Stripes Team
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Friday, March 21, 2003
Anita J. Turner Elementary
Day Nine of the Meet Me in D.C. Road Rally
Gledhill Arrives in Washington, D.C. (Almost)
Ms. Brown’s class woke up in Cumberland for
another day of excitement. We had eggs and bacon
with pancakes too for breakfast. Then we started
on the 68-freeway then t o the 70 to Baltimore, the
capitol of Maryland. We took a walk around
Baltimore and visited the capitol building. It was
very similar to California’s. We went down on
the95 freeway to Dover.
When we reached the Dover, the capitol of
Delaware, we visited the John Dickinson
Plantation. It was home to John Dickinson who
helped draft the Articles Of Confederation. It was
so interesting and showed how the slaves lived.
The house was very old looking because it was
built in the 1740’s. Evelyn and Tierney even got to
dress up as slaves during one of the houses
reenactments and pretended to pick cotton. We got
a close up look of awful slave quarters and the
beautiful house that the owner lived in.
We continued on to Georgetown, Maryland where
we went to the zoo. We saw lots of animals, but
everyone liked the monkeys the best. Pamit got to
feed one of.
Them. Melanie fell into a pile of their poop. We
were all laughing so hard at her.
We decided to go look for a place to stay
and decided to stay at a little bed and breakfast
called” Violets and Chrysanthums.” True to its
name in every room they had a bouquet of flowers
in every room. We played cards and checkers and
the boys watched yu-gi-oh. The cook made us
dinner and it was delicious!!! It was chilly so we
made a fire and sipped hot chocolate before bed.
Today Is The Day-Cushing Gets to
Washington D.C.
Our morning started off with a huge pancake
breakfast at the hotel. Our first stop was in
Columbus, the state capitol. The city along with
many of the others that we have visited was full of
history. The territory of Indiana was the land that is
now Ohio.
In 1803 Ohio became the seventeenth state to join
the Union. The capital building stands right in the
middle of the heart of the city. It has a resorted
German Village just south of downtown. The
community contains 500 homes built between
1840 and 1860. We all still have difficulty thinking
back to this time in history.
Our bus then headed east on I-and Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, which is the country’s largest inland
port and was named in honor of William Pit. It lies
at the point where two large rivers join. This made
a prime location to build the city into a thriving
metropolis. A piece of trivia – pedestrians always
have the right - of – way in the city.
For many years Pittsburgh was known as “ Iron
Town ”. This industry is no longer the main money
making manufacturing business it once was. There
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Friday, March 21, 2003
are still many businesses going on in the city now,
but not one specific one as before.
We had two specific places that we were going to
visit. The first was the Cathedral of Learning,
located at the University of Pittsburgh. The 42story stone tower is said to be the tallest skyscraper
in the Western Hemisphere. The driver has learned
just what we like to see the experience. But this
time we fooled her. Mrs. Cushing had made
arrangements for us to go a family amusement park
called Kennywood. There are 34 rides to choose
from including the 5 roller coasters. We could not
take advantage of the three water slides because it
was the wrong time of the year. Again our meals
were box lunches that we picked up. Then we
hiked out to the picnic shelters that were standing
in the wooded groves. We sure did not want to go
but we needed to roll on the road.
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Our ride toward Ellicott City was very quite,
except for Danny and Noe. We quessed that they
were overtired and just too wound up to go to
sleep. This little town lies in the state of Maryland
just outside of Baltimore, the capitol. We took a
bus tour into Baltimore that introduced us to
historical spots, architecture and art of the city.
Founded in 1729, it was here that Francis Scott
Key wrote the “Star Spangled Banner” while
watching the bombardment of a battleship by the
British that was anchored in Baltimore Harbor.
Just over the horizon within our view was our
destination, Washington D.C. We have looked
forward to this day but are sorry that our journey is
at the end. We had Reservations to the Marriot
Resident Inn. They had been made before we left
Seattle. Our wonderful driver quickly drove us
around just to show us some of the statues that we
had been reading about. Now we know why we
came here – history –history – history!
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Friday, March 21, 2003
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Harpers Ferry weapons factory set on fire by
Federal troops so Confederate troops could not
make more guns; but the Confederates took the
machines to the South where they were used to
make rifles and other guns to use in the Civil War.
Hendershot Arrives
Hello, fellow reader. Today we continue our
journey from Cumberland, MD on Highway 70 to
Hagerstown. It has a real neat museum called
Hagers House Museum. After we visit that
museum we’ll move to Harpers Ferry National
Historical Park; it is located at the meeting of the
Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers in the states of
West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland. George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Merewether
Lewis, John Brown, ‘‘Stonewall’’ Jackson, and
Fredrick Douglas are just a few of the important
individuals who left their mark on this place. The
story of Harpers Ferry is more than one event, one
date, or one individual . It involves a diverse
number of people and events that influenced the
course of our nation’s history. Harpers Ferry
witnessed the first successful application of
interchangeable manufacture of weapons parts at
the armory. Also, the arrival of the first successful
American railroad, John Brown’s attack on
slavery, the largest surrender of federal troops
during the Civil War, and the education of former
slaves in one of the earliest integrated schools in
the United States.
After that we head south on Highway 85 to
Antietam National Battlefield. It was really
interesting because this was where a really big
battle was fought during the Civil War. An
interesting fact is that 23,000 men died there on
September 17, 1862, and this lead to Lincoln’s
issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
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Friday, March 21, 2003
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We went to a diner called Form’s Pit Barbecue.
Next, that we visited Shenandoah National Park. It
is near the Appalachian Mountains between
Pennsylvania and Georgia. Many animals,
including deer, black bears, and wild turkeys
flourish among the rich growth of an oak-hickory
forest. We had lots of fun, but now we are heading
out to Washington DC.
The temperature for today in Cumberland,
Maryland is a high 65ºF. Winds of Southeast at
18mph. The amount of rain is 0.29. The amount of
snow is 0.00. The dew point is 52º. In Washinton,
DC it’s chilly with heavy rain, and a high of 48ºF.
Winds out of the Northeast at 12MPH. The amount
of rain is 1.38, and of snow is 0.00. The dew point
is 44º. That is all for today and now we will head
to Washington DC. Goodbye now !
We had meat and chicken. We saw Brad Pitt! He
was followed by a lot of girls so we did not get to
talk to him. But the lucky thing was that we saw
him. To finish our adventure for the day, we went
to the state capitol Richmond, Virginia. We stayed
at a hotel called The Berkeley Hotel. And that was
the trip for the day.
Mr.Fiers’ Class Hits Virginia
We started in Savannah, Georgia. Before we went
to Atlanta we went to the Savannah History
Museum. . They told us about Revolutionary War
battle. They also had information of the 19th
century. We headed to South Carolina with the
interstate 95 north. We got to the state capitol,
Columbia. We went to the governor’s mansion.
We got to see some artifacts of different places and
time periods. We went to have lunch in Mc.
Donald’s. Brian had a double cheeseburger with
fries and a chocolate sundae. We went to the bus
and headed to North Carolina with interstate 95.
We visited another state capitol, Raleigh. We got
to see the governor and his mansion and we took
pictures with him. He told us to come to his
mansion anytime we wanted.
We kept on going with interstate 95 and we got to
Virginia before dark. We stopped at Petersburg.
Nicholson Columbus, Ohio, Here We Come!
Nearing the last leg of our journey, we breakfasted
very early at a Big Mac’s close by and were back
on the 1-79 to the 68 to the 81 into Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania. The drive was long and cold as the
temperature when we arrived was a cold 37
degrees, with gusty winds and a lot of rain.
Luckily, most of us carried our waterproof jackets
and kept relatively dry. Alyssa, however, got
drenched when a passing car splashed water on her
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Friday, March 21, 2003
by the crosswalk. She was quite uptight for the
rest of the day. Harrisburg (pop. 52,400, elev.
358’) was founded by John Harris in 1710 and
became the state capitol in 1812. Along the
Capital Area Greenbelt, we strolled through the 5mile stretch of scenic waterfront. We were
delighted to breathe in the cold, but fresh air, and
enjoyed atour the war memorial and the sunken
flower garden. We had a hot lunch of soup and
sandwiches and made our way to the bus, as our
driver wanted to reached our next destination,
Trenton, New Jersey, before it got dark.
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districts and colonial buildings. It was quaint to
walk down the Mill Hill Historic District with its
brick sidewalks, gaslights and restored Victorian
houses. Trenton became the state capitol in
1790and is named after a Philadelphia merchant
William, Trent. The city also has a history that
spans more than 200 years. By 7 p.m., it was cold,
wet, and dark, so we checked into our hotel,
warmed up and decided to order pizza and eat
around the fire. As tomorrow is the last day of
journey, we spent the time during and after dinner
sharing our thoughts, feelings and experiences of
our trip so far. At around 10 p.m., we all crawled
into our warm beds and listened to the rain as it fell
outside, wondering if the weather will clear up for
our trip to D.C.!
Friday morning we will all get up early
and take the short trip to Washington, D.C.
We reached Trenton (pop. 88,700, elev. 42”) in the
late afternoon and were quite disappointed at the
wetness all around us. Ms. Nicholson treated us to
some hot tea with cake and cookies at a local tea
house, and warmed and satisfied, we set out in the
rain to visit the Main Museum. This museum was
awe-inspiring with its three floors of exhibits
dealing with archeology, fine arts, cultural history
and natural science. We boys enjoyed looking at
the mastodon skeletons, clowning around as usual.
Everybody liked the exhibit on American Indian
artifacts and the full-size model of a dinosaur. We
even learned about the different minerals at the
mine replica
.
Looking around outside the museum, we found out
that the city of Trenton preserved all its historic