The final stretch!

I finished up the Skyline Drive and decided to camp at Mathews Arm campground because the rest of my trip was more of a meandering pace. The next morning I drove out of the park and into Harper's Ferry. I didn't see the last 20 miles of the Drive due to intense fog from being up in the mountains. Harper's Ferry is in WV and it is amazing. I knew it was famous for the John Brown raid but I had no idea it was an integral part of so much American history. It is where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet and is located on the border of WV, MD and VA. Washington, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, WEB DuBois, Stonewall Jackson and many more all passed through. You have to ride a bus into the preserved downtown and all the historic store fronts house different exhibits on the history of the town. Jefferson said the view from the top of the hill is "worth crossing the Atlantic". It's a rare spot that has so many ties to American history across generations. After that I drove into Maryland and went to the Antietam Battlefield. It is best known for being the site of the bloodiest day of battle (23,000 casualties). I attended a ranger program and it was haunting the way he described it. The talk was in a huge room overlooking the entire battlefield and the way he talked, you could envision the battle in front of you. One of the ladies in the group was crying. There was a great video about Lincoln's visit to Antietam and Lincoln is quite the sarcastic man. I did the driving tour. What's great about Antietam is that it is preserved almost exactly as it was when the battle was over. The battle was fought in 1862 and, thanks to the foresight of people, it was set aside in 1890 as a national battlefield. The most famous sights are Bloody Lane (a small ditch of carnage) and the Burnside Bridge.

I love battlefields because they evoke such strong feelings and really help you relate to the history you read about. It was getting late so I headed back to a campground I had passed earlier. However, I had apparently only passed the sign because it was 5 miles from that sign. The next morning when I left Jack took me out a shortcut that went right to the battlefield. Anyway, after driving down a residential street, I finally saw a sign for the campground. I drove along looking for the entrance and saw a pit toilet so I knew I was in the right place. However, I caught sight of some tents and then a van pulled up along the road. I finally realized that you had to park along the road, cross a soggy ditch (there was one bridge in the 1/2 mile the campground stretched) and set your stuff up along the C & O canal! It was the stupidest campground setup I've ever seen. I loaded myself up beause I wanted to make as few trips as possible. It was tough going in my flip flops and the Boy Scouts camped down from me kept giving me strange looks (but none offered to help). I made it and it actually was nice despite being between a canal and a road and the bathrooms smelling and having no toilet paper (thanks again Boy Scouts). I headed out the next day to meet my cousin McKenzie in PA. However, I first stopped at the Antietam cemetery because it was the last stop on the Battlefield tour and I didn't have time for it yesterday. The day after that battle, both sides declared a temporary truce where they could both enter the battlefield and collect their dead. I don't see how you could kill people one day and the next day walk along with your enemy and pick up your dead. It was very organized and the graves were laid out according to what state people were from. There was a huge statue in the middle and surrounding it were a series of plaques with a poem on it. It was quite beautiful and haunting. I drove out of Maryland and into Pennsylvania to meet up with McKenzie. She had a baby about a year ago and I hadn't met him yet so I met up with her for lunch. He is so freakin cute! It was really nice to catch up with her and finally see Connor. I was going to head to Amy's but I decided I wanted one more night to myself before I headed back into civilization. I camped in PA and had an awesome night. I built a fire to burn the various newspapers and random garbage in my car. I took two showers and sat on a swing most of the night, contemplating my trip. It was a perfect way to end the Trek.