Weekend in West Virginia, October 2002

I had been having a particularly bad week, and I asked Adam if we could go away for the weekend to someplace quiet, not too far away, and not where the DC Area Sniper had been working. We decided on the area around Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and booked a very nice hotel room in Shepherdstown. I wanted to stay at the Bavarian Inn, but since they are a really popular place, we couldn't get reservations. Instead we stayed at the Clarion, which was about 5 minutes from the Bavarian Inn. This would afford us the chance to have dinner there at least one night.

On Friday, Adam came to pick me up just as my MK client was leaving. We packed up the car and headed up to Shepherdstown. Well, the traffic was atrocious, but we finally got there at around 10:00. We checked into our room, a mini-suite with a living room and huge bathroom (double sinks, jacuzzi tub, the works). Then we went down to the bar to have some dinner. No time for anything else, and too tired for anything else, we fell asleep to awaken to a lovely, if somewhat cold day.

Saturday we got up and got a slow start, taking advantage of the tub. Then we headed out to Harpers Ferry for some lunch and some sightseeing. After getting there and driving around a bit, we realized that they really did mean to have us park several miles from the site and that they would bus us back to the town after we (1) paid and (2) parked. I decided to get the National Parks pass, because we go to Great Falls enough that it would likely pay for itself pretty quickly.

We took the bus into town and quickly found a neat little place to eat, The Armory Tavern. Here is Adam at the Tavern. The place was really crowded, so we sat at the bar and met a lot of cool people. Adam had a burger, I had a gardenburger, and we both ended with pie. mmmm. pie.

After lunch we went for a little hike. One of the first things we came to was the Jefferson Rock, which is the spot from which Thomas Jefferson believed was one of the most beautiful sites on earth. We did some more hiking, and it was all very beautiful.
On our way back to town, I saw this and thought that it would make a good picture. It's an old church in the foreground and a train passing in the background. You can also see some modern items like the parking lot. I thought it displayed the feelings that I got from Harpers Ferry, with the combination of the ancient, modern, and semi-modern.
We also walked across a really famous bridge that crosses the Potomac where the rivers meet. This is a picture of the town from the bridge.

There were a few really interesting things that I learned in Harpers Ferry. First of all, neither of us really understood why it was important. By the time Lee's armies came to Harpers Ferry there was practically nothing there. Well, the story goes that Lee wanted to move into the north, because he felt that taking over a northern city would afford him the respect of European nations, who might then send military assistance. In order to move into Maryland, he felt he needed to go through Harpers Ferry--to cut off supply lines to the Federal troops and to position his armies to move on to Sharpsburg (Antietam). The South did win at Harpers Ferry, but made a fatal error--not only did they split up the troops, but they dropped a copy of the plans, which then fell into the hands of the Federal army. So they were completely ready for them to appear at Antietam, which became the bloodiest day of the Civil War.

What I also learned was some of the ulterior motives behind the Emancipation Proclimation. That is, Lincoln knew that no European country would support the side that was obviously slave holders over the side that was obviously against slave ownership.

There's more of course, but go yourself if you want to know more :)

After sightseeing we did a little bit of shopping and got jams and other stuff, then went back to the hotel for a nap. We went to the Bavarian Inn for dinner at 8, and I ate meat. Pretty much, I had decided that if they had their game menu, I would order off of it, because I could be sure that the meat was ultra low fat, hormone free, and antibiotic free. I ordered elk, and it was fantastic. Bavarian Inn is a really wonderful German restaurant, and it shows in the food and the beer and the cute costumed waitresses.

That night I had dreams that I was poisoned, so maybe I won't eat meat again for a while.

We woke up on Sunday and didn't really have a plan. We checked out and went into Shepherdstown, which was a cute little town. We had lunch at a Chinese place that didn't suck. Well, come on. It was West Virginia. I was kind of surprised that it was good. We did some more shopping, and then decided to head to Antietam to continue our Civil War history lesson.
So we got to use our National Parks Pass just a day after buying it! It's 1/5 paid for already! Woohoo! When we got to the battlefield, I just took some time to take some pictures. I was reminded a lot of some of the battlefields I saw in Scotland, and I took some similar pictures. Adam took the one of me.
We took an amazing tour, where we learned about the battles and also about photographs that were taken at Antietam. We would look at a picture, find out about the scene, and then stand in the place where the camera was to see what it looks like now. It was really amazing, and one of the most unusual tours I've ever gone on. Our ranger was quite animated as well.
Gravesite found based on the angle of the rocks.
Now a corn field, before a battle field.
Site of the cornfield battle, the bloodiest of the day.

We did learn some additional things--the one that I found intriguing was that the North named battles after geological items (e.g., Antietam creek, Bull Run) whereas the South named them after nearby towns (e.g., Sharpsburg, Manassas).

We had a really fantastic time and got inspired to go back next summer. We're also determined now to bike the C&O Canal Towpath, which goes right by Harpers Ferry. Here's hoping we meet all of these goals!