FISHING THE PIGG RIVER

Pigg River

 Today is my last day in Ferrum, Virginia until Mid-August. It was pretty much the last day of the summer course I was taking. We have to give presentations in class tomorrow, but then I'm headed right home afterwards. Back to Florida. Today though, we had the entire day off. We actually were finished with the class yesterday morning. Our professor gave us plenty of time to finish our presentations and papers that most of us had already had finished. So me and some of my friends decided that we were going to spend this day off fishing. I had never had like a day off with literally nothing to do in Ferrum. Maybe I have actually, I can't remember. But last night we had made up our minds that we were going to drive to Waid Recreation Area to fish the Pigg River that is located there.

Last night, I had to go to Walmart to pick up a Virginia Fishing License. Since I will be fishing for Trout and you have to have a separate license for that,  I picked up a Virginia Trout License as well. I'm actually really glad that I looked up the Virginia Resident requirements online before I went to buy my license, because being a student at Ferrum College gave me Virginia Resident status for the license. It may not seem like too big of a deal, but it really is. I saved about $80 altogether from not paying out-of-state pricing. Sweet deal, and the lady at the cash register didn't even add the Trout License price to the receipt. So I scored big time. After all, I was in a Franklin County Walmart. While I was at the Walmart I picked up some worms, some hooks, and other rigs I would need for the next day. It's been a while since I've done any freshwater fishing, much less, river fishing.

So today around lunch time we set off for the Pigg River. Some of the guys had class until noon so that hindered us from leaving early in the morning. I guess they never heard the phrase, "The early bird gets the worm." Oh well. It was just a short drive from campus to there, about 10 minutes. Once we parked, it was just a short little trail to get to the river. We each found a little spot to claim down the river and began fishing. I'm pretty sure I was the only one using any live bait. Hey, I'm old school. I used a small split-shot weight to weigh down the line in the fast moving current, but still kept it about 24 inches from the hook and worm, so the worm could still be mobile and active without the fish noticing the weight. It took a little while to get used to fishing in the river with the current, but I started getting some little bites. On and off the bites would come. But it never felt like anything would actually strike it. The water in the river was murky from all the rain we had been receiving throughout the week. I kept fishing the same spot, because if their weren't fish here, there wouldn't be fish anywhere in this river. And of course there were fish in this river. I finally was able to bring one in. As I was reeling in the catch, it looked like a little Rainbow Trout, which is what I had been fishing for all day, so I was getting hype. However, when I brought it in, it was quite different from a Rainbow. It was a fish with horns on the top of it's head. Lots of horns. I had to do tons of research once I got back to my room to figure out what type of fish it might be. I came up with a "River Chub" or a Hornyhead Chub". I couldn't even find any information on them in the Virginia Wildlife booklet I was given with my license. It was absolutely crazy looking.

After a while, all the bites I felt were the same little bites as the "Chub" I had caught earlier. We decided it was time to pack up. No one else was even getting really any bites, so they all wanted to leave. My and my friend decided we would try out a little pond on campus once we got back. We drove my truck around to the pond and just put some bobbers on the top of the lines with the same worms I had been using at the river. For a while, it was just waiting and waiting. I was looking all around the lake just looking at the scenery, and even watching a few little fish I could see around the dock area. I wasn't paying attention to my line really at all. Unfortunately, I looked over to see my bobber had been under water for a good 10 seconds, and as I panicked to set the hook, I missed the fish of course. I threw the line back out quickly to get a good couple of strikes on my line. None of which would take the bobber under again. I had missed my chance. Of course. It was my luck of course today. I kept trying that same spot for a good while after, but nothing. The fish had their laugh in. But I was done for the day. The next time I would be fishing would be home in Florida. I should probably renew my license there.

CIVIL WAR REENACTMENT - NEW MARKET BATTLEFIELD

Civil War Reenactment - New Market Battlefield

Day 6 of the Civil War Tour. This was our last day of the tour. We would be heading to New Market to see a battle reenactment, and then we would be off to Ferrum. It was kind of weird waking up knowing that this would be our last day out on the road. I knew I would miss this. Anyways, we were actually going to be eating a real breakfast for the first time this week. No more of the continental breakfast toast and cereal, we were going to be eating at Cracker Barrel. Sounds like a pretty good fit for a Civil War Tour breakfast. I'm pretty sure everyone in the group was loving the fact that we weren't eating continental breakfast today. I had 3 pancakes, 2 eggs, and bacon, and of course I ate every bit of my meal, cherishing these last few meals before I was back eating at the cafeteria in Ferrum.

After breakfast was over we would not have too long of a drive before we got to the New Market battlefield. Driving on the interstate, I could see all of the tents that were set up from the people who were participating in the reenactment. We pulled into the field, parked, and as we got out of the van, I felt like I was stepping into a completely different time period. There were tons of people dressed up in Civil War period clothing. The guys in uniforms and the gals in the enormous dresses. There were people who had fires going and they were roasting food over the top of them and hanging pots full of soup of some sort. It was like I was actually in the 1860s. It was very cool to see. People from the reenactment had huge tents set up with clothing, guns, ammunition, and really everything you could think of, for sale. These shops were very "Time period correct". There were hundreds of belt buckles, hundreds of emblems to put on your uniforms, etc. It was just so crazy to me how real they could make these reenactments.

About 2 hours before the battle reenactment was supposed to begin, they had an artillery demonstration. The cannons shot off blank rounds that made most people jump up out of their chairs, they were incredibly loud and powerful blasts of smoke. Then there was a signal corps demonstration that was showing off how the armies would communicate with each other while being hundreds of yards away. The only downfall to all of this was the fact that there was a constant light rain that was just hanging over the battlefield. So it wasn't the best weather and it made the process of taking my camera in and out of my bag a pain to deal with. I had a weather proof cover, so at least my camera was protected. Some of us made our way to the car while we were waiting for the actual battle to start though, to get out of the rain the best we could.

Civil War Reenactor

At 2pm, the reenactment of the Second Battle of Winchester started. It was pretty wild. The cavalry who were all on top of horses would ride together towards the other army to attack while there were lines of soldiers marching across the fields. The reenactors would use the blank cartridges to fire, and even the large cannons that were on the field used blank cartridges to fire. They were overwhelming. It almost hurt your ears from the sounds of the blasts. The Confederate Army ended up pushing the Union Army back into the orchards and they were forced to surrender. Although, I'm still trying to figure out how the Union managed to lose this battle with about three times as many people as the Confederate Army had. Oh well. It was a really cool experience to see. As we were talking to one of the reenactors, he was telling us about how many of them travel from war reenactment to war reenactment. It's their life. In fact, he was saying how a lot of them were traveling to Gettysburg and that some of them would be staying there for a few weeks. It will be the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg this year, so it's going to be a big deal to them. These people are truly passionate about what they do.

Civil War Reenactment - New Market Battlefield

 So this marks the end of the Civil War Tour. Yeah, I could say that I am absolutely exhausted from the long week on the road moving from place to place. I could say that my brain is absolutely fried from all of the lectures I had to live through. I could also say my legs are currently cramping up from all the walking we did this week. But this is one of the best weeks of my life. Not many people get to experience something like this. I feel blessed to be able to see these historical places and events that shaped our country into what it is today. I will never forget this week. Hopefully one day I will be able to walk these hallowed places once more.

Civil War Reenactment - New Market Battlefield

HARPERS FERRY

Historic Harpers Ferry

 Day 5 of the Civil War Tour. Today was the last day of our tour. Well, sort of. Tomorrow we were going to be heading back to New Market for the annual reenactment of the New Market Battle. There would be cadets and other reenactors there at the battle and it was actually a really big event. But today, we would be heading to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The original plans for the day were to finish up at Antietam, but since we were able to cover everything that had happened there while we were visiting yesterday, we had no need to go back. So our professor let us sleep in some today, and by some I mean an extra thirty minutes, and then we would start our trip to Harper's Ferry.

Historic Harpers Ferry

I had only been to Harpers Ferry once in my life, it was the only site on this Civil War Tour I had been to before. I remembered most of it pretty well, but all the cool things you see here are just more than you can explain. Even if you went to Harpers Ferry every day of the year, there's no words to describe some of the views you see. It is just awe inspiring. Harpers Ferry is where the Potomac River meets the Shenandoah River, so there are many great views of the two rivers flowing together from the highest points of the city. Once we got to the Visitors Center of Harpers Ferry, we had to catch a shuttle to go to the lower portion of the town, which was where everything was. Once we made it to the "Historic Town" portion of the city of Harpers Ferry, we walked throughout all of the museums there were to offer. Some of the museums had some interesting things inside of them. One of my favorites happened to be the John Brown museum. The John Brown raid of Harpers Ferry was supposed to be an igniting factor in the slave revolt. However, it didn't necessarily happen that way. It was pretty much a complete failure as the armies that were close by ended up taking out all his men, either capturing them or killing them.

Appalachian Trail - Harpers Ferry

Once we were finished with the museums, we went looking for a place to eat lunch. It was about noon, and the continental breakfast at the hotel wasn't too appetizing. Everyone was hungry. So we made our way up and down the streets, looking for a cool "hole-in-the-wall" type of restaurant to eat at. We stumbled upon a place called Cannonball Deli. I was definitely into this place, as the door had an "Appalachian Trail" sticker on the front. We walked into the restaurant and immediately I saw two hikers sitting down eating. It was pretty cool. I ended up ordering the beef burrito they had, which was one of the best meals according to my waiter. It sure enough was, it filled me up about as much as any meal could. Most of the people in my class said that this place was the best place we had eaten on the tour so far, and that it was maybe one of the best places they had eaten at ever. I could somewhat agree with them. After finishing lunch, we then were able to have the afternoon to ourselves in the town. We didn't have this chance too often, most of the time we were just waiting for the next event to be a lecture of some sort.

Appalachian Trail Sign

Everyone was so hyped up about having this time off. We walked over the bridge that crossed the Potomac River, which happened to also be apart of the Appalachian Trail. I was totally into it. There were signs up everywhere saying which way was North or South and how many miles it was until the next big area of the trail would be. I took in every moment of it. It was crazy to think that all the thru-hikers who would hike the Appalachian trail would pass through this town, Harpers Ferry. It was about the half-way point between the start of the trail in Georgia and the end of the trail in Maine. (Depending on which end you started of course). We would also continue on the Appalachian Trail up to Jefferson's Rock, which was almost an overlook of the whole town of Harpers Ferry and the two rivers meeting together. It was absolutely beautiful up here. I still just couldn't get over the fact that this was a major point on the Appalachian Trail and I was able to experience it. Hopefully one day I'll be able to experience this place while actually doing a thru-hike.

Harpers Ferry

After we had walked around some, we had to hit up all of the gift-shops of course. The only one that we ended up coming across that interested me was a hiking/outfitters shop. Most of the other shops were more "old-lady" oriented I guess you would say, but this hikers store had my name written all over it. As I walked into the store, a thru-hiker, (I'm guessing), was resupplying with the owner of the store. I know I'm a loser, but I was just so pumped that I found this shop. Seeing these hikers and being able to see a part in this was very cool to me. I looked around, and of course they had the usual hiking gear, and clothes, but they also had all the trail maps from the area around Harper's Ferry and maps and guidebooks for the entire Appalachian Trail. I was hoping to see some maps for the Roanoke area, which is the closest place to Appalachian Trail is to me, but no luck here. I ended up getting a map of the entire Appalachian Trail for myself and some Appalachian Trail Pins. I was just happy to have the experience of seeing the store and the hikers coming through.

Harpers Ferry

After we had finished looking around all the shops in town, we were headed back to the bus shuttle station to head back to the parking lot and our car. We were headed to Winchester, VA for our last night on the Civil War Tour. In the morning we would be heading to New Market for the Battle of New Market reenactment. This would be our last stop before heading back to Ferrum. I didn't want this trip to end. Even though we had the struggle of making it through lectures and everything, the experience was more than words to describe. It is just something that everyone needs to experience for their self at some point in their life. To be able to see how the country they are living in was shaped, and how our freedom has been brought up through the generations of people who have fought to protect it. I am going to forever cherish these moments.

GETTYSBURG - ANTIETAM

Burnside Bridge - Antietam Battlefield

Day 4 of the Civil War Tour. Another early morning for us. Leaving the hotel at 8am, we were off to the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Also known as the Soldiers National Cemetery, this was the place of the famous Gettysburg Address that President Abraham Lincoln gave. It was a cold and rainy morning, nothing like the 80 degrees that was supposedly being promised later on in the day my iPhone weather app. On the way to the cemetery, everyone on the van was knocked out cold. You could tell all this traveling was starting to catch up with us. Half an hour of napping on the van would help more than you could imagine. Once we arrived at the cemetery, the rain had actually let up, and the sky was starting to clear a bit. Still chill outside though, to say the least. At the Cemetery, there are hundreds of tombstones that spread across the field. Almost all of them had no names, just numbers that represented the soldiers. It was a nice Cemetery, but also, not really as big as you would think it would be. Most soldiers who could, would have their bodies sent back home to be buried where they lived. We spent some time here, honoring the fallen, and then we were off to our next spot. The Gettysburg Visitors Center and Museum.

Soldier's National Monument - Location of Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Visitors Center and Museum is just absolutely massive. They have a movie theatre to watch the film they offer and they have a cyclorama of an original painting from just after the Civil War which was a 360 degree painting that surrounded everyone in the room. It was a beautiful painting with a lot of detail that covered the entire Battle of Gettysburg in a story format of the 3 days of fighting that occurred. The film was a short film that was made by National Geographic on the Battle of Gettysburg with Morgan Freeman narrating. Just the fact that he was the narrator made the short film, which was really well done, even better.

After both of these, we then made our way to the museum portion of the visitors center. They had quite a bit of cool interactive exhibits that would show you anything and everything you wanted to know on the Battle of Gettysburg. Some of the items that I found most interesting through the different exhibits were the flags from the Civil War. There were a couple of original flags that were on display in the museum, one of them being a Union flag from 1861. You could just imagine that flag being carried into battle by the soldiers. It was a very neat thing to be able to see. After we left the museum, of course, everyone had to have their time to look in the gift shop. Once we were finally able to get out of the shop, after having hundreds of middle schoolers waiting in line before us, we were on our way to Maryland. Our next stop would be Sharpsburg, MD. The Battle of Antietam.

Gettysburg National Cemetery

After stopping for Arby's, which was most certainly not our lunch of choice, (Chipotle and Buffalo Wild Wings were down the street), we had made it to the Antietam Battlefield, which was located in Sharpsburg, Maryland. We first stopped in the visitors center where there was a room overlooking the cornfields of the Battle of Antietam. This was our next lecture. I knew everyone in that room were struggling to stay awake. It was cold, the seats were nice, and we were all exhausted. Once the lecture finished up, we walked the trails that the visitors center had which marked the routes that the soldiers traveled on throughout the battle. We would stop at certain points along the road for our professor to tell us about what happened during the battle at this point on the field. We would eventually make our way to a very tall observation tower, one like we had at Gettysburg, to hear the second portion of the lecture, with a high vantage point of all the field. This was the bloodiest day in American History, over 23,000 soldiers had either died or been wounded on that day of battle. It was nice to be able to see all the areas on the battlefield at once. I can understand and learn things much easier when I have tangible objects to help me along the way.

Gettysburg Cyclorama Painting

After leaving the tower, we walked to what would be our last stop at Antietam for the day. The Burnside Bridge. Here we had our last lecture of the day. Many of the students were searching for four leaf clovers or playing with rocks. You could tell where our minds were. I was definitely out in left field for some of it as well. It's just hard to keep focus after being on a long tour with 12 hour learning days. However, still trying to enjoy the visit the best I could, I was in search of the best place to capture a picture of the bridge. It seemed like
an iconic photo at the Antietam Battlefield. At least from the postcards and pictures I had seen in the gift shop just earlier that day. When we were let loose after the lecture, we walked all around the bridge trying to take cool pictures that will most likely end up on Facebook or Instagram. Then we were called back to the van to set off to our hotel for the evening. Apparently we were going to the best buffet in Hagerstown for dinner. I was down, I felt like my spine was being digested. So here's to the end of the day. One stop left tomorrow, and that would be Harper's Ferry. The week was almost done.

GETTYSBURG

Gettysburg - Little Round Top

Day 3 of the Civil War Tour. We were headed to Gettysburg. The hotel we were staying at was in Chambersburg, PA, so we had a little drive left to get to this historic battlefield. On the way to Gettysburg, the road we were driving on actually intersected with the Appalachian Trail. It's pretty cool to be able to know and see where the Appalachian Trail comes through this part of the country. It's honestly surprising that the Appalachian Trail crosses such a busy road. It also might be a popular site for thru-hikers, people who trek the entire trail in one hike, to resupply, since there are many stores in the area. The Appalachian Trail is such a cool thing to think about to me. We will actually be able to see another section that the trail crosses through later on in the week, which is Harper's Ferry in Maryland. I've heard that Harper's Ferry is also another popular spot on the trail.

The first stop for the day once we made it to Gettysburg was the famous diorama museum. In the museum was the largest war diorama in the world. Supposedly. And it most certainly lived up to the expectation. This thing was huge. The whole city and battle of Gettysburg was made and there was even a prerecorded presentation that included a slides how of pictures and strobe lights. It was definitely a pretty cool place to start out, giving us a glimpse and overview of all the battles as they happened during the 3 days of July 1-3 of 1863. After this we were off to look at the actual sights of the battles at Gettysburg.

We first came upon a ridge overlook just outside of the Seminary that had been in Gettysburg during the time of the battle. It was that time again. Morning lecture. Our professor talked to us about the many strategic plans of the two generals as they began to find the places that they wanted to hold to start the battle. After talking there for a while, we continued along the tour route that you could drive on. We came across the Eternal Peace monument and we able to get out and see the area here. I was able to take some nice pictures overlooking the battlefield from the monument steps. You could see most of this middle ridge area that the Battle of Gettysburg was fought on. We then continued onto the next place we stopped which was the North Carolina Confederate monument. We had some guys who were from North Carolina so they took lots of pictures and all in front of the statues. It was a nice view as well overlooking some other parts of the battlefield. Many more monuments honoring the states in which soldiers came from lined this road we were on. The next monument we came to was the Virginia Monument. Most of the class was from Virginia, so we took a group picture in front of it. I think on top of the statue, Robert E. Lee was on his horse, so we were in good company. The one monument I had been looking for was the Florida monument. We found it, as my professor made fun of Floridians. He obviously was not stopping for me. Not too thrilled about that choice of his.

Gettysburg Diorama Museum

Anyways, we made our way to an overlook tower which was about 4 stories of stairs up towards the clouds. Once we reached the top, there were so many great views. I captured every bit of them with my camera. As I was doing this, the ringing sound of midday lecture hit my ears. I knew we were going to be here for a while. So I sat tight and tried to hide from the wind best I could.

After the lecture, we were headed to lunch. Thank God. It was Mexican day. We ate at a place called Montezumas. I could tell this place was interesting just from the sign that was located inside the lobby area. "B.Y.O.B. Thank you keep comming." I don't know how this was considered "English", but I knew what BYOB was. Pennsylvania has strict beer and alcohol laws, so I guess they weren't able to get the license to sell beer here. You were just supposed to bring your own, if that's even legal. At lunch, we got on the topic of Gettysburg being haunted. Some of the other students in the class were searching stuff on their phones trying to figure out the places that might be the most haunted. What we came across was "Devils Den" and "Little Round Top". These were places in the far southern corner of the Battle of Gettysburg. We had convinced our professor that were legitimately needed to go there to see the site. So, I guess our professor was in a good mood after his burrito and gave in. We were headed to "Devils Den".

At Little Round Top, there were some crazy cool sites to see that produced some great photo opportunities. Just out on this little hill in the middle of nowhere, there were tons of boulders. Literally, massive boulders. We read many things about ghost sitings once we made it to the top of Little Round Top, even stories of actual ghosts handing movie extras ammunition from the civil war. But no luck here, no ghosts from the civil war were seen, and not even any sites of the ghosts in photographs. Next we were heading to Devils Den to see if there was any luck here as well. After we got to Devils Den, we were very determined to find a ghost. We were taking pictures everywhere. Supposedly here we were supposed to have all the battery in either our cameras or phones, but we had no luck with that. Also, there was a picture of the place where "The Dead Sharpshooter" was located, and we found it. So everyone was taking pictures,  hoping something would show up. But again, no luck at all.

Gettysburg - Little Round Top

Leaving Devils Den, We continued on the road to find a nice shady spot to set up for our afternoon lecture on "Pickett's Charge". It was a nice short lecture that was actually really informational. And our professor was able to get his picture with the statue of General Meade just as he wanted. So now that he was a happy camper, hopefully we would be too for the rest of the day. To finish off the day, we just drove around Gettysburg, getting a glimpse of some of the many memorials and monuments that surrounded the town. We had tomorrow to see the Gettysburg Cemetery, and most of us were very worn from the long day, so we decided to take the trip back to Chambersburg. Time for so much needed rest. And hopefully food soon. It was also a nice trip back to town knowing my favorite soccer team, Chelsea FC, were once again crowned Champions of Europe this afternoon.

NEW MARKET - CEDAR CREEK - KERNSTOWN - WINCHESTER

New Market Battlefield

Day 2 of the Civil War Tour began at a fairly decent time. Nothing like waking up at 6am yesterday. We were leaving the hotel for the New Market battlefield at 9am today. I was able to wake up in enough time to shower, pack my bags up, and burn two slices of toast for breakfast. It was just a short 30 second drive to the New Market battlefield this morning. Since we had seen most of the museum and exhibits yesterday while we visited the battlefield, we just sat outside of the museum theatre and had our morning lecture while overlooking the battlefield. It was quite beautiful to see the field and be able to picture the battle unfolding as we were being told about it. After the morning lecture, we then set off to walk the battlefield on foot, just as the Confederate soldiers had, as they confronted the Union soldiers during the battle.

New Market Battlefield

We followed the lines that they made and eventually made it to the other side of the battlefield where they had met the Union soldiers and drove them away. At the top of this ridge you were able to see all of New Market. It was an amazing view of the surrounding valley. One of the reasons why the Battle of New Market was such an important key in the Valley Campaign of 1864 was that the town was located in between Massanutten Mountain and the Shenandoah River. There was no way to pass that town if the opposing side were able to occupy it. After reaching the top of the ridge,  made our way along a little trail to a spot that overlooked the Shenandoah River. The ridge was significantly raised on this side we were overlooking, so you could see for miles across the valley on the other side of the Shenandoah. After taking a brief rest from walking around the battlefield here at the river, we then continued back to the museum, and our van, to continue to the next stop on our Civil War Tour.

Cedar Creek

Our next stop was located in Middletown, VA. The Battle of Cedar Creek. We came to the visitors center and bookstore which overlooked the battlefield where the confederate army had launched a surprise attack on the union. We had our lecture for the battle there at the visitors center and then we made our way down to Cedar Creek for a few minutes. After leaving the creek, we proceeded to drive around all the roads that matched the movement of the Confederate army as the approached the Union during the surprise attack at Cedar Creek. Before we could do that, we had to make sure we got lost first. So it took us about 30 minutes to even begin our route of the Confederate army. Once we made it back to the Cedar Creek Battlefield Visitors Center, our professor decided to take us to a plantation.

Belle Grove Plantation. It was built in 1797 and was home to Major Isaac Hite and his wife Nelly Conway Madison, sister of President James Madison. We were given a tour by one of the volunteers who worked there. She explained how the Battle of Cedar Creek had surrounded the plantation, and how the plantation was used at the Headquarters for Sheridan and the Confederate army. It was a very beautiful mansion and it was interesting to learn about the things that took place in and around the house. The plantation was almost fully self-sustaining in the way that they were able to have their own meat supply and vegetable supply and even their own blacksmith. Although most of the furniture that had occupied the house back in 1797 and during the civil war time period was gone, they had worked hard to restore the rooms back to looking the way they would have looked.

Belle Grove Plantation

After leaving the plantation, we headed to Kernstown. We stopped for a late lunch at a little pizza place. It was definitely a Godsend. The pizza and wings were amazing and getting some time off of my legs was almost equally amazing. After lunch we were headed to the site of the Battle of Kernstown. Here we were given the afternoon lecture and of course I was interested in it because this was the first battle that Stonewall Jackson had been known to lose. However, outnumbered, Jackson wasn't in this battle to win it, he was just there to occupy the Union's time and keep them away from Richmond. Jackson was an incredible leader for sure. I definitely get my interest for him after my Pop-Pop, Jackson was one of his favorite Civil War Generals. After leaving the battlefield site, it was time to drive around and follow the route of the soldiers during the battle at Kernstown. Wasn't much to see, just a Christmas tree farm. I doubt that was there back in the day.

Off we drove to Winchester for the evening. The plans for the night were to go to Old Town Winchester market area and hang out, look at the shops, and just have some fun. My professor didn't really take into consideration that it was a Tuesday and just about everything had closed for the evening. We went into one of the few stores that were actually open, which was a running store. As I was looking at some of the running gear, the man who seemed to own the shop asked about the Brooks that I was wearing and we continued on to talking about how I had done the Blue Ridge Marathon. It was pretty cool to talk to someone who knew about it. I walked away feeling well respected by him, it's nice to meet nice people. After leaving the running store, there were only a few more places that remained open, and those were the pubs of course. So some of the guys and I hung out there for most of the evening.  It was pretty cool to have that experience in a place that felt like pubs really belonged.

After seeing all that Old Town Winchester we were off on the road once again. Our next stop would be Gettysburg. Hello Pennsylvania. Hello Abe Lincoln.

Old Town Winchester

PORT REPUBLIC - NEW MARKET BATTLEFIELDS

Port Republic Battlefield

The Civil War Tour. This was the name of my riveting summer study abroad course at Ferrum College. This morning at 6am, I was not too riveted to be waking up though. I could feel the cold 30 degree temperatures seeping through my window. I seriously couldn't get out of bed. But I forced myself up, to finish packing up the final things for my week long trip through the "Eastern Theatre" of the American Civil War. For the past week, I had been in and out of lectures each day as well as writing papers comparing Lincoln and his administration from the beginning of the war to the end of the war. To say the least, I was ready to hit the road and be able to have tangible learning experiences that my mind could grasp and hold on to. Not just the course book I had been holding the past week. So I finished putting my last few items into my bags and headed to the van, a solid 7am departure time had me arriving 15 minutes early. I was not going to miss this trip. So we loaded our things and off we went. First Stop, Cross Keys. To tell you the truth, I had no clue if we were going to be able to make the trip to Cross Keys alive. The professor who was driving us on the tour was more of a crazy driver than my 16 year old brother. If I was planning on getting any sleep during these drives between Civil War sites, I could just cross that off. It wasn't going to happen. We made stops in Roanoke and Weyers Cave before making it to the first stop on our Civil War Tour, which was Cross Keys.

The tour began with, you guessed it, a lecture right in front of the Cross Keys Cemetery. A Beautiful place that was being destroyed with the sound of educational learning. I'm kidding. But only slightly. My professor is really cool, and is very knowledgeable on the American Civil War. He reminds me of my Pop-Pop. Ask anything on the subject

Port Republic Museum

of the Civil War and you'll have an answer that will blow your mind. It's pretty cool. After leaving Cross Keys, we began on the road to Port Republic. Of course, it wouldn't be the first day of a tour if we didn't get lost at some point. This point was now. It took use probably around 30 minutes to find the town of Port Republic which we literally within hiking distance of Cross Keys. Well, at least for the soldiers back in 1862. We finally found the town and were given a tour of the museum. It was a beautiful museum with a lot of cool little artifacts from the surrounding area from the Civil War period. We were also the only people who were at the museum, so the museum guide was very engaging with us and gave some pretty cool stories. After we checked out the museum, we took a short little walk to the river that ran through Port Republic. Me and some of the guys were definitely down to do some fishing. But I guess they didn't really fish much during leisure time in the Civil War. So that wouldn't be happening today. We made our way back to the van and I heard it was lunch time. Done deal. My stomach seemed to be digesting my spine. Jess' would be the place we had our first meal on the tour. Located in Harrisonburg, VA, this was supposed to be one heck of a little diner. I was told be a local that the thing to order was the famous Jess' Hot Dogs. So I had two of those with some chili and cheese with some fries and a chocolate shake. Now, let me just tell you, that lunch was most definitely one of the top meals I have ever had. It was amazing. And later, I came to find out that my parents, who were dating while my mom lived in Harrisonburg, had gone on dates at this place. Probably one of the coolest things to me. I was following in my parents footsteps from their teenage years. They had good taste. Literally.

Cross Keys Battlefield

  After lunch, it was time to make our way to the final stop of the day, which would be the New Market Battlefield. This was just north of Harrisonburg, VA. Before going on this course, I had talked plenty with my Pop-Pop about this places I would be visiting. As he is a VMI graduate, New Market was a soft place in his heart. These are hallowed grounds for VMI Cadets and Alumni. The Battle of New Market involved many college cadets from VMI, some of which were just 15 to 17 years of age. Cadets younger than me putting their life on the line for their beliefs. That was a tremendously courageous act. So it was very amazing to be experiencing this special place, to be able to connect not only to the battlefield, but to my close grandfather as well. The exhibit and museum at the New Market Battlefield had some interesting things to see and learn about. We were able to watch a video on the battle and learn about the town that the battle thrust itself upon. I feel as though now that I am older, being able to come to places like this give me so much more insight into the way our country was built, and the things that generations before me experienced. I love it.

New Market Battlefield Museum

  After we went around the battlefield for a little bit, we walked to the farm that was directly in the middle of the battle. A beautiful home and property was the place where over a thousand people died. My professor talked about how the day before they were having tea in the dining room, and 24 hours later their dining room was turned into a hospital. I can't even imagine the thoughts and horrors that this family and children even experienced that day. We made our way to the museum store, (of course), as the park was about to close. We have the morning tomorrow to finish seeing the rest of New Market so we weren't in any rush. I ended up finding a New Market patch to start a collection of the places I visit when I'm out exploring the world. It's pretty cool, but that's about the most "touristy" that I was. I'm very excited to be able to learn even more about this battlefield in the morning, but it's time to take a break. Our hotel is just about a 5 minute walk from the battlefield. I can see this being a good thing and a bad thing. I don't know how much sleep I'll be able to get knowing that there were over a thousand people who died within walking distance. Three Civil War sites in one day are a lot to take in though. Especially when my professor is trying to have my head full of lecture notes to begin with. -Rocky

Bushong House at New Market

 

ROCKY KNOB - ROCK CASTLE GORGE TRAIL

Rocky Knob

ROCKY KNOB - ROCK CASTLE GORGE TRAIL - FLOYD, VA - 5/12/13 10.8 MILES - 4 HOURS 2 MINUTES This was my first real hike by myself. My parents weren't too thrilled to hear that I was going to be hiking by myself, much less hiking an 11 mile trail by myself. Waking up this morning, I wasn't so sure about the hike either. I decided to come hike this trail today rather than yesterday because of the threat of thunderstorms. This morning was cool and in the mid- 40s, but the wind chill on top of the Blue Ridge Mountains probably put it into the mid- 30s. Cold. For a Florida boy at least. However, I packed a jacket to help keep myself warm. As I reached the Visitors Center at Rocky Knob off the Blue Ridge Parkway, I learned that the Center was still closed for the off-season. So I had to carry on this hike with no map or advice on the trail from park rangers. Scary. I made my way to the trail head and studied that map on the weathered wooden sign for bit. And then I was off. I soon realized that the trail was much like my dad explained his trails were like on the Appalachian Trail, thin little footpaths.

This trail was marked with green blazes and signs. Throughout the entire trail they were marked very clearly and often. As I first started my hike into the woods, I soon came out over a little ladder into a meadow. Throughout the hike there were many of these little ladders to get across the fences we would hike through. As I walked into the meadow, I soon met a group of cows roaming which certainly caught me off guard. As did one of the cows in the meadow as well. He stared me down every step that I took until I was clearly out of sight and out of the meadow area. After the meadow was the descent towards the Gorge. Now I was beginning to figure out why this hike was given such a strenuous reputation. Descending towards the Gorge, I had to cross running streams, by climbing carefully, picking out raised stones to keep my feet dry. I ran into about 10 of these. Also coming down the trail was literally a cascade of boulders. It took a lot of time and careful selection to maneuver my way safely to the other side of these boulders. After making my way down from over 3,00 feet of elevation to around 1,700 feet of elevation, I had reached a nice wide portion of the trail that ran parallel to the large creek. This portion of the trail ran for around 3 miles. After reaching a little over 5 miles on the hike, I found a little bench to rest and eat some snacks on. It was a nice beautiful area to watch the little river flow. Something that I hadn't mentioned yet, but had been in the back of my subconscious was the fact that really, there were no other hikers on the trail that I had encountered. I felt really alone which didn't help that fact that I was already kind of "uneasy". It really was only my first real hike. However, once I hit the this portion of the trail, I began to see other hikers. I felt much better with this calmness that came over me. I continued on my hike along the creek until the trail once again split off to the small footpath. This time, however, I knew that the long descent I had taken to get down to the Gorge, must go all the way back up eventually. So the brutal incline began. I also noticed that when the trail split back on the wider trail, there was a parking lot at the beginning of the wider trail. I knew that I had been mistaken for these hikers actually hiking the trail I was on. I had the sense of anxiety crawl back into my head. I felt for at least 2 miles a constant strain on my legs, and I felt as if my face was staring right into the side of this large mountain. The incline seemed like it really would never end. WELL. It eventually ended. I was completely out of breath, and drenched in sweat. I had to take a seat on one of the many boulders that I was literally crawling over to make it up the trail. I began to thank Jesus, because I could see a flattened trail ahead of me. Finally a slight break for my legs. I could understand why I hadn't really encountered any wildlife on my hike thus far, they didn't want to be climbing this long incline either. I did see a fox on the drive up here, too fast for my camera though.

As I was sitting on that boulder, I began to think about the videos I had watched on the "Thru-Hikers" hiking the Appalachian Trail and how they had been given or gave themselves trail names. All I kept thinking about was these rocky boulders that had been killing me all day long both on the incline and decline. I had also been able to push through these rocky patches in the trail and keep myself going. "Rocky". That name fit in more than one sense of the word. It just fit. It was almost a moment of self-realization. I loved it. I was ready to keep hiking. I checked my GPS app, it had me at 2,800 feet. I knew I didn't have much more of an incline left. After just a little bit more hiking, I was able to make it out of the woods into a huge wide open meadow. This is where I would find some of the best views I have ever seen. I also spotted some more hikers, who actually had been hiking this trail. I was also able to spot the camping area for overnight backpackers who would want to take the hike nice and easy. I continued back into a wooded section where I was able to see an "overlook". I knew I had to be close. MY GPS app had me at just a few miles away from where I started my trail loop. Passing these "overlook" areas, I was able to get some tremendous pictures once again. I came along what looked like a little shelter. I had heard and read online that there was a portion of the Appalachian Trail that went through this trail back in the 1950s. It was very cool to see this, and at the front of the shelter was a cliff that overlooked the valley off in the distance. These views are definitely breathtaking to say the least. It's just something I feel everyone should have the chance to experience. I knew that I was almost back after continuing past the trail shelter, maybe just a little over a mile left. Then something that put me on the edge happened. Quite literally. I was on the trail, and remember how I said that the trail was well marked with the green blazes throughout the trail? Well I hadn't seen a blaze for quite some time. Maybe even around 10 minutes. I glanced down and saw a hiker below me on another trail. I started to stress and freak out. So I carefully traversed down the side of the mountain to the lower trail, just to see a sign that told me I had been on the right trail all along. It would connect to the trail I had come down to in just about 0.4 miles. Anxiety. Killer. I found the green blazes on the trees and continued onto the end of the trail loop and my truck. A full 10.8 mile trail hike had been completed. Not to mention one of the most strenuous in the area. And it had been my first. I felt like I was on top of the world. And technically, standing on top of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I almost was.