lakes and several camp areas, most of which are dry camping/tent sites. It turned out to be a great campground. By Wednesday were the only campers in the facility. I suspect that it gets rather crowded on the weekend. They have jeeps, horses, and canoes for rent. There is even a sand beach on the lake.
Wednesday we toured the Shenandoah National Park. We entered from the north. Our first stop was the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center, where we got to experience a great ranger presentation that focused on how the early settlers farmed and preserved their food. We then continued along Skyline drive to Skyland Rustic Resort where we had a great lunch. Skyline drive is very much like the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a very twisty road with beautiful views of the valleys far below.
The mountains in this area are quite different from those in Colorado. They do not have the same elevation raise, but we saw a sign showing an elevation of over 6500 feet.
Yesterday we drove a relatively short distance to Gettysburg (about 100 miles).
This will be at least our third visit to Gettysburg. The first was in 1980 in our VW bus with all the girls. Lisa even commented that she remembers being here. It was a wonderful visit. At the time they had cassette tapes you could play in your car radio. It told you where to drive on a map and then gave you a narrative about the battle at that location. Our tour was close to a great sunset and the sights were so impressive. Attached is a fun photo of that VW.
If you scan out a bit on the Google Map, you will see that we are less than a mile from the battlefields. This campground would fall into the “OK” category. That said, because of the location we had to pay $79 last night and $99 tonight! As has been the case in most locations on this trip, it is not easy to find a camp spot – especially on the weekend.
We are still working on getting the trailer modified to make it more suitable to the way we are used to camping/traveling. We are not able to “boon dock” which would really make our travels a bit easier when we are going cross country. It is so convenient to pull into a Wal Mart and spend the night without having to set up the trailer. I have installed an inverter to supply 120V power off the batteries, but the wiring is not completed. Also, the water supply tank is pretty small. I will add a second tank over the winter. Staying in campgrounds is not all bad – except for the cost and the resources needed to find one. Not worrying about power and water (and to a degree sewer every so often) is pretty nice.
More to come