Gettysburg Farm RV Resort, Dover, PA

We left the Encore park, Mays Landing, on Wednesday, June 9 at 9:00 and arrived at Thousand Trails Getttysburg Farm RV Campground about 1pm. We left with Acey’s mileage at 73,399.0 and Thor had 85,778. Pennsylvania is our 31st state – 28 to go (we have been to Hawaii, but Acey is not going there)!

Thursday was rather warm – the unseasonably hot weather is supposed to be coming to an end soon, but it was in the 80’s again today with 64% humidity. We found a trail nearby and went for a bike ride.

The All Trails information was confusing as to where exactly this trail went; there are several trails with very similar names. (York Heritage Trail) We later found it was called the York Heritage Trail along Cordorus Creek. It is the Northern extension of the York County Heritage Rail Trail. It started out as crushed gravel for the first 2/3 mile, then it was paved and in good condition.

We had our picnic lunch at the John Rudy County Park where the trail ended,

We rode 8.86 miles and will perhaps ride the southern part of the trail another day. We stopped off at Mudhook Brewing for a rewarding brew and cooled off!

It rained most of the day Friday; we did laundry and caught up on other stuff. The rain was from a cold front – YEA! Hoping for some coooler weather for the rest of our stay – its in the 60s today!

For many years, Linda’s father owned the Bays English Muffin bakery in Detroit – its always a bit nostalgic – and delicious – to have a Bays muffin for breakfast!

Saturday we went to Gettysburg

It was a busy day – lots of visitors, including many cicadas making their once every 17 year apperance. We had heard they were around, but had not seen (or heard) any – and they were NOT at the RV park just 20 miles away.

Our first stop was the cemetery and we happened to arrive just as a ranger was giving a talk.

The Soldiers’ National Monument, standing 60′ tall is impressive. You can read about it here.

Semi-circles radiate from this monutment with grave markers. The graves are in sections by the state from where the soldiers had lived. Three sections for unknown soldiers as well.

Lincoln Address Memorial – commemorating Linclon’s Gettysburg Address given November 19, 1863; 4 months after the deadly battle of Gettysburg. The Address was given at the cemetery, but not at this location.

The inscription to the left describes the purpose of the cemetery

The inscription on the right contains the words to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

This display shows a diagram of the National Cemetery. The area where the states are listed was the location of an existing cemetery before the battle and somewhere in that area is where the Gettysburg Address was given. That cemetery is not considered part of the National Cemetery, and is still there.

You can see the older cemetery behind the fence

Gettysburg Military Park covers over 6,000 acres – and there are something like 1,400 monuments on the Battlefield! The 3 days of fighting here, July 2, 4 & 4, 1863 were the bloodiest battles of the Civil war with 51,000 casualties (which includes injured and dead). Many states and divisions have erected monuments.

Michigan

Inscription on the side of this Michigan monument – is typical of the stories told on these monuments

MUSTERED IN AT MONROE. MICH AUG 22. 1861. MUSTERED OUT AT JEFFERSONVILLE. IND JULY 5. 1865. TOTAL ENROLLMENT 1393 OFFICERS AND MEN KILLED IN ACTION : 6 OFFICERS. 123 MEN DIED OF WOUNDS: 5 47 DIED OF DISEASE: 3 154 TOTAL 338 PARTICIPATED IN 37 SKIRMISHES AND GENERAL ENGAGEMENTS FOM BALLS BLUFF. MA OCT 21, 1861 TO SEIGE OF PETERSBURG. VA APR 3. 1865 REGIMENT HELD THIS POSITION DURING THE ENGAGENMENT OF JULY 2ND & 3RD. 1863 ON THE EVENING OF THE 2ND CHANGED FRONT TO THE LEFT MEETING AND AIDING IN DRIVING BACK THE ENEY ON THE 3RD ASSISTED IN REPULSING PICKETTS CHARGE CHANGING FRONT TO THE RIGHT AND ASSAULTING THE ADVANCING FORCE IN FLANK PRESENT FOR DUTY 14 OFFICERS 151 MEN – TOTAL 165 CASUALTIES 2 OFFICERS 19 MEN KILLED 3 OFFICERS 4 MEN WOUNDED TOTAL 65

Many monuments have cannons on either side

This one resembles the Washington monument

The middle of the battlefield from the Union side

Monument to General George Meade who led the 95,000 men of the Army of the Patomic at Gettysburg, replacing General Joseph Hooker on June 28, 1863 – just 4 days before the battle here.

The State of Pennsylvania Monument – the largest of the state monuments at Gettysburg; we climbed up to the top! Read all about the monument here

Quite a view of the battlefield from the top!

We found another Michigan monument – we were both born in Michigan…

A cannon on each side of this Michigan monument

A New Hampshire monument

This New York monument looks to have a castle at the top

The Eternal Light Peace Memorial was dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the observance of the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg July 3, 1938

“P E A C E E T E R N A L I N A N A T I O N U N I T E D”

Civil War Veterans were invited to the dedication on July 3, 1938!

****

So many monuments and such an overwhelming loss of lives; rather sobering to be here!

Sunday, as usual, we Zoomed with our Sunday School class and then joined the worship service at Stephens Valley Church on YouTube. You can join the service LIVE on YouTube @ 10:40 a.m. Central time; Click here to view the bulletin.

Afterwards, we had lunch and went to see the Farm at this RV park. There are several animals!

There were chickens, more goats, more cows, a horse or 2, a peacock and even a pig

There were 3 llamas – each animal has an introductory sign on the fence – and wouldn’t you know it – one of the llamas was named Chuck!

There looks to be several acres of corn being grown in the fields out front

Monday we went back to Gettysburg again. We found Abe Lincoln sitting outside the Visitor Center.

And we visited more monuments at the battlefield; states of the South.

This very large Virginia monument at 41′ tall is the largest Confederate monument at Gettysburg. More info

Looking up the hill from the Confederate position.

We knew there was a covered bridge nearby, so we went to go see it on our way to the Eisenhower Farm. The Sachs Covered Bridge, was built around 1854, it was used during the Civi War. It was designated Pennsylvania’s “most historic bridge” in 1938.

The Eisenhower National Historic Site is the only home the Eisenhowers ever owned, so we were told.

This building was originally a garage, but was modified into a nice guest house. There was an old school house nearby – the bell came from it.

The Barn

The Putting Green

The house – not open for tours – has seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a ststely living room, formal dining room, den, kitchen and butler’s pantry, and a large glassed in sun porch, Dwight and Mamie’s favorite room!

A closer look at the stonework on the one end of the house

A sundial with an “E”

After walking around all day, we stopped off to sample some beers at Appalachian Brewing Co.

Tuesday – our last day at this stop – we went in search of more covered bridges – in the Lancaster area. The first one was saw was the Hunsicker’s Mill Covered Bridge – built in 1848 and is the longest single span bridge in the county at 180 feet. it was rebuilt in 1973 after rising waters from Hurricane Agnes lifted it from the abutments and carried it downstream!

The next bridge, built in 1867, was the Pinetown Covered Bridge. The floodwaters of Hurricane Agnes washed it off its base in 1972. The following spring, Amish workers rebuilt the bridge, raising it to 17.5 feet above the average water level to avoid future damage. It was rebuilt and raised again after it was severely damaged by floods in September 2011.

Zook’s Mill Covered Bridge – also known as Wenger’s Mill Bridge, was built in 1849. Sitting 11 feet above the creek, the water rose 6 feet above the bridge floor during the flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes. The bridge itself was not damaged!

Keller’s Mill Covered Bridge was built in 1891 a short distance away – it was dismantled and rebuilt in it’s present location in 2010. This is the only bridge in Lancaster County that is not painted red.

Erb’s Mill Covered Bridge was built in 1887.

We went on to go to the little town of Lititz

This red caboose was by the park entrance – it was open but masks were required, so we didn’t go in.

A small creek ran treu the park and LOTS of ducks were wandering around and swimming too.

Interesting information – who knew?

An interesting – and perhaps old – church on the corner

One of the shops had an interesting display of teapots!

Such a quaint little town – should have gotten a photo looking down Main Street…. We bought a small shoofly pie at a bakery since neither of us had ever had it – and this was the area to find it!

With brown sugar and molasses, we were surprised it wasn’t sickly-sweet. We both enjoyed it!

In the morning, we leave for another stop in Pennsylvania – near Stroudsburg.

Loading

2 thoughts on “Gettysburg Farm RV Resort, Dover, PA”

  1. Thank you for posting this. That’s quite a collection of covered bridges. Beautiful structures. Were they listed on a map/guide?

    1. We stopped at the Lancaster Visitor Center and got all sorts of information on things to see and do – we opted to look for some of the covered bridges and go to Lititz – there are 27 covered bridges spread over Lancaster – no way to see them all in one day!

Leave a Reply to Linda Compson Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *