A National Historic Park, Harpers Ferry was always a strategic location for trains and telegraph to and from Washington DC, and also from the north and south states during the Civil War. Abolitionist John Brown led a raid here in 1859 to secure arms for a slave revolt and it is thought to be the last event leading up to the Civil War. Today, Lower Town is preserved for people to explore the past.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has two locations. The one in DC is closed for renovations, but the one in Chantilly, VA is open and amazing! From century old canvas winged gliders, thru wars and conflicts to outer space, if it flies, it’s here. The space shuttle Discovery and the Enola Gay are part of the collection as well as other examples of the history makers thru time. There are cruise missiles and lunar modules, a Marine Corsair and a Sopwith Camel. Although not as big as the DC collection, it is a worthwhile stop.

There are two must see museums in DC. The first is the International Spy Museum. Here there is a sizable collection with pieces like James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 straight out of the movie Goldfinger, a piece of the crashed U2 spy plane, an Enigma Machine, and so many more artifacts. There are displays of tools and devices and stories of the worlds greatest spies and double agents.
About a mile away is another great stop in DC, the Museum of the Bible. The museum does not proselytize, but is does tell a good bit of the history of the stories and how they were collected. There are Torah scrolls, Bibles, and artifacts that span the centuries of religious history.

Washington DC is a beautiful city, and it is well worth a visit. We went in on Sunday as the tour busses do not run during the week. The bus starts across from Ford’s Theatre. We stopped to see the White House, the US Capital, US Supreme Court, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Most of the Smithsonians on the Mall are closed for Covid or remodeling. We found the secret to parking in DC – park in any legal spot properly and you can park for as long as you want for free. This is because most of the meters do not work!

As we continue trekking east, we arrived at Hershey’s Chocolate World. Although geared more towards the children, even us old folks can enjoy this place. There is a ride that starts with a long walk thru a corridor filled with the story of the man and his chocolate. Then you climb into your own little car and ride thru the parts of the process for make the chocolate itself. Since Covid has killed any hope of seeing New England this year, this is as far east as we will travel this year.

The NPS has done a wonderful job in the creation of this site. The first thing that you see on the way in is the Tower of Voices. The 93 foot high tower contains 40 wind chimes, one voice for each passenger and crew member. It is perched on the highest ground on the site to be visible for many miles. At the visitors center, you can see the timeline of the days events, personal items found in the rubble, pictures and stories of the people that died, and then walk out on to a pier where you can stand just below the path of Flight 93 as it passed at over 560 miles per hour about a second before impact. You can look down at the boulder that was placed at crash point. A walk or drive down lets you see the memorial wall with an upright marble slab with a name for each that died. These 40 slabs are on the path about 500 feet before the boulder. It is a place like any other war memorial, built for those, who in the face of certain death, chose to offer their lives for others. Forty true American Patriots.

Cuyahoga Valley NP is a rather large National Park in such an urban area. It stretches north and south along the Cuyahoga River and has many picturesque places to see and miles of beautiful trails. The big falls are Brandywine Falls and the other is Bridal Veil Falls. The Everett Covered Bridge is one few left of over 2000 originally built in Ohio.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is really something to behold and should be on everyone’s bucket list. There are halls devoted to genres as well as by time. There are short movies playing in several different areas as well as music playing in others. A few exhibits were closed due to Covid but most everything else is open. If you are 50 or older, you will really enjoy every moment here.

We found a quiet campground south of Toledo to relax in while decompressing from our old home visit. Was a long ride here as the day started with a loose bearing cap which turned into a loose bearing and a trip to a trailer repair shop to fix. So, the next day we found some nice hiking at East Harbor State Park on Lake Erie. Another day here we visited Maumee State Park, also on the lake. All of these parks are big, beautiful, clean, and loaded with hiking & biking paths. And they are free!

So, after 385 days on the road, we have returned to our homeland in northwest Indiana for two weeks. We have seen some old friends, been to our old church, spent time with our daughter, seen the old house (don’t miss it as much as we thought that we would), and had some time to relax. On the way home from Door County, we stop in Madison WI for some new suspension parts for the trailer and some of that famous Wisconsin cheese. We spent a few nights at Starved Rock State Park, one of our favorite places to hike, but only the campground was open as the parks there were closed due to nasty wind storms that happened just a week earlier. The only benefit of this stay was the unlimited supply of free firewood. Then a few nights in Illini State Park with a site right on the Illinois River. Back home, we are staying in Michigan City, and during this stay, we have three doctor visits, three lab tests, two trips to the dentist, two optometrist visits, and one financial review. I have a few things to fix on the RV and one more trip to storage before we depart.