West Virginia and Maryland

It was a short drive from Staunton, Virginia to Hagerstown, Maryland.  We only stayed for one night so we decided to dry camp at Walmart.  It was a convenient place from which to visit Harper's Ferry National Park in West Virginia, and Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland.  But it was very warm and very noisy so we didn't sleep too well.

Harper's Ferry was beautiful and interesting.  The exhibits were housed in many of the old buildings and it was a pleasant walk though town.

 It is also the half-way point for the Appalachia Trail.

But again, it was hot and humid, and tubing on the river looked like a better way to spend the afternoon. Too bad we didn't take our swim suits 

with us.


The next morning we went to the Antietam Battlefield.  This was the deadliest battle in American history with over 23,000 killed or wounded in a twelve hour period.  This compares to 6,000 on D-day, or 3,000 at the twin towers on September 11th.  The visitor's center's film was excellent and we also attended a 30 minute ranger talk before we took the battlefield tour.  It was well worth the stop and ranks as one of the best national historic parks we have visited.

A funny side note for our RV friends - Since the Walmart was so hot and noisy, I contacted the local Moose Lodge to see if we could park there for the night.  I explained to the young woman who answered the phone that we had a very large RV and we would be towing a car.  "No problem", she said.  "There is plenty of room at the back of the lot.  So we drove over.  First of all, the lodge was located in a small town with very narrow streets, but we managed to navigate them okay.  However, the Lodge driveway was about a 12 degree incline, and very, very narrow, with a concrete block wall on one side and a large building on the other side.  And right at the top was a stop sign for a cross alley!  No way was our coach going up that drive.  So we returned to the Walmart for the night.