Approaching the Bay Bridge.
Once over the bridge we skirted Baltimore.The weather improved considerably and, for the first time in several days, we had some bright sunshine. We crossed from Maryland into Pennsylvania, our tenth state of the drive.
We reached Gettysburg soon after, at around noon, and headed for the visitor centre.
Outside the centre is this lifelike statue of Abraham Lincoln sitting on a bench and nearby is a plaque inscribed with his famous Gettysburg Address. To read it, click on the photo and it will open in another window and then you can enlarge it. To return to the blog, click the return arrow of your browser.
We went into the centre and decided to see the twenty minute film, narrated by Morgan Freeman, telling the history of the Battle of Gettysburg. It was well worthwhile, especially as I really did not know much about the Battle other than it was a pivotal moment in the American Civil War.
After the film we were directed up some escalators into the Cyclorama, a 360 degree painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. I was amazed to learn that the painting was done by a French artist, Paul Dominique Phillippoteaux, and was first exhibited in Boston in 1884. The painting is 360 feet long and 26 feet high and depicts the fighting on the third day of the Battle. It has been painstakingly restored at a cost of millions of dollars and was installed in the visitor centre in 2008.
After leaving the centre, we took the car and drove through the battlefield, passing dozens of cannons, statues and memorial stones to the various regiments who fought in the Civil War. Below are some of our photos of Gettysburg.
The Eternal Flame dedicated by Franklin D Roosevelt on the 75th Anniversary of the Battle in 1938.
One of the perfectly restored cannon close to the Eternal Flame monument.
Yet another row of cannon.
The statue to the Confederate General, Robert E Lee, whose defeat at Gettysburg heralded the beginning of the end of the Civil War.
We left the battlefield after about an hour and drove past the Eisenhower Conference Centre on our way out of the park. President Eisenhower's former home was nearby.
We then had a wonderful drive through beautiful countryside on very quiet back roads, which took us out of Pennsylvania and into West Virginia, which is number eleven in the list of states we have driven through.
Our next destination was Shepherdstown and then Harpers Ferry on the banks of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. The road into Harpers Ferry took us down to the rivers through a lovely street with old houses.
By the river we saw John Brown's Fort, the place where the abolitionist seized the armoury and then was captured and subsequently hanged.
The Potomac River just below where it meets the Shenandoah River.
We then drove back up through the town to a viewing point high above the Potomac. It was a fantastic place to look down at the river.
As I was filming, I noticed this man fly-fishing in the river. I said to Wendy, "Wouldn't Kenny love to be doing that!"
Next to the viewpoint was the derelict Hilltop House hotel, a very sad-looking place. If you look closely at the building in the photo below, you will see that the central part of the hotel front has collapsed.
We left Harpers Ferry to drive the 65 kms to Front Royal in Virginia. This Honda motorbike and trailer overtook us on the freeway. It's what I call 'luxury' motorbike riding!
Entering Virginia, twelfth state of the drive so far.
We ended our drive at Front Royal, just 10kms from the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway that winds its way for nearly 800 kms through the mountains. I am really looking forward to the next couple of days.
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