Friday, August 17, 2018

We left our Embreeville, PA campsite for Harpers Ferry, WV at 9:30am. Drove by cities Lewis visited including Lancaster, Gettysburg, Frederick (MD) and then through to Harpers Ferry, WV. 

Our Truck and Travel Trailer at Harpers Ferry 

Lewis' "Favorite Boat"
a collapsible metal frame covered in skins

We toured the small National Park Service restored town of Harper's Ferry where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet. NPS had an entire page of separate sites that Meriwether Lewis visited and worked at in the town. T. Jefferson and G.Washington both thought the site quite remarkable and Washington proposed in 1799 it become America's first Arsenal and Armory (besides Springfield, MA). We walked Lewis' 1803 sites including houses and taverns he frequented since he stayed there 1 month, getting rifles and tomahawks, tools as well as perfecting his collapsible iron frame boat. The day was very warm, hot and humid (93 degrees outside and 107 on truck thermometer), but the confluence of the two rivers with the rapids was quite stunning. 

After spending 1.5 hours touring, we then left for our Charlottesville, VA campsite, getting stuck in traffic on Rt81 South standing still for 30 minutes or more. But the Shenandoah Mountains are really beautiful with the blue-gray mountains and foggy tops.  We arrived at camp by 7:30pm.