Traveling Tuesday: Historic Honeymoon

Traveling Tuesday: Historic Honeymoon

Forty-one years ago today, I married my best friend. We didn’t have a lot of money, so fancy locations that one had to fly to were out of the question. Instead, we decided to explore Pennsylvania and West Virginia: Gettysburg, Strasburg (Amish country), Philadelphia, Valley Forge, and Harper’s Ferry. By the way, we had rain…lots of rain …the entire week we were away. Check out this photo taken with our little Kodak 110 – awful isn’t it?

First stop: Gettysburg, a mere one hour’s drive from the church where the ceremony was held. We felt very flush putting ourselves up in the Holiday Inn, and the following morning set out for Gettysburg National Military Park, a nine-square mile area that includes the battlefield, cemetery, memorials, and visitor center. We followed the auto tour which took about three hours because of getting out at the numbered stops to explore and read the information. An interesting and sobering experience.

The following day we took a walking tour through Gettysburg and visited the Lincoln Train Museum, Soldier’s National Museum, Lincoln Room Museum, Hall of Presidents and First Ladies, and the Jennie Wade House. (I’m not sure Wes understood at that point just how much of a history nerd I was!)

Day three found us on Route 30 heading a little over an hour northeast to Strasburg, located in

Pexels/Kurt Anderson

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and seemingly the heart of Amish country. Because of my love of trains we took another train ride, this time on the Strasburg Railroad “The Road to Paradise since 1832” according to the brochure. After a 45-minute trip in the fifty-year-old train which featured coal oil lamps and a pot-belly stove, we visited the Train Museum, Traintown, and The Amish Village. Looking back I wonder at the Amish people’s willingness to put themselves on display. For this girl who was raised in urban and suburban locations, learning about running a farm was an eye-opening experience.

Yet another hour east, and we were in Philadelphia where we took the trolley, visited City Hall, Independence National Historic Park, the tavern frequented by the Founding Fathers, Dolly Todd Madison’s house and garden, the Post Office Museum, Ben Franklin’s tenant houses, and of course, the Liberty Bell. As we finished up our day, we were pummeled from above by acorns being thrown by a chattering squirrel.

Pexels/Kevin Ku

We were on the downhill slide of our week, so headed west and stopped in Valley Forge, home of George Washington’s headquarters. More battlefields, cannons, and memorials awaited. The last two days were spent in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a tiny town of 361 at the 1980 census. A gorgeous valley located where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers meet, history runs deep here. The site of John Brown’s raid against the armory in an unsuccessful effort to start a slave rebellion. Named for Robert Harper who purchased the land in 1747, and whose heirs sold a portion to the federal government to build the armory, Harpers Ferry was the site of five battles during the American Civil War. Sources differ about the number of times the town changed hands: one says eight, another twelve. A hike to the top of Jefferson Rock enabled us to see three states (West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland). In case, you're wondering Harpers Ferry lost their apostrophe in 1891 when the United States Board on Geographic Names updated the name.

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Love and Chocolate

She just needs a job. He wants a career. Is there room in their hearts for love?

Ilsa Krause and her siblings are stunned to discover their father left massive debt behind upon his death. To help pay off their creditors and save the farm, she takes a job at Beck’s Chocolates, the company her father despised and refused to supply with milk. Then she discovers her boss is Ernst Webber, her high school love who unceremoniously dumped her via letter from college. Could life get any more difficult?

A freshly-minted university diploma in his hand, Ernst Webber lands his dream job at Beck’s Chocolates. His plans to work his way up the ladder don’t include romantic entanglements, then Ilsa Krause walks back into his life resurrecting feelings he thought long dead. However, her animosity makes it clear she has no interest in giving him a second chance. Can he get her to change her mind? Does he want to?

Purchase link: https://books2read.com/u/mdQerZ

Traveling Tuesday: The 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition

Traveling Tuesday: 

The 1876 Philadelphia Centennial

Pixabay/David Mark

Only twenty months had passed since the end of the American Civil War when Wabash College professor John Campbell approached Philadelphia Mayor Morton McMichael with the suggestion that his city host an exposition to celebrate the country’s one-hundredth birthday. Uncertain as to the feasibility, McMichael talked with city officials and local businessmen. Many felt an event of that size would not get the required funding. Others thought the U.S. couldn’t compete with the quality of European exhibits.

Three long years later, in January 1870, the Philadelphia City Council voted to hold the Centennial Exposition in 1876. They created a committee to study the project and seek support from the U.S. Congress. Finally, in March 1871 a bill to create a United States Centennial Commission. However, the bill also included the provision that the federal government would not be liable for any of the expenses.

The commission got to work, and somewhere along the line created a women’s committee that was responsible for fundraising. Headed by Elizabeth Duane Gillespie, great-great-granddaughter of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, the committee hit the streets, raising $1 million through the sale of stock shares. They also managed to collect 82,000 signatures and obtained letters from around the country that convinced Congress to loan $1.5 million to event organizers.

Cincinnati, Ohio businessman Alfred T. Goshorn was appointed Director General, the Fairmont Park

Photo: WikiImages

Commission set aside 450 acres to be used for the exposition. Exhibits were classified into seven departments: agriculture, art, education and science, horticulture, machinery, manufactures, and mining and metallurgy. Several men from the Philadelphia commission sailed to Europe to invite nations to participate. Not a single country declined.

Over 200 buildings were constructed, most of a temporary nature, including five main buildings: Main Hall, Memorial Hall, Machinery Hall, Agriculture Hall, and Horticulture Hall. A fence surrounded the property. Separate structures were built for state, federal, foreign, corporate and public comfort.

Temporary hotels were also constructed near the grounds, and the Centennial Lodging-House Agency created a list of rooms in hotels, boarding houses, and private homes, then sold tickets for available rooms. Streetcars increased service and the Pennsylvania Railroad ran special trains from New York City, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. An ordinance was passed that appointed 500 hundred men to the Centennial Guards who were tasked with keeping the peace, reunited lost children to parents, and received and returned lost items.

Photo: WikiImages

More than ten million visited the fair between May 10 and November 10, 1876, but the event was a financial failure for its investors. However, several sources state that the exposition impressed foreigners with the industrial and commercial growth of the U.S. resulting in an increase of exports.

I was fortunate to live near Knoxville, TN during the 1982 World’s Fair and visited numerous times. Have you ever attended a World’s Fair or large exposition of some type?

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Maeve’s Pledge: Coming March 21, 2023

Pledges can’t be broken, can they?

Finally out from under her father’s tyrannical thumb, Maeve Wycliffe can live life on her terms. So what if everyone sees her as a spinster to be pitied. She’ll funnel her energies into what matters most: helping the less fortunate and getting women the right to vote. When she’s forced to team up with the local newspaper editor to further the cause, will her pledge to remain single get cropped?

 
Widower Gus Deighton sees no reason to tempt fate that he can find happiness a second time around. Well past his prime, who would want him anyway? He’ll continue to run his newspaper and cover Philadelphia’s upcoming centennial celebration. But when the local women’s suffrage group agrees that the wealthy, attractive, and very single Maeve Wycliffe act as their liaison, he finds it difficult to remain objective.

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