Gettysburg

We had a good time in Gettysburg. We looked around the Visitor's Center.

 Then boarded a bus to Eisenhower's farm.

We toured the house and outbuildings and learned more about President Eisenhower. Unlike other parks were kids can earn Junior Ranger badges, here they are made Jr Secret Service Agents. 

Afterwards we walked through the National Cemetery.

My son and I enjoyed watching the electric map at the Visitor's Center. We drove around a bit, but didn't do a battlefield tour or see the cyclorama though - maybe next time.

Hershey and Elizabethtown

Last night, we arrived in Hershey PA to visit Chocolate World. The Hershey plant is too small to accommodate all the people who'd like to tour it, so they built a visitor center next to the local amusement park. Unfortunately, there was a Rolling Stones concert at the park last night, so the place was mobbed.

We headed south to nearby Elizabethtown, where we camped at a KOA. We had planned to stop at Hopewell Furnace today, but then came across the Masonic Village as we were leaving Elizabethtown and decided to take a quick look. We ended up getting a whole tour and skipping the trip to Hopewell Furnace. 

We're in Gettysburg tonight at another KOA. Both this one and Elizabethtown's were very nice. When we arrived in Gettysburg we explored the "humongous" Boyds Bear store, and tomorrow we'll check out the National Battlefield and Eisenhower farm before heading to DC.

Central Pennsylvania

After Cuyahoga, we headed east to central Pennsylvania, to visit the Johnstown Flood and Alleghany Portage Railroad National Historic Sites. Driving over the Alleghany mountains in an RV isn't real fun - up and down all those ridges, but it's pretty country.

The Johnstown Flood was pretty interesting - a dam failed in 1890 and wiped out the city of Johnstown PA, killing over 2000 people. All kinds of groups and individuals came in or sent help, but not one dime of it was federal money. We stopped there on Friday afternoon. 

The Alleghany Portage RR is dedicated to a system used in the early 1800's, when the carried canal boats over the mountains. We visited it on Saturday morning, after camping near Altoona overnight. 

It was pretty interesting, and tied in well with what we learned in Cuyahoga Valley NP.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Cuyahoga Valley National Park is a much different type of park than those most of us are probably used to visiting. Unlike the parks of the Western US, CVNP is built between two fairly large cities, with lots of small communities and subdivisions laced through it. We visited it on Friday morning after driving to Cleveland from Michigan on Thursday. 

It has several visitor centers, but they're fairly small and have limited hours. We showed up at 9 am to go into the first one, and it wasn't open until 10. Others were closed for the season. The park literature claims it's the third most visited park in the US, but my wife and I were speculating that they're counting all the people who drive through it on their way to work each morning.

Still, I think my kids got something out of it, learning how the old canal systems worked.

Chicago and Indiana Dunes

Monday we drove near to Chicago, and took a train downtown so that my wife and daughter could visit the American Girl place, and have lunch in the cafe. My son and I grabbed lunch at a nearby Subway, and looked through some other stores while we waited.

 

The Indiana Dunes was the first Jr Ranger program that my kids weren't able to complete. It took a lot longer to get there than I thought, plus we slept in too late Tuesday morning, so we didn't leave the Chicago area as soon as I wanted.

It looks like National Lakeshores and Seashores are between Parks and Monuments in terms of size and activities. The Indiana Dunes has a couple of Visitor Centers and several historical sites to see to complete the Jr Ranger program. It didn't help that some pages were missing from the package, which kind of messed us up. If you're going there, plan on spending at least half a day, if not more. The Rangers did say we could complete the Jr Ranger packet later and mail it to them so the kids could get the certificate and badge, so we'll try to finish it later. 

From there we drove to Lansing, Michigan, and spent today visiting friends and doing the wash and getting the oil changed and that kind of stuff.

Minnesota and Iowa

We left Pipestone and traveled east to a second Laura Ingalls Wilder site, Walnut Grove, MN. 

Then we veered north to Bloomington, to check out the Mall of America. It's a pretty nice mall, but apart from the Camp Snoopy in the middle, it's just a really big mall.

Yesterday we traveled south, stopping at the last Laura Ingalls Wilder site on our eastward journey, Burr Oak, IA. While living here, the Ingalls family took care of the Masters Hotel. They lived in Burr Oak for less than two years. It was a depressing time in their lives, and Laura left it out of her books. The visitor center was in an old bank across the street.

Then we visited the Effigy Mounds National Monument, where early Americans built mounds of earth in the shapes of animals overlooking the Mississippi river. We didn't get to hike around much, as it started raining hard. Also the visitor center was crowded, as the park was hosting a bird-watching event.

We drove over the river to a campsite in Wisconsin.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

After a buzz by the Corn Palace, we left Mitchell and headed up to De Smet, SD, where Laura Ingalls lived several years. We've bought several of the Little House on the Prairie box sets, and the kids often watch them while we're traveling. However, while the TV show is set in Walnut Grove, MN, in reality the Ingalls moved around a lot, from Wisconsin to Kansas to Minnesota to Iowa to De Smet. Much of what occurred in the TV show actually happened to the Ingalls when they lived in De Smet. That said, unless you're a huge fan, I wouldn't go out of the way to visit the town.

We left De Smet and entered Minnesota, stopping at the Pipestone National Monument. It's a pretty small park, but nice. It's a quarry where native Americans mined a clay rock that they used to make pipes and other trinkets. 

Right now we're at an RV site across from the National Monument in Pipestone.