Filling Up the Holes in Our Bucket List

The Road North to Cooler Temps

After leaving the Charleston area we headed north to an overnight stop at the Hinnant Family Winery in Pine Level, NC.  This was a nice family run winery where we did a wine tasting and had a very quiet night's sleep.

An enormous tasting room - available for functions

Filling Holes

The next morning we headed to the small town of Appomattox, VA for a three night stop near the Appomattox Court House National Historic Park.  Our RV park was pretty basic but acceptable. Nice clean level sites with full hookups; the only negative is that the water pressure was not great but it worked.

Appomattox Court House is someplace both of us had on our Civil War bucket list and it did not disappoint.  This site which was actually a village called Appomattox Court House has been kept exactly the way it stood on April 9, 1865. Our weather was beautiful with temperatures in the low 80s and a nice breeze.  It was good to get away from the hot/humid weather.  

The McLean Home

Part of the Tavern

The Tavern

The Jail

One thing I learned was that the name Appomattox Court House was actually the name of the village which was also the County seat.  The park ranger, who gave a very good 20 minute talk about the history of Appomattox Court House, explained that if you are talking about a court building it is called a Courthouse but if you are talking about a village it is spelled as 2 words, Court House.  I learn something new every day.

The rebuilt Courthouse functions as the place where visitors watch an excellent video about the Civil War, listen to the park ranger explain the history of Appomattox Court House, and from which we toured the village as it would have been on the day Lee surrendered to Grant. The park service has done a great job reproducing this site and explaining all the details of the 4-5 days around April 9, 1865. 

Where the Surrender Happened

The McLean house is one of the preserved structures at Appomattox Court House. We stood in the doorway of the living room in the McLean house where Lee and Grant met and signed the surrender agreement.

The McLean House

We also toured numerous other buildings in the village.  Appomattox Court House was high on our list of Civil War sites and we recommend everyone visit here and learn some of the details around this event.

American Civil War Museum- A Southern Perspective

Our last day in Appomattox was spent driving a tour route that explained many of the other sites associated with the National Park.  After that driving tour we visited The American Civil War Museum which is a collection of artifacts and documents associated with the Confederate States government, military, and slavery.  One of the most interesting exhibits was the actual sword and uniform worn by General Lee at the signing of the surrender documents.

According to Lee's son, this is the uniform Lee wore to meet Grant

 

After this museum we had lunch at a local restaurant and then returned to the RV to get ready for our drive to PA in the morning.  Our next stop, at a Harvest Host farm called D & S Produce, is a small family owned farm that allows RV parking for a night for one vehicle.  Very nice place with friendly, welcoming people.  We also we able to get some fresh veggies and fruit and later that afternoon a delicious ice cream sundae at their ice cream stand.

Parked next to the crops

Probably don't want to be selling ice cream in a thunderstorm

Ray had fresh strawberries and I had
hot fudge with coffee ice cream.
I ate the cherry before Ray had a chance to take a picture

NY - Here We Come

From PA we drove to the New York City North/Newburgh KOA RV park for three nights.  This KOA is sited in a heavily forested area which made it a little difficult to find, but on the positive side made it very quiet. 

One of the places we've always wanted to visit is the 9/11 Memorial, which we were able to do from this park.  We took a Trailways Bus to the NYC Port Authority, then took the A line subway train Downtown to St. Paul's Chapel. We are very proud that we didn't get lost and we made it to our tour on time.  The NYC subway system is something else and can be confusing, but once you understand how it works, it's actually a pretty efficient system.  Fortunately for us we were able to figure out how to take the subway back to the bus station and got back to the RV late in the afternoon.

If you have not seen the 9/11 site and you are anywhere in the area we strongly recommend visiting.  Very emotional place to visit and when you think about what happened there it certainly gives you pause.  We took a guided tour but were unable to get an appointment to go into the Museum.  Seems you need to book this tour about 7-10 days ahead of time.  Maybe we'll go back sometime now that we are experienced 😁 subway riders.

This Burger King Serves Beer! It's Across the Street From
Ladder Co. 10

Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and offered a lot of history and stories of courage.  She told us many interesting details of the people and heroes from the Towers.  One of those concerned a manager at Morgan Stanley who is credited with saving thousands of lives.  Here is a link to his story -  https://www.mamamia.com.au/rick-rescorla-911.

Another interesting fact about the 9/11 site is that there are 2,983 names of the men, women, and children killed in the attacks of 9/11 and also the Twin Towers bombing on February 26, 1993 and each name is inscribed into the parapets around the Memorial pools which are in the footprints of the original Twin Towers.  Every day the 9/11 site management puts a white rose next to the name of anyone who would have been celebrating a birthday that day, and if that person was a Veteran they put an American flag.  They do this everyday of the year.

After touring the 9/11 site we walked to the Hudson River and had lunch and saw the Statue of Liberty, from a distance, and some amazing yachts.  Lots of money in NYC for sure.

Amazing what a phone can capture

On our way back to the subway we passed St. Paul's Chapel again and it is another amazing story about the 9/11 memorial.  This chapel sits 100 yards from the original twin towers and it withstood all the destruction and damage associated with the twin towers demise and was actually used for over a year to house, feed, and take care of 1st responders.  

Looking at the Oculus, the new World Trade Center transportation hub,
 from St. Paul's Chapel Cemetery