John Brown's body

Harper's Ferry National park was well worth the trip. We all went over today for a civil war tour with a very earnest guide named Tyler Gumm. Tyler gave a somewhat interesting account of a major confederate win at Harper's Ferry. His particular area of interest was statistics...There was a lot of mention of ammunition weights etc...We all perked up though when he mentioned that the union army arrived in the area with 2,000 pound of bacon!
There was a free shuttle into the historical village which consisted of about 10 mini museums along the banks of the Shenandoah and the Potomac (and yes, we did see people floating down the river sitting in their own inner tubes!). The Junior Ranger program was well organized and Vinny and I went through most of the sites on a scavenger hunt. As a part of this we walked along a curious footbridge across the Potomac which kind of freaked me out as there was a flimsy side fence and we could have fallen to our death at any moment. West Virginians are clearly rugged people.
On the way back Tyler invited Vinny to help him take down the flag.

Harper's Ferry

We got to the campground at around 4:00 after a slow start leaving NJ. It is really HOT but NOT raining! The campground seems ok but there are a lot of irate people over a down WiFi connection (I had to walk to a field next to the main office to get online)There is a big pool and other things for the kids to do tomorrow. The surrounding area is beautiful. There are nods to the civil war everywhere, confederate money on the walls at rest stops etc...We are planning to check out some battle fields and I guess people can ride down the Potomac in an inner tube. Sounds dangerous!
BTW, last night Jean, Frank and I stayed up until 2:30 trying to download a slide show of pictures to the blog. We had a variety of confusing results including a moment when Frank was confident he had done everything correctly and opened a series of Sierra club photos of seals and eagles, they were beautiful but a very confusing companion to the blog regarding pizza and NJ. anyway, by 2:30 we had a wierd 85%/reduced size slide show of the right pictures which NOW seems to have vanished!!!!!
Getting dark...a man in a confederate uniform just walked past us (where is he going at 9:30 at night)??? There are fireflies here, haven't seen those since I was a kid.

Pizza, traffic and the Garden State

What a fantastic first day! We had a VERY long drive (more about that later) to Jean's house thanks to the GWB. On the way Isabel and I consulted the Roadfood guidebook and figured our way to Frank Pepe's pizzeria in New Haven Connecticut. According to Jane and Michael Stern, Frank Pepe's is one of the best pizzeria's in the country!? It was not a complicated trip off I-91 and WOW was it worth it! Isabel, Vinny and I all agreed it was the best pizza we have ever had!!! Hopefully, I can get the pictures downloaded.
After a 2 1/2 hour delay getting over the GWB, we finally cut loose and made it to South Tom's River. We are so happy for Emma! It was nice to see many people I haven't seen in awhile including several friends of Carmine's from high school AND one of my college roommates.
Turns out Jean's sister Ann and her husband are starting on a one month road trip tomorrow and their first stop just happens to be Harper's Ferry!! There must be a reason, we just don't know what it is yet.
Tomorrow morning we hit the italian bakery for half and half cookies and start the caravan to WV.

Tomorrow morning!

The laptop arrived today! I still have no idea how to access Wifi as we have none in our house. The car is almost packed. The trunk seemed so big before we started, I am re-evaluating just about everything. Do we really need this SPATULA etc...
Gabe got his driver's permit today!

A sad evening...

With not much time left to get ready, we decided to hit the beach today as it was our first day with no rain in a long, long time. It was a glorious day at Willard beach, blue sky, lighthouse in the distance...
We stayed awhile and as we started to pack up, got the sad news about Michael Jackson. The kids seem to be over the shock at this point but I am left wondering...What happened to that super talented, adorable eight year old fronting the family band? Where does this leave all of his kids, chimps AND the Neverland Ranch/amusement park???
Early Saturday morning we're off to NJ to celebrate the Emma Spectacular. Can't wait. How can a friend of mine have a kid graduating from high school (important to note: although Jean and I met in college and graduated high school in 81, she is more than a full year older than me!)?
Should be getting the laptop anytime now.

I hope you got the message!

I am REALLY new at this! Tried to send out messages to friends via E-mail addresses I had, if I forgot anyone you can think of please forward.

Four more days!

We are counting down the days until we start our road trip! Still packing and figuring out what to bring...Almost finished with all of the planning. Latest decision, include Niagara Falls or not on the way home???