My friend Toby and I meant ONLY to visit Harpers' Ferry (technically straddling WV and MD and right across from VA) and Antietam National Battlefield a few weekends ago, but as only a good road trip would go, we got to talking and missed the turnoff to Antietam and decided we might as well visit Gettysburg via Catoctin Mountain Park. I really enjoyed Harpers (an outdoor preserved historical park), although I would have preferred a bit warmer weather and no snow (Believe me when I say we were the FIRST visitors to arrive at 8:30 a.m. in near-freezing temps!) ... at one point we thought it would a great idea to cross this train trestle over the Potomac River into a stiff wind to which I declared halfway across, "I want to walk back to West Virginia!" I promptly turned around ... trust me, it was funny at the time! Other highlights of the day: talking to a West Virginia shopkeeper with no teeth who wasn't too familiar with Iowa even though he was born in Illinois, finding a "Virginia is for Lovers" patch, meeting an overly enthusiastic National Park Service guide who tracked us from one museum room to the next, trying mac and cheese with chili at a gas station, parking next to a white truck "billboard", and losing Toby's cell phone on the Gettysburg battlefield --- for which we had to turn around and drive BACK to PA to retrieve! (The cell phone was my fault ...!)
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