Catchup...

Let's see - we missed a few days. Friday - we went and rented a mammoth van to carry us around the rest of the trip. Thrifty out at Dulles was way cheaper for a 12-passenger van than anywhere else. It was a pain, but it saved us a few bucks. The people in DC don't seem to know how to operate their vehicle turn signals. Seattle area folks are really good about this, and polite, probably to a fault. The other day someone going straight stopped for me when I was taking a left turn. I wasn't even in his lane.

So, we took off from DC and headed for Gettysburg Pennsylvania. We bought a narrated CD at the national parks visitors center. It lasted a couple of hours, and we drove all around the battlefield. It is beautiful terrain, but tragic consequences for so many participants. It seems an awful price to pay for proving who is more mighty than the other side. There was courage beyond what I comprehend on both sides. Many lessons of following with exactness, but times of resourcefulness and spontaniety. You could spend a lot of time exploring here and learning of the stories of these people.

we spent the night in Mechanicsburg PA.

Saturday: Hersheys factory first thing. You can get turbo-sized versions of lots of your favorite chocolate items. Pretty crazy stuff. It's so hot out, that if you leave stuff in the car, it melts immediately. 5-pound Hershey bars seem a little bit excessive.

We then proceeded to State College PA, where Pennsylvania state University is. Grandpa Jenson got a PhD there many years ago. As Grandma is with us, we thought it would be fun to drag through the old places. The places they lived were both remarkably intact. One area is now a historic district. They were right across the street from the on-campus dorms. A pretty good place to live. That city is kind of dominated by the massive Penn state football stadium. Grandma took a class from Coach Paterno's wife when she was there. That was a long while ago!

We drove on to Mentor Ohio. The drive was pretty. There are some mountains, contrary to my understanding of the area. It was beautiful going up the Susquehanna river valley in PA. Nice and green, trees all over.

Sunday: Kassie covered this one.