November 29, 2009

The day before Thanksgiving, we drove into Fredericksburg to scout out a potential Turkey Dinner site. The traffic was so terrible that we decided to cook our own dinner - picking up shrimp, fresh fruit and steaks. Then that evening, an interesting report came in on a New York sighting....could we go? Into the freezer with the steaks; the shrimp and fruit went into a cooler. We decided to leave the RV at the base and to drive the convertible - both to make time and to avoid any potential cold weather problems. Thanksgiving Day found us on the road to New York, singing Christmas Carols along with the radio.


We met our witness on Friday. It was clear that he was still very shaken by his experience. A native of England, he fears that his report will make him appear unstable and affect his visa. He works second shift and his route home takes him through some fairly isolated property. Interestingly, this area is in the Hudson Valley - the site of a lot of paranormal activity. As he drove, a rotating, cigar-shaped craft with five lights - blue, white red, white, and blue - flew over. He estimated the size of the craft at 200 feet. His car stopped and his cell phone wouldn't work. He thought about getting out of the car and then thought better of it (good thinking). The lights on the craft then went out and his car started again. There is no damage to his phone, which he says he always keeps charged, but Chuck scanned the car and it appeared to be magnetized. We will need to find the same model of car in the next couple of days to compare our findings to.


On the way home, we stopped at Gettysburg. This was one of the spots I had on my "to do" list and there was almost another war as I wanted to spend a leisurely day there taking it all in and Chuck was in a hurry to get back to the RV. I wanted to eat at a historic site and he wanted a quick breakfast. When we looked over the menu at the little diner we stopped at, we found that they served "scrapple." Our waitress said that the only nice way to explain "scrapple" is that it's whatever is left over after butchering a pig. Chuck claimed that they would never have had "scrapple" on a fine-dining menu - thus this was a far more authentic experience.


Gettysburg has a great new visitor center that was completed in 2008. We watched a film narrated by Morgan Freeman. Next, we viewed a presentation in the Cyclorama which was first shown in 1884. The history of the Cyclorama and its extensive restoration is very interesting in itself. http://www.nps.gov/gett/historyculture/gettysburg-cyclorama.htm

We also took in a short part of the Auto Tour which winds through the various battlefields. Then it was off to Virginia.


En route, we encountered 40 - FORTY - miles of stop and go traffic around the Washington Beltline. The only highlight of our return was a stop for gas at the Quantico military base. I wanted to drive around and see where all the secret spook stuff happens but all we had time for was a quick trip to the Commissary.


Now we're back to our little home on wheels ("shoebox" per Jack Weigel) waiting for our next adventure (Chuck's retort "remember "I wear size 15 shoes")